The Rise of Phoenixes

Everyone had clearly seen her hand clutching the bloodied brick, and now this “killer” was trying to convince people to save him. Nobody could keep up with Feng Zhiwei’s strange train of thought.

“I am only a poor man,” Feng Zhiwei patted the dust off her hand and the young master at the front of the crowd took a large step back. “I don’t have any money to pay the doctor, so I won’t crowd this area. This young man is hurt badly, please everyone, hurry.”

And after that, Feng Zhiwei smiled and waved at the stunned and amazed crowd before calmly turning around and walking away.

A cold wind blew past and her clothes stuck to her back and chilled her.

With just a few more steps, she would disappear from their view…

“Pa, Pa, Pa.”

Three leisurely claps filled the air and ended the strange silence.

Feng Zhiwei looked back and saw two men sitting on handsome horses nearby, followed by a group of Yamen runners.

A teenage youth wearing a beautiful bright purple robe sat on the white horse on the left, and some childishness still remained on his handsome face. His staring eyes were like black pearls and were set in an intense gaze.

On the black horse next to him, another man looked down at her casually. He wore a moon white robe decorated with a light cyan colored pattern, complementing his gorgeous face like a beam of moonlight falling upon a beautiful mountain, the radiance and beauty completing each other. His cloak was black, with a huge, light gold Mandara Flower embroidered on it. His was a glamourous and contradictory beauty, cold and alluring.

His eyes were calm and steady like the tranquil surface of a deep lake as he looked over at Feng Zhiwei.

Feng Zhiwei’s mouth wrinkled into an awkward smile – she had just promised him that she wouldn’t kill or get into trouble, and now they had met again in this situation.

And this time was even worse; she had “assaulted” someone on the street and cracked someone’s head.

For better or for worse, she was still a lady born into a noble family and hardly ever misbehaved. Why was it that every time he was around an accident would happen? Was their fate really so bad?

The teenage youth glared wide eyed, pointing at Feng Zhiwei and stammering, “You —— You…”

Feng Zhiwei’s heart sank a little, and she knew that they must have seen her holding the bloodied brick. It would not be easy to escape unpunished.

The teenager had watched as Feng Zhiwei destroyed the murder weapon and turn around to escape, but for some reason, when he looked into Feng Zhiwei’s calm and angry eyes, the words he opened his mouth to say stuck in his throat.

He looked to his Sixth Brother for help and noticed the strange gaze that his composed brother had as he examined the killer.

The man on the black horse cut his brother off with a gentle rap against the side of his golden horse saddle with his horse whip. “What happened?”

“Prince!” The young masters rushed forward as if to their savior, but stopped a distance away from the horses. “Young Master Wu was killed!”

Feng Zhiwei’s heart sank even deeper. A Young Master Wu was definitely a direct descendant of the Fu Guo Duke’s family. Feng Hao was actually able to mingle with these children and had made such a big mess!

And as for this man she’d met three times now. What prince was he? Rumors said that the Crown Prince was unpredictable; the Second Son was domineering and loved martial arts, and the Fifth Son was cold and hard to approach. The Sixth Son was on the Crown Prince’s side and famous for his gorgeous appearance and forceful and unrestrained character. The Seventh Son was close to the Fifth Son and had a good reputation in both the Imperial Court and commonalty, and was also the first son to be titled Prince. The Tenth Son was still young and no one knew much about him.

From his age, he must be either the Sixth or Seventh Son.

“Idiot.” The man’s eyes cocked with disdain and he gestured with his horse whip towards the still figure on the ground. “You can’t even tell whether a man is dead or not?”

The crowd of people immediately rushed over to Young Master Wu’s side to check on him, and a couple of them carried him to the doctor. The Commander of the Jiu Cheng¹ Capital Guards in charge of Dijing public security rode horse to the man’s side and frowned. “Who is the killer?”

“Him!” Everyone pointed at Feng Zhiwei.

Feng Zhiwei’s face showed great surprise and she stepped backwards in wide eyed innocence. “I’m just a curious pedestrian and was unwittingly involved in this. You are blaming me without reason! I am innocent!”

“Since you didn’t know to avoid this suspicious position when the accident happened, you still deserve the trouble that comes to you.” That man looked down from his horse and cut Feng Zhiwei off with his fluent words.

She lifted her eyes and met his gaze. One was cautious and the other was cold; after a moment, Feng Zhiwei looked down and avoided his gaze.

The circumstances were more powerful that her, and even if she could come up with many smart things to say, it was not the best time for her to show off.

That man was truly too difficult to read, but in the end, his words till defended her a little.

The commander struggled for a moment before bowing to the man, “Prince, I have to explain this matter to Fu Guo Duke, and this man is our suspect…”

The looked down at Feng Zhiwei and asked indifferently, “You say that you are being framed. Can you testify to who the real killer is?”

Feng Zhiwei paused and all kinds of thoughts ran through her mind. She ground her teeth together and ultimately decided against giving up Feng Hao. Nothing good would come out of it. It would be to pull out the radish and bring up the mud. For one, her cover as a footboy in the brothel would be revealed, and the Qiu Mansion might also take a move and drop a stone down the well, adding insult to injury and kicking her family while they were down. And ultimately, she wasn’t confident that her mother would her daughter over her son.

Her heart soured a little, but her face was calm. She pointed to an area behind her and smiled honestly, “I saw a man whose hand was covered in blood jump over that wall and run west.”

The teenage youth on the white horse choked and couldn’t stop coughing. The man on the black horse turned to look at him. The teenager smiled awkwardly, “eh… Sixth Brother, it’s nothing. The wind was too strong.”

Sixth Brother… he really was the Emperor’s Sixth Son, Prince Chu Ning Yi, and that teenage boy who coughed because of the wind was the Tenth Son, Ning Ji.

The Capital had a line of poetry, “The early cherry blossom blooms on the tip of the tree and opens up to the shining Southern Skies of blue.” It spoke about Ning Yi, titled Prince Chu¹.

Among all the sons of the Emperor, the most famous one was not always the Crown Prince, and was also not the Seventh Son who was now often called the most virtuous prince. It was the precocious Sixth Prince. When he was born, someone in the Imperial Palace had heard music from the sky, but this rumor didn’t bring him luck. A couple months later, his mother died and he quietly disappeared from the limelight. The Empress adopted him, but after some time and for an unknown reason, she gave him to her remotely related cousin – Imperial Noble Consort Chang.

The stories went that Ning Yi had started speaking very late. He had only spoken his first sentence when he was three, but that belated sentence was like a key that opened the doors of wisdom. When he was five, he solved the Grand Master’s Zhen Long Chess problem, and by the time he was seven he had faced off in a poetry competition against the most gifted scholar of the time, Xin Ziyan. In the time it takes to make a cup of tea¹ , he had composed “Sheng Feng Fu.” Grand Wind Fu was a magnificent, thousand characters long Fu, at once delightful and majestic, and incredibly beautiful. The eccentric Xin Ziyand had struck the table in surprise and decided to befriend the young Ning Yi despite the age difference, and soon after, he accepted the imperial invitation and became the headmaster of the number one academy. Ning Yi was famous.