Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 81: Willing to Fight, Willing to Endure

Shopkeeper Zhuo opened a secret wooden compartment from under the counter, and took out the only jar of 20-year old Qianrichun wine hidden here.

Qian Richun had only been famous for less than 30 years. The 20-year-old wine could be considered to be the best Qianrichun. It was produced almost at the same time that its name had been bestowed by the emperor. There was very little of this wine stored in the entire wine cellar of Yuanzipu, and there was only a small jar of it in the storefront proper.

Wang Zizhong had only tasted it twice. The first time was when the daughter of the magistrate of Chunhui Prefecture had married into the palace and was given the name Zhaorong.¹ When the banquet was held, Yuanzipu unprecedentedly brought out twenty jars of wine from the cellar. The second time was when Wang Zhizhong had gone to Zhouzhuang City and shamelessly asked the shopkeeper for it, spending fifty taels of silver to buy one jar.

Scarcity made things valuable. Qianrichun wine was brewed every year, but the older the wine was, the less there was of it.

Seeing that Shopkeeper Zhuo was actually selling such top-quality wine to an outsider, he could no longer sit still. He put down his wine glass and walked to the counter to argue with the shopkeeper.

“Shopkeeper Zhuo, I have begged you for this wine countless times. If you want to sell it, you should to sell it to me first, right?”

In Ji Yuan’s eyes, Wang Zizhong was of a sturdy build. Of course, if he were to compare, he was still inferior to that Li Daniu he had met on the boat before. Hearing to his words, he understood that this wine must be very precious.

It would be fine if it were anything else, but this was twenty-year-old Qianrichun, and Ji Yuan was still feeling a bit greedy. There was no way he would be willing to miss this opportunity, so he hurried into the shop.

“Just this wine, shopkeeper, how much would it be per catty? Two taels?”

Shopkeeper Zhuo looked at Wang Zizhong next to him, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke with a shameless face.

“That’s right, it’s still two taels of silver per catty. If sir doesn’t have enough money, you can buy it on credit!”

Wang Zizhong, a first-class expert in his forties who had became famous in the martial arts world, stared at Shopkeeper Zhuo with his eyes wide. The latter felt very embarrassed, but nonetheless pushed the wine forward.

However, at this point, Wang Zizhong also understood. He had previously just been excited and angry. Now, he realized that, since Shopkeeper Zhuo could not even care about his own face in front of him, the identity of the wine buyer was worth looking into. Thus, he didn’t truly interrupt the transaction.

Ji Yuan wanted to try the 20-year-old Qianrichun, but he was not a drunkard, so he naturally took out the ceramic wine bottle from his bag.

“If I brought my own wine bottle, how much is it per catty?”²

Shopkeeper Zhuo was stunned for a moment, then he immediately reacted and replied:

“Since Sir has brought his own wine bottle, it would naturally be cheaper. I will charge 800 coins per catty. Would you like to buy one catty?”

“Hooo…”

Wang Zizhong made a small and strange inhalation sound from his throat, and abruptly turned his face away so as not to look at the wine jar. Although the shopkeeper couldn’t hear it, Ji Yuan could hear it clearly.

Ji Yuan laughed as he watched the shopkeeper pretending to be calm and the other party’s rather interesting expressions.³ The last time he found something so interesting was when he had overheard Taoist Qingsong and his apprentice Qi Wen talking in Huike House.

“Okay, I will be troubling the shopkeeper, I’ll purchase some wine. I’ll buy a catty.”

After placing the wine jug on the counter, Ji Yuan took out a certain amount of silver taels and a few loose pieces of silver and placed them on the table. The shopkeeper did not weigh the silver first, but instead directly took out the ladle and began to pour the wine into the jar.

This type of ladle was called a “Four Liang Ladle.” As the name suggested, one spoonful was about four liang⁴ of wine, and four spoonfuls was one catty. But this time, once the shopkeeper had scooped four times, he lifted another half ladle to the rim and directly filled the wine jar until it had filled to around the mouth of the jug, before stopping.

Then, he took out the silver, weighed it, and started to calculate with his abacus.

“The silver weighs one liang and twenty-one zhu,⁵ which is eight hundred and seventy five coins. Sir, here is your change of fifteen Hongwu Tongbao coins.”⁶

Ji Yuan took the change and picked up the wine from the check out mat.

“Okay, thank you, Mr. Zhuo. I’ll take my leave now.”

Ji Yuan bowed to express his thanks. He saw that the shopkeeper also hurriedly bowed in return from behind the counter, so smiled again, thinking to himself that this man really was a wonderful person.

Without saying anything more, he stepped out of Yuanzipu with the wine jug in hand, and left in the direction of the downtown are. Although had been a situation where one person was willing to fight and one person was willing to suffer through it,⁷ it did make Ji Yuan remember the shopkeeper.

“Okay, sir! Please take care, please take care! Sir, come again next time!”

Shopkeeper Zhuo was still shouting at the top of his lungs. When he could no longer see Ji Yuan’s back, he could no longer hold back his expression and immediately broke into a smile, bowing repeatedly to Wang Zizhong next to him to apologize.

“Third Old Master, I sincerely apologize. It was an emergency just now. I only have four catties of this aged Qianrichun left, so I’ll sell it to you!”

Although Wang Zizhong still had some doubt as to Ji Yuan’s identity, he was overjoyed when he heard Shopkeeper Zhuo’s words.

“Then how much should I pay per catty?”

“It’s also two taels, it’s also two taels!”

Shopkeeper Zhuo was in a good mood at the moment. Even if it he were to give it away for free, he would agree as long as Wang Zizhong really asked.

“Hahahaha, that’s more like it! But, Shopkeeper Zhuo, could you please tell me who that person who came in just now is?”

“Hahaha, I can’t tell you. It’s not that I don’t want to, but rather that it is inconvenient to say it. After selling this catty of wine, I feel refreshed and my mind is clear. If the Third Old Master runs into that… Sir in the future, it would be prudent to show more courtesy towards him.”

In some cases, when the people involved suddenly realized that something was weird, the more they would ponder it, the more they would feel that it was odd. However, in other cases, it was the opposite, just like Shopkeeper Zhuo now: the more he thought about what had just happened, the more he felt that it was worthwhile.

. . .

The time was past noon. Ji Yuan nibbled on a vegetable bun that cost one coin each, and walked out of the east gate, heading south.

The Chunmu River was long and winding, so there could not possibly be only one River God Temple. However, when one referred to the largest and most established one, it was naturally the River God Temple right outside the capital of Chunhui Prefecture.

After all, since he had come to Chunhui Prefecture, he of course had to go visit the first shrine of the Chunmu River. The closer he got to the shrine of the River God, the more people there were around.

From distance away, he could smell the scent of sandalwood and hear the noisy sounds from the temple. Before he reached the temple, there were already vendors shouting along the roadside.

They sold sandalwood and candles, candied haws and preserved fruits, and even rouge and makeup powder, which really opened Ji Yuan’s eyes to the possibilities.

“All faithful men and women, come and take a look, this amulet was consecrated by the temple…”

“Cheap incense here. Don’t forget to burn incense when you enter the temple to worship!”

“Purses, beautiful purses—“

……

“Hey, sir, you seem to be a well-educated scholar. Would you like to buy some incense sticks? The Lord River God my bless you to pass the imperial examination!”

At the entrance to the temple were more and more vendors selling prayer items. A vendor shouted to Ji Yuan.

Ji Yuan stopped and asked the vendor with some surprise:

“Does this River God care about matters of fame?”

“Hey, it’s as you said, sir. You can ask for fame and fortune, safety and marriage. As long as you ask for it, the Lord River God will bless you. Would you like to buy two incense sticks?”

Even matters of marriage?

Ji Yuan was happy, but seemed to be the same in his previous life, where many temples would allow you to pray for anything.

“I’ll take a stick of incense.”

“Okay, two coins per stick, please take it!”

Ji Yuan paid the money, took the incense, and entered the temple area. It felt like he had entered a special park, with inner and outer rings of gardens and eaves all along the walls. The walls had inscriptions by literati and poets. There was an access to the riverbank for releasing animals, pavilions for people to sit, incense burners of various sides, merit boxes,⁸ and a flow of people offering incense…

The real River Got Temple was just a large room with exaggeratedly overhanging eaves. There were no clay sculptures of any officials inside or outside of the temple. In the entire nearly 200 square-meter space, there was only an incense burner, a prayer mat, an offering table, and a wooden fence, as well as a 5-zhang-tall⁹ statue of the River God.

The statue had a serious face and its beard was carved by the craftsmen to resemble waves. A long hairpin was inserted on the top of his hair bun, and he wore a long robe that looked like flowing water. Overall, the sculpture was very lifelike.

Ji Yuan followed the flow of pilgrims to the oil lamp in the temple to use its fire to light his incense. He continued to follow as they went to the state of the River God. He could hear all kinds of prayers from the people around him, some normal, some absurd, some interesting, and some quite heavy to listen to.

But it was alright to come here to pray for smooth sailing on the river, and it was also alright to pray for good weather along the river. However, if one wanted to pray for wealth, longevity, fame, and a good marriage, it would be better to pray to the City God.

The gods of the mountains and rivers were different from city and land gods. Aside from extremely special cases, most of them were actually cultivation practitioners. They either cultivated through years of difficult practice to connect with the mountains, rivers, or water veins, or they could obtain the official position of the god of a mountain or river through the legendary imperial order.¹⁰

For them, the power of incense was just an auxiliary aid, and they would already be considered diligent by managing the affairs of the river.

However, those who occupied certain mountains, rivers, and bodies of water and gained a little land territory, might presumptuously want to rely on the power of incense to become officials,¹¹ and thus might, on the contrary, respond to some prayers.

As for the God of the Chunmu River, it was an ancient scaleless white dragon. It was recorded in A Brief History from Outside the Dao that it had tried to transform into a true dragon twice, but failed, and all of its scales and armor had fallen off.

Even so, this white flood dragon was also an extremely rare river god who could truly rule the Chunmu River.

Ji Yuan did not pray for anything. He just bowed twice respectfully, then inserted the stick of incense into the large incense burner.

When the incense lowered, Ji Yuan vaguely saw a mysterious yellow aura rising up, which was even more spectacular compared to the occasional trace of spiritual aura in the entire temple.

At this moment, Ji Yuan himself also felt dizzy.

1. 昭 (zhāo): bright/clear, 容 (róng): appearance. There are ~4 kinds of names that could be bestowed on women in the imperial palace: 1) rank titles (designated spots in the hierarchy, as in “Consort” or “Concubine”); 2) courtesy names (often used to reflect a specific virtue or talent. This is most commonly used in the Chinese NovelFire “The Founder of Diabolism”); 3) honorific titles (further elevating the rank, as in “Honorable Consort”); 4) posthumous titles. In this case, Zhaorong is her courtesy name. ↩︎
2. T/n: JY is shameless, holy cow. Buddy, you’re not haggling over vegetables ↩︎
3. T/n: confirmed, JY has a devious streak ↩︎
4. 1 liang = ~50 g = 1/16 catty ↩︎
5. 1/24 of a tael (2-3g) ↩︎
6. Small reminder: these are “five-wen” coins ↩︎
7. 虽说是一个愿打一个愿挨 i.e. a fight between customers ↩︎
8. 功德箱 (gōngdé xiāng): donation boxes (images here) ↩︎
9. 50ft / 16.5m ↩︎
10. 敕封 (chìfēng) to appoint to a post or confer a title by imperial order. ↩︎
11. i.e. encroached a little on the duties of the City & Land Gods ↩︎