The tent door opens again, in walks Gu Nan Yi with two golden monkeys on his shoulder and a babe in arm. He is perpetually this single minded– and it’s no different when it comes to raising a child and monkeys. Feng Zhi Wei is actually quite surprised that all this while she is too preoccupied to worry about him how the child has not only survived but is very plump and has grown extremely attached to him. But then again, children are always the closest to the person they spent the most time with. 

“It’s time to give her a name.” Taking the child in her arms, Zhi Wei says as the two golden monkeys jump onto her fingers and begin to nibble on her hand. “Going by the gold locket that was on the child, she should almost be a year old so she should have an actual name now.” 

“I know.” Gu Nan Yi replies. 

“Alright, what name do you think would be good?” Zhi Wei assumed he meant he knows that it’s time to give the child a name. 

“I know.” Gu Nan Yi says. 

“Ah?” Feng Zhi Wei looks at him blankly. 

“I know.” Gu Nan Yi points at the child. 

A speechless Zhi Wei finally realizes that he is saying the child’s name is “I Know.” 

Looking completely serious, Gu Nan Yi takes the child and says again, “Gu I Know.” 

“………”

“Look, you can’t use such a name.” After a few moments, Zhi Wei sighs and patiently explains to Master Gu, “She is a girl, if you give her such a name she will hate you when she grows up.”

Behind his face veil, Master Gu stares at her with his star bright eyes in confusion and asks “Why?” 

Master Gu rarely asks why so of course Zhi Wei has to jump on this perfect opportunity. 

“A girl’s name should be beautiful and elegant or else she could get teased by others.” 

“But I feel, I Know is best.” Master Gu replies slowly. 

Zhi Wei falls silent. She knew her illness at South Sea was traumatic to Gu Nan Yi. He feels that all the problems originated from him not knowing (that she was sick) so now he is consumed with “Knowing”, which caused this poor child to be settled with the name “I Know.” 

“How about this, we will call her Zhi Xiao.” She finally compromises and says, “Gu Zhi Xiao, Zhi Xiao means knowing but you see, doesn’t it sound a lot better? Plus it makes it sound like she is my sister.” 

Master Gu thinks it over and finally nods, approving the name yet still wants to correct her, “Your daughter.” 

Zhi Wei falls backward and almost choked. My daughter? She really wants to correct him but she honestly doesn’t dare. She is afraid that if she keeps hounding the issue then Master Gu would add “My daughter,” then they would have a bigger problem on their hands. 

“Your adopted daughter.” She says firmly, “Yours.” 

Master Gu nods and replies, “What’s mine is yours.” 

Zhi Wei takes a deep breath and decides there really is no need to keep discussing the question. 

Gu Nan Yi too feels like this is an issue that is quite clear and changes the subject, “Zong Chen says, Wei Zhi, en route back to the Capital was met with a sudden landslide, got washed away by a flood, and is currently missing.”

Feng Zhi Wei looks at him in surprise. Why didn’t Zong Chen come to tell her himself but asked Gu Nan Yi to do it instead? In the next instant, Zhi Wei figures out that Zong Chen is trying to cooperate with her effort to pull Gu Nan Yi out of his own little world. 

Wei Zhi disappeared… She falls into silence. It appears Ning Yi surprisingly didn’t reveal the fact that she is Wei Zhi. He even found an excuse for her disappearance. Why? He is not still hoping that one day she will return to the palace as Wei Zhi? 

She had already prepared herself that Ning Yi would reveal her double identities which is why she left the Capital with Helian as fast as she could. The wildgrassland is far far away from the Capital. Even if the Emperor ignores all of Wei Zhi’s accomplishments and decides to prosecute her for lying to the throne, it wouldn’t be that easy. Yet, Ning Yi didn’t say it. Since he already attacked her, why wouldn’t he finish the job? This really is not Ning Yi’s style. At the moment, only Ning Yi and Ning Cheng know that she is Wei Zhi. Xin Zi Yin must not know or else the Emperor would know as well. 

Why did those two people only attack halfway? She can’t figure it out and she is not interested in figuring out. No matter what, an attack is an attack. That’s the truth and the result is devastating, with no way back. 

After saying what he did, Gu Nan Yi promptly turns his attention to pulling out a bottle to feed little Zhi Xiao. Holding the baby firmly in his left arm with the milk bottle in his right hand. There is even a small cotton handkerchief in between his fingers, allowing him to wipe away the milk spills anytime. His movement was graceful and smooth, a complete opposite of the clumsiness in the beginning when the milk ended up getting all over the baby. The two gold monkeys stand on Zhi Xiao’s belly on their tippy toes, reverently holding up the milk bottle. 

 The light from the oil lantern penetrates Gu Nan Yi’s face veil, showing a fuzzy outline of his exquisite features, revealing his long eyelashes and the serene expression. At this moment, he still has the look of a jade statue but he is warm and vibrant, shining from inside. Zhi Wei watches the heartwarming scene in silence, her own expression softening. She has seen endless coldness in this world yet from this person, she can always see the purest beauty.  

“Brother Gu…” She suddenly says, “Wei Zhi could disappear, that means he could appear again. What do you think of that?” From today, she wants him to start involving himself in this world and to ponder things from his point of view. 

Gu Nan Yi didn’t ponder, his answer was immediate, “No.”

“Why?”

Gu Nan Yi finishes feeding the milk then carefully hands Zhi Xiao to Zhi Wei. 

“Will get sad.” His gaze falls on Zhi Wei’s face and his mind suddenly remembers that first snow in the Capital and the sight of her kneeling in front of the two graves. Kneeling in the deep snow, she had used her hand to smooth out the loose dirt on top of the graves bit by bit. She didn’t cry. She was silent the whole time. Watching her that night as the snow fell, he abruptly felt a heavy pressure on his heart. That day he asked her what is the heaviness that makes it hard for one to breathe. She says, sadness. Sadness. So that’s sadness. That day he had stayed with her in the snow from sundown to sunrise and suddenly, he understood some things he couldn’t understand before. Such as, it is not that there are some things he can’t understand but is that other people can’t let him understand. Only her, could teach him what is confusion, what is worry, what is fear…and what is sadness. Only, her.   

Across from him, Feng Zhi Wei looks at him blankly. Scooting close to her, Gu Nan Yi takes her fingers into his hand. Zhi Wei stares at Gu Nan Yi in shock– in the past, he has grabbed her or jerked her around when she is in danger but to voluntarily touch her in an everyday situation, this seems to be the first time.  

Taking her finger, Gu Nan Yi guides her to touch Zhi Xiao’s pink cheek. 

“Warm.” He says, “Feels good.” 

Feeling left out, the two gold monkeys also reached out their paws and jumped in for a feel. 

Under the two adults and two monkeys pokings, the poor child finally lets out a cry of complaint.  

Zhi Wei closed her eyes during what should’ve been a comical scene. Master Gu….is he trying to comfort her? With her eyes closed, she didn’t move or speak for a long time until finally, something wet flowed down from the corner of her eye.

A few readers raised the question last week about why Zhi Wei jumped to the conclusion that Ning Yi is the one who attacked her and her family so I figure I will give you guys my two cents. The author doesn’t give us any explanation but I personally feel it is quite understandable why Zhi Wei feels the way she does. Xin Zi Yin is Ning Yi’s right-hand man, so it doesn’t make any sense that Ning Yi would be clueless of Xin Zi Yin’s intention to turn Zhi Wei’s family over to the emperor. In a later post, Zhi Wei would also point out that she believes Ning Yi approached her right from the beginning with the intention of investigating her family…and that’s true if you guys remember. The author never comes right out and says it but if you guys go back, you will see some signs of it in their interactions towards the beginning. Ning Yi obviously has been fully aware of the Gold Feather Guards’ investigation into Zhi Wei’s family. In fact, it wouldn’t even be surprising if our hero was the one who pointed Xin Zi Yin towards that direction. After all, the case of chasing down the previous empire’s last remaining royal bloodline was a big one and Ning Yi’s people were hoping to use it to get some brownie points in the Emperor’s eyes for Ning Yi. Even if we could argue that perhaps Ning Yi changed his mind once he fell in love with Zhi Wei but why didn’t he at least warn her of the danger her family was in especially knowing full well how important her family is to her?

I think if Zhi Wei really allows herself to think about it she would have to admit that Ning Yi’s feelings for her are real because it simply doesn’t make sense that someone as proud as Ning Yi would go to the trouble of romancing her when there are plenty of less troublesome ways for him to accomplish his goals when it comes to her family. But our heroine is refusing to let her heart soften with such thoughts plus there is just enough evidence to incriminate our hero that she can’t forgive him right now.

There is no doubt judging by some of the things Ning Yi said when Zong Chen showed up as the “mysterious physician” that Ning Yi has guessed Zong Chen’s link to Bloody Pagoda and thus the natural conclusion of Zhi Wei’s real identity. We can guess that the letter Ning Yi sent back to Xin Zi Yin was instructing him to NOT turn Zhi Wei’s family over to the Emperor but then Ning Cheng secretly included a private note to Xin Zi Yin urging him to do the opposite. In the end, it really doesn’t matter anymore if Ning Yi himself ordered the attack because it surely came from his people and unless Ning Yi is ready to give up the throne (which would mean certain death for himself and everyone who supported him), he and Zhi Wei is destined to be enemies (especially after what Madam Feng did). What Zhi Wei has always feared has now happened so if they are destined to be enemies, wouldn’t it be easier for Zhi Wei to assume Ning Yi was never sincere towards her in the first place?

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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