Night of Bloodshed at Everlasting Palace

Remaining steadfast amidst wind and rain has always been a hallmark of the noble character of scholars. Throughout history, countless literati and artists have aspired to, or rather attempted to, the image embodied in Zhang Zhihe's poem, "Fisherman's Song."

White egrets fly before Mount Xisai, peach blossoms float on the flowing water, and mandarin fish are plump.

Wearing a green bamboo hat and a green raincoat, I need not return home in the slanting wind and fine rain.

How elegant! How dashing!

But with a bamboo hat on their head and a raincoat on their back, they were naturally unaffected by the slanting wind and drizzle.

Xu Zhancheng and Ren Changhong's clothes were both soaked. Xu Zhancheng's hair was still quite thick, sticking wetly to his forehead, while Ren Changhong had very little hair left. The rain washed away the hair that the bald man had carefully covered on his head, revealing a smooth surface.

Both men were soaked to the bone, revealing the portly backs and bellies of the middle-aged man, a far cry from any elegance or grace.

If modern people weren't more confident in their bodies' resistance, catching a cold under such circumstances in ancient times would probably have been fatal.

The wind came and the rain went, the trees swayed and the water fell. Liu Chang'an walked over and took a look. No wonder they couldn't move. The two sides were fighting fiercely and the situation was in full swing. The two men focused their energy and their eyes showed a fierce light. They were planning to combine their forces and capture the king in one fell swoop.

Two terrible chess players.

True gentlemen observe chess without speaking. Liu Chang'an did not offer any guidance. On the surface, the two were truly evenly matched, but both had obvious flaws that their opponents could exploit to gain the upper hand. However, their focus was not on observing the situation, but rather on trying to use verbal attacks to force their opponent to surrender.

"Just admit defeat already. Your wife's not home today. Are you going to keep trying to outlast me?"

"I'm not afraid of my wife. Is your daughter coming home today?"

"Stop with the nonsense. You know perfectly well I'll win within ten steps!"

"Pah! You couldn't beat me in a hundred moves. Do you even know how to play chess?"

Liu Chang'an watched for a while, then, finding it utterly boring, was about to leave when a young woman ran over with an umbrella and immediately yelled, "Dad, Uncle Xu, do you think you're still young? Sitting here in this heavy rain, don't you care about your health?"

"It'll be over soon, it'll be over soon!" Xu Zhancheng waved his hand and said, splashing out a stream of water.

"Hmph, there's no way to draw today." Ren Changhong stood up, pointed at Xu Zhancheng, and said, "I'll spare you this time."

Xu Zhancheng immediately objected, "We absolutely have to finish this game today! Don't go back and spout nonsense about how great your situation is right after the game ends!"

"Isn't the situation great for me? Look at me, I'm doing this first..."

"Why do I have to do it this way? I insist on..."

The young woman made a move on the chessboard, and the two men exchanged a knowing look before shaking hands behind their backs.

The young woman gave Xu Zhancheng an umbrella and glanced at Liu Chang'an, who had been standing there watching.

Liu Chang'an turned and left.

"Dad, is that boy watching you play chess one of your students?"

"No way, I don't know him."

"He was completely absorbed; this was a rare and brilliant game, a truly divine one."

"That's true. If this were in ancient times, it would be a legendary tale in the chess world. Masters clashing would captivate enthusiasts, who would brave wind and rain to stay engrossed."

"Stop bragging. You two wouldn't even make it into the top 32 in the school's chess tournament."

"What a joke, we don't care about such empty fame."

"We're the kind of people who've sparred with Lao Liu. He was a six-time consecutive champion back in the day. How could our skill level be any worse? We're on the same level."

You've been saying this for almost twenty years.

"Ah... it's been almost twenty years..."

"Old Liu has been gone for so long..."

Liu Chang'an went home, but instead of going upstairs, he opened the downstairs door and took out the rattan box from under the bed.

The air was damp from the rain, and the box felt slightly sticky to the touch. Liu Chang'an took a tissue and rubbed the outside of it.

He opened the box and took out the diary. The old paper still had a tough texture. As he ran his fingers through it, he could feel the passage of time. Looking at the handwriting and the memories and scenes it evoked, Liu Chang'an remained calm, stirring his emotions page by page.

"The Hopkins people have arrived. As one of the world's top research universities, their strength in medicine, biomedicine, and life sciences is undeniable. However, our hosts still haven't responded with the expected enthusiasm and vigilance from a humble standpoint. They've almost unconditionally cooperated with any of their requests, and it seems some of my experimental data has been reviewed..."

"Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we've been like transfer students, eagerly anticipating integrating into a new class. We always believed that as long as we gave our all, we could earn the recognition and equal enthusiasm of our classmates. After facing such a brutal world for over a hundred years, we remain naive..."

"Xu Zhancheng and Ren Changhong met with a woman from Hopkins today. She's supposedly very beautiful, though given their character, their description is definitely an exaggeration. After all, none of the so-called pretty female students they've been trying to get me to know lately are as pretty as Yan Huaye, or even as pretty as Director Liu's wife. They said this woman seems to be subtly trying to get some information about me, but she's not coming directly to me... something seems off..."

"I'm just an ordinary person. Even with all my enhanced abilities concealed, I still accidentally reveal some things. It seems the desire for evolution and Longevity has never disappeared over the millennia; otherwise, why would they be searching for these things..."

Hearing the footsteps behind him, Liu Chang'an closed his diary.

"When will you come out for a walk with me?"

"OK."

Liu Chang'an turned around unexpectedly and saw Shangguan Dandan. However, today she was not wearing the magnificent imperial robes, but a moon-white long dress with her long hair flowing down. The girl's light body was like a willow branch in spring with tender buds, concealing her waist.

"But I don't want to go out right now. I'm getting a little tired of reading." Shangguan Dandan's eyes showed some annoyance. "Especially these past few days I've been reading a palace intrigue novel. It went from being engrossed to suddenly feeling bored in an instant."

"What kind of palace intrigue novels do you read? I don't read urban military king novels." Liu Chang'an chatted casually with Shangguan Dandan. Actually, as long as she didn't act like a "mother," Liu Chang'an was quite willing to chat with her... He had always looked forward to her coming out and talking to him.

"Yes, but people these days think things that are incomprehensible... I saw a book where the person I thought was my mother turned out to be my daughter. Can people really joke about social norms and ethics like this?" Shangguan Dandan shook her head and looked at Liu Chang'an.

"Yes, so I don't take it seriously when you try to emphasize your identity as a mother." Liu Chang'an understood what she was trying to say in a roundabout way.

She seemed determined to persist until Liu Chang'an gave his approval, returning to the state they had been in before the night the Empress Dowager bled in the Everlasting Palace.

What a boring little girl.