“It’s alright.” Ah Si said with indifference, “You just need to order a certain direction to loosen their encirclement a bit and I will lead my men to make a break for it. It’s not a big deal for a few subordinates to die, as long as I am safe. Other people will only know how difficult this trip was if a few more people die.” 

A faint cold smile appeared on the corner of Feng Zhi Wei’s lips as she listened. Sure enough, here is yet another cold and vicious king! 

“Alright then.” Her smile remained unchanged and pointed her finger in the southwest direction, “Please make a break over there. That direction is close to Mount Meng. It will be difficult for the local government to come after you once you enter the mountain road.” 

“Many thanks.” Ah Si clasped his fist (to show his thanks) and left without saying another word.

Feng Zhi Wei stood at the spot and watched him leave with a smile without following after him. Ah Si took a few steps and vaguely felt something was off but couldn’t figure out what it was. He couldn’t help but turn to glance backward. What greeted him was the sight of that young man’s robe fluttering under the mottled moon, a faint smile on his lips in the shadow of the moonlight, looking mysterious and languorous.

Ah Si’s heart, stirred slightly (this doesn’t necessarily have a romantic meaning here), a vague thought flashed through his mind, but it dissipated immediately. 

He hurried back to his team and led his subordinates in the southwest direction. As expected, after a confrontation, they were able to break out without too much effort. As he fought, a question kept lingering in his mind. It wasn’t until they broke out of the encirclement, entered Mount Meng and his subordinates reported to him while wiping their sweat concerning the route they would be taking that he suddenly realized why he kept feeling something was off. 

When Wei Zhi was negotiating with him, he had told him to break out from the southwest direction before he gave out any orders. Even after they had come to an agreement, he did not see Wei Zhi send anyone to secretly arrange for his own men to lessen the guards in the southwest direction. This meant that the encirclement must have already been the weakest in the southwest direction. He could’ve broke out from that direction even if he had not negotiated with Wei Zhi. 

In other words, Wei Zhi had already guessed his identity and had no intention of killing him from the beginning! 

But then he had to be so smart and voluntarily offer the three promises, hand over his secret token, and give away his secret information-gathering base, all the while thinking he had taken Wei Zhi for a ride! 

Anxiously observing their master sitting on his horse with a darkened expression, Ah Si’s subordinates could not figure out what was bothering their usually very intelligent master. 

Ah Si sat there and ridiculed himself for a long time. Who would’ve thought someone like him, who grew up as the most outstanding prodigy, the receiver of everyone’s admiration, would still be unable to defeat that famously cunning Wei Zhi today, and take such a big tumble! 

After a while, he suddenly raised his horsewhip, and looked back toward the direction he came from, a low laugh that was a mix of unwillingness to concede defeat and excitement burst out of his throat. 

“Good! Very good!” 

***************************************

While “Ah Si” was boiling over with so much anger that he ended up leaving with a laugh over there, Feng Zhi Wei was over here holding her spoils with a smile. 

The paper scrolls rustled against her clothes, and her eyes sparkled in the sunlight of the dawn. 

Master Gu walked over slowly. He didn’t understand why Feng Zhi Wei chose to let the man go but he believed that Feng Zhi Wei would forever be right. 

The two strolled out on the dew-covered green grass. Squinting her eyes against the refreshing breeze, Feng Zhi Wei was still immersed in calculating how to use her new spoils when she suddenly heard Master Gu say, “Keep walking.” 

Feng Zhi Wei smiled with her squinted eyes, thinking that the young master was starting to learn to actively express wonderful wishes. Such beautiful weather and such clear breeze had caused even the perpetually calm young master to make a wish. 

“Indeed.” She let out a soft “hmmm”, “I really hope that there are no worries, no troubles, no burdens and that I can forever walk on this road peacefully.” 

She was just purely letting out a wistful thought but Master Gu suddenly turned and said firmly, “Wrong.” 

Feng Zhi Wei was surprised.

“Troubles, worries, and burdens.” Master Gu grabbed her hand tightly, “It doesn’t matter, as long as together.” 

Feng Zhi Wei looked down at her hand, then at the young master’s expression, feeling that Master Gu seemed a little different today. She smiled, patted his hand, and chuckled, “Yes, together.” 

The corners of Gu Nan Yi’s lips turned up slightly behind the veil, feeling that this early summer was truly the most beautiful of the four seasons. 

“Nan Yi.” Feng Zhi Wei suddenly said softly, “The most terrifying thing in the world is not the road is difficult to walk on, but that there is no road at all.” 

Master Gu was silent then suddenly said, “No road, spilt it open for you.” 

After a pause, he added, “With life.” 

Feng Zhi Wei trembled, then after a long time said, “Nan Yi, remember, no matter when, cherish yourself for me.” 

“No.” Gu Nan Yi said quietly, “Without Feng Zhi Wei, who is Gu Nan Yi?” 

Feng Zhi Wei pursed her lips, unable to find a suitable answer amongst her surging emotions. She was silent, tilting her head back to look up at the distant rolling sea of clouds in the morning sunlight. Besides her, that person, stood silently like a towering mountain, covering her with his forever daunting and unchanging figure.

***************************

After the Ah Si incident, the journey became calm, all the way down Jianghuai to Longxi. When they were passing Jiyang Mountain, Feng Zhi Wei looked up at the mountainside that was half hidden in the clouds, and seemed to hear the flute sound of that night in the abandoned temple. As they were passing through Jiyang, it was still Official Peng who came to greet her. The official was still the same official, but the ones who had been so troublesome before such as Shen Xuchu had long been sent to the underworld by Ning Yi. The Longxi officialdom, after the overhaul, was much more restrained than before. In the evening, Magistrate Peng Zhifu hosted a banquet. Remembering Master Gu’s special preference, all the meat dishes had eight pieces on the plate. Sitting high on the seat, Master Gu said offhandedly, “Actually, seven pieces is also fine.” 

Feng Zhi Wei’s chopsticks paused, remembering the three pieces of meat that Jin Siyu had given to Master Gu that year in Pu Manor on New Year’s Eve. Such a simple sentence condensed a person’s indescribable struggle. One single step, was as difficult as reaching the far reaches of sky or sea, exhausting all of one’s strength. 

She chuckled softly, put some food on Master Gu’s bowl, and said, “As long as you like it, it’s all right.” 

Without even raising his head, Master Gu ate the food she had put in his bowl and was about to say- I like you too, can we do what we did last night again when he suddenly heard an accompanying government minister laugh and say, “Marquis Wei, Lord Gu, although Jiyang is a small place, but the soil and water are good. We have always been a place that produced beauties. The Jiyang Ten Thousand Flowers Mansion (brothel) are filled with beauties and they are not inferior to the famous beauties in the imperial capital. How about if I summon a few to sing some songs for you for entertainment?” 

Feng Zhi Wei laughed dryly, thinking there was finally someone who dared to offer women to her in person. She had been wondering when did all the officials in Tiansheng Empire suddenly became so self-disciplined and incorruptible? On this envoy’s mission to Xiliang, the reception along the way was extremely flattering but very conventional by the books, with no beauties in sight, heck, she has not even seen a female cat. It wasn’t until later she found out from overhearing the guards gossiping that somehow, the whole officialdom of Tiansheng was filled with rumors about the affairs between Prince Chu, Marquis Wei, and his Guard Gu. The content was X-rated, the characters were fierce, and the plot was imaginative, directly compiled into a legendary storybook. This official is probably a newbie who had not heard the story yet and wanted to curry favors by directly bringing out the beauties. Sitting across from them, Official Peng kept winking at the newbie official to the point that his face had become purple. 

Seeing Feng Zhi Wei’s smiling silence and then his superior’s throat-slitting motion, the newbie official became a bit flustered. Taking pity on the official who could only laugh awkwardly, Feng Zhi Wei was about to find a random reason to reject his offer when she suddenly heard Master Gu asking from sitting beside her, “Women?”

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

ps. A reader had commented last week about what our heroine’s goal currently is. This is of course my own interpretation of the story, but my 2 cents is that she is planning to do exactly what Madam Feng had wanted her to do- take down Tiansheng Empire and resurrect the Da Cheng empire. This goal did not change even with the whole “memory erasing” thing, which meant while our heroine might have “forgotten” that she blamed our hero for her mother’s death, she is still planning on wiping the Tiansheng empire…the empire Ning Yi wants to become the emperor of, off the map. For those who remember the ending, our hero is of course thinking he could get our heroine to come to a compromise such as getting rid of his father, he becomes the Tiansheng Emperor, and our heroine could still establish her own empire even if he had to give up some of Tiansheng lands to her. For our heroine though, she knew the moment her mother died, she had been pushed onto a path of no return and that path would make her an enemy of Tiansheng, and unavoidably, of Ning Yi. So why is Feng Zhi Wei working for the emperor? Well, my take is that she wants to turn some of Tiansheng’s most promising talents to her own. Our heroine already has Hua Qing on her side (who is now a general with a troop of her own) and several of the most promising academy students who are now starting to rise through the ranks. It’s a big web our heroine is spinning and it’s easier to spin from within the enemy camp as one of the Tiansheng emperor’s “most trusted court officials” than outside of it.

I know some of you guys feel it is unfair to Ning Yi that our heroine is so untrusting of him when he is laying out his feelings for her to see but my personal opinion is that I would be disappointed in our heroine’s character if she did trust him. Ning Yi is a royal prince who grew up playing with people’s emotions for his very survival. Even if Ning Yi IS sincere in his feelings right at this moment, there are no guarantee that his desire for the throne will not change it later. Feng Zhi Wei grew up watching Madam Feng, a woman she idolized, lose her own identity, and eventually replaced everything she was with what her husband wanted while her husband had no qualms about using her to achieve his own goal. We don’t know much about Madam Feng’s husband but I imagine as someone who caused a legendary female general such as Madam Feng to fall in love, he must have been an impressive man and must have returned her feelings in some ways. However, in the end, their love meant little to Madam Feng’s husband in the face of his duty and ambition for his country. I imagine it’s difficult for someone as wise and intelligent as our heroine to trust a prince’s sweet promises when she might possibly have never met a powerful nobleman who stayed true to one woman and if betrayal does come eventually, then it would mean certain death for everyone she cared about…just like her mother and brother.

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