The crowd of students lets out a hoot of excitement as they rush over to close the academy’s door before bursting out in laughter.
“The crime of destroying their precious possessions will be up to the Princess and 10th Prince to take up with you.” Zhi Wei says coldly “I will ask for their forgiveness too after reporting what happened here today. However, the academy is still responsible for those possessions so of course we have to demand compensation from you.”
“Even if you want compensation, then you need to let us go back to get the money.” One of the officials sneers angrily “Or what? Are you going to detain us?”
Zhi Wei gives the man a glance, the expression in her eyes were so fierce that the man involuntarily shrank back “You are right.”
With a derisive smile, Zhi Wei continues “Those in the ministry are always quite sly. Honest scholars such as us can never win. If we let you go today and you guys deny everything later, what am I supposed to do then? Am I going to be left paying for everything myself? So of course we have to inconvenience you a bit.”
“You dare!”
“Unfortunately.” With a wolfish smile, Zhi Wei promises “You will find out right now. I dare.”
“Come, help our officials undress and grab the valuable stuff as deposits.” Zhi Wei orders.
The “honest scholars” give a shout of excitement and throws themselves on the officials…Helian was at the very front.
Thanks to the students, the yard is soon filled with a bunch of half-naked men.
Zhi Wei turns and casts her eyes towards the direction of the palace.
“The servants’ mistake is the fault of their master. If a child did wrong, of course it will fall on the adults to apologize.”
“You.” Zhi Wei points to a guard who only has his trouser left. “Go get your biggest Master to come pay up.”
Stunned, the guard thought silently, Are you crazy? Who am I to go get Prince Chu?
“Go get Prince Chu to come talk to me.”
Go get Prince Chu to come talk to me. That is probably the most arrogant sentence a subordinate has said to his/her superior since the establishment of Tian Sheng empire.
“Are you not going?” Turning to smile at the stupified guard, Zhi Wei reminds the man “If you wait until I have to repeat myself the second time then you might not even have your trouser by the time you go find Prince Chu.”
Jumping up, the guard dashes out of the door in a flash.
One of the officials yells angrily “Wei Zhi, you dare to insult government officials?! You dare to demand His Highness to come see you?! You just wait! When His Highness comes you will be dismissed from your post and thrown in prison! ”
“Oh? Is that so?” Zhi Wei says offhandedly “Then let’s wait for His Highness.”
“You think His Highness will come to see you?” The other official sneers “After doing something like this you still want His Highness to come? Do you imagine that you would be rewarded?”
“Who knows.” Zhi Wei smiles as she stretches her back “Ah, my back hurts.”
Someone quickly runs off to bring her a chair.
“Ah, I talked too much, I am thirsty.”
A fistfight broke out amongst the student over who got to go get her a drink.
Sitting in a bamboo chair underneath the shade of a tree, Zhi Wei is all smiles as she admires the view of the half-naked group of men in front of her while sipping a fragrant cup of tea. On one side of Zhi Wei is Master Gu who is eating his walnuts and on the other, is Helian who is busy gambling with the other students.
With only their trousers left, the ministry officials and their guards are all squatting together, freezing in the fall wind.
This is the sight that greeted Ning Yi when he walked in the academy.
“Your Highness!” The officials call out in surprise when they saw Ning Yi walking in and promptly stood up to pay their respect…until they realized the state they are in and quickly squat back down. Crowding into the shadow in an attempt to hide their nakedness, the officials glare at Zhi Wei triumphantly. His Highness really came! Wei Zhi will finally get what’s coming to him!
With a slight wave of his arm, Ning Yi dismisses the students. Bowing as they leave, the students gave Zhi Wei a worried look but she just gave them an assuring smile.
“How it shines gloriously now that Your Highness is here.” Zhi Wei gleefully gestures with her hand “The place is filled with delightful fragrances (body odor) and refreshing views (his naked subordinates).”
Helian who had stubbornly refused to leave broke out in a chuckle- fragrant indeed, the government officials were especially stinky.
Wearing his full court ensemble (this shows Ning Yi had come right after his daily morning meeting at the palace instead of going home to change out of his official palace outfit), Ning Yi seems more dignified instead of his usual cool elegant self. Looking over the few dishes of snacks in front of Zhi Wei and the half-naked men, a hint of a smile appears on Ning Yi’s lips.
It is indeed Feng Zhi Wei’s style.
First politeness then shocking boldness.
Only her. In all the world, she is the only one who can hide her claws behind an appearance of harmlessness, seemingly giving in yet in reality not moving a single inch.
“Since we are to sit and enjoy tea together then there is no need for so many other “fragrant” guests to be around. That’s not how one treats guest wouldn’t you say?” Ning Yi says with a not so harmless smile.
The two very unlucky officials along with their equally unlucky guards all stared at Ning Yi with shock. Wait, isn’t His Highness supposed to yell angrily and demand their release and condemn Wei Zhi??
Isn’t Wei Zhi supposed to be let them go immediately and be on his knee begging for Prince Chu’s forgiveness?
How can His Highness just ignore them and even be chatting in such a friendly manner with that reprobate?!
And how is Wei Zhi acting so naturally and even inviting His Highness to have tea together?
Sparing Ning Yi a look, Zhi Wei slowly turns around and says “If I could trouble Prince Helian and Brother Gu (just a common polite reference between men) to show these “fragrant” men to another place.”
“No.” Helian rejects immediately “I can’t leave you to dance with a wolve.”
“I actually think I am the one dancing with a wolve.” Sitting down gracefully, Ning Yi matter of factly takes Zhi Wei’s cup into his own hand.
A fierce light seemingly bursting out of Helian’s eyes as he demands “Would Your Highness care to “fight” with me.” (Helian used the word for fight that sounds the same as dance in Chinese so this is a play on words.)
“Crown Prince, please let me remind you one thing.” Not bothering to look at Helian, Ning Yi continues “You are not crown prince here but merely a common student at the academy. If Wei Zhi can’t even get a student to leave when she is about to discuss important matters with this nation’s prince than how is she supposed to command other students later.” (Remember in Chinese, he and she is the same sound. They do differ in writing but not in sound so Ning Yi is not giving away Zhi Wei’s identity. Of course by this time both of our male second leads know Zhi Wei’s identity as well so it would not have mattered.)
Sneering, Helain retorts “Then I won’t be a student then.”
“Alright.” With a wave of his hand, Ning Yi says “Please go and retract your status as a student at the academy. In a bit, you can go back to the palace with me. Oh, I should also tell you that anyone who voluntarily retracts their status as a student at the academy is no longer allowed to set foot into the school again.”
“There is such a rule?” Helian asks with a raised eyebrow.
“There will be.” Ning Yi replies with a smile “Director Xin will be adding that rule.”
Helian glares at Ning Yi. If looks could kill, Ning Yi would’ve been shredded by now.
Of course, Ning Yi is still wearing that unwavering steel like smile, completely unaffected.
After a long moment, Helian stumps off and drags those two unlucky officials away with him. Gu Nan Yi drifts over (he is supposed to be such a good fighter that he can appear and disappear like the wind so the author likes to describe his movement with words that reminds one of ghosts), herd the half-naked guards away like sheep but not before he cracks a few walnut shells open and places them right in front of Ning Yi.
Of course Ning Yi had no clue what Master Gu meant by that and thought simply that Master Gu was gifting the walnut to him to eat. Quite pleased, Ning Yi tossed one of the walnut into his mouth “This walnut is actually pretty tasty.”
Zhi Wei stares at him with much interest until Ning Yi finally got weirded out and puts the walnut down “What’s with your expression? Are you that stingy with one walnut?”
Lieasurly brewing more tea, Zhi Wei says slowly “To see that walnut shatter in your mouth, what a great feeling…”
Not waiting for the utterly confused Ning Yi to ask what she meant, Zhi Wei turned serious and says “Your Highness certainly surprised me just now with so much concern for my ability to establish my authority at the school.”
“Are you interrogating me?” Ning Yi asks.
Giving him a fake smile, Zhi Wei replies “I wouldn’t dare.”
“Are you angry at me?” Ning Yi asks placidly but somehow Zhi Wei keeps feeling that there is a trace of hopeful enthusiasm in there.
“Do you wish for me to be angry at you?” Zhi Wei responds back to the Prince of Trickery.
“To be angry at me is better than ignoring me completely.” Ning Yi gives Zhi Wei a side glance, his eyes bright and mesmerizing.
Zhi Wei doesn’t respond– she is deaf to anything that remotely sounds like flirting.
Ahhhhh! Thank you! Can’t wait for next week!
Thanks you for all of the hard work you have done
I look forward too next week 😄😄🌟
Appreciate the details you’ve given (ex. the walnut that Gu Nan Yi cracked before NY and how the author describes his movements with “ghostly” adjectives).
I don’t get the meaning of the walnut? Can you elaborate? Thanks
The walnut is kinda of an ongoing joke and has appeared in several places in the story. The first time it appeared was after Ning Yi got hurt while protecting the Emperor from an assassination attempt (translation post 8 is the assassination and post 9 is the actual scene with the walnuts) and Zhi Wei used the walnuts to represent the various people involved while telling Gu Nan Yi her speculation of what Ning Yi’s plan is at that point. (Walnuts are Gu Nan Yi’s favorite snack so that’s why they are always around when Zhi Wei starts speculating)
In translation post 24, the walnut shows up again after the Emperor fell into a coma and Zhi Wei is once again speculating about what Ning Yi is up to. Since whenever Zhi Wei is speculating it is usually about Ning Yi so the walnut has kinda come to represent him…which is why Gu Nan Yi crushed the walnut shell in front of Ning Yi (if you hurt Zhi Wei I will crush you). No clue what Gu Nan Yi meant, Ning Yi ended up eating the “Ning Yi walnut”.
Thanks for that explanation. I was guessing that was the reason but wasn’t sure.
Brilliant, thank you!! I was wondering too. 🙂
Oh thank you so much!
Wow, love the interaction, between ZW and the guards. Was this apart of any of the drama scene. It is quite hilarious and witty just love it. The drama left out so much of the humorous and funny side of some of the character scene.
They did have to cut out A LOT of scenes so it makes me wonder if the production team did include some of them but had to sacrifice them in the end. Unfortunately, I am guessing for the sake of keeping the story logical the drama had to keep all the political intrigue while leaving out the fun stuff.
Such a flirt! OMG, NY is a baby bunny wanting affection and recognition from ZW. And she’s so stern! Excited for them to share a few moments alone, drinking tea under a tree. They need each other’s love.
Wow! I’m new to this TRoP novel translation fandom. It’s amazing what you’re doing, I applaud you.