The Rise of Phoenixes Novel Translation #271

Once business matters were settled, everyone dispersed with Feng Zhi Wei walking at the very end. When Tiansheng Emperor’s head was turned, Feng Zhi Wei turned and smiled at Princess Shaoing whose gaze had been burning a hole into her.

Before the princess, whose brain had just turned to mush thanks to the smile, could respond, Feng Zhi Wei hurried out. Xu Minglin was waiting outside of the imperial study to greet Ning Yi first and then gave a long bow in Feng Zhi Wei’s direction “Greetings to Marquis of Zhongyi. Marquis’ fame has been noised throughout the whole empire. Even I who live in a remote place in the south mountain have long admired you.” 

Yes, you admire me so much you want nothing more than to kill me. Despite what she was thinking inwardly, Feng Zhi Wei was all smiles as she grabbed Old Xu’s hand, “Official Xu, you flatter me. I really didn’t do much at all. I only fought against the Chang clan of the South Sea, set up a shipbuilding department in accordance with His Majesty’s imperial decree. Later, I went to the frontline and had a few encounters with Dayue’s armies. Oh, yeah, and then there was that incident under the Baitou Cliff….” 

Her eyes sparkled with excitement, she held onto Xu Minlin and talked nonstop

, as if she had finally found someone to listen to her list of impressive accomplishments. His sleeve in her hand, Xu Minglin couldn’t leave nor could he disagree so his only choice was to force himself to make agreeing noises as if he was listening. Inwardly Xu Minglin grumbled that this Marquis Wai is supposedly world-famous as the legendary peerless national hero so how come he seems to be nothing more than an arrogant young kid?

Feng Zhi Wei rattled on for five-eight minutes. Xu Minglin still had things on his mind and wanted to leave, but Ning Yi was still there and was in fact, listening with a smile as if he was greatly interested in what he was hearing. If even a prince is listening patiently, then would he, as a mere third-level inspector, dare to show any impatience? Therefore, Xu Minglin could only keep on nodding with a grimace while saying, “Yes…that’s right…really?….” 

“…The city wall of Dayue’s Pucheng was so high. At that time, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth…” Sounds of subtle footsteps came from behind him. Out of the corner of her eyes, Feng Zhi Wei spotted a young eunuch who had suddenly appeared behind her. Feng Zhi Wei immediately stopped speaking, let go of Xu Minglin’s sleeve, and laughed, “Ah, it’s getting late. I still have something to do at the department and don’t dare to delay Official Xu any longer. Please go ahead Official Xu, please go ahead.” Then she promptly bowed towards no one in particular and left without giving Xu Minglin another glance as the little eunuch followed closely behind her. 

After being forced to listen to her bragging for a good while and then abruptly left standing halfway through her story, Xu Minglin stood there stunned. Finding Official Wei’s behavior truly hard to accept, Xu Minglin finally shook his head after a while and muttered, “He is indeed a weirdo.” 

He couldn’t think of a reason to explain Feng Zhi Wei’s action so naturally, he didn’t notice that Feng Zhi Wei didn’t have anyone with her originally but there was a little eunuch with her when she left.

The little eunuch followed behind Feng Zhi Wei, silent the whole time with head lowered, eyes glancing at the person’s not very broad shoulders, full of joy. 

Feng Zhi Wei walked very quickly, not turning her head once. If Shaoning could’ve come to the front and seen her face, she would’ve seen that Marquis Wei’s expression was not good at all. 

They walked to the palace gate where all the carriages belonging to the court officials were waiting. Feng Zhi Wei abruptly stopped, causing Shaoning to almost run into her.

Despite giving Feng Zhi Wei a huffy glare, Shaoning was silently happy. When her sweetheart had given her a look just now, she immediately understood that Wei Zhi was asking her to figure out a way for them to meet. She quickly changed her clothes in preparation to go out. Sure enough, when she came out she saw Wei Zhi talking to Xu Minglin as an excuse to wait for her. 

Is this called serendipity between lovers? 

“The weather is overcast, the old injury with my back is acting up again.” Feng Zhi Wei glanced at the horse brought by her servant and said, “Go back and bring a carriage over.” 

“Official Wei, why ask your good servant to run back and forth, and still have to wait for the carriage?” Immediately, several officials jumped on the opportunity to curry favor, “Why not come ride my carriage instead?”

“Thank you all, but we are not going in the same direction, it would be inconvenient, so let’s not bother.” Feng Zhi Wei refused with a smile, but then Ning Cheng came over and said, “His Highness ended up being asked by His Majesty to stay behind in the palace to discuss some business so the carriage won’t be needed for a while. Official Wei, why don’t you take the carriage back for now and the coachman will bring it back later.” 

“That..is probably not a good idea…” Feng Zhi Wei hesitated but Ning Cheng had already ordered the driver to bring Ning Yi’s royal carriage over. 

“Then I will trouble you.” Feng Zhi Wei smiled and took Shaoning with her into the carriage. 

In the carriage, Shaoning was both shy and happy. At first, she sat still, waiting for her lover to come to her but nothing happened after she waited for a good while. When she looked up, she saw Wei Zhi leaning against the carriage window. Wei Zhi didn’t look at her but had a peaceful pensive expression. Through the carriage curtains, the morning sunlight was divided into countless horizontal shadows of fragments like water waves. Behind the water wave of lights, his face looked tranquil and elegant. 

Mesmerized by that face, Shao Ning’s heart is almost bursting with joy at the thought that this breathtaking young man will finally belong to her. A girl immersed in love, and one who has already become lovers with her love, are often softer and more sensitive than before. Not wanting to disturb her lover’s thinking by making loud noises, she carefully leaned closer. 

When their knees touched, she trembled as if she was zapped by an electric shock but Feng Zhi Wei’s leg moved away instinctively. 

Realizing what had happened, Feng Zhi Wei stopped, and quickly let out a reassuring smile before saying, “Princess, I apologize that you had to change into a disguise to come out with me.” 

“It’s nothing.” Shaoning’s face was radiant, “I was just wanting to leave the palace to go wander around.” 

“The location of the imperial temple has been decided, but I still think the princess should take a look in person. After all, this is the place you will stay for a while in the future. “Feng Zhi Wei said softly, “But then I was not sure His Majesty would allow it so that’s why we had to do it this way.” 

Shaoning’s eyes lit up when she heard the words “stay for a while.” When she woke up that day, she was told that she would be given a title to become a nun. (title=as in a new name awarded by the emperor, in this case, for the expressed purpose of becoming a nun.) She was confused at first but then her father sent Eunuch Jia to give her a hint to the meaning behind her father’s order. She was happy and filled with disbelief at the same time. The title of princess was nothing to her compared to being able to stay with her love for the rest of her life. Listening to Wei Zhi’s words now, isn’t he saying the same thing as her father had hinted?

“Alright.” Shaoning was all smiles, “If you like it, then I will certainly like it as well.” 

Feng Zhi Wei smiled, allowing her to slowly shuffle close, using the rocking of the carriage to touch her legs bit by bit. Resting her head in her hand, Feng Zhi Wei silently calculated the time and their route, “One, two, three!” 

“Injustice!” 

When she counted to three inwardly, a loud cry of injustice shocked both the inside and the outside!

They were at the busiest Jiuyang Street in Tiansheng with many shops and a huge flow of people. The sudden cry of injustice shocked everyone, causing the street full of people to freeze and look over with their mouths wide open. 

What they saw was an unkempt man, holding a protest paper high above his head, throwing his body in front of a golden roof carriage, and loudly shouting he was wronged. 

In times of peace, these sorts of jumping in front of carriages to protest injustice have become rare occurrences. Moreover, the carriage that was stopped did not seem to be the ordinary kind so everyone left what they were doing to come see what was going on. 

There are many carriages belonging to officials that come and go on this street so everyone pays them little heed but it didn’t take long after someone took a good look at the carriage to yell out, “Hey, this looks like carriages belonging to the princes.” 

“A prince’s carriage, but how come no one is clearing the way? Where are the guards?”

“It has Prince Chu’s mark on the carriage!”

“Randomly stopping a carriage and it ended up being the prince in charge of the three major justice departments?! Big case! Big case!”

Excitement soon spread as the crowd instantly surrounded the carriage until there was hardly any room to move. Some of the carriages carrying court officials also stopped.

The people who were shouting injustice clung to the side of the carriage while wailing loudly, “Sir! Open your eyes and look at us, miserable people! The South Mountain government officials colluded with others and called black white, white black. Is there really no one who dares to stop them?!”

The commoners listening to this didn’t think much of it, but the facial expressions on the officials observing from a short distance away instantly turned solemn. 

Turns out, this is a major case of people accusing government officials! 

All text copyright @www.Ninja-Reflection.com

ps. I thought there were some interesting discussions in the comments of the last week’s post. My own opinion is that while our two leads would’ve been great rulers this would’ve been a difficult thing to accomplish in their particular circumstances. Our heroine is the last remaining royal line of the previous empire…and one with the unconditional support of the Bloody Pagoda at that, there will always be crazy people (like Madam Feng) who think Feng Zhi Wei’s very existence is their call to revive the old empire. Our two leads are certainly smart enough and strong enough to squash potential problems if they had REALLY wanted to be rulers but the cost of lives would have been unavoidable. What’s more, the fighting probably would’ve come from within their respective camps. Those on Ning Yi’s side would forever be wary of Feng Zhi Wei because of her identity, while our heroine’s people would either want to get rid of Ning Yi to bring the old empire back OR be fearful that Ning Yi might eventually try to get rid of Feng Zhi Wei for his own greed.

In my opinion, Feng Zhi Wei gave up the throne because her heart had already been shattered too many times from losing those who were important to her and she could not/would not lose anymore. The throne was never something Feng Zhi Wei wanted and was in fact a burden Madam Fang had forcefully put on her in the curlest and the most painful way possible. Once our heroine was able to see Madam Feng’s obsession as what it truly was, she would not have sacrificed one single hair of her precious friends for the throne. As for Ning Yi…in my opinion, this one is pretty straightforward. Ning Yi wanted the throne for survival and probably even liked being the emperor just fine but none of that means anything if Feng Zhi Wei is not with him. I think it is pretty obvious in the novel that Ning Yi had always imagined ruling the empire with Feng Zhi Wei. However, when he realized the throne and Feng Zhi Wei couldn’t co-exist then he promptly tossed the one that was drastically less important to him.

By the way, I know it seemed like this world is mired in politics and war, but there is actually a whole wide world of martial arts. For example, quite a few of those in Bloody Pagoda do not belong in the secular world and would not have had anything to do with politics if it wasn’t for keeping their promise to keep Feng Zhi Wei safe. In my own imagination, I see our two leads forging their own empire in the martial world (which our heroine’s ancestry would mean a lot as well- for those of you who have watched the Legend of Fuyao) OR I see Zhi Wei going to help out Hua Qing’s military conquest. Hua Qing’s story was one that had a lot of loose ends but one thing we could be certain of is that she will continue to be a general and how can you have General Hua Qing without Zhi Wei helping her out?