The Rise of Phoenixes Novel Translation #77

The carriage stopped in front of the South Sea government offices but there was no one around. After making some inquiries, they were told that Minister Zhou is laying in bed ill and not accepting guests. 

When asked if the minister’s first assistant is around? Answer: Out of the office for work, to investigate the explosion at the dock.

When asked if the minister’s second assistant is around? Answer: Out of office for work.

When asked if any of department heads are around? Answer: Out of office for work.

They then went to the state capital office and was told that today is an official holiday so they are not accepting guests. Due to the deaths that have affected many villages, the governor has rushed out to deal with it. Zhi Wei just smiles as the governor’s secretary explains apologetically. Helian and the rest of the academy students weren’t so patient but are already complaining loudly. 

“What is going on?!”

“They are doing this on purpose!”

“Let’s go find Minister Zhou!”  

Sitting in the governor’s front office, Zhi Wei doesn’t seem to have any intention of leaving but keeps on sipping her tea with a smile as the students complain loudly and the governor’s secretary nervously looks on. 

Finally done with her tea, Zhi Wei says “Even if the office is not open today but there should still be some people around right? I have some official matters that need to borrow some of your people. This should not be difficult right?”

“They are yours to direct at will.” 

Slowly sipping even more tea, Zhi Wei languidly tells the group of confused governor staff “Since the office is not open today, then everyone might as well take the opportunity to go out and wander a bit. You all would be the most familiar with the city so I have invited you to be guides for these young masters. Take the young masters wherever they want to go and you will be handsomely rewarded.”

The governor’s men are still not sure what to think but the students are thrilled. 

Yao Yang Yu (I believe that’s the student who had helped Zhi Wei and Ning Yi during the explosion) raced over, leaned close to Zhi Wei’s ear and asks “Anywhere is good?”

Give him a glance, Zhi Wei replies “Anywhere is good.” 

Bright eyed,  Yao Yang Yu asks again “Truly anywhere?” 

“Truly anywhere is good.” 

Yao Yang Yu lets out an excited laugh. Seemingly adding as an afterthought, Zhi Wei says “Don’t be stingy. Go out and enjoy yourselves with these good men from the governor’s office. If you happen to meet some familiar faces from the local government…ah, you know, other than my responsibility as the royal envoy, I also have a duty to make sure the local government are serving the people correctly. You guys are part of the royal envoy party so I grant you the same authority….ha ha.”

“Ha ha!” Thanks to his upbringing as the second generation nobleman who grew up with plenty of palace politics, Yao Yang Yu instantly caught on to Zhi Wei’s meaning. Clapping his hands, Yao Yang Yu gathers all the students and declares “Brothers! Today we will go whoring by command!” 

“Puff!” Tea shot out of Zhi Wei, Ning Cheng and Helian’s mouths in unison… 

“Really…” As everyone rushed out of the door, Zhi Wei mutters “Don’t be so honest…”

“Really…” Ning Cheng blinks in shock “No wonder last night she wasn’t fazed.” 

“Really…” Helian shifts around on his seat as if he is sitting on pins and needles “How can they just say it out loud like that, now I have to pretend to be a saint in front of her, I want to go but I don’t dare to go…”

“Really.” Zhi Wei leans over and asks the sad faced Helian curiously “Why are you not going? Wait, are you perhaps…” 

Offended, Helian loudly declares “My aunty said to guard my body.”

Give him a side glance, Zhi Wei says “Your aunty says you can go to this.”

Jumping up, Helian raced out to catch up to the group. He was in too much of a hurry so he didn’t hear the rest of Zhi Wei’s sentence. 

“…if you go, then you are out…” 

——————————-

The first day the royal envoy arrived, the South Sea officials were forced up to the boat to light kitchen fires.

The third day the royal envoys arrived, the South Sea local government was swept up in a “prostitution arrest”. (The brothels are obviously legal, but these officials are technically still on the clock despite being given a sort of rest day so they are still in trouble if they are caught by someone who is not willing to look the other way.)

That day originally wasn’t an off day, but Minister Zhou had sent out an order saying that since everyone had been extra busy the last bit then they were allowed to “rest on the job”. Meaning that they are still technically working but they are allowed to rest. 

Minister Zhou’s leadership style is that he is quite severe when it comes to work but he doesn’t meddle once his people are off the clock. He has high expectations of his subordinates so to avoid pushing his people too hard, he tends to look the other way on certain things. 

Therefore, on this “rest day” while all the officials are technically “working”, in actuality, they all went out to party. 

Which is how they all ended up having serendipity meetings with the second generation noble brats from the Capital. 

The governor’s staff took the envoy members around so naturally they have to take them to the best party places the city can offer…the same ones the officials frequented. The second generation noble brats are on official orders to visit the brothels and thus were extra friendly to the governor’s men. As lowly staffs on meager wages who have never been to these sort of places, these men started to forget themselves and was eager to show off whenever they saw certain familiar government officials. Whispering to the noble brats, they would say “You see over there, that’s Official xxx, last time my son got married he had sent over a gift.” “You see that one over there, ha ha, that’s official xxx, his mistress is Miss Red.” 

With wine cup in hand and an arm around some beauty, the noble brats smiled at each other “You guys got it?” 

“Yep!” 

With a yell and wave of a hand from the noble brats, the royal envoy guards rushed in through the doors, flipped the tables, tied up the officials who were in the middle of enjoying themselves and put a black bag on their heads. 

All of the officials were tied to one rope. A certain higher level officials yelled “How dare you! Who are you! Release me! I am Official xxx!” 

Leaning close, someone asks the man “Are you sure you are Official xxx?”

“Yes!”

“You are certain that you want us to take off the black hood?”

“Quickly!”

The black hood around his head was snatched away. Blinking in the light, the official realizes he is in the middle of the road, surrounded with at least three layers of crowds of people, all of them looking foolish as they stared at him with their mouth agape. 

Immediately lowering his head, the official yells “I am not! Put the hood on!” 

Similar scenes played out all over in the city at various high level brothels. The lucky citizens all watched a show free of charge, it was certainly juicy enough for all to hold a great gossiping party. 

Yao Yang Yu and Helian greatly magnified their talent in digging into people’s dirty little secrets and managed to find out that one particular official has a unique taste for more of the provincial sort. Rushing out of the town, Yao Yang Yu and Helian had several lovely encounters with beautiful village girls before finally capturing their target. 

In just half of a day, after ransacking through the top brothels the following were tied up to a single rope and led through the street on their way to the magistrate office: 48 officials in total, two of them third level officials, one fourth level official, eighteen fifth level officials, six seventh level officials, two ninth level officials, and finally, a whole bunch of small time officials. 

The news vibrated through the city, the citizens followed the procession for three whole blocks to see all the mighty officials who usually have their noses up in the air being lead through the street. Zhi Wei did make sure all the officials had head covers and no names or crime were announced but of course in a blink of an eye, the whole province knew that all of South Sea officials went out “partying” and ended up getting arrested together. 

Minister Zhou has already received the news and came out to greet Zhi Wei with a stony expression. Minister Zhou’s face twitched uncontrollably when he saw the procession and promptly ordered his men to dispel the onlooking crowd. 

Zhi Wei didn’t try to stop him. One should always try to not back people into the corner, she just wanted Minister Zhou to see clearly who he is dealing with.

Minister Zhou brought all the officials in then ordered them to be all untied. 

“Minister Zhou.” Sipping yet another cup of tea, Zhi Wei asks “What do you mean by this?”

“That’s a good question.” Minister Zhou snaps around to stare at her with narrowed eyes “What does Official Wei mean by this?”

Staring at Zhi Wei’s thin wispy figure, Minister Zhou could hardly know how to describe the complex emotions swirling in him.  

His purpose today was really just to let this young man learn the importance of knowing his place and also set the tone of their negotiation over the maritime construction.  Of course he also had another agenda– in all his years, he has never suffered such a defeat. A simple demonstration meant to embarrass the royal envoy ended up becoming a disaster that he is still working to clear up. What’s worse, that whole thing just made the royal envoy look good. If he doesn’t teach this kid a lesson soon, then his subordinate would start to think less of him. But in all his careful calculations, he had figured the kid would be the patient sort whose talent is to strike in secret by some unsavory means. Who would’ve thought the kid actually had fiery blood coursing through his veins that he would dare to turn the whole city government on its head, dragging through all the officials on a rope through the streets.

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