Chapter 48 Only seeing an old friend cry

What was certain was that Princess Shanyin had the power to influence Liu Ziye's choices and decisions. As for the degree to which she could do this…that was something she needed to figure out over time.

None of this made Chu Yu happy. Quite the opposite: she found herself afraid. If she found that she had more influence than she thought, then she would be even more afraid.

It was like if someone who didn't like to spend money found that they had a key to a vault filled with treasures.

After some irrelevant small chat, Chu Yu stayed in the palace for another nerve-wracking half-day. The little emperor went from playing cute for attention to bearing a murderous expression and muttering about all the people he wanted to kill. Chu Yu's heart got quite the exercise from how much it rose and fell in her chest. It was only when she didn't hear her own name in the list before leaving that she sighed a breath of relief.

This time Chu Yu wasn't so hasty in leaving the imperial palace. As she walked, she glanced around casually, secretly memorizing her surroundings.

While glancing around, she spotted someone. There were a lot of people walking or milling around in the palace. But only this person was enough to make Chu Yu stop and stare.

It was a youth, probably seventeen or eighteen years old. In terms of beauty, he couldn't compare to Liu Se or Mo Xiang, perhaps comparing more favorably to Rong Zhi or Huan Yuan. These days Chu Yu had seen enough pretty faces that they no longer distracted her. But this youth was different, so very different.

His eyes were clear, not as heavy as Rong Zhi's, but closer to the purity of an infant's. That purity between his brows was almost suffocating. Although he walked in this place that was concentrated with more power than anywhere else in the nation, Chu Yu felt like he was walking outside of the earthly realm, unstained by the love and hatred of the world, the obsessions, resentments, greed, and short-sightedness that blinded everyone else.

He was too clean.

He wore a purple robe that almost brushed against the ground. Outside of his robe was a light muslin that billowed as he walked, as if he were some kind of spirit.

Rong Zhi was about the same age as this youth and had a somewhat similar air. But between the two of these there was the same distance that stretched between the heavens and the earth. They were opposite poles: Rong Zhi was as incalculable as a black hole at the end of the universe, showing nothing of his true intents. But this youth was like a crystal existing outside of this mortal realm, so transparent and pure.

As if sensing Chu Yu's gaze, he stopped, turning his head slightly. When his eyes met Chu Yu's, he smiled lightly, nodding at her, before walking ahead once more.

Seeing her reaction, the eunuch beside her leaned closer and whispered, "Princess, that is the astronomer Tian Rujing, the successor of Mount Yun Mian's immortal arts. He's quite talented. If you encounter any sort of misfortune, you can invite him to exorcise the evils. In fact, he has entered the palace this time to exorcise a ghost from a haunted room here."

The court astronomer was just an inst.i.tutional role that didn't have much to do every day. His only job was to make reckonings based on the calendar. But Tian Rujing's other ident.i.ty was a celestial master who served the royal family. Although his position itself wasn't impressive, no one in the palace dared disrespect him.

Celestial master?

After reflecting on what that could mean, most of Chu Yu's positive feelings toward the man disappeared. Was this youth with such a pure aura involved in mystic nonsense? What a contrast!

It seemed that in this world you really couldn't judge a book by its cover.

By the time she returned to her own carriage, Chu Yu had forgotten about the youth completely. No matter how pure his aura, how different he seemed from his occupation, Tian Rujing had nothing to do with her. She didn't need anything exorcised and wasn't obsessed with physical beauty. After their distant glance at each other, they would no longer have any interaction.

Aside from the soft cus.h.i.+ons and short tabletop in the carriage, there was something new there now. There was a young man who had been tied in quite an artistic way. He was dressed in new, clean clothes, and his hair was still damp. Studying the ropes, Chu Yu found that it must've been tied by some kind of expert. Even untying them would probably take at least five or six minutes.