Zhi Wei is afraid to guess and perhaps even Gu Nan Yi himself is afraid to think of it- if someone so usually detached emotionally could tremble when he thought of those days…then how nightmarish that childhood must’ve been? Zhi Wei abruptly puts her hand on Gu Nan Yi’s. There is no other meaning in her action other than wanting to give some warmth to that three year old child ten years ago. In that period when he was all alone, no one probably warmed his hand like this. Her heart ached and filled with gentleness, completely forgetting propriety between men and women, forgetting Gu nan Yi has never liked having people too close to him and could very well send her flying into the air in the next instant. But Gu Nan Yi didn’t move. Looking down, he carefully examined the hand that’s on top of his. His first reaction was to flip it off then throw it far away but when he felt the slight warmth from that delicate hand a strange and foreign sensation suddenly made an unknown part of him stir. This was a totally strange sensation, like a shut away thousand-year-old castle whose door was cracked open a sliver, allowing the people outside to see the brilliant treasure inside and the people inside to see the mesmerizing blue sky outside. Even if the view was revealed by the slightest opening for the briefest time but no one would be able to forget it and stop longing for it. Gu Nan Yi couldn’t put words to this feeling and it felt mysterious. As one who is usually impatient with anything and everything, he suddenly had the desire to know more. After debating with himself for a bit, he finally decided to grab the grassy ground firmly with his fingers and not move a muscle so he could prevent himself from instinctively flip the hand off and allow that strange sensation to stay on the back of his hand longer…until he can finally understand.
Zhi Wei is clueless of the great internal struggle Master Gu is undergoing and the great sacrificing he is giving, nor is she aware that the grass under Master Gu’s hand has been decimated. Zhi Wei’s hand lingered on Gu Nan Yi’s hand only for a brief moment before she promptly remembers his strange habit and quickly pulls her hand back. Master Gu retracts his hand as well then touch the back of it. Assuming that he must be worrying her hand is dirty, an embarrassed Zhi Wei quickly changes the topic by grabbing a leaf from the tree. Rolling the long leaf into a tub, Zhi Wei says “I will teach you a way to not get lost.”
“This kind of tree is everywhere.” Zhi Wei let Gu Nan Yi take a careful look of the veins on the leaf “The venation pattern on this sort leaf is quite unique, like a face. So if we get separated wherever we are then no matter how urgent or inconvenient, lets both not forget to leave our sign at the base of the tree. This way we can find each other.”
“Have signs.” Gu Nan Yi replies.
Zhi Wei knows he means that he has secret signs to communicate with his men already. Shaking her head with a laugh, Zhi Wei explains “Those signs are for your organization. Not between you and me. You don’t have to find me, you just need to leave the signs behind. I can find my way to come find you.” She remembers on the day when she ran off to rescue Ning Yi she had assumed that with his own men around and the journey only being ten miles long it would be no problem for Gu Nan Yi to find herself so she didn’t take the time to leave any signs behind which subsequently caused him to lose her. She wasn’t telling truth when she had said the signs were for him to find her. In truth, she was just afraid that one of these days Silly Gu would get lost again and forgets his organization’s signs as well or perhaps something might happen with his organization and the signs can’t be used. If that happens then how is she supposed to find him? He might be a super fighter but he is also fragile at the same time. The image of a three year old child wandering around in the snowy winter after losing his father keeps coming to her mind.
“Okay, it’s a deal then.” Zhi Wei says with a smile as she rolls up a leaf and slowly plays a melody by blowing on it. “I will be playing music and following the signs to find you.”
Staring at Zhi Wei intently, Gu Nan Yi plucks a leaf from the tree, copied the way she rolled hers and slowly blows a melody from it as well. Under the moonlight and the broken music, Zhi Wei falls asleep with a smile. After some time, already half asleep, Zhi Wei hears him say “Play music, follow tree, find you.”
Zhi Wei opens her eyes to see a very grumpy huge face in front her. Scooting back with a start, Zhi Wei rubs her eyes until she finally see that grumpy face belongs to Prince Helian who is currently squatting very close to her with an expression of “You evil woman, you betrayed me, hurt me, destroyed my innocent heart” to express his broken heart.
What’s this? Did someone refuse to give him breakfast? Zhi Wei lazily stretches to get up then belatedly realizes something doesn’t feel right underneath her hand. Turning around, Zhi Wei blinks in surprise before promptly flushing bright red to see the ever pure Silly Gu…and a certain small tent that was just inches away from where her head was. Opening his eyes, Silly Gu calmly flicks off her hand then just as calmly pushes away Helain’s face, looks down at his pants before walking off to take care of his morning needs. While “floating” away, Master Gu still remembers to play his leaf flute filling the air with a smooth and gushing melody. (Yep, the placement of the word “gushing” is on purpose.)
A furious Helian points a shaking finger at Gu Nan Yi until he belatedly realizes it was no use and promptly turns his finger to point at Zhi Wei. Smiling sweetly, Zhi Wei turns Helian’s finger around and says “Morning, Your Highness. Here, the outhouse is over that direction.” Zhi Wei was only able to take two steps before someone else showed up in her way and gave her a look full of disappointment “I am thinking again I should just take 15 minutes to finish you so as to avoid the headache my Master will have in the future.” Zhi Wei doesn’t know what the fifteen minutes are referring to but she knows what Ning Chen is saying. Pointing at herself, Zhi Wei replies “Go ahead, but the likely outcome is that you will feel great for 15 minutes but ends up having a headache for the rest of your life.” By this point, Silly Gu has finished his “gushing” and is now using his walnuts to greet Ning Chen so he can fully understand what Zhi Wei meant.
“We have all the armies in place.” Ning Chen followed after Zhi Wei and tells her “I think we should travel by water so as not to disturb the local population.”
“Since His Highness has let you take full commend then you don’t have to ask me.” Zhi Wei smiles “We might as well use the free labor who has offered themselves. We will be escorted by Shen Jun Xin and head straight into the governor’s manor. You just make sure to be there to meet us when the time comes with the three thousand men.”
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
So beautiful, thank you ☺️
I’m trying to run the novel thru google translate and have a couple of questions. What is star rain? And why is Bloody Pagoda being translated as bloody floating slaughter?
I so appreciate the time and effort you spend translating this for us. And your notes on Chinese culture have helped me to understand that He/She is the same word. It is difficult enough to figure out who is doing what, but now I know that he/she are interchangeable, so can understand a bit more of the interaction between NY and FZW.
Thank you so much for your time and effort. I too have Monday as a highlight in my life!
Google translate will usually just do straight translation which of course leaves a lot of meaning behind. Chinese novel writing differs quite a bit from speaking Chinese and to make things worse, this story is set in ancient China so that makes the whole thing even messier. Anyhow, Bloody Floating Slaughter is the straight translation of the organization I had chosen to use Bloody Pagoda to represent. As for star rain, I am going to need the actual Chinese character and the sentence it was in to tell you more accurately what the meaning was. Google translate sometimes don’t know where to cut things off or where to link characters together when you just cut and paste a whole paragraph in.
那小小一團護在他懷中，風雨不驚，那人前奔時猶自不忘用手護著，唯恐沾著一星雨絲
Here is the paragraph. This is the beginning of the book where the soldier is holding the baby.
Here is google translate: The little ball was in his arms, and he was not surprised by the storm. When the man ran forward, he never forgot to protect it with his hands, lest he be covered with a star rain.
Many more thanks for answering my questions!!!
A little bundle nestled in his arms, shielded from the wind and rain. While rushing ahead, the man still does not forget to hold up his hand to protect the bundle in his arm, seemingly afraid that a single droplet of rain would land on it.
The “star” in this instance is actually just an adjective as in “a little bit” to describe the rain which I translated into a single droplet. Since the Chinese character is the same character as star, google translate didn’t realize it was an adjective and not the noun star.
So wonderful, not only are you translating, you are writing descriptively as you give to us, the words we read.
Do you write your own work? short stories, novels? I think you might have a talent if you have any interest.
Either way, we benefit from your talent as you share the story of NY and FZW. And I too, hate when a story line repeats itself too many times. As in the tragic endings of FZW’s previous loves. I too, will skim over, or flip pages to get to the “good” stuff.
You’ve dedicated over a year just on the “Phoenixes.” Your dedication is appreciated by me and the other readers. Big hugs and many thank yous!!!!
Just wondering, how many languages do you know?
Ha ha, I read too many novels and watch too many dramas to ever become a writer…that would cut into my time on those two things! As for languages, just English and Mandarin. I would like to study more languages, but then we are right back to the pesky issue of cutting into the novel and drama time. Sigh…