While the Emperor was deep in thought, Madam Feng jumped on the opportunity to take a few steps back and released her son’s sleeping acupoint. (In these fantasy martial arts, most fighters would be able to put people to sleep and wake them by taping someone’s “sleep acupoint”)
Still in a daze as he comes out of his deep slumber, Feng Hao immediately yells: “Ah, I don’t know anything, I don’t know anything, don’t kill me, don’t kill me!” His eyes filled with terror, obviously still in the grips of a nightmare.
“Shh…” Madam Feng pulls him into her arms.
Standing in the prison cell’s shadow, the Emperor silently watched the embracing mother and son for a bit before turning to leave without another word.
“My good child….” Madam Feng didn’t turn around but continued to hold Feng Hao with her eyes closed as tears flowed down. “Don’t be scared…”
A day ago.
The day light in the prison cell is always so incredibly short. From sunrise to sunset, the light falling on the wall is only the length of a finger.
Her eyes focused on that light, her face without expression, seemingly wanting to make sure she does not miss a single second of the light of this world.
Pressing his face against the metal gates, Feng Hao keeps asking “Mother, when I woke up yesterday I saw someone leaving. Did they finish asking their questions? When are they going to let us go? When are they going to let me out?”
“Soon.” Madam Feng replies, “It’s almost finished.”
“That’s great.” Feng Hao’s eyes light up with joy, “Mother, don’t worry, I will rescue you for sure after I get out.”
“You are a good child.” Madam Feng smiles at him, “Mother believes you.”
Pulling on the heavy metal chain, Feng Hao whines to Madam Feng, “It’s too heavy, I can’t even get a good night’s sleep.”
“It’s almost finished.” Madam Feng takes the heavy metal chain to take some of the weight off, “It’s almost finished.”
Sounds of heavy footsteps can be heard coming from the staircase. Soon, a few Gold Feather Guards show up, their expression somber, the two guards in front are each holding a tray.
“Did they come to let me out?” Overjoyed, Feng Hao rushes over to shake the metal door.
Madam Feng’s body trembled.
*Clink, clink, clink…”
The thirteen of the finest and most complicated locks opened in succession to allow the two guards in with their trays.
One the first tray, is a cup of wine.
There are more items on the second tray, a pill and a palace style women’s dress.
“Madam.” One of the guards says with an emotionless flat tone, “His Majesty said that you would know what to do when you see these things and to please personally administer the wine.”
Madam Feng’s gaze slowly moves over the dress and finally stops on the wine cup.
Her eyes were pitch dark without any emotion, as if all the light in this world had been pushed into the depth of her heart.
After a long moment passed, she finally stands up slowly. The Gold Feather Guards could even seemingly hear the crackings from her bones.
She walks over to the first tray and picks up the wine.
She stares at the wine for a long time until her fingers begin to tremble causing the colorless wine to swivel slightly in the cup.
Madam Feng slowly raised her hand.
For one instant, the Gold Feather Guard had the feeling that the extremely composed woman in front of them would end up tossing the wine into her own mouth. But before he could finish that thought, Madam Feng is already turning away with the wine in hand and begins to walk towards Feng Hao.
The Gold Feather Guard secretly lets out a sigh of relief as he watches Madam Feng’s tall and stiff back. An expression mixed with a hint of admiration and disdain flashes through his face before the Gold Feather Guard takes a step back.
“Hao Er, are you thirsty?” With the cup in hand, Madam Feng stands in front of Feng Hao, “Have some wine.”
From the moment his mother had picked up the wine cup Feng Hao had become stiff like a statue, his lips are trembling, even his expression has turned into one of terror, “Mother…mother…what are you doing? What is this?”
“Wine.” Madam Feng calmly holds out the wine.
“No! No!” Feng Hao suddenly begins to scream as he scrambles towards the corner of the wall and stares at Madam Feng’s outstretched hand like he was staring at the devil himself, “You lied to me, you lied to me, you lied to me! I won’t. No, no, no, no, no!”
Howling and screaming, he waves his hand frantically in an attempt to push away the scary thing. Unable to avoid his hand in time, Madam Feng spills a bit of the wine causing the Gold Feather Guard to quickly come forward to steady the wine cup.
“Sir, I can’t accomplish the task His Majesty has given.” Madam Feng expressionlessly gives back the wine cup, walks off a few steps and sits down with her back to Feng Hao, “Please.” (The please here is the sort one uses when one asks someone else to do them a favor. So she is asking the guards to do the “deed” for her.)
The two Gold Feather Guards exchanged a glance before nodding. The Emperor never said that Madam Feng had to personally force the wine down her son’s throat. As long she was willing to offer up the wine, then His Majesty would be willing to forgive her and grant her a chance.
The two Gold Feather Guards take the wine cup and approach Feng Hao.
Madam Feng sits quietly.
She sits facing the wall. The lantern light from afar cast long ghost-like shadows of the people behind her onto the wall.
Shadow of the strong figures and a weak one…a big gold cup containing the poisonous wine…the young man who is cowering against the corner with nowhere to escape…the body that is pressed against the ground…a shadow stepping on the figure’s back while the other shadow pry opens the mouth to pour in the wine…
Screaming, struggling, begging, rejecting, crying, gasping to breath…
She didn’t move a muscle or blink, silently, stubbornly, she watched the whole thing from the beginning to the end.
In less than ten minutes, everything falls back into silence.
The second tray is set gently in front of her.
“Madam, after you have taken the pill, please change into the dress.” The Gold Feather Guard says in a low voice, “His Majesty is waiting for you in the palace.” (The pill is the kind that will dissolve a person’s internal energy so by taking it Madam Feng will lose all her fighting ability.)
Madam Feng doesn’t reply but instead stands up, turns to walk towards where Feng Hao is lying on the ground.
That spoiled and egotistical child who has been raised by her overindulgence to see nothing but his own wants will never utter another sound in this world.
Kneeling on the cold metal floor, Madam Feng picks up that child’s body and cradles it in her arm for one last time.
Gingerly caressing Feng Hao’s chilled face, she carefully wipes away the dirt that had rubbed on him during his struggle.
In the lantern light, Feng Hao’s face is drained of color leaving it ghastly white. A gust of wind sweeps in from some unknown place, causing a low howl in the dark metal cell.
A dying Feng Hao opens his eyes with the last of his strength.
Staring up at Madam Feng as if he is staring at someone who is far away, Feng Hao lets out a low moan before he weakly grabs her hand and struggles to move her hand towards his stomach.
His voice was as light as a spider web that is about to be torn apart in the winter wind.
“Mother…I hurt…”
The hand grabs blindly in the air, wanting his closest family to feel the agonizing pain twisting his internal organs. Just like he has always done since he was young.
But the moment that feeble hand was able to reach Madam Feng’s fingers it suddenly stopped then dropped to the ground in silence.
His eyes are wide open yet the light in them slowly fades away.
In the air, someone seems to have let out the last breath, crying and wondering the night.
Before he died he had called out his pain, for the last time in his life he had wanted to hold his family’s hand, unwilling to think about the cruel truth behind his death.
He wanted to only take warmth with him, just as in his short life, mother has always given him everything.
He had lived his life freely, selfishly and without care because fate had always designated the unfair ending of it.
Madam Feng’s hand also froze mid air.
She stares for a long time at the eyes that did not close even in death. She didn’t try to close them.
Son…look at me, keep looking at me.
From the day I adopted you I had vowed that in your short life, I will just let you hurt once…just this one time.
For this one time, I used the last 16 years of indulgence to repay you. But I know, there is no compensation. Nothing is more important than life.
Hao Er.
See me clearly.
Here is the world’s most cruel mother, the most shameless family, the coldest woman. She used sixteen years, to wait for you, to die.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
So sad….. This is different with the drama that depicted Feng Hao as her son and Zhi Wei was adopted. Can’t wait for next Monday, thank you so much!
Wow. Up to this point, I was unable to grasp why Madam Feng would indulge Feng Haos behaviour no matter what he did… But the last part of this chapter hat made it perfectly clear, and it makes some sense, even considering how awful the end of Feng Haos life is. Astonishing work from the author.
As usual, thanks for your hard work, I’ll be waiting for next Monday!!
Muito triste e bem diferente do drama.Agora entendo um pouco mais,se filho fosse verdadeiro talvez não teria esse fim tão passado.Enfim vamos esperar a próxima semana.
Muito grata por está tradução.
Obs:Fim tão pesado.
Okay..I’m a little lost so Feng Hao AND Zhi Wei were adopted by her? Can someone explain? I think I must have lost part of the story somewhere?
So the author never comes right out and explain the whole thing, we were supposed to put together the whole story through bits of clues given throughout. Zhi Wei is obviously NOT Madam Feng’s biological child so she IS adopted. As for Feng Hao…I will just say that as far as Mama Feng is concerned, she believes that Feng Hao is not her biological child but a child who she raised to die for our heroine. Mama Feng’s real life story (as she believes) is this: She married her husband who was the previous Master Commander of the Bloody Pagoda. Despite having been ordered by their masters (the two leads in Legend of Fuyao) that they (the Bloody Pagoda) are NOT to attempt to bring back the previous empire (so no rebellion attempts), Madam Feng’s husband fiercely wanted to exact revenge against the current empire AND bring back the previous one. Determined to carry on her husband’s dying wish, Madam Feng raised the two children (Zhi Wei and Feng Hao) her husband had brought to her. Madam Feng did give birth to a son who died at birth, which she used to her advantage by convincing the Emperor that the child was actually a daughter and it is Zhi Wei. I will give a little more detail about the last part in next Monday’s post.
Wow, this is so sad……… I just wanted to cry for Feng Hao He just did not know what was happening. He was kept in the dark. I really felt is pain. This was so more dramatic than the drama. The Emperor is just as cold. What was Ning Yi role in this? And how was it that she got caught? It was not like the drama?
Ning Yi’s role in this? Well, that’s what our heroine would like to know. As for how she got caught? Do you mean our heroine? She voluntarily went into the palace as her real self so as far as the Emperor is concerned, Wei Zhi is still off being his royal envoy. If you mean Madam Feng then she planned to be caught by going to the prison to visit Feng Hao and put on the big act of prison break. Lastly, yes, you will see from this point on that the drama and novel are very different.