Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 56: Overnight In a Remote Village

At this moment, Ji Yuan was walking alone on the official road to the north of Ning’an County, running and jumping leisurely from time to time. He was in a very good mood.

He carried very little luggage. Apart from the clothes on his body, he had only a bag and an umbrella. In his bag was a set of spare outer-clothes and under-clothes. The rest was some copper coins and some knickknacks, as well as fresh jujubes which occupied half of the space, about four catties worth.

Except for the jade pendant given to him by Wei Wuwei, Ji Yuan exchanged his entire remaining one-hundred and forty taels of silver and silver notes for a gold ingot, along with some silver pieces in small change and copper coins.

Apart from his elders’ gold jewelry, Ji Yuan had not seen much gold before in his two lifetimes. He thought that this ten-tael gold ingot would be very large, but he did not expect that it was so small that it looked like a miniature model.

Ji Yuan walked leisurely, taking out the gold ingots in his arms to play with them. It wasn’t that he was greedy for money, but rather he felt like he had just gotten a new toy.

“Gold is really heavy!”

With a sigh, he weighed it and put it back into his inner pocket.

The reason why Ji Yuan had taken so much trouble to exchange money was not because he wanted to travel easily, but rather because he had already understood after a few months that the banking system of this world was not as developed as the one in his previous life. Banks were already rare, not to mention cross-county and cross-prefecture banks. The silver notes from the local banks in Ning’an County could not be withdrawn in other places, and they could only be withdrawn in cash here and taken away.

At this moment, Ji Yuan was extremely envious of Lu Shan Jun. There was no way of knowing what the structure of that guy’s stomach was, but he could spit out such a large piece of white tiger pelt. Maybe his stomach would be a treasure even after it was taken out!

Even though he was following the official road, the scenery along the route was still beautiful. There were fields and green trees everywhere, and many farmers were shuttling around their farmlands. After all, Mangzhong was a busy time for farmers.

Although it was blurry in his vision, the sound of water as the rice seedlings were planted, the farmers’ chatter, and the birdsong all around him allowed him to naturally form the scene.

The clatter of hooves sounded from the behind, accompanied by the riders’ shouts and cracking of whips.

“Hey- Hya! Hya!”¹

As the sound approached, Ji Yuan hurriedly dodged to the side. A moment later, three horses galloped past down the road, raising a cloud of dust with their hooves.

“It would be great to have a horse!”

Ji Yuan murmured in a low voice, and continued to ‘drive his own No. 11 bus.’²

Actually, Ji Yuan also wanted to buy a horse, and he had enough money to buy a decent one.

But the problem was, firstly, Ji Yuan had never ridden a horse before in both his lives, and secondly, when buying a horse, one didn’t just ride it, one also had to take care of it, including feeding it, washing it, etc. It just felt super troublesome.

It wouldn’t be difficult to learn to ride, especially with his current physical foundation, but taking care of a horse would be cumbersome. It wasn’t cheap, and he didn’t plan to spend this kind of money. To be honest, the price of buying a good horse here was almost the same as buying a car in his previous life. It was not worth it!

After all, he, Ji Yuan, knew some Taoist spells, and his martial arts were not too bad either. With his movement technique that integrated the spirit of a dragon, how could he be inferior to a horse?

‘Yeah, it’s convenient!’

Having said that, seeing others riding tall horses, he still had the strange feeling of envying other children’s beautiful toys.

He reached into the opening of the bag on his back and took out two jujubes, nibbling at one. Then, Ji Yuan swung his feet and used his Qinggong technique, turning into a green blur as he flew forward.

Ji Yuan didn’t plan to cross over the mountains. No matter how high his martial skills were, he was still half blind. It was not that he couldn’t walk on the rugged road, but it was still laborious. Moreover, he was still afraid of Lu Shan Jun, that fierce tiger spirit, so he wouldn’t test his luck.

He had already carefully studied the engraved paperweight map, so he didn’t have to worry about finding his way along the official road for the time being. He could wait until he left Ning’an County along the northern road, then head east and ask for directions once he found the city.

By comparing the names of several places that he found on the paperweight engraving, and comparing the meaning of the words and the hidden lines in the Sword Intent Inscription, Ji Yuan figured out that the tomb of Hero Zuo should be located far away in Yizhou,³ which would not be a short trip.

So, Ji Yuan’s current destination was Chunmu River, to see if he could find the old turtle.

Although Ji Yuan only knew that it was the section of the river located roughly south of Chunhui Prefecture, but with Wei Wuwei’s intelligence, he would definitely use various means to force some details out of the people in black. There would be something interesting to watch on May 15th.

. . .

Ning’an County was a small, remote county, with its central lands close to Niukui Mountain, forming a relatively narrow and long shape. Ji Yuan traveled the whole way, sometimes walking slowly, sometimes running at full speed. By the time it had gotten dark, he had already left the territory of Ning’an County.

Normally, he should have reached the adjacent Shunbao County, but the population in the middle section of Ning’an gradually became sparse, and there was no field to be seen for a long section of the road, so there was no way to find someone to ask for directions. So Ji Yuan had no idea when to turn east. In the end, he made up his mind, found a wide road that turned eastward, and just kept walking forward.

This walk didn’t feel very good. There was no one to be seen for a long time. It was only when it got dark that he finally saw farmland in the distance. Without thinking twice, he immediately turned and walked along the path beside the field. After some time, a small village appeared in his sight.

There was a small river beside the village. It’s was dark that he couldn’t see anything but the reflection of the night sky in the river water.

It seemed Shunbao County was far less developed than Ning’an County.

It would be impossible to find an inn in this kind of place. The best thing to do would be to find someone else who would let him sleep overnight in their place. In the likely event that he had gotten lost, it was already lucky to be able to find a village.

. . .

At this time, most of the farmers in the village had already returned home, and there were not very many people outside.

Compared to the smooth official road, the path up to the entrance of the village was much more rugged. Because of his poor eyesight and quick pace, Ji Yuan stumbled from time to time, but his balance was good, so he didn’t fall. Fortunately, he slowed his pace and recovered his stability.

Of course, if he really used his full range of motion, it was not impossible to move steadily and quickly, but Ji Yuan was not here to show off. In the middle of the night, he might look more like a ghost. If his abilities were too outlandish, the villagers might feel uneasy. It was more convenient to pretend to be a weak passerby and gain sympathy in order to let him stay overnight and get a free meal.

At the entrance of the village, some villagers noticed that someone was approaching. At first, they didn’t pay much attention, thinking that someone was returning to the village late, but then they realized that the person outside was not from their village.

“Hey! You, at the entrance, who are you? What are you doing here?”

An old man shouted at Ji Yuan, and some young and strong villagers came out of their houses, holding lighted paper lanterns.

This era was not the same as that of his previous life. Such remote villages were surrounded by fences at night to prevent entrance to wild beasts and thieves. Strangers needed to be carefully identified to tell whether they would bring harm.

“Old man! I’m just a passerby. It’s already dark and I am walking slowly. It is too scary to travel on the road at night. Would it be alright for me to stay in the village for one night?”

Ji Yuan also responded with a loud voice, and then kept walking, slowly approaching the village head. From time to time he pretended to point the tip of his umbrella to the road, checking whether there were any protruding stones that might trip him up.

When he got closer, the villagers gathered at the entrance of the village got a general look at Ji Yuan’s appearance. He was wearing a wide-sleeved robe, with his hair casually draped over his back, a wooden hairpin in his bun at the top of his head. He looked quite gentle.

Although Ji Yuan could walk normally for the most part, he walked very slowly. If he stumbled, he would immediately poke the road ahead with his umbrella. It seemed that his eyesight was not very good.

“Sir, your eyes?”

“Oh, my eyes are really bad, and it’s really inconvenient to walk at night. I hope you can let me stay overnight!”

Behind the gate of the wooden fence, an old man with a hood on his head took a lantern from the hand of the young man at his side, let out some light, and shone it carefully on Ji Yuan. He stared at the shadow under his feet that slanted away with the light of the lantern, and then looked at his complexion and eyes.

“Okay, sir, please wait a moment. Huzi, open the door and let the gentleman in!”

Ji Yuan hurriedly raised his umbrella and bowed.

“Thank you very much, thank you, everyone!”

Phew… Life was like a drama, it all depended on his acting skills. He supposed that someone would have a place for him to sleep tonight!

“Creeeak…”

The wooden hinge made a slightly harsh sound as it turned and rubbed against the dowel, but Ji Yuan keenly noticed that the positions of several young and strong villagers seemed to be somewhat strange, and some of them seemed to be holding something in their hands.

‘Am I celebrating too soon? ’

“Come in, sir. This old man will give you a hand!”

Without waiting for Ji Yuan to speak, the old man stepped over to support Ji Yuan’s hand. When he touched Ji Yuan and measured his body temperature, he felt relieved.

“Sir, please don’t blame me. Let’s go, let’s go to this old man’s house and have a drink of water first!”

“Uh… Okay!”

Ji Yuan let the old man help him. As he walked, he looked at the villagers who were closing the door and the others who were leaving, pondering the ins and outs of this matter.

1. Couldn’t decide whether to translate this as “Hya! Hya!” the onomatopoeia for urging a horse and the sound-accurate translation (驾 jià), or “go! Go!” the literal translation for that character (“drive! Drive!”). ↩︎
2. “Number 11 bus” = two ones, two legs, 1 leg and 1 leg (I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, thank GOODNESS for the Chinese commenters on the original chapter, reading the jokes in the comments give so much more context to sayings like this XD) ↩︎
3. Yizhou is a district/county in the Southern part of China, but in the northernmost part of the region it is grouped in. It’s a lot of subdivisions and subdivisions which don’t particularly have any bearing on Fantasy Ancient China ↩︎