Their conversation seemed to startle awake the woman in prison. The woman slowly raised her head, her eyes lit up when she saw who was in front of her cell, and promptly rushed over.
She struggled as if wanting to say something. She opened her mouth but only the sound of ah ah came out. Her tongue seemed to have been scalded. Unable to speak a full sentence, she could only desperately push her hand through the cell gate to reach for the hand on the other side.
The heavy chain dragged on the ground with a heart jerking heavy thud, a sticky trail of blood trailed behind it.
In the faint light, the woman’s feature is still that same delicate slightly dark face, with long sharp eyebrows.
Her hand suddenly grabbed by Hua Qing, she yelled “Ah” in pain and backed away, seemingly wanting to break free yet mindful of her injured hand she didn’t dare to exert too much force. The violent pain brought a string of tears.
Realizing that her hand was injured, Hua Qing quickly grabbed her wrist instead, leaving bloody marks on her porcelain white wrist.
“Hua Qing!” Jin Siyu stood to the side and yelled coldly, “Do you see clearly who is in front of you? Confess honestly so there is still a chance of survival!”
Hua Qing forcefully spits on the ground, her spit laced with blood. Ignoring Jin Siyu, Hua Qing held onto her hand as tears began to fall.
Crystal clear tears slowly rolled down her face, mixed with the dripping blood, gradually becoming light pink in color, dripping down on the back of her hand.
She looked down at her hand, her expression turned to pity.
Hua Qing seemed to want to say something to her, but could never get it out and is left holding on tightly to her wrist, hope mixed with grief in her eyes. In futile, she kept uttering “ah ah” with her broken mouth, the sight of her tattered bloody flesh breaks one’s heart.
She abruptly turned her head to look at Jin Siyu.
Jin Siyu stared at her, his eyes as sharp as a needle.
“I can’t stand it…” She muttered, “What kind of crime deserve to be tortured like this. It’s too pitiful…even if I don’t remember anything, you said she came for me. Then I will ask for mercy– kill her and free her from this pain. To suffer like this, it is too hard to watch…”
“There are even more that’s unbearable.” Jin Siyu said lightly, “The sentence tomorrow is for her to die by a thousand cuts.”
Stunned, she looked back at Hua Qing and asked in confusion “Then why am I not…”
“You only brought a knife into the manor but you didn’t really do anything.” Jin Siyu explains, “But she thought I had killed you so she laid low until she got close to me and almost killed me, so…” He smiled viciously, “In other words, she is dying for you.”
Her body shook. Behind her, Hua Qing yelled “ah ah”, her voice was full of anger yet the grip on her wrist was firm. The expression in Hua Qing’s eyes was earnest. Even though she couldn’t speak, but it was easy to read the encouragement and trust in her eyes.
In the lonely prison cell, blood and flesh scattered about, the two women separated by the iron bars, are facing the most tragic separation of life and death.
Sorrow and anguish filled the air, enough to suffocate.
Hua Qing’s tears fell like broken beads onto her hand but still struggled to give her a brave and comforting smile.
That smile reflected in the shadowy light of the lantern, bright and beautiful.
Such a strong woman, such a tragic end, an end that no one can accept…
She trembled.
Jin Siyu immediately took a step forward, held her, and asked tenderly “…what do you want to say?”
Belatedly realizing the body under his hand was limp, Jin Siyu quickly looked down only to see her pale white face covered with cold sweat. She had fainted.
Jin Siyu stood in stunned silence. He looked at her then at Hua Qing, his heart in a mess, uncertain if it’s feeling disappointment, relief, or something else.
Yet, the pulse under his fingers was chaotic and turbulent. The hidden internal wounds inside her body had broken loose. It is completely logical that she would faint. In fact, it’s a miracle that she held out as long as she did.
Still…such perfect timing to faint…
With a wry smile, Jin Siyu picked her once again. Feeling her clothes soaked through with cold sweat, his heart suddenly felt a small prick.
Behind him, Hua Qing started to speak but he waved his sleeve and made a “silence” gesture.
He carried her out of silent darkness. The iron gate fell behind him. A guard promptly came over and bowed to listen to his order. “This is an important prisoner. Be careful that someone doesn’t attempt to take the prisoner when she is taken out. Don’t take her out during the day but do it at night. Put her on the prison cart to be transported to the Pucheng dungeon.”
Taking her back to that secluded secret room, she was unconscious the whole time, her brows slightly knitted in a frown.
Jin Siyu ordered the maid to go brew some medicine while he himself sat by her side the whole time. She woke up once, drank the medicine in a daze then promptly fell asleep again. Her sleep seemed to be restless, her eyelids made small movements, indicating that she was immersed in some unpleasant dream.
Jin Siyu suddenly stood up, pulled down the heavy curtains to block out the last bit of light.
Sitting down beside her, he gently stroked her brows with his fingers. She seemed to relax and let out a soft sigh.
He smiled and suddenly asked softly “Who are you?”
She hummed and muttered between her lips but it was difficult to make out what she said. He leaned down his head to listen but they were still all vague words so he pulled back with disappointment.
As he was pulling away, her lips brushed against his temple.
The heart-stopping softness, the faint sweet fragrance between rosy lips. It was as if the northern land buried in deep winter snow suddenly all bloomed with spring flowers.
He froze. Frozen for serval moments in a slightly awkward posture. After a good while, he slowly straightened up.
That bit of bone-penetrating softness seemed to still linger on his temple, with a bit of seductive moisture, slowly drying up on that bit of skin. And that bit of skin is therefore becoming a bit tingling, like a sort of mood that one would not want anyone to know.
Yet, he immediately blanked the emotions in his eyes, sat up straight, and looked down at the woman who is still making little noises.
She seemed to have dreamt something fun, her lips forming into a rare smile. The smile started from her lips and spread to the corner of her eyes, making her face dazzling and bright, like a gemstone sparkling underwater. How mesmerizing would those eyes with such a smile be if they were open?
Someone once said, your guard is at its lowest when you laugh.
In the darkness, he asked softly “…who did you dream of?”
She uttered an “um” before suddenly rolling over, and grabbed hold of his arm that was resting on the side of the bed. Seemingly quite pleased with the feel of his arm, she pressed her face against it, then stopped moving.
Exasperated, Jin Siyu stared at the woman who just brazenly latched onto him. She seemed to be quite insecure and likes to grab hold of something when she sleeps.
He tried to pull his hand out but she only tightened her hold until he couldn’t move anymore.
Jin Siyu could have just kicked her away or thrown her out like he did yesterday but somehow he didn’t do it.
He suddenly felt a bit tired as well. Dealing with this woman seemed to be a very tiring task. Who knows what she would do in the next moment. Letting out a small yawn, he laid down on the edge of her big bed. Pulling over half of her blanket on top of himself, he then really went to sleep.
The last bit of the shimmering light outside of the curtain faded away, the night has fallen completely. After four hours, the sound of the dinner bell ranging in the distance woke both of them up.
A person’s consciousness is the most muddled upon waking from a deep slumber.
She turned her body, still stirring in the blanket, unwilling to wake up.
Faint light penetrated the curls of smoke from afar, he suddenly spoke and called: “Wei Zhi.”
“………….”
After a moment of silence, she inclined her head to look at him and asked in a startled tone “Who are you calling?”
Another tiny hint at the end about Hua Qing.
An interesting side note about translating Chinese to English is the difficulty of translating negative words. This is something that occurs quite often when you see C-movies or C-dramas when the English translation would use “Stupid”, “dumb” or other severe curse words to translate Chinese words that technically fit but are completely missing the true meaning. (By the way, if you see swear such as the F bombs or others in the same severity in a C-drama, they are almost always translated wrong in meaning. I can’t remember the last time I have seen actual swear words in a C-drama.) In English, adjectives are usually on either side of the spectrum be it positive or negative but it is common in the Chinese language to be more in the middle that can be used as both positive and negative. For example, Chinese people will often reply to an inquiry concerning how something is by saying “Not bad.” To a Westerner that might come across as “Well, it’s not really good so I can only say it’s not bad.” But to a Chinese, “Not bad” actually means pretty good.
Other than the “Shameless” translation from last post, there was a wording here in this post I should’ve translated into “pity” but I decided to translate it as “a prick in his heart.” When we say we pity someone in English, it could carry a negative feel especially in reference to one person’s relationship with another. However, in this particular Chinese word, while it might have the literal meaning of “pity” it is often used as when one starts to feel a softening of the heart, a precursor to falling in love with someone.
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He is quickly smitten with WZ, isn’t he? What magnetic charm WZ has! I bit that was the best sleep Siyu has ever had.
Ninja… such a great translation! Thank you so much.
Exactly. We are really lucky to be a recipient of this wonderful work!
I’m a little confused.
Jin Siyu met Wei Zhi at the battle grounds right? Thought he was his arch nemesis.
I thought he was smitten by the lady next to him.. whom he doesn’t know if Wei Zhi/Zhi Wei
Jin Siyu met Zhi Wei twice. Once as Wei Zhi where our heroine was wearing a mask and appeared as a young man. Second time, as a female soldier fighting desperately. At this point, he has no clue who Zhi Wei could be so he is just throwing everything he can think of at our heroine.
Thank you Ninja. A prick in his heart is perfect. I often confused with translation of C or K drama because it does not convey the emotion or even intention as I understand the circumstances depicted in the movie.
WZ and FZW always wears mask in public so Jin Siyu has suspicion but no proof?
Also why the lie? HQ and FZW were captured at the battleground, in full military regalia, not when they supposed to sneak in his mansion to assassinate him? Did FZW take the male disguise before she was captured?
So the whole assassination thing was obviously made up by Jin Siyu. At this point, you can tell he is really not certain if our heroine really lost her memory or not…but I think he is leaning towards that she is telling the truth. In the drama, it looks like Jin Siyu knew from the get-go that he had captured the Queen but that’s not the case at all in the novel. Remember, Kelie never had the chance to tell him about Zhi Wei so his only clue that our heroine is someone important is by the sheer number of men who sacrificed their lives trying to protect her. Zhi Wei did take off her disguise before she showed herself on the battlefield in front of Jin Siyu since she knew she would probably be captured and it would be useless to have a disguise once that happened. Her mask was awesome but not so awesome that if someone checked her thoroughly that it wouldn’t be discovered.
One other thing to remember is that it’s not very likely Jin Siyu himself thought too seriously of the possibility Wei Zhi is the woman he has captured. As a prince, one that is famous for being brilliant and cunning at that, it is probably extremely difficult for Jin Siyu to accept that his first and only defeat was at the hand of a young man…let alone that it was a young woman. I see the whole thing of him calling out “Wei Zi” as a crazy thought on his part that he will probably quickly convince himself that he was overthinking it.
Thank you Ninja. I enjoy this story because of your many insights.
This story just keeps getting better and better. Such a shame about the show. I wonder if she is playing a usual WZ slick move on JS. 🤔 Thank you so so much for the translation!