Chapter 50: The Willpower of the River

Even though he felt puzzled in his heart, Rong Zhi refrained from voicing out his query. This was because he could tell from Chu Yu’s current expression that she was troubled earnestly and seriously but was not making a casual joke.

Chu Yu considered it once again before she spoke, “My question is related rivers. If there’s a river that is very, very long and has been constantly flowing since the start of time to moisten the soil on its two banks, it will continue to flow continuously for now and forever. However, what if there comes a day, and I’m saying just what if, the river suddenly comes up with its own idea? Or what if a small gush of water comes up with its own idea to change the direction of its flow at the upstream. Then, something changes in the direction of the river flow due to its idea. The change becomes more and more prominent until the entire river deviates away from its original course.”

Chu Yu frowned and bit her lower lip. She pondered her choice of appropriate words. Even though she had already told Huan Yuan this before, she would still need to be ten times more cautious and mindful of her words when she was conversing with Rong Zhi. She would need to weigh her words repeatedly with metaphors and concealed analogies when she spoke in order to ensure that Rong Zhi would not figure out her true intentions.

For a second, she paused for a moment before she continued, “It’s fine if it’s just the river changing its course. However, the problem is that there is a large stretch of land downstream. The land is eager to receive moisture from the river. The land will turn into dried up ground without the river.” Chu Yu gazed at Rong Zhi with a troubled look. “So, do you think that the river should change its direction?”

Rong Zhi blinked his pitch-black beautiful eyes in a very calm manner. He sat upright slowly once again. He used his slim, long fingers that were in fair complexion to pick up a piece of dessert about the size of a thumb and placed it into his mouth gently.

Even though he had never conceived this idea in advance, who would have thought that Chu Yu would ask such a preposterous question? The river coming up with its own idea? What sort of axiom was that?

Or was she planning to use the river as a metaphor for something else?

Rong Zhi picked up another dessert and considered this quietly.

Chu Yu was well aware of the meaning of her words. She was using the river as a metaphor for history. The endless river was the alleged history of time. China was ruled by a series of successive dynasties including the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The river of history came rolling roughly and flowed away in a mighty storm. However, this very wisp of discord appeared in the river coincidentally. There was this small gush of water wanting to change its direction and flowing somewhere else. This very small gush of water was Chu Yu who came from millennia later.

She was well aware of Princess Shanyin’s death that was about to happen very soon based on history. However, she did not wish to die because she was in Princess Shanyin’s body. As a result, she was going to make some changes to her life. This was the premise that would determine everything else. In order to live, she must take action for herself.

Nevertheless, there were two troublesome issues in this scenario. Firstly, Chu Yu did not know what to do. Secondly, she did not know what would be the implication of her actions.

Chu Yu was very bad in history as a subject. She almost had no idea about the existence of the Northern and the Southern Dynasties in history before she read about Princess Shanyin’s story by coincidence. On the other hand, she had only regarded Princess Shanyin’s story as an ordinary one casually after finding out about it. She smiled as she understood that this person and this era existed before she brushed the matter off.

As a result, she failed to recall the identity of the rebellion leader that killed Liu Ziye so that he could take the throne all this while despite knowing that Princess Shanyin was about to die soon. She could only vaguely remember that Liu Ziye had gathered three princes back to Jiankang [1]. These three princes were the uncles of Liu Ziye and herself. Afterward, Liu Ziye confined himself to the palace as he pleased. One of the uncles took part in the rebellion. Chu Yu tried her best to find out if this event had already taken place after she woke up. She learned that it had yet to happen, so she was temporarily relieved to know that she would not be facing any problem within a short period of time. In short, she still had a fairly adequate time to prepare.

The more troubling part of this issue was that she genuinely could not recall which uncle that was. Even after screening through all the names of people with the royal bloodline, she could not figure out who it was. On the other hand, there was another brother that rebelled before the uncle took part in the rebellion. Chu Yu could not recall who that person was either.

The only blame lay on Princess Shanyin’s father and grandfather that were too fertile. They left behind a large pool of brothers and uncles for her to sift through. It would take hard work and labor just to memorize their names clearly.

Chu Yu thought about this matter in an extremely somber manner in the past. If she could find the person, she thought that she would take advantage by finishing off the person to gain the upper hand. Even though she had conflicting feelings about killing people, if push came to shove, she might not necessarily walk away from the person.

Naturally, this would be the last measure when she had no other choice. In fact, she found that even she was incapable of doing it at the time, so she could only come up with this insolent solution.

However, killing was not a flawless solution to solve this problem. The real reason behind the chaos was actually Liu Ziye. The oppressive government drove the masses into rebellion while the ministers revolted against the tyranny of the emperor. If the young emperor could refrain himself from being so ruthless and tyrannical and treat others kindly to appease the masses, then the people who wanted to revolt would decrease by half at the very least.

Right now, it would not be difficult for Princess Shanyin to control His Majesty the Emperor’s decisions due to her massive influence over him. However, Chu Yu lacked combat experience and political sensitivity, so she was not very certain how she could rectify the situation. It would truly end up as huge trouble if she were to cross the line.

This was the advanced side of her approach.

When Chu Yu was brought over to this era, the first thing she considered was about advancing and then retreating after she orientated herself. The act of advancement involved her taking the first move to eliminate her threat. There was no need for her to consider so many things had she been a man. However, taboo would be violated when a woman interfered in political affairs. On the other hand, the act of retreating was just the exact opposite. Retreating meant that she would make arrangements for her route of escape. If the matter was irreparable in the end, she could still protect herself and flee for safety.

However, the act of retreating required skills as well. She could leave by roaming homelessly without proper meals and being dressed in rags or she could do so by being elegantly dressed, feasting on delicacies, living in a luxurious mansion, and living her life peacefully. The crucial element depended upon her arrangement.

It was not an easy feat for her to evade society. It was especially difficult for Chu Yu to escape after learning about the close relationship between Princess Shanyin and the emperor.

The act of wandering from place to place as a vagabond was something she read from the books. However, it was not a realistic plan. Firstly, she needed money to live, so she needed a large sum of money as her backup plan. It was not difficult for her to accumulate the money because the Princess’s Imperial Residence was wealthy. However, she needed to withdraw a large sum of money without raising anyone’s attention. This would require some effort. It was also the reason why Chu Yu was rushing to decentralize Rong Zhi’s authority over Huan Yuan. She wanted to seize control of the money without anyone noticing.

Tsk tsk.

Chu Yu sipped on the sweet dessert soup and pursed her lips. She felt bad. The money was supposed to belong to her, but why was she being so secretive about how she spent it? It felt so awkward.

If she was going to escape into seclusion, she would need to leave her identity as a princess behind completely. She would need to leave everything clean behind without any ounce of relationship tied to herself. She was not allowed to leave behind any trace of clues that could lead back to her. To end up in such circumstances, the young emperor must have gotten tired of her or the kingdom must have fallen. There was no need for excuses for someone to kill her and finish her off like she was an eyesore.

If she relied on someone’s protection and the person betrayed her, her ending would not deserve mercy.

The only person that Chu Yu could trust completely was herself.

She would need to get herself a new identity if she escaped into seclusion. She needed to ensure that her new identity was not under the imperial household’s control and only under her very own. Alas, it was not an easy task.

Firstly, she needed to get herself a decent-sized house somewhere. The house had to be bought with money, but that was a secondary issue. The most crucial part of the issue was that the address of the house must be free from warfare for the past few decades. If she were to settle down in a house raided by war over a long period of time, she would not find peace living there.

After getting a house, she would need to forge her certification of residency. Her new identity was naturally forged and created out of nothing. Moreover, Chu Yu must attend to the forging process personally and ensured that the associate could keep a secret. The certification of residency must be completely separated from the imperial household.

Next, there was the issue of social structure and classes. It would affect her lifestyle as well. For example, it would be difficult for her to escape the oppression of the local ministers and lords if she were to assume the identity of a peasant. Even if she was a wealthy peasant, she was akin to a slightly fatter lamb that would end up swallowed by the wolf pack without the power to defend herself. Chu Yu would never consent to become the lamb willingly.

On the other hand, a person’s social class was determined by the target of her association to a certain extent. She would need to strengthen her bond with the local officials and lords. She would need to build her defense forces locally which would require money, manpower, and time! None of these could be completed easily.

As a result, Chu Yu needed Huan Yuan. She needed more than just Huan Yuan but even more people to aid her efforts to prepare against a rainy day and stabilize her foundation. However, she only had half a man at her disposal now. Huan Yuan was only considered half a man because he was inexperienced.

Liu Sang was too young, so it was not the right time for him to engage in this temporarily. Chu Yu had yet to decide if Mo Xiang and Liu Se were worthy of her trust at the moment. She dared not mess with Hua Cuo and Rong Zhi currently while Huan Yuan was only considered half a man. She could not trust Yue Jiefei completely either.

On her first few days upon arriving in this place, Chu Yu had already learned that Yue Jiefei was devoted to Princess Shanyin because his entire master’s clan pledged allegiance to the imperial household. He was loyal to the imperial household and the current emperor but not her. As a result, Chu Yu could not trust his standpoint and she could not reveal her intentions to Yue Jiefei either. Otherwise, he would wonder why a princess like her was trying to forge a new identity and flee into seclusion. How was she going to explain herself to him then?

Even if she were to retreat, Chu Yu refused to become a shabby refugee that was bullied everywhere. Perhaps, she would truly end up in such situation from now on if she were to flee now.

She needed to have the capability to ensure her safety and happiness in this chaotic world. She needed not only to rely on pure violence but also her influence, manpower, and network.

For example, a person would estimate the trend of events by scrutinizing a state, a district, a border, and a land. The person would only estimate based on everything that was present in the world at most. Then, Chu Yu would estimate the trend of events by scrutinizing from history’s perspective.

Her vision penetrated through millennia of time, so her judgement was especially different. Perhaps, she may appear to be naive and childish due to her lack of experience in the world, yet she definitely possessed the upper hand of being ahead of time.

Other people may judge the situation based on benefits, strength, and perception. However, Chu Yu’s vision was based upon history. This was her trump card that surpassed others.

Even though she was really bad in her history, she had a precise yet clear control over the whole situation.

However, despite having already formulated the strategies of attacking, adapting, retreating, and fleeing, Chu Yu had no choice but to ponder upon a problem. If she were to take action to ensure her safety, would it affect the development of the history from this point onward?

If her action caused tiny ripples in history that gradually spread and finally affected the events of a millennium later accidentally, what should she do?

In fact, Chu Yu was concerned if her wish would accidentally erase Chu Yu’s countless descendants in the 21st century whether directly or indirectly. Then, she wondered if she would still exist anymore.

The problem may seem boring and uninteresting, yet it was something that Chu Yu had no choice but to pay attention to. If her actions were to change historical events and resulted in a deviation in the course of history, then…what would happen?

Would she vanish into thin air with the sound of a whoosh?

Perhaps, this may seem like a trifling matter to others, yet this matter was related to her life and death. How could she possibly refrain herself from weighing the situation repeatedly?

“Uh…” Rong Zhi pondered for a long while before he remembered that Chu Yu was still waiting for his reply. He muttered to himself for a moment before he said, “Princess, I would like to ask you if the river truly wants to change its direction so badly.” It felt as if he had already figured out something indistinctly, but it felt like he had nothing either.

Does the river truly want to change its direction so badly? The words rapped Chu Yu’s heart at a soft yet slow pace one by one.

She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath before she opened her eyes slowly once again. She said calmly, “Yes, very much.” Even though she was attempting to maintain her composure, the tinge of insuppressible longing was still expressed in her mildly trembling voice. “The river truly wants to flow in a different direction badly.”

Really, really badly.

Rong Zhi looked at Chu Yu smilingly. “Since the river truly wants to flow in a different direction so badly, then can I change her mind by saying anything? Can I stop her?”

Chu Yu was stunned in astonishment upon listening to his words. Soon, she cracked into a delightful grin. Her smile was so bright that one could not stare straight into her face despite the concealment of the green shade. “You’re right. The river has its own idea and it won’t change its mind.” Her voice sounded more determined now. Moreover, there was a sense of relief in her voice.

Yes, the river would certainly change its direction.

Chu Yu suddenly stood up and left with quick strides.

Rong Zhi slumped back on the bench as if his bones did not exist. He had a lazy yet comfortable expression on his face.

‘So…the river, huh?’

Translator’s Note:

[1] Jiankang, or Jianye, as it was originally called, was the capital city of the Eastern Wu, the Jin dynasty, and the Southern Dynasties. Its walls are the existing ruins in the modern municipal region of Nanjing.