Little Phoenix Is Not An Immortal Chapter 4
Translated by Luen Translations
Edited by Siren and Birdie
Chapter 4: Bird God King Zhao Hua (4)
The imperial court had a special garden for receiving heavenly guests. Several maids have long since been waiting at the gate and in succession, bowed in greeting. The attendant led Zhao Huajun into the room, accompanied him in a brief conversation, and then asked for leave before exiting.
The maid brought over a bowl of bamboo rice. Zhao Huajun placed Tian Zhen on top of the table and gestured for her to eat. Tian Zhen gazed at the bamboo rice in the bowl. In the end, she had no appetite and stuck her head into her wing.
Zhao Huajun patted her. “You’re really not going to eat?”
Sensing his concern, Tian Zhen extended her head and hopped around twice to express that it wasn’t a big deal.
Thinking of how she had previously eaten a spirit jade mushroom, Zhao Huajun no longer tried to persuade her. Very soon, there were two beautiful women coming in and greeting him. In a delicate voice, one of them said, “The bamboo spring has been prepared. May Zhao Huajun please go and take a bath first.”
Zhao Huajun instructed Tian Zhen, “Play inside the room. Don't run around all over the place.”
Bath? Her eyes followed him as he went out the door. Suddenly, Tian Zhen heard a burst of low laughter. The two beautiful women were ambiguously pushing each other with their hands. Taking another closer look, although the two women had wide outer garments draped over their bodies, their insides were barely dressed, with a very thin, to the point that it could be overlooked, light garment. Tian Zhen immediately understood—— ‘Big sisters, dressing like this, it’s obvious that you guys want to drag a beautiful man to accompany you two into bathing together!’
‘Letting you guys wait on him has led to the endangerment of his purity.’
‘Of course, maybe the person in question is extremely willing to do that…….’
Tian Zhen swore that she herself had absolutely no interest in peeping at the good-looking leader's bath. It’s just that a kind of intense, righteous feeling had arisen within her heart. She wanted to investigate the issue of her leader’s moral conduct. As such, she jumped down to the floor and followed them stealthily out the door, hopping and jumping.
At the back of the garden was a large bamboo forest. A white, light mist levitated at the center of the forest. Several tall and white colored screen doors stood and shielded the bath from wind and spectators from all sides. The two beautiful women from before were holding clean clothes, head ornaments, belts, and so on in their hands. They looked at each other with a smile and then walked inside.
“Put them down.”
“His Majesty ordered us, your servants, to personally attend to Zhao Huajun in the bath.”
‘Hey!’ Tian Zhen used her wings to cover her beak. ‘This emperor is really considerate of his subordinates. He knew how to send beautiful women to comfort people before they left for the battlefield and even arranged for two!’
It was a long time before Zhao Huajun’s voice came through from the inside, “No need. Both of you withdraw.”
The two beautiful women came out with faces full of undisguised disappointment.
‘Alright. This matter has proven that my leader is an upright “god” of noble character.’ Tian Zhen felt deep veneration for him.
The majestic Bird God King, even if his temperament was on the better side, it still didn’t mean that you could be impudent in front of him. So even if the two women were unwilling to, they still didn’t have the courage to go in again and recommend themselves. Without a better option, they could only give up. They had reluctantly walked a few steps when they cast a glance and suddenly saw a gray figure slip right past their feet.
“An ugly phoenix has run outside!” One woman cried out in a low voice.
The other woman looked at Tian Zhen with her two eyes and then she laughed into her sleeve and said, “I had thought that all of the phoenix race were like Zhao Huajun and Imperial Concubine Ni. So it turns out that there’s actually such an ugly one!”
‘So what if I’m ugly?! Even if I become even uglier, I would still be a phoenix!’ Tian Zhen consoled herself.
‘Can’t you see that my leader is also a big phoenix! Wait a minute, Imperial Concubine Ni?! When I was outside before I heard from the corner of a wall that there was an imperial concubine that wanted to get poison to harm another pregnant imperial concubine. That pregnant imperial concubine seemed to have been called Imperial Concubine Ni. Everyone’s a phoenix, should I tell Zhao Huajun to save her…….?’
“Don’t let it run all around the place. It won’t be easy to explain if something happens to it.” A woman wanted to come over and capture her.
“Don’t mind it.” The one at the side stopped her and curled her lip maliciously, “So ugly, who would do anything to her?”
Coldly looking at the two rude women leaving, Tian Zhen used her beak to tidy up her gray feathers. ‘I’m what’s called “looking safe”…….’
Very quickly, the faint sound of water could be heard from within the screen doors.
AmyTofu, devoid of pervertedness*. As a noble bird, Tian Zhen turned around and planned to go back using the road she had used before. Who would have thought that even before she walked out of the bamboo forest, a young married woman pulling along a maiden had walked in from the front with several maids following after them from behind.
(T/N: 阿米豆腐，色即是空 is what’s written in the raws, this is not to be confused with ‘Amitabha, form is emptiness(阿彌陀佛, 色即是空),’ which is from Amitabha Sutra, it’s more of a memed way of saying it. Also, tofu can insinuate something sexual)
That young married woman had tailored eyebrows and hair tied up in a bun. The hairpin decorating her forehead was dazzling and her clothes were extremely luxurious, accompanied by a cape that had the color of red clouds and golden clouds embroidered on it. She was 7 parts good-looking and 3 parts majestic. The purple clothed woman who was being pulled by her was also very young and elegant. She had a shy look on her face as her eyes secretly looked in the bath’s direction.
Upon seeing this, Tian Zhen promptly understood what was going on. She stuck out her chest and stood straight.
‘A wolf in front, a tiger behind, and leader, you’re precisely that piece of Tang Seng meat*!’
(T/N: This is a Journey to the West reference. In the story, Tang Seng, a Buddhist monk, is on a journey to the West to obtain sacred scriptures accompanied by Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing. Along the way, he faces numerous challenges and encounters various creatures, because of a legend which says that one can attain immortality by consuming his flesh because he is a reincarnation of a holy being. Basically he gets seduced a lot by these demontress.)
That young married woman smilingly gave the purple clothed woman an encouragement-like push and then led the maids away. The surroundings were empty of people. The purple clothed woman put away her shy look and the trace of a hard to perceive smile appeared on her face. She lowered her head and gave her body a once-over. Only after she had made sure that her present self was at her most beautiful state did she walk towards the screen doors in large strides.
‘Too calculating! Beautiful woman, do you specialize in acting?’ Tian Zhen began to fantasize about what the hidden scheme could be.
‘A cry of surprise, the beautiful woman covers her flustered face, turns her slender waist, stomps her small feet once, and then runs out while shouting aggrievedly to the extent where everyone could hear her. After that, the high class woman from before will immediately jump out and say: I will get justice on your behalf…….’
‘A match-up of an elegant gentleman and beautiful woman is normally very common. The problem is that the moment the Phoenix Leader of mine finished doing his proper business, he fed this bird and then went to take a bath. Furthermore, he didn’t have the intention to call on you and it can be seen clearly that he doesn’t necessarily like you either. Isn’t this kind of plotting against him too unfair?’
‘As a competent subordinate, I can’t let the leader fall into such honey-traps.’ Tian Zhen resolutely abandoned her bird character and burst through the screen doors.
A warm atmosphere came rushing over like the tide. In the front were white stone steps leading to a pool. The steam hung in the air, and in the center of the pool was a person. He had a high nose bridge and from the side, you could see an even more elegant outline of his profile. His phoenix eyes were slightly shut and his expression was serene. The long, damp hair stuck to his face and back. The spring water barely submerged his chest. That firm chest…….
Discovering movements nearby, he lifted his face.
There was a burst of heat in her nose and Tian Zhen immediately raised her head towards the sky. ‘Can’t look anymore. Have to save the blood that’s been replenished with great difficulty!’
“Little phoenix?” A surprised voice reverberated through the room enshrouded in steam.
Tian Zhen returned to her senses from that call and remembering what her proper business was, promptly looked outside the screen door and shook her head.
As the Bird God king, Zhao Huajun was originally familiar with every kind of bird cry and was thus able to determine what the members of his race were conveying. Unfortunately, Tian Zhen was a fake phoenix and basically couldn’t understand bird speech. Unfortunately, the phoenix race’s rebirth through bathing in flames could end up as a huge calamity. So any mishap happening midst the transformation wasn't surprising. This was why Zhao Huajun didn’t have any doubts.
He regarded her as an ordinary bird spirit. Zhao Huajun overlooked the fact that he was right in the middle of taking a bath and comforted her in a soft voice, “No need to hurry. What do you want to say?”
Tian Zhen thought for a moment, but couldn’t think of a way to express the words “get up”. ‘Might as well turn around, lie on the ground and then jump up.’ She repeated this set of actions several times.
Zhao Huajun was worried. “An unstable footing. Could it be an illness?”
Seeing him getting up from the water and wanting to come over and hold her so as to examine her, Tian Zhen received a huge stimulus. She promptly closed her eyes. ‘AmyTofu, I absolutely didn’t do it on purpose. It was you insisting on letting me see. I’m still a good bird…….’
Zhao Huajun was getting more and more bewildered. “Little phoenix, what’s wrong?”
‘There’s nothing wrong with me. It’s you, leader, who wants to become the leader of the nude photography industry.’ Tian Zhen sighed and then held his clothes in her mouth before throwing them in front of him. Afterwards, she flew to the top of the screen door and by coincidence, that purple clothed woman was just about to come in. She didn’t think and simply spread her wings and swooped down.
Seeing a shadow sweeping past her face, the purple clothed woman was unexpectedly frightened. Her flowery countenance turned pale and she cried out in fear while retreating.
‘What I wanted was exactly this result. Right now I’m a bird and whatever a bird does is both normal and unitensional. Beautiful woman, sorry!’ Tian Zhen completed the diving like troublesome flying movements and perched back on top of the screen door in a crouch. Pleased with herself, she didn’t continue to tease her because after all, everyone here had magic power. Counter attacking a small bird wasn’t a problem at all.
Sure enough, Zhao Huajun came out from behind the screen doors with his clothing in order. His expression was evidently somewhat strict, “Didn’t I tell you people to withdraw?!”
He was still dressed in a white robe with golden borders. Only, the top of his head adorned a new delicate and tall golden crest as it bound his hair together. He seemed to have an even more graceful and noble air.
Tian Zhen admired him.
‘Leader is indeed worthy of being a leader. I can’t compete with his dressing speed.’
Although her sly plan was ruined by a bird, the purple clothed woman was, contrary to expectations, calm. She quickly covered up her embarrassed appearance and put on a shocked appearance. “Zhao Huajun?”
Zhao Huajun recognized her. “Goddess Heng Yue?”
The purple clothed woman bowed her waist. “Heng Yue greets Zhao Huajun.”
Zhao Huajun’s complexion relaxed a little after the unhurried greeting. “Why are you here?”
“I came here together with the Celestial Queen Mother just now.” Heng Yue smiled amorously and gazed at Tian Zhen on top of the screen door with unlimited tenderness. “Originally, I was randomly walking around when I saw this clever little phoenix and I really liked it. I was afraid that it would get lost so I followed it here. It hadn’t occurred to me that Zhao Huajun would also be here.”
‘What a beautiful bird-loving woman!’ Tian Zhen nearly vomited out blood and died.
Zhao Huajun seemed to believe her and criticized Tian Zhen, “I told you to stay in the room. Why did you come out and run around all over the place? You scared the goddess!”
'Who told you to meddle in other peoples’ love affairs? You reap what you sow! Serves you right to be thrashed!’ Tian Zhen used her wing and ruthlessly slapped her face. She dejectedly jumped to the ground and bowed her head in apology.
Heng Yue bent over and amiably stroked her head while smiling like a Holy God Mother. “It was an unintentional transgression. Zhao Huajun should stop scolding it.”
‘Yes, yes. I admit that it was my transgression. So beautiful big sister, don't whack my head open!’ Tian Zhen looked at those sharp and long fingernails that stroked her, causing her feathers to rise up. She directly faced Heng Yue with her backside.
Zhao Huajun slightly tilted the upper part of his body with arms open to hint at her. “Little Phoenix.”
Hearing the call, Tian Zhen immediately flew into his arms.
Zhao Huajun softly stroked her back to placate her and asked, “Where is the Celestial Queen?”
Heng Yue hurriedly replied, “The empress is waiting for Zhao Huajun in the hall.”
