Can you… completely be close to me once?
Feng Zhiwei had never imagined that someone with a heart as cold and hard as Ning Yi would have a day of making soft requests.
Was it the poison injury causing temporary vulnerability, or was it feelings arising from some premonition about the future?
She stiffened in the water. The water temperature gradually cooled while body temperature gradually rose. His body was close at hand, separated only by her thin layer of clothing. His scent was everywhere, gradually seeping into her skin. His every subtle movement brought tremors to her, like lightning threading through clouds before a storm—fine rays dancing wildly, vibrating the pulse of the heavens.
His chin rested on her shoulder. Both could feel that smoothness—the smoothness of water, the smoothness of skin, the smoothness of breath… carrying misty water vapor in sinuous curves, you in me and me in you, evoking thoughts of all things intertwined and soft… She uncomfortably turned her head aside, only to have his lips sweep across her cheek in response, like scorching wind dancing across a lake surface already secretly rippling, creating spreading waves.
In that outwardly calm yet inwardly turbulent swaying, she trembled uncontrollably. She wanted to speak but felt her whole body go soft and powerless. That body, close beyond closeness, seemed to invade her usually clear consciousness, crossing the mountain ranges of awareness, obscuring clarity. What emerged was only low panting that made one feel ashamed to hear. She dared not speak further, because his lips waited there.
His lips first touched lightly like a dragonfly on water, then came like violent wind and sudden rain, driving straight into her territory, branding every inch of soil with marks of force and grinding persistence, wanting to be the king who ruled her. The snow-white skin of her neck soon showed an ambiguous blush, like pale red moonlight shining on deep snow.
For an instant, her too-rapid heartbeat and the unfamiliar closeness shocked her into dizziness, leaving her confused and losing the ability to think and speak. But from the beginning, he had never intended to obtain her answer. Words were merely a declaration—action was what a man must do. He groped underwater to grasp her waist—delicate and exquisite, round and refined, seemingly controllable with one hand. He paused slightly, his fingertips lingering in devotion to the Creator’s favor toward this woman, then gently shifted his body, his fingers slowly sliding.
Feng Zhiwei felt something hard existing somewhere. Her mind thundered, and the clouds and mist instantly scattered.
But Ning Yi was already panting lowly, emerging from the water with a splash, embracing her to step out of the bathing bucket.
Suddenly she felt something hard pressing against her abdomen.
“Your Highness.” Her breathing was somewhat unsteady, rare for those two words to break apart, then gradually calming, her tone that kind of calm he most liked yet most hated. “Don’t want to hear my answer?”
Both were half-submerged in water, facing each other in the bathing bucket. A black soft sword lay horizontally between them.
Water droplets rolled down from Ning Yi’s bare upper body. Under candlelight, his skin glowed with jade-colored luster. Feng Zhiwei lowered her eyes, only daring to look at her own sword.
“Your answer is merely this.” Ning Yi had already recovered his composure, unconcerned about the sword, taking one small step forward in the bucket.
Feng Zhiwei indeed drew her sword back slightly.
“You see,” Ning Yi smiled with certainty, “you can’t bear to hurt me.”
He reached out to stroke Feng Zhiwei’s wet eyebrows and lashes, with a somewhat complex, loving expression saying: “You’re always hiding yourself, controlling yourself, forcing yourself… Just now you were clearly moved—why won’t you indulge once?”
“I cannot hurt you, that’s all.” After a moment of silence, Feng Zhiwei lowered her eyes with a faint smile. “Moreover, Your Highness, they say women who haven’t experienced such matters always easily lose control when in contact with men they don’t dislike. I think you’re not the exception you believe yourself to be.”
Ning Yi fell silent, then after a long while gave a cold laugh.
“With your eyes inconvenienced now, I think you certainly haven’t noticed,” Feng Zhiwei smiled slightly, “this sword’s edge isn’t pointed in your direction… it’s pointed at myself.”
Ning Yi’s expression changed.
“If you advance, it will indeed retreat—only it will retreat into my own vital points.” Feng Zhiwei said coolly. “I don’t know what you’re scheming, but I feel my body and heart cannot be given away right now. So I apologize, Your Highness, please let me threaten you.”
Complete silence.
Water sounds dripped and dropped, trickling away time like a water clock in the silent night.
Ning Yi “looked” in Feng Zhiwei’s direction. His gray-white blurred vision could see nothing clearly, yet he could imagine her current appearance—all blush gone, eyebrows and lashes dark as ink, her brow firm and cold, just like that first meeting at Qiu Manor’s ice lake last winter when she stepped on someone’s foot, that calm and radiant expression.
Cool, bold, with a hint of hidden roguishness.
Some things, he actually knew couldn’t be forced and wouldn’t come by force, yet he still tried to do them. Even he himself didn’t understand why he made these moves, as if from meeting her and gradually understanding her, some things had lost their rhythm, some thoughts had lost their control.
Listening to night rain in the ancient temple, she was in his arms, gentle and soft. That moment of ultimate closeness was hard to forget. Yet after descending the mountain, she hatefully switched back to that respectful, obedient yet distant posture, making him suddenly want to do something, trying to hold onto that her from his arms.
Not necessarily hoping to possess her at this moment, but wanting her to understand her true self, wanting her—accustomed to wearing masks and therefore often unable to distinguish reality from illusion—to face her own heart once.
Ning Yi slowly raised his hand to stroke his face—indeed, she was still that hateful, heartless her, yet he seemed to have become a bit unlike himself.
The sword edge lay calmly horizontal, like the water in the bucket—ice cold.
Suddenly he heard her give a small sneeze, yet say gently: “Your Highness, careful of catching cold. Shall I help you out?”
Ning Yi lowered his eyes. In an instant, he had also recovered his grave, sharp expression. Pushing her away, he stepped out of the water with a splash. He faintly heard her gasp, then scramble out of the bucket in some panic.
Wind sounded overhead as soft sleeping robes descended from above. Her voice calmed somewhat: “I’ll help you dress.”
“No need.” Ning Yi pushed her away with one motion, stepping on the clothes scattered on the floor, walking toward the bed without looking back, pulling down the bed curtain with his fingers.
“You successfully threatened me.” His silhouette behind the curtain was faint, his tone even fainter and cooler.
“Only because I care about you.”
Behind the curtain, Ning Yi made no more sound. Feng Zhiwei stood silently in the water for a long while before gently moving the bathing bucket out.
Her internal injuries hadn’t healed, so moving it was somewhat difficult. However, as soon as she pushed open the door, a pair of hands reached over and took it.
Suppressing complex emotions, she smiled: “Thank you.”
Young Master Gu lay on the steps outside, throwing that bucket of water far away. The bucket landed silently. He also made no sound.
Feng Zhiwei discovered with some surprise that he wasn’t eating walnuts, and rarely wasn’t sleeping on a bed or high place, but had slept at the doorway of the Ning Yi he disliked.
Feng Zhiwei looked back, her face somewhat flushed—had he been here the whole time? Did he… hear everything?
Thinking it really wasn’t appropriate to ask, she suddenly heard Gu Nanyi say: “I’m sorry.”
Feng Zhiwei froze, taking a long while to react that these words had actually come from Young Master Gu’s mouth.
Did he have the emotion of “apology”? She thought he didn’t even know how to use this word.
After her surprise, she smiled, suddenly feeling somewhat better. Pulling Gu Nanyi up, she said: “Don’t sleep at someone’s doorway. Go back to your room, and don’t apologize to me—this isn’t your fault.”
Gu Nanyi let her pull him away from Ning Yi’s door, but stubbornly insisted: “I’m sorry.”
“Alright, alright, sorry, sorry.” Knowing this single-minded person might keep saying it until morning if she didn’t accept, Feng Zhiwei agreed. But Gu Nanyi suddenly pointed at her, then at the bathing bucket, saying: “Don’t wash for people.”
Feng Zhiwei stood dazed, her face flushing bright red.
Gu Nanyi still wouldn’t let it go, pulling her toward Helian Zheng’s door, saying: “Him too.”
Feng Zhiwei didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, afraid he might make a round of every room and she’d have no face to see anyone for the rest of her life. She could only drag him toward a small garden outside the courtyard: “Won’t wash, won’t wash. Let’s go clear our minds.”
The autumn night sky was high and refreshing, night insects chirped low, and the wind carried a faint osmanthus fragrance. Feng Zhiwei found a clean patch of grass, sat down, and smiled up at Gu Nanyi while patting the ground.
She looked at him somewhat mischievously, thinking Young Master Gu was so aloof, he definitely wouldn’t sit on the ground.
Who knew Gu Nanyi looked down, then actually sat, though still keeping a person’s distance. But this was already unprecedented enough to make Feng Zhiwei’s eyes widen.
Tonight’s Young Master Gu was somewhat abnormal…
She ingratiatingly pulled up a sweet grass root, wiped it clean, and handed it over. Young Master Gu accepted it and slowly chewed.
The moonlight was exquisite, starlight about to flow. Wind lifted the gauze of the man beside her, faintly revealing a snow-white chin and moist red lips for an instant.
A section of green grass held between fingers, making the fingers appear even more white as clear jade.
His posture of slightly tilting his head and concentrating on eating the sweet grass root carried a pure and clear aura rarely found in this turbid dusty world, making people walking in the mortal realm feel themselves covered in dust.
Feng Zhiwei suddenly felt that sitting beside the concentrating grass-eating Young Master Gu with her dark and scheming heart was somewhat profane, so she conscientiously shifted aside.
Young Master Gu immediately shifted too.
Feng Zhiwei found it both funny and touching, and stopped moving. Tonight’s Young Master Gu was quite cute—might as well have a heart-to-heart talk.
After spending so long together, knowing his quirks, knowing she couldn’t ask much from him, she hadn’t tried to probe—the only time she tried, she was thunderstruck by his powerful statement “I am your person.”
Tonight the moonlight was lovely, the flower fragrance lovely, the grass sweet, the young master well-behaved. Surely there wouldn’t be any lightning bolts?
“Why do you get lost?” Starting with a simple question.
The simple question stumped Young Master Gu. He stopped destroying the grass root, raised his head to think carefully, then after a long while said: “Can’t remember.”
Can’t remember? Then how could he remember martial arts?
“Roads are all the same.” Young Master Gu said slowly. “Roads are chaotic, faces are fragmented, cloth is coarse, sounds are noisy.”
Feng Zhiwei stared at him blankly—was he speaking about his own feelings?
This was the first time he’d told anyone his feelings, wasn’t it? All roads were the same chaos, indistinguishable; all faces were the same shattered fragments, needing slow piecing together to make whole; clothes on his body—even the finest fabric felt coarse and abrasive, making him impatient; the sounds of people talking around him, eternally clamorous and chaotic in his ears.
What kind of terrifying, frightening feeling was that?
For over ten years, he’d been living in such a world?
Feng Zhiwei suddenly felt a slight pain in her heart, as if someone’s fingertips had gently pinched and ground it.
“You… how did you get through all these years?”
Gu Nanyi tilted his head, somewhat not understanding her question. How did he get through? Walked through, of course.
“I mean, who took care of you, how did you grow up?” At this moment, Feng Zhiwei wasn’t deliberately trying to probe anything, just instinctively wanting to know how he grew up in that chaotic world.
“Before age three, Father. After age five, Uncle, and others.”
Feng Zhiwei heard the gap in between.
“What about three to five years old?”
Gu Nanyi stopped talking, his body suddenly trembling.
This tremble made Feng Zhiwei tremble too, her face paling instantly—a three-year-old child who had lost his only relative, born with certain deficiencies—how did he get through those two years?
She didn’t dare think. Thinking made everything from fingertips to heart turn cold.
Perhaps Gu Nanyi himself didn’t dare think—someone usually so calm and indifferent would actually tremble when recalling that period. What kind of nightmarish early childhood was it?
Feng Zhiwei suddenly reached out and placed her hand on the back of Gu Nanyi’s hand.
She had no particular intention, only wanting to warm that three-year-old child from over ten years ago. During that lonely, snow-falling period of his life, surely no one had warmed his hand like this.
Her heart held faint sourness and tenderness. She forgot the precautions between men and women, forgot that Gu Nanyi never liked anyone approaching, and that the next instant he might very likely throw her to the ninth heaven.
But Gu Nanyi didn’t move.
He lowered his eyes, carefully looking at the hand being covered. His first reaction was indeed to flip and throw it away. However, the faint warmth transmitted from that delicate palm, that unfamiliar and strange sensation of skin contact, suddenly made him feel something somewhere stir.
This was a very unfamiliar feeling, like a fortress frozen for a thousand years being split open by lightning to reveal a crack. The people outside saw the treasure of ten brilliant colors stored inside; the people inside saw the vast blue sea and sky, the infinitely broad scenery outside.
Even if that scenery only appeared in a narrow gap, it was still intoxicating and captivating.
Gu Nanyi felt this sensation was indescribable yet mysterious, making him—impatient with everything—suddenly develop thoughts of exploration. After weighing it again and again, he chose to grip the grass beneath him tightly and remain motionless, to control his instinct to flip it away, letting that strange feeling linger on his hand a while longer until he understood it.
Feng Zhiwei didn’t know of Young Master Gu’s tremendous sacrifice and struggle at this moment, much less that the grass beneath Young Master Gu’s hand was being destroyed beyond recognition. Her hand lingered briefly on Gu Nanyi’s hand, then remembering his quirks, she quickly withdrew it.
Young Master Gu withdrew his hand and touched the back of his hand.
This action made Feng Zhiwei feel embarrassed, thinking he found her dirty. She quickly changed the subject, reaching up to pluck a slender leaf from the tree, rolling it up: “I’ll teach you a way not to get lost.”
“This kind of tree exists throughout Tiansheng, north and south of the great river.” She carefully had Gu Nanyi examine the leaf’s veins. “These veins are very distinctive, like a face. In the future, wherever we go, if we get separated, no matter how urgent or inconvenient, we must not forget to leave this pattern at the roots of these trees. Then it will be convenient to find each other.”
“There are markers.” Gu Nanyi said.
Feng Zhiwei knew he meant they already had contact markers. She smiled and shook her head: “Those markers are for you and your organization. Your organization’s and mine, not mine and yours. You don’t need to find me—you just leave markers. I know the way. I’ll find you.”
She remembered that day racing to rescue Ning Yi, thinking the mere dozens of miles with hidden guards present meant Gu Nanyi wouldn’t lose track of her, so she hadn’t left markers in time, causing Gu Xiaodai to lose her.
Saying she’d leave markers for him to find her was false. She feared that one day Xiaodai would get lost, or forget the old code, or his organization had problems and the code couldn’t be used. Where would she find him then?
Though he was powerful, he was also fragile. Thinking of letting someone like him walk the jianghu alone, she saw before her eyes that confused child who lost his father at three, walking alone, the road ahead vast with snow.
“It’s agreed.” She smiled, rolling up the leaf and placing it at her lips to blow gently. “I’ll blow the leaf whistle, following your markers all the way to find you.”
Gu Nanyi watched her intently, plucking a leaf himself, rolling it the same way, and blowing at his lips in broken, halting notes.
Moonlight walked from one end of the firmament to the other. The broken, halting tune shattered a sky of starlight. Within the gradually flowing, smooth melody, Feng Zhiwei fell asleep with a slight smile.
She didn’t know how much later, in a haze she heard him say:
“Blowing whistle, finding tree, seeking you.”
The wind was very light, flowers very fragrant, bird calls very clear, breathing very… heavy.
When Feng Zhiwei opened her eyes, she found a very large dark face before her eyes.
Startled, she quickly shifted back. Rubbing her eyes, she finally saw clearly that face where nose wasn’t nose and eyes weren’t eyes belonged to Prince Helian. He was crouching very close to her with an expression of “you bad woman, you betrayed me, hurt me, destroyed me, failed me,” pressing toward her in dejection.
What was this about? Had someone withheld his breakfast?
Feng Zhiwei lazily got up. As her hand pressed down, she felt something wrong. Looking again at her pillow, it was shockingly Gu Xiaodai’s thigh.
She stared blankly at the evenly breathing Gu Xiaodai. With one glance she saw a certain small tent pitched just one finger’s distance from where her head had been resting, and immediately went up in flames with a “whoosh.”
Gu Xiaodai opened his eyes, calmly staring at her through the gauze, calmly brushed away her hand, calmly pushed away Helian Zheng’s face, looked down at his own pants, and slowly drifted off to handle morning matters.
As he drifted, he also blew the leaf whistle, the tune flowing smoothly, cascading for miles.
Helian Zheng jumped up and down furiously pointing at his back. After pointing for a long while and finding it completely ineffective—he couldn’t harm people from a distance after all—he could only turn back to point at Feng Zhiwei. Feng Zhiwei smiled lightly, turned his pointing finger in another direction: “Good morning, Prince. Look, the latrine is that way.” Then she leisurely walked away.
Having walked just two steps, someone seriously blocked her path, looking at her with an expression of disappointment: “I’m thinking of spending half a quarter-hour to solve you again, to prevent my master from having headaches in the future.”
Feng Zhiwei didn’t know the story behind this half-quarter-hour but understood Ning Cheng’s meaning. She pointed at her own nose: “Fine, but the likely result is you’ll be satisfied for half a quarter-hour and have headaches for a lifetime.”
Gu Xiaodai cascaded over, using walnuts as greeting, showing Ning Cheng the specific manifestation of headaches in a swift and efficient manner, pleasantly resolving this morning’s serious discussion about life, death, and the future.
“Longnan provincial troops have finished mobilizing.” Ning Cheng caught up and grabbed her. “My thought is to approach from Longnan’s Qushui, which is closest to Fengzhou. This way we won’t alert the locals as much.”
“Since your Prince trusts you to command, you needn’t ask me.” Feng Zhiwei smiled. “Some people shouldn’t be wasted. Our group will naturally have Shen Junxin dispatch people to escort us straight into the Longxi Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office. You bring the three thousand Longnan provincial troops and wait to provide support.”
She returned to the courtyard. Shen Junxin had indeed come to pay respects. At the same time came Helian Zheng’s personal guard Eight Tiger. Feng Zhiwei smiled faintly. Very good—everyone was assembled.
“This brother still has Longnan Circuit surveillance matters.” Feng Zhiwei smiled and asked Shen Junxin, “I’m preparing to depart immediately for Fengzhou city to pay respects to Lord Shen. What do you two think?”
“Excellent, excellent!” Shen Junxin was overjoyed, eagerly saying: “Lord Liu and this prefecture will personally escort you. We’ve already mustered one thousand Jiyang local troops to attend the Prince and honored lords.”
“How wonderful. Much obliged.” Feng Zhiwei smiled warmly. “When we meet Lord Shen, I must certainly put in a good word for you lords.”
Those two men grinned from ear to ear.
Helian Zheng whispered to Eight Tiger: “You all must never marry Han women in the future.”
Eight Tiger nodded in deep agreement, then asked Helian Zheng: “What about you, Prince?”
Helian Zheng said painfully: “I may already be too late…”
Ning Cheng’s big head suddenly popped between them, asking earnestly: “Want me to help prevent it permanently?”
Mass beating ensued.
A quarter-hour later, Ning Cheng dusted off his clothes and strode away with head high…
The group, under the protection of prefectural troops specially dispatched by Shen Junxin, boarded the prepared luxurious carriages and horses. When Ning Yi emerged, his expression was faint, no different from usual. Feng Zhiwei’s actions were also completely normal—she just kept her eyelids lowered facing him. After all, His Highness couldn’t see anyway.
Young Master Gu lay on the carriage roof blowing leaf melodies, over and over, endlessly.
Helian Zheng kept glancing around, always feeling everything seemed the same yet had become different.
Shen Junxin and Counselor Liu were triumphant and joyful all the way, rushing toward what they thought was a bright and glorious future, completely unaware they’d already been deceived onto a road of no return.
At the prefecture gate, Prefect Peng stood for a long while, watching this group who had appeared mysteriously and mysteriously resolved his predicament—these people from the court. A trace of confusion crossed his eyes. After a long while, he looked at the sky and said softly: “The weather is about to change…”
From Jiyang to Fengzhou, one day by fast horse, a day and a half by slow horse.
On the evening of the second day, the carriages entered the city. Shen Junxin wanted to send someone ahead to notify the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office, but Feng Zhiwei stopped him.
She said: “The Prince dislikes formalities, and as a mere seventh-rank Surveillance Commissioner, I don’t warrant Lord Provincial Administration Commissioner coming to greet me. Better we visit ourselves.”
She added: “Since we’ve already reached local territory, the troops needn’t keep following. Jiyang is left vulnerable—if there’s some bandit trouble with no one to resist, better send them back.”
Shen Junxin agreed to whatever she said, ordering his subordinate officers to take the men back. Counselor Liu did frown, thinking there was no need to dismiss the troops before even entering the city gate. But since Shen Junxin, though lower in rank, was Lord Provincial Administration Commissioner’s relative and currently eager to curry favor, he didn’t try to dissuade him.
The Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office wasn’t at Fengzhou city’s center. Supposedly Lord Shen Xuru was an elegant man who loved landscape and waters, so the office was built beside Fengzhou’s Lingquan Lake, located in the western part of the city.
When entering the city gate, Shen Junxin wanted to step forward to reveal his identity and demand passage. Feng Zhiwei waved her hand, smiling: “Why invoke official authority? Let’s just hide our identities and walk casually all the way, experiencing Fengzhou’s people’s conditions. This brother has been traveling this way all along.”
Shen Junxin laughed in agreement, repeatedly saying yes, obediently queuing to pass through the gate. But Counselor Liu frowned.
After entering the city, the carriages all sped up. Eight Tiger intentionally or unintentionally surrounded Shen Junxin and Counselor Liu in the middle. Shen Junxin remained completely oblivious. When passing through the east city, he said his home was nearby and invited everyone to sit a while, but was declined with a smile by Feng Zhiwei. Shen Junxin said he wanted to return home to tell his wife something, but was unceremoniously sent back by Helian Zheng.
By this point, even Shen Junxin, whose mind was full of dreams of receiving commendations and promotions, felt something was off. He and Counselor Liu exchanged glances. Counselor Liu gave a look to an attendant beside him.
That attendant turned his horse and headed straight for the circle Eight Tiger had formed, smiling: “Last time the opium paste my lord brought for Lord Provincial Administration Commissioner was forgotten at Lord Shen’s residence. My lord wants me to retrieve it.”
Eight Tiger exchanged glances and opened the way. Counselor Liu and Shen Junxin, who had been tensely watching that side, relaxed their expressions.
The attendant left the group and immediately spurred his horse into a gallop. Just as he turned a quiet street corner, a cold flash suddenly appeared before his eyes and his throat felt cold.
He fell clutching his blood-spurting throat. His last sight was a gray-clothed figure leaping over the wall.
Meanwhile, the group continued chatting and smiling. Feng Zhiwei rode her horse, pointing out Fengzhou’s scenery across Eight Tiger to those two unfortunate souls, talking and laughing eloquently and endlessly. Seeing her expression so natural, those two men also feared they were being paranoid. Besides, the person sent to notify the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office had been dispatched. The office had two thousand troops, with garrison forces outside the city. There was nothing to worry about. They gradually recovered their ease.
Soon they reached the western city. Feng Zhiwei looked at the imposing Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office surrounded by green waters and laughed with a flick of her whip: “Facing green waters in front, backing against green mountains behind—truly an excellent feng shui location!”
She turned her head: “Trouble Lord Shen to announce us.”
Shen Junxin laughed, looking smug as he spoke a few words with the gate official of the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office who came forward. Those people straightened their expressions and hurried inside to report.
Before long, all four gates opened wide. A pale-faced, slightly bearded middle-aged man in blue robes led a group of subordinate officials out, smiling: “Not knowing the Prince had descended upon us, we failed to welcome you from afar. Please forgive our offense!”
Feng Zhiwei smiled and stepped forward, staring at this man with refined features who looked like a three-inch-tall old scholar—Longxi’s highest authority. Were these soft, weak-looking hands the ones that ordered their portraits drawn? Was this mouth, seemingly unremarkable, the one wanting to swallow two imperial commissioners whole, one of whom was even a current prince?
Looking at this Lord Provincial Administration Commissioner who had caused her and Ning Yi to wander lost in Jiyang mountains and nearly lose their lives, Feng Zhiwei smiled even more warmly and happily.
Helian Zheng stared at Shen Xuru, very much wanting to follow Feng Zhiwei’s repeated instructions and display the Han people’s specialty of false faces and quick changes. However, seeing that well-maintained round face, he thought of finding Feng Zhiwei at Jiyang mountain’s ancient temple—covered in blood and mud, hair burned long and short and messy, that instant of wild joy bursting in her usually calm eyes when she first saw them. It had moved him to speechlessness at the time.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t complete the difficult task Feng Zhiwei had assigned. Under his sleeves, his fists clenched with cracking sounds.
Feng Zhiwei stepped forward, unobtrusively bumping him aside with her shoulder, taking the lead to greet and exchange pleasantries with Shen Xuru. Fortunately, superficially Helian Zheng held the most noble status here—others could only bow to him. He just needed to tilt his head and grunt to express a prince’s nobility and arrogance. This was something he’d excelled at before meeting Feng Zhiwei. Now he just reclaimed his old profession.
During this, Shen Xuru looked suspiciously at the masked Ning Yi descending from the carriage. Feng Zhiwei remained completely composed, introducing: “This is the Prince’s friend, from Longnan, traveling together to visit relatives back home.”
Shen Xuru said “Oh” without thinking much more, holding Feng Zhiwei’s arm with a smile: “How rare for the Prince and Brother Tao and Lord Yi to grace us with your presence. You must stay for some time. My Fengzhou’s scenery is still worth seeing.”
“Naturally, naturally.” Feng Zhiwei squinted her eyes. “Before I see what I want to see, you couldn’t drive me away even if you tried.”
The two laughed together. Shen Xuru had Helian Zheng go first while he and Feng Zhiwei walked arm in arm. Shen Junxin, Counselor Liu, and a group of the Provincial Administration office’s subordinate officials followed with beaming faces.
Feng Zhiwei noticed this Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office had quite tight security—almost guards every three steps and sentries every five. Apparently after failing to hunt down the two of them, Shen Xuru felt quite guilty.
They walked all the way to a warm pavilion in the rear courtyard. Feng Zhiwei looked up at the plaque and smiled: “Tingsheng Pavilion… Excellent calligraphy!”
Shen Xuru smiled with satisfaction—apparently his own handiwork. “Please!”
“Please!”
Everyone entered the warm pavilion. Feng Zhiwei still held Shen Xuru’s arm with a flattered expression. The office subordinates all secretly laughed at this Surveillance Commissioner’s lack of propriety. Shen Xuru’s smile was somewhat unnatural, but he said nothing.
“Your office’s location, Lord—facing green waters in front, backing against green mountains—truly an excellent feng shui location!” Feng Zhiwei walked while smiling.
Shen Xuru was about to make modest remarks when he inadvertently turned his head and saw Helian Zheng’s Eight Tiger had also followed into the warm pavilion. Startled, just as he was about to dissuade them, he suddenly heard Feng Zhiwei beside him continue smiling: “…Being buried here, Lord, you surely won’t have any regrets!”
As soon as the words fell, Counselor Liu, who had quick reactions, changed expression and slid away to escape. However, colorful flashes and golden glints—Eight Tiger’s eight long whips shot out like lightning, instantly weaving into a net that firmly trapped him and Shen Junxin.
Helian Zheng kicked shut the warm pavilion’s door.
With a flick of his sleeve, Gu Nanyi sent a military official attempting to charge out to hang on the wall.
Feng Zhiwei’s sword was already coldly pressed against Shen Xuru’s back, while Ning Yi had somehow appeared before Shen Xuru, standing with hands behind his back, coolly “looking” at him.
“You—you—” A series of changes happened in an instant. Most people hadn’t reacted yet. Shen Junxin’s face turned deathly pale, stuttering loudly but unable to speak.
“We thank you for escorting us all the way, helping us pass unobstructed into the Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office. Thank you, thank you.” Feng Zhiwei turned her head warmly to look at him. “Please allow this humble one to reintroduce myself. This humble one is Ministry of Rites Vice Minister, Nanhai Circuit Ship Affairs Commissioner Imperial Envoy, Wei Zhi.”
Shen Xuru, who had been restrained all along with a pale face as if unable to catch his breath, trembled upon hearing this name.
An uninformed counselor shouted: “Lord Wei, what are you doing…”
“What we’re doing—ask Lord Shen and you’ll know.” This time it was Ning Yi who spoke. He slowly paced to face Shen Xuru directly and removed his mask.
“This Prince, Ning Yi.”
The entire hall was shocked into silence. Shen Xuru’s body shook even more violently. After a long while, he said through gritted teeth: “Not knowing Your Highness had descended upon us, this subordinate was discourteous. But Your Highness, what is this…”
“Smack!”
Unable to bear it any longer, Helian Zheng slapped out ten-some of his teeth.
Ning Yi, face pale and eyes disgusted, said coolly amid Shen Xuru’s howls: “What am I doing?… Killing you.”
“You can’t kill me!” Shen Xuru, fallen into their hands and knowing his fate, still struggled with one last hope: “I have over a thousand guards in this office! Even if you kill me with unlawful private punishment, you can’t leave! I’m a frontier minister! Even if guilty, I should be escorted to the capital for the Court of Judicial Review to judge. Even if you’re a prince, unauthorized killing of a frontier minister makes you also—”
“Slash.”
The blade was too fast for blood to spray out immediately. The words came too fast, so after the blade entered his heart, he still had time to finish: “…guilty.”
The previous silence now became deathly stillness. Even breathing sounds froze. Everyone stared wide-eyed, faces white as corpses, unable to imagine that the province’s highest authority, the all-powerful Lord Provincial Administration Commissioner of Longxi, had been so casually stabbed to death. Only Helian Zheng’s satisfied laughter echoed unchecked in the pavilion.
“Haha, Tingsheng Pavilion—Corpse Pavilion!”
Shen Xuru’s body went soft. Feng Zhiwei disgustedly threw his corpse down. It fell to the ground with a thud like a sack.
“…Right, even with sky-high crimes, with your status, wanting to kill you cleanly would be impossible. You’d be wrapped in yellow silk with shackles, escorted to the capital. You’d enter the Court of Judicial Review, awaiting lengthy judgment proceedings. During this process, all the various complex networks of relationships you’d cultivated in the past, the various forces in the capital you’d relied on, would all be stirred by you—willing or unwilling to run around and defend you. And you’d have sufficient power and money to support this consumption… In the end, perhaps immediate execution would become delayed execution. As you wait and wait, you could await a general amnesty and rise again…” Ning Yi methodically wiped his hands with a snow-white brocade handkerchief, throwing it onto Shen Xuru’s face full of shock and horror. “…So, you’d better die now.”
In his cool voice came mountain-shaking clamorous sounds, thundering toward them.
It was Ning Cheng leading three thousand troops from Longnan Commander, timing their entry to the office with precision. Shen Xuru’s heavily guarded office troops, meeting these prepared regular army forces, collapsed utterly. The entire Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office was swiftly controlled.
In the warm pavilion, dragon’s saliva incense wafted in wisps. A cup of clear tea sat there, never to be drunk. In the plum-blossom pattern of blood drops all over the floor, Ning Yi calmly stepped through.
A figure flashed—Ning Cheng, excited and fierce from killing, appeared before the warm pavilion.
“One and a half quarters of an hour!”
One and a half quarters to complete killing, controlling the office, and eliminating all traces.
“Very good.” Ning Yi gently raised his head, concentrating on smelling the gradually dispersing bloody scent in the air. Amid a ground full of trembling and cowering, he smiled slightly: “Still, the smell of others’ blood smells more fragrant.”
In the thirteenth year of Changxi reign, autumn, the shocking Longxi Prefecture murder of prince and imperial commissioner case occurred. Longxi Provincial Administration Commissioner Shen Xuru, colluding with Minnan’s Chang clan, received orders from the Chang clan to intercept and kill the imperial commissioner’s entourage after it entered Longxi territory. His audacious actions shocked the court.
On Emperor Tiansheng’s desk, detailed evidence proved the authenticity of this seemingly incredible incident—a secret letter from a Longxi office clerk to the Changshan Sword Sect’s leader; portraits of Ning Yi and Wei Zhi issued by Shen Xuru to Shen Junxin; evidence collected by Ning Yi with lightning speed about Shen Xuru’s collusion with the Chang family—Shen Xuru’s predecessor as Provincial Administration Commissioner had been framed to death by the Chang family helping Shen Xuru. Since then, the two families had much public and private interaction. Just recently, Shen Xuru had requested grain from the court claiming Longxi’s heavy rains had caused grain spoilage this year, then shipped the excess grain to Minnan.
Emperor Tiansheng flew into a rage upon learning this, immediately ordering Shen Xuru escorted to the capital and all involved persons judged on the spot. Just days after the decree was issued, Prince Chu replied that Shen Xuru had already been executed according to law, and all related guilty officials and persons—336 people total—had all been executed on the spot.
In the blink of an eye, 300 fine heads!
The realm was shocked!
Supposedly when Emperor Tiansheng received this memorial, he remained silent for a long time. The entire hall held its breath, all shocked by Prince Chu’s thunderous killing methods. He hadn’t even waited for the court’s formal decree before casually chopping off so many officials’ heads, including a second-rank frontier minister!
Even more chilling was that in such a short time, he had basically investigated all of the Shen clan’s crimes clearly. To investigate and kill with absolutely no obstruction—thinking carefully about such capability and methods made one’s heart tremble.
In the memorial submitted by Prince Chu’s advisors, it was written: “The Shen clan was arrogant. When commanded in the Prince’s name, they still attempted resistance and injured His Highness. With no alternative, summary execution on the spot…” But everyone knew—heaven knew how Shen Xuru really died, heaven knew whether before Ning Yi submitted his memorial, those officials’ blood had already stained Fengzhou’s soil!
The blood Fengzhou shed, truly only Fengzhou knew clearly. For many consecutive days, the execution platform drank its fill of fresh blood. Blood traces stained deep red between the bluestone cracks. Finally, Ning Yi, in a rush to leave and impatient with daily scheduled executions, simply bound one person every hundred meters along Fengzhou city center’s busiest ten-li long street. He struck a gong from the city’s tallest Tianyuan Tower, and blood flowed in rivers—a hundred heads fell!
This method of killing shocked Fengzhou’s common people for many years with unforgettable memories. For many consecutive days, even in the evening when the streets were normally thronged with flowering shadows, they were extremely deserted without a single person visible.
Prince Chu, who killed a frontier minister with one strike, didn’t receive punishment for his bold presumptuousness. Emperor Tiansheng expressed tacit approval—he didn’t mention killing Shen Xuru, but sent the palace’s best healing medicine via fast horse.
This also allowed the constantly anxious Prince Chu faction to breathe easier. Feng Zhiwei knew there was actually no need to worry—with the Fifth Prince escaped to Minnan, the Chang family was bound to rebel. Ning Yi on this journey would certainly mobilize troops and generals for major military action. This aura of slaughter was perfect for intimidating the unsettled hearts of the not-very-obedient Minnan and Nanhai territories. It was also beneficial for consolidating military authority. What Tiansheng needed now wasn’t a gentle hand but a blood-dripping blade.
Precisely because of this, they rushed urgently. The more time left for the Chang family, the fewer opportunities for themselves. When the court began taking over Longxi affairs, Ning Yi and Feng Zhiwei immediately took the water route straight to Nanhai.
Nanhai and Minnan were neighbors. Though the Chang family held the Minnan General position, the family resided in Nanhai Circuit, with mansions and influence in both places. Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi discussed it and decided to merge the two groups and go to Nanhai first.
Traveling swiftly downstream along the Qushui River, when Prince Helian had been seasick for seven days and was leaning on the ship’s rail saying he would definitely die if he stayed one more day, the imperial commissioner’s large ship made a loud collision sound.
Feng Zhiwei rushed urgently to the deck and saw in the distance on the shore a surging mass of tens of thousands of people. Overwhelming shouts and clamor came in waves, roaring like a tide!