Lanke Chess Edge -
Chapter 52: One Word Says It All
[T/n: note on chapter title]1
Although this end of Tian Niu Lane was remote, it didn’t feel gloomy. Wei Wuwei walked to the gate of the small courtyard and sorted out his words in his mind.
A sandalwood chess board was placed on the stone table in the courtyard. Ji Yuan and Yin Zhaoxian sat on each end, while Yin Qing was sitting to the side of the stone table, holding his cheeks and trying hard to decipher the chess game that he couldn’t understand at all.
Ji Yuan’s chess playstyle was a very formulaic one. He relied on the moves he had read in books. The opening calculation was very neat, but his chess skills were not very strong. Fortunately, Yin Zhaoxian was also not a master, so the two still had a good time, and the advantage was still traded back and forth.
Now it was Yin Zhaoxian’s turn to make a move. He was deep in thought.
Ji Yuan raised his eyebrows and suddenly smiled.
“A visitor has arrived outside the door.”
By listening to the sound of the footsteps, the visitor was either carrying something heavy, or he himself was not very light.
Yin Zhaoxian had long become accustomed to Ji Yuan’s ability to predict the unknown, so he was just curious about who would have come to visit. After all, aside from his own family members, there seemed to be no one else in Ning’an County who would go to Ju’an Pavilion.
Sure enough, not long after, there was a knock on the courtyard door.“Knock, knock, knock…”
“Excuse me, is Mr. Ji here? I am Wei Wuwei, a businessman from Desheng Prefecture. I heard that Mr. Ji is an elegant scholar from Ning’an County, so I came here to visit him!”
Is it Wei Wuwei?
Ji Yuan was stunned for a moment, and immediately came to his senses and looked at Yin Qing.
“Xiao Yin Qing, can you help me open the door?”
“Okay!”
Yin Qing jumped out of his seat and rushed towards the courtyard door. He opened the unlocked wooden door, and looked up and down at the large man dressed in gorgeous clothes standing outside.
“Come in! Do you want me to help you carry anything?”
“No, no, I’ll do it myself!”
Wei Wuwei smiled in response to the handsome child, picked up the things on the ground, and stepped into the small courtyard.
Inside, a man in a white robe and a man in a green robe are sitting and playing chess. From time to time, small flowers fell from the jujube tree and scattered in the breeze.
‘What a nice scene! ’
Wei Wuwei secretly praised. When he saw the two chess players, they both looked back at him, and he hurriedly said:
“Hello, Mr. Ji, Master Yin. I took the liberty to visit, and I wasn’t sure what to bring in a hurry. These are pastries from the building outside the temple, and is the pastry from the building outside the temple, and Chen Ji’s fine wine. I mean no disrespect!”
Ji Yuan reached inside his sleeve with his left hand, took out a white piece from the chess box in his right hand, and gently dropped it onto the chess board. He was still learning the elegance of chess.
After playing a piece, Ji Yuan didn’t stand up. He just looked at Wei Wuwei and said.
“I don’t know why Mr. Wei came here specifically. Could it be that he just wanted to see a certain side of me?”2
Wei Wuwei was slightly stunned when he saw Ji Yuan’s pale eyes. It was indeed as rumored. Faced with this question, he hurriedly placed the things in his hands aside and bowed.
“To be honest, I heard a few days ago that a red fox bowed to Mr. Ji for help and that the yellow dogs retreated by themselves. I felt that this was very miraculous. I had some problems in my heart that have gone unsolved for a long time, so I thought of asking Sir for advice.”
Yin Zhaoxian, who was holding a black piece in thought, smiled when he heard this, but he didn’t make a sound. Opposite him, Ji Yuan also smiled and nodded without speaking.
But Yin Qing was very excited.
“That’s right, Mr. Ji is amazing. Yesterday, I sent the little fox back to the mountain with him. Mr. Ji gave the little fox a name, and it kept bowing to him…”
“Qing’er!!”
Yin Zhaoxian turned his head and stared at Yin Qing sternly. Yin Qing was so frightened that he hurriedly shut up, feeling a little aggrieved. Even though Mr. Ji didn’t stop him from talking, and wasn’t his dad the one who had repeatedly asked him questions when he heard about it last night…
“It’s alright!”
Ji Yuan smiled and persuaded Yin Zhaoxian, then pointed to a seat at the stone table and addressed Wei Wuwei, who was still standing:
“Mr. Wei, come sit down and tell me what is puzzling you.”
“Uh, alright!”
Wei Wuwei walked to the stone table with some awe and sat down.
It was said that children’s words were the most honest, and in this case there were no ulterior motives involved. Judging from the reaction of the Yin family father and his son, what Yin Qing had just said was probably true.
Wei Wuwei took a deep breath before speaking.
“Mr. Ji, may I ask if there truly are monsters and ghosts in this world, and if there truly is a way to seek immortality?”
The atmosphere in the courtyard changed slightly. It was Ji Yuan’s turn to make a move. He pressed the white stone in his hand to the chessboard, then spoke one simple word with a straight face.
“Yes!”
It seemed that the surroundings suddenly became quieter. Yin Zhaoxian grabbed a black piece and looked at the chessboard, but his thoughts were full of the City God from back then. Wei Wuwei was so excited that his breathing became a little disordered. He himself didn’t understand why he, who usually had good concentration, was so excited. With such a loss of composure, aside from Ji Yuan, only Xiao Yin Qing showed no change.
“Father, it’s your turn!”
“Oh, okay, okay! Huh? What do you, a little kid, know? Dad is thinking carefully about chess!”
Hearing his son’s words, Yin Zhaoxian came back to his senses. While scolding his son with a sentence, he absentmindedly dropped a piece.
Wei Wuwei couldn’t care less about watching the game of chess at thsi moment. He looked at the blind man in a green robe who was currently holding a chess piece, and calmed some of his excitement before continuing to speak.
“Mr. Ji, my Wei family has a piece of precious jade that has been passed down from generation to generation. My ancestors left a message saying that it was a gift from a crane to repay a kindness. There have never been any miracles over the years, but I have suffered a disaster a few days ago. I don’t know if there might be some opportunity hidden in this jade, I wonder… I wonder, Sir, if you would help me take a look?”
For some reason, this situation and this person made Wei Wuwei feel an inexplicable sense of trust. The blue jade that the man in black had tried to snatch yesterday was now handed over casually for others to see.
When they heard the words “blue jade,” Yin Zhaoxian and Xiao Yin Qing also looked at Wei Wuwei with great curiosity, wanting to see what he would bring out.
At this moment, Ji Yuan turned to look at Wei Wuwei for a second time, nodded, and said.
“Bring it to me to see!”
What a coincidence. Yesterday, he did not dare take a closer look at it. If he really wanted to study the blue jade carefully, he would have to have at least used spiritual energy. Now, Wei Wuwei actually brought the jade over for him to see.
‘Events in this world are amazing! ’
While Ji Yuan sighed in his heart, Wei Wuwei had already pulled out the jade pendant hidden in his clothes, untied the red rope, took it in his hand, and carefully handed it to Ji Yuan.
“Dad, this jade is blue!!”
“Well, it’s indeed rare!”
Yin Zhaoxian also felt that this was a novel experience, but he still looked calm and composed.
Ji Yuan causally picked up the jade pendant and brought it in front of his eyes for a closer look. The blue jade was round in shape, with no detailed carvings. it was a bit like a slightly larger donut pendant.3
The aura on it was hidden, but flashed from time to time. Of course only Ji Yuan could see it.
Without any hesitation, Ji Yuan slowly input a trace of spiritual energy into the blue jade. As the spiritual energy flowed, the blue jade in his eyes seemed to be surrounded by ripples of water, like smoke and mist.
It took about two breaths for a faint light to shine through the blue jade. Yin Zhaoxian and the others could clearly see it, and Wei Wuwei even held his breath.
One small character filled with spiritual energy appeared on each of the four symmetrical corners of the pendant. Together, they spelled out the words, “Yuhuai Sacred Land.”4
Ji Yuan’s heart jumped, and he said: “It turned out to be Yuhuai Mountain!”5
Wei Wuwei’s two chubby hands under the table tightly grasped his clothes to restrain his strong excitement. Even the injury in his right hand was completely ignored.
Wei Wuwei could clearly see the four characters, “Yuhuai Sacred Land.” With his intelligence, it was not difficult to guess that the “Yuhuai Mountain” that Ji Yuan blurted out was probably the real name!
‘That means! That means! What has been passed down from generation to generation in my Wei family truly is a treasure! An immortal opportunity!’
This precious jade was passed down from generation to generation, only to have its mystery revealed today!
T/n: You know what I find so fun about translating this story? Just how many nuances come out with the original text as opposed to the manhua. I have full respect for manhua artists – that job is RUTHLESS and they did fantastic work on the art – but there’s just some details that either have to be left out for time or just don’t come out in a manhua format. For example, the fact that Ji Yuan isn’t good at chess, or his pivotal decision in favor of selfless good rather than selfish evil a couple chapters ago (which oh boy, that’s going to have an impact much later in the story), or just how dang poetic the writing is in this story. These kinds of things really only come out in translation, and it is my pleasure and honor to share it with you!
- 一语道破 (yīyǔdàopò) idiom, could also be translated to the English idiom “hit the nail on the head,” meaning to be concise and accurate ↩︎
- i.e.: asking if he wanted to see what Ji Yuan was like at home, as opposed to in the rumors or in the market ↩︎
- The specific term is 平安扣 (píng’ān kòu), which translates literally to “safety button,” and less literally as “good luck charm,” and has no English equivalent. Here, here, and here are some example images. You can also copy/paste the Chinese characters into a search browser to find more. ↩︎
- The four characters 玉怀圣境 (yù huái shèng jìng) literally translate to “Jade Heart Holy Land,” or “Jade Heart Sacred Realm.” I chose “Sacred” since “holy” has different connotations, and “Land” since as far as I know in the story it’s not a whole different plane of existence or anything, just a place. I’ve also left the first part untranslated since it’s a name, might go back and change it at some point ↩︎
- T/n: The City God of Ning’an County mentioned Yuhuai Mountain in chapter 33. ↩︎
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