Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 152: Some Ordinary Matters

Inside the house, Wang Li, wrapped in his quilt, was having a magical and unbelievable dream.

In the dream, Wang Li was sometimes a bystander, sometimes a participant. The dream spanned several decades, and bore witness to an extraordinary story.

In the dream, there were ghosts, gods, demons, and immortals; there were human landscapes and the terrifying underworld. It was sometimes like a beautiful dream and sometimes like a nightmare.

Normally, if ordinary people came into contact with an object that used a technique to convey information through spiritual energy, it would not have any effect. For one, ordinary spirits were weak, and more importantly, their spirits were relatively thin, and they had no spiritual energy or Qi to leverage.

But as the practitioner, Ji Yuan only needed to make Wang Li have a vision when he touched the paper. However, ordinary people’s spirits were not strong enough to bear so much information in an instant, so they would enter a sleep state for self-protection, and digest the information in the form of a dream.

He had seen this method in “Bright Strategies” a long time ago. It wasn’t that Ji Yuan invented some special dream technique; he hadn’t yet learned the method of entering dreams. Of course, Ji Yuan controlled the process very well so as not to make Wang Li uncomfortable.

This process would not have any adverse effects on Wang Li because it was not forced, and the method was gentle. The only problem lay in Wang Li’s memory. If his memory was poor, he might forget some key points before he had time to write them down when he woke up from his dream.

Ji Yuan’s ability to convey spiritual energy through objects was a talent, but he was far from mastering it. Moreover, he was using ordinary paper as a medium, so the spiritual energy would dissipate once triggered.

However, this was also a matter of fate, and this fate was up to the storyteller himself. Even if the man forgot the story completely, Ji Yuan would still know the story of the White Deer’s Fate, so it would naturally not vanish completely. However, he would not look for Wang Li again.

He stood outside in the yard for a while. Ji Yuan listened to Wang Li’s even breathing inside the house. A child in the alley excitedly ran into this residence’s yard and knocked on the door.

“Knock knock knock…”

“Xiao Dong, we’re going to pick up firecrackers, are you coming?”

The three children shouted towards the inside of the house.

“Let’s go, let’s go! I’m coming, I’m coming, just wait one moment, I’ll be there soon!”

The boy’s excited voice came from the courtyard. He ran out in a hurry with a bun in his mouth.

“Wear a scarf, don’t catch a cold!”

The boy’s mother chased after him and wrapped a cotton scarf around her son, before letting him go.

A total of four children gathered outside of the yard, laughing and rushing out of the alley at a quick pace.

Firecrackers were a rare item, and wealthy families would only set them off during festivals. However, not every firecracker on a string would be able to explode, and some would be knocked off when others exploded.

These lost items¹ were treasures² for children. During the New Year holidays, many children would look for places where firecrackers had been set off and rummage for smaller firecracker parts that had not yet exploded.³

Listening to the children’s laughter slowly fade away, Ji Yuan was also infected by this atmosphere and walked away with a smile. He recalled doing something similar when he was a child.

When he returned to Yongning Street, his concealment technique naturally disappeared, and Ji Yuan was left walking down the street like an ordinary person.

Although he wanted to go back to the Chu Mansion library, it was not urgent. Although he now maintained a normal schedule, not sleeping for ten days or even half a month would not have any impact.

The Green Vine Sword floated behind him. It had been very quiet since gathering the spiritual Qi the night before. It was in itself an immortal sword with green vines wrapped around it, and it had a very special spiritual aura. The New Year was of great significance to the Green Vine Sword as well, so Ji Yuan let the immortal sword fly into the air last night.

“Buzz…”

At this moment, the immortal sword behind him hummed slightly, and Ji Yuan turned to look.

“Finally awake?”

“Buzz…”

The Green Vine Sword rang softly again in response. The sword floated behind Ji Yuan, not otherwise moving, nor unsheathing itself. However, an imperceptible sword intent swept in all directions, preventing any foreign objects from hiding within the range of the immortal sword’s Qi.

The path straight ahead along Yongning Street led in the direction of the imperial city. The further he went, the richer people around him became, and the more large gardens and mansions started to appear.

This was the main “battlefield” for some of the children.

“We got here first! Just go pick them up over there, there’s no one over there!

“Nonsense, we were picking up firecrackers right here, you guys only just got here!”

Two groups of children were arguing next to a mansion. One moment they were on the verge of a fight, but the very next moment the two sides stopped. Instead, the two armies gathered together and charged towards the gate of the other mansions.

“Show me how many you picked up!”

“Oh, you have more than a dozen!”

“I have twenty!”

“I only have seven…”

“We’ll set them off together later!!”

…

As Ji Yuan walked, he passed by more than a couple such groups of children. They didn’t care about their frozen red fingers as they searched around. They just wanted to grab their treasure before the gatekeepers and servants cleaned the the front steps.

Many mansion gatekeepers would come out and chase these children away with a broom. It wasn’t that they were mean, but rather because it was their job.

Ji Yuan ambled around outside of the Chu Mansion. There was a steamed bun shop across the street that he frequented. He planned to buy some buns before returning to the library.

The gatekeeper of the Chu family’s mansion was an old man in his fifties. He leaned against the gate, holding a broom and watching two children in large coats embroidered with flowers looking for firecrackers. He smiled and asked the two children.

“How many did you find?”

“I have eleven, he’s almost at twenty!”

“Amazing! Here, I still have a few pieces of candy here. If you help me clean up the firecracker stems, I’ll give them to you. How about it?”

“Okay, okay!”

“You can’t lie to us!”

The two children excitedly took broom and dustpan from the old gatekeeper, and started sweeping the front steps very enthusiastically. Sweeping the floor was naturally a very easy chore for children from ordinary households.

Ji Yuan also stopped to take a look. He has seen this old gatekeeper of the Chu family a few times. In fact, he is not gatekeeper, but rather more like a steward. He was active in various parts of the Chu family mansion, sometimes doing chores and sometimes giving orders. He was very trusted by the Chu family.

As far as the mortal world was concerned, this man was actually quite remarkable. Although he looked old, he had quite the impressive martial arts skills.

Ji Yuan could also be considered a martial arts master in this world; in his mind, the word “remarkable” held considerable weight.

Seeing a gentleman standing nearby with a smile on his face, the gatekeeper bowed slightly to Ji Yuan, as if to wish this stranger a happy New Year.

Ji Yuan also responded politely. Once the two children had finished sweeping the floor and got the candies, he left and walked towards the bun shop.

In less time than it took to drink a cup of tea, Ji Yuan had appeared in the third floor of the library in the back wing of the Chu Mansion.

There were very few bookshelves on the third floor of this library, and only two tables and chairs. There were no decorations in the rest of the space. It looked empty. However, in autumn and summer, when the doors on both sides of the third floor were opened, it would definitely become an airy and comfortable environment.

After all, this was a wealthy family’s library. The four treasures of the study were neatly placed on one of the third floor bookshelves, and all of the brushes, inks, paper, and inkstones were of top quality.

Ji Yuan sat at one of the desks, eating pickled cabbage buns and flipping through a set of “Reflections on the Governance of the Hundred Prefectures”⁴ found on the second floor, which had a total of six volumes in the series.

This book was not a handwritten copy, but rather a printed copy with heavy pressed imprint marks. Ji Yuan could easily read it just by touch, without having to bring his face close to the pages.

The Thirteen Provinces of Dazhen covered a vast area, with nearly a hundred prefectures in total. This set of books roughly described some of the scenic spots and customs of each prefecture. Although the book was written seventy or eighty years ago, it was still vivid and interesting, and also had value as a reference.

Before he had finished eating his five pickled buns, Ji Yuan heard voices gradually approaching the library. As he raised his head and listening carefully, Ji Yuan continued to eat and read on the third floor without moving; meanwhile, someone had already opened the door of the library downstairs.

“Brother Chu, I heard that some auspicious omens came from heaven to Prince Jin’s palace last night. Is this true?”

“Even you know about this?”

“How could I not? I even know that Prince Wu threw his cup and broke it this the morning!

“Hey, you dare speak of that?”

“Aren’t I only in front of Brother Chu? By the way, is the matter in Prince Jin’s Palace really true?”

The two young men down below chatted animatedly. One wore a light green, well-proportioned cotton vest and a fur scarf. The other had an ink-colored brocade robe. They were accompanied by the old man who had previously been acting as the gatekeeper.

Hearing the other man’s curious inquiries, the young man from Chu Mansion responded truthfully.

“Haha, my father was also invited to Prince Jin’s Palace last night. That auspicious sign was witnessed by everyone in the palace, and…”

At this point, this young master of the Chu family subconsciously lowered his voice.

“Moreover, His Majesty also called for a divine being to appear. I heard that a white mist appeared, but the divine being did not come in the end.”

These two sentences made Ji Yuan, sitting on the third floor, stunned. He really did not expect that someone from the Chu residence was also at Prince Jin;s palace last night.

As if he had just realized why he was there, the Young Master of the Chu family asked the old servant.

“Uncle Xu, where is the set of “On the Subject of Birds” that my father sent someone to copy from Prince Jin’s Palace? Let me show it to Brother Shi.”

“Oh, it’s on the second floor. I’ll go get it for you, sir.”

After the old man responded, he took small steps all the way up to the second floor. He found the bookshelf with ease, and pulled out a box containing the hard-paper copy collection of “On the Subject of Birds.”

Just as he was about to go downstairs, his nose twitched.

“Hmm?”

This suspicious nasal sound was very low, but it made Ji Yuan on the third floor pause, and look at the bag of picked vegetable buns in his hand.

‘That was a mistake! ’

Sure enough, in the span of a few breaths, the old man’s reached the third floor on nimble feet. The whole process was completely silent.

After going up to the third floor, the old man looked around, sniffed again, frowned, opened the study door, and walked down the corridor, but saw no one.

He simply climbed up on the attic ceiling like a monkey hanging down from a tree, and landed lightly on the snowy surface of the roof outside.

Looking around carefully, he found that the snow of the roof was undisturbed, with no footsteps other than those under his own feet. He then glanced at the overhanging eaves of the lower floors, and found that there were no signs of trampling on the snow there, either.

‘Could it be that I’m overthinking it? ’

While the old man was puzzled, the urging voice of the young master of the Chu family came from downstairs.

“Uncle Xu, have you found it?”

The old man hurriedly climbed back into the study and responded to the person at the bottom of the stairs.

“I found it, I found it, I’ll come down right away!”

As soon as the old man left, Ji Yuan walked out from behind the shadow of a desk and sat down at the table again.

‘This old man is quite sharp! As for Master Yin, it seems that his reputation has spread quite a bit. ’

1. Lit: fish that escaped the net
2. Lit: pearls of the sea, to continue with the prev. metaphor
3. T/n: I would like to make it clear that yes, they are looking for tiny semi-live explosives in the snow.
4. 百 (bǎi): hundred/numerous, 府 (fǔ): seat of government/official residence/palace/prefecture/home, 通 (tōng): to go through/to know well/open/to communicate, 鉴 (jiàn): bronze mirror/to reflect/to serve as a warning or lesson. Could also be translated as: “Comprehensive Mirror of the Hundred Prefectures,” “Reflections on the Hundred Seats of Government,” “Reflections on the Interrelation of Prefectural Management,” “Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Governance,” etc.