Jin Siyu couldn’t help but laugh too. According to what he knows of Ning Yi, indeed, he also feels it is impossible. Yet, when he stares into the woman’s misty eyes, he blurted out “Perhaps, you are the exception.”
“I am certainly an exception.” With her hands clasped behind her back, Feng Zhi Wei sneered “Everyone knows that Prince Chu and Official Wei Zhi worked together in South Sea, the model master and his subordinate who were like kindred spirits. However, very few knew, that kindred spirits are those who know each other very well. Sometimes, an enemy could be a kindred spirit.
“Enemy?”
“Wei Zhi did lose his memory before. I think this is something your highness is also aware of.” Feng Zhi Wei explains “Wei Zhi had disappeared on the journey back to the Capital. He eventually ended up in the Wild Grassland, and joined the Iron Calvery which led to the White Head Cliff battle. I don’t know if Your Highness has ever wondered why two people who regarded each other as kindred spirits like Prince Chu and Zhi Wei, the closest friends that are possible between a master and his subordinate, why would Wei Zhi never pay his respect to Prince Chu after his return with the Iron Calvery? And why would he not even go receive his royal rewards?”
Jin Siyu was taken aback. He had indeed heard of this and had wondered why this official Wei seemed to be avoiding Prince Chu. Now that he is reminded again, thought for a moment and said suddenly, “Did your disappearance have something to do with Prince Chu?”
“Indeed!” Feng Zhi Wei clapped her palms together, “Since I am going to be working together with Your Highness then it doesn’t hurt to tell you of the matter. From the beginning, I was the one who proposed the idea of the South Sea shipping division. The affairs division was established with the purpose of balancing the power between the officials, and to eliminate the South Sea invaders. Once the South Sea invaders have been wiped out then Minnan and the South Sea General’s power will be greatly reduced. At that time, Prince Chu had gone through a great deal of trouble to finally insert his people into the military and through great difficulty managed to get a Minnan general in place with great hope that it would be the auspicious beginning he had been waiting for. Then I came along and completely destroyed his plan, making it so he pretty much had to start over. Do you think is possible for him to not hate me? And how can I live without fear under such a master?”
Jin Siyu silently pondered, going through in his mind what he knew of the political affairs of the Tiansheng court and comparing it to what Feng Zhi Wei had said. He was forced to admit that what she had said was very reasonable. If it were him, he would’ve certainly come to hate whoever had messed up his plans.
To a prince who has no military power in hand, nothing is more important than obtaining that said military power. He himself had spent a lot of energy in order to obtain the position of the general so he naturally could understand very well her meaning.
Although the doubts in his heart had been dispelled somewhat, he let nothing show on his expression and only sneered “Even if Ning Yi would not retreat for you, so what? Can’t I beat him myself? It’s great that he is here. To dare enter into my Da Yue land, then I will make him stay here forever!”
“If Your Highness really wants to fight right now then there is nothing I can do.” Feng Zhi Wei spread her hands and said with a smile “Unfortunately, Tiansheng has already successfully ambushed the main camp today. Combine that with the little chaos in Pucheng city today, it could already be counted as a small defeat for Your Highness. And since Ning Yi dared to come then he certainly didn’t just come with the lone army he ambushed the main camp with. There must be a large army waiting by the border. Which means this can only be solved with a big battle. However, is this really a good time for a big battle?”
Jin Siyu fell silent.
“The Da Yue army had just suffered a defeat and the replenishment of solider will not finish arriving for a while. This is also right in the middle of New Year’s festivities. Everyone else is reporting good news while you have acted rashly and disrupted the Ministry of War’s next spring battle plan. Once the fighting starts then the army supervisor from the court will certainly be reporting to the emperor. They will for sure mention being ambushed and the chaos of Pucheng city. By the time all that get to the emperor’s ear is just that you have suffered yet another defeat. Then your brothers in the capital will start wagging their tongues….” Feng Zhi Wei sighed, “ Even if you win in the end, it won’t be counted as a win.”
Jin Siyu stopped speaking altogether.
“The thing to do now is to get Tiansheng to retreat as soon as possible, settle Pucheng, reassure the army supervisors from the capital, minimize the situation as much as possible.” Feng Zhi Wei continues, “This way, a big battle will turn into a simple short engagement of few soldiers. Ning Yi’s troop descending on the city will turn into him coming all the way for a fruitless endeavor and returning home with nothing. This will just be proof that Your Highness was ever vigilant even during the New Year festivities and a show of how well trained your army is. The enemy troop launched a surprise attack on New Year’s Eve but was repulsed without suffering great losses. You will even be rewarded after this is reported to the emperor.” Feng Zhi Wei smiled, “Then you add the accomplishment of getting the famous Wei Zhi to come to your side…everyone’s happy, a great New Year all around.”
Jin Siyu raised his head, glanced at her and finally showed the first smile of the night, “I wouldn’t believe you even if you tell me you are not Wei Zhi now.”
Feng Zhi Wei smiled and pulls out a small pouch to put it in front of Jin Siyu, “With half of the antidote of the Eternal Life, I seek to serve under Prince An’s command.”
Jin Siyu looked at the pouch but didn’t move. Feng Zhi Wei opened the pouch, peeled off a small bit and ate it in front of him.
Jin Siyu summoned in a person, and gave a bit of what was in in the pouch for the man to ingest. Finally assured after the man appeared fine after a while, Jin Siyu finally partook of what was in the pouch. When the coloring in his face improved, Jin Siyu also pulled out a bottle and said “There is no such thing as half antidote to Gu. This is the medicine to control the poison of the Gu. It will turn the poison you are releasing inward to your internal organs. In the future you must take the antidote each year at this time or else your life will be in danger.”
“Looks like I am the one getting the short end of the deal, I will be under Your Highness’ control for the rest of my life.” Feng Zhi Wei smiled, pour out a pill from the bottle, and ate it.
“As long as you are loyal and don’t pull any more stunts I won’t mistreat you.” Seeing her taking the pill, Jin Siyu looked assured.
“Your Highness.” Feng Zhi Wei said after a while, “The person outside of the door, risked his life to come rescue me. Even though I will be parting ways with him but I still don’t want to see him die here. I ask on the favor that we will be master and subordinate for life that you let him go.”
“Let him go, so he can pull out all stops to come rescue you again? Then what?”
“I will soon be Tiansheng’s traitor.” Feng Zhi Wei let out a bitter smile, “Why would they risk their life again to come rescue me?”
After a few moments of silence, Jin Siyu raised his voice and called out “Chang Le.”
The guard captain came to the door. Jin Siyu pulled out a piece of paper and wrote a few words on it before handing it to him “This is a letter to General Lee. Tell the soldier outside of the door to take it to General Lee. I still have some more matters to discuss with this Captian Wei.”
The captain nodded and walked out to hand the letter to Zong Chen. Taking the letter, Zong Chen was utterly confused. There had only been silence ever since Feng Zhi Wei walked into the room. He had been filled with apprehension not knowing what was transpiring in the room and not daring to make any rash actions on his end. What is the meaning of this letter now? If Feng Zhi Wei had been captured then there is no way they would let him go. But even if Feng Zhi Wei was able to fool Jin Siyu as a messenger, there is still no reason they would tell only him to leave so what exactly is going on?
He for sure is not willing to just leave like this. Hesitating for a moment, he decided to take the risk of calling out to her but Feng Zhi Wei’s smiling face appeared at the window suddenly and said very calmly, “Brother Wang, you go on ahead. His Highness still has some matters for me to report. Don’t worry, wait for me to eat dinner at the main camp.” As she talked, her eyes slightly looked upward.
Seeing that she was alright, Ning Chen was somewhat assured so after hesitating for a bit, he still left.
Feng Zhi Wei waited until she saw Ning Chen was far away before she lowered the window curtain and said with a smile, “Your Highness, please tie Wei Zhi up and lead him up to the city gate.”
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Thank you! I love her when she’s scheming..
Every week is a cliffhanger! Thank you for the translation!
Great read. If this scheming is not true then it outs Ningyi at a disadvantage again. The author always seems to forget the main male lead.. It’s been quite some time since we last heard from Ningyi’.
That’s so true. This author really likes to send her heroines off on long adventures without the heroes.
At this point, I am simply waiting for Ning Yi to come up and turn the tables. Clearly, he knows Feng Zhiwei is infected since the light blew out – and as kindred spirits, they will understand each other schemes and can work alongside – even apart. The main question is – does she want to ?
She is too intelligent to blame Ning Yi for long but the loss of her family has put another barrer between her relationship to him (there is none for him aha) and I am curious to see how she will deal with that.
Thank you so much for your diligence in sharing these translations. It has been great to read and mull over. Can you tell us how far along we are? I think i remember you saying the book is divided into 4 volumes…
Thank you – truly
We are right at the end of volume 2.
I am on translation 116 or so, and it’s such a joy to read the interaction between you and the fellow readers, ninja, in the comments. I asked how far we are in the book bc i’m divided if i want it to be over soon or if i just want to enjoy reflecting on the dilemmas and characters. I just want to reiterate my gratitude for your translations. We, i really appreciate your work on this.
Oh, wow! Nothing like the drama.
She is really a force to reckon with. So scheming and reassured.
But I don’t like she is staying behind.