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.”
As she spoke she began to retie her hair and then using a few simple items she found while rummaging around she drew on her face using the reflection from the water basin in the study. Letting out a sigh of regret as she looked at her reflection that was about 70% like Wei Zhi she said “The original mask for Wei Zhi was lost so I will use this face from now.”
The expression in Jin Siyu’s eyes was quite complicated as he stared at her Wei Zhi disguise. After a long bit, he finally ordered the guards to bring a wide seat sedan chair, tied Feng Zhi Wei’s wrist up with a rope and said with a smile “Apologies Official Wei.”
“No, no, no offend taken.” Feng Zhi Wei didn’t struggle at all.
The two of them got into the wide sedan chair and were escorted the whole way to the city gate with a big group of guards. Before they even reached the city gate they had already received several reports that after Tao Yangyu’s iron calvary has ambushed the Da Yue reinforcement troops by the river they didn’t attack Da Yue’s main camp but had instead headed straight for Pucheng city and engaged the guard battalion at the main gate. At one point the gate door was opened but the guard battalion was able to hold off the attacking enemies with all their might. As of right now, the two armies are fighting fiercely in front of the city gate.
Jin Siyu only sneered after listening to the reports and led everyone up the city gate. Feng Zhi Wei glanced out of the corner of her eyes toward the fighting below. She had worried at first that perhaps Gu Nan Yi would still be on top of the city gate but she can now spot a yellow figure dashing in and out of the crowd, obviously doing quite well on adding up the body counts.
She also saw Zong Chen leaving the city from a distance. He had caught her hint and coaxed Gu Nan Yi down from the city gate to go aid Tao Yangyu’s troop.
Feng Zhi Wei had to take a moment and be amazed at the fact that Master Gu is indeed so much easier to coax now.
At this point Jin Siyu pushed her under the banner of the tower. The people from Da Yue’s side didn’t realize what had changed but it had already created a stir on Tiansheng’s side.
Under the big banner of Tiansheng’s “Ning” flag, someone looked up from a distance.
It was a Ning Yi.
FYI, I was really tempted to just end this week’s translation here 🙂
Ning Yi, who was the first to leave the city, was met by Tao Yangyu and returned to attack Pucheng city.
It’s dawn by now and the first day of the fifteenth year of Tiansheng. The sun had not yet risen. In the blanket of snowy background outside of the city, a big banner with a gold character on a black background is brazenly swaying in the air. Under the banner, that person’s eyes and hair are even darker than the color of the banner, his dark black cloak fluttering in the wind, making the pale golden devil’s snare flower embroidered on them appear extra mesmerizing.
He looked up at the tower at the city gate.
Under the yellow banner with the red character “Jin” on it, she was dressed in the familiar man’s outfit, her hair was rolled up casually, her face was a little thin but her eyes were still captivating, a turquoise hair tie and her hair fluttered together in the wind.
This was the first time after a year, the two really met as Ning Yi and Wei Zhi.
Not the passing encounter in Tiasheng’s main camp, not the shocking kiss in the dark room of the manor, not the servant boy standing in the shadow of fireworks on New Year’s Eve while she was in the warm tent as Shao Yao.
What they are now, one on the tower, one below the city gate, separated by thousands of troops.
The sea of people between them, they are gazing at each other but are not physically close.
Ning Yi kept his head up and looked at her very carefully. In actuality, he had just seen her last night from a distance. However, for some reason, he didn’t want to admit the woman in someone else’s arms was her. It was a fake person wearing Feng Zhi Wei’s outer appearance. Only the Wei Zhi now, is the real one.
He frowned slightly. He had met up with Zong Chen just now and had found out about the twin Gu. Seeing her standing beside Jin Siyu, in the familiar graceful yet confident manner of Wei Zhi, a vague sense of foreboding started to grow inside of him.
Feng Zhi Wei stood high above, her gaze made a quick survey all around before finally turning to the banner with Ning on it.
Eyes met, each has its own depth like the sea, each has its own deep endless abyss, each saw the fire sparkling in the other’s eyes, and each banished the lingering sparks into the desolation depth of their hearts.
Their gaze met and immediately turned away.
“It seems that General Wei, you are very popular in Tiansheng.” Jin Siyu remarks with a half smile.
“Too high of a praise, too high of a praise.” Feng Zhi Wei said solemnly, “One should be diligent in whatever position one is put in. I was just doing my best as a good subordinate.”
“General Wei ——– !”
A long mournful call broke through the sky, causing the two armies to stop in unison, and then they saw a lone rider galloping in, brazenly passing through the entangled black and gold armored soldiers, the long lance in his hand and the horse’s hooves under him both stirred up the bloody and muddy snow on the ground, “General—”
When the man on the horse got close to the gate, he was stopped by Da Yue soldiers. The guards who had been following him desperately rushed forward to fight, but he didn’t care, he flew down from the horse, lunged and kneeled on the muddy snow and forcefully slammed his head to the ground, “General!”
Three consecutive calls, grief, anger and remorse, and when he raised his head again, tears were streaming down his face.
Moved by the man’s action, many Tiansheng soldiers quietly shed tears.
The Da Yue guard battalion stopped abruptly, unable to figure out what exactly had happened.
Standing under the banner and loooking at Tao Yangyu’s tear and mud stained face, even Feng Zhi Wei, whose eyes are perpetually calm and confident had a silent ripple in them, like the wind passing over a blue lake.
However, she immediately calmed down.
Jin Siyu was silent, looking at the young Tiansheng general crying like a child. There was a faint shock in his eyes -a mere woman, can win over such a man and subdue him to this state, how rare and unique she must be?
He slowly raised his hand, grabbed the rope that bound Feng Zhi Wei and placed a knife across her neck.
His action caused an immediate uproar among the Tiansheng army, countless people began to curse loudly. Ning Yi’s expression changed, Tao Yangyu hastily got up from the ground and jumped on his horse to rush straight at the iron wall made of the guard battalion’s spear tips but he was stopped by his guards who desperately held onto him.
Gu Nan Yi who had been weaving in and out of the crowd to kill people, stopped in a daze and was almost stabbed by a soldier until Ning Chen came over and pulled him away. Gu Nan Yi lifted his foot to start ascending up the tower but countless arrows immediately rained down on him.
“Why did you want me to leave the city first!” Gu Nan Yi turned his head and stared at Zong Chen angrily.
Zong Chen was dumbfounded. Gu Nan Yi would actually question people? And with such a well-structured sentence? He was so stunned that he forgot to respond and forgot what he had originally wanted to say.
Helian who had encountered a battle at the city gate and ended up back in Ning Yi’s camp immediately grabbed his big sword, and jumped on his horse to charge ahead “Why the #$@!% was she not out? Why?!”
“I don’t have to introduce who this is right?” Jin Siyu is still wounded so ignoring the loud cursing below he decided to cut right to the chase, “This is your General Wei who on his own fought under the Whitehead Cliff and won the great victory of Baitou Mountain. He is the one we in Da Yue hate and want to peel his skin, consume his flesh. However, this greatest hero in this war for Tiansheng is now by my side. If you all take one more step forward then I will push her down. If you retreat, then I will send her out of the city politely.”
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Oh man.. this is heartbreaking.
Wow, What change of events!
This is disheartening to those who love her, and tried to rescue her.
Understandable from the point of survival.
Scheming FZW.
Poor Ning Yi
I imagine she is planning something, but WHAT?
Ninja, thank you for not ending the chapter, just as Ningyi appeared. I am grateful. WOW!!!!!! Feng Zhi Wei actions are disappointing. The scheming) plan to stand by Jin Siyu makes no sense. How much pain and heartache must her love ones go through, most especially Ning Yi?
I can’t praise FZW enough! She is a marvelous woman indeed. Not easy to understand though, but somehow I think Ning Yi can understand the options ZW had taken. I applauded the writer for her story, how she made her heroine strong, bright and independent! Thanks Ninja for your great translation 🙂
I know this isn’t related to the current translation (i’m at 150 right now), but i wanted to ask – does the author explain the similarity between shoaning and feng zhi wei?
Also, does the author tell us more about gu zhi xiao is? Or is that a thread that could/would spin into another novel?
The part about Princess Shao Ning won’t be explained until the end…if I am remembering right.
As for Gu Zhi Xiao, she will pop up here and there. She is pretty important to Gu Nan Yi.
Four men with very different personalities are in love with this one woman. Says a lot about her.
I think so, too. I often reflect on that compared to women and men interacting today. It’s so unnecessarily complicated, yet we can see the complications even in the story, stretching through generations.
Fzw commanded a lot of respect as wei zhi. I often wonder, too, what does that say about the rules in place for women – then, and now.
I don’t think there will ever be repeat of a book like this one….it’s not really just the writing style and power,it’s not just the fact that each character actually has life and a story, neither is it that each character attains a level of said character where their stories go on in a readers head even after they’ve left a scene….it not really just the epic grand reveals and good build up achieved by this author…. because if it were just that then it would just be a great book,it’s more—- it is a genuine book . Zhiwei is genuinely respected and loved by her people (nevermind how the author never capitalized on a drunk nanyi telling Zhiwei she was cruel or a helian telling Zhiwei he wished he’d never met her out of anger….though they wouldn’t have meant it).
The respect they have for her as an individual is so pulpable,it almost doesn’t make sense after having read so many books with “female MCs” but the book is consistent with this u end up trusting it and truly enjoying it wholeheartedly….l can understand that most people here are patiently waiting for these lovely translations unlike my insane self who read the mtl twice and is here for her third read to find out just how many words she missed from this amazing book😂(private joke)…anyway Zhiwei doesn’t do stupid things at any point in this book to satisfy the female lead trope …she doesn’t ever lose her head simply because she has to make Ningyi and other people have to protect her or to satisfy her vanity….she’s never done so before ,lm not here to spoil but what l do think lm allowed to say is that from the very beginning her behavior is consistent…if she’s done stupid things it’s because that was the best she could do with what she had….and if there’s anything that seems stupid then be sure she’ll do the best with what she has and that will be the best anyone can do .As a matter of fact l think that the best scene to represent the consistent nature of Zhiwei is shown when she first meets Ningyi and she kills the 9th concubine of her uncle and the events that occur after that up to when she leaves the house…..ok so it’s first few chapters☺️,in a nutshell she is a good person who does bad things and will continue to do them until she no longer _has_ to do them ….if anything bad happens to her as a result she will accept it as karma,she will lash out at no innocent but she reserves the right to choose for herself who is good and bad.And no one must save her save herself….gosh l just realized that everything l said might not make sense the way lm tryna put it across but l hope a little bit of sense may be gleaned from this rant so that u can trust this book enough not to be turning every corner and getting scared kuti she’ll turn into some “trope dumb female” ….
Thank you, kitanablack; well said; i totally agree. I’m on ep 68 in the drama and i remember when i first started watching – there was a very special something between fzw and ny that grabbed my attention. I just felt that there Had to be more to these characters than what was portrayed in the drama. I don’t mean to diminish their efforts; i believe bc they “understood the assignment”, one could actually envision more. And, sure enough….ninja reflection was sharing the jewels in these weekly translations. Did i say thank you for that? Thank you, ninja.
It is such a precious gift to be so challenged, so perplexed, as a reader. Both fzw and ny are bad people, yet how does the author persuade us into liking them and not tossing the book??!!
To experience a book in which the connection, the immersion in the world the author made so delightfully, deliciously lingering is richer, deeper than (whatever sensory experience you esteem) is so rare. Yet i believe us, all who have read and are reading this book, didn’t simply happen across it. I can only speak for myself here, but i am a collector; i have come to understand my tastes are rather singular. I Know that i would have found this.
And i would love to support a project where these translations are put together and presented as a single work, ninja.