With the rumor mills working over time, in one short day, the story of how Prince Chu and the Academy’s Wei Zhi scandalous fight that ended with both vowing to be enemies from that day on soon spread across the whole capital. The rumor evolves from battle of jealousy to intimate ear biting, to group fight as the story goes through various revisions each time it was told.
Rumor has it that Prince Chu has declared that he is too worried about the Emperor’s health right now so he has no time for a certain arrogant official. However, the day the Emperor wakes up is when someone will pay!
Rumor has it that Assistant Director Wei has declared that he will never bow down to riches nor power. If a certain someone tries to exert pressure on him using his status, then he will rather die to prove his innocence!
When the two meet in the palace, the conversation supposedly starts and ends with “Humph!”
By that night, Zhi Wei received Fifth Prince’s personal gold embroiled invitation to attend a feast. Two hours later, a half-drunk Assistant Director Wei was personally escorted out by the Fifth Prince himself.
“Xiao Wei,” (A way of referring to our heroine to signal a close relationship) Fifth Prince picks up Zhi Wei’s hand and says with the sincerest expression “Rest assured, I will make sure Sixth won’t be able to do anything to you.”
“Your Highness.” A teary Zhi Wei grabs Fifth Prince’s hand gratefully “Thank you so much…”
“Sixth is becoming more and more ridiculous!” Fifth Prince says with indignation “How can he do such a thing! How can he treat the treasure of our country, the nation’s scholar this way?!”
Blinking back tears, Zhi Wei gratefully replies “Your Highness is too kind!”
Patting Zhi Wei’s shoulder sympathetically, Fifth Prince whispers “So…the favor I had asked…”
“No problem!” Zhi Wei quickly agrees “Your Highness would like to to see a book in the library (the Emperor’s). That something I can easily do as long as Your Highness returns it quickly.”
“You don’t have to worry at all.” Fifth Prince gives Zhi Wei his most sincere smile “While it is true that the Golden Chest is precious to Emperors but my father had once planned on lending it to me but had simply forgotten due to his busy schedule. Now that my wife is sick I desperately need the book in it but then the Emperor is not well so that’s why I had to ask you for this favor. I just need to find some medical information in the book, copy it then I will return it to you right away.”
“I of course have full confidence in Your Highness’ words.” Zhi Wei promptly replies.
“Be careful…” Fifth Prince “This is a small matter but it might still affect you so the fewer people know of it the better. You understand.”
After chatting like best friends for another moment, the two finally bid a reluctantly goodbye.
The horse carriage makes its way through the lonely street. Zhi Wei sits in the dark carriage as she slowly uses a white handkerchief to wipe her hand again and again. Her face half hidden by the shadows so only the glint in her eyes sparkles in the moonlight. A smile…one that chills to the bone.
The “Golden Chest” is like the one Zhi Wei was given to watch over in the drama but in this particular scene Zhi Wei would not have known what the chest contains. Or at least Fifth Prince would’ve believed Zhi Wei is clueless of what’s actually in it so that’s why he made up this whole thing about his wife being sick and he needed the medical book in the chest.
Jumping to the scene when Fifth Prince goes into the palace late one night to meet Zhi Wei.
“Do you have it?” The light from the lantern reveals Fifth Prince’s face as his stares at the box in Zhi Wei’s hand fervently.
“Your Highness came personally?” Zhi Wei asked with surprise.
Fifth Prince doesn’t answer her question but looks around and asks “Master Gu didn’t come?”
“How would he be able to?” Zhi Wei laughs “The list of those who watch over the library is set and that’s not part of his duty so he can’t stay overnight in the palace.”
Fifth Prince nods, his eyes sparkle with some hidden meaning in it.
Zhi Wei smiles again “You didn’t have to go to the trouble of coming here late at night. I could’ve delivered to your place tomorrow morning.”
“This way…” Fifth Prince takes the box from Zhi Wei. After making sure the box is indeed what he wanted, Fifth Prince says with a grin “…it is more convenient for you to die here.”
Zhi Wei’s head shot up in surprise.
“Shoo…”
The slightest noise, like a fire spark that had accidentally flown overhead sounds as Zhi Wei let out a yelp and slowly falls against the railing behind her.
Her expression full of pain and hopelessness, Zhi Wei looks up at Fifth Prince with shock.
“You…”
“I thank you.” Fifth Prince says with a gentle laugh. His usually mild expression twisted into a strange and hideous one under the moonlight “I thank you for the sacrifice you made for my ascension to the throne”
“You…” Zhi Wei raised her hand to point at Fifth Prince, her finger completely covered with blood.
“When I leave I will make a bit of noise and you will die by the hand of the guard for stealing important secrets.” Fifth Prince is not usually the talkative sort but he can’t suppress the excitement bubbling up inside him “The least I can do is not leave you confused before you die. What this box holds is not the rare medical scrolls.”
“How can it be…” Using what seems to be the last of her breath, Zhi Wei questions, determined to not die when she is not supposed to.
“I knew someone like you would’ve opened the box to check. At first look, there is indeed a book in the box and it is even a medical book. However, this book hides the biggest secret in the palace.”
Fifth Prince opens the box, takes out the book, after flipping through the first few pages his fingers pulls on the spine to reveal a single page that is actually made of jade not paper. Extracting a gold fabric out of the gap in the jade, Fifth Prince sneers as he reads what’s written on it.
“The Crown Prince’s name is still on it.” Fifth Prince scoffs “Just as I had guessed they haven’t had time to change it yet.”
“This is the Emperor’s edict of who will be his successor.” Shaking the golden fabric in his hand, Fifth Prince continues “This looks like a simple piece of fabric but it is actually made with a special yarn. This is the only one in the whole world. The words on this were all embroidered in such a way that it could only be read at a special angle. No one in this world can duplicate this. Years ago my mother found out by chance and told it to me. I spent quite a few years to figure out what kind of embroidery is on it and spent another few years to finally find someone who knew how to do that kind of special embroidery. I have prepared everything and the only thing I was waiting for was a chance to get my hand on this so I can re-do the embroidery on it. And then…”
Holding up the gold fabric with a grin, the Fifth Prince laughs “The name on this should’be been changed a long time ago so I will not be shy in helping myself to it!”
“Ah…that how it is….” Letting out the appropriate sigh of amazement, Zhi Wei says “You really are not shy…so now everyone else doesn’t need to be shy either.”
Fifth Prince was about to leave but turns back abruptly when he notices Zhi Wei’s speech is actually getting more effortless.
“Pop.”
Fire torches suddenly flare up all over, shedding lights on everyone’s stony expression.
“Click”
Countless bows appeared with the metal tips of the arrows shining under the moonlight…all pointing at Fifth Prince.
Someone walks out from the dark long corridor. His smile gentle as he claps and compliments “Fifth brother is certainly clever.”
On the other side, standing by the hall banister is someone else whose whole body is shaking even as he leans against the palace’s grand eunuch.
“You reprobate!” The man yells furiously “You tried to kill me with poison first, plotted to get your hands on my edict, then tries to kill to cover up your track! All for the throne! You are an abomination! ”
Someone else is sitting herself up lazily, pulls out a bun filled with Hoisin sauce and bites into it with much savor. The bright red sauce drips down her mouth while she leisurely licks the sauce from her fingers. (I know the Hoisin sauce most of us are used to is usually black but here it is red.)
Stumbling back a step back, a pale faced Fifth Prince stares at the three people until he finally breaks out in a hopeless laugh “Good! Good! What a great show!”
Alarmed by the desperation she saw in Fifth Prince’s eyes, Zhi Wei wondered why Fifth Prince is lashing out angrily when he should be running away or begging the Emperor to forgive him.
Zhi Wei suddenly remembered something Fifth Prince had said.
“You will die by the hand of the guard for stealing important secrets.”
Why was he so certain that the guard would help him cover up his crime and kill me again? What guard would be able to make sure that he is the first one to discover my body?
Unless…
Zhi Wei jumps up abruptly and runs towards Ning Yi’s direction…but it was too late.
A strong force pushed her to Fifth Prince. With a mocking smile, Fifth Prince grabs Zhi Wei by her hair and holds his sword against her waist.
Through her scalp’s screaming pain, Zhi Wei could still hear the Emperor’s furious shout and Fifth Prince’s loud taunting laugh.
“Ning Yi!” Fifth Prince yells “The Emperor and this kid, you can only save one!”
“Who are you going to save?”
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Oh dear!
This was such a clever set up but now Zhi Wei and Ning Yi are in such a bad position.
I still don’t understand why realising the guard will certainly kill her made her realise she was in trouble?
That question quickly becomes clear in the next post.
Argh!!!! You are the queen of cliffhangers!!!!
Good thing I know what happened otherwise another cliff hanger! When I was a child in asia, Hoisin sauce was also red. Maybe they put more colouring in it in Asia? Great translations
I just read all of your translations for this book and I really enjoyed them! Would there be any way that you could translate the whole book?? I would gladly pay you! All of the other versions online don’t make sense because they weren’t translated properly 🙁
I am technically in the process of translating the whole book…just skipping over/summarizing the parts I would consider boring. If what you want is the WHOLE thing including the boring parts then I am afraid I really can’t bring myself to do it. What do I consider boring? Draggy palace intrigue and storylines focused on uninteresting/unimportant secondary characters. While this particular author is quite good at writing memorable leads, she really has a tendency to simply forget her hero for chapters at a time. (This author also wrote Fuyao and in that one there were times when I really wondered if our hero is even the hero since he disappeared for so long.)
Wow, is this scene similar to the one in the drama, the confrontation between Nin Yi and fifth prince about him not being the emperor son? The drama certainly portrays it differently. The Fifth Prince tries to set ZW up and did she get hurt? I love both drama and intrigue. I can wait to see what Ning Yi does?
The scene you are talking about is in the novel. There, a special means of the fifth prince and princess stained the blood of the sixth prince to prove that he is not the son of the emperor. Ji Wei arranges for others to have the same golden blood.
This scene, which we are reading now, is analogous to the episodes with the golden casket: when the fifth prince does not know that the emperor “threw his fishing tackle”.
I am helping to answer the respected Ninja-reflection: after all, thanks to her, I understand a little what is being said in the novel. Translation of Google translator from Chinese is very difficult to understand without prompts. Moreover, it is a literary text. The work of Ninja-reflection is like a beacon for me 😍
Really don’t understand why the fifth prince thought pulling the ole switch a roo would work, just like the drama which was pretty funny(the scene @ the academy between our two leads). Yea, it’s kinda weird she didn’t realize she was in trouble before.
I just read all of your translations- can’t wait for the next one !
thanks for the translation! have a nice day~