Chapter 526: Calm and Unashamed

"You open yours, I'll open mine."

"I want to open yours."

"That works too."

Chen Shu had already picked up his own, but upon hearing this, he handed it back to her.

Ning Qing had long known the content of what he had written, but she still tore it open. The slip of paper had not yet yellowed, but it already bore the traces of time. Ning Qing unfolded it, took a calm look at it, and then rolled it back up.

On that small slip of paper, written in a somewhat ethereal script, was the sentence: "I hope that twenty years from now, you are still living with a clear conscience."

At the same time, Chen Shu also opened hers.

Ning Qing's handwriting was beautiful, yet somewhat overly rigid; it was neither elegant and fluid nor delicate and cute, nor did it have any unique character of its own. It was as exquisite and perfect as a certain type of running-cursive script printed by a machine, and it only had a short paragraph written on it:

"I am also working hard to learn to be your sun."

It was not written for her future self twenty years later, nor did it seem to be written for the Chen Shu of twenty years later; instead, it felt like a sentence spoken to the Chen Shu of that time.

Chen Shu was momentarily dazed.

He knew why Ning Qing had written that.

That was the first year of school at the Talent Academy.

Most of the students in the class came from all over the city, or even from other cities, and only a small number knew each other. After spending a short time together, the female class monitor, having likely just finished reading a young adult romance novel, must have had a lapse in judgment and organized an anonymous letter-writing activity.

Each person got one slip, with only a recipient and no sender, collected and distributed by the class monitor.

In Chen Shu's memory, everyone wasn't familiar with each other yet at the time, and many students didn't know Ning Qing's personality, so she, being beautiful, received quite a few anonymous letters.

At sixteen, he had been a little jealous.

And what Chen Shu had written was:

"You are a star in my life, cold and dazzling, shining brightly, but you cannot just be a star. Stars are too far away, too small, so much so that even the light that shines upon one is cold."

I am also working hard to learn to be your sun, rather than a cold and distant star.

"..."

Chen Shu shook his head and put the paper away.

It had been written very casually back then.

So she had remembered it for so long.

Truly... petty.

"Finished reading?"

"Finished."

"Put it away."

"How many anonymous letters did you receive back then?"

"I don't know."

"How is that possible? Your memory is so good."

"I only remember that I opened them one by one; when I opened the fourth one, I knew at a glance it was you, and I threw the rest away."

"Oh my! Then I'm different from you. I received three, and I read them over and over again several times. I still have them in my collection now!" Chen Shu used practical action to show that a sweet atmosphere was impossible in front of him.

"Cherish them well; from childhood to now, there have only been a few people who took a fancy to you," Ning Qing said coldly.

"?? You've changed!"

"..."

"You weren't like this before!"

"Are you living with a clear conscience?"

"What?"

"Are you, right now, living with a clear conscience?" Ning Qing patiently asked again.

"Clear conscience, yes, no regrets."

Chen Shu answered without any hesitation.

Because every choice he had made was what he himself wanted, there were no matters yet that left his thoughts obstructed, Qingqing had always been by his side, and having come back again with the experience of the previous game, he truly had nothing he genuinely regretted.

Thinking about it, even for the version of him in the Rear Plane, whether it was choosing to go to war and being defeated despite the high probability of defeat, or finally exhausting his life's energy and risking danger to travel back to the Rear Plane and failing, to a person like him, these were still choices made with a clear conscience, without regret.

Those were clearly all correct choices.

Those were clearly also brilliant lives.

Although he hadn't fulfilled his original intention of being a salted fish to the end, it was still a decent experience.

Chen Shu felt that he, situated in the Rear Plane, was lucky—luckier than the version of himself who walked ahead. But the luck did not lie in the fact that the version of himself who walked ahead paved the way for their victory and his life as a salted fish, allowing him to fulfill his original intention—no, it lay in the fact that he, walking behind, knew that another version of himself had lived a very different, brilliant life; if he continued to live in comfort, rounding up, it was equivalent to having two different, wonderful experiences.

This was the part where he was even luckier.

Ning Qing was less than a meter away from him, and looking at his expression, she seemed to see his inner thoughts.

So she nodded gently and replied in a very soft voice:

"I am too..."

Perhaps such a scene truly had a dream-like halo, a magic that made one reminisce about the past; in a daze, she thought of a question she had answered during her freshman year—the elderly Ouyuan Gong, nearing Spirit Decay, had asked on a professional exam, "Knowing that life is like this, do you still have the courage to come?"

Ning Qing had answered according to the answer of the Ning Qing from the Rear Plane.

In fact, a person like her was extremely devoted to life; even if she knew the choices in advance, she would still make the same ones, but the biggest difference between her and the Ning Qing of the Rear Plane was that she truly knew her own life in advance.

Would she still come? She still came, didn't she...

Instead, after seeing the "answer," she felt even more that the process was beautiful, and that it would be a pity not to experience it personally; no other choice could possibly be better than this, and there could not be a path more beautiful than the one she had walked.

If one were to trace the reason...

It was probably because her life, like the person in front of her, was also lived with a clear conscience, right?

"Buzz, buzz."

The vibration of the mobile phone broke the silence of the storage room, as if pulling them back from a dream into reality in an instant.

Chen Shu took out his mobile phone to check.

It was sent by the Spirit Sect.

Because the time for the Plane War scheduled by Ning Qing was very close, and because the number of participants far exceeded the capacity of the two Space-Time Items, they also had to use the method of the gods: first enter the gods' Battlefield, then cross the Plane barrier from there to enter the Withered Plane; this process was much more cumbersome than using Space-Time Items, so they also had to set off in advance.

To see them off, the Dayi Imperial Family was holding a farewell banquet in the Tianhe Dian of the Imperial Palace for all participants within Dayi.

Tianhe Dian was the largest and most formal hall in the Imperial Palace; during the era of absolute monarchy, court meetings and audiences with civil and military officials were held here, and almost all other important state ceremonies were also held here. However, ever since the Dayi Imperial Family devolved power, they had not held meetings here for many years, and even when the Imperial Family hosted guests to the standard of a state banquet, it was often at the State Guesthouse or other halls within the Imperial Palace.

It seemed to be held in high regard.

"..."

Chen Shu was silent for a moment, thinking.

I wonder if I can bring family members?

The next day, evening.

Chen Shu brought Xiaoxiao along, but did not bring Taozi; he gave Taozi one hundred yuan and told her to go to the community supermarket by herself to buy Fatty Sausage to eat.

First, meet up with the silly group members in the group chat.

I don't know if the geniuses of Dayi from every previous generation were like this, but the group members in this silly group now were just like a bunch of elementary school students; whenever there was a major event requiring a collective activity, they had to meet up beforehand, as it was embarrassing for one person to go alone.

It was just like elementary school students who had to form a group even to go to the restroom.

The group owner went to welcome the big shots, so Brother Meng and the Imperial Palace staff were left to welcome them; while leading them inside, they introduced the Imperial Palace.

"Up ahead is Tianhe Dian."

"I've often seen it in TV dramas."

"That was a replica built by a film and television base."

"I thought so, it felt better than this place."

"Ahem, ahem, ahem..."

Inadvertently, Chen Shu saw a familiar figure.

A tall and slender bearing, a sweet and moving appearance, yet she was in formal traditional palace attire, with exquisite makeup, following etiquette as she walked slowly along the corridor; it was quite different from the youthful and lively version of her usually seen on TV.

At the same time, the other party also saw him.

Crown Princess Zhusha's eyes widened, somewhat in Surprise:

"Teacher Chen Shu!"

She immediately reacted and bowed solemnly:

"Teacher Chen Shu..."

Then she bowed to the others one by one, including Qingqing.

"Emmm..."

Chen Shu glanced at Qingqing beside him from the corner of his eye, then glanced at Xiaoxiao beside him, feeling somewhat embarrassed, but still grinned and greeted her:

"What a coincidence, Crown Princess Zhusha."

"Teacher Chen Shu, you came too..."

"Yes."

"Teacher Chen Shu, have you also reached the Ninth Stage?"

"Yes."

Chen Shu couldn't help but feel a bit regretful; it seemed that Brother Meng and the group owner, out of consideration for their pride, had not told Crown Princess Zhusha the fact that he had been crushing them all along.

It was truly a pity.

"Wow!"

Crown Princess Zhusha still had a tiny bit of admiration.

It could also have been ritualistic admiration.

Neither side delayed much time, and they soon walked into this hall that had experienced several dynasties and had always held the highest status in this country.

The Crystal lamps overhead and the glazed Rune lamps on the walls illuminated the hall as bright as day; viewed with modern eyes, these lamps were slightly outdated, but when viewed together with its history, one would marvel at the former glory of this empire.

The regulations of this state banquet followed some traditional Dayi etiquette while also incorporating modern styles, like a combination of an ancient royal banquet from a TV drama and a modern state banquet.

Several luxurious long tables were neatly filled with food and lamps, with Nameplates on the tables; everyone sat according to their seats, and once they sat down, someone would take away the Nameplate.

The seats were basically divided by seniority.

This was also quite good; people of the same generation sat together, got to know each other, and the atmosphere was more relaxed. If they sat with the elders of their respective sects, facing other great seniors from different sects, everyone would be somewhat constrained, except for a certain Sword Cultivator surnamed Zhang.

Chen Shu quietly observed the big shots here.

After the preparations over the previous period, he knew almost all the big shots.

This involved three generations: the old generation of big shots who were about to face Spirit Decay and step off the stage, the new generation of successor big shots from top sects, and this super-new generation of theirs, who were cultivated through various means. Most came from top sects within Yiguo, a small number from the Yiguo military, and there were also several from famous major sects within Yiguo; once they arrived here, there was no distinction of status.

There was one face that was relatively unfamiliar—

Beside the table they were next to, there was a young man with obvious Heavenly Human characteristics, sitting expressionless, as if he were not interested in anything.

Chen Shu had seen him before, when the Killing Forbidden Land opened.

This person was also in the group, had no nickname, and his avatar was also blank; he had never been seen speaking, as if he weren't in the group at all. Only when the group owner started a group video call before, he clicked in once for some unknown reason, perhaps wanting to see the group of people he would fight alongside in the future.

At the same time, he was also the only High-Tier Heavenly Human who had not headed to the Withered Plane in advance.