Once the “feast” wrapped up and the boat was able to be docked after a temporary patch, everyone prepares to disembark. The crowd on the dock has thinned some but there was still more than half who had chosen to remain. Looking over the crowd, Yan Huaishi says to Zhi Wei with concern “Other than those working for Minister Zhou, Cheng clan’s men might be mixed in the crowd as well. This could be troublesome. If someone shoots arrows at us we wouldn’t even know who did it.”

“We have to pass through the crowd if we want to get off the boat.” Zhi Wei replies “If we let Minister Zhou forcefully disperse the crowd, he could very well use the chance to do something else. Things could get worse at that point. Make sure you send enough men to protect His Highness.” 

Turning around, Zhi Wei casts a worried glance over at Ning Yi while wondering silently what they can do for his eyes. According to Ning Chen, they might only be able to find a solution when they get to Minnan. She has little clue of Ning Yi’s thoughts, he has always been skilled at hiding his emotions but she bears some responsibility for his injury so no matter what she has to make certain of his safety. 

The guards disembarked first and stationed themselves around the dock. Ning Chen and Zhi Wei are on either side of Ning Yi while the academy students are at the outside circle, then the guards formed another circle beyond that. Zhi Wei asked Helian and Gu Nan Yi to walk in front of the students then pleaded with them to be sure to protect them well– these are all kids from important families in the Capital, they have to make sure every single one of them return home in one piece. 

Listening to the noises around him, Ning Yi secretly squeezes Zhi Wei’s finger then says with low laugh “It’s rare to see you worry so much about me.” 

Replying with all seriousness, Zhi Wei says “To be of any help to Your Highness is your humble servent’s honor.” 

Ning Yi smiles then suddenly lean close to her ear and whispers “I actually would rather hear you say — to prepare and warm my Prince’s bed is your humble concubine’s duty.” 

Zhi Wei’s nerve was already on edge, she had to divide her attention between watching the crowd and her own group so her temper quickly flared up when she saw a certain someone is still in the mood to joke around. Smiling sweetly, Zhi Wei replies “Is that so? Your humble servant hope that my prince’s wish can come true in the next life.” Before Zhi Wei can finish talking she suddenly paused. An old woman in the crowd lost her balance and stumbles towards their direction. A guard at the outer circle promptly reaches out a hand towards the old woman who falls on contact then rolls away while her basket rolls past the guards’ feet towards Ning Yi’s direction. As the fabric covering the basket falls away Zhi Wei could see the basket was filled with black balls of gunpowder bombs! The basket continues to roll towards her and Ning Yi’s direction, one of the guards raises a leg to kick it. Zhi Wei yells “No!” but it was too late. A loud explosion abruptly sounds in the middle of the crowd and the guards. Screams of shock and surprise came as the air filled with smoke. When the explosion went off, Zhi Wei had spun around to throw her arms around Ning Yi. In the chaos, she felt Ning Yi had grabbed her at the same time, followed by someone else who also came to throw himself on top of them, the impact of the explosion sends the three of them to the floor together. The black smoke envelopes the dock, screams and yells of pain were everywhere.  A stampede of thousands of people terrified by the explosion blindly trying to escape and inadvertently stepping on more of those black gunpowder balls which sets off even more explosions…resulting in another round of black smoke, screams, bloody body parts…turning the dock into hell on earth. 

Zhi Wei has no clue how long she was rolling on the ground or how far she got. The only thing she could tell was that there were never ending bloodied bodies falling on top of her and never ending frantic stampede of people’s feet stepping on her. She had no time to think or to get up so the only thing she could do was to hold tightly onto Ning Yi. As for Ning Yi, he managed to wrap his arms around her and twisted about until he covered her body with his own. When they first fell down, she had thrown herself on top of him but somehow it has become him protecting her. 

There were simply too many people on the dock. The explosion caused the maximum damage. In a situation where it could be likened to the end of the world, the crowd of people were like trapped animals, frantic as they run in every direction, stepping on each other without regard, making it impossible for anyone to protect anyone. In a matter of seconds, the two of them have been stepped on multiple times and the person above them keep trying to help them upright but his attempts were futile against the flood of people. In the end, the person could only use his own body to cover and protect them the best he could as he leads them towards a direction he had managed to discern from the thick smoke. 

In the chaos, Zhi We could barely hear Gu Nan Yi’s voice: “Wei!” Using the word Wei that is in both of her identities was something she had already discussed with Gu Nan Yi. This way, no matter what circumstance it is, Gu Nan Yi’s call for her will not arouse any suspicion. 　

Master Gu is alright! Zhi Wei excitedly calls out “I am here!” but amongst all the screams of thousands of people and without the great reservoir of Master Gu’s internal energy it was impossible for him to hear her yell. Her body jerked as it suddenly falls into a rut in the ground, Zhi Wei slowly climbs up to see they have finally made it out of the crowd into an area of the dock where they repair boats. Belatedly feeling her body aching all over as if every bone in her body had been fractured, Zhi Wei turns around to look at Ning Yi whose condition doesn’t seem to be much better than hers with bruises everywhere on his face and hands. Sitting up calmly, Ning Yi reaches out a hand to touch her seemingly trying to see if she is hurt. Zhi Wei lets out a sigh of relief “Much thanks to Ning Cheng for protecting us, we still need to go find others as soon as possible. Who knows how many have been wounded….” Ning YI shakes his head “It wasn’t Ning Cheng.” 　　

Surprised, Zhi Wei only then looks down to discover a person by her feet calling out weakly “Sir, it’s me…..”  The man turns out to be widely acknowledged as the most useless among all the sons of noble families, Yao Yangyu.

“Sorry, sorry.” Zhi Wei quickly helps him to get up. Yao Yangyu looked even worse than they did, his whole body is covered with blood and footprints. When the explosion happened, Yao Yangyu happens to be right by Zhi Wei. Reacting quickly, Yao Yangyu threw himself on top of them the second he heard the sound of the explosion and protected them the best him could. Zhi Wei was quite surprised at Ning Cheng’s absence. Ning Yi softly answers her silent question “When the explosion happened, I pushed him towards the direction of the students.” 

Zhi Wei instantly knew what Ning Yi meant–the explosion happened among the guards, the students were right next to the guards, so other than the guards the students were in the most danger which is why Ning Yi had Ning Cheng go rescue them first. A thought suddenly occurs to Zhi Wei, she is the one who brought the academy students to South Sea so they are her responsibility and has nothing to do with Ning Yi. However, under such dangerous circumstances, he had ignored his own safety but had instead sent his best guard to rescue the students… it was all for her right? As for Ning Cheng, being Ning Yi’s personal guard his most important duty is to protect his master but he was willing to obey Ning Yi’s order to save the academy students, is that because he knows Ning Yi’s thoughts? Despite all the thoughts swirling in her mind, Zhi Wei’s expression gave no indication to them. Looking away towards the crowd, Zhi Wei could see the explosion is slowly coming to a stop. The thick smoke begins to dissipate, revealing countless dead bodies, broken limbs and shoes lost in the chaos. Cries and moaning of pain from the survivors filled the air, the dock has become hell on earth. 


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