The Rise of Phoenixes Novel Translation #169

Holding the box, Qiu Shu walked into the second courtyard where a group of guards was training. Qiu Shu walked around the guards but then suddenly heard a yell behind him “Hey!” 

The sound came abruptly, full of murderous intent, followed by a bright flash pressing down behind.

Qiu Shu turned his head in surprise, like all ordinary people without any martial art training, he was so stunned that he stood frozen to the spot. 

*PLOP*

A drum full of water poured down, soaking Qiu Shu instantly. The drum that contained the water is still crashing down on Qiu Shu’s head but he stood with his eyes wide, unmoving, seemingly shocked out of his mind. 

*KANG*

A sword flashed, grazing right past his scalp, striking down the drum, causing it to shatter on the ground. The guard who had rushed over with his sword looked down at the few fallen hairs on his sword and pushed Qiu Shu aside with disgust “Why are you just standing there like a fool, getting in the way!” 

Qiu Shu hadn’t snapped out of his stupor and stumbled upon being pushed before falling to the ground. Instinctively putting out his hand when he fell,  Qiu Shu’s hand landed right on the broken porcelain pieces, instantly cutting open his palm, dyeing the shattered porcelain pieces red. 

The pain caused Qiu Shu to take a sharp intake of breath. Soaked through, his palm stained full of blood, wet hair plastered on the forehead, shivering in the freezing winter wind, Qiu Shu carefully shuffled backward as a group of guards surrounded him. Not daring to examine his wound, Qiu Shu smiles apologetically, “Yes, yes, this humble servant was blind… so this is martial art, sir, you all have shown me a new world.” 

The guard that had struck down the drum snorted and walked away. Another guard came over, personally helped Qiu Shu up and said with a smile “Ignore that guy, he might talk tough but he is a softie inside. It’s all my fault, I was training with the water drum but an ant suddenly crawled up my neck and the itching got too much. Then you just happened to walk past…are you alright?” 

“Thank you sir for asking. I am fine, I am fine.” Qiu Shu replied, looking flattered and surprised by the guard’s attention.

The guard helped him up and smiled “Your clothes are soaked, the box got wet too. How can you go deliver the document to His Highness like this. We have some change of clothing over there, go change into an outfit.” 

“How can I wear the clothes you all wear…” A flustered Qiu Shu immediately refused but the guard pushed him into a room and assured him, “Don’t worry, it’s not the guards’ uniform. It’s just casual clothes we wear after our shifts.” Pulling Qiu Shu into the room, the guard personally found an outfit for him, then stood waiting, seemingly waiting for Qiu Shu to change right on the spot. 

Faced with the guard’s unusual friendliness, Qiu Shu protested just a bit more before accepting the guard’s goodwill frankly and changed without hesitation. Looking indifferent, the guard casually turned his head away. 

In truth, it really wasn’t a big deal if he looked or not– there are plenty of people out of sight that is looking. 

Changing out of the wet clothes, Qiu Chu thanked the guard and is about to leave with his wet clothes in hand. The guard stopped him and said “Your clothes got dirty because of me, I need to take responsibility for that. I will send it to the west laundry room where we get our training clothes washed.” Looking as if he was afraid Qiu Shu would reject his offer, the guard grabbed the wet clothes from him. 

Qiu Shu smiled and didn’t say anything more on the matter “Then I will go delivery the documents to His Highness.” 

Bidding the guard goodbye, he continues on with the box in hand. The bloody wound on his hand has already clotted. The wound was deeper than expected. The blood that had gushed out of the wound had quickly froze into a ball of ice beads– the super friendly guard just now only cared about his clothes but didn’t spare a single glance towards the hand wound. 

Raising his hand, he very casually wiped off the blood on the wall, as if he was afraid to stain the box and the clothes. The dark color of the bloodstain stood out on the jade color brick wall.

There was new blood seeping out of the wound, revealing a trace of something white– a blood-stained wax pill, embedded in the wound. 

Just now, at the moment of him falling, the wax pill that was originally in his sleeve was moved into the palm of his hand before it was shoved forcefully into his wound. The wax pill is not big so only a small portion of it stuck out of the skin and once the blood clotted over it, then it was undiscernible among the bloody cut up flesh. 

When he fell, he aimed for the sharpest broken porcelain piece, ensuring the wound would be quite deep. Now that he wants to take out the wax pill that had been shoved deep into his wound, it would certainly be another round of heart-wrenching pain. 

He frowned at the wound. It’s not that he is afraid of pain but that he is worried the now squashed wax ball would break apart inside his flesh, once infection happens then the hand would be as good as destroyed. 

After thinking for a long moment, he reached up to pluck a dead branch from the tree beside him. 

Just as he was about to pick the wax ball out, he abruptly stopped, tossed the dead branch aside, let down his sleeve and quickly stood up. 

Sounds of footsteps came after a bit, a middle-aged man and his apprentice appeared on the far side of the path.

Physician Ruan has long lived on the mountain and has a habit of walking every day. This is the path he takes every day, everyone knows that. In the beginning, there were still guards that would follow him but gradually they disappeared– this is the middle of the winter, walking in the cold wind is truly not something comfortable. 

Seeing the two coming, Qiu Shu bowed. The apprentice stopped first, staring at him. The expression in his eyes was flat but the tree branches were suddenly shivering. 

Qiu Shu’s smile didn’t waver as he greeted Physician Ruan, “Are you well sir?”

Physician Ruan returned the smile, “Thank you for asking. I am well.” 

Qiu Shu was about to leave when Physician Ruan suddenly asked “How did your hand get hurt?” 

The wound that was torn open just now had been dripping blood, accumulating a tiny pool of blood on the ground. Hissing in pain, he explained with a smile “I wasn’t careful just now and was cut by a piece of broken porcelain. It’s nothing, not worth bothering you, sir.” 

“Us physicians can’t stand to do nothing when we see people hurt.” Physician Ruan laughed and beckoned him to go over to a pavilion close by, “I’ll just treat it simply.” 

 The two sat down inside the pavilion. Physician Ruan took out the medicine bag he always has with him, looked inside it and turned to ask his apprentice “Did we bring the numbing powder?” 

Apprentice Xiao Dai who held a small bag of numbing powder in his hand shook his head resolutely “No.” 

Qiu Shu began to cough. Physician Ruan stared at Xiao Dai blankly, Xiao Dai stared back at him with a resolute expression and clear eyes. 

After a few moments, a half resigned and half happy Physician Ruan shook his head, took Qiu Shu’s hand, and apologized “Bear with it.” 

Zong Chen is resigned because there is obviously no reasoning with Gu Nan Yi but also happy because Gu Nan Yi is actually lying now! He is finally learning emotions.

The long silver tweezers penetrated the wound, pulling apart the bloody flesh bit by bit to extract the broken wax pieces. Qiu Shu trembled but then immediately smiled and asked “Are you well sir?” 

He had already asked this question previously so to ask it again, there is naturally a deeper meaning to it. Physician Ruan raised his eyes to look at him and replied after a few moments, “Not bad.” 

This answer was different from the one given previously. Qiu Shu let out a sigh of relief. Beads of sweat filled his forehead, unsure if it was because of the pain or if it was relief from hearing the answer. 

“If you knew what would happen today then why act like that before.” Physician Ruan talked to distract him while he slowly cleaned the wound, “Why weren’t you more careful?”

The phrase of “If you knew what would happen today then why act like that before.” is a Chinese saying that are often used to describe people who regret bitterly what they did in the past that was wrong. The phrase is common enough that it could be understood Physician Ruan is talking about Qiu Shu falling instead of the deeper meaning involving Ning Yi and Zhi Wei. 

“There a lot of things that can’t be avoided just because you want to.” Qiu Shu smiled. 

“That’s true.” Physician Ruan laughed, “One might just as well get one’s self to forget.” 

“But what’s concerning is that even if one wants to forget but can’t forget.” Qiu Shu looked into Physician Ruan’s eyes. 

An ordinary sentence but it caused Physician Ruan to become thoughtful. He naturally knew what the man across from him is asking. But this question…only this question, even him, can’t figure out the answer. 

A person like her, if she really wants to pull inward, even with all his keen observance and medical skills, it would be hopeless to really figure out the truth. 

After a long moment, Physician Ruan shook his head and replied, “All the medical skills in the world, can’t cure the heart.” 

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

So I am not entirely sure what’s going on in the last bit. There are several ways I think this could be read, but I am not certain which one it is. 

From the “If you knew what would happen today then why act like that…” Here Zong Chen is for sure saying that Ning Yi should’ve done more to stop what happened to Zhi Wei’s mother and brother. Ning Yi’s reply is that there were many things that were out of his control. Zong Chen acknowledged the truth of Ning Yi’s words then says that since the situation is what it is then the two of them might as well forget. (Not sure if he is saying our two leads should forget each other or that both of them should just forget all the past including each other) 

Ning Yi then counters that the bigger problem is that even if one wants to forget one might not be able to forget. 

At first I had assumed Ning Yi was talking about himself, saying that he can’t forget our heroine even if he wanted to. OR it could be that Ning Yi is saying perhaps Zhi Wei can’t forget him or her family’s death even if she wanted to. 

However, the next passage kinda threw both of my hypotheses out the window. Since Zong Chen’s wording of “He naturally knew what the man across from him is asking.” suggests Ning Yi is asking a question about Zhi Wei. So is Ning Yi asking if Zhi Wei really lost her memory or not? 

If so, then Zong Chen’s answer was even more intriguing since he is saying he doesn’t know the answer to that. Does that mean Zong Chen can’t figure out if Zhi Wei really lost her memory or not? From some of the author’s descriptions of Zhi Wei’s reactions when no one is around, we as readers know that Zhi Wei didn’t lose her memory so I had assumed Zong Chen figured that out as well but I am not so sure now.

What’s certain is that Zong Chen’s last sentence is summarizing what everyone around our heroine (including Ning Yi) has been worrying about. What happened to Zhi Wei’s family is soul-crushing to her and those closest to her can see that but have been unable to figure out a way to help her.