The originally docile parrot suddenly stirred upon seeing Chu Jin opposite them. It flapped its wings a few times, and as soon as Shen Mengzhi let go, it flew nimbly over to Chu Jin like a colorful embroidered ball, squawking, "Heir! Your Highness!"

Chu Jin pinched its incessantly chirping beak and lowered his eyes with a smile.

"Where did this fat bird come from? Is this some kind of surprise for me?"

"After your accident back then, Qi Yu was going to take this parrot away, but it refused, insisting on staying at the academy." Shen Mengzhi also seemed to find it amusing. "I had no choice but to keep it."

Chu Jin looked the parrot up and down. "Are you saying this is the one I used to keep at the academy? Was it this fat? It's turned into a ball."

The suspicion in his tone didn't seem feigned. The parrot actually understood, letting out a miserable cry and desperately throwing itself at its master, as if afraid it would be disdained and thrown away the next second.

For a rare moment, Shen Mengzhi shifted his gaze away in embarrassment. "I've never kept this kind of... pet. I didn't know how much to feed it each day. It would eat every time I fed it, so I just kept feeding it..."

As he spoke, his voice grew weaker, and his gaze drifted.

That wasn't the whole truth. He had been alone at the academy for so many years that it was inevitably lonely. Feeding the parrot was one of his few pastimes. Sometimes, when he was happy or lost in thought, he would feed it more, and before he knew it, he had raised the parrot into a parrot ball.

Chu Jin seemed to picture the scene. He couldn't help but chuckle as he ruffled the bird's feathers, saying, "This fellow originally wouldn't eat anything fed by anyone other than me. I was worried it would starve to death. Without you, it probably really would have starved itself to death."

The moment his words fell, the parrot on his shoulder let out two mournful cries in response.

Shen Mengzhi thought about how happily it had been eating earlier and couldn't help but feel a little doubtful. "Really?"

Was this bird really that unyielding?

"That's how it should have been, but it's different now." Chu Jin gave him a meaningful look. "Perhaps with you, it also felt more at ease."

Or rather, it had accepted Shen Mengzhi as its second master.

A parrot raised by the Old Qin Royal Family was naturally extraordinary, a loyal servant of the highest caliber, even more loyal than a human. Once it sensed a threat to its master, it would starve itself to death to avoid being used by the enemy.

But he didn't plan to mention this to Shen Mengzhi. Seeing the parrot acting up again, Chu Jin ignored it and walked toward the door. As he reached Shen Mengzhi, however, he suddenly stopped and reached a hand toward the top of his head.

Shen Mengzhi subconsciously took a step back.

But he saw that Chu Jin had already withdrawn his hand, a grayish-yellow ginkgo leaf held between his fingertips, which then fluttered to the ground.

"A dead leaf fell in your hair," Chu Jin said to himself. "How come that ginkgo tree still has leaves that haven't fallen at this time."

Shen Mengzhi stared at the dead leaf. "Thank you."

"For what."

Chu Jin exited the room a step ahead of him, then stopped abruptly, a hint of a smile in his voice. "I haven't been here for so many years, I've forgotten the way back. May I trouble Senior Brother to lead the way?"

Chu Jin rarely called him Senior Brother in a serious manner. The simple two words took on a different flavor in his mouth.

Shen Mengzhi looked at him, a hint of helplessness in his eyes. He then stepped into the snow to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

The two left the Xuan Study. Shen Mengzhi closed the door softly and asked, seemingly unintentionally, "What was so important that it was worth you making a special trip to the Xuan Study?"

Chu Jin knew he was asking about the scroll in his hand and didn't hide it, his tone casual. "It will soon be the hundred-day celebration for the son of the current Grand Censor. I remembered I still had an authentic work of Zhou Xihe's here, which would be a perfect gift, so I came by to get it."

The path from the Xuan Study to the gate wasn't long. Braving the biting wind and snow, the two quickly arrived at the main gate of the academy.

Shen Mengzhi was the first to stop. He let out a soft sigh and said, "You know what I'm going to say."

Chu Jin also stopped. The parrot shrank under his robes, as if it too had sensed the change in atmosphere and had quieted down considerably. He looked over through the swirling snow, his expression unreadable.

Shen Mengzhi spoke faintly, "Ten years ago, it was a situation of certain death. Though I don't know how you escaped it, it must have been fraught with peril. Back then, you were just an Heir and already came so close to death. Now, you hold an immensely high position. A tall tree attracts the wind, and people's loyalties are fickle. How will you be able to cope?"

"Chu Jin, are you truly happy being the Prince Regent? And... is it something you must do?"

In today's treacherous world, in the perilous sea of bureaucracy, where could one find peace?

Chu Jin naturally understood such principles without Shen Mengzhi having to spell them out.

The world was draped in silver, heaven and earth silent. The boundless falling snow descended upon them, making them look like two snowmen.

Chu Jin looked at Shen Mengzhi's features, softened by the color of the snow, and seemed amused, a smile gracing his lips. "No one has ever asked me these questions. The world's people all watch with cold detachment, as if watching a play or listening to a story, to see how far I can go. But if you must ask, how many people in this world are truly happy? It would be wonderful if one could live a lifetime just for one's own happiness."

"But there is something I must do."

Chu Jin raised his hand, and snowflakes landed on his fingertips like dancing silver butterflies. "If after I complete this matter..."

He paused, as if silently omitting something, and before Shen Mengzhi could notice, he continued naturally, "When that time comes, I will come find an old friend."

Shen Mengzhi was still frowning.

"This conflict has nothing to do with you, but for me, it is both fate and tribulation." Chu Jin let out a low laugh, soft as a whisper. "You are a Guest of Penglai; do not be tainted by the mortal world."

Don't enter this world, don't interfere, don't get trapped in this prison.

"Promise me," Chu Jin repeated. "Senior Brother."

Shen Mengzhi stood tall in the wind and snow, his vision a vast emptiness. Hearing this, he only hummed in acknowledgment; it was unclear which sentence he was answering.

Before Chu Jin could speak, he raised his eyes, his expression faint. "You've made up your mind?"

Chu Jin nodded.

"I understand," Shen Mengzhi said. The two had already walked out of the academy's main gate. The night outside was deep, and the Everlasting Lamp cast a faint glow, illuminating the path they had come from.

Shen Mengzhi lit a candle and handed it to Chu Jin, saying softly, "The road is snowy and windy, walk carefully."

Chu Jin took it. The flickering candlelight played across his face, half in light, half in shadow. When he looked back, the human world below the mountain was invisible; all was a vast expanse of white wind and snow.

"The north wind, rain, and snow are a sorrow hard to cut," he said, holding the candle, his smile gone, his features serene. "...the twelve jade towers are not my home."

Shen Mengzhi watched him descend the stone steps, his figure gradually hidden by the trees, leaving only a bean-sized flame.

The parrot, which had been listless from the wind, now perked up. Standing on its master's shoulder, it mimicked him adeptly, "The twelve jade towers are not my home, ah—"

The wind blew north, scattering those twelve jade towers, blowing into Shen Mengzhi's dazed eyes.

The journey back to the inn was smooth. Chu Jin had picked up a bird and, along the way, a homeless follower.

Ting Xia sneezed in the cold wind. "You, surnamed Chu... A-achoo! You liar! You said you were going back to the inn first... Achoo!"

Chu Jin ambled ahead and tossed him a hand warmer he had bought on the way, saying perfunctorily, "I changed my mind on the way."

"Changed your mind?" Ting Xia didn't believe him. "Changed your mind to go buy a bird?"

He and the blue-headed parrot stared at each other, eye to eye, only for the other to suddenly shout, "Alas!"

That shout came without any warning. Ting Xia was caught off guard and so frightened he nearly tumbled over.

The parrot beside him puffed out its chest and, as if showing off, shook its head and continued, "The boys of the southern village bully me for being old and weak, brazenly playing the thief right before my eyes—!"

Ting Xia's eyes widened. "This-this bird can recite poetry?"

"It learned from others." Chu Jin expertly flicked the parrot's head, and the latter immediately settled down obediently. "Pay it no mind."

"That amazing?" Ting Xia's interest was piqued. "Does it know more than me?"

Hearing this, Chu Jin turned his head, looked him up and down, and then broke into a smile.

"It attended Heshan Academy, and its classmates are the great scholars of our time," he said leisurely. "But someone else needs their teacher to come to their door just to make them recite their texts. What do you think?"

The parrot took the opportunity to chime in, gloating, "Lacking talent but having great ambitions, overestimating oneself; with scant fate and little talent, only poverty remains—"

Ting Xia: "..."

He eagerly wanted to end this topic. "Let's not talk about this. What's this bird's name? You brought it back from Heshan Academy?"

Chu Jin nodded. "Its name is Imperial Censor."

"Hmm..." Ting Xia suppressed a laugh. "That name... is quite fitting."

Eloquent and talkative, wasn't that just like an Imperial Censor?

He walked a few more steps on his own, then suddenly realized.

"So you went to Heshan Academy?"

Chu Jin did not deny it. "Yes."

"What for..." The words had just left his mouth when Ting Xia had a flash of insight and blurted out, "You went to see that person in white?"

The other person gave him a leisurely glance.

"Yes."

For some reason, it felt like the Prince Regent was in a good mood tonight and was particularly easy to talk to.

Ting Xia pressed his advantage. "Who is he? A classmate of yours from the academy? No, that doesn't feel right."

If he were just a classmate, why would Chu Jin have gotten so angry during the commotion at the foot of the mountain before?

"My Senior Brother," Chu Jin said. "What's so complicated about it?"

"Your Senior Brother?" Ting Xia got excited and forgot himself for a moment. "Then is he more capable than you?"

Meeting Chu Jin's faint, smiling eyes, he was suddenly jolted back to his senses and shrank his neck. "I've read in those storybooks that senior brothers always have the upper hand on their junior brothers."

Ting Xia was usually poisoned by storybooks. The thought of the tyrannical Prince Regent being ordered about by his senior brother, serving tea and water, made him feel refreshed and able to let out a long-held breath of frustration.

"...Have the upper hand on me?" Chu Jin gave a short laugh. "Do I look like a pushover?"

Ting Xia didn't hear the part he was hoping for and deflated. "Fine..."

But then he heard Chu Jin add, "However, he really didn't like me back then."

"Hm?"

"But I couldn't stand him either," Chu Jin summarized with one phrase, "...you could say it was mutual dislike."

In their youth, with proud hearts and different paths, they couldn't even be bothered to feign a nodding acquaintance, ignoring each other completely. No matter how one looked at it, they grew to dislike each other.

Ting Xia muttered under his breath, "But the way you are now, it doesn't seem like you dislike him that much."

Chu Jin paused, muttering to himself, "Is that so?"

"Perhaps too many years have passed, and I've even forgotten that feeling."

So much so that now, thinking back, he only felt an emptiness in his heart.

But memory seemed to want to defy this placid desolation, awakening a spring that had been dormant in his heart for many years. Then, the past events, one by one, came alive in his mind like a gushing spring.

Author has something to say:

Woohoo! The next chapter begins the academy daily life