Chapter 703

The plot has reached a critical point, I'm a bit stuck, let me think for a moment.

New Year's Eve, midnight.

Inside and outside the Uesugi Shinai, the haze brought by the incident has been cleared as much as possible, replaced by the solemnity unique to the New Year and a faint clamor. The stone lanterns lining the shrine approach are all lit, casting pools of warm yellow light, swaying gently in the night wind alongside the white "ignorance strings" hung under the eaves. In the distance, the hum of a gathering crowd comes from the direction of the shrine's main hall, the one hundred and eight bell tolls have already sounded.

The fourth year of the Uesugi calendar has arrived.

But this place is very quiet, tranquilly so.

The several guest rooms in the shrine's backyard, specially used for receiving honored guests, seem to be separated by an invisible barrier, with only absolute silence. Outside the paper door, the fine snow of Yonezawa began to fall again at some unknown time, silently covering the stones and moss of the dry landscape garden, dyeing the world a soft, faintly luminous silver-white.

The air is clear as a knife, drawing it into the lungs brings a piercing sense of purification.

My heart and my conduct are clear as a bright mirror, all my actions are for justice!

This is the creed that Uesugi Kenshin practiced throughout his life, and it is also the starting point for Uesugi Muneyuki's path into forensic medicine.

So, in fact, did Uesugi Kenshin truly have a clear conscience? Was he truly supremely just?

Absolutely not.

For example, the famous Naoetsu talent market (prisoner of war camp) was set up by Uesugi Kenshin, who specialized in buying and selling slave prisoners of war. For example, why did Uesugi Kenshin always launch campaigns in Kantou during spring and summer? Aside from the heavy snows of Echigo Province winter, being able to directly seize grain from the enemy and frantically plunder Kantou's food supplies as military provisions was also an important reason; the Kantou civilians were plundered by him every year, and they simply hated him to death. Another example: was Uesugi Kenshin's elder brother Nagao Harukage truly willing to yield his position to him? In fact, absolutely not; according to the latest research records, Uesugi Kenshin at least fought a battle with his brother, and it was only because his brother was utterly incapable of defeating him militarily that he reluctantly yielded the position, and this is already the more charitable version; a more terrifying possibility is that he personally arranged for his brother to be disposed of and then said, "Li Yuan had no eldest son, Li Shimin had no elder brother," as the sole son of the former Echigo Province Guardian Deputy, I cannot help but take up this burden.

There's nothing to be done; Emperor Taizong of Tang also suffered this way, his elder brother and younger brother died young, his father gave up, he had no choice but to bear the weight of all under heaven on Kyushu on his shoulders. This hardship was also experienced by Zhu Di; in the thirty-fifth year of the Hongwu era, his father Zhu Yuanzhang died, then his elder brother Zhu Biao died young and left no sons, his second and third brothers also died young, as the fourth son it was only natural that he should not fail to inherit the great lineage, truly an arrangement of fate.

And regarding how the head of the Ueda Nagao clan, Nagao Masakage, the biological father of Uesugi Kagekatsu, actually died, this remains a mystery to this day, but there is no doubt that Kenshin was the greatest beneficiary.

As Kenshin himself said, he had already done his utmost without a single regret, in the morality of the old-style Guardian Daimyo of his time he was already a paragon, it is not strange that he could ultimately ascend to become a New God; one cannot discuss good and evil apart from the historical context, just as Tokugawa Ieyasu's moral level, if compared to modern standards, is only somewhat better than that of ordinary people, but when compared to his contemporaries, a group of quasi-human beings, Tokugawa Ieyasu was already an exceptionally loyal and benevolent lord, universally recognized as a good and honest person. Uesugi Muneyuki sat alone in the center of the guest room, at a low table before him lay the unfinished follow-up analysis notes of the case, the green tea beside him had long gone cold, Mai Xuejie and Xiao Yinghua had temporarily withdrawn, and along with them, Asuka also temporarily left.

He couldn't help but let his mind wander, yet he also felt a bit of anticipation.

In this solitude, the shrine's unique solemnity and the tranquility of the snow enveloped him; the High Plain of Heaven, the New God, the murder case, the strange death, the beheaded middle-aged person and the threat on the other side, could not outweigh Uesugi Muneyuki's anticipation at this moment.

The sound of the flying snow wind echoed between the mountains and the shrine halls, cleansing the dust and worries of the old year.

Immediately after, footsteps came from the hallway, like the steps of time, steadily advancing toward the new year.

Japanese architectural design often intentionally designs hallways and various passages to produce a loud "creak" when someone passes through, so as to let people know someone is coming and to prevent assassins.

Amidst this distant, deep background sound, the paper door of the guest room was silently opened a crack.

A faint footstep led the way, as if the visitor had descended along with the drifting snow.

Uesugi Muneyuki raised his head.

First to come into view was the outline of a slender, graceful girl delineated by the dim light of the hallway outside the paper door.

She stepped slowly and extremely solemnly into the room, turned back and gently closed the paper door, sealing off the snow-drifting courtyard and the intermittent bell sounds outside, leaving only an even denser silence in the room, and the extremely faint citrusy after-bath fragrance on her body mingled with the subtle scent of new textiles. Saito Asuka stood there, gazing out, her eyes filled with phantoms of past and present overlapping.

"Mr. Uesugi..."

The girl had obviously undergone careful preparation.

Asuka had taken off the elaborate furisode she had been wearing, and instead wore a set of exceptionally well-fitting, high-quality dark navy JK uniform—a Western-style jacket with excellent tailoring, accentuating her slender yet already beginning to show curves shoulders, the same-color pleated skirt reached to her knees, extending from the hem was a pair of legs tightly wrapped in ultra-thin black Venus lace-patterned stockings.

The black of those stockings was not a dull 100D pure black nor an overly flesh-revealing, dust-heavy 0D, but in the room's weak light, it faintly shimmered with a matte texture like velvet, the lace pattern extremely fine and elegant, like a hidden galaxy of stars flowing in the dark night, multicolored black, tracing her legs from slender ankle to rounded knee, then to the initially sizable, smoothly contoured thigh outline, drawn with heart-stopping beauty. The stockings' thinness slightly revealed the flesh beneath, faintly showing the healthy glow of the skin, yet just right to be covered with a layer of hazy allure; each tiny movement seemed to have dark water-light flowing across the skin.

"Ashura Rei." Uesugi Muneyuki put down his pen, smiled and nodded.

Asuka usually tied her long black hair casually or let it flow loose, but today it was carefully arranged into a soft, princess half-up style, a few rebellious strands hanging at the edge of her fair neck.

Her makeup was extremely light, yet it highlighted the pair of large, deer-like wet and bright eyes inherited from her sister, and her slightly pale yet tightly pursed cherry-blossom-colored lips; an eighteen-year-old girl, she had shed all youthful immaturity, standing here now, she actually had a breathtaking beauty like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, mixed with fragility and decisiveness.

The girl's demeanor was clear and profound, like a white camellia blooming alone in a mountain valley on a snowy night, touched by cold dew, carrying a one-shot-all-or-nothing tragic beauty, like a young bird about to spread its wings and fly high, full of hope and longing for the future.

She just stood there, enduring Uesugi Muneyuki's calm yet piercing gaze, her cheeks could not help but flush, her long eyelashes lightly trembled, but her spine was held straight, her gaze did not waver, instead it gradually gathered into a kind of almost obstinate resolve.

She did not speak, only in the most standard, most ancient posture, slowly and extremely solemnly, on the tatami mat a few steps away from Uesugi Muneyuki, she knelt.

The dark navy skirt hem lifted slightly due to the movement, that hint of heart-stopping black stocking sheen became more alluring in the kneeling posture; the girl extended both hands forward, fingertips together, then bowed deeply, her forehead lightly touching the backs of her overlapped hands, performing the most formal, most respectful "highest salute." Her soft black hair slipped from her shoulders, spreading across the tatami mat; this posture made her slender waist and full hips, wrapped in the uniform and stockings, form a beautiful and compliant arc.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment, only the fine snow outside the window continued without cease.

This is her most beautiful and youthful time, and also the most important moment of her life.

After a long while, she maintained the kneeling posture, using a tremor almost imperceptible, yet a voice perfectly clear, she spoke softly:

"This humble woman is not talented………"

Asuka's voice paused, she seemed to have used all her bodily courage before she could completely utter the practiced thousands of times, fate-determining words, in a trembling voice:

"………Please guide me in the future."

After the words fell, she still maintained the kneeling posture, motionless, only her slightly rising and falling shoulders revealed her inner turmoil, the stocking-wrapped delicate knees pressed tightly together, leaving a soft impression on the dark tatami mat.

Only her barely audible breathing remained in the room, along with the sound of flying snow as if from a distant time and space.

How quiet it is.

Uesugi Muneyuki silently gazed at the girl kneeling before him, at her attire that both clashed with and strangely blended into the shrine's solemn atmosphere—the JK uniform and black stockings—and at her, in the most classical and compliant posture, offering an oath that could not be refused.

In his mind flashed Nanami's gentle yet strong smile, flashed Asuka's hateful and despairing eyes at the funeral, flashed the sharp confrontation where he directly argued with her to protect her and her father, and the scene of her always crying, flashed her appearance at the Sakuradamon hearing and her doing household chores at home like a little bird cooking, and also that "big shot bird" she pretended to be proud of in front of her juniors and unfamiliar people at school.

Everything had come together.

He did not answer immediately, only silently gazing at her.

Outside the window, snow fell silently; inside the room, one knelt, one sat.

Time stretched as if it were that endless summer day in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, only the background changed to the desolate snowy night and the purifying shrine bell of the Gion Shōja, speaking of the impermanence of worldly affairs.

The sala trees' flowers lost their color, the prosperous decline like the vicissitudes of life.

Extravagance and licentiousness do not last long, just like a spring night's dream.

Tyranny and oppression will ultimately be overthrown, just like dust raised in the wind.

How will the future be? He also does not know.

The beauty before him will ultimately have a day of passing, just as the splendidly blooming cherry blossoms will ultimately drift to the ground and turn to dust, as the once-invincible Kantou Kanrei with one hundred thousand troops besieging Odawara, Uesugi Kenshin, turned his head while using the toilet and died of a cerebral hemorrhage, and although Oda Nobunaga had already formally reviewed troops in Kyoto, he died in the great fire at Honnō-ji only a dozen or so days later, the venerable Taikō Toyotomi Hideyoshi perished in an illusory dream in Osaka, and turning his head, only seventeen years later, the Toyotomi legacy turned to rubble in the sound of an explosion.

Everything has a day of ending.

But at this moment, Saito Asuka offered her entire youth, dignity, and future as a sacrifice, presenting this "please guide me" request, together with this snow, this bell sound, and the lace pattern on the stockings, the beauty the girl blossomed at this moment was her astonishing beauty.

Flowers bloom and fall, flowers fill the sky, karmic arising and ceasing in the blink of an eye.

This bond, which he personally created and personally protected, finally had the day of blossoming and bearing fruit.

Under the sky of fate, they remain together still.

Uesugi Muneyuki reached out to help Asuka up, but instead he performed a great salute toward the girl.

"I am the one, Asuka Sauce."

"For the rest of our lives, please guide me."