Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 178: Light Words, Heavy Meaning

The Sun family’s braised noodles were still as delicious as before, or rather could be described as having the taste of home. After coming to this world, Ning’an County was now undoubtedly Ji Yuan’s hometown here.

In the past few years, neither the location, or the quantity, nor the price of the Sun family stall had changed. Aside from the stall owner having grown a little older, everything else had remained the same.

Ji Yuan finished his meal, paid for the noodles, and exchanged a few words with Old Man Sun. Then he got up and left for Temple Administration Lane.

The number of waiters outside the outer-temple building had increased to two, but as a businessman the shopkeeper still recognized Ji Yuan after a few careful glances. He even remembered the dim sum and Huadiao wine that Ji Yuan liked to buy back then.

Even Ji Yuan was a little surprised by this. After all, unlike Old Man Sun, where he was a regular customer, the restaurant in the building outside the temple had a lot of customers every day. As he walked out of the building with two boxes of snacks and two jars of Huadiao wine, he reflected that, although he had figured out that it was a good business practice, that didn’t prevent him from being pleased;¹ it was always nice to have someone remember.

These kinds of business people would pay extra attention to some special customers. In a small place like Ning’an County, Ji Yuan was one of these people who required extra attentiveness in the eyes of the shopkeeper; after all, without even going into Ji Yuan’s own affairs, he was already a good friend of the top scholar.

As Ji Yuan walked out of the outer-temple building headed towards the City God Temple, a new young waiter in the building was puzzled turned to the shopkeeper.

“Boss, who was that Mr. Ji just now? Why were you so enthusiastic?”

The shopkeeper turned around to look at the staff in the store. Before he could say anything, one of the diners next to him spoke first. This person had also just exchanged a few words with Ji Yuan.

“He is Mr. Ji, and he used to live in Ju’an Pavilion. Haven’t you heard the tale of the jujube tree that bore fruit overnight to send its master off?”

“Ah? Such a person really exists?”

“Hahaha…”

The shopkeeper at the counter smiled and shook his head, while the customer was amused.

“Oh, so the waiter didn’t believe me? Did you think I was lying to you when I said that I had tasted fourth-lunar-month jujubes?”

“How could I possibly not believe you? Haha…”

The waiter evaded the question with a vague reply and hurriedly took a towel and went to wipe down a table elsewhere.

Instead, it was the shopkeeper who sighed with emotion.

“Today, a pilgrim who had come to burn morning incense told me that the whole of Tian Niu Lane was filled with fragrance, and the smell of jujube flowers had even spread to the surrounding alleys and shops along the street. It turns out that Mr. Ji has returned!”

The customer who had just teased the waiter was surprised to hear this.

“Is that true?”

“Well, I guess so!”

Moving away from the simple discussion about Ji Yuan in the building outside the temple, the man in question was now carrying his snacks and wine to the City God Temple to visit City God Song.

Even when returning to Ning’an County, etiquette still needed to be adhered to. He placed the box of snacks and a jar of wine as an offering. Upon leaving the City God Temple, he walked and chatted with the county’s old City God for a while, then they bowed to each other and said goodbye.

With all these necessary things complete, Ji Yuan returned to Ju’an Pavilion.

. . .

In the evening, once class at the county’s school had ended, Yin Qing led the students in paying their respects to the teacher, and then the students dispersed. Yin Qing and the little fox also rushed home at a brisk pace.

Yin Qing was already eighteen years old now, according to this world’s practice of calculating age by the lunar calendar. He had grown from a child to a teenager, and from a teenager to a young man. With Yin Qing’s knowledge and intelligence, he could go off and attend a large academy to further his studies at any time.

In front of others, Yin Qing showed the stability and diligence of a scholar, but as soon as he reached an alley mostly devoid of people, he ran very fast and returned to Tian Niu Lane without even stopping to catch his breath.

As soon as he arrived at Tian Niu Lane, he smelled that floral fragrance again.

“Ah, the smell is still there. It’s not fake. Little fox, let’s go check on the jujube tree.”

“Call me Hu Yun!”

“Alright, alright, Hu Yun!”

The fox grinned, showing teeth.

When they reached the farther side of Tian Niu Lane, the red fox jumped off Yin Qing’s back, and both man and fox walked together towards Ju’an Pavilion. When they turned the corner of the alley, they suddenly realized that the gate of Ju’an Pavilion was open.

“Hey! The door is open?”

Yin Qing exclaimed in surprise. The fox jumped back onto Yin Qing’s shoulder, looked around, and spoke in confusion.

“Could there be a thief?”

“Idiot, a thief could just climb over the wall. Would there be any need to open the gate? Besides, the jujube tree is there.”

The man and the fox quickened their pace as they talked. An inexplicable sense of anticipation arose in their hearts.

When they arrived at the gate of Ju’an Pavilion’s small courtyard, they looked inside, only to see Ji Yuan sitting in front of a stone table reading a book. Some pastries from the outer-temple building sat on the table.

“Mr. Ji!”

“Wuuu…”

Yin Qing and Hu Yun both cried out in surprise. The latter even let out a fox chitter in a moment of confusion.

Ji Yuan put down the book and smiled at Yin Qing. He pointed to the snacks on the table, then turned to smile and nod at the somewhat nervous red fox.

“Come in, both of you. I can’t finish all the snacks from the building outside the temple by myself.”

Yin Qing cheered and entered the courtyard together with the red fox. Once they had sat down at the stone table, they couldn’t stop eating, even as they chatted with Ji Yuan.

The red fox was a little reserved at first, and didn’t dare to speak in the human language until Ji Yuan took the initiative to address him. Then he began to speak more freely, and chatted with Yin Qing about some interesting things he had learned while learning to speak human words.

That night, after Yin Qing fell asleep, the red fox went outside to Ju’an Pavilion by himself. He leapt lightly into the courtyard from outside of the walls.

Ji Yuan hadn’t gone to rest yet; he still sat at the stone table in the courtyard, holding a jade slip and drawing something with his hand, as if he were modifying the description of the Old Dragon’s Dimensional Storage art.

“Mr. Ji!”

“Hmm.”

Ji Yuan didn’t turn to look at Hu Yun, and continued to gesture at the jade sign.

“Mr. Ji, I’m going to go back to Niu Kui Mountain to inform Shan Jun about your return.”

“Oh.”

The red fox raised his head to look carefully at Ji Yuan’s unchanging expression.

“You agree, then?”

Ji Yuan turned to look at him and smiled.

“Go ahead, go ahead.”

The red fox student clasped his paws and gave Ji Yuan a bow, then immediately jumped out of the courtyard, onto the wall, and rushed out to Tian Niu Lane.

Under the starry night sky, one could see a red fox with a big fluffy tail swishing behind it, running quickly on the road outside of Ning’an County, all the way to Niu Kui Mountain. It reached the foot of the mountain in just over a quarter of an hour, and nimbly darted into the forest.

About two hours later, a fierce tiger roar could be heard from a cave on a mountainside deep within the old forest of Niu Kui Mountain.

“ROAR…”

The fallen leaves and twigs outside the cave were swept away by the gust of wind coming from deeper inside.

The red fox trembled, hugging the wall of the cave and hardly daring to move. The fur on his body had been swept out straight by the tiger’s roar just now, as if he had been subjected to a violent gust of wind.

In the darkness, a pair of green tiger eyes radiated a captivating light.

“You said Mr. Ji is back!?”

“Mmhmmm!”

The red fox hurriedly nodded in response.

“Bang… bang… bang… bang…”

Lu Shan Jun’s huge tiger body stalked back and forth in the cave. The soft hay under his feet made bursts of noise as it was trampled, clearly showcasing his excitement and a touch of impatience.

“Mr. Ji is back! Mr. Ji is back! Will he come to see me? Should I go see him?”

“Bang… bang… bang… bang…”

Each of the tiger’s heavy paces was like a stomp on Hu Yun’s heart. If Lu Shan Jun didn’t ask him any questions, he would only dare to lie quietly on the edge of the cave.

In fact, Hu Yun now felt a strange and interesting feeling in his heart. He had never seen the imposing and terrifying Lu Shan Jun of Niu Kui Mountain look like this before.

The tiger turned its head and waggled its tail, muttering constantly.

“No, no. I’m a tiger spirit, and I’m so big. If I go down the mountain like this, people would be scared to death, and the City God and the other spirits won’t let me go…”

Suddenly, the fierce tiger turned around to stare at the red fox. Hu Yun, who was secretly snickering, shot up all of a sudden, thinking that his laughter had been discovered.

“Mr. Ji only came back today? Did Sir mention me? Did he say he would come to see me?”

“Uh…that…”

Hu Yun’s heart was beating wildly with anxiety. Mr. Ji didn’t seem to have mentioned Shan Jun, let alone said whether he would come to see him. But if what he said disappointed Lu Shan Jun, wouldn’t he be eaten?

“Well… Mr. Ji likely came back last night. The jujube tree bloomed last night… Then I went to the small pavilion this evening, and Mr. Ji seemed to have known that I would be coming a long time ago. He agreed to allow me to inform Shan Jun that he was back now…”

“And then?”

The fierce tiger’s enormous face was less than two feet away from the red fox. The latter to shuddered and gulped.

‘That was it…’

“Oh, oh! It’s all my fault. It was because I wasn’t able to speak smoothly after refining my horizontal bone. When I saw Mr. Ji, I was so nervous that I couldn’t speak, and when he asked me to go back to the mountain and tell Shan Jun, I jumped out of the courtyard immediately. Now, I think he might have had something else to say. It’s all my fault that I was too nervous…”

“You… ROAR!…”

As soon as the tiger grew impatient he roared again, but there was not much anger behind this roar. Instead, the agitation in his body eased somewhat.

“Ah… I’m afraid Mr. Ji didn’t mention me…”

As soon as his dejected voice fell, Ji Yuan, who had been leaning on the wall outside the cave for some time, couldn’t help but laugh. The fierce tiger spirit Lu Shan Jun, who had so frightened him in the past, could also show this kind of side…

“It has been many years, Lu Shan. How have you been?”

Ji Yuan’s voice echoed in the cave, startling both Hu Yun and Lu Shan Jun. They were momentarily stunned, then filled with intense surprise, the former being more shocked while the latter was rather happy.

Swish…

A huge black shadow emerged from the cave. Under the moonlight, an enormous tiger with eyes twice the size of an ordinary beast appeared.

As soon as the tiger leaped out of the cave, it saw Ji Yuan leaning against the mountain wall. He immediately brought his hind limbs together to support his upper body as he pushed himself off of the ground and upright. He pressed his left paw against his right paw, hiding his claws in his paw pads. Without wearing wide sleeves, he made do with its fur and raised his clasped paws to his forehead to pay his respects.

“This student Lu Shan Jun greets Mr. Ji, Sir!”

Although ordinary people bowed as a courtesy in their everyday lives, those were simplified forms of bows. Although Lu Shan Jun was clearly an enormous tiger, the angle of his bow and the posture of his greeting was obviously the most standard form of long bow, which was usually only used when academy students greeted their teachers, or when disciples greeted their masters.

When Ji Yuan first came to this world, he didn’t have a clear understanding of daily etiquette. Before they had parted that year, he had received a similar salute from Lu Shan Jun outside the mountain temple. Now, he had no choice but to accept it again.

“Shan Jun, please stand up quickly. I have never taught you anything, so I feel ashamed to accept this!”

“Master, your guidance was like a rebirth for me. How can you say that you didn’t teach me anything? Now I have made great progress in my cultivation, my mind has become clearer and brighter. Even if Sir looks down on me as a tiger demon, I cannot omit the ceremony to acknowledge this great gift.”

After the fierce tiger finished bowing, he did not forget to raise his paws to his forehead. The whole etiquette was completed meticulously.

Ji Yuan tried to verbally persuade the tiger spirit, but he did not physically move. He stood there and accepted the greeting, which made Lu Shan Jun secretly happy.

“Okay, if that’s the case. I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll tell you the basics of monster cultivation. The little fox inside the cave can come out too!”

In any case, he had spoken with the Old Dragon several times in the past two years, so he had sufficient knowledge on this topic.

Lu Shan Jun’s tiger eyes gleamed brightly, and the secret joy in his heart turned into ecstasy at this moment. He understood the meaning of Ji Yuan’s words; this would be very important for him.

As for the red fox who jumped out of the cave, he was still struggling with the knowledge that his name was “Hu Yun.” However, he didn’t have the courage to correct Ji Yuan.

1. Making a note here because I have no idea what this sentence was supposed to mean: 虽然已经想通关窍却不妨碍依然对此感到舒心. I translated it to roughly make sense, but there might be discrepancies.