A thousand years later...

-          And as the reign of the Heaven gifted Ying emperor; Qian Wan Quan came to it's end, and the all so powerful Lord of darkness Hu Xian Leng was trapped into being an eternal static tree, China remained unperturbed by neither the Heavens, nor Hell.

The Chinese language and cultural history professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China finished his speech, while waiting for some commentaries from the students. It was a new semester, and there were more international students than the one before. Some easily got adapted to the institution's system of education, and handled the class well, others more, or less got the hang of it, and as expected of a class with diversity, there were the ones that slacked off, and thought that their A's, B's, and if lucky, their C's would hover gracefully into their grade reports. They looked pitiful, drooling on their notebooks while they slept, doodling nonsense impertinent to the class, and even flirting and chatting all about. But why are these buffoons the ones to grab the spotlight? The most important student body was sitting from the middle row towards the front. Those really showed interest, even if they didn't understand a thing about Chinese, and mostly answered with,

-          I love the colors, and characters on the illustration Lao Zhi Chen!

Or even with monotones agreed with what little they could get from all the presentation, which thankfully was subbed in English...

-          But Lao Zhi...

Suddenly, someone from the crowd of students while raising her hand, and her voice to compete with the talking group from behind, said in a blissful English,

-          Why would the legend state that the Lord of Darkness Hu Xian Leng remained eternally static, as a motionless tree? Didn't the emperor tell him, that when the source of his real strength arrived to him, the red buds would open, and he would regain other than strength, his freedom from the island's where about?

Lao Zhi Chen,

-          Yes, indeed... You have a point there Mss. Pamella... A good point indeed, but I'll make you another question. From what we've discussed today, do you believe freedom for this Lord of Darkness exists, from what is destined to actually happen?

-          What do you mean?

-          To better put it; assuming the legend to be true, and the existence of the characters be relevant, do you have a guess unto how many years would have to pass for the Lord to be freed both from his punishment, and at the same time be free from the control of the King of Hell? It is evident he has done to many of bad deeds, that no one would ever come to his rescue, and as for his relationship with the bearer of his soul, the King of Hell, would never release control of him in fear of a vengeful fight against him.

Pamella processed what was said to her right then. Her whole name was Pamella Zavala. She came from a prominent university at a little island on the Caribbean, as a transfer student for a two semester Chinese language and historical culture course. She was a polyglot by all the essence of the word. She knew both Spanish, and English; and knew basic conversational, French, Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Her attentive, and hard-working attitude towards the course made Lao Zhi Chen be proud of his teaching career and assured him that it wasn't his fault that about half of the class students were mediocre. If there wasn't anything bad with his teaching method, then definitely it was something to do with the students. He could feel himself feel slightly emotional, and at the brink of tears every time she raised to her feet and commented in class. Even now he could feel his eyes water up...

Sniffle*

The classroom,

-          ...

Pamella,

-          ...

Lao Zhi,

-          ..., cough* cough*. Well then, Miss Pamella what is your answer to those statements?

-          Well... It all makes sense of course if we cross out the possibility of anyone, or anything that could free the Lord from the chains of a tree, but I'd say, that there must be someone that could give strength to the Lord, and make the flower buds blossom. If reading it to depth, it looks more like a sci-fi young adult's love story than a legend of a mighty emperor, and the scary Lord of all things dark.

-          Is that so...

-          Of course! Think about it Lao Zhi, both Huan Quan and Xian Leng retained a year round relationship in secret. There must have been some from all three realms that already knew about this, but even then nobody dare bring the subject a light. Shouldn't both had received their respective punishments? All the story shows is how for loves sake the emperor instead of killing his beloved, granted him an opportunity to clean his name, and soul by starting all over again, be forgiven by everyone, and defeat whom gave him the power to defeat others. The emperor went against the Heavens commands, but even then, we can assume from the legend that he was forgiven, and soared to Heaven's golden gates. If all this is true, then seeing that forgiveness, and soul freedom is possible, then the same can be applied to Xian Leng, and there will be someone, at some point that'll grant everything that was promised by an all mighty deity.

-          Very nice! VERY NICE!

The room was instantly filled by applauses, and high-pitched amazed exclamations. Everyone was astounded at how Pamella could prove ambiguous a matter touched in class, even if non of hem had the slightest idea of what she was talking about. Indeed, the half of the class was still at their business, but those who admired Pamella's capability of going at the same tempo as the professor were outstanded. Some of them carried grudges and envy, but the rest of them had a soft friendly spot for Pamella. She really was a somewhat shy person when it came to praise, but deep down her highs esteem kept on rising. She has always been that way.
From the corridor came a loud angered shout.

-          HEY... KEEP IT DOWN! YOU BETTER COOL DOWN YOUR KIDS CHEN, OR NEXT TIME...
Mr. Chen rolling his eyes and smirking to himself,
-          NEXT TIME I'LL INVITE YOU FOR DRINKS IF YOU LOW YOUR STEAM!

-          WHY YOU... Fine!!!         

The last word wasn't very well picked up by everyone, but they all knew Lao Zhi Chen had Lao Zhi Dao wrapped around his fishing net. If you wanted a favor from Lao Zhi Dao you just had to offer him some drinks; depending on what you asked off him, because things could get very expensive at some times, and it didn't come as cheap as Lao Zhi Dao's smile made it seem...
After the commotion had dropped out a little, Lao Zhi Chen smiled and directing to the class,

-          HAO, HAO, HAO, LISTEN UP YOU GUYS! I have a special class work that would, two things. Raise your grades, or... Lower your grades. You guys decide. There is an exposition at the Cultural, and Natural History Museum of China. An archeological group, and of historians, had discovered in one of their excavations at Yushang, Huan cultural sight of Longmen's Grottoes, a neck pendant that, as archeological tests go, date approximately a thousand years ago; during the last reign of the Ying dynasty, and early Tang. So... I want you ALL to go there, take the conference given by the guide, and write me an analysis essay due to when, my fellow students?

-          Next week...

-          NEXT WEEK!! VERY, VERY, VERYY GOOD! Now, I want you to include a photo of you with the guide that gave you the conference and trust me I'll have your assistance checked with him. Yin wouldn't feel bad about ratting any of you out of not attending. So my advice is, be nice and thankful to your guide Yin, and go to the museum. That'll be all for today, have a nice weekend. Zai Xián!

Everyone,

-          Zai Xián Lao Zhi!

But Lao Zhi Chen wasn't finished.

-          OH! One more thing...

-          ..., .., .

-          This work is worth 25% of your final grade.

Everyone's expressions were shocked. Some trembled, while others went pale. This were obviously the ones who thought to not go and get the info from someone else.

-          Now you may go. Zai Xián!

-          Zai Xián...

Everyone rushed out and started dividing into their friend groups.

In the group of Pamella, one of the four who walked with her, Alexander Millán, another of the small number of international students who spoke Spanish as well as her,

-          Ay! Que shit! I thought we were going to have some free time this weekend, but no... That Lao Zhi knows how to ruin one's life.

The other girl from the group, Rachel McNeal, answered back with a boorish reprimandable tone,

-          Stop crying like a baby! You are worse than my younger cousin. You two are so alike; you guys have a love for procrastinating, and for slacking off.

Alexander,

-          I don't procrastinate!

-          You sure do! Weren't you flirting with that girl named Lin Chao at the back of the class right now?

-          That wasn't me! Are you blind or something Rachel?

At the same time Alexander said the last word from his argument, Lin Chao walked towards our group, and whispering to his ear something about them getting to know themselves better, handed him a piece of paper with some characters, and numbers written on it.

The group of four watched Lin skip away with a cunning grin plastered on her face, and the three others just moved their gaze too Alexander.

Jason Lee, the only who hadn't given his feedback to Alexander spoke up,

-          And... You said that you weren't the one flirting with her at the back? Pfft!

Alexander,

-          You better watch it J. Lee! I thought you were supposed to be my buddy, not go along with these girls beside you!

-          If I wasn't your buddy, I wouldn't say that someday your luck will run out, and karma will get the best of you so...

Pamella,

-          So instead of hitting on girls, and thinking of the beach, concern yourself with the work we were assigned to do. Maybe if you use that brain of yours...

J. Lee,

-      You'd get more girls to hit on!

-       Jason... That wasn't what I meant...

Alexander,

-          Jason! That's my man! You know me so well~ That's why you will be forever my best lady.

At the word lady, Jason smacked the back of Alexander's head, and they four walked towards the train station laughing, already planning to go together the next day to the museum's exhibition to get it over with.