Chapter 523

The end-of-term feast proceeded as usual. Thanks to the Quidditch dynasty, Gryffindor once again won the House Cup. The children cheered and jumped for joy, but Harry felt it was a bit noisy.

He felt he had become an outsider, everything in the school was drifting away from him. When the next day's sun rose, he would no longer be a student at Hogwarts—although he could still return to the familiar campus, those familiar days were gone forever.

On his last night at Hogwarts, Harry lay in bed reviewing his experiences over the past seven years. He did not deny that he had participated in or created many legends, but at this moment, under the dark red bed curtains of this large bed, all he recalled were the happy times on campus—sometimes he really felt regret. He had clearly wanted to fully experience campus life this year, yet his time was taken up by this and that outside of campus. Sigh, school life is never enough!

The next day, Harry, filled with immense reluctance, dragged his trunk to the platform, while Zhang Qiu, wearing a beautiful light-colored dress, was already waiting for him there. At this moment, Harry suddenly cast his nostalgia for campus life to the back of his mind and began to look forward to his future life.

"I say, Harry, we are planning to go back to Tang Dun first, right?" Zhang Qiu said as they got into the car, "My father has arrived."

"Oh?"

"Master still hasn't come out of seclusion. I really don't know what he's busy with, but..." she said with some disappointment, "in any case, he probably won't be attending our wedding. I can only try my best to get familiar with my biological father, whom I haven't seen in a long time, during this period."

"Then should we..." Harry had wanted to suggest postponing it or something, but the words were swallowed back as soon as they reached his throat, "Oh, perhaps there is no other way."

"After all, Master Xuanjun's situation is also quite special. For those who regard him as a hypothetical enemy, like Yanayev, for example," Harry brought up a conclusion he had worried about, "Yanayev knows he cannot enter the territory of the Celestial Empire to defeat Master Xuanjun, so he will definitely try every means to seize the opportunity when Master Xuanjun leaves the Celestial Empire—although I think he might not be that crazy, I dare not say with 100% certainty that absolutely no one will take this opportunity to cause a scene at the wedding."

"Exactly, that annoying guy." Zhang Qiu nodded, "But I feel it might not be for that reason. I met with my father before I left, and I felt his mental state was like a different person compared to last time. Perhaps there really is some major event to be done in the country."

Soon, Harry saw with his own eyes the significant change in this Mr. Zhang Wei: the last time he came, his face was full of worries, worrying about this and that, looking every bit like a clueless petty bourgeois. But this time, his whole being radiated unparalleled confidence from the inside out.

"Hello, long time no see." Harry walked up with a smile to shake his hand, "Mr. Shi Misi, welcome..."

"Eh!" Zhang Wei interrupted him, "I think Shi Misi is too common as an English name. Please call me Snake now, hiss~~!"

Harry suddenly felt that this change... didn't quite look like a healthy one.

"Harry, young man, a man of talent." Mr. Snake said in high spirits, "It's incredible, everyone calls you General Potter, General! You didn't tell me before!"

"I dare say Qiu will definitely live a good life now, and I'll benefit from it too. I should have set my mind at ease long ago." He didn't wait for Harry to answer and immediately started rambling, "Times are different now. I've said that for a grand Celestial Empire, it's rare to have a wedding—yes, Qiu is a princess now, it's truly joyful."

"This is indeed joyful." Harry echoed. He saw Zhang Qiu maintaining a smile with no intention of speaking, so he continued to ask, "Then, are you here for a short stay or—"

"Well, I will be living in London from now on." Mr. Snake said, "This dowry delegation is particularly large, and there are many things to coordinate. Although I probably can't help much, I don't think we can let those civil officials act as the bride's elders for some ceremonial occasions. So, I will be here all the time."

When it came to business, Harry felt his tone was much more normal.

"I think our date is basically set," Zhang Qiu interjected, "Currently, it looks like July 26th."

Harry scratched his head; he felt that at this rate, the preparation time was a bit too short.

"Of course, this is a carefully selected auspicious day." Mr. Snake said ostentatiously, "For this, the itinerary of the dowry convoy has also been calculated. On one hand, we must ensure the first batch of personnel arrives as early as possible to help you start setting up the wedding, and on the other, ensure the last batch arrives just one day before the wedding so as not to delay the wedding date—ah, I dare say this is the biggest thing the Ministry of Rites has done in recent years. Who would have thought that more than half of the Ministry of Rites would be mobilized just to host my daughter's wedding!"

Harry asked nervously: "Then, what do I need to do?"

"Nothing." Zhang Qiu shrugged, "We don't need to do anything. Lin Shuanghe will get everything done. At most, we'll just familiarize ourselves with the process on the 25th."

"Yes, I am very glad Harry is a foreigner." Mr. Snake said, shaking his head, "You don't have to learn those cumbersome etiquettes. Haha, whoever says anything about the collapse of rites and music, let him sulk by himself."

If one were to dump everything on the dowry team, it would seem like a very irresponsible thing to do, but it was really relaxing. Harry and Sirius soon accepted this fact while comforting each other; after all, the old Sir had also dumped everything directly onto them.

In the days leading up to the 26th, Harry and Zhang Qiu lived together in Tang Dun, while Mr. Snake lived in the guest room. He spent most of his time every day watching popular novels or television programs, looking every bit like he was on vacation. However, Harry still learned some things about the situation in the Celestial Empire from him through some casual chats.

In fact, in the eyes of the public, Master Xuanjun had always been in a state of seclusion, and the radical faction controlling the government was also an ongoing affair. The last time Zhang Qiu returned to the country to participate in the political tug-of-war between Master Xuanjun and high-ranking officials, it was essentially a short meeting known only to a small circle.

Of course, for the Muggle World or the overall national policy, that meeting was not very important; it was just Master Xuanjun and the radical faction reaching some consensus in secret. However, for Master Xuanjun himself, or for Harry and Zhang Qiu who were concerned about his movements, this matter was quite intriguing: since Master Xuanjun had already completed the refining of the power of destiny, why did he continue to stay in seclusion, and what was he doing in his continued seclusion?

If one wanted to reverse-engineer this question, one had to deeply understand their various actions in the Muggle World and analyze which had clear other reasons and which might be related to Ge Xuan's new grand plan. And when it came to this point, the first question was their unusual troop withdrawal: after repelling and pushing back the attacks from various South Asian countries, the choice of the Celestial people was to shrink all their forces and return to the national borders before the war.

"Our division of national borders is extremely strict; there must be at least one boundary marker every kilometer," Mr. Snake said, "And everyone deeply identifies with the saying of the 'Begonia Leaf' of China. If one destroys the beauty of the overall map shape for the sake of a little useless land, it is not worth the loss."

This point was indeed strange, but upon closer inspection, it might not be that strange. After all, Ge Xuan's idea had always been to practice the system within a closed system, so he laid out his plans very early, and there was a reason for implanting this concept in the hearts of the citizens. The Celestial people had a deep-seated obsession with the certainty of their territory; not a bit more or less would do, which led them to prefer not to have those conquered territories.

However, in that case, why did the radical faction still fight this expansionist war? When Harry contacted Lin Shuanghe before the war, he clearly felt that the radical faction of the Celestial Empire must have had territorial expansion as its main goal. If the national border really had such a rule that it couldn't be changed by even a bit, they wouldn't have needed to provoke the incident.

Regarding this point, Zhang Qiu also gave the explanation of 【officers longing to kill the enemy and earn merit】, but Harry's intuition told him that Ge Xuan's true purpose might be hidden behind this. He speculated that Ge Xuan's mid-way exit from seclusion was actually to stop the expansion of the radical faction. Something he wanted to do had a lot to do with the national borders, and for this, he had already spent a lot of effort to build a consensus on the national territory among the people. He did not want the radical faction to inadvertently destroy this layout.

However, no matter how Harry imagined it, he did not understand what deep meaning Ge Xuan had in specifically laying out the national borders. He could only continue to ponder Ge Xuan's other actions. In fact, his and Zhang Qiu's marriage upgrading from a simple mutual affection to a princess getting married was also quite an abnormal thing. Or rather, it was not abnormal for Ge Xuan to dote on his beloved disciple, but the fact that he ultimately did not come to the wedding himself and instead sent her biological father, whom Zhang Qiu was not very familiar with, was a bit abnormal.

Furthermore, from several exchanges with Lin Shuanghe, it was discovered that the Celestial Empire had packed many opposition members, or liberals who longed for openness, into the dowry team and sent them to Britain. This was almost a form of political exile. Therefore, whether Ge Xuan was simply trying to save face for Zhang Qiu, or whether he was using the excuse to eliminate dissidents—if one considered his own overwhelming strength, why he would use such a gentle exile to treat dissidents was also a suspicious point worth considering.

And, Harry still didn't understand, could it be that the alien theory was really just a ridiculous prank he played on Donald?

Until the wedding ceremony on July 26th, Harry had not guessed Ge Xuan's thoughts. He decided to put aside the doubts in his heart and enjoy the beautiful time in his life first; it would not be too late to study Ge Xuan's layout later.

Yet, even on this point, he had guessed the answer wrong.