Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 77: Cant Afford the Drink

[T/n: note on chapter title]¹

The Chunmu River was a famous river in Ji Province. Its longest winding section was located in the Chunhui Prefecture. It also traveled through many prefectures in Liu Province before finally flowing into the sea.

The section of the river leading from Jiudaokou in Desheng Prefecture to the capital city of Chunhui Prefecture was relatively straight, especially in this season when the southeasterly winds were relatively smooth, so the journey from Desheng Prefecture to Chunhui Prefecture took very little time.²

Except for that first night when someone fell into the water and a clever giant black carp came to rescue them and ask for wine, the next two days of sailing went smoothly. They enjoyed listening to the sounds of nature in the hills and forests along the way, and saw the big pier outside the capital of Chunhui Prefecture in the early morning of the fourth day.

The closer they got to the Chunhui Wharf, the more ships could be seen around them, ranging from single-person boats to large ships, from passenger ships and cargo ships to fishermen’s fishing boats. It was so busy it could hardly be compared to the wharf in Jiudaokou County.

The passengers all stood outside the cabin and looked out. Behind the docks, they could see the towering city walls of Chunhui’s capital city and the buildings inside that were a even taller than the city walls.

Approaching Chunhui’s capital, the wind actually weakened. The young boatman had already started rowing, and the boat passengers also turned their attention from gazing at the capital city to their surroundings.

The noise on the dock became clearer and clearer. Cargo was being loaded and unloaded, passengers were embarking and disembarking. The boat where Ji Yuan was located found a berth on the edge and slowly docked.

At this point, everyone who had been traveling together for the past three days knew that they had to part ways. The boat fare had already been settled on the day of departure, so they could disembark at any time.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the River God Temple is located on the south side of Dongcheng City.³ You can see it if you exit the wharf and go straight south without entering the city. It is also regarded as a scenic spot in Chunhui Prefecture. If you have the time, you can go and pay your respects to the Lord River God!”

The old boatman tied the ropes and gave this suggestion to the people who were about to get off the boat. This trip had gone smoothly, and the passengers on the boat were also very good. They were very comfortable with one another!

“Okay, I’ll go take a look!”

“Yes, I’ll definitely go and pay my respects and burn some incense!”

“Goodbye boatman!”

“See you later!”

……

Ji Yuan bowed to the boatman at the dock like everyone else. The two boatmen had no need to enter to the city, so they bought some things at the dock, cleaned the boat, hung a sign saying ‘Jiudaokou in Desheng Prefecture,’ and took some passengers home.

The six people on board the boat exited the docks together, and one of the scholars immediately asked Ji Yuan.

“Mr. Ji, my classmates and I are going to visit Chunhui City,⁴ and then go to the River God Temple. If you don’t have any plans, why not come with us?”

“Yes, Mr. Ji!”

Ji Yuan looked at these people and bowed.

“Thank you for your kindness, but I still have something else to do. Everyone is in the same boat, we will meet again someday. I will take my leave!”

The few of them bid farewell to one another and each headed toward their destinations. However, Ji Yuan took one step first and began walking faster and faster. After a while, he had disappeared.

‘Today is the 12th day of the 5th lunar month.⁵ I wonder if Wei Wuwei has already arrived at Chunhui Prefecture, and is ready? ’

With this idea in mind, the first thing did was to look for the famous wine in the city to see how delicious it was, that it even could attract the old turtle.⁶

After all, Ji Yuan hadn’t seen much in this world. At most, he had drunk the jar of Huadiao wine from Ning’an County. However, that wine was available everywhere, so it was not something rare.

Anyway, if he simply waited near the Southern Gate to the city before the 15th, he should be able to spot Wei Wuwei. After all, Ji Yuan had such good hearing that he could even distinguish a familiar burp from a distance.⁷

As for Wei Wuwei’s plan to meet the old turtle, Ji Yuan did not plan to show himself. After all, the only people who knew about this matter were the Wei family, and that “master from the public sect” that night.⁸

However, even if Ji Yuan wanted to show up, it would be fine. After all, in Wei Wuwei’s eyes, he was also an expert, and it would not be unusual for an expert to know of this matter.

. . .

The prosperity of Chunhui Prefecture far surpassed that of Ning’an County and Jiudaokou County. With his poor eyesight but excellent hearing and sense of smell, Ji Yuan felt like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Gardens⁹ as he strolled around the city.

After inquiring around for a while, Ji Yuan finally found the tavern in front of him, named Yuanzipu.¹⁰ The faint aroma of wine seemed to indicate that this store was indeed worthy of its reputation.

The tavern was not very big, and it did not have a second floor. There were only a few tables inside. There didn’t seem to be many people buying or drinking wine. There are only two tables in the corner where people were eating snacks and drinking, and the food did not look like it was made in the tavern, but rather like they had been brought by the customers themselves, as they were wrapped in lotus leaves.¹¹

There were quite a few people in the store who looked like shop assistants, but they were all resting at a few empty tables. The shop owner stood behind the counter, constantly fiddling with an abacus and calculating in the account book.

“Shopkeeper, I heard that your Qianrichun¹² is a famous wine only found in Chunhui Prefecture. How much would it cost for a pot?”

Ji Yuan walked into the store and asked the shopkeeper, who only looked up at him after he had finished calculating the money on hand.

“Our shop only sells two kinds of wine. Qianrichun is 2 taels of silver per catty, and you can get a small discount for the whole jar. Jianghua wine is 100 coins per jar, and one jar is 5 catties.”

“Two taels?”

Ji Yuan was surprised. This price was not just a little expensive, two taels was enough for several meals. It seemed that, not only was there expensive wine in his previous life, but that there was no shortage of it in this life either!

“Sir, would you like some Jianghua wine?”

The shopkeeper continued to calculate his accounts in a flat voice, which made Ji Yuan feel a little embarrassed.

“Uh, the shopkeeper, since Qianrichun can be sold separately, can I buy a cup to taste it?”

“A cup?”

This kind of request was really rare, mainly because no one had the nerve to ask it in Yuanzipu. The shopkeeper couldn’t help but raise his head to take a closer look at Ji Yuan.

He wore a wide-sleeved gray robe with a mahogany hairpin on his head, carrying a bag and an umbrella. He was dressed neatly and elegantly, with a seemingly loose but surprisingly natural hairstyle. He did not appear to be a rich man, but he didn’t look like someone who was here to make trouble, either. When saw that his eyes were only half-open, the shopkeeper was obviously stunned for a moment.

“Sir, have you just arrived in Chunhui Prefecture?”

“I just arrived today and heard of Qianrichun’s reputation, so I wanted to give it a try.”

“Come, come…”

The shopkeeper nodded, beckoned to Ji Yuan, took a jar from among several other jars from the shelf behind him, and removed the sealing plug.

He took out a small porcelain cup and placed it on the counter, and reached into the jar with a delicate small spoon to scoop out a small portion. The amber-colored wine dripped in and just about filled the small porcelain cup. After he had finished pouring, the top of the cup was still connected to the spoon by a thin syrupy thread, which was only separated by a shake of the shopkeeper’s hand.

“I hope you enjoy, sir. Please sample the flavor of this Qianrichun and give me your impressions. I’ll take that as payment for the wine!”

Ji Yuan sniffed the aroma of the wine and approached the counter. Without saying a word, he reached out, took the porcelain cup, and brought it to his lips to taste it. Surprisingly, he did not taste the bitterness that he was expecting. Instead, the taste was a mellow and delicate sweetness, even though the alcohol content was slightly higher than the Huadiao wine that he had drunk previously.

After drinking this small amount of wine in one gulp, a slight bitter taste and the stimulating smell of alcohol hit his nose, then it turned into the mellow sweetness. After he swallowed, the sweet fragrance lingered in his mouth for some time.

In his previous life, Ji Yuan didn’t like drinking wine, and thought that all kinds of wine were unpalatable. He didn’t expect that he would be able to experience wine with this kind of taste in this life.

“Great wine, worthy of the name Qianrichun!”

Ji Yuan didn’t say any blatant words of praise. He simply took out two standard taels of silver ingots from his arms and placed them on the counter.

“One sip of this wine is really not enough. Even if I skip a few meals, I have to buy a catty.”

The shopkeeper’s smile brightened. This was already the best compliment.

“Please wait a minute, sir!”

After taking the silver and weighing it, the shopkeeper took a small wine bottle from the shelf behind him and handed it to Ji Yuan.

“One catty of Qianrichun.”

Ji Yuan took the wine and looked at the scene inside the store. He figured that, 80% of the time, this wine would most likely be supplied to major restaurants and inns, and there would definitely be merchants transporting it all over the world. This Yuanzipu building should just be a place for them to show off their brand.

“Hey, shopkeeper, your wine is so expensive that even gods can’t afford it! Let’s go, I’ll take my leave…”

Ji Yuan sighed with a smile. With some desire for self-improvement and yearning, he compared himself to an immortal, and walked out of the store with the bottle of wine. His words naturally became a joke in the ears of outsiders.

The shopkeeper smiled and shook his head. He seemed to be in a good mood, because Ji Yuan had only tasted the wine, then gritted his teeth to buy it.

Just as he was about to put the small porcelain cup away, his outstretched right hand paused.

Qianrichun was well-known not only for its good taste, but also for its characteristic in that the wine stuck to the cup. Even if one used the smoothest ceramic cup, there would definitely be some wine stuck to the bottom of it, and it would need to be licked several times to get it fully clean.

But the porcelain cup in front of him was completely white and clean, without a trace of wine remaining. The shopkeeper stretched out his finger and wiped it along the bottom of the cup, and his expression became even more stunned.

‘What? ’

Perhaps that man was a skilled martial artist?

But recalling the man’s gentle movements as he drank, and the words he had said before he left, the shopkeeper’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat.

He immediately raised his head and looked around, calling out, “Sir…” but Ji Yuan was nowhere to be seen.¹³

1. 喝不起 (Hē bù qǐ): MDBG couldn’t give me a definite answer on this one for me 😦 There are 4-5 different variants of this, each with a different first character (i.e. not 喝 Hē) that range from “I’m sorry”/”please excuse me”/”I beg your pardon,” to “extraordinary,” to “to look down on,” to “can’t afford.” Lots of subtext there. In the context of the chapter it’s talking about the wine being expensive but there’s a lot of unstated associations, too ↩︎
2. T/n: we’re finally leaving Desheng! All the traveling up until now through different counties was still in the same prefecture, Desheng Prefecture. We’re now crossing over to Chunhui Prefecture. Both Prefectures are part of Ji Province, which itself is one of many provinces in the country of Da Zhen ↩︎
3. In real life, Dongcheng is a district in central Beijing. ↩︎
4. Ok, I’ve been waffling on this translation, but apparently the capital of Chunhui Prefecture is indeed called Chunhui City ↩︎
5. I’m going to start leaving them untranslated like this instead of saying something like “May 12th” since the story is currently in high summer, not May ↩︎
6. T/n: for those of you confused, refer to chapter 49. ↩︎
7. T/n: LOL ↩︎
8. T/n: quick recap for those who are confused: JY used “Iron Punishment Battle Guide” when saving WW, which is only ever really taught to public officials (he got it from the Ning’an County City God). ↩︎
9. Granny Liu is a character from a classic 18th century Chinese novel “Dream of the Red Chamber.” In the story, she visits the noble family hosting her. This expression has become a common idiom for someone simple/unsophisticated visiting somewhere new/luxurious and being overwhelmed by it ↩︎
10. 园子铺 (yuánzi pù): literal translation is either something like “Store for Public Recreation” or “Farming Land Store” –> “Vineyard Store,” so the actual translation of this name would probably just be “Tavern.” I’m going to keep it untranslated. ↩︎
11. Lotus leaves are a very classic way to wrap your food as a kind of lunch box. Think sticky rice ↩︎
12. 千 (qiān): thousand, 日 (rì): day, 春 (chūn): spring/love/life, this wine is called “Thousand Days of Spring/Life/Love” or something similar ↩︎
13. T/n: Pro tip: what NOT to do if you DON’T want to be mistaken for a god (cough-cough Ji Yuan listen up cough cough) ↩︎