The Rise of Phoenixes Novel Translation #63

Ning Yi stands on the deck with a hand on the banister, his black cloak dancing in the wind. Despite being so far away but everyone in the crowd seems to feel his cool glance is directed at them. 

“It is your humble servant’s honor to receive Your Highness’ guidance!” Minister Zhou continues “Your servant know I have committed many wrongs and plead with Your Highness to allow me to lead all of the high officials to come on the boat to start a fire for the stove.” 

Zhi Wei who has been picking out rotten vegetable leaves on the deck raised an eyebrow. It’s too embarrassing to come on the boat by himself to start a cooking fire so he is going to bring a group of officials with him to turn this into a flashy show of friendship? This guy sure has some nice calculations. He is bringing so many people with him, is he hoping to trump them just by number? Zhi Wei smiles. 

Minister Zhou’s question was greeted by silence as an indifferent Ning Yi turns around and left Master Gu waving a beckoning hand at Minister Zhou– come start the cooking fire quickly! 

When the officials boarded the boat, Ning Cheng is already waiting to give each of them a stack of wood. “His Highness says you all can skip greeting him.” Ning Cheng says “The fire right now is not big enough to cook the dried fish, we will leave it in your hands.” 

Holding his stack of wood, Minister Zhou knows full well that Ning Yi is trying to humiliate him but there is nothing he can do about it right now. Minister Zhou’s subordinates who are used to seeing their dignified boss run the world according to his will could feel laughter bubbling up inside them but of course they have to suppress it no matter how difficult it is. 

Yan Huaishi takes the men to the boat’s kitchen and with some glee points to the stove. “Please go ahead.” 

Swallowing his anger as he looks at the completely barren kitchen, Minister Zhou asks “Why is there not even a chair here?” 

Holding a crab in her hand, Zhi Wei walks over and says with a laugh “Minister Zhou, I had heard that you came from a modest background. Even if a man is supposed to stay away from the kitchen (they used to believe that in Chinese culture) and you are now living quite comfortably but you should still know that you can’t start a fire while sitting on a chair.” 

“Official Wei,” One of the officials bows to her “Would it be possible to find a stool for the Minister. The rest of us could just squat.” 

Her expression serious, Zhi Wei replies “After the boat had a collision all the stools were taken to plug the hole. I am so sorry.” 

Speechless, after a long moment Minister Zhou finally flung his cloak to the side and squats down to start the fire. Behind him, a crowd of officials immediately follow suit. The wood Master Gu provided was a bit wet so after many attempts the only thing the officials were able to produce was just smoke that blackened their faces and made them cough incessantly. When they finally got the fire going, Ning Cheng begins to come again and again “The chopsticks are on the table…is the steamed fish ready?” “The bowls are on the table…are the crabs ready?” A face full of soot, Minister Zhou obviously doesn’t have to personally start the fire but he can’t leave either which means his poor subordinates get to wrestle with a task they have never done while enduring laser-sharp glare from their boss. 

Sitting in a reception room, Ning Yi is drinking tea with South Sea’s army commander and magistrate– technically the army commander, magistrate and minister of finance should’ve shared their control of this area but Minister Zhou has so much power that he didn’t even inform the two other men of Ning Yi’s arrival so as to avoid his plan getting disrupted. (Minister Zhou’s office is in the port city but the other two departments are not so that’s why Minister Zhou could pull this off.) Belatedly getting word of Ning Yi’s arrival, the two officials rushed to the port and was rewarded by the sight of Minister Zhou going up to the boat to start a cooking fire. In an exceptionally good mood, Army Commander Official Lu offers insincerely “We should go up to the boat to help with the fire as well…”  Magistrate Tao who has always been at odds with Minister Zhou laughs the minute he sees the Minister “Ah, Old Zhou, your fire is not right, the wind is going the wrong direction, be careful you don’t end up burning yourself!” Stoned faced, Minister Zhou ignores the two men. 

Ning Yi says languidly “You three are the core of South Sea so the two of you should go help with the fire.” The two officials stiffen until Ning Yi continues “But you are here too late. There is no place to squat anymore so you might just as well wait in the front room.” 

All smiles, the two officials sit sipping tea with Ning Yi while Minister Zhou squats in front of the stove fire, his expression turning more glum by the second. One of Minister Zhou’s subordinates leans close to him and whispers “Sir, this…” Through gritted teeth, Minister Zhou replies “There is still plenty of chances! Plus Prince Chu will eventually have to leave for Minnan so without his men around this Wei Zhi won’t be able to do much here.” 

*Clunk* Minister Zhou jumps in surprise when a stack of wood suddenly falls right by his foot. Looking up, Minister Zhou sees Master Gu floating by with a simple word “Burnt.” Zhi Wei pokes her head over and yelps “Ah! It’s burnt, start over!”

“…………”

Two long hours later the dishes consisting of steamed crab, steamed fish, steamed eggs, stir fry vegetables, stir fry mussels, shrimp and seaweed soup are finally ready to be taken to the table. 

Sitting at the head of the table, Ning Yi gracefully waves his hand “Please.” To avoid exposing the condition of his eyes, there are a bunch of small plates placed right in front of Ning Yi. Everyone would just naturally assume this a habit of the royals and not think anything of it. Pretty famished by this point, Minister Zhou figures Ning Yi wouldn’t dare to poison him right on the boat so he confidently put a piece of dried fish into his mouth. The moment he bites down Minister Zhou senses something is not quite right but one look at Zhi Wei who is all smiles as she sips her tea Minister Zhou wonder if he is overthinking it. 

“Official Wei, are you not going to eat?” Minister Zhou asks with puzzlement. 

“My stomach has been feeling queasy so I can’t eat these seafood.” Giving Minister Zhou an encouraging smile, Zhi Wei says “You go ahead sir, please.” 

Minister Zhou takes another couple bites until a sudden loud sound of *Crunch* makes him freeze in mid chewing. Everyone usually eat extremely carefully in these kinds of setting so the sound was especially clear causing all to stop eating and look towards Minister Zhou’s direction. Minister Zhou’s usually dark face slowly turns to the color of purple as he cradles his cheek with his chipped tooth. Zhi Wei leans over and in a what everyone could hear clearly sort of  “whisper” asks Master Gu “Hey, that dried fish…did you wash it?” Master Gu loudly replies “Gathered from the sea.” Meaning that’s water too so why wash it. 

“………….”

Poor Minister Zhou chipped his teeth on the sand and can’t eat anymore. After slaving away in the kitchen, poor South Sea officials can’t eat anymore as well. Also hungry themselves, Magistrate Tao and Army Commander Lu are all smiles — they are happy as long as could watch Minister Zhou being taught a lesson.

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