Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 20: Exquisite Small House

Noticing Ji Yuan’s fumbling movements and his gray eyes, the broker next to him realized that Ji Yuan was actually blind. He hadn’t noticed anything on the way just now. The shop assistant next to him also noticed that the man looking at the brush holder was blind.

“Uh, sir, do you like this brush holder?”

The shop assistant felt a little embarrassed. After all, what use could a blind man have to buy something from Four Treasures of the Studying Store? This question served as a polite reminder for Ji Yuan to put down the brush holder. The item wasn’t cheap, and it would be bad if it fell.

This voice also brought Ji Yuan back to reality. Although he could hear the man’s enthusiasm cool down, he was not unhappy.

“Brother shop-assistant, how much does this brush holder cost?”

Because of the shop assistant’s previous words, Lu Chengfeng gave him a cold look. The man realized his gaffe, and answered more respectfully.

“Sir, although this yellow flower brush holder was placed outside of the store, everything, from the material to the workmanship, is exquisite. It costs two hundred coins. I dare not deceive you, if you leave Ning’an County or go to foreign markets, it would cost you one tael of silver. This price is on the low end!”

Was two hundred coins expensive? Ji Yuan didn’t have an accurate estimation, but he had previously spent three coins on a bowl of Yang Chun noodles.¹ This brush holder was worth sixty to seventy meals. If ordinary people cooked for themselves, it would be equivalent to one hundred meals. It really wasn’t cheap.

Ji Yuan could be considered to be carrying an enormous sum of money now. 150 taels of silver was 150 strings of yuan, and each string of yuan was 1,000 coins.² It was more than enough to purchase the brush holder, but he also had no reliable source of income, so Ji Yuan was reluctant to purchase it thoughtlessly.

In the end, a brush holder was of no use to him. If he were to fall into despair in the future, those two hundred coins could save his life!

Even in the past, Ji Yuan’s outlook on consumption was very conservative. Except for buying video games and computer accessories, he basically didn’t spend a lot of money on anything else the rest of the year. Now that he was a little stressed, it was even less likely that he would purchase something.

As for whether he would be embarrassed about asking for a price and not buying it? Ji Yuan had never experienced such a feeling. His thick face might as well have been an innate skill.

Ji Yuan set the brush holder down and stood up, nodding in the direction of the house broker.

“We’re about done with shopping. Let’s go, we’ll look at the houses.”

“Ah, let’s go this way first, east of the town.”

The broker led the way, and Ji Yuan followed.

Lu Chengfeng deliberately hung behind, looked at the brush holder on the table, and took out a piece of silver amidst the confusion of the shop assistant.

“I want the brush holder.”

The shop clerk didn’t expect to be able to make this sale, and immediately took the slivers of silver with a smile.

“Please wait a moment, guest, while I weight the silver, and I’ll wrap it up for you!”

The shop clerk quickly ran into the store with the brush holder and pieces of silver, then handed the broken silver to the shopkeeper, who took out a tiny scale to weigh it. He then picked up the pieces of silver and flicked a couple beads on his abacus to count.

After a while, seeing that Lu Chengfeng had no intention of coming inside the shop, the shop assistant went back outside with a thickly wrapped brush holder and his change.

“Guest, please take it. The silver weighs 6 zhu,³ which is equivalent to 250 wen.⁴ Here is your change, ten five-wen coins!”

The name ‘five-wen coins’ was a colloquial term, because regardless of weight or appearance, this copper coin was always equivalent to five wen. In truth, the proper name was ‘Hongwu Tongbao’.⁵

Lu Chengfeng didn’t even look at the change, just took the things and quickly chased after Ji Yuan and the broker, who were already far away.

. . .

From morning to noon, they visited several places. Either the place was too remote, or it was too small, or the location was noisy…⁶

The broker led Ji Yuan to the fifth location they had visited that day, in the southern part of the town.

At a glance, Ji Yuan noticed a plaque on the front gate. Before Ji Yuan could ask, the broker had already begun to introduce the property.

“Mr. Ji, this is it, Ju’an Pavilion. This place satisfies all your requirements. The surrounding neighborhood is quiet, and the courtyard has its own water well, which you can see as soon as you enter. The open space connected to the back door of the courtyard also belongs to this property. If you choose to expand, it would give you enough room to house a large family. is also this house. If it is expanded, it would be big enough to fit a large, wealthy family!”

As he finished his speech, the broker glanced up at the strong noon sunlight, then he took out the copper key and opened the matching lock on the gate.

“Crack… squeeeak…”

As the gate was pushed open, puffs of dust fell.

“Cough, cough… cough… no one has lived here for a long time…”

The broker waved his hand and brushed himself off, then invited Ji Yuan and Lu Chengfeng to enter.

Upon seeing the property, Ji Yuan was a little excited. Although his eyesight was poor, he could vaguely tell that this was the best house he had seen today.

The walls of the courtyard weren’t that high, and the gate was not very elegant. The small courtyard resembled the more delicate ones in Ji Yuan’s memory. A back door connected the main house and the side wing.

A water well sat in the center of the fairly spacious yard, but it was covered by a large wooden board. It probably was just to prevent dust and leaves from getting inside, simply an indicator that the well hadn’t been used for a long time. There were a few round stones placed on top of the board to prevent it from falling off.

There was also a big tree in the yard, its branches and leaves swaying in the wind and making rustling noises. Perhaps because of the shade cast by the tree, the temperature in the yard was noticeably cooler.

“Is there a tree in this yard? What kind of tree is it?”

Ji Yuan suddenly asked the broker.

“Uh, how you know that there is a tree?”

Ji Yuan smiled and pointed to his ear, then pointed to the direction of the tree.

“My hearing is quite sharp. The tree might not move but the sound of the wind has not ceased.”

“Sir, it’s a jujube tree. It looks to be quite old.”

Lu Chengfeng took the lead and answered respectfully.

“Yes, yes, it’s a jujube tree. You can eat a lot of sweet jujubes in autumn!”

The broker said with a smile.

“Come on, let’s look outside the back door.”

Sometimes, the broker could easily forget that this gentleman was blind, and then other times he would remember this fact quite clearly.

Outside the back door was a wasteland completely overgrown with weeds, with some abandoned vegetable fields and gourd racks. It was clearly where the previous owners grew their fruits and vegetables.

But the property was indeed not very small. There was a boundary fence on the outermost side that could be easily hopped over. As the broker explained about the property line fence, Ji Yuan was amused: if the fence were to be expanded outwards, would his land become bigger?

Afterwards, the three men went to see the main house, side rooms, and the kitchen in the courtyard. The courtyard of the house was not very large. Although the house was covered in a layer of dust, the overall layout was well-constructed and elegant.

The furniture had almost all been emptied out, with only the largest main room still having a bed, a table, and two stools.

To be honest, even in his last life in the 21st century, Ji Yuan would have been very willing to live in a place like this, as long as there was an Internet connection and a little decoration.

Ji Yuan’s smile never faded as he returned to the yard, having finished walking around.

“Hehehe, sir, are you satisfied? I knew that you would definitely like this place, and this house is quite cheap. It only costs 36 taels of silver to buy it.⁷ Such a spacious place, but should definitely be worth at least 100 taels!”

“Huh? So cheap?”

Ji Yuan was a little surprised. Of course, he didn’t know the housing prices here, but he could compare them to the previous properties. Those previous small bungalows and dirt courtyards cost twenty or thirty taels.

The quality of this place was very different from that of the previous houses. It definitely would not have been too much to double the price. Buying it for less than forty taels could be considered a steal.

“Hey, cough- Sir, there’s something I’m not sure about…”

The broker rambled for a while, but suddenly lost the words to continue.

“Well, the original owner of this place passed away a long time ago. The current deed to the house belongs to the government. In addition, the location is relatively remote… It has never been sold. The rich might not be interested in it, and ordinary people can’t afford 30 to 40 taels; it is much more cost effective to build the house themselves, so this place was never sold, and the government frequently lowers the price!”

“Oh! Then if I want to buy it, do I have to go to the county office in person?”

“Sir, are you planning to buy it?”

The broker looked expectantly at Ji Yuan and asked.

“Why wouldn’t I buy such a cheap and elegant house? It’s just a little dirty, I can clean it up!”

Ji Yuan smiled and was in a good mood.

“Okay, okay, sir, you are really discerning! Why don’t we go to the county office together while it’s still early in the day, and hand over the property deed?”

The broker obviously couldn’t wait to get his hard-earned money. For a sale of more than 30 taels, he could get nearly 2 in commission, which was no small sum!

In fact, Ji Yuan had a similar mentality. He always wanted to get what he liked as soon as possible. In his previous life, he couldn’t afford a house, and could only be envious of those who could. In this life, he really had elevated in class!

To the side, Lu Chengfeng smiled.

“Sir, you can go back to the inn to rest. I can go with him to the county government office to buy purchase the house deed!”

This capable young man had a bright future. Ji Yuan was pleased: it was better not to have to run errands himself.

“Alright then, I will leave it to you, Lu Shaoxia.”⁸

“Mr. Ji is too polite. Let us drop you back off at the inn first!”

If he kept to the right path, his future was boundless! Ji Yuan felt that Lu Chengfeng’s character would do just as well in the 21st century; he was good at putting himself in other people’s shoes to solve their problems.

. . .

Half an hour later, in a room in the side courtyard of the Ning’an county government office, the chief secretary under the county magistrate looked at Lu Chengfeng in surprise.

“Lu Shaoxia, do you really want to buy this house? And live in it yourself? You don’t seem to be from Ning’an, do you?”

After asking this question, the chief secretary glanced at the broker surnamed Zhou, squinting and rubbing his beard. The latter looked a little guilty.

“What? Sir, is there something wrong with this house? Will it collapse, or are there disputes?”

The chief secretary looked at Lu Chengfeng once more, with a serious expression.

“Lu Shaoxia, you are the benefactors of our Ning’an County. I will not lie to you. To tell you the truth, this house is solid and elegant, but it has a bad reputation on the market. In the past seven years, three homeowners either died of illness or had fatal accidents. The year before last was particularly bad: a scholar was found dead in the courtyard. Since then, no one has wanted Ju’an Pavilion!”

As he finished his words, the chief secretary opened the book in his hand, which was usually not shown to outsiders, and turned it around to face Lu Chengfeng, letting him see the government’s official internal notice: rumor has it that this house is haunted.

1. https://thewoksoflife.com/yang-chun-noodle-soup/ ↩︎
2. I know it looks like I’m using yuan and coins interchangeably here, but I’ll probably stick with coins in the future since it’s a fantasy world with imprecise conversions. ↩︎
3. 1 zhu (meaning “grain”) = ~2g / ~0.07oz, so about 12g / 0.4oz of silver total. Going by one tael being worth 1,000 coins/yuan (at least in this story), and each tael is 28.5g, LC overpaid, at around 421 coins. I hope that shop keeper gave him 221 coins of change. And yes, I’m a proud nerd. 😀 ↩︎
4. A denomination of coin. Based on the fact that a) his change is said to be 250 wen, and b) we calculated the change to be 221 coins (with room for error), it seems this story has more or less a 1 to 1 conversion wen–>coins, and thus wen–>yuan. You’ll probably see both “wen” and “coins” used from here on out. ↩︎
5. Hongwu Tongbao is a real-world Ming dynasty coin. According to the breakdown of the characters: 洪 (hóng) — flood/big/great; 武 (wǔ) — martial/military; 通 (tōng) — to go through/know well/connect/communicate/clear; 宝 (bǎo) — treasure, so putting that together we get “Great Martial Connecting Treasure,” which we could interpret to mean “Great Martial Currency.” Fun times! ↩︎
6. T/n: for a guy who literally said he didn’t have too many requirements only a couple paragraphs ago, he sure is being picky ↩︎
7. T/n: Buying an entire “small” (it’s really not) house with two wings and an entire back yard for only $5,000… *pleading eyes* Even if the place was fully flipping haunted, I would buy it hands down ↩︎
8. Small reminder that 少侠 (shǎoxiá), as I have said before, is a respectful honorific that roughly translates to “Young Master.” I’m leaving it untranslated for everyone other than Ji Yuan, for whom I am translating it to “Mr.” due to the frequency with which it shows up attached to his name, and to keep some uniformity between what is used to refer to him in the manhua, MTL, and translation. ↩︎