Ning Yi walks over to Zhi Wei who promptly takes another few steps back, her sleeve brushes past his body before he can grab hold of it. Ning Yi stood blinking in surprise, his nose catching her fragrance as her sleeve pulled away. Instinctively taking another breath when he senses something else is hidden in her fragrance but by then Zhi Wei had already moved away. 

His expression slowly turning cold as he stood there in silence, Ning Yi finally says coldly “Since this was your business from the start and I should not overstep, I will leave it to you now that you are here.” 

Zhi Wei stayed silent as Ning Yi immediately turned away after he finished speaking, and continued to stay silent as Ning Yi guards’ prepared to take their leave. 

Her attention caught by sudden sounds of hurried footsteps, Zhi Wei turns to see a petite woman running up to the giant tree trunk. Seeing the tree, the woman promptly tied up her skirt and began to climb the trunk. Holding up their long spears, the guards yell “Who’s there!” 

“Hua Qing of South Sea, Thousand Water Village seeks an audience with His Highness.” The woman raised her head high, revealing a somewhat tanned face with refined features. 

Ning Yi turns around.

Bowing her head, the woman says “Your Highness, I will open the door!”

Zhi Wei and Ning Yi both looked at each other with joy flashing in their eyes– the ancestry chapel can only be entered by those belonging to Yan clan. Anyone else who does so would become the whole clan’s enemy. Under this circumstance, no one belonging to Yan clan would open the door for them which is why they are at a standoff. If there is a Yan clan member who would open the door then their problem would be solved. 

“Who are you?” Ning Yi asks calmly “Your last name is Hua not Yan. It is a death sentence for anyone who tries to get the ancestry door open but does not belong to Yan clan. Don’t do something that will get yourself killed.”

“Your Highness.” Hua Qing bows again and replies “Inside the ancestry chapel are my mother-in-law and husband. If we can’t be alive together then we might as well die together!”

Both Ning Yi and Zhi Wei are stunned, “Husband!” 

Zhi Wei lets up a surprised “Eh?” She had not imagined Yan Huai Shi already has a wife in South Sea. How come he has never mentioned it? No matter what, Yan Huai Shi is a member of Yan clan. As his wife, this woman should live a pampered life so why the fisherwomen’s outfit? 

Zhi Wei gaze falls on the woman’s hand and feet. The woman is wearing grass woven shoes, her pant legs rolled up high, there are bloody rope rubbing wounds on her hands and feet. 

How did she make her way here? Did she have to free herself from rope bondage? She rushed here the whole way so her shoes are rotten and she has wound marks all over her? 

“Let her in.” On Zhi Wei’s order, the guards immediately opened up a path. Climbing down the tree trunk with some difficulty, Hua Qing didn’t try to chat with Zhi Wei and Ning Yi but ran straight for the chapel door. 

As she runs, she pulls from her back a pair of fishing spears. 

Letting out another surprise “Eh?” Zhi Wei stares with wide eyes. Could this one be here to create trouble??

A bit worried, Zhi Wei has no choice but to follow behind. Hua Qing walks up to the ancestry chapel and begins to knock on the door while bellowing loudly: “Yan clan’s seven hundred and thirty second oldest grandson Yan Chang Tian seeks an audience with clan leader!” 

Zhi Wei and Ning Yi exchanged a look and wondered how they have never heard of such a person, especially the person being the oldest grandson of Yan clan? Moreover, that’s a man’s name, didn’t this woman say her name is Hua Qing?

The ancestry chapel door opened a sliver, a face peaked out, it is none other than Yan Huai Yuan. With a stony expression, Yan Huai Yuan first looked over at Ning Yi and Zhi Wei before he turned his eyes to Hua Qing. Seemingly taken aback at first, Yan Huai Yuan soon started to yell angrily. 

“You shameless widow! Slut! What Yan Chang Tian? Who is Yan Chang Tian? Yan clan only has seven hundred and thirty one generation, where did seven hundred and thirty two come from? How dare you who doesn’t even belong to our clan come knocking on the chapel door? If you dare to cause trouble here, you will be killed immediately!”

“Kill me if you are man enough!” Unafraid, Hua Qing declares “If you dare to bear the guilt of going against the ancestors, then kill the oldest grandson of your clan right here at the ancestry chapel door!” (The “oldest grandson” is not an ideal translation here but it’s the best I can come up with, but it essentially means the oldest male child of a particular generation, in this case, the 732nd.)

“What oldest grandson, get lost!” Furious, Yan Huai Yuan reaches out to push her.

Hua Qing abruptly takes a step back, flung open her outer robe, sticks out her belly and yells “Yan Chang Tian is here!” 

Silence descended over the crowd of a few thousand. 

In a rare instance, Zhi Wei’s mouth fell open. 

Gu Nan Yi blinks dumbly as he stares at the protruding belly and at the petite walnuts in his hand. 

Ning Cheng fell to the ground. 

Under the sunlight, the woman flung away her robe revealing the belly that is only covered by a thin fabric in front of the massive crowd. Through the thin fabric one can almost make out the stretch mark on her stomach. 

Dumbfounded, Yan Huai Yuan stood there with his hand still in midair. 

“You Yan clan’s seven hundred and thirty-second generation’s oldest grandson is in my womb right now.” Seemingly completely unconcern with the state of her dress, Hua Qing meets Yan Huai Yuan’s eyes dead on as she declares loudly with a fierce expression “According to the record of generations, the seven hundred and thirty second are given the name of Chang thus I have named him Yan Chang Tian. Now, Yan Huai Yuan, Yan Chang Tian wants to go inside!” (Most Chinese names have three characters. The first being the person’s last name, and the last two characters are chosen by the parents. In big clans, sometimes the children of each generation would have a universal middle character. This too is a sign of status because the concubines’ children would not have the honor of using such a character for their names.) 

Her voice was loud and especially clear, so the crowd heard her words with no problem at all. 

Ning Yi suddenly lets out a low sigh “Good!”

Zhi Wei lets out a sigh as well “Brother Yan is a lucky man!”

A befuddled Yan Huai Yuan stared at Hua Qing’s belly for a long moment before finally darting back inside. After a bit of rustling from the chapel, a raspy voice belonging to Yan clan leader came: “Hua Qing, you shameless widow! You dare to sprout nonsense in front of Yan ancestry temple! Leave immediately!”

“You are well aware who is the one spouting nonsense!” Hua Qing counters back “We have the first emperor’s plaque in the chapel, if one dares to lie then the person will be punished by heaven and bring upon crisis on the clan! Clan leader, do you not fear heaven’s punishment?!”

At a loss for words momentarily, Clan leader Yan finally says angrily: “Just because you who don’t even belong in our clan claim to be carrying our blood we should let you in the ancestry chapel? You are dreaming!” 

“You Yan clan lacked virtue this generation and that’s why your number of children has been few.” Hua Qing sneers “Since the grandson of second household drowned in the sea, all that’s left are girls who are not written into the ancestry book. Now that I am carrying the grandson of your first household, you dare to not let me in? You Yan clan’s heir has always come from first sons, the last Young Master ran away, this generation you are trying to use old grudges to chase Huai Shi off but the one I am carrying has not left yet nor has he committed any wrongdoing so you can’t stop him!” 

(A bit of explanation on the translation of “second household” here. Back in the days, Chinese parents lived with all of their kids even after they had grown up and had children of their own. So for example, if a couple has three sons and two daughters, the daughters will be married off and move away when they are of age, but the sons will all live in the same household with their parents even after they are married. The custom is that as long as the parents are still alive, then the brothers will all live in the same household. In our example here, the oldest brother will be the main household who would usually inherit the father’s business, noble titles and etc. The second and third brother will usually be referred to as second and third households respectively even though they all technically live in the same place. I am not a history buff so don’t quote me on this but I believe when Hua Qing said the girls are not written into the ancestry record, it probably meant the girls were born of concubines and not wives. Concubines are usually seen as low status so their children don’t enjoy the same privileges.)

You guys, I am SO excited we have finally made it to Hua Qing’s portion of the story! Other than our two leads, she is probably my absolute favorite character in the story. It was such a shame the drama chose to include her character in the show but just let her fade into the background. As you can tell from this scene, the Hua Qing in the novel is too fiery and dazzling to ever fade away. While we are on the topic, I just have to vent that the other character the drama really did a disservice to is Helian. Helian’s character in the drama really ended up being an annoyance towards the end and that’s such an unfair thing to do to poor Helian who from the beginning to the very end was always Zhi Wei’s true friend. 

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