Chapter 172: Hello Chang’an
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**Chapter 172: She Only Believes in Herself**
In the early morning, the stone-paved road, still wet and cold from the rain, was covered with yellowed fallen leaves. As the wheels of the carriage rolled over it, they left two faint tracks in the soft earth.
A carriage from the palace stopped outside the General's residence in Xingning Lane. As Ming Luo stepped out of the carriage, a maid carefully helped support her arm. "The road is slippery after the rain, Miss, please watch your step."
Ming Luo gave no response, walking into the Chang residence with the maid and two eunuchs.
At that moment, Chang Suining was still at the training grounds. Upon hearing the servant's message, she asked, "Did she mention the reason for her visit?"
"The servant only said it was by Holy Emperor's orders, and didn't elaborate further." The servant replied. "Steward Bai is already in the front hall, and asked the servant to invite Miss Luo in."
Now, with the lady of the house being the only one in charge, there was no one else to handle things.
Chang Suining nodded, tossing his bow to Ah Che. "I’ll return to change clothes first."
The servant hurriedly nodded, secretly relieved. He was afraid the lady might come over dressed carelessly in her training attire, with mud splattered on her boots.
In the front hall, Ming Luo waited for more than a quarter of an hour without seeing Chang Suining. The maid beside her frowned slightly. "Why is the lady of your house taking so long to arrive? Does Miss Chang not take Holy Emperor’s orders seriously?"
She remembered how Ming Luo had lost control of her emotions in the carriage last time. The maid knew the lady of the house didn’t have a good relationship with Chang Suining and felt this was an opportunity to complain.
"This Aunt doesn't understand," Steward Bai explained with a smile. "My lady has a habit of training early every morning. She is usually at the training grounds at this hour. Now that she’s heard of Holy Emperor's order, she must have hurriedly set down her weapons to avoid appearing rude. She is probably on her way to change clothes."
The maid's expression turned odd. She couldn’t believe this old man was calling someone "Aunt."
Steward Bai smiled warmly. He had heard that addressing palace attendants as "Aunt" was never wrong. It was a polite way to show respect.
"Do not be rude," Ming Luo rebuked the maid. "We are the ones who arrived unexpectedly. We should wait patiently."
"Yes..." The maid lowered her head nervously.
At this moment, out of the corner of her eye, Ming Luo saw someone approaching the door. Turning her head, she saw Chang Suining walking in.
Chang Suining entered the hall and raised her hand slightly. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Ming."
Ming Luo looked at the young woman, noticing that there was no change in her expression. It was as if their previous exchange in the carriage had never happened.
Ming Luo also smiled faintly. "I have come on Holy Emperor's orders to invite Miss Chang and Young Master Chang to the Dayun Temple to pray for General Chang and the soldiers in the rebellion."
Pray for them? To the Dayun Temple?
Chang Suining didn’t show it, but she subconsciously began to think.
She replied casually, "Unfortunately, my brother recently joined the Xuanzhe army and is now training at their camp. He won’t return for another two days."
The Xuanzhe army camp was nearly a hundred miles from the capital, so even if they tried to summon him, it would be at least tomorrow before he could come back.
Ming Luo nodded. "In that case, may I invite Miss Chang to come with me to the Dayun Temple alone?"
Upon hearing this, Chang Suining felt a flicker of doubt in her heart, and she asked casually, "How long will this trip take?"
Ming Luo answered in a calm tone, "Holy Emperor requires us to stay at the Dayun Temple for three days to pray."
Three days...
Chang Suining nodded. "In that case, please excuse me for a moment while I prepare."
Since they were staying in the temple for three days, she needed to pack clothes and daily necessities.
Ming Luo nodded and watched as Chang Suining left the front hall.
On her way back to her courtyard, Chang Suining quickly mulled over the situation in her mind.
Inviting her, as the daughter, to pray for her father, who was away fighting, was perfectly reasonable. She might not have given it much thought before, but recently...
Recently, she couldn’t stop thinking about the way Cui Jing had spoken when he mentioned "the return" during her visit to the Xuanzhe residence.
She also repeatedly recalled the gaze of Tianjing Master, the national master, during the Mid-Autumn Flower Banquet, and the intense feeling of being watched and scrutinized that she had sensed at that moment.
These two events made her suspect something.
Her rebirth had always seemed too unbelievable, something she had dismissed as "impossible for ordinary people to imagine." She had thought that if someone around her were a "reborn person," she might sense something odd, but would likely attribute it to them being cursed or pretending, never considering the possibility of resurrection.
But the feeling Cui Jing and Tianjing Master had given her lately made her feel as if she were being seen through—or that she would soon be uncovered.
If Tianjing Master had noticed something from her appearance, what had made Cui Jing suspicious? Was there something in the unseen that she didn’t know about?
She felt as though she had walked into a fog, and the sudden summons from Ming Luo seemed like a hand pushing her deeper into it.
Her instincts told her that this trip to the Dayun Temple was likely not as simple as it seemed.
But she couldn’t refuse. Ming Luo had personally come to summon her, leaving her no room for refusal.
This emperor, as he was in the past, was always like this; now that he is the emperor, her actions have clearly become even more intense.
As Xi'er was busy packing clothes, Chang Suining arrived at the vanity table, casually picking up an enamel bracelet and slipping it onto her wrist.
Although the bracelet seemed ordinary, it was actually hollow inside, containing a concealed blade mechanism. With a twist, it could be used as a weapon for self-defense.
This technique was something Chang Suining had heard by chance from Shen Sanmao. She had asked Shen Sanmao to draw a blueprint, and then had Chang Ren commission someone to craft this bracelet.
When Shen Sanmao was drawing the design, he had felt somewhat uneasy and embarrassed, saying that he used to only delve into these unorthodox methods, which were truly beneath notice.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the young woman who took the blueprint from him tossed him a heavy bag of gold beans, telling him to go ahead and study these unorthodox methods without hesitation. The more crooked and bizarre, the more she liked it; anything less devious was not worth her attention.
Shen Sanmao didn’t understand, but he was greatly shocked and inspired.
Since then, Chang Suining had occasionally received small gadgets sent by him.
Including a small porcelain bottle that she now picked up.
Chang Suining hesitated for a moment, but still decided to take the bottle with her.
Even though she was suspicious, it was better to be prepared than to be caught off guard.
After everything was in order, Chang Suining got into the palace carriage with Ming Luo. She had originally planned to take her own carriage, but since Ming Luo invited her, she didn’t refuse.
This action, which seemed to suggest close surveillance, made Chang Suining’s suspicions grow even more.
However, she did not speak much to Ming Luo. Not long after getting into the carriage, she closed her eyes and leaned against the wall to rest.
Ming Luo watched the seemingly sleeping young woman, and a flash of murderous intent briefly passed through her eyes.
If she could, she truly wanted to immediately eliminate this girl who had brought countless changes to her life and completely remove her as a threat.
Although Chang Suining’s eyes were closed, her sharp battlefield instincts allowed her to catch the fleeting murderous intent without any disturbance, not even a flicker of her eyelashes.
At this moment, even though the other party had the courage to act against her, she didn’t have the ability to kill her; instead, it would cost her own life.
However, this sudden murderous intent was worth her contemplation.
The last time they met in the carriage, she hadn’t sensed any murderous thoughts from Ming Luo. Could something have happened since then that caused Ming Luo to view her as an even greater threat and want to remove her as soon as possible?
Did it have anything to do with their visit to Dayun Temple today?
In order to control her fluctuating emotions, Ming Luo slightly turned her gaze towards the greenish curtain that swayed with the movement of the carriage.
Among the two eunuchs who accompanied them today, one was from her aunt's side.
Her aunt wouldn’t directly speak harsh words to her, but she would always give subtle hints and reminders, tightly binding her thoughts and actions in unseen ways.
She clearly remembered that years ago, her aunt had subtly suggested that she was worried about Cui Jing, who controlled the Xuanzhe army, eventually aligning with the gentry. Her aunt hoped that she could get together with Cui Jing, so she could help control him. In return, her aunt would help her fulfill her wish of marrying him…
That was an unspoken agreement between her and her aunt.
But at the Lotus Flower Banquet that night, when Cui Jing asked to marry Chang Suining, she clearly sensed that had Chang Suining agreed, her aunt would have undoubtedly approved of the marriage.
Now that Cui Jing was someone else’s, even though that other person was currently putting on a reluctant stance!
Yes, she understood that her aunt had her own reasons, but her aunt clearly knew her intentions, and after that incident, she never mentioned anything about Cui Jing again, nor offered any comforting words… It was as though she were just a pawn, to be used when needed and discarded when not, with no need for any explanation or consolation.
This made her wonder, after Cui Jing was out of the picture, what would be the next thing to disappear from her grasp?
If things were like this for Chang Suining, what would happen if she truly became the Princess Chongyue? Would her aunt immediately retract everything she had given her?
After all, now her aunt wouldn’t even allow her to have the intention of protecting what was hers.
This ironic and suffocating feeling made Ming Luo experience, for the first time, the impulse to break free from these shackles.
But she clearly knew that the more she tried to escape, the tighter the shackles would become, until they took her life without hesitation.
She couldn’t escape; in fact, she had to suppress all her thoughts and carefully respond to her aunt’s hints. Any sign of betrayal or disobedience would result in her ruin.
Her aunt would not give her any room for mistakes.
Perhaps, in her aunt’s eyes, she was just someone who could be easily controlled.
Because she was so easily controlled, her aunt had kept her by her side all these years, choosing her to manage the affairs of the Celestial Tower—matters that an emperor couldn’t personally attend to, thus selecting someone who could be easily manipulated became crucial.
Ming Luo was filled with irony.
But could that unrealistic dream within the Celestial Tower truly be realized?
Now, she could only watch.
After a sleepless night, Ming Luo, whose heart felt suffocated and powerless, now looked at the girl with closed eyes with a sense of numbness.
Though her surname was Ming, she had been born to be bullied, tormented by fate, and had never received the favor of destiny... Who would destiny favor this time?
Chang Suining appeared to rest with her eyes closed throughout the journey, but in reality, she had already considered every possible scenario.
And soon, her assumptions were confirmed.
There was a rule when entering Dayun Temple: no matter the reason for one's visit, one must first offer incense at the Main Hall.
Chang Suining entered the hall, and Ming Luo, who had already come to offer incense early in the morning, was waiting on the side.
A young monk handed her an incense stick, and as Chang Suining took it, the monk clasped his hands together in a Buddhist gesture and bowed to her.
As she returned the gesture, her gaze fell on the monk’s clasped hands, and she was mildly startled.
Though the monk's hands were joined, his right pinky finger was pointed downward.
In the past, when in the military, if speaking was inconvenient, they would use hand gestures to convey messages, with each direction of the fingers signifying a different hidden meaning… This was a code she shared with Wu Jue and Chang Kuo.
Was this monk signaling with Wu Jue’s instructions?
Had Wu Jue recognized who she was?!
Chang Suining’s heart shook, but her face remained impassive. After placing the incense into the burner, she knelt on the cushion in front of her.
The monk stepped aside.
As Chang Suining knelt, her hand silently reached under the cushion, soon finding a cold object.
Taking advantage of the bowing motion, she clearly saw what it was—it was Wu Jue’s celestial stone ring, a treasure said to be from his sect, forged from a heavenly meteorite. It contained mystical energy that could ward off disasters and overcome predicaments.
The monk’s earlier hand gesture had been a subtle signal to pay attention to what was hidden below, which turned out to be Wu Jue’s ring.
Had Wu Jue truly recognized her?
Why had he secretly given her this ring? Was it a reminder of something?
As the turmoil swirled in her heart, Chang Suining slowly straightened her body.
"Miss Chang, after you finish offering incense, please follow me to the Celestial Tower. Holy Emperor and Master Wu Jue are already waiting inside for you to pray for blessings."
Chang Suining silently tightened her grip on the ring, slightly confused, "Celestial Tower?"
"Exactly," Ming Luo replied. "Though the Celestial Tower rarely allows outsiders to enter, Holy Emperor said that this prayer is for the great cause of the rebellion. It is a major matter, which is why an exception has been made to allow you to enter and pray."
In an instant, countless thoughts rushed through Chang Suining’s mind.
Including the strange sensation she had when inadvertently entering the formation around the Celestial Tower previously.
The Celestial Tower, which never allowed outsiders to enter, was now making an exception just for her—was it truly for the battle in Yangzhou?
Or was there another purpose for this ancient formation?
Ming Luo’s voice interrupted her thoughts once more: "Please, Miss Chang, come with me."
Chang Suining stood up.
Before rising, she discreetly placed the ring back where it had been hidden under her cloak and sleeve.
She couldn’t take the ring.
If she did, it would be tantamount to acknowledging that she was Li Shang.
She was still uncertain about who Wu Jue was working for or whether this action was a test of her loyalty. Until everything became clearer, she couldn’t—and wouldn’t—trust anyone.
The deeper she was in the fog, the more cautious and alert she had to be.
At this moment, she only trusted herself.
Thankfully, she had always been meticulous about every step she took, and she was worthy of that trust.
The girl bit down on the pill hidden behind her teeth, and the bitter, spicy taste immediately filled her mouth and nose. She exhaled slowly, her expression calm as she glanced ahead.
Taking her life into her own hands might seem like a risk, but at least she would be the one to decide what happened. It was far more comforting than entrusting her safety to someone else.
On the way to the Celestial Tower, Chang Suining felt as though every step was submerged in a sea of mist.
Her instincts told her that the end of this mist might just lead to the truth.
Perhaps, if she could walk out of this fog, she would finally see the truth.
Outside the tower courtyard, Ming Luo glanced at the momentarily paused Chang Suining. "Miss Chang, please."
(End of Chapter)
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