• The rest of the scene is where Zhi Wei and Minister Zhou have a verbal duel until Minister Zhou agrees to give Zhi Wei the support she wants for the maritime office. 
  • As Zhi Wei had gathered before, Minister Zhou is actually genuinely worried about the ordinary citizens’ welfare so his biggest worry is the fact that Zhi Wei is planning to put Yan Clan in charge of the maritime office. Remember, Minister Zhou is extremely wary of the five big clans because they already have plenty of money so once they have political power as well Minister Zhou fears that’s when the ordinary citizens will be truly powerless against them.  

“The issue at heart is that Minister can’t trust the big clans. But what if there is someone trustworthy at the head of the clan? Then everything Minister is worried about wouldn’t happen.”

“You mean Yan Huai Shi right?” Minister Zhou sneers “And you are sure he is absolutely trustworthy? You need to know that helping Yan Huai Shi into that position will be harder than others. Not only will other clans be against it but Yan clan themselves won’t allow it either. Be careful you don’t end up ruining yourself in the end.” 

“That’s my business.” Zhi Wei’s expression remains passive “I just want a promise from the Minister.” 

“Alright.” Minister Zhou says coldly “If you can control Yan clan, get the other clans to follow along and make sure South Sea doesn’t fall into Yan clan’s clutch then I will help you with the maritime office.”

“Alright.” Zhi Wei gets up and bows slightly “Just as I am going to hold onto my report (concerning the officials that were arrested) to the Emperor for now, Minister can wait to see what I can do.” 

“You are young and capable, but hopefully you are not digging your own grave.” Minister Zhou gives Zhi Wei a meaningful look “I need to make sure South Sea remains stable. Some things, you should conduct yourself carefully.”

Flashing a small smile, Zhi Wei turns to leave, causing the crowd of officials to shrink back as she walks past.

With the negotiation half way to being successful, the academy students are thrilled, all yelling that life with Office Wei is the best kind. After all, back in the Capital they would not imagine they could beat up level three officials. The students were so noisy as they sang loudly all the way home that Master Gu awarded each of them with a walnut to the head. 

Prince Helian was the only one feeling a bit down because his aunty said that he reeks of perfumes, stinks, stay away.

Prince Helian feels quite wronged. Really, you are the one who said it, it was okay to go. The women back home always stick to what they say exactly, why does he have to like a female swindler who never tells the truth…

Zhi Wei’s carriage drove out of town, passing a few small hills and mountain villages. Before they had gone too far, a horse was seen galloping towards them. After speaking with the guards briefly, the rider was taken directly to Zhi Wei. 

“What’s the matter?” Zhi Wei signals for the carriage to stop, recognizing the rider to be one of the butlers from the Yan manor.

The butler quickly whispered a few words by her ear, causing Zhi Wei to stand up abruptly. 

This particular butler is one who had come to Yan clan with Yan Huai Shi’s mother’s marriage. He is one of the few trusted servants Yan Huai Shi has in Yan clan. When he came, he was full of sweat and dirt all over his robe. Whispering urgently, the butler tells Zhi Wei that after she had left, Yan clan held a clan meeting to cast Yan Huai Shi and his mother out of the clan. His Highness had immediately gone to stop it after he had received word but according to South Sea customs, a clan meeting in the ancestry chapel is sacred, once the door is closed no one is allowed to open it. Anyone who dared to do so, will not only become that particular clan’s enemy but will incur the fury of the whole South Sea. When His Highness was stopped in front of the Yan clan’s chapel door he didn’t try to force his way in but ordered a thousand guards to surround it and declared that if Yan Huai Shi and his mother is harmed at all then the people in the chapel might as well starve to death. Those working for Yan clan along with other extended Yan clan members received word as well and after gathering, there are several thousand who have surrounded Ning Yi’s group. 

Zhi Wei could not have imagined Yan clan could’ve created such trouble in just the few hours she had left. She knew South Sea has always placed great importance on their family traditions and customs. Those are the kind of things that even the government has to respect or else it could bring about great unrest. 

Years ago, there was once a case involving a clan’s ancestry chapel. An official at that time had chased an important criminal into a certain clan’s ancestry chapel and accidentally knocked over the clan’s ancestor wooden name plaques. The clan leader immediately killed himself in the chapel causing the angry South Sea citizens to surround the place. Within half of a day, there were twenty thousand angry citizens that surrounded the place, trapping the head official within the chapel for 18 days. The South Sea army was sent to rescue the officials but most serving in the army were locals from South Sea and refused to use force against their own people. In the end, that head official was starved to death. 

The common people place great importance in bloodlines and the protection of ancestry chapels. The less educated the people are the more stubborn they seem to be about such matters. They see the invasion of their ancestry chapel as the greatest humiliation and forget all past squabbles to band together. The government had learned their lesson and from that point on stayed far away from such matters.

In another word, if they don’t tread carefully today, then Yan Haui Shi and his mother aside, even Ning Yi could be harmed. As more and more people gather, if someone was to harm Ning Yi in the chaos then there is no hope of catching the perpetrator. 

Her hands clutching tightly together, Zhi Wei closes her eyes to calm herself then says “Helian, lead the students back and ask Minister Zhou to please be sure to send some men to help. You guys can then stay put, there is no need to come.” 

“Let Yao Yang Yu go!” Helian promptly refuses “I am staying.”

“Let Wang Huei go!” Yao Yang Yu refused without hesitation “We want to keep protecting you. We are not going to get sent away like we are some burden!” 

“Let Yu Liang go!” That Wang Huei also refused.

“Let Huang Bao Xing go!” That Yu Liang also refused.

……….

One after another, none of the students were willing to leave. Zhi Wei abruptly yells angrily “All of you, go back!!”

“Yao Yang Yu, you come with me, everyone else go back!” Helian roars like thunder as his eight braves quickly used their whip to express their master’s command is not to be ignored. 

Not arguing anymore, the students turn their horses around. Wang Huei says tearfully “Official Wei, you take care….”

“If I don’t see the soldiers from Minister Zhou showing up within four hours then none of you will take care!” Not moved by their teary goodbye, Zhi Wei replies ruthlessly. 

The students hurried off as Zhi Wei turned her gaze to the butler “You came quite quickly. You didn’t take the main road, is there a shortcut?” 

  • Zhi Wei ditches her carriage, jumps on the horse with Gu Nan Yi as they race down the path to the shortcut but they soon encounter problems when a village they have to go through has been sealed off. 
  • After confronting the officials there, Zhi Wei’s group come to learn that that village has just been sealed off due to a plague in the village. (I really didn’t time this…” 
  • Zhi Wei had planned on going through the village with just Ning Cheng but of course no one was willing to be left behind so the whole group went through together. 
  • The village leader leads Zhi Wei’s group through the now semi burning village with only the dead left. Suddenly running off, the village leader begins to frantically dig at a corner of a mass grave. Turns out, the local officials didn’t believe the village leader’s assertion that his young nephew did not have the plague and insisted on burying him. The village leader begged Zhi Wei and told her that the child had a strange constitution since he was born where all poisons insects would avoid him and the child has never been sick in his life either. Having heard of certain legends, Zhi Wei suspected that something might be up with the child’s bloodline and agreed to take the child with them. 

After eating some medicinal plants the village leader found for them, it didn’t take long for Zhi Wei’s group to travel through the mountain. 

Still a long distance away from the Yan ancestry chapel, Zhi Wei can see countless people, rushing like ants from all directions towards a certain destination. 

“ These are all members of Yan clan from this area.” the butler explains “Clans such as Yan clan who have been around for hundreds of years are bound to have an impressive number of people. In this province, if you count all the people who are related to Yan clan in some way, it would at least be tens of thousands. And if you count relatives of those relatives, then you could say forty percent of this whole province would be related to Yan clan. Of course, these sort of tenuous relation doesn’t usually count for much since there is no way for Yan clan to take care of so many people. These people would usually just be hired help but per South Sea customs, once something like this happens in the clan then it would cause bad luck for nine generations so everyone has a duty to show up. 

Zhi Wei’s group traveled for a bit and was greeted by a truly impressive definition of “mountains of people”. Countless people yelling, holding wooden sticks, making it impossible to see the ancestry chapel let alone Ning Yi and his three thousand guards.

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com


Related Posts