Chief examiner Wei bathed and burned incense to welcome the Spring Exam. Guard Master Gu came to make his rounds while eating walnuts. The jade carving-like guard that follows Minister Wei everywhere ended up having quite a unique influence on the National Spring Exam. 

Take for example, during the body search, he moved a stool to the far side and sat there, lazily eating his walnuts. Amazingly, no matter who it was or what they carried, if something was amiss, the person would get struck by a walnut. One time a guy had stuck two paper notes on the bottom of his feet and was able to get past the gate search but when he walked by Master Gu he suddenly jumped. The man’s shoes fell off for no reason and his sock ties also loosened, exposing his feet in front of everyone. Naturally, he was kicked out but it still left the onlookers completely puzzled how Master Gu, behind his veil, was able to discover what was going on inside someone else’s socks? And how did he force the man to jump? The more puzzled people were, the more mysterious Master Gu seemed. All the scholars would walk by Master Gu with trembling legs, not daring to even hide a single steamed bun let alone cheat notes. Thus, this was how this spring exam made the record of having the least cheating notes found. 

Take the inspection rounds as another example. This year, the spring exam moderators were quite happy. No longer do they have to run around all over the place. Master Gu sat on the tree with his daughter on his shoulder, looking in all directions and listening to all directions. In the vast expense of the exam courtyard, he alone controlled the whole place. The scholars held their buttocks tight, not daring to even fart loudly because any abnormal noise could mean that a large and small figure would appear above your head, staring unblinkingly at you with the same exact posture. It truly is an experience that’s unnerving. 

After nine days of examination, the scholars came stumbling out, holding onto the wall shakingly as they walked out. Feng Zhi Wei sealed the examination area, leaving others to do the trivial tasks of sealing exam papers. After posting many guards all around, Feng Zhi Wei jumped on the chance to sneak home. 

Hua Qing’s orders have arrived. She has been promoted to be the General of the Mingnan Province and will take office soon. Tomorrow, she and Yan Huanshi will have to start on their journey back as husband and wife. 

With Hua Qing leaving, Feng Zhi Wei wants to hold a farewell banquet no matter what. A few days ago, when she was still busy with the spring exam, she had already ordered the kitchen to prepare well for the banquet. Leaving out the specialties of the South Sea and Mingnan Province, Feng Zhi Wei had her people bring in all the famous dishes of Tiansheng, including the famous dishes such as snow lotus from the far away snow mountains. Feng Zhi Wei vows to let Hua Qing take in all of the delicious foods of Tiansheng in one go so after eating it, she will miss the food of Wei Mansion all of the time and will come back whenever she has a chance. 

That evening, the Wei Mansion had what was basically a family banquet. The Yan couple (Hua Qing and Yan Huanshi), Feng Zhi Wei, Gu Nan Yi, Zong Chen, the two kids, and two pets (Gu Nan Yi’s gold monkeys). Any banquet with kids, with silver spoons and saliva flying about, is destined to be devoid of ambiance.  Yan Changtian, sitting in his mother’s arms, timidly pointed at Gu Zhi Xiao, expressing that he too wants to feed himself. On Yan Changtian’s little face, one can already see some similarities to Hua Qing’s ex-husband, thin and shy. Hua Qing often expressed dissatisfaction with her son, wanting to let him romp around and scrap his knees a bit. Yan Huaishi will often be the one who wants to coddle him instead. Tonight, fearing that Yan Changtian couldn’t feed himself, Yan Huaishi was about to take the baby and feed him but Hua Qing had already shoved a spoon into Yan Changtian’s hand and held him off to the side to let him feed himself while saying “Xiao Wei (term of endearment for our heroine), do you still take me as a country bumpkin? Still feel like I can’t be like you in the future and travel the world to eat delicious foods? Look at this table, tsk tsk, this spread would cost at least a thousand taels.” 

“Just a thousand taels, it’s nothing.” Feng Zhi Wei was earnestly encouraging Gu Nan Yi to eat, pushing a plate of white and yellowish egg custard-like thing in front of him, “There are many officials in the imperial capital who spend several thousand gold on a single meal, so this is nothing. We, as officials, need to exploit when appropriate and embezzle when appropriate. It’s not that we have to be best friends with them but neither do we need to be too aloof. Otherwise, people will think of you as strange, become wary of you, and alienate you. When the time comes, they will work together to kill you. The thing they love the most is to look around and see everyone dirty like them. You know the saying, there are no fishes in clear water.” 

She spoke carelessly but Hua Qing stopped and listened carefully. Zong Chen and others all knew this was Feng Zhi Wei reminding Hua Qing of the unspoken rules among the officials. Yan Huaishi smiled gratefully at Feng Zhi Wei, but Gu Nan Yi was busy sniffing the dish in front of him, seemingly quite satisfied with the aroma. Scooping out a jiggly spoonful, Gu Nan Yi put it first into Feng Zhi Wei’s bowl and said “Don’t get dirty.” 

Feng Zhi Wei nodded good-naturedly, “Okay, don’t get dirty.”

Seemingly still not assured, Gu Nan Yi looked at her face carefully, as if he was looking for dirt on her face. He had no interest in the conversation, so after only listening with half of an ear, he only heard the word dirty and was very unhappy. 

He grabbed Feng Zhi Wei’s face, eye to eye, and studied it carefully. His face was so close, close enough that through the thin double-layered face veil, Feng Zhi Wei could get a rough idea of his face. Feng Zhi Wei had originally planned on averting her face, thinking that Master Gu had grown up and she should stop him from acting with such familiarity but she suddenly felt something was off. The moment she looked up, she suddenly felt her eyes blurred with a dazzling array of colors as if the mists in the whole world had gathered together in an instant and burst with a bang in her mind, causing her eyes to suddenly go dark. (The whole familiarity thing was due to the fact that Master Gu is starting to lose his child-like innocence so our heroine is realizing she needs to teach him about propriety between men and women.)

Right after the darkness, it was light. The surrounding turns from blurry to clear, the images of people around them, like the tides falling away from the rocks, gradually reveal their white outlines. Hua Qing was still laughing heartlessly that her son Yan Changtian’s way of grabbing the spoon looked silly, while Yan Huaishi was still trying to defend his son with a smile. The two kids were still busy doing whatever they were busy doing, no one noticed the abnormality just now. Only Zong Chen, who was diagonally across from her, was looking at her and Gu Nan Yi with a strange look but by this time, Gu Nan Yi had already let go of her face and lowered his head to start eating. 

Feng Zhi Wei took a deep breath, her head still somewhat in a jumble. She is trying to figure out what she just saw? Or what did she feel? Also, why couldn’t she see Gu Nan Yi’s face clearly when she was so close? 

Just now, she was completely controlled by a certain strange feeling. She had even forgotten herself, let alone his face. In actuality, she has a rough idea of Master Gu’s appearance. After spending so much time together, and with Master Gu not taking any special precautions against her, she more or less has a pretty good idea of his appearance. It’s also not like she has never seen his eyes, but perhaps because she has never looked into them directly the impact wasn’t as strong as tonight. 

There have only been two people who have looked directly at Master Gu. One was Chunyu Meng, who fell off the wall, the other one was Gu Zhi Xiao, who jumped off the building. 

Feng Zhi Wei felt lucky that she was sitting just now, otherwise who knew what might have happened. 

Just as she was about to say something, she suddenly heard Yan Changtian crying loudly. Looking back, she saw that the boy had accidentally hit Gu Zhi Xiao’s eye with a spoon. Gu Zhi Xiao immediately grabbed a roasted lamb rib and drew a circle on Yan Changtian’s face, causing the boy to burst into tears. Hua Qing picked up her son and sighed as she wiped his face as if nothing had happened, “Son, you have such a musculin powerful name for nothing. How are you not tough at all? Are there men who cry after being bullied by women? Remember what your mother taught you— if any woman wants to bully you in the future, just grab her, drag her away, pull her down….” (Changtian– Chang = Long, Tian= sky, heaven.)

Listening to Hua Qing’s “Hua Family’s Three-step Response”, Feng Zhi Wei almost sprayed a mouthful of food on Gu Nan Yi.

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

Related Posts