The Princess Wei Yang Chapter 90 - Part 2
February 22, 2018
This part is sponsored by Carrieann!
(Edited 9.15.2018)
Chapter 90: Praying Mantis Stalk the Cicada
负荆请罪: bearing the rod and taking punishment: means to offer a humble apology
(Edited 9.15.2018)
Chapter 90: Praying Mantis Stalk the Cicada
负荆请罪: bearing the rod and taking punishment: means to offer a humble apology
Ninth
Princess whispered: “Wei Yang Jiejie, who do you think has sent the assassin?”
Li
Wei Yang just smiled without answering.
Just
at this moment, Tuoba Yu came over, he suddenly asked: “Why?”
Li
Wei Yang answered: “Ninth Princess, I have something to say to your Seventh
brother.”
Ninth
Princess blinked her eyes mischievously, “Okay.” After saying this, she lifted
her skirt and ran away.
Tuoba
Yu’s gaze contained a trace of disbelief: “It was Madame Wei, just now I saw
her expression, that moment---” When Virtuous Consort Zhang was pardoned
by the emperor, Madame Wei’s disappointment, was all seen by Tuoba Yu.
Li
Wei Yang laughed: “Madame Wei just knew the truth.”
“She
originally did not know this, aside from you, aside from me---” Tuoba Yu
clenched his teeth, “How could you do this!” He almost could not hold back from
shouting, but he did his utmost to restrain his emotions: “She is my imperial
mother! You are obviously on my side!”
Li
Wei Yang laughed, a trace of coldness flashed across her eyes: “What if I was
really killed by her?! How would Seventh Prince compensate this life of mine!
Could it be that because she is your imperial mother, therefore I must be
patient with her and let her kill me?!”
Tuoba
Yu was aware that he was in the wrong, but still refused to give up: “But I
already said it, I will explain to mother---”
“Explain?
Is explaining any use?” Li Wei Yang said lightly, “I don’t want an explanation!
I want justice!”
“I
already told imperial mother, she promised not to harm you again!”
“Promise?!”
Li Wei Yang sneered, “Seventh Prince, your mother’s promise, pardon me for not
being able to believe it.” If promises are of use, why would Zhao Yue find
there are still people monitoring around the outside of her tent or that even
someone would let poisonous snakes into the tent.
This
showed that the concubine never actually gave up! She didn’t know how Tuoba Yu
explained it, but Virtuous Consort Zhang’s stubbornness was definitely
abnormal!
There
was pain in Tuoba Yu’s eyes, he felt like he was living between two cracks,
this feeling caused him to not know how to explain to Li Wei Yang. Imperial
Mother thought that Li Wei Yang was not suitable to be his main consort, thus
doing such terrible things, he said lightly: “Wei Yang, the things that my
mother did cannot hurt you, you are smart and powerful---”
Li
Wei Yang suddenly laughed continuously, unable to stop.
Because
she is clever, because she is strong, other people can frame her to their
heart’s content? Take her for a fool?! Her face becoming cold, her voice
like ice: “Seventh Prince, if I was not capable, then I deserve to die?!”
Tuoba
Yu almost lost his voice, he knew that these things cannot hurt Li Wei Yang,
therefore taking it lightly--- In the end, he was too confident in Li Wei
Yang’s strength and cleverness, that he had forgotten that she is also a person
who can get hurt and bleed, and what’s more, she is also a weak woman. For a
moment, he felt an incomparable regret, it was all due to her giving him such a
strong impression of her before, therefore he was left with the wrong idea,
thinking that she could handle everything, involuntarily he stepped up: “Wei
Yang, I’m sorry, I promise you again---”
“No
need to promise! If this happens again, I cannot guarantee that Virtuous
Consort Zhang can continue to sit safely in that position!” Li Wei Yang scoffed
coldly, “I am a soft stone, but my life is very hard, Concubine wants to kill
me, she must be wary of having one’s head bashed and battered!”
Tuoba
Yu looked at her deeply: “Even though you spoke so viciously, however I know
that you are a kind-hearted person, you did not intend to kill my mother, otherwise
you would not have let ninth sister say those words, Imperial Father will not
believe any other words spoken by anyone else, you understand Imperial Father’s thoughts
more than I do.”
Only
the words of a princess with no conflict of interest, a weak naive child, one
who is favored by the Emperor like a pearl in his palm, the Emperor would
believe2.
Emperors
are suspicious. Therefore everything that happened today, are all calculated by
Li Wei Yang.
Li
Wei Yang turned her face, the fire glimmering in the distance casting shadows
on her face, her voice normal, so normal to the point that no one realized that
she had a weariness that was never there before: “What do I, it is also for Qi
Dianxia, your own good.”
Tuoba
Yu looked at her in surprise.
Li
Wei Yang continued: “Today’s incident, on the surface, Virtuous Consort Zhang
appeared to have been reprimanded by His Majesty, but His Majesty already knows
that he has wronged her, while thinking deeply about the assassination attempt,
His Majesty would think that someone is envious of you, therefore would frame
the always placid Virtuous Consort Zhang, say, who would think of you as a
threat and cannot help but reach out to exterminate you?”
“You
purposely chose Madame Wei??” Tuoba Yu looked at her in disbelief.
“Exactly,
Madame Wei’s second brother, also my second maternal uncle in name, has an
illegitimate daughter who had entered the Crown Prince’s residence.” Li Wei Yang said
smilingly, “Watch, His Majesty will definitely feel that the Crown Prince has
the intention to frame you, from today onwards, not only will he be warier of
him, he will also protect and think highly of you, to make up for what he owes
you and Virtuous Consort Zhang.”
Tuoba
Yu looked at Li Wei Yang, every move she took was malicious. A complex feeling arose in his heart, for a
moment, he felt a burst of coldness.
The
emperor ordered a thorough investigation of this matter, while there was no
issue with the identity and origin of that palace maid, she had never interacted
overly much with people in the palace for many years and it was apparent that
she had been placed there for many years. To use this kind of person, it was
obvious that they wanted to drive Virtuous Consort Zhang to the brink of death.
However, the order of the Emperor was not a joke. Finally, someone had spoken
the truth and revealed that Madame Wei had been in secret contact with this
maid. As a result, Madame Wei became the most suspected person, but when the
imperial guards arrived at Madame Wei’s tent, they discovered her fully dressed
up and had swallowed gold to commit suicide. Marquis of Bo Chang was greatly
shocked, thrice kneeling and bowing nine times to ask the Emperor for bearing
the rod and taking the punishment, but the Emperor still decided to execute the
entire family. Upon hearing this news, Li Xiao Ran immediately went to the
Emperor to plead for leniency as well as trying to prove that this incident had
nothing to do with Marquis of Bo Chang, but in the end the Emperor still took
his rank, demoted him to a commoner and exiled him to the desolated He
Province. When
the news came out, the entire court was shaken.
When
arriving, Madame Wei was sitting high on a carriage, yet now she was dragged
out on a broken cot. Gao Min’s arrogance on horse riding still seemed to be here, but now
she could only lie in the carriage and leave for He Province with her father.
Li
Wei Yang watched from afar, an unknown indifference flowing through her eyes.
“It’s
really such a pity, originally it was all fine.” Without knowing when, Sun Yan
Jun had come over to her side, “If it was known that it would lead to so many
incidents, it would have been better to not participate in this hunt.”
First,
it was the Ninth Princess receiving a fright while riding a horse, then it was
Gao Min accidentally being injured, followed by Virtuous Consort Zhang getting
framed and later discovering that the culprit behind the plotting was Madame
Wei, and finally ended with Madame Wei committing suicide. All of the entire
events seemed to be interlocking, all closely linked, but Sun Yan Jun would
have never thought that everything was closely tied to this seemingly ordinary
girl in front of her.
Li
Wei Yang answered: “Miss Sun really has a kind heart. But many things have
already been destined to happen. Since Madame Wei committed such a malevolent
crime, then she must have foreseen her ending today.”
Sun
Yan Jun nodded and said: “Madame Wei definitely shouldn’t have framed Virtuous Consort Zhang.
I’ve heard from others that Madame Wei has a niece who is a secondary consort to the Crowned
Prince. So, everyone is saying Madame Wei was instructed by the Crowned Prince to
frame Virtuous Consort Zhang and the real purpose behind this is to make His
Majesty estrange Seventh Prince!” She was whispering in a low voice as if she
was afraid others could hear her.
Li
Wei Yang calmly smiled: “Oh, Miss Sun believes in the rumors too?”
“This
is not a rumor, everyone knows that Madame Wei’s eldest son Gao Yuan, who was
the Crowned Prince’s study partner, had lost his life because of the Crowned
Prince so she was conferred a title. Moreover, Duke Jiang’s first and second
household continuously birthed five sons without any daughters. In order to
draw their alliance, the Crowned Prince married a girl born from a mistress and since her status
wasn’t high, she was only given the position of a secondary consort. If she didn’t do
this for the Crowned Prince, then why would Madame Wei want to harm Virtuous
Consort Zhang. One, there was no animosity and two, there was no clash of conflicts
between them ---” Sun Yan Jun casually told Li Wei Yang the analysis of General
Sun.
Li
Wei Yang’s face exposed a slight astonishment: “Is it really like this?”
Sun
Yan Jun expressed sympathy: “You should be wary of others, but you all don’t
have much to worry about. Your father does not participate in any of the power
struggles between the princes. Let’s consider this a fortunate misfortune.”
Did
not participate? This was merely an impression; Li Xiao Ran was basically
holding back and waiting for the right time to reap the most profits. The only
problem was his dream of seeing his daughter become the empress had already
been shattered so he didn’t know what steps to take next.
“Because
His Majesty had wronged Virtuous Consort Zhang, he had been pacifying her! And
I’ve also heard that Seventh Prince captured a white wolf so he was rewarded
heavily ….” Sun Yan Jun continued to speak as Li Wei Yang’s gaze followed the
Marquis of Bo Chang’s carriage, unsure of what she was thinking about.
This
hunting event had finally ended. She gracefully declined Sun Yan Jun’s
invitation and Li Wei Yang returned back to the Prime Minister’s residence.
After
returning to her room, Li Wei Yang ordered everyone to leave. At this moment,
seeing no one else here, she didn’t have to work hard to be strong, she could
be weak without worries, and she didn’t have to be as courageous as she seemed
to be.
Tuoba
Yu said: “I felt that you are strong enough to face everything.” At that point,
how did she respond to him? Li Wei Yang couldn’t remember, she only felt
extremely anger at that moment, very furious. Even if she saw him as an ally,
she had at least invested a little of her feelings. She thought they could be
soulmates and friends who would work together for the same goal. But with Tuoba
Yu saying this to her, she couldn’t help but feel disappointment.
She
was, of course, very strong, but she wasn’t strong enough that she could deal
with all dangerous situations. And especially when confronted by death,
she was more frightened than anyone else. In her dreams, day and night, she was
always in the desolated cold palace. At times, she would even dream of her body
crawling with lice. This kind of terror, no one had experienced before so no
one would be able to understand. Tuoba Yu thought she was strong and had
nothing to fear. In actuality, it was the exact opposite; it was because she was
afraid, frightened that if she became weaker, she would be toppled. That was
the main reason why she would eliminate every obstacle at all costs.
She
knew that sharp arrow would pierce through Gao Min but she still invited her.
She
knew Madame Wei would do whatever she could to frame Virtuous Consort Zhang but
she still told her who was the mastermind behind the incident.
Li
Wei Yang was a cold-hearted woman.
She
was thinking of this as she buried her face in the pillow.
It
had a scent of sunlight and fresh grass, which was entirely different from the
scent of poison and blood in her dream.
“Open
your mouth!”
Suddenly,
a voice was heard from the side of the bed.
Li
Wei Yang was startled. She lifted her gaze and saw Li Min De holding his head
in one hand and pinching something in his other hand as he watched her.
Li
Wei Yang let out a smile: “What is that?”
“Lotus
balls.” Li Min De answered directly, “Don’t you like to eat this?”
Li
Wei Yang often ate the sweets from the Jade Pavilion but now she didn’t really
have an appetite.
Li
Min De couldn’t help but frown. He threw away the molded flour and said: “Then
what do you want to eat?”
“I
don’t want to eat anything!” Li Wei Yang seldom feels impatient and she had
instructed everyone to leave her and not let anyone enter. How could Zhao Yue
let this youngster come in?
It
was as if Min De had entered a room without the presence of anyone.
After
a long while, Li Wei Yang couldn’t hear him speak anyone. She opened her eyes
and discovered that the young boy had droop his head. She wasn’t able to fully
see his expression but could notice an aura of sadness lingering in the air.
Instead of thinking he was upset to see Li Wei Yang who had always been gentle
was able to become this annoyed, it was better to think that his feelings
stemmed from her unexplained reason of reprimanding him!
“Oh,
I didn’t do it on purpose, Min De, I am just not feeling well.” Li Wei Yang
sighed, she sat up and consoled him.
Li
Min De glanced up and blinked his eyes as if he was wronged. His gentle
expressions made her involuntarily felt that she had committed a grave sin.
Li
Wei Yang couldn’t stand this innocent expression and said: “Okay, okay, okay,
I’m sorry.”
“Did
you encounter something unhappy during this trip?” Li Min De asked.
Li
Wei Yang stopped for a moment to think and said: “I’ve caused the deaths of a
few people, I feel a little discontent in the heart.”
“Survival
of the fittest, the weak serves as prey to the strong, these are the words you
taught me.” The young boy lifted his head and locked his gaze with hers.
Li
Wei Yang was stunned, all of her actions were exactly like this. If she didn’t
kill, she would be killed. She didn’t want to spend time grieving but seeing Madame
Wei’s pain over her daughter’s incident, she could imagine Qi Yiniang (her
mother) ……. She dropped her glance, “You are right ……”
He
suddenly thought of something, his face sunk, “Did someone anger you?” After
saying this, he immediately became regretful. He tested the waters by reaching
out his hand and when he was about to lift her face, a cold droplet of tear
unexpectedly landed on his palm. It was indubitably icy cold, but the young
boy’s heart felt as if it had been burnt, causing a piercing pain.
Li
Wei Yang lifted her head, her eyes didn’t have any trace of tears, making it
seem like the tear in his palm was a mere delusion. She smiled and at the young
boy who didn’t know what to do with his hands, she said: “You …….”
Now,
the person who she could completely trust only remains him.
If
she could, she wished he would never change.
“I
won’t let anyone bully you.” He reached and caressed her soft hair.
Li
Wei Yang was stunned and she smiled. At this moment, she thought he was simply
joking, but she finds out afterward that she was wrong.
This
day, Zhao Nan quickly rode his horse to the Li residence.
Zhao
Nan rushed in front of Li Wei Yang and kneeled to report: “Xiaojie, your
servant has failed you and didn’t succeed.”
Li
Wei Yang glanced at him and saw the blood on his shoulder. She immediately
understood what happened and softly said: “Are your injuries severe?”
Zhao
Nan lowered his head, he was very ashamed and self-condemned, “Your servant is
fine.”
Li
Wei Yang told the astonished Zhao Yue: “Go help your brother wrap up his
wound.”
Zhao
Nan injured his shoulder and a long sword had slit his chest, leaving a wound
half a foot long. Terrified, Zhao Yue couldn’t believe it: “Brother, who has
the capability to inflict such an injury on you.”
Zhao
Nan shook his head; he could have almost bought back Li Min Feng’s
head. Unfortunately --- there had to be a group of people that appeared and the
old leading them was a young man. Zhao Nan proudly deemed himself highly
skilled in martial arts, so who would have expected him to suffer from such
injuries. Those people wielded long swords, allowing them to easily triumph over
him and in the end, took Li Min Feng away from his hands ……. He must also blame
himself, he didn’t expect his opponents to be this powerful!
Li
Wei Yang listened to his words and coldly laughed: “They are no doubt people of
the Jiang family.”
Li
Min De had been listening on the side, he gently raised his brows and said:
“Jiang family?” He thought it was odd, why was Li Wei Yang this certain that
the people who saved Li Min Feng were from the Jiang family?
Li
Wei Yang nodded and smilingly said: “Min De, Da Furen’s two older brothers have
a total of five sons. Each has its own talent, unlike ordinary people!”
Li
Min De smiled: “This I’ve actually heard of before, it’s only that --- all of
the Jiang’s men are assigned to the borders, how could they appear here?”
Li
Wei Yang calmly said: “Yes, they should be protecting the borders, yet they’ve
left their posts. Unfortunately, we don’t have any evidence or else this would
be a death penalty for the Jiangs.” She raised her teacup and gently took a sip:
“Zhao Nan, you’ve lost to the Jiang’s, that is not embarrassing at all. You
must know that the Jiang’s most important is not their family origin or their
standing, but it is their five extremely talented sons. They won’t watch Li Min
Feng die and therefore would save him at all costs. I just didn’t expect them
to receive the news this quickly. But this means they will find out what I have
done and very soon, they will seek me out to settle this.”
-----------------------*****------------------------
Translator: Angela
Editor: Erie
-----------------------*****------------------------
28 comments
Oh boy... here comes the Jiangs. I wonder how that's going to turn out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chapter! :)
Other than nubi everything else in English would be great.
ReplyDeleteI agree, other than nubi, I prefer everything else in English.
DeleteThanks for the translation! Come on Min De, you got to do better in coaxing her, this was such a nice chance you missed!
Ya, I feel the same way, nubi is the only word i can easly understand as its used frequently.
DeleteFuren is simple enough...
DeleteI agree with you this time Perpetual Red. I actually like the way it is now. If they translated any of those words into English it would sound awkward.
DeleteThanks for this update.
ReplyDeleteFinally, Min De is getting back here! You are going to be a haven of calm and serenity that she doesnt find outside. Please don't let our empress down! <3
ReplyDeleteOh boy, the Jiangs are going to be hard to deal with... Dx
Thank you for the translation!
ReplyDeletedefinitivamente espero que Wei Wang se quede con Mi De.... es el único que la quiere y le quiere proteguer.
ReplyDeleteyou know that will never happen, he stays with the ninth princess
DeleteWrong. Li Min De stays with Li Wei Yang.
DeleteWho the heck is Zhou Nan and when has he been so involved in the story?
ReplyDeleteis the brother of zhang yue
Deletezhao yue xP
Deletethank you very much, now if the chapter could be read correctly, thanks for the effort of the translator and I ask if it is possible to edit or do the first part of chapter 90 again please
ReplyDeleteThank you for the chapter~
ReplyDeleteI prefer nu bi as nu bi, the rest of them, either one is fine. Though I actually prefer Jiu Gongzhu, etc, but I understand not everyone knows those words.
ReplyDeleteHi Chaierie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for translating it all these time. Really really appreciate it. I enjoy it very much. My mandarin level is basic, but I'd like to help with editing/proof reading as I can write in English well. So if you need extra help, feel free to contact me :)
Otherwise, thank you again for all your hardwork!
Cheers.
thanks for the chapter!! Li Min De is so cute !!!
ReplyDeleteYour donation tab is disabled.
ReplyDeleteHow to make a contribution?
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ReplyDeleteThanks for translation. I read English version because I don't know Chinese. So, I am more understand the story better in English words than a lot of Chinese words that I had to always stop reading and scrolled up or down for find referents or searched in google for meaning of those Chinese words. Also, I am not familiar with "Nubi" I prefer "your maid servant".
ReplyDelete(Deleted old massage above for edited misspellings)
I think there are a lot of phrases that end up romanized which are a little more difficult to translate but probably don't make sense to people who don't at least have basic understanding of Mandarin. Translating those to English would be beneficial since this story has a huge cast and it can be hard to keep everyone straight even if you understand Chinese.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I don't know that I agree with using 'Concubine' in place of 'Niang Niang' due to how the concubinage system works, which I believe becomes relevant later in the story. 'Niang Niang' I think translates to something more like 'your/her imperial highness' or 'your/her imperial majesty' since it's used for the high-ranking consorts and the Empress but isn't actually their title.
For example, 'huang hou niang niang' would probably be something like 'her imperial majesty the empress' and she is referred to as 'huang hou' as in 'the empress' when talking about her person in less formal speech. Princess Yongning's mother was a lower-ranking consort and is referred to as 'Hui Pin', her surname and rank. However it would still translate to 'concubine' if you were going to use that.
For the higher-ranking concubines of Wu Xian Fei, Zhang De Fei, Rou Fei, and Mei Gui Fei it would probably be better to translate it as 'Imperial Consort Wu Xian' or something like that.
Also, there's a problem with referring to the imperial harem in the same way as a regular harem. For example, in Wei Yang's household, her father is up to 9 concubines (although half of them are dead at this point.) Technically those concubines could be referred to as 'Fourth/Sixth/Seventh/Ninth Concubine' too if you wanted to translate 'Yiniang' that way. I think it's better to use the word 'concubine' the same way you would use the word 'wife', referring to a position rather than using it as a title of a person.
DeleteSince I'm thinking about it, there are a few words which are likely a bit confusing and I'm unsure why they were romanized rather than just translated:
- use of 'zhang' for 'eldest', as in 'zhang nu' rather than 'eldest daughter'
- 'di mu' is harder to translate but probably could be referred to as 'lady mother'.
- The use of legitimate/illegitimate for 'di' vs 'shu' is pretty important to this story but it's not consistently translated and probably needs a footnote since bastardy is a completely different concept in this culture. Illegitimate progeny is still part of the family, just lesser ranked.
I prefer using the chinese pinyin because it keeps most of the story's chinese essence. I dont know chinese either but if everything is translated into western version, it feels almost as if there is no difference between this and western novels. I think we as readers could put in a little bit of effort and try to learn the chinese culture and its system rather than asking for everything to be translated. I mean when a new term appears in the first few times, there is usually a translation index to get familiarized with the term so if I am having difficulty, Ill go back to those places. It's not that bad once you have gotten used to it. The terms wont deviate much from novel to novel either, if toure only reading historical drama. Besides, there is usually no exact translation between chinese and english, so something will be missing or twisted when english is used.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I guess it all depends on you and what you value as quality work. For me, I think the translation has been exceptionally well so far. Thank you for your hard work and keep it up!
I'm actually glad that the author is not trying to throw the reader off by giving Wei Yang lots of admirers and no clear clue about which one she's more partial towards (heavens save me from harem and reverse-harem setups in novels). Min De is definitely ahead here - he's the only one who'd seen her not just when she was at her strongest and most invulnerable, but also when she was at her weakest and most fragile. She'd also seen him at his weakest too before seeing him grow stronger.
ReplyDeleteEven Tuoba Yu had let her down by seeing her as this fearless, intelligent, invincible demigoddess that he brushed away his mother's attempt to kill Wei Yang. Yes, let's try to digest that _he didn't think of the effects of his mother trying to kill the woman he said he loved_.
That told me of one thing--he didn't see her as a flesh-and-blood woman, he saw her as some sort of ideal, something he placed on a pedestal. That's not exactly conducive to an actual relationship.
Surprised she didn't get flustered when he said that he would protect her
ReplyDelete