Rising Phoenix

Translator: Aristophaneso

How much pain was he in?

For over a decade, he had been living in a world like that?

Feng Zhiwei’s heart ached, and she felt it pinch.

“You… how do you stand it?”

Gu Nanyi tilted his head, confused. How did he stand? He just stood.

“I mean, who took care of you? How was your childhood?” Feng Zhiwei replied, not meaning to pry, but she felt a need to know.

“Before three, dad. After five, uncle and others.”

Feng Zhiwei noticed the gap in time.

“What about between three and five?”

Gu Nanyi fell silent and his whole body trembled.

Feng Zhiwei shuddered, her face paling — what kind of life could a three year old orphan like him have endured during those two years?

She did not dare imagine, and her body seemed to cool, from the tips of her finger to the center of her heart.

Perhaps Gu Nanyi also did not dare remember — for a calm and composed man like him to tremble at the memories, what kind of nightmarish childhood had he suffered?

Feng Zhiwei reached out and touched the back of Gu Nanyi’s hand.

She had no thoughts other than a desire to give warmth and kindness to that three year old boy all those years ago, to give him a warmth on cold and lonely days.

Her heart was filled with quiet grief and softness, and in that moment she forgot that men and women should keep their distance; she forgot that Gu Nanyi did not like to be touched, and that he might very likely toss her aside into the distance.

But Gu Nanyi did not move.

He looked down and carefully examined the hand on his; his first reaction was truly to fling it away and dodge aside, but the warmth of that smooth palm called to a strange feeling inside him, and something within him began to move.

The feeling was so unfamiliar, like a castle frozen in time for a thousand years suddenly cracked open to the world by a bolt of lightning; hints of colorful treasures were revealed, and to those trapped within the fortress, a blue sea and vast sky dawned.

Even though only a sliver had opened up in those frozen walls, the charm was enough to drown in.

Gu Nanyi felt that this moment was unexplainably mysterious, and his impatient, irascible spirit suddenly wished to investigate. After a deep round of thought, he dug his fingers into the grass to hold down his own hand, fighting the urge to run away. He let that strange sensation linger on the back of his hand so that he could understand.

Feng Zhiwei saw none of Young Master Gu’s struggle and sacrifice, and she had no idea that the grass under his hand had been mutilated; her hand rested on Gu Nanyi’s for a short while, and then she remembered his eccentricity and hurriedly pulled her fingers away.

Young Master Gu held up his hand, touching its back.

An embarrassed Feng Zhiwei assumed that he was complaining about her hand’s dirtiness, and she hurriedly changed the subject. She reached out and plucked a thin, long leaf and rolled it, saying: “I’ll teach you a way to not get lost.”

“This tree grows in every part of Tian Sheng.” She explained, letting Gu Nanyi carefully examine the veins of the leaf. “The veins of this leaf are special and look like a face; in the future, no matter where we are, if we lose each other, no matter how urgent or inconvenient, we cannot forget to leave this pattern on the roots of this tree, so that we will always be able to find each other.”

“There’s a mark.” Gu Nanyi replied.

Feng Zhiwei knew that he was saying they already had a different pattern, but she smiled and shook her head: “That mark is yours and your people, and the way your people contact me. It is not a mark just for you and me. You won’t need to look for me, you only need mark the trees. I won’t get lost, and I will find you.”

That day when she had rushed off to save Ning Yi, she had thought that the invisible guards would have easily lead Gu Nanyi that shortish distance, so she had not marked her route and her little dummy had gotten lost.

Giving him this mark to find her was just an excuse; she was afraid that one day the little dummy would get lost and forget his old mark, or something would happen to his people and the mark became useless. How would she find him then?

Although he was strong, he was also weak. When she thought of him walking alone in Jianghu, she saw a three year old orphan walking alone on a snowy road.

“It’s a promise.” She announced, smiling and placing the rolled leaf to her lips and blowing gently into it. “I will play this leaf flute while I follow the marks to find you.”

Gu Nanyi watched her attentively, plucking a leaf and imitating her, blowing gamely into the small flute.

The moon crossed the skies as they played a halting melody to accompany the stars. As their music slowly improved, Feng Zhiwei smiled and drifted off to sleep.

Some time later, she faintly made out his words:

“Playing the flute, search the trees, to find you.”

…

The wind gently rustled alongside the fragrant flowers as cheerful birds sang above, and breathing… rang heavily overhead.

Feng Zhiwei cracked opened her eyes to the sight of a large, dark face.

She jerked awake and scrambled backwards, rubbing her eyes before finally making out Helian Zheng’s unfortunate features. He squatted above her, his face gloomy as he glared with a look somehow expressing “you evil woman, you betrayed me, you hurt me, you destroyed me, you let me down.”

What was he doing… had someone stolen his breakfast?

Feng Zhiwei lazily pushed herself upright, only then realizing what she was leaning against. She looked back at her pillow — little dummy Gu’s thigh.

She stared dazedly at the little dummy, and then her eyes drifted down to the little perky, tent a finger-length from where her head had lain and her whole body flushed.

Little dummy Gu opened his eyes and calmly returned her stare, calmly brushing aside her hand and calmly pushing aside Helian Zheng’s face. Finally, he looked down at his trousers and stood, slowly floating away to fix the morning problem.

As he floated, he played his little leaf flute, the melody fluent and clear and cutting through the air.

Helian Zheng pointed a furious, trembling finger as Gu Nanyi drifted away, but his anger went unnoticed. He could do nothing, so he turned and pointed accusingly at Feng Zhiwei, but she just swept his finger aside and said: “Good morning, Prince. The latrine is over there.” Then she casually strode off.