His five senses sharpened because of his loss of vision, Ning Yi knew the moment Yan Huai Ying turned her head and could even sense a bit of the woman’s sudden elation. (The elation is referring to Yuan Huai Ying’s joy in believing that she can finally see Zhi Wei grovel in front of her)

Turning around, Ning Yi jerked close the window then immediately pushed away Yan Huai Ying. Caught by surprise, Yan Huai Ying falls right on the bed. Mistakenly believe Ning Yi is simply too eager, Yan Huai Ying moans then obediently lays on the bed. Her heart pounding, Yan Huai Ying is inexperienced after all and has no idea how to proceed so she could only grip the bedsheet with her sweaty palm. Laying in the dark, Yan Huai Ying holds her breath as she listens intently but that person keeps not coming forward and all she could hear is the pounding of her heart. 

Bang! Startled, Yan Huai Ying sits up quickly and turns to see the door has been kicked open revealing Feng Zhi Wei who is holding a huge basin filled to the brim with water. Zhi Wei stumbles in none too steadily splashing water as she go. Ning Yi who was standing right by the door ended up getting splashed on one of his shoes. 

“The water is here.” Breathing heavily, Zhi Wei says “Your humble servant figures Your Highness must have worked hard, Yilang too must have worked hard, so I made sure to bring in extra water. Not only is there enough water to wash your hands, there should be plenty to even take a bath.” 

With a huge basin in hand, Zhi Wei stands in front of the doorway and smiles innocently under the moonlight.  Inside the room everything looks very suggestive– messed up bedsheets, darkened room, man and woman half dressed, the alluring fragrance of peony filling the air. Ning Yi, ah, Ning Yi. You and your love of playing games to test people. If you really touched this woman, then you would know that to seduce you she wore a thin fabric with a low neckline. This is apparently some new fashion from overseas. I have no idea if it’s pretty or not but it is extremely easy to rip– it would even be easier to just take the thing off with the low neckline, why bother wasting so much effort to rip it from the shoulder?  Moreover, you are holding her upper body so tightly but why is your leg a step back? As for your hand on her shoulder, why is it that no matter how I look at it, it looks more like holding her hostage instead of caressing her? You always hate it when people get too close. Touching her still slightly aching stomach, Zhi Wei grumbles silently why she has to first be tormented by those cursed seafood then get harassed by these two men, one is naive and the other is strange. 

Sighing, feeling a bit bored, Zhi Wei meets Yan Huai Ying’s gaze and couldn’t hold back an amused smile when she looks over at her strange looking dress. Completely stunned to see Zhi Wei’s smile, Yan Huai Ying could not fathom why this person could laugh in this situation. She has imagined ten thousand times how she could humiliate Wei Zhi when she finally is able to share His Highness’ bed and indeed, it looks like she is really close to the time when she can finally shame this person– what could be more satisfying than to have him serve her? Yet, when Wei Zhi walked in with the basin in hand, she was unable to find any trace of bitterness and anger she had hoped to see in those crystal clear eyes. Instead, she had unconsciously begun to fumble with her clothes, suddenly feeling as if she had descended as low as the dust on the ground. 

Ning Yi had been silent the whole time, listening intently to Zhi Wei’s breathing. Standing in the dark, listening to her calm and even breathing that was neither sad nor happy, no anger or fury. In the dark silence, his heart slowly dropped into a deep abyss. Another loud clunking sound abruptly came again, it was the sound of metal hitting the ground as the big basin dropped by his foot causing water to spill onto his other shoe. Now both of his shoes are wet. With a smile in her voice, Zhi Wei says “I am so clumsy, your humble servant is not skilled in serving people, why don’t Yilang take over instead.” There was an emphasis on the word Yilang, as if it was said through gritted teeth. 

Ning Yi abruptly begins to smile. I almost thought you are so good that you would be unmoved by anything. This trickery little fox is finally losing control a bit. There was a hint of self satisfaction in the smile, adding a few degree brightness to his smile. In the darkness, the heart that has been dropped into the deep abyss is slowly floating up. 

“Hmm.” Ning Yi sits down then suddenly turns his head and asks coldly “Did you not hear?”

He didn’t look toward Yan Huai Ying’s direction so Yan Huai Ying didn’t catch his meaning at first. Zhi Wei flashes her a smile and points towards the basin of water. Blinking in confusion, Yan Huai Ying belatedly remembers Wei Zhi had said “Why don’t Yilang take over instead.” Is His Highness actually telling her to go serve in the state she is in? 

After sitting there stiffly for a moment, Yan Huai Ying finally slowly climbed down the bed, pulled on her ripped nightdress until it somewhat covered her shoulder. Yan Huai Ying has never served anyone in the past, so after shuffling towards Zhi Wei she was clueless of what to do.  Casting a glance at Yan Huai Ying and seeing her haughtiness has now been replaced by bewilderment, Zhi Wei sighed in her heart. Why? Why sacrifice your whole life over ambition or some trifling offense? These kids raised in the noble family are too narrow minded. They would magnify minor issues until they cornered themself into some imagined danger, torturing themselves. She really has no desire to make things difficult for her. Not because she pity her but rather, she figured Yan Huai Ying is already in bad enough state now that she has been sacrificed by her clan, going from a noble miss to a concubine. To make the whole thing even more tragic, her effort is destined to be futile. With all that, if she steps on her as well and this poor kid hangs herself in Ning Yi’s room then they have to go through the trouble of moving. 

“Your humble servant’s hands are already wet, then I should just do it. I got some mud on my hand as well, I might as well borrow some of His Highness’ water to wash it off.” Grinning, Zhi Wei walks over to kneel in front of Ning Yi to help him take off his wet shoes. Who knew Ning Yi would instead kick Yan Huai Ying’s knee with the front of his shoe “Official Wei’s hands are dirty, didn’t you hear? Are you not going to help him wash his hands right away?” 

Yan Huai Ying is rooted to the spot, unable to move. Ning Yi’s kick wasn’t hard, but it instantly shattered her little heart. In that instant, she suddenly realized she was wrong. She had thought wrong. All the stories of how one could use the power of the royals to gloat and do whatever they want in front of high level officials are just exactly that, stories. The protagonists in those stories are not the sort like Ning Yi, a prince who has been through untold trials or Wei Zhi, an official who is conniving and calculating. In front of people such as these, nothing absurd would happen, no one can just move someone else out of place. And her, the one who had this absurd hope is the one who is shamed…and there is no going back, ever. She was the one who abandoned herself– in the past she could kneel in front of Wei Zhi, but from now on, she doesn’t even have the right to be within three feet of Wei Zhi. (She was a noblewoman before but now, she is a concubine, a servant who can’t be in front of an official unless summoned by her master.) 

Her lips are trembling, she wants to explode in anger and cry, just like she could all her life as the granddaughter of Yan clan, but she doesn’t dare to do any of it. Ning Yi is not Wei Zhi. She dared to flash her temper in front of the gentle Wei Zhi because deep down she knew Wei Zhi wouldn’t really do anything to her. But in front of Ning Yi, she doesn’t dare. One icy glance from this man who is as elegant as moonlight, as beautiful as the flower Devil’s Snare, all her words are frozen and sealed in her blood. She believes, if she angered Wei Zhi, she might just have to suffer some punishment but if she angered Ning Yi…then it is death.

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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