A group of uniformed guards makes a token show herding people around but of course they just end up pushing the Yan clan to the back of the crowd. Suddenly someone starts to yell “Foolish officials, go away!” The voice was like a match falling on dry wood, yells from thousands of others immediately joined in. “Go away, corrupt officials!” “We don’t need you!” “Get out of South Sea!” “Get out, go back to the Capital!” 

*splash!* From somewhere in the crowd, a piece of vegetable was tossed, making a wide arch in the air and landing in the water a few feet away from the boat. Seemingly reminded of what they had in hand, thousands of people began to toss vegetables and eggs in unison. Most of the items landed in the water, but there was also a small percentage that made it to the surface of the boat, instantly coloring the boat in various colors. 

“They have gone too far!” Their young blood boiling, students from the Academy yell in unison “Official Wei, let us go down first. We will protect you and beat up these ruffians!” 

“Your Highness.” Yan Huaishi tries to grab Ning Yi then Zhi Wei “Here is too dangerous. Let’s go down below deck in case someone tries to shoot arrows in the chaos!”

Ning Yi didn’t move, nor did Zhi Wei. Standing at the front of the boat, the two calmly faced the fury from the citizens of the South Sea. 

A tied-up bundle of dried fish landed right by Ning Yi’s shoes, sending shattered pieces onto his boot. The guards rushed over, attempting to hold up an umbrella to shield him but Ning Yi waved it away. 

“The citizens of South Sea are indeed quite wealthy.” Ning Yi says with a smile to Zhi Wei “You see, someone even threw dried fish. This kind dried fish would cost 500wen back in the Capital for a bundle.”  Nodding in agreement with much feeling, Zhi Wei adds “Steamed, mixed with sesame oil, vinegar, garlic, green onion. They are delicious.” 

Yan Huaishi nervously paced around, unable to understand why these two people are still in the mood to make small talks under such circumstances. He doesn’t know if the boat ran into a submerged rock or it was purposefully damaged by someone but no matter what, there is a hole now so the boat will sink soon. They could either wait for the local officials to send a big boat to get them or they will have to roll to shore on the emergency small boat. But if they use the small boats then they will be exposed to the attack of the eggs and vegetables from the citizens. How can he let Ning Yi be subjected to such treatments? Plus if they let Ning Yi and Zhi Wei go ashore on the small boat first then the people on the shore rush towards them, who is going to guarantee their safety? However, if they let the guards off first to secure the premise and the boat sinks, then how is Ning Yi suppose to command the South Sea officials in the future after they and the people have witnessed his embarrassment of falling into the water? And of course now that the South Sea officials are “stuck” behind the riotous crowd, it would be impossible to hope they would come to the rescue. This is obviously a vicious plot to embarrass Ning Yi and Feng Zhi Wei. Zhou Xizhong’s nickname is “Iron fist Zhu”, the South Sea officials will sometimes call him the “Bulldozer Zhou”, his personality is fierce and unbending or else he would not have been capable of oppressing the rich nobles for so many years. Judging by how he even dares to pull this stunt with the royal envoys, it is impossible to hope that he would be willing to give in. 

Unable to think of any other alternative, Zhou Xizhong declares “I will tell my clan’s big boat to come get us!” 

“No.” Zhi Wei rejects the idea right away “The people’s emotions here are getting all riled up because the local government officials are telling people the noblemen are in cahoots with the officials from the Capital. By using your family’s boat to solve this problem here will just be giving them actual proof, thus adding fuel to the fire.”  

“Then what should we do!” 

Ning Yi smiles and says abruptly “Wei Zhi, I am quite intrigued by the dish of steamed fish you mentioned just now.” 

Zhi Wei’s eyes sparkled with amusement “It’s too boring if we just have one single dished of steamed fish…Master Gu.” 

Master Gu who had been munching on his walnuts floated over. (The author likes to use “float” to describe Gu Nan Yi’s movement because it has a ghost connotation so it is both a bit funny and also helps to convey how fast he can move.) 

“We don’t want to be wasteful of food,” Zhi Wei points at the various food that is floating on top of the water “Look around and bring back whatever is edible.” 

Master Gu nods and tosses ten plus walnuts out. The walnuts spin into the air and fall on the water. Master Gu follows and lands right on a walnut closest to him. The walnuts might be small but Gu Nan Yi easily lands on each of them, appearing as if he is gliding in the air. His figure seemingly sparkling in the sunlight, appearing like a gentle deity to the people of the South Sea, making them pause in the middle of throwing as their mouths fall open in awe. Most people would be a bit disconcerted to be stared at by 10,000 people but Master Gu has always treated everyone else other than Zhi Wei as air so he leisurely grabs a basket. 

A…basket…

The 10,000 citizens of South Sea were stunned- it is shocking enough to have a deity glide through the sea with walnuts but one that glide through the sea with walnuts AND a basket on his back? Doesn’t that seem a bit abnormal for a deity? Hmm…on second thought, maybe it is unheard of to have deities travel with vegetable baskets on their back but the picture seems rather lovely anyway. 

 The deity slowly pulls out his supernatural veggie basket then languidly lands on each of the walnuts, all the edible foods such as vegetables, eggs, dried fish, crabs were swept into the basket. 

A collective “Ahhhh!” went out from the 10,000 citizens–so this walnut riding basket carrying deity is a waste collector!

After gathering up all the food he can see Master Gu doesn’t forget to go back and collect the walnuts- walnuts can’t be wasted after all. 

Only focused on completing the mission given to him by Zhi Wei and totally unaware he has just given the people of South Sea an unforgettable performance, Master Gu returns to the boat and hands the basket to Zhi Wei. 

Zhi Wei smiles brightly as she accepts the basket but was promptly rendered speechless- Master Gu doesn’t discern between good or bad food, he just gathered everything he could see. In the basket, there were rotten vegetable leaves along with a few very unlucky jellyfish that were just minding their own business. Zhi Wei tosses all the inedible stuff back into the ocean, then declares with a smile “Tonight you all can try my cooking.” 

After Zhi Wei turns and says a few words to him, Master Gu gets up on the deck. Having long forgotten what they had came for, all the people raised their heads to look at Gu Nan Yi. 

“His Highness says, “So the people of South Sea is actually this rich.” In a matter of fact tone Gu Nan Yi repeats Zhi Wei’s words. Master Gu’s voice wasn’t loud but the crowd of 10,000 heard him clearly. Through the binocular Zhi Wei sees that Minister Zhou, who had been calmly reading finally put down his book and raised his head. 

“The chief secretary of South Sea had just a short time ago reported to the Emperor about the disasters this area has suffered and requested for lowering of taxes.” Gu Nan Yi’s memory is quite good and had no trouble repeating everything Zhi Wei said word for word.  “One of the purposes of royal envoy’s visit is to check on the extent of South Sea’s disaster and be prepared to send food relief help along with the edict to completely forgive taxes this year for the South Sea area. However, right upon arrival, we have received 5lbs of dried fish, 10 crabs, thousands of dried veggies and eggs. It is obvious from this that South Sea is in no danger of starvation so the report of disaster suffering was falsified, which means there is no need to decrease taxes.” 

“Ah?!!” The 10,000 citizens turn furiously in unison to glare at the local government officials. 


All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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