This Wei Zhi, is so despicable! She could have warned him but chose not to, and waited until he was defeated in embarrassment before she came over to act like a saint. With that being the case, then let him go face the danger himself!
At this moment, he has completely forgotten that if it weren’t for Feng Zhi Wei who had ordered her men to shoot the horses then his one thousand men would’ve been completely wiped out
and he himself would’ve been severely punished for it.
Selfish and despicable people have always remembered how they have been wronged and never the kindness they received.
Feng Zhi Wei rode forward and smiled at the Xiliang guards who had narrowly escaped death, “Brothers, you have had a scare….”
Before she finished her words, the vines on the cliff beside her suddenly rose up, and a figure rushed out. The wind gushed by, the guards felt their eyes go blurry for a second, and vaguely heard a yelp from Marquis Wei. By the time the guards opened their eyes, Marquis Wei had disappeared.
Everyone looked up at the same time and saw a figure on the cliff shooting across like a meteor before disappearing. It seemed the figure was also holding a person in his hand. At this point, a piece of cloth was thrown down from the mountain. On the cloth, it was written “Bring a thousand taels of gold and three carts of weapons to exchange for the person!”
Everyone was in an uproar.
“The Tiansheng envoy was captured by the mountain bandits!”
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The Tiansheng envoy Marquis Wei had been captured by the mountain bandits. The news caused panic among the Xiliang and Tiansheng teams alike. The two groups gathered together like headless flies to discuss how to save the Marquis. Perking up from his recent embarrassing defeat, Commander Qiu declared he was the only one who could save Marquis Wei. Arrogantly, he pulled a group of Xiliang officials off to discuss his “combat rescue plan”. The two deputy envoys from Tiansheng wanted to join in and asked if they should first pay the ransom to ensure the safety of the hostage. However, the two envoys were pushed out unceremoniously by Commander Qiu with the excuse that “military secrets should not be disclosed to other countries.” The two deputy envoys looked at each other, sulking and wondering at the same time– why was Guard Gu, who had always been inseparable from Marquis Wei not by his side this time? If Guard Gu had been there, then there was no way Marquis Wei would’ve been kidnapped.
Master Gu also seemed a little anxious— just a little. When the news of Feng Zhi Wei’s abduction came, he let out a flat “ah” sound. If it wasn’t for the fact that everyone knew he always spoke in this manner, they might have thought he wasn’t surprised by the news at all. After Master Gu said his “ah”, he grabbed his little girl and carried her on his shoulders, then said “I’ll go save her” before promptly disappearing. Everyone watched him leave with their mouth wide open, thinking inwardly, Master Gu, do you know where to go to save her?
While everyone was preoccupied with their own thoughts on the ground, Feng Zhi Wei was being carried under the crook of someone’s arm. The person had covered her eyes with a piece of his sleeve. Not minding her current situation at all, Feng Zhi Wei was busy enjoying the wind breezing past her and thinking, that although it was hot and humid in Xiliang, it was still quite comfortable at the top of the mountain. She then thought, this is sure a nice season, it’s been so long since I have been out relaxing in the mountains, I finally got a chance to enjoy myself now.
Her posture seemed too comfortable, and her expression had too much enjoyment that the person who was running around with her under his arm, looked down and couldn’t help feeling a bit dejected.
He ran farther and farther along the winding mountain road. Seemingly not wanting to give Feng Zhi Wei a chance to memorize the path nor have anyone catch up to him, the person wandered around in the mountain for a long time before finally turning several corners into a winding road. The winding road suddenly opened up to a big space with a towering gate, watchtowers, and buildings. Judging from the tiers of rough but well organized buildings behind the gate, the place actually appears to be very well organized.
On the flat ground in front of the valley, a group of young men were practicing martial arts. They were all shirtless, punching and kicking energetically in the early autumn breeze as the sounds of “Hey, Ha” continued nonstop. Seeing the man carrying Feng Zhi Wei over, no one stopped their practices except the man who was leading the group of young men. He came over and said with a smile, “Village leader, you are back? Who is this that it was worthy of you of going out personally?” The word village here in Chinese specifically means the living dwelling of bandits, so not your usual village.
The man holding Feng Zhi Wei nodded casually without saying anything. Feng Zhi Wei tilted her head curiously under the man’s armpit and examined the group of young men practicing martial arts with the eyes of an expert and started to comment nonstop “….Hmm…very methodical…well, the lower body skills are pretty solid…eh? Why do you guys pay such special attention to the lower body…Oh, this kind of training is good for being a cavalryman…but as for being a bandit…cough cough…”
“Shut up!” Finally losing his patience, the village leader’s cold voice came from above. Having never seen such a bored and leisurely captive, the young men who had been concentrating on their martial arts training all stopped, looked over, and giggled. After getting a pointed eye glare from the village leader, the young men hurriedly went back to their practice.
The village leader glanced down at Feng Zhi Wei and felt a bit annoyed. He had heard that there would be a group of soldiers passing by today and thought they might as well rob them. Who knew while the soldiers were as easy to rob as they had expected the one who came to rescue the soldiers gave them a surprise. Spotting a fool who rode ahead, he had thought it would be easy to capture the fool to get some easy ransom money…but who would’ve expected that the fool doesn’t seem to be such a fool after all. He intuitively felt a little uneasy, afraid that instead of getting a loot of gold and weapons, he would end up losing the bit of fortune and accomplishment he had amassed with great difficulty.
While he was worrying, Feng Zhi Wei was also lost in thought. The manner these people practiced martial arts really does resemble the style of Tiansheng army but there were still some differences. Could it be….
She was carried all the way into the village by the village leader. Along the way, countless people greeted the village leader, but he just causally nodded back, seemingly to be quite respected in this place.
The men entered the village gate and then threw Feng Zhi Wei to a man who had come over and ordered, “Treat him like the previous prisoners, and keep a close eye!” After thinking for a bit, he added, “Give him as much rice as he wants”
He left after throwing out his captive, assured that as always his subordinate would take care of the rest. Accepting a betel nut from someone, he chewed on it and took a few steps before suddenly feeling something seemed to be off. The expressions of the people around him were all a little strange. He had the habit of chewing betel nut whenever he needed to think about something so there was no reason for the people around him to act strangely because of it. Instantly on alert, he was about to turn to look at the captive when he suddenly discovered a person walking leisurely beside him. The person asked in a serious and polite manner: “Is that betel nut? This is the first time I have seen it. I heard that chewing betel nut too much will turn your teeth black. How do you keep your teeth white? Can you teach me?”
Betel nut is an addictive stimulant that is very popular in some parts of Asia. They are pretty nasty as they produce these reddish dark spits people would spit everywhere on the street. Not only are they addictive, but they are also known to cause oral cancer. Interestingly, betel nuts apparently have been a thing in China since two thousand years ago. How crazy is that?
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
About Betel nut, it is a stimulant. I tasted some once, but it is quite bitter. In the place where I was living, everyone chewed it, but they mixed it with lime and betel leaves to make it less bitter. But I think it can be quite addictive.
My grandmother used to chew it with some sort of green leaves and lime. I heard it would strengthen the enamel of teeth and preventing cavities beside addiction. Thank you, Ninja for the translation always. Perhaps, being captured is something that FZW planned therefore GNY was very calm?