In the somewhat awkward silence, an abrupt sharp high pitched noise could be heard.
“I won’t leave…….I won’t leave…….even if I die I will die here……..”
It was Mei Duo’s voice.
Zhi Wei let out a breath of relief and stood up quickly to walk out of the room. As expected, she was greeted by a sight of a very disheveled Mei Duo running back from the front palace with a bunch of sweating guards following behind.
It was apparent that after so many years of “grand queen like” status in the royal court, the guards were unsure how to treat her now and ended up letting her stumble her way through the palace.
“I lost everything after saving the king. You guys can’t treat me like this!” Like a lunatic, Mei Duo ran towards Feng Zhi Wei “Feng Zhi Wei, you slut, is it you? Are you the one doing this? You might as well kill me, kill me!”
“Fine!” With her hands clasped behind her back, standing on the palace step, Zhi Wei didn’t spare Mei Duo a glance as she yelled “Want to die? Easy!”
With one wave of Zhi Wei’s hand, Hua Qing popped out with a cold grin and threw down three items.
Dagger, a long white silk strip, medicine bottle.
“Where I come from, when someone wants to die, it’s one of these three things.” All smiles, Feng Zhi Wei explains “One is called “die quickly”, one is called “die tightly”, one is called “die by piercing intestines”. These things are only reserved for those who are of some importance, to allow you to preserve your precious corpse whole. I think this should be worthy of the sacrifice you made for the king. Go ahead and choose one for yourself.”
Mei Duo stared blankly at the three items on the ground, seemingly unable to process that Feng Zhi Wei really prepared the tools for her suicide and stood rooted to the ground.
“Go ahead, go ahead.” A sneering Hua Qing kicked the three things towards Mei Duo causing her to tremble and instinctively backing up a few steps.
“Your great deed of saving the king,” Feng Zhi Wei looks down at Mei Duo, her eyes indifferent, “The royal court has already repaid you with these many years of deferential treatment. Even if you think that’s not enough, then after your attempt to put poison on me yesterday then it has been all wiped away. No matter how nicely others treat you, if you don’t know your place, then you are simply trying to seek death. Remember, you have done no such great deed as saving my life. Instead, we have the enmity of you trying to frame me with the poison. So if I want to kill you, who can stop me?”
Mei Duo looked down at the three things on the ground then raised her head to Feng Zhi Wei. The woman on the high steps has eyes that are dark and cold, making one believe that there is nothing she doesn’t dare to do nor is there anything she can’t do.
“Ah Li!” After staring blankly for a few moments, Mei Duo starts to scream loudly “Come save me, you come and save me! I brought you up after so many years, you can’t let this she-wolf just willy nilly marry me off to some fat old guy!”
“The owner of a horse farm. Forty years old. He has three sons and one daughter. He is an honest person in possession of a great fortune.” Feng Zhi Wei says languidly “He is not some fat farmer, he is the one I have chosen out of more than ten plus candidates. And it was approved by the king.”
Hearing the last sentence, Mei Duo stood as if she had been struck by lightning.
“In consideration of your great deed years ago, the king has given you a chance. If you don’t want it, then great. This grand queen would actually prefer it if you don’t want it.” Feng Zhi Wei points down, “Choose one out of the three, quickly.”
- Obviously, a sobbing Mei Duo didn’t choose to kill herself and was escorted by a thousand guards off to her marriage. The next bit of the story is pretty distasteful so I am going to just briefly summarize it. Kelie manages to sneak into Mei Duo’s marriage procession by disguising himself as one of Mei Duo’s elderly maids. Mei Duo was at first overjoyed thinking Kelie is there to take her back to the grassland but Kelie instead offers Mei Duo a pill that would make her body start to slowly show bruises like she had been whipped. Betting that Helian would take her side if she goes back to him with physical signs of “abuse” as proof that Zhi Wei had purposefully married her off to an abusive man and assured by Kelie that her husband would most likely not touch her if her body had unsightly marks, Mei Duo resolutely takes the pill.
- Unfortunately for Mei Duo, Kelie only told her part of the truth. Kelie’s pill had an extra ingredient that is akin to a rape drug and by the time Mei Duo realizes Kelie’s real intention it was too late.
He carries her towards the bed and whispers against her ear with a smile “That old horse farmer must’ve been specially ordered by Feng Zhi Wei to keep a close watch over you. But the Hans place great importance on chastity so as long as you are not a virgin he will certainly regard you with disdain and relax his watch over you…which means you will eventually have a chance to escape….”
“Aunty Mei, Aunty Mei…by the time you get there with your tattered rotten body. Do you think that old horse farmer will think King Shunyi had simply thrown him a rotten good that he has finished playing with? Is he going to end up hating Helian and Feng Zhi Wei because of this? This horse farmer, supposedly has some sort of unknown background and has some connection to the grain holding governor… Aunty Mei, thank you for your sacrifice. Thank you, thank you.”
A faint smell of blood slowly permeates the room. Kelie flippingly parted the tent flaps, adjusted his clothes and before he left, he casually wiped his hands on the tent.
Leaving a bright trail of blood.
While Mei Duo is off to a certain unknown fate, Zhi Wei is flipping through all the information Zong Cheng’s people had gathered from various places.
Gu Nan Yi and Zong Cheng’s men…this organization that belongs to her. How big is it, is a question she has never asked. She just knows that Zong Cheng is quite well connected with information and moreover, it seems like only a portion of this organization stays by her side while there is another portion that is spread across the land. What those people do and what their identities are, are not something she knows.
Zong Cheng said once that the less she knows the better it is. By not knowing, then it would be easier to show genuine ignorance and not arouse suspicion. Feng Zhi Wei agrees completely. Yet, she already feels some certainty regarding Zong Cheng’s identity– The Xuan Yuan clan, one of the four great families. The clan that belongs to Emperor Xuan Yuan Yue…the emperor who had a pseudo name of Zong.
In the little book that Zong Cheng had given her, the woman had written a passage:
“Zong Yue, Zong Yue, I wish the flowers would always bloom, wish you will always be here, a lifelong confidant, forever true.”
Wish you will always be here, always here. Yet, that same Emperor Xuan Yuan was only on the throne for five years before he passed away.
Before Feng Zhi Wei left the Capital, she had spent some time researching Da Cheng’s history.
At the height of the glorious era, there were five nations. According to legend, all five rulers are connected in friendship. When Empress Shen Ying was in power, all nations had made a vow of non-aggression. However, after ten plus generations, with Da Cheng getting bigger and stronger, the other nations eventually all bowed to its power.
Da Cheng Year 127, the nation of Da Yan became subjugated to Da Cheng.
Da Cheng Year 215, Da Cheng Emperor Xuan Jing took over the capital of Xuan Yuan. The nation of Xuan Yuan was destroyed.
Da Cheng Year 329, the last emperor of Da Han abdicated the throne.
From that point on, all the land was ruled under Da Cheng’s red fiery flag.
Hundreds of years ago, the vow that legendary woman made as she stood on top of the Evergreen Divine Mountain, was finally blotted out by time, along with all those heroic deeds done by the great sons and daughters of that generation. She and them, their dazzling stories and their vows are finally left behind in history, no longer remembered by the world.
It is said that the heirs of the five emperors, because of their vow of non-aggression had asked how long into the future do they need to abide by the vow.
The great Da Han emperor gave a great laugh “This world, whoever wants it, can take it.”
Emperor Xuan Yuan coughed and replied, “Don’t bother me with such boring questions.”
Emperor Dayan looked towards the southern land and said “If I gain, I am lucky; if I lose, that it’s my destiny.”
As for the Grand emperor and queen of Dacheng, standing at the highest peak of their palace hand in hand were amused when they heard of the question. “Even if you can worry about the now, you can’t do anything about the future generation. There has never been an empire that is made of indestructible iron. Even my Dacheng, even if it is enjoying unparalleled prosperity right now, inevitably in the future, there will be unworthy children and grandchildren who will stir up unrest in the four seas, so why worry so much?”
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Thank you again for your translations! Always a Monday joy, interesting to see what the tv series left out… such a shame Feng Zhiwei in the show lost her cunning towards the end of it – i feel like she could have solved most of their issues if they hadn’t made her into such a victim! This Zhiwei is way more cunning.
Thank you for the translation. I love a decisive, competent, intelligent leadership quality in a woman as much as in a man. When I was a child, the first movie my mother took me was Mu Lan. The opening scene showed a young lady in hunting clothe, bow and arrow on one shoulder, spear on the other, sword at the waist and games on her back kicks open a door into her house. I was “whoa” and truly impressed even to this day. I badly wanted to be like her. My father took me to see many Disney princess movies prior to that. LOL, I wonder what my mother wanted to tell me then. Of course, I love the FZW of the novel.
Very different FZW from the novel to the drama. I love Ni Ni ‘s character, but I hated the end. She gave up too easily, cowardly.
I can’t wait to see how this FZW will handle the situation.