• In the drama (ep. 38) the feast ended with the emperor fainting after hearing one of his royal concubines confessing to the fact that our hero’s mother was falsely accused years ago. In the novel, the feast also ended with the Emperor passing out but it was an assassination attempt instead. Royal Concubine Chang had two golden pet monkeys and after they were brought out during the feast they suddenly attacked the Emperor. Ning Yi threw out his wine up at the last second to stop the monkeys but the Emperor was still scratched in the process and fell unconscious from the poison that was on the monkeys.

Now that the Emperor is unconscious, the well known “kind” 7th Prince took charge of the national affairs. Rumor has it that a few royal concubines also died of no apparent reason.

Amidst the chaos, the one who should’ve been the most restless seems complete still and silent. Day after day, Ning Yi just does his own thing–before passing out, the Emperor had told him to investigate the matter (assassination) so that is exactly what he is doing, seeminly utterly ignorant of the wild rumors circulating the Capital.

“There are a lot of issues with this thing.” Sitting in her own house, Zhi Wei tells her Yi Yi (that’s the author’s nickname for Gu Nan Yi. I say the authors because I don’t think our heroine actually calls him that) “Two possibilities. One, Ning Yi did it. Two, the Emperor did it himself.”

Sensing another session of political analysis is about to commence, Master Gu (also another nickname from the author) slowly takes out a small bag of walnuts then pulls out a large and a small walnut.

Taking the walnuts without a second thought, Zhi Wei cracks the small one “Do you still remember that day when the princes came over here to drink? Fifth prince had brought out the golden money to show off and I remember its golden shiny fur. However, when I saw it last, their fur were dull. It’s impossible that those two monkeys could go hungry in the palace so there is no way it could be malnutrition. If nothing else the Emperor touched was suspicious then it must be the monkeys. But then too many people came it contact with those monkeys so it would be near impossible to follow that lead.”

“Ning Yi.” Master Gu takes the walnut from Zhi Wei and eats it. Who knows if he meant the real culprit is Ning Yi or that he wants to eat the walnut Ning Yi.

“Or maybe it is the Emperor.” Zhi Wei cracks open the bigger walnut “He wanted to use this opportunity to test his sons…this makes some sense judging from how Ning Yi is acting right now. Everyone is starting to make their move but he is still keeping up his act. So who is he acting for? Who can still see? Doesn’t it have to be the Emperor? But then again, I can’t see someone as selfish as the Emperor would hurt himself just to test his sons. There are plenty of other ways to do it so why hurt himself? Then, who is Ning Yi putting on a show for?”

“If Ning Yi was the one behind this then why would he stay put after he finally succeeded?” Her mind focused on unraveling the puzzle, Zhi Wei starts to put the walnut into her mouth without thinking.

A hand suddenly shot out, grabbed her chin and snatched away the walnut that was already halfway into her mouth.

All thoughts of conspiracies evaporating, Zhi Wei blinks in shock as she watches Mr. Gu toss the walnut…the walnut that still has her saliva on it…into his mouth.

“Mine.” Master Gu says with satisfaction.

No way to know what he meant by that.

Zhi Wei “……..”

After the burning sensation on her face receded a bit, Zhi Wei pats Master Gu on the shoulder and puts on her patient face “Master Gu, I tell you, this is not right. It’s not clean.”

“You are not clean?” Master Gu asks?

Zhi Wei “…….”

“I am not clean?” Master Gu asked again.

No one is cleaner than you! I would know since I am the one who has to wash your clothes every day!

“The walnut is not clean?” His tone turned serious, this question was obviously more important to Master Gu compared to the previous two.

“…………” Zhi Wei takes a deep breath.

“What is not clean?” Confused, Master Bu mutters.

“This…” Still trying to explain, Zhi Wei feebly explains “It’s not clean to snatch something that is already in someone’s mouth……”

Master Gu abruptly leans close.

He usually keeps big distances from other people and has never approached people on his own. This is the first time he has gotten so close to someone, causing Zhi Wei to freeze in mid-motion forgetting everything as the snow white fabric gently sway in the light breeze, almost revealing the face hidden behind it. As he gets closer and closer, a flash of bright brilliant light seems to flash before Zhi Wei’s eyes, making her snapping her eyes shut.

The next instant, Zhi Wei feels cool fingers lightly touching her lips. The fingers movements are very light, with a sense of hesitation in them as they first gently caressed then seemingly surprised by the soft smoothness, went back to check again.

Her body gives an involuntary shiver, Zhi Wei quickly jerks her head to the side but by the time she opened her eyes Master Gu has already gone back to where he was before. Speechless Zhi Wei stares at Master Gu inspecting his own fingers, seemingly trying to find signs of dust on them, Zhi Wei was about to distract him from the “unclean” issue but who knew the guy would then move his fingers to his own lips.

Elegant fingers against fiery red lips…

Too embarrassed to look at those fingers anymore, Zhi Wei jumps up and dashes out.

She has decided!

She will not eat another walnut in this lifetime!

I had mentioned in my previous post that Gu Nan Yi’s character is a lot more eccentric of a character than he was portrayed in the drama. In the novel, Gu Nan Yi is someone who truly does not comprehend most human emotions. Therefore, he is not your usual second male lead who competes with the hero for the heroine’s heart because it will take Zhi Wei most of the novel to teach Gu Nan Yi the most complicated human emotion of all- Love. 

That’s the end of that scene and we will jump to a small exchange between our heroine and her mother back in the uncle’s house.

“You did well.” Mama Feng looks up at her, with a hint of a smile “I heard what happened at the palace feast.”

Zhi Wei coughs to cover up her embarrassment. For once, she is actually at a loss for words. All these years, her mother has seldom complimented her, Mama Feng has always been a severe mother. From the time she could remember, she was continually forced to learn many things. Poems and scholarly works aside, she was also taught astronomy, geography, and military strategy. Mama Feng would even bring out thick volumes of history on the former dynasties and use them as examples to learn from.

What her mother didn’t teach her are the things a woman should learn like sewing and such. She had once assumed that her mother didn’t know those things but before her mother went on the battlefields, she was THE daughter of Feng manor so how could she have possibly not learned those things with her high status.

Her face flushed from hearing her mother’s compliment, Zhi Wei’s little heart is filled with joy.

“But…you shouldn’t act like that.” The abrupt change of the direction of Mama Feng’s words made Zhi Wei look up with surprise. Standing up, Mama Feng looks towards the palace’s direct with concern “I have told you since a long time ago that you should remember not to get ahead of yourself, don’t show off, and don’t get into competitions with others…but how could you have forgotten all that…”

So stunned that Zhi Wei fell back a step- how could she say that?!

When did she get ahead of herself? When did she like to show off? When did she compete with others? Why would she say that?

She just had a teeny tiny wish. A wish she had ever since she heard stories of all the glorious deeds the Fire and Wind General did long long ago. She hoped that through herself that once brilliant woman would once again be able to raise her head proudly. She wanted her to be accepted by everyone again. For her, she wanted to gain back all the respect and glory that was lost. Even if she could not rise above all again, it would be enough to at least be treated as equal by others.

But in the end, is that how mother thinks of her?

In the end, no matter what she does, this is who she is in mother’s eyes?

Her heart sinking inch by inch… it’s always like this. It is always like this. She offers up her whole heart only to this one person but her heart is tossed aside like trash every time.

Looking down, Zhi Wei’s eyes fall on a gold colored handkerchief with a half unfinished embroidery of an eagle with its wing spread open. It was obviously a handkerchief Mama Feng had been working on for Feng Hao.

“Ha……” Zhi Wei lets out a laugh filled with self-derision. Really, why is she even upset? She was the one who was stupid to expect anything different so how could she place blame on someone else.

“Understood.” No longer avoiding her mother’s gaze, Zhi Wei stares into Mama Feng’s eyes deeply for a long moment “Don’t worry. There won’t be a next time.”

Walking out of the door immediately after she finished speaking, Zhi Wei leaves without another backward glance.

In the darkened room, a figure stood alone, left there by Zhi Wei without any hesitation so she never heard the sigh that was as soft as a drop of rain falling.

Just a reminder, both Zhi Wei and her brother Feng Hao know that Mama Feng adopted them. Feng Hao likes to taunt Zhi Wei that Mama Feng treats him differently because he is the son who will carry on the Feng family name. Without any way to explain to herself the difference in treatment, Zhi Wei herself believes Feng Hao is right about Mama Feng. 

 

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com