Second Prince was lying on the cold and slippery tidal flat, the reeds under him had all been dyed red. His eyes were staring big with his limbs spread out wide. He stared up at the blue sky and white clouds high above his head with dilated eyes. They kept spinning in his blurred vision, spinning faster and faster, further and further away, like those beautiful dreams just moments ago had been living in the smile on his lips. 

He saw the women who had been laughing coyly on the ship just moments ago, jumped decisively down, walked briskly to Ning Yi, and bowed to him. He tried all his might to turn his head, even if he had no idea what he was turning his head to do. 

A cold corner of a robe slowly brushed against his blood-stained cheek. His breath quickened, recognizing whose robe it belonged to. 

The corner of the robe moved, his unreadable and cunning brother who had kept a low profile to fool them all for so long, squatted down, and leaned down his beautiful elegant face to look at him calmly as if he was simply examining a stranger’s corpse lying by the road. 

Then he leaned closer, and his cool breath immediately enveloped him as he whispered in an almost intimate posture by his ear in a dispassionate and cool voice. 

“…you used yourself as bait to lure me into a trap, I too can use myself as a bait to lure you…If I hadn’t been here alone, allowing you to feel confident, how would you be willing to come here in person? If I hadn’t made a show of falling off the boat, then how would you be willing to come close?  A deceiver will always be deceived by others… my Second Brother.” 

Second Prince looked at him, his eyes full of despair and regret. Despair over the fact this person is so cunning, regret that instead of trying to lay an intricate trap, it would’ve been better to simply mobilize the military camp and attack the imperial capital straight on. He would have had an epic fight and even if he died, he would have been his choice. It would have been better to die that way than to die on this cold ground, after trying to lay a trap but ending up being the one trapped, turning his last moments alive as a joke. 

“Say hello to Third Brother for me.” Ning Yi walked away and said in a tone of indifference, “I imagine he must still be waiting for you in the underworld, waiting to repay you for your false accusations back then.” 

Second Prince lay alone on the cold and slippery muddy ground, with his bloodshot eyes wide open. The hot wind whipped up by the surrounding fire came at Second Prince from all sides. In the light of the flames, his lifelong enemies who had long proceeded in death came at him with sneering smiles. His fingers feebly scratch at the mud, grabbing at the desolate wind in the air, but he could not reach the corners of that person’s robe. The sky was getting further and further away while he was sinking deeper and deeper, before he descended into the final weightlessness, he muttered:

“Those who play with conspiracy will surely die…of conspiracy…”

“Ning Yi…I too…will wait for…you.” 

===========================

The muffled words were blown away by the burnt-smelling wind, scattering between heaven and earth, without any way of knowing if that person who walked away actually heard it or not. 

The fire crackled on all sides. The reed pond has already caught on fire. The fire was burning very fast. In the far distance, there were boats that were approaching at an extremely fast speed. It took Second Prince’s men on the boat quite a while to process what had just happened. Not daring to linger to fight, they all jumped off the boat and attempted to escape together with those who had been stationed in the water. However, the reed pond was already blocked by a line of fire. Their only option was the vast body of water on the other side, but before they could swim far, the navy’s boats had already arrived and rounded them up, catching almost all of them.

On the tidal flat, Gu Nan Yi who had been faithfully playing his role as a corpse, waited patiently until Second Prince took his very last breath before jumping up and pushing away Gu Zhi Xiao who had smeared her tears and snot all over him. Frowning as he flicked off the dirt on his clothes, Gu Nan Yi threw away the short blue arrow while he was at it. 

Kneeling on the ground with both of her hands out, Gu Zhi Xiao stared at Gu Nan Yi blankly. Her little face was covered with mud and smeared with tears. Her dirty face paired with her utterly shocked expression, should’ve appeared comical but it somehow made one’s heart ache instead. 

Completely focused on cleaning himself up, Master Gu finally stopped after Gu Zhi Xiao remained in her same posture for a good 15 minutes.  After thinking about it, it occurred to Master Gu that maybe, perhaps, he should give his daughter an explanation. 

Then he turned his head to look in all four directions. Spotting Second Prince’s corpse, He finally remembered that Feng Zhi Wei had once said he shouldn’t show little kids too cruel of scenes. Assuming that he had figured out what had shocked the little girl, Gu Nan Yi belatedly reached out his hand to turn Gu Zhi Xiao to face another direction and covered her eyes. 

Feng Zhi Wei was about to make her way over, but couldn’t help but choke when she saw this scene, thinking to herself, what’s the use of covering her eyes now? Her frozen state seemingly thawed by her clueless father, Gu Zhi Xiao finally moved, abruptly slapping her father’s hand away, grabbed it, and gave it a hard bite. 

“Ouch.” This is the first time the ever-powerful Master Gu let out a cry of pain– not out of pain, but out of shock. 

He stared blankly at Gu Zhi Xiao. The child was biting his hand with a death grip, showing her strong white teeth, her what couldn’t be called big but exceptional bright eyes were staring at him fiercely, like a wolf cub. 

Gu Nan Yi frowned, unable to understand how his usually obedient daughter had become like this. He raised his other hand to extract his hand back from the wolf cub, but who knew the wolf cub was using so much force with her teeth sinking deep into the flesh? He could of course forcefully pull his hand away but it would probably pull a few baby teeth out at the same time. 

Master Gu promptly gave up the idea after thinking of the few baby teeth that finally made their appearance after much waiting. Putting down his raised hand, Master Gu decided to just let Gu Zhi Xiao keep biting him since he was not feeling much pain anyway. He has always been somewhat numb to the sensation of pain. 

Seeing that Master Gu had no plan to extract his hand by force, Gu Zhi Xiao ended up letting go on her own. She stared at him blankly with her mouth open, then abruptly jumped on him and her little fists landed on him like raindrops. 

“You bad! You bad! You pretend to be dead to scare me!” 

Master Gu was almost knocked back into the mud by the force of her slamming into him. He turned his head to look at the little girl whose fits were waving around chaotically, feeling that things might just be a little bit out of his control, Master Gu looked back at Feng Zhi Wei for help. 

Feng Zhi Wei had been planning to go over to check on Master Gu but stopped when she saw what was happening. She knew the temper of little Miss Gu. She grew up in the grassland and hung out with Hua Qing, and He Lianzheng that group of people. She was surrounded by people who dealt with matters in an unceremoniously direct manner. Moreover, thanks to her trumped-up title of “Living Buddha” that she had placed on Miss Gu, the little girl grew up being worshiped by the people of the grassland. While it might be too far to call her an empress, but at the very least, she had lived like a female overlord. So, today, how would she let it go after being kept in the dark and scared half to death? 

When it comes to this little girl, Feng Zhi Wei herself is also a bit at her wits’ end. Gu Zhi Xiao has Hua Qing’s boldness but she was also influenced by Gu Nan Yi and is not as enthusiastic and kind as Hua Qing. Instead, her personality can be pretty cold and indifferent. Once her temper is in full force, Feng Zhi Wei doesn’t think she has enough influence to deal with her. Resolutely turning herself around, Feng Zhi Wei changed the direction of her feet and ran away. 

Young Master Gu stared blankly at her fleeing back, and then looked at the little girl in his arms who kept wiping tears and snot on his hand– he suddenly felt all women are scoundrels. 

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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