The traveling palace was backed against the scenic Mount Li and faced the vast, misty expanse of Li Lake. A strategic location that is easy to both defend and retreat, with convenient access by both land and water. Feng Zhi Wei carefully observed it from both military and aesthetic angles and found it flawless in every way. She couldn’t help but praise, “It is truly an amazing location.”
“The inner place is complete. The outer area is not quite wrapped up yet.” Ning Yi pointed at the piles of bricks and wood materials in the outer courtyards, “Since the travelling palace started building, all the nearby residences were moved elsewhere. An encircling wall was built thirty miles out to stop people from coming in to see what’s here. The public was merely told that the river needed to be worked on. The inner palace will be finished soon, the outer area still needs greenery and gardens put in. This whole area will be walled off.”
“This traveling palace seems rather secretive.” Feng Zhi Wei said with a smile and asked, “What’s His Majesty’s plan for it?”
“I don’t know either.” Ning Yi shook his head, “The reason I actually brought you here was precisely because this is not an ordinary traveling palace. The inner palace might as well be called the secret palace since over half of it is underground.”
The inner palace is underground? Feng Zhi Wei was taken aback. Is the Tiansheng Emperor really planning to make this location a place of escape? It’s not a good sign that he wants to build a place such as this out of the blue.
With his arms around her, Ning Yi walked with her a few more steps before someone came out of nowhere and demanded to know who they were. The place returned to silence and darkness once Ning Yi answered and showed the token hanging on his waist. Feng Zhi Wei looked at the silent darkness around her, and thought to herself that if the security was already this strict while the place was under construction, once the place was completed, its purpose would probably not be so simple.
As they walked along, although Ning Yi didn’t provide much information and the outer structures were still only in their initial stages, Feng Zhi Wei’s discerning eyes could still see the extraordinary design of this traveling palace. The layout was exquisitely designed, with ingenious hidden formations embedded within it. (These are formations that would cause intruders to get lost or might even actively attack the intruders) Some areas were constructed in a rather particular manner that even she couldn’t tell what they were meant for. Although the palace was nestled against a mountain, a ring-shaped water moat was still dug around its rear, encircling the entire palace like a city wall. Above it lay a movable drawbridge, preventing anyone from sneaking in from the back mountain to launch a surprise attack and putting the palace in danger. Based on the terrain, although the palace stood by the lake, it was built on the highest point, making it impossible for anyone to attempt to blow up the lake and flood the palace. The entire palace was meticulously designed, seemingly truly an excellent place of refuge.
She pondered as she walked, lost in thought. By the time she looked up, she found herself already standing in front of the grand palace, towering and majestic.
The eaves were pale gold, adorned with flying dragons and dancing phoenixes. The eighteen pillars are newly painted and gleaming brightly. Golden bells beneath the eaves chimed with crisp sounds in the wind. Pear trees on all sides are in full bloom, and whenever the breeze came by, the petals fell like light frost, floating down onto the pale green carved tiles, making the ground look like snowflakes were scattered on it. The moonlight was clear and luminous, spreading softly on the jade steps, like a long white satin, reaching all the way to her feet.
“How beautiful…” Feng Zhi Wei gazed at the exquisite palace under the moonlight, nearly entranced. She suddenly ran ahead with light steps. The silver hem of her skirt brushed over the moonlit ground, shining even more brightly than the moonlight itself. The large swirling silver hem of her dress, caused by her light steps, flared out like a shimmering blooming flower.
All smiles, she ran up the steps and lightly touched the intricate carvings with her fingers, then immediately turned back with wide eyes and said with a joyous surprise, “Double-layered hidden carving? This must be the skill of the top craftsmen from the Jianghuai region? The carving looks different from every angle, yet never chaotic or overly complex— seeing it today, it truly lives up to its reputation!”
She lightly touched the intricate carvings with her fingers, then, still holding the pillar, looked back with a smile. In that instant, pear blossoms fell into her hair as moonlight draped around her like a curtain. Her gaze was gentle and soft, her smile was serene, just like a newly blooming, fragrant pear flower.
Standing three steps below on the steps, Ning Yi looked up at her with a slight tilt of his head. In that moment, his gaze rippled like the night breeze, flickering with brilliance. Such a gaze, set amid the courtyard of red apricot blooms and white pear flowers, makes all other flowers pale in comparison.
He chuckled softly and said, “I knew you would like it.”
Feng Zhi Wei laughed softly and circled the eighteen pillars with growing interest, examining each one from every angle— side, above, below– each perspective revealing a different image. Ning Yi stepped up the stairs and patiently followed her with a smile, but said nothing.
Her curiosity piqued. She tried every angle of each pillar, determined to discover even more hidden images. Then, as she suddenly twisted her body and turned her head to look at a pillar from the side, she abruptly let out a surprised “Oh?”
Ning Yi stood still and leaned against the corridor wall, a faint, mysterious smile appearing on his lips.
Those deepest hidden secrets are waiting for her to suddenly turn and discover them. He would never reveal them beforehand, lest he spoil her joy of the unexpected encounter.
And indeed, she did discover them.
Feng Zhi Wei had already squatted down and circled the eighteen corridor pillars in a somewhat awkward posture.
The expression on her face changed from initial surprise to doubt, to understanding, and finally gradually changed to a stillness. By the time she had finished examining all eighteen pillars, her expression had become unreadable, indiscernible between joy and sorrow, settling instead into a faint quietness tinged with a silent feel of desolation.
At that hard to discover angle, within an area that one wouldn’t describe as big, the lines beneath that carved surface told another complete story.
His and her story.
Their first meeting by the icy lake at the Qiu manor, drinking together on a lonely bridge on a snowy night, their confrontation in the garden of Lanxiangyuan, the tense moment of drawn bows at Qingming Academy, gazing at each other from the top of Luohua tower, meeting at the bridge of the abandoned palace in a rainstorm, composing poems and throwing cups in the Golden Hall, aiding each other on the lonely cliff of Jiyang, toying with the court politics abroad a ship on the South Sea, chopping heads at the Longxi manor, resolving the danger in the Yan ancestral hall, battling pirates at sea…shouting and striking the table in the Ministry of Justice, the perilous situation among the beauties in Jinshen Palace, the hot springs at the eastern pond of Shuyu Villa, grasping each other’s hand beneath Bizhao Cliff…
The eighteen pillars and eighteen carvings, stringing together, like beads, the journey of their relationship, each moment vivid before her eyes. Feng Zhi Wei unconsciously reached out her hand and gently traced the carvings, thinking in a daze: so it turns out that he and I have gone through so much, so much.
Ning Yi quietly crouched beside her and also reached out a hand to touch the hidden carvings. His voice was long and calm, like the silent turning of yellowed pages in the stillness of night, each page steeped in a lingering fragrance.
“…Zhi Wei, look, these past events, I had them all carefully engraved here. Hundreds or thousands of years later, all people will grow old, but these halls will remain. No matter how seas turn to fields and times change, no matter how the world changes, empires fall, or even how people’s hearts waver, but these will always be here, through the ages, untouched by time, never fading.”
All text copyright @www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Wow.
Wow indeed.