The Rise of Phoenixes

Translator: Aristophaneso

But... what was the problem?

She examined his bitter look of deeply nursed anger and his hatred consumed posture... were they seven pieces of human meat?

Feng Zhiwei picked up the shining meat in her bowl with her chopsticks and held it to the sun. Nothing... and human meat was apparently a little sour.

“Eight pieces.”

After almost breaking his bowl, the man finally uttered two words. Feng Zhiwei was baffled into silence, and then a strange thought struck her. She asked tentatively: “Do you want... eight pieces of meat ?”

Gu Nanyi stared forward with a steady gaze and nodded seriously at the bowl.

Feng Zhiwei almost cried. Young master! Can you just tell me that you wanted more meat. As long as you stop torturing me much less eight I can even give you nine! You want it, you can have all of mine!

She moved her bowl over to give him the meat, and she moved to give him all of it, but Gu Nanyi blocked her chopstick after the first piece.

“Eight pieces.” He said seriously.

.... Alright... eight pieces then.

Feng Zhiwei reached out and pulled down his veil, muttering to him in a low voice: “please cover your face. I want to eat peacefully.”

It was way too stressful trying to eat under everyone else’s wolf like glare.

Young Master Gu finally started eating his eight pieces of meat happily, but now Feng Zhiwei couldn’t finish her food. She was worrying about when this nonsense that she had brought upon herself would finally end.

After dinner, they retired to their dormitory. They had a smallish yard with two rooms; one room was reserved for receiving visitors, and the other was separated into two parts, a smaller section with one bed and a slightly larger section with two. Obviously, one part was for the student and the other part was for the servants. Feng Zhiwei finally breathed out a sigh of relief; the living situation that she had been worrying over was solved. Yan Huaishi smirked and spoke with a barely hidden false modesty: “Big Brother, what do you think? This is one of the best student dorm yards. It took me some effort to get the Housemaster to give us this one.”

Feng Zhiwei smiled appreciatively and asked: “You know the Housemaster?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why is he taking care of you?”

“We became friends after eating noodles.” Yan Huaishi smirked arrogantly. “I peeled three garlics for him and then he even told me his new concubine’s name.”

“...”

After such a long day, Feng Zhiwei went to bed early, but she couldn’t fall asleep. She was still not used to sleeping with two men on the other side of the wall, and finally she got up and sat, staring blankly at the wall. It was very quiet – the academy’s standing rule was bed by seven. In the silence, every small sound was clear to the ear.

But... there was a missing sound.

Feng Zhiwei frowned. The flowing stream gurgled and the petals of peach blossom’s fell. In the neighboring yard, people were talking in their dreams, muttering in meaningless murmurs.

But there were no snores coming from behind the wall.

Were they still awake, or....

With a small sound, the door opened. Gu Nanyi came in, still covered from head to toe, hugging a pillow to his chest. Feng Zhiwei turned to him in astonishment, and though she had to admit that it was a strangely terrifying sight to see a man wandering around hugging a pillow, she couldn’t say that this person was ugly to look at.

Maybe... he even had a little bit of attractiveness...

From his snow-white fingers tightly grasping the pillow to the casual arch of his neck as he leaned into his face into his pillow, half lifting his veil, revealing the soft red curve of his lips on his snowy skin.

The clearest white like that have pure good emerging from the deepest root of the human heart, revealing a natural attraction inherent in his purity.

Suddenly, an inappropriate line struck Feng Zhiwei.

Time so easily tosses away man, red cherry, green banana...(1)

Just as she was marveling in the feeling that line brought, that man walked over with his pillow to the side of her bed, lifted up the blanket and....

Lay on the bed.

Feng Zhiwei sat down on the bed.

She only wore one layer, and in the chill of the early spring, looked down at the man lying under her blanket.

That man slept unashamedly in the bed she had just warmed, and didn’t even take off his veil.

It was not that Feng Zhiwei didn’t want to scream, but she knew that screaming wouldn’t get this man out of her bed, and she had been taught since she was little to always be calm – panicking never helped.

So she calmly pulled her blanket off of him and gently patted his shoulder, speaking in a pleasing voice, “Hero Gu, you slept in the wrong bed.”

The wandering hero Gu stirred, and just as Feng Zhiwei was starting to feel happy, she heard a “dong” and the heavens and earth flipped and she fell flat on her butt.

.... Gu Nanyi kicked her off her own bed.

Yan Huaishi rushed in to investigate the noise, and the first thing he saw was Feng Zhiwei sitting on the ground, staring blankly at the man in her bed, her clothes half opened around her chest, revealing a white brighter and smoother than the moon. A fragrance of flowers filled the midnight air and gradually filled the room.

Yan Huaishi immediately turned away and stood awkwardly at the door, not knowing whether to help her up or to retreat.

And then he heard Gu Nanyi utter in completely deadpan voice, “I sleep alone.”

Yan Huaishi’s heart jumped and he quickly left – it would be best if he wasn’t present for the following words.

Anyway, it made no difference which man he slept with... Young Master Yan hugged his blanket and smiled like a fox.

Feng Zhiwei also smiled, and she got up happily and replied in a gentle voice. “Okay, alright. You sleep alone.

Those who understood the intricacies of the present were true heroes. The bigger fist slept in the single room; she wouldn’t struggle, and even if she wanted to she wouldn’t do it in this manner.

And so she gathered the other blanket and headed for the door, preparing to chase Young Master Yan away. Hadn’t he said that he was friends with the housemaster? Since he even told Yan Huaishi his new concubine’s name, he surely would be willing to share a room with him.

But just as she took two steps that thing on the bed flipped over. “You sleep here.”

Feng Zhiwei staggered and almost tripped over her blanket. She turned violently to look at him. “I sleep here?”

That man lay there, his breath moving his veil every so slightly. The curve of his face was beautiful, but to Feng Zhiwei’s eyes he looked like a corpse just beginning to transform into a zombie.

“Yes.”

He replied decisively, and with a casual wave of his hand, a white object flew over and landed by her feet.

Her pillow.