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.
Good tempered, or the more correctly temperless Master Gu, for the first time in his life felt the emotion of dissatisfaction and things being troublesome. Slowly turning his head back, Master Gu glanced over at his daughter who was still punching wildly, reached out a hand, picked her up by the collar, and took her back towards the boat, ready to have a good educational moment.
Gu Zhi Xiao’s round plump body swayed in Master Gu’s hand as she kicked and punched…
Watching the father and daughter returning back to the boat, Feng Zhi Wei tore off a piece of clothing and waved a hand at Ning Yi.
Ning Yi looked at her with a smile, and slowly held out his wrist.
There was a cross-cut knife mark on his wrist, and the incision was quite deep. Feng Zhi Wei used her fingers to press hard on the acupoints on his wrist, and lowered her head to carefully wrap the strips of cloth on the wound in three layers before she finally said, “You didn’t have to put this much effort into acting, did you? When the blood shot out, it even scared me.”
She grumbled softly, the firelight dancing in the reed pond in the far distance shining on her lowered forehead. The outline of her whole face was basked in a golden light, accentuating her long eyelashes and soft lips, like a deep crimson red flower ever blooming in the wind.
In the backdrop of crimson red flames flickering in the reed ponds, the profile of her lowered head was delicate and gentle, as soft as the pressure of her fingers resting on his wrist.
His eyes fixed on her, Ning Yi smiled and used his fingers to rub away a bit of mud on her forehead and said softly, “If I don’t play along with the act then you would have to, so I think it’s better for me to do it.”
Feng Zhi Wei fell silent. She was indeed fully prepared at time to stab herself but Ning Yi was faster than her. Using her body as a cover, Ning Yi stabbed himself in a move as fast as lightning and used his internal energy to force the blood to shoot out. It was only then they were able to convince Second Prince.
They had no time under those situations to communicate and collaborate on their acts. They had to completely rely on their mutual understanding of each other and their own quick reactions. Once his blood shot out, then Feng Zhi Wei went along with it and knocked him off the ship. The two collaborated so seamlessly that everyone was fooled.
As for Gu Nan Yi, he had already been informed by Ning Yi during the fierce fighting that once the crossbow arrow came then he should catch it between his fingers, before turning around his body to show everyone there is a “poisoned arrow in his chest.” As for why Master Gu would be willing to listen to Ning Yi that was because Ning Yi didn’t bother trying to convince him but simply said in a rush, “Zhi Wei needs you to act like you were shot by the arrow.
Any verbal communication that has “Zhi Wei needs” added to it would not receive an objection from Master Gu so he went along with the act. Thanks to his stint in Jin Siyu’s Puyuan where he had to practice his acting, his skills were actually fairly proficient.
While his acting could fool others, it could not cool Feng Zhi Wei. Others couldn’t tell if Master Gu was in pain or not because his face was covered by the face veil. However, Feng Zhi Wei could tell from the slightest movement of the veil what was happening underneath. To avoid any possibility of Master Gu being exposed, Feng Zhi Wei decided against going to him and promptly threw herself toward Ning Yi’s direction to draw everyone’s attention to Ning Yi.
As for her and Ning Yi, there was no need to collaborate on their scripts first.
Feng Zhi Wei’s eyes flickered over the women who were quietly waiting by Ning Yi. These are double agents Ning Yi had put by Second Prince’s side. Even she herself did not think of it. When they were battling Gu Nan Yi, they did not hold back at all. It can be said that Second Prince spared no effort and took every precaution, but he never expected that the ones who killed him in the end would be the helpers he invited.
Who are they? How did they come to work for Ning Yi? Feng Zhi Wei didn’t ask Ning Yi, but suddenly remembered that night at Shuyu Villa, Concubine Qing was nestled in the arms of Emperor Tiansheng, and seemed quite familiar with the villa. She was a dancer from Xiliang, the same place these women are from. , Concubine Qing was also presented as a gift by Second Prince at Concubine Chang’s birthday banquet… Second Prince probably always believed that Concubine Qing was one of his people, but who would have thought when the veil was lifted, the beauty’s bright alluring eyes were looking in another direction?
For so long, so long, NIng Yi had been patiently and calmly, ever so slowly tightening the killer net. Yet those in the net were completely clueless.
Feng Zhi Wei slowly retracted her hands back into her sleeves and turned her head to look at the flames of fire that surrounded the reed pond. There was a slight alarm in her eyes– the grass ash snaked through the ground for thousands of miles. Faced with a person so calculating and cunning to this point, be it friend or foe, it would unavoidably cause a person’s heart to tighten.
She tilted her head, in a posture of being in a deep thought. In a background of deep blue and vibrant green, she stood still, like a statue of white stone, looking at the world in silence by the edge of the water. Seemingly completely unaware, Ning Yi stood in front of her and pulled up her slightly messy hair with a smile. (In Chinese, the author doesn’t explain what Ning Yi is unaware of so that’s why that sentence seemed kinda weird. My personal guess is the author is saying Ning Yi is acting like he is not aware of what is going through our heroine’s mind…but of course, that word choice also makes one suspect that he knows very well what our heroine must be feeling towards him at this point.)
In the far distance, the fire, layer upon layer, is pressing closer.
============================
In the late spring of the fifteenth year of Tiansheng, someone went all in and gambled but ended up losing everything. The so-called ambitions of his life collided with the towering wall a certain man had already built around him a long time ago. Like the ten-mile reed pond full of vibrant flames, roaring and chaotic, turning everything into ashes in an instant.
The trap setter ended up being trapped himself and turned into ash along with a pound full of reeds.
In the official history of the Tiansheng royal family, Second Prince’s end was written as “Tiansheng 15th year, prince suddenly became ill and died.”
In mere nine words, the death of the eldest prince of the Tiansheng Empire was explained coldly.
When Ning Yi returned to the palace and reported that Second Prince had secretly placed his army around the reed pond as an ambush but refused to surrender when he was finally surrounded and ended up torching the reed pond to burn himself to death. Hearing that, Tiansheng Emperor was silent for a long time before he finally waved his hand and said, “Forget it.”
A “Forget it.” meant a royal prince’s funeral was also forgotten as well.
(It was difficult for me to find a translation I was happy with for what the Emperor said at the end. The Emperor said “罢了” which could be translated into “Forget it.” “Let it go.” or “Oh, well.” but I wasn’t completely happy with any of them. The Chinese word here coveys both a sense of hopelessness and a sense of uncaring attitude. It’s a word that would be most appropriately used when someone unimportant offended you. You are offended and would be tempted to seek retribution but since they are not worth the effort, then you would say “罢了”. (Side note: we don’t really use this anymore so you would only see this particular word choice for this situation in a historical drama) I wasn’t entirely happy with forget it as a translation because the Chinese word doesn’t have the “forget” meaning in it but more of an “Oh, well” meaning yet the usage was more closely related to how we use “forget it” in English. Due to how the word was used in the next sentence as a play on words, I ended up going with “forget it” since it would make the sentence more logical.”
It was just another round of purging, around round of demotion, another round of promotion and firing, all of which were controlled by Ning Yi so as not to alarm the court too much– Second Prince’s rebellion involved the Changning clan which meant it was different from the crown prince and the fifth prince’s situation. This one is a secret that needs to be covered up for the time being.
Although the Changning clan had done wrong but their rebellious intentions are still not too obvious right now. The empire still needed time to prepare so this was not a good time to have a complete fallout.
After Second Prince died, the Ministry of Works which was his assignment temporarily, was handed over to Ning Yi. The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Personnel, on the other hand, were handed to Seventh Prince as temporary assignments. Tiansheng Emperor is still playing his favorite game of checks and balances, handing over the most important Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of War to Seventh Prince so it would be a check against Ning Yi.
=================================================================
After Second Prince died, the Ministry of Works which was his assignment temporarily, was handed over to Ning Yi. The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Personnel, on the other hand, were handed to Seventh Prince as temporary assignments. Tiansheng Emperor is still playing his favorite game of checks and balances, handing over the most important Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of War to Seventh Prince so it would be a check against Ning Yi.
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Thank you for the translation! Maybe “whatever” could be used for the emperor’s reaction?
Thank you! What an unexpected outcome. And once again a very interesting comment on translation.
Both the drama and your tremendous translation work inspired me to learn some basics about Chinese history.
So a question popped into my head. From what I read, the ministries were either under a prime minister + his staff. Later, from the “more absolutist” Ming Dynasty onwards, they were under the personal control of the emperor.
Was there a real era when the imperial princes were in charge of them? Or is this historical fiction?
Looked it up in the drama – none of the princes head a ministry there. Apart from NY as censor, none of them hold any court office at all.
The novel seems much more fantasy-heavy, so I guess the drama is closer to real history in such details.
The emotions between them are genuinely deep. You can only pierce through the smoothness of the language…every detail, evey word or description may display a certain amount of untold feelings. Both are noble and stubborn with “romantic “symbiosis even while executing political maneuvers…when “she tilted her head…and he straightens her hair “, no voiced description might be necessary. .
Thank you Ninja..until now, I did not encounter such a authentic potent relationship between a couple like Ningyi and Feng zhiwei ..
As you might heard @Ninja reflection: the on going Drama: The Double ” 墨雨云间‘ is clearly using The rise of the phoenixes character names and attitudes: 小狸猫…
Feng xue…also the relationship between cheng and Ningyi is copied through Su Guo gong肃国公 and his personal Guards..
If you like to translate a bit of the adaptation, it would be fantastic…
Good work Ninja
Was thinking a lot of thus drama while watching The Double. Though of course this one is in a class of it’s own. Seemed like they drew some inspiration (or they were also copying a bit of Story of Kunning Palace)
Sorry! I am not good at all when it comes to Chinese histories other than what I have watched or read in fiction work. In most Chinese dramas and written fictions, at the very least the crown prince would have some court responsibilities to help him learn the ropes of governing. The other princes would depend on how powerful their mother’s family was and how much the emperor liked them.