Realizing that she has been tricked the moment she landed in Ning Yi’s embrace, Zhi Wei pushes him away angrily “If the king is bad then one might as well stab him through.”

Stumbling back against the tree truck but still keeping his arms firmly around Zhi Wei, Ning Yi whispers in her ear in a lazy drawl “Then stab away. I am waiting.”

Momentarily dazzled when she looks up to find Ning Yi’s face inches from hers, Zhi Wei feels her little heart quivering. Turning her face away, Zhi Wei grabs a pine needle and growls “Stab!”

Letting out a yelp as he lets go of Zhi Wei, Ning Yi laughs “You really stabbed, such a cruel woman…”

Ignoring Ning Yi’s words, Zhi Wei picks up the scattered pine nuts and hand them over to him. Leaning against the tree trunck, Ning Yi complains “I don’t have the strength to bite it.”

So he wants her to shell the nuts for him? Zhi Wei reminds him coldly “Your Highness, you hurt your eye. Not your teeth.”

“Have you never heard of that creature’s poison?” Ning Yi explains with an expression that is hard to discern if he is telling the truth or not “According to the legend, the creature is the offspring of the ghostly snake Nine Yins which resides in the underworld. Since its birth, the snake feasted on poisons and the eyes of young girls. By the time they are fully grown, they have harnessed the resentment of all the dead it devoured so anyone who looked into the snake’s eyes would turn blind then slowly lose all functions of their body until death comes. Soooo…it is only natural my teeth are bad.”

Zhi Wei looks at Ning Yi suspiciously and didn’t think he looked that bad…but then the man didn’t even make a peep about being blind and she had to discover the fact herself. Her heart softening at the thought, Zhi Wei sighed and begin the troublesome task of biting away the pine nuts shell one by one.

The “king” sits across from her as he leisurely enjoys the shelled pine nuts and even remembers to remind her “Be careful to not get your saliva on them.”

Furious, Zhi Wei’s teeth shattered a few pine nuts shells.

A handful of pine nuts warm the palm of his hand, emitting a fragrant smell. Ning Yi lowers his head to “look” at them. His mood that has been somewhat down due to worrying about his blindness is suddenly lifted by a slight sense of joy…apparently being blind is not all bad. With a hint of smile in the corner of his mouth, Ning Yi slowly eats the pine nuts.

“This could only hold off the worst of our hunger so we still need to look for something else to eat.” Zhi Wei says “Let’s go a little further and see if we can dig up some more root vegetables.”

Ning Yi abruptly stops in his track which promptly caused Zhi Wei to fall silent.

A man singing loudly stops when he spots them and asks with a heavy northern accent “Who are you guys?”

From Zhi Wei’s observation, the man seems to be an ordinary woodcutter, carrying a basket full of wood along with a tied up wild rabbit. There doesn’t seem to be anything suspicious about the man at all.

“Sir.” Zhi Wei replies politely “My brother and I not only got lost in the mountain but also got hurt a bit. Do you know the quickest way out?”

The woodcutter says “Do you see that abandoned old temple over there? Go towards south for about a day and you should be able to get off the mountain. You two look pretty hurt though, plus it seems like it will rain soon so why don’t you go rest a bit at my house. My place is not too far from here.”

There is of course no way Zhi Wei would dare to go stay at a stranger’s house right now, so she quickly refuses with a smile “We need to be on our way. If it rains, then we will just duck into the temple.” Zhi Wei then asked the woodcutter if he would be willing to sell the rabbit to her. She didn’t dare to give him the gold nuggets but she wasn’t having much luck finding any coins either.

The woodcutter shakes his head and tells Zhi Wei “It’s just a rabbit, don’t worry about the money. Take it, take it.”

Zhi Wei thanked the man as he hands the rabbit over to her, then after hesitating a moment says “Sir, if there are people who inquire concerning us, please just say you haven’t seen us.”

“Sure, sure!” The woodcutter agreed readily. Giving them a suggestive smile, the woodcutter walks away as he mutters loudly to himself “Could it be a couple with the girl disguised as a boy in order to elope?”

Letting the still smiling woodcutter walk past them, Zhi Wei just pretends that she didn’t hear his rather loud self muttering.

Ning Yi’s shoulder suddenly moved.

As quick as lighting, Zhi Wei lays her hand on Nig Yi’s.

Ning Yi looks over at Zhi Wei who holds his gaze as she slowly shakes her head, her attitude firm.

Ning Yi frowns but he didn’t try to make another move.

Completely clueless of the silent movements behind him, the woodcutter strode away while singing loudly, unaware that Death’s scythe has just barely missed him. 

“Feng Zhi Wei, with such a good heart?” Silent for a few moments, Ning Yi finally said in derision.

“I only kill those who deserve to be killed. Taking the lives of the innocents will just add to one’s condemnation.” Zhi Wei averts her eyes from Ning Yi’s.

“By the time he guides the assassins to come after us, you will find out then if he is innocent or not. Of course, by that time, you and I won’t be alive long enough to kill those who deserve to be killed.”

“How can you be certain that he will lead the others to us?”

“People die for money and birds die for food.” (This is a well known Chinese saying that describes the human tendency to sacrifice everything, including their moral for money) “Once someone promises him an ample reward, he will certainly tell all. If you were smart, you would not have stopped me just now.”

“But there is also the possibility that he wouldn’t encounter those who are searching for us.” Zhi Wei lets out a sigh “You can’t just kill someone over something that might or might not happen.”

“Feng Zhi Wei, I really didn’t realize that you have such a kind heart.” Ning Yi sneers coldly “A general’s glory is built on ten thousand rotting bones. Those who accomplish great things are not concerned with trifle things. Don’t you understand?”

(The first Chinese saying about the general is an old saying that describes the cruelty of war, as the success of kings/generals usually come at the expense of countless soldiers’ and innocent lives. The second saying kinda go hand in hand with the saying “People die for money and birds die for food.” as it describes that those who achieve great success (at least in the eye of the world) are often the sort of people who really are not too concerned with small matters such as laws…innocent lives…morals…you get the idea.)

“I understand.” Zhi Wei stands up and hands Ning Yi a root vegetable she had cleaned off in the stream “So eat quickly then we can go to his house.”

Holding the root in hand, Ning Yi wasn’t sure how to react. Unable to find a trace of anger in Zhi Wei’s attitude, Ning Yi’s heart feels a bit hollow, as if he had thrown out a punch only to have his fist landed in a puff of cotton.

Puff of cotton or not, Ning Yi didn’t have any trouble figuring out the meaning of Zhi Wei’s words. Zhi Wei had already told the woodcutter they will be heading towards the old temple. If those searching for them really end up making contact with the woodcutter, then they will certainly head to the old temple- which means hiding close to the woodcutter’s house is their safest bet.

With both of them wounded, they have no hope of outrunning the assassins. So instead of exhausting themselves needlessly by getting chased all over the mountain, they might as well play a game of hide and seek with the assassins while trying to get rest up at the same time.

Silent for a moment, Ning Yi suddenly wonders if his words just now might’ve been too harsh but before he could say anything, Zhi Wei has already grabbed his hand as she munches down the root in her own hand “Eat up, we might not have time later.”

Patting the rabbit tie to her waist, Zhi Wei adds “If I am really wrong, then I will cook this rabbit as my apology.”

Ning Yi smiles and turns to look at her “If I am the one who is wrong, then why don’t I give you my jade pendent as my apology?” (Remember the pendant is only for his wife?)

“Oh, then forget it.” Scoffing down the rest of the root in her hand, Zhi Wei says “It would be ripping you off.”

“I am willing to be ripped off by you.”

“But I am not willing to rip you off.” Zhi Wei answered quickly then softly made a hush sound.

 

It should be pretty obvious from this post that our two leads’ personality is not quite as “good/righteous” as they were portrayed in the drama. One thing to keep in mind is that our hero was raised as a prince in a cutthroat environment. In the drama, there was still a tiny bit of familial affection between the Emperor and Ning Yi but in the novel, there is none at all. In the world they are in, a servent or those of lower status dying for the sake of those in authority is seen as a matter of course. Even our heroine herself is really not a nobody. In fact, one could argue that many many more innocent lives were sacrificed for our heroine before she was even born. So, no matter what Zhi Wei herself feels about the value of human lives, the existence of Bloody Pagoda means there is already plenty of innocent blood shed because of her. It could be asked if it was fair for our two leads in Fuyao to expect so many innocent lives to be sacrificed for the sake of their bloodline? In the eyes of our two leads in Fuyao AND those who serve them, it was a resounding yes. For the rest of us? Well, most of us probably can’t understand nor agree with their world view…but hey, it still makes for a good story. 

 

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