Who are you going to save?
In the corridor, the captain of the guard holds a sword against the Emperor’s neck. Below the corridor, Zhi Wei is being held hostage as Fifth Prince presses a dagger against her waist.
Really, the answer to the question is so obvious that it hardly requires a thought.
“Wei Yong!” The Emperor yells angrily “Are you crazy?! You dare to hold me hostage? Do you think you can walk out of the palace alive?”
“I never planned on walking out alive.” Wei Yong, the one who pushed Zhi Wei towards Fifth Prince before he seized the Emperor says calmly “The Chang clan has done a lot for me and they are even taking care of my aging mother so of course, I should repay them with my life.”
“The Chang clan.” the Emperor sneers “Chang clan!”
“Wei Yong, put down your sword.” His eyes completely focused on the two men in the corridor, Ning Yi finally said something without sparing a single glance towards Fifth Prince and Zhi Wei’s direction “You can still fix this. If you end this now I can promise your mother’s safety.”
Shaking his head with a hopeless smile, Wei Yong doesn’t answer.
“What do you want?” His brows knitted in a frown, Ning Yi turns towards Fifth Prince “Fifth Brother, why go this far? Do you really have to push father to this? Do you really want to see our family turn against each other?”
“Give it up.” Fifth Prince sneers “Don’t you know our father by now? Do you not remember how Third died all those years ago? Standing on that bridge, Father had said he will forgive and forget but the moment Third let go of his sword to knelt down, what was waiting for him?”
The expression on Ning Yi’s face darkened but instantly returns to normal when the Emperor gives an angry snort. Suddenly taking a step back as his eyes glance towards the shadows, Ning Yi says “You are pushing yourself to the point of no return.”
Alarmed by Ning Yi’s actions, Fifth Prince eyes dart around searching for a safe place until he sees the library’s wide open doors.
“Let’s not just all stand here.” His dagger pressed against Zhi Wei’s waist as he pushes her forward “Let’s converse in the library. Also, summon the court officials to the palace!”
“Fifth Brother should just save us all the trouble.” Ning Yi smiles coldly “No matter where you go, the result will all be the same.”
The more Ning Yi seem reluctant to move, the more uneasy Fifth Prince becomes and begins to wonder if it would be safer in the royal library instead of standing outside in the wide open area filled with guards.
“Hey, Fifth Prince.” Zhi Wei whispers into Fifth Prince’s ear “Don’t go into the royal library under any circumstance. Look at the screen panel and the space under the bookcase, someone could easily hide there. I don’t want to die along with you.”
What nonsense! Fifth Prince sneers in derision. The library’s screen panel is made of white silk that becomes all but transparent when the room is light up. The bookcase is shaped in such a way that there is no way for a person to hide under there. These two people are acting too suspicious.
Straining his ears, Fifth Prince could seemingly makes out a small noise of a crossbow being cocked. Remembering the rumor that Ning Yi supposedly has people who are extremely good at developing weapons, Fifth Prince wonders with a sinking heart if the sound he heard is some sort of super long distance crossbow.
“Into the royal library!” The more he thought about it the more he is convinced this is the only way he could get out of this alive, Fifth Prince pushes Zhi Wei forward eagerly.
“Ahh, I can’t.” Zhi Wei stumbles “Fifth Prince, you are pushing too hard, my legs are getting weak.”
“Don’t try anything funny!” Not trusting Zhi Wei an inch, Fifth Prince pushes the tip of his dagger into Zhi Wei until it sinks into her flash a bit “Into the library! Ning Yi, summon the palace officials!”
Zhi Wei sighs as she looks down at the small stain of red that has started to spread on her green robe.
Ning Yi’s eyes move past Zhi Wei without any expression.
“Fifth Brother, why put this much effort to hold such an inconsequential official as a hostage?” Ning Yi says suddenly “Compare to the Emperor, he is not that important.”
“Sixth Brother, you don’t have to waste your effort to convince me to free him.” Fifth Prince sneers “I don’t care how important or unimportant he is. It is not bad to be able to drag someone with me to my grave.”
One step at a time, Fifth Prince walks towards the royal library as the dagger in his hand reflects in the moonlight.
“Summon the court officials and have Father vow in front all of them he will not pursue today’s matter anymore or else the Ning empire will fall! Then send me away from the Capital to the west. From this point on we will go our separate ways and Father will never see me again!”
“You go in first!” Fifth Prince orders Ning Yi “You are not allowed to hang in the back!”
Ning Yi gives Fifth Prince a scoffing smile as he walks past him towards the library. Keeping his eyes on the Emperor, Ning Y backs into the library but was so nervous over the Emperor’s welfare that he trips over the threshold and had to grabs onto a planter shelf to steady himself.
“Sixth, this is not the time for weak legs!” Fifth Prince cackles then signals Wei Yong to force the Emperor in the library as well.
The planter shelf knocked over by Ning Yi is still half leaning against the door, so Wei Yong had no choice but to force the Emperor towards the left while he himself try to slide past the shelf.
“Bang!”
Something shoots out from the right side of the door aiming at Wei Yong, not giving anyone a chance to respond. The crossbow arrow shoots straight into Wei Yong’s lower body sending blood everywhere. Screaming in pain, Wei Yong reaches out a a hand to drag the Emperor.
Moving as fast as lightening, Ning Yi grabs the Emperor but instead of attacking Wei Yong, he hurls himself towards Fifth Prince.
Exerting everything in him to push himself to move faster than he has ever moved in his life, Ning Yi could hear Wei Yong grunting then something whizzing past the air but he doesn’t have the time to pay them any heed.
Everything happened in a blink of an eye, Fifth Prince saw something flashing across then Ning Yi is suddenly coming towards him. His thoughts in a jumble, unable to make his body respond, Fifth Prince stood rooted to the ground.
“Don’t kill him!” A yell sounds followed by a white shadow running towards them.
The roof tile abruptly shatters above as a hand silently reaches out for Fifth Prince’s head. Judging by the gesture of the hand, if it reaches it’s goal then Fifth Prince’s head can bid a forever goodbye to his body.
Finally jerked out of his stupor by the yells, Fifth Prince could just see shadows coming at him from all side. Knowing his chance of escaping out of this alive is next to none now, an expression of viciousness flashes across Fifth Prince’s eyes as he thrust the dagger in his hand downward.
In the midst of chaos, everything is happening at the same moment…
Ning Yi has reached Fifth Prince.
Wearing just her inner robe, Shao Ning Princess somehow made into the library and threw her body against Fifth Prince’s hand to knock his dagger away.
Above the Fifth Prince, Gu Nan Yi’s hand reaches down to grab him.
Everything happened at the same time, so…
Shao Ning missed Fifth’s Prince and ends up hitting Gu Nan Yi’s hand, bumping it to the side.
That slight change in movement meant Gu Nan Yi’s hand hits Fifth Prince’s chest instead and pushed Fifth Prince backward one step…which results in Ning Yi who should’ve had plenty of time to rescue Zhi Wei ended up missing her as his hand collided with Gu Nan Yi’s hand.
Three people with the same goal of saving a certain someone all collided together, completely forgetting Fifth Prince to the side.
The dagger is positioned to kill…
and it has already been thrust into its mark.
Blood stains the green robe.
In that instant, Ning Yi’s eyes turned red as well.
Ning Yi swings his sword towards Fifth Prince with one hand while his other hand grabs Zhi Wei to put pressure on her wound. However, before Ning Yi’s sword could reach Fifth Prince, Fifth Prince has already collapsed to the floor.
Belatedly realizing something seems off with the feel of the blood in his hand, Ning Yi looks down to see the red sweat sticky Hoisin sauce.
The woman looks up at him with half of a smile “I have more than one Hoisin sauce filled flatbread.”
Ning Yi understood right away. Zhi Wei didn’t know where Fifth Prince would try to stab her so she made sure she protected all her vital areas with flatbreads which meant she must’ve put one at her waist as well. When she was stumbling around earlier she was probablyshifting the flatbread into place and distracting Fifth Prince at the same time.
Fifth Prince was so nervous that he was actually fooled by her Hoisin flatbread twice.
Staring into the woman’s sparkling eyes, Ning Yi’s heart abruptly falls back into place as he says with a voice that is slightly husky “That’s good then…”
Fifth Prince lays on the floor, surrounded by swords pointing at him. Zhi Wei had jumped on the chance to immobilize him (via hitting his pressure points) so he is still alive. From where he was at, Fifth Prince could see Ning Yi’s expression clearly and after thinking for a moment he begins to laugh eerily.
He coughed as he laughed before smiling jeeringly at Zhi Wei “See, he still saved who he needs to save.”
Those words were words meant to go straight for the heart.
Ning Yi’s stiffens and tries to say something but his face turns red and a sudden cough stops him from saying anything.
Zhi Wei didn’t turn to look at Ning Yi but leans down with a teasing smile “The Fifth brother shouldn’t laugh at the Sixth brother. If it was you, you would’ve made the same choice.”
Her tone was mild, devoid of any trace of resentment…but to Ning Yi, it was like a fist full of sand has been rubbed into an open wound in his heart. Ning Yi opens his mouth to try to say something but a hand shoots out and drags Zhi Wei away.
Pulling Zhi Wei into his arms, Gu Nan Yi declares coldly “In the way, move.”
Ning Yi stepped back and puts a hand on a pillar. Looking at Zhi Wei, Ning Yi suddenly feels like he doesn’t need to explain anymore.
If that’s what she believes, then would anything he say be of any use?
If that’s not what she believes, then it doesn’t matter what anyone in this world says.
He waits for Zhi Wei to say something. Someone as smart as Zhi Wei would’ve been able to tell that his calculation was perfect and would’ve been able to save her if it wasn’t for the unexpected collision.
But Zhi Wei still has yet to spare a look his way but has instead relaxed her body against Gu Nan Yi as she lazily turns around in his embrace.
Ning Yi’s expression, like the light during dusk…darkens. After a moment, Ning Yi smirks in self derision but made no move to follow at all.
What he doesn’t know…
The moment Zhi Wei turns, an expression of pain appeared on her face.
Her hand lightly pressed against her waist. There, under the bright red Hoisin sauce is a same reddish liquid that is seeping out in silence.
There is limitation to the thickness of a flatbread.
Fifth Prince would not have held back during what he thought was his last moment alive.
She had moved the flatbread while Fifth Prince was distracted but she still got hurt.
It could’ve been avoidable but things just happened that way.
Zhi Wei’s expression darkened like the sky during dusk as she too silently laughs in self derision. The words they exchanged that day in the academy is still fresh on her mind and unfortunately, her words were spot on.
She never turned her head.
So she too didn’t know…
The Emperor who was standing behind Ning Yi, is staring at his son’s back with shock.
Draped against the door threshold, Wei Yong has stayed in the same position after he threw a knife, his mouth twisted in a triumphant grin.
Standing tall and stiff with a hand on the pillar.
A knife is buried deep into Ning Yi’s back
As you guys can see, this post is EXTRA long because I just didn’t feel like I could cut off at any point. Since this point is extra long (which meant I had to procrastinate on other stuff I should’ve been doing), so next week’s or the week after that’s post might be shorter than usual.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Thank you for your hard work!
There was so much danger this chapter and still more to go. I wonder how they’ll survive.
Zhi Wei must feel very let down at this point by Ning Yi.
Thank you so much for translating. 🥰
I really enjoyed this scene, thanks for translating.
Wow! Already ready 31 part. You are super 😍
I don’t know how to feel right now, I hope that Ning Yi is okay…. To me has always gone the extra mile in trying to save her from unnecessary harm. So I am not surprised that he is trying to save her along with the Emperor. I must say that I like this dramatic scene in the book. They could have left this scene in. I am trying to figure out where in the drama does this scene relate to?
First off thanks for the translation. Something to look forward to. Zhi Wei is too smart not to figure out Ning Yi’s intentions. Given the current situation it would be difficult to save her first and leave the emperor in danger(really not a good look). If it wasn’t for the princess and Gu Nanyi colliding with him, he would have saved her effortlessly. Instead Gu Nanyi gets the credit and he get a knife deep in his back. Agree this scene would’ve been awesome in the drama.
I believe you mentioned that in the novel she goes on missions with different male interests. Does she show interest in them or like in the drama she’s only interesting in Ning Yi?
This author’s leads are pretty faithful to each other. Her heroes treats anyone other than the heroine like air. While her heroine usually have at least three or four male leads who adores the heroine to their death but the heroines will only fall for the heroes.
That’s good to know, that’s the main thing I loved about the drama, their loyalty towards each other. She’s not too shy to declare her love for him, and him the same for her.
What an exciting scene!! Thanks for the hard work! 🙂
Thank you so much for the time you spend on translating. I am in awe with this story and my heart literally broke at the end. How sad that divisive tribal beliefs are handed down from generations to generations.
I have one question: what is the title of the music that is played on the flute? It is beautiful, eerie, and mystifying all at the same time. It is like a lullaby calling light to darkness. Thank you. Viviane
I am assuming you are talking about the scene where Ning Yi played the flute in the drama? Do you have an episode number so I can see if I recognize the song?
For example, the last series of 70. At the very end. Where Ning And in the carriage. And Jivey on the rock plays this melody on a musical instrument.
I watched the super sad ending again just for you. Unfortunately, I have no luck on the tune too. I was hoping it might be a different version of a song on the show’s soundtrack, but I don’t recognize it.
* Nin Yi
Hello Ninja👋🏻 Thank you very much for your translations ,never thought I’m going to be so excited about Mondays 😅
If you don’t mind I have couple things to ask :
what’s the meaning behind “FengXiang “ era of Ning Yi and “Tianxiang” era of Feng Zhiwei. Google doesn’t give translation for those , and I was wondering if there is any significant meaning .
Thank you 🙏
Can you copy and paste the passage you found those two words? I can’t tell by themselves what the Chinese characters would be, sorry!
I have questions.
At your prompting, I watched the series “Legend about Fu Yao”.
It turns out that her real name Feng Wu Min.
The author of the novel made it so that the heroine of the “Rise of the Phoenixes” also had the name Feng. But this name is not only Jivey. Last name Feng is also a brother and mother. How so? Why?
Looks like Fuyao reclaimed her real name of Feng Wu Min once she became the Empress. The reason Zhi Wei and her borther’s last name is Feng could only be that their adopted father’s last name must be Feng as well. Remember the reason Mama Feng went from a revered female general to an outcast was precisely because she chose to marry a man loyal to the last empire. Since Zhi Wei’s adopted father was a leader in Bloody Pagoda, then we can safely assume that his name was given by our two leads’ in Fuyao (the rich and powerful would usually take in orphans and give them names, including their own surnames. The orphans would then be trained to become whatever they needed them to be.), so I am assuming Zhi Wei’s adoptive father was given Fuyao’s last name…which kinda also tell us who Bloody Pagoda officially belongs to.
Wow! So in the novel, the adoptive father Jivey’s name is not Gu Hyun? And he is not General Gu Yan’s brother?
I really didn’t skip much in the translation so as you can see, General Gu Yan is not part of the novel.
I thought General Gu Yang would be the father of Gu Nanji. It turns out that he is not in the novel. Who will be the father of Gu Nanyi?
If I remembered right, Gu Nan Yi is either the son of a Bloody Pagoda leader OR he is the pupil of the leader. The author doesn’t really give a ton of info on Gu Nan Yi’s background but he is seen as the next Bloody Pagoda leader…which is why they sent him to protect Zhi Wei.
Wow! How serious! I like it!