“That is my concern.” Feng Zhiwei answered steadily, “I only want Master Zhou’s word.”
“Fine.” Zhou Xizhong replied coldly: “If you can subdue the Yan Family and manage the other families, not allowing either the wealthy families or the Chang Clan to control the South Sea province, helping you found the Maritime Department will not be a problem.”
“Good.” Feng Zhiwei replied, standing and bowing slightly. “Then this Minor Minister will keep the impeachment list for now, and Your Honor can wait as I arrange matters.”
“You are young and capable so I truly how you are not heading to your death.” Zhou Xizhong replied with a meaningful stare. “I must keep South Sea stable, so in certain matters you must truly understand before acting.”
Feng Zhiwei’s eyes glittered and she smiled as she left. As she passed the string of grasshoppers on her way out, all the grasshoppers trembled and shrank back.
The negotiations had finished smoothly and all of the students were very excited, happy in their wise choice to follow Vice Headmaster Wei. Here, they could even punch a Low Third Rank Official; how could Dijing compare! They jumped and sang and celebrated their joy until an annoyed Young Master Gu gifted them a walnut bruise to each of their heads.
On the other hand, Helian Zheng was sad and depressed when his Little Aunt told him to distance himself from her and keep the stink of powder and rouge away.
The Helian Prince bemoaned his unjust fate. She had allowed him to go!
Really, steppe women used words like iron sabres; why had he fallen for this two-faced central plains woman with a mouth full of lies…
Feng Zhiwei’s sedan chair left the city and headed back to the West Yard, passing over a hill and a few villages on the way.
When they had just left the city, a man galloped over and spoke hurriedly to a guard before being brought to Feng Zhiwei.
“What happened?” Feng Zhiwei called out, recognizing one of the butlers from Xi Yard.
The servant leaned over and whispered into her ear.
Feng Zhiwei stood in alarm.
This butler had served Yan Huaishi’s mother since her marriage and was one of the few people in the family that Yan Huaishi could trust. Sweaty and begrimed but too worried to bother with decorum, he hurriedly explained what had happened when Feng Zhiwei left.
The Yan Family had decided to open their Ancestral Temple and banish Yan Huaishi and his mother; as soon as His Highness heard of the matter, he strode out immediately to stop the farce, but South Sea custom held the Ancestral Temple as sacred and inviolable. Once the doors were shut, no outsider was allowed to open it; if any one dared violate the sanctity of the gate, he would enrage the entire South Sea province.
His Highness chose instead to surround the Yan Family temple, having a thousand of his guards to guard every entrance, warning that if Yan Huaishi and his mother were harmed, everyone else in the temple would be locked in until they starved.
Soon the Yan Family tenants, workers, and side-branch members heard the news and rushed over, and now a few thousand people surrounded Ning Yi and his guards. The stalemated had been going on for at least six hours.
Feng Zhiwei had not expected that her absence of a few hours would allow the Yan Family to create such a huge disturbance. The South Sea people venerated familial inheritance and had passed down traditions for thousands of years; even the Imperial Court needed to respect these practices, and if they intervened or maligned the tradition in anyway, the authority of the Imperial Court would soon come under attack and the situation spin out of control.
On the Third Year of the Tian Sheng Dynasty, the past Commissioner had chased an important criminal through an Ancestral Temple and accidentally knocked down an ancestor’s Spirit Tablet. As a result, the Family Head of the temple committed suicide, and the whole fiasco enraged the South Sea people and spiraled into an armed rebellion. Over ten thousand commoners rose up and trapped the Commissioner for eighteen days, and though the South Sea General was ordered to rescue the Commissioner, the military itself was manned with South Sea people and they refused to fight their home. Ultimately, the miserable Commissioner starved to death.
The commoners had strong ties and beliefs about family and blood and the importance of their Ancestral Temple; often, the less educated and more remote the province, the deeper the traditions of blood and family. The violation of the Ancestral Temple was the greatest insult, and whenever it happened the people were filled with common hatred and would set aside their personal grudges to unite in their fury. The Imperial Court had learnt this lesson and chose to never interfere in family affairs in these distant provinces.[1]
In other words, if matters were not handled well, even Ning Yi might not survive!
More and more people were gathering and if the crowd went crazy, someone could hurt Ning Yi in the chaos and escape into the mess.
Feng Zhiwei clenched her hands, her palms pounding with hot blood. She shut her eyes to calm herself, and then she called out: “Helian Zheng, I must trouble you to take my seal and lead the students back to Feng Zhou. Reveal your identity to Master Zhou and ask him to send troops immediately, then all of you will stay in Feng Zhou. You do not need to return.”
“Send Yao Yangyu!” Helian Zheng refused. “I’m staying.”
“Send Wang Huai!” Yao Yangyu called out without hesitation. “We’ve always needed your protection like burdens, and now you want to send us from danger? No!”
“Send Yu Liang!” The Young Master named Wang Huai called out.
“Huang Baozi will go!” Yu Liang retorted.
All of the students refused to leave, and finally Feng Zhiwei yelled over them, furious: “Everyone will leave!”
“Yao Yangyu, you and I will follow. Everyone else leave!” Helian Zheng called out with a voice of thunder, his eyes glaring.
His Eight Valiants echoed his words with fierce lashes of their whips.
The students could do nothing but obey and obediently turned their horses. Wang Huai called out, teary eyed: “Vice Headmaster, be safe…”
“If I don’t see mansion troops in four hours, no can will be safe!” Feng Zhiwei declared, cold and impassionate.
As the students rushed off for reinforcements, Feng Zhiwei turned to the butler: “You came quickly. Did you come from the main road or is there a short cut?”
“This small man knows the paths very well. I traveled through Mount Hong.” The butler replied. “There is a small village path in the mountains, and the Yan Family Ancestral Temple is not far from Jiu Jie Village. The path will shorten the travel time in half.”
“Then what are we waiting for. Go.” Ning Cheng snapped, grabbing the butler and rushing out.
Feng Zhiwei climbed off the sedan chair and onto Gu Nanyi’s horse, leading the Eight Valiants and the three hundred guards into the mountains. Soon, they had to leave their horses to take the rugged mountain trail. After a while, the butler pointed out the Ren Ji village up ahead, gasping at the heavy plumes of smoke that pillared up above.
Feng Zhiwei was just wondering where she had heard the name before when she heard Ning Cheng’s furious shout ring out ahead.
[1] This does not represent the views of the translator, and we cannot speak for the meaning and purpose of the author.
