The pill ingested, the dress changed into.
After Madam Feng stood up she never did turn around to give Feng Hao another glance. Wrapping up the body in some fabric, the two Gold Feather Guards took the body away for the Emperor to personally inspect later.
When the Gold Feather Guards come back to tell her that she is taking too long, Madam Feng stood up calmly. As she steps out of the stairway, everyone feels like their world has suddenly brightened.
Like the maple tree that has shaken off the snow, a beautiful woman with a focused silent sorrow has a beauty that shakes one to the core.
Her back tall and her eyes focused straight ahead, Madam Feng walks with a slow and steady footstep towards the palace. The long train of the dress trails behind her, like white feathers sweeping across the glass like smooth ground. The wind sweeps up her hair, suddenly revealing the snow-white color underneath the pitch black top. The Gold Feather Guards following behind exchanged a shocked glance with one another. They remember clearly that when Madam Feng first entered the dungeon her hair was all black so when did the hair underneath turn to snow white? (Legend has it that when someone is overwhelmed with sadness that their hair would turn white. This is the first time I have seen in a story where only a portion of the hair (only the underlayer portion at that) turns white though. The story kinda needs Madam Feng to still look beautiful so that’s probably why the author decided to do it this way.)
The woman in front of them continues to hold her head high, walking calmly through the gardens towards the palace…her shoulder looks frail but her back is tall and upright.
No one saw that on her pale face, there was a trace of a smile at the corner of her lips.
…Zhi Wei, you should have settled down somewhere safe under their protection right?
Or perhaps you didn’t leave. With your personality, it is very possible that you are on your way back to the Capital right now. However, with the distance between South Sea and the Capital, by the time you rush back, everything would be settled.
It’s alright even if you are back, mother will take care of your future so that you will never again face the danger you are facing right now.
Years ago, the person I love told me, no matter what you do, you must finish whatever you started and to make it the best.
Zhi Wei.
I hope you will be this way too.
————————–
In the elaborate palace hallway, a long skirt train sweeps across the exquisitely carved stone steps. In the dark shadow at the end of the hallway, someone stood up eagerly.
Madam Feng comes to a stop, raises her head slightly and reveals a quiet yet sorrowful smile. That sort of smile, in the Emperor’s eyes, was like seeing a flower on the steep cliff coming to bloom, a heart skipping sight in what should’ve been a harsh barren landscape.
“Ming Ying…” Forgetting himself temporarily, the Emperor extends his hand while calling out tenderly.
Madam Feng meets his gaze steadily. She didn’t bow but simply walked closer with a smile.
Taking her hand, the emperor caressed it carefully and thoroughly. The hand wasn’t soft. It was a hand with some thin callus on it. He knows well that some of these calluses came from her fighting days twenty years ago and some came from the hardship she has suffered in the last ten plus years.
Tightening his hold around her hands, he says with some sympathy in his voice “Ming Ying, when it really comes down to it, you were simply one who was tricked by lies. Moreover, you have done great service for this nation in the past. I really can’t bear to kill him but this sort of crime is not something that can be overlooked either…over at Hou Gong (the Imperial Harem), there is a dwelling that sits unused, it’s quite close to my personal library and it also has a lot of privacy…you just stay there comfortably and it will be fine as long as you don’t come out.”
Her eyes lowered, Madam Feng meekly listens to what he has planned for her. With her head inclined towards the ground, the Emperor could not see the slight jeering smile at the corner of her mouth. This case has always been a top royal secret, who lives or who dies, why would anyone else even know?
To think her “great service” of saving the emperor’s life years ago was only worth this much in the end? An abandoned dwelling in the palace, a place she is supposed to spend the rest of her life, never to leave again, to become his secret plaything?
As expected, he…is forever this selfish. With a hint of a smile and a flash of determination darting across her eyes, Madam Feng raises her head and replies: “I will do whatever His Majesty says.”
“Ming Ying.” Delight flashes across the Emperor’s eyes as he picks up her hand to walk through layers of curtains, “Come…let me take a good look at you…”
Layers of thick golden curtains seem to be a cruel reminder of this painful life that threatens to suffocate. Just as those wind blown silk curtains are as delicate as spider webs that are easily broken with one touch. His arm around her shoulder, in front of them, the jade curtain surrounds the bed, the smell of incense fills the room. The one who is holding the other’s hand is about to fulfill a longtime cherished fantasy. The one who is in the other’s arms is waiting for the end to a lifelong struggle.
The Emperor pulls Madam Feng with him to sit down at the bed. In the flickering candlelight, he is drunken with the sight of the beauty in front of him. After a long moment, he lays a gentle finger on Madam Feng’s collar.
But Madam Feng moved away, “Your Majesty…”
Taken aback, the emperor’s brow immediately furled into a frown.
“The light…it makes me shy…” Blushing, Madam Feng points at the candles.
Grinning, the Emperor pulls his hand back and allows Madam Feng to go blow out the candles.
As the darkness descends, a slight sunlight peaks through from the thick curtains. The emperor lazily lays down on the bed, waiting for the woman to come to him in the darkness.
*BANG!*
The sound of a heavy thud shook the bed slightly.
The Emperor who had been lost in his anticipation with his eyes half closed sits up with a start. “What happened?”
No one answered. All the servants had been sent away, in the darkness, a heavy metallic smell permeated the air, the smell was frighteningly familiar.
“Ming Ying!” Getting down from the bed, the Emperor steps into his shoes and immediately feels a slight dampness from it. Looking around, he soon sees Madam Feng prostrate on the floor, a red liquid slowly spreading out on the smooth floor.
The Emperor rushes over, yanking the curtains away and sunlight promptly rushes in to shine on the glaring red on the floor.
“Your Majesty…” Laying in a pool of blood, Madam Feng reaches out a hand towards the Emperor and calls out weakly, “Your Majesty…I…”
Stunned, the emperor looks over to see the golden bedpost above her head is covered in blood. Just now…she must’ve rammed her temple right into the post with all of her strength. Instantly filled with anger and sorrow mixed with some disappointment and confusion, he avoids the blood underfoot then asks in a dream-like state: “Why…why…do you dislike me so much…”
“No…” Stubbornly keeping her hand out reaching towards him, Madam Feng’s expression is filled with sorrow as bright blood trickles down from her forehead. Her hair stained by blood, strangely not terrifying but pitiful, she calls out with tears brimming in her eyes “Your Majesty… that year when Ming Ying gave birth I ended up hemorrhaging profusely. After that, due to years of poverty and suffering…I ended up getting the awful women’s illness…this sort of body…how am I worthy…worthy to serve Your Majesty…. Ming Ying thinks of Your Majesty like a god…how can I desecrate Your Majesty with this dirty body…”
Rooted to the spot, the Emperor’s little heart is overwhelmed until tears begin to fall. “Ming Ying!” Finally willing to get close to her, a teary emperor grabs her outreached hand, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier…we would’ve just had the palace physician help you, even if…you couldn’t be cured…it would’ve not lessened my feelings for you…”
Turning his head, the emperor yells: “Summon the palace physician, I want to see them here immediately!”
The servants immediately run off while the emperor gently holds the woman in his arms, his emotions a mess.
Perhaps due to the drastic difference between the drama and the novel on this particular part, there seems to be some confusion among some readers on the real identity of Zhi Wei and Feng Hao. To clarify, Zhi Wei is the last royal bloodline of the last empire so she is not related by blood to Madam Feng and her husband at all. Madam Feng’s husband had brought baby Feng Hao to his wife with the full expectation for his wife to raise Feng Hao as a decoy for Zhi Wei so when the times comes, they would let the Emperor kill Feng Hao thus fooling him into thinking he has finally wiped out the last empire’s royal bloodline. Some of the confusion might also come from the mention of Madam Feng’s baby. She did give birth but the baby didn’t survive. However, Madam Feng was able to use that fact to her advantage and convinced the Emperor that her husband had fooled her into believing Feng Hao is her son and Zhi Wei is the princess. While Madam Feng spoiled Feng Hao out of guilt but perhaps it was also done with the intent to fool the Emperor because it would’ve made total sense that she would treat her own biological son much better than an adopted daughter. We will find out additional detail of Madam Feng’s story towards the end of the book…let’s just say she really is a very tragic character.
As you guys can tell by this point, the drama changed several key characters’ personalities quite a bit. In the drama, Feng Hao at least had genuine affection towards Zhi Wei and even stepped up at the last moment but the Feng Hao in the novel would’ve not hesitated to sacrifice his mother and sister if that meant saving his own life. The same goes for the Emperor here. The Emperor in the drama seemed to also have real fatherly love for his sons but in the novel, that really is not the case. As this week’s and future posts will show, the Emperor here is one sick pervert who really cares for no one but himself.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Realmente fica muito difícil sentir algum tipo de sentimento ,tanto do imperador como da madame FENG .Enfim não deixa de ser triste e comovente esse momento da história, muito obrigada e uma boa semana.
WOW! Thanks for the translation and the clarification! I think a lot of us were confused. The drama, of course, never mentioned that her own child died at birth and that she had adopted BOTH children. I look forward to this story every week!
Thank you so much for these translations. Love this story so much and your updates are something that I cannot end any Monday without. I hope you continue to have the strength and will to keep updating. Even if you don’t, I want you to know just how much all your work has meant to me
I’m kinda surprised actually. With MY background as a general and fighting prowess and overwhelming hatred or the emperor… why wouldn’t she take this opportunity to take things into her own Hands? She seems pretty resigned to the fact that she isn’t going to survive anyway. But there’s no ‘ If I’m going down I’m taking you with me? ‘
She was pretty tragic (and kind of useless and cruel ) in the drama but the novel makes it seem that she’s actually very competent (and cruel- I never liked her in either media)
Of course this means that our novel would be … shorter 😛. But I mean… she had the means/motive/opportunity to just …end him- possibly saving Zhi Wei a lot of drama…
thoughts?
While the story itself doesn’t go into it, but I think we can assume the Emperor is not exactly easy to kill or else his own sons would’ve killed him by now. The Emperor is not in his prime anymore but like Madam Feng, he too was a fighter and fought his way to the throne so I don’t think he would be as hopeless against Madam Feng as one would think. Another thing that is not verbally said but is a background that is assumed in all of these types of novels is that Emperors (or anyone that is fairly wealthy and powerful) are never without “secret guards” who are hidden out of sight but is guarding their safety at all times. Therefore, even during the time the Emperor is alone with Madam Feng, one would assume that his secrets guards (guards that stay out of sight but are always close to him) are ready to take Madam Feng down if she makes a wrong move.
Another big reason why Madam Feng would not have killed the Emperor is that it would’ve been pointless. (By the way, I don’t believe Madam Feng hates the Emperor. She knows he is a jerk but most emperors are so I don’t think she takes it personally. She has no issue with her own nation other than the fact that it gets in the way of achieving her dead husband’s dream.) Remember, while Madam Feng would not mind killing the Emperor, her actual goal is to bring back Dacheng empire (the previous empire) and this could only be accomplished when Zhi Wei uses her real identity to call an army together. The Emperor has plenty of sons so by killing him, Madam Feng would’ve just done a favor for one of the princes and put Zhi Wei in even more danger. Despite the fact that the Emperor is a sleazeball and there seems to be plenty of corruption around, we have no indication that the common people are THAT dissatisfied with their current government. In fact, if you remember, the main reason Dacheng fell so easily was because it WAS very corrupted and poorly governed so it was a natural time for it to die…which is why it was never the Bloody Pagoda’s goal to bring back Dacheng.
Thanks for your analysis! I didn’t realize about the secret guards thing. I appreciate so much that you are willing to clarify things.
Wonderful how Ming Ying playa her role and fools the Emperor protecting Zhi Wei.
Thanks
Maybe her hair was part white and part black because although she was sad about Feng Hao’s tragic death, she was very happy about Feng ZeiWei and the fact that her secret 16 year plan has been successful.