More and more people gathered in front of the city gate. From afar, a group of people came galloping in with a banner with the word “An” on it as it flapped in the wind.
The crowd quickly backed away, knowing that Prince An has arrived.
Although the battle ended in an epic loss and the troops were forced to withdraw but it seemed His Highness is still highly favored by the Emperor. The emperor of Da Yu changed the deputy commander but Prince An’s post was not affected at all. Judging by the fact the troops are now stationed in Pucheng, near the border, it would seem this particular prince is not willing to let the defeat of Baitou Mountain end just like that and is planning to fight again next year.
The caravan galloped past the city gate that was opened ahead of time as the crowd all knelt to welcome it.
A few people’s movements seemed to be slower than everyone else’s which caused the guards leading the caravan to glare at them. The people around those men immediately tugged on them, making their knees hit the ground with a crisp thud.
“Ah, they were fools.” A trace of contempt flashed across the eyes of Prince An’s head guard as he sped past them without another glance.
The several men mixed in the crowd raised their heads and stared long and hard at Prince An’s gold-encrusted carriage before their gaze come to rest on the last two carriages in the caravan.
The two carriages were ordinary looking. They were the same style as the usual Da Yu carriages, except they seemed to be guarded more closely with four corners covered in metal and windows tightly drawn with curtains so not even a hint of shadows can be spotted.
The men exchanged a look.
One man’s sleeve moved.
There was a flash of black shadows on the ground and then someone shouted “Ah! Snake!”
A commotion instantly appeared in the crowd, people jumping and dodging. In the chaos of being pushed and shoved, one man somehow ended up being squeezed out and rolled towards the carriage wheels.
The crowd shrieked in unison.
The person rolled under the wheel, seemingly in a panic as he screamed and waved his limbs wildly. The man’s arms hit the bottom of the carriage, banging all the while as he reached for the edge of the carriage, trying to steady his body.
Something dark seemingly flashed under the man’s arm.
After the flash of black light, another strange noise sounded. A roadside stall selling used clothes was pushed to the ground, sending its content everywhere. The stall owner shouted and jumped to gather up the clothes underneath the carriage, in complete disregard of the danger of his arms being run over.
The men who had rolled under the carriage first and this stall owner each had an arm underneath the car.
They immediately moved apart.
The carriage stopped and the guards in the front came galloping over. The first men crawled out from the bottom of the carriage, covered in dust as he cursed loudly “Which SOB pushed me! I was almost killed!”
The stall owner apologized profusely to Prince An’s guards with an armful of clothes, “Officers… I too was pushed…please forgive me, please forgive me…”
Stone-faced, Prince An’s guards forcefully shoved the two men aside, “Scram!”
An order came from the front, indicating that nothing should delay their progress so soon the rest of the caravan was speeding past. Letting out a collective sigh of relief, the crowd followed behind to enter into the city and dispersed.
The man in a green robe that had rolled underneath the carriage, dusted off his clothes before squatting under a veranda to gnaw on a sesame flatbread, looking just like the hard laborers he was surrounded with.
“What happened just now?” A man in a loose black robe asked.
“I was blocked.” The man in green spoke in a low voice. His eyes seemed to not be in a good condition as they are covered in yellow eye goop, making it difficult to see his eyes. The person lifted a hand to rub his eyes as he was speaking but immediately stopped when he met the gaze of the person across from him. Letting out an embarrassed grin, the man said “I can’t get used to it…”
“Who is the other party? Why did they block you?”
“He blocked my knife when I was about to hack open the bottom of the carriage and only said, no, don’t spook the enemy.” The man in green continues “His tone seemed sincere. Plus I already sensed something is off. The thing in the carriage seemed to be too heavy so I pulled back. I can’t tell who the other party is but there seemed to be no animosity. You know there are plenty of people who don’t believe the news. We are not the only people who are trying to rescue her.”
The man in black said “Hmm.” and stopped talking. There was another person next to him, dressed in a yellow robe made out of cheap rough cloth. Squatting on the ground, the man shifts uncomfortably and kept on shaking his clothes as if it was filled with lice. Not paying attention to the two men’s conversation, the man squatting on the ground suddenly plucked leaves from the tree next to him and said “They are here too.”
Folding the leaves together, the squatting man immediately put them to his lips and blew into it. The sound was faint, drowned in the noisy sound of the bazaar.
The serval men around him didn’t speak as they watched him in silence but he just focused all of his attention on blowing, as if he will continue on tirelessly.
The men listened and listened until they are almost at breaking point and are about to say something to stop him when the man softly laid down the leaves and whispered “Play flute, find you.”
The man full of yellow eye goop abruptly turned his head away.
The man in the black robe stared at the head on the city gate with thoughtful eyes. The man in green waved his hand and said nonchalantly “What are you looking at? Don’t look at it anymore!”
He resolutely turned his head, as if indicating that as long as he didn’t look at the head the thing wouldn’t exist.
The young man in yellow shook his head while nibbling on a sesame flatbread and said “It’s not.”
His interest instantly aroused, the green-robed man leaned in and asked “How do you know it’s not?”
With one slap, the young man pushed the man away.
“I am not talking about this…” The man in black stared at the head thoughtfully, “Have you guys thought about it? If she is not dead, then why would Jin Siyu do this? If she didn’t die, then why wasn’t her identity exposed? What really happened that night?”
With those questions spoken aloud, everyone fell into silence. After a long while, the green-robed man finally said with some difficulty “I…don’t know…”
The yellowed-robed young man extended a hand, the flatbread in his palm suddenly turned into crumbs. Staring at the crumbs blankly, the young man abruptly turned around, to face the wall.
Looking as if he has finally hit his limit, the green-robed man turned the young man around and hissed into his ear “This is not Tiansheng, you are not by her side. This is the enemy country of Da Yue. She is still in danger, she might be suffering something worse than death! You need to get your act together, be normal, talk smoothly, do things the way normal people do them! Do it even if you can’t! Else you will bring death upon us, and upon her!”
Listening to the man’s stern tone, the man in the black robe instinctively opened his mouth, wanting to interfere but stopped himself halfway with a sigh.
The young man didn’t seem to be angered nor did he push the man away
After thinking for a while, he raised his head and asked in a serious tone “If I am normal then she will be found? If I am not like you guys then I will cause her to die?”
“Ah, this is how you should talk!” The man in green quickly nodded vigorously, fearing that if he didn’t respond quickly enough then this guy will be abnormal again.
Squatting as he thought for another bit, the yellow-robed young man finally nodded “She wants me to come out, she said before that if she saw me like that, then she would come out happily to see me.”
He spoke very slowly, pausing in each sentence as if he had to think carefully and exert great effort in order to utter such a smooth and logical sentence. The two men across from him exchanged a look of joy. The man in black couldn’t help but mutter “Perhaps out of suffering a blessing may be obtained…”
“His world only has her. Without her, he couldn’t be who he used to be.” Squatting on the ground, the green-robed man snorted with a hint of jealousy.
“It was my fault too.” The man in the black robe sighed, “I should not have left or how else would you guys have been poisoned.”
“Stop it!” The green-robed man said irritably, “No matter what, it was all my fault. I was too soft-hearted! Damn, who would’ve thought that Dezhou old geezer had some connection to the Yuzhou province. After Mei Duo ran away, he then put the poison into the new grain. Who could’ve guessed the grain that had been fine all this time would suddenly go wrong. We weren’t even planning on using the new grain but who would’ve thought we ended up getting that pot of porridge!”
“No one is at fault, it was just a series of things that led to this disaster. Xiao Yao (Tao Yangyu) almost slit his own throat out of guilt. You guys have also blamed yourselves until now. What good does it do?” The man in black said softly, “There is no point regretting something that has already happened. The only thing to do is to do everything in our power to make up for it.”
“Why the heck did she knock me out, why, why…” The green-robed man muttered angrily, squeezing the flatbread until it turned into crumbs.
“She promised to protect you and your grassland so she naturally couldn’t put you in danger.” The black-robed man sighed, “Unfortunately, all the death guards who were with her that night all died. Some things, we really will have to wait until we find her to know…”
All three men stopped talking and looked towards the direction the carriages had gone.
Where are you?
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
It’s going to feel a bit slow going for a while. I love these next few chapters so we probably won’t be speeding over any parts.
green robe=Helian Zheng? yellow robe=Gu Nan Yi? Who is the other guy? Is he Zong Chen? Can’t wait for next week! Thank you so much, Ninja 🙂
Yes please explain who is who..i love these!! Thank you so much for doing this!
Yep, Zong Chen is the one in the black robe.
Thank you for the translation. Who is the clothing stall’s owner, the person who stops Helian? Ning Yi?
The author doesn’t explain who the clothing stall owner is but my guess would be one of Ning Yi’s man since Ning Yi was the one sitting in the carriage. Maybe Ning Chen?
THANK you for continuing this translation!! Who knew I’d actually look forward to Mondays?
This is so much better than the drama. Also wondering who is the clothing stall owner?
I think Ning Yi is somewhere in a carriage…. a little further from the three…. But I don’t know…. oh Ninja….
Muchas gracias ninja tus traducciones son épicas !
I’m really enjoying the story due to your translations. Rereading my favourite parts every week.
I just found this series on Netflix and finished it all in less than a week. I found out it was a novel series (thanks to your site and others) and am desperately looking for the books. I have been utterly unsuccessful. Can you point me in the right direction? I am USA based.
Are you looking for the English translation of the novel? If so, then you can obviously find some chapters on my site but there are also a few other sites that you should be able to find as well. If you are looking for the Chinese version then google “凰权小说” The first two characters is the name of the novel and the last two is Chinese for novel.
I’m really enjoying your work. I wish there were more translators like you.
I was reading the translations for the Legend of the Condor Heroes and it doesn’t do the story and characters justice at all.
Waiting for the next chapter with anticipation!