Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 91: Rising Joy

Ji Yuan now had a little more luggage than he had before. His gray cloth bag contained an extra book of martial arts secrets that were enough to make the people of the martial arts world fight over it until they bled. His oil-paper umbrella was still tucked under his armpit, and the green vine sword was wrapped in a strip of green clothing from his bag and carried diagonally on his back. The heavy nanmu box the size of a shoe box was inconvenient to carry in the bag, so he could only carry it in his hands.

In the past, although Ji Yuan had stopped frequently during his journey here, he had still been pondering the treasure left by Hero Zuo, so he was a bit more in a hurry. Now that he had obtained the secret sword, Ji Yuan was much more relaxed. He felt like he had in elementary school, when he had finally finished all of his summer homework at the end of summer vacation.

Judging from the Sword Intent Inscription, Zuo Li’s ancestral home was in Juntian Prefecture in Yi Province, and he had grown up in Juntian Prefeture’s capital.

As the saying went, the poor were rich in literary knowledge, while the rich were skilled in martial arts. The fact that Zuo Li was able to freely learn martial arts and additionally achieve extraordinary success not only showed that Zuo Li himself was a genius, but also that the Zuo family must have been very wealthy.

To put it another way, Mad Disciple Zuo should still be somewhat famous in Juntian Prefecture. However, he still didn’t know how the Zuo family was doing now. After Zuo Li’s seclusion and death, there must have been a long period of time where they were frequently troubled by guests from the martial arts world.

As he progressed along the official road, Ji Yuan’s steps always maintained the illusion of seeming like they were walking slowly, but in actuality taking extremely large strides, with his feet low to the ground. This not only required extremely high attainments in martial arts, but also an understanding of his Wandering Dragon technique to be able to perform it as naturally as Ji Yuan had. The contradiction of taking seemingly slow steps while actually moving forward quickly might give rise to an illusion that he was actually shrinking the distance he traveled to less than an inch.¹

After walking all night and then most of the day, he saw the morning glow slowly become drowned out by the scorching afternoon sun. Ji Yuan had already left Ai Du Mountain far behind.

After walking alone for so long, he finally heard the sound of travelers on foot in the distance ahead. They were most likely another group of passers-by.

Ji Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. He was probably approaching a more densely populated area near the official road, so he slowed down his pace and chased after them at a speed only slightly faster than that of an ordinary person.

A little further ahead, four people were walking and chatting. Listening to their words, they were most likely residents of a nearby village. It seemed that they were on their way to attend a wedding banquet.

“I heard that the village slaughtered two sheep and a pig for this event. There must be a lot of meat!”

“Stop talking, don’t say it, you’re making me drool!”

Hearing the previous words, some people around them nearly swallowed their saliva. Only at a large banquet could one eat and drink to their heart’s content.

“That boy, Zhao Dongmu, is so lucky. He married Xiaolian from the neighboring village. She is as good as any man when it comes to farm work!”²

“Yeah, so many people have tried to be matchmakers for her but failed, while he received her hand for free!”³

The others echoed the sentiment.

“Hurry up, hurry up, the sun is setting! We have to go back quickly, otherwise Uncle Zhao will get worried!”

“Well, we’re going to start eating soon. Uncle Zhao will definitely blame us is we don’t bring back enough wine!”

“Haha, don’t worry, we can make it in time. The four of us might even get a red envelope with a bonus later.”⁴

“Hahaha, I was just thinking about how much I wanted to eat, so I guess Uncle Zhao will only give me a couple coins!”⁵

“Hahahaha, that’s right!”

……

The four of them chatted as they walked. Judging from their heavy breathing and footsteps, they must have been carrying something heavy.

Ji Yuan walked closer and vaguely saw that there were two jars, with two people carrying each one. From their previous conversation, he could guess that this jar was filled with wine.

It was a wedding banquet, wouldn’t he like to have a bite to eat? It wasn’t like he didn’t enjoy giving out red envelopes, anyway!⁶

At this thought, Ji Yuan quickened his pace and shouted toward the front.

“You guys in front, please slow down!”

The four men who were carrying the wine heard the shouts coming from far behind them. They subconsciously slowed and turned back to look. They saw a man who looked like a gentleman in his wide-sleeved long robe hurrying to catch up with them from far behind on the official road. He held an umbrella in one hand and dragged a wooden box in the other.

Ji Yuan seemed to be a little out of breath, and there was some sweat on his face.

“Brothers, I have been traveling for quite some time. I see no villages in front of me, and I have not passed any stores behind. I was in a hurry to finally meet someone. It will be dark in a couple hours, so I was very anxious on the road!”

“Uh, sir, where are you from?”

The small group of people slowed down their pace just enough for Ji Yuan to catch up, but they didn’t stop.

“I came here from Yongtai County, and I’m headed to Juntian Prefecture.”

“Wow! That’s a long way from here. You are very courageous, sir!”

Ji Yuan just smiled.

“Yes. Are you from the nearby village? Might I be able to go and ask for a drink and a place to sleep for one night? Um, I promise you it wouldn’t be for nothing!”

At his words, the young villagers naturally invited Ji Yuan to Zhaojia Village.

“Sir, if you don’t mind, come with us to the Zhao family manor. There is a wedding banquet there. You look like a scholar, so Uncle Zhao will definitely invite you to join in the banquet.”

“Yes, sir, but you have to keep up. We are in a hurry to go back. Uncle Zhao’s house doesn’t have enough wine, they are waiting on these two big jars.”

“Okay, okay. I am confident in my speed. Just keep walking, brothers. I won’t lose you!”

Ji Yuan smiled and walked a bit faster, approaching to the others. He was looking forward to seeing whether there were any special dishes from the countryside here. He also took this opportunity to chat with the young men and get closer to them.

“Why don’t you guys drive an ox cart or something? Isn’t it tiring to carry these things around like this?”

“Hey, we bought the wine from the town on the other side of Kui Mao Mountain, along the mountain trail. That path is not convenient for an ox cart, so it’s faster to have people carry it!”

“Oh, that’s a long way, right?”

“Yeah, it took a long time to walk there!”

The young men were talkative. After confirming that Ji Yuan was literate and a knowledgeable scholar, who had even been to such far away places as Ji Province, they were even happier, and bluntly told him that Uncle Zhao would definitely invite him to the wedding.

They chatted as they walked. With Ji Yuan’s eloquence, he grew much more familiar with the four of them along the way.

The barren wasteland along the road began to decrease, and farmland and irrigation canals grew denser and more numerous.

More than a quarter of an hour after having left the official road in favor of taking a small path the outline of Zhaojia Village could be seen in front of them. A middle-aged man was looking towards the road. When he saw the four of them coming back, he hurried over.

“Hey, why did you guys take so long to come back? If you were any later, the banquet would have to be delayed!”

Then, the man suddenly noticed Ji Yuan’s presence, and asked in surprise, “who is this?”

Ji Yuan naturally hurried to bow.

“My name is Ji Yuan. I’m a passerby. It was getting late and I wanted to ask for a drink and a place to stay the night!”

“Second Uncle, Mr. Ji is a scholar from Ji Province!”

One of the young men hurriedly informed him. Looking at Ji Yuan’s elegant but worldly appearance, he believed in his words somewhat. Even if it weren’t true, today was a happy day for the village, so he couldn’t chase anyone away.

“Oh… Sir, you have traveled from very far away. Today is a happy day, so you must come to the manor for a drink of wedding wine and take a look around…”

The man bowed in return to Ji Yuan and reached out a hand to invite him.

“Please excuse me for intruding, in that case!”

The six of them exchanged polite words and walked towards the manor. Inside, it was bustling with activity. The bride and groom had already paid their respects at the auspicious time.⁷

There are more than twenty tables, both round and square shaped, placed inside and outside the walls of the courtyard. Colorful red decorations and the character for “happiness” were everywhere.⁸ The villagers were chatting and waiting for the banquet to start. A dozen aunts were busy washing vegetables and stewing food, and the atmosphere was very warm.

“A guest has arrived!”

The shouting inside was unusually loud, and it didn’t take long for the identity of Mr. Ji Yuan, a guest from afar, to be known to the festive host inside. He even came out to greet him and let Ji Yuan sit at the table with peace of mind.

Although the sky was still bright, there were no light bulbs in this era, so the banquet would definitely start before dark if it were to be held outdoors.

The dinner party hadn’t yet started. Ji Yuan sat on a table near the edge. Although most of the people around him were strangers from the village, one of the young men who had just returned carrying the wine was sitting next to him. He kept talking to Ji Yuan, asking about affairs in Ji Province, full of longing for the world outside the village.

As he spoke, there was a burst of laughter from the other side of the main room, and Ji Yuan heard someone shouting, “it’s wrong, it’s written wrong, why are there two more words on the left than on the right?”

There are also voices saying things that sounded like “I’m confused, I’m confused…”.

“Didn’t we just meet a great scholar from out of town? Can he write it? We can let him write one, right?”

“Yes, yes, that scholar looks like he could be the head teacher in his county. He must be very knowledgeable!”

“Uncle Zhao, go and invite that gentleman over!”

It was a local custom here to write wedding couplets⁹ before the dinner. Unless people really didn’t have the means, any family with even a bit of status would not skimp on it when getting married.

The sound of boos could be heard from that side of the room, and several middle-aged men, accompanied by an old man, came over to Ji Yuan with embarrassed smiles on their faces. Before they could speak, Ji Yuan stood up with a smile.

“Would you like me to write a wedding couplet? Allow me to write one as a token of gratitude to Mr. Zhao for hosting this wedding banquet.”

“Thank you so much, sir!”

“Come on, let’s go, let’s see the gentleman write the wedding couplet!”

“I’ll go take a look too!”

The old village chief was the only one in Zhaojia Village who could read. In the past, whenever there was some important event or something that needed to be written, the village chief would be asked to do it. Although he didn’t have much scholarly knowledge, he could at least write clearly. Now, however, his eyesight was getting blurrier as he grew older.

Ji Yuan was also infected by the villagers’ simple enthusiasm and seemed very excited.

He walked over to the eight-immortals¹⁰ table in the main room. There, he saw several strips of cut paper. Two of the strips had standard words on them. On the left was, “may there be much happiness in your marriage,”¹¹ and on the right was, “may you soon have a chubby baby boy.”¹² The character for “baby” had fewer strokes and was much smaller than the other characters, which made Ji Yuan smile.

“Sir, here’s an ink brush!”

Ji Yuan took a look and saw the groom, who was smartly dressed and had a red flower ribbon tied around him,¹³ personally hand him the brush. Judging from his expression, he seemed to be a in a very happy mood.

“Groom, please watch carefully!”

Ji Yuan held the pen in his right hand, pulled up his sleeve with his left, and wrote the couplet on the two flat strips of paper.

“A hundred years of love and affection.”

“Predestined by a thousand-mile thread of fate.”¹⁴

Then, he took another piece of red paper, placed it horizontally, and wrote the four characters “Congratulations Newlyweds” once more.¹⁵

The brush moved with such force that it could be seen through the back of the paper, and a kind of spiritual, elegant aura hidden beyond the sight of ordinary people lingered on the page.

While he wrote, the old village chief beside him read it aloud. Even though most of the people here were illiterate, they could see that this gentleman’s handwriting was extremely beautiful, and definitely skilled.

The children nearby clapped their hands, and the adults beside him also applauded.

Old man Zhao dragged Ji Yuan to the host’s seat at the urging of the others. The dinner was finally about to start, and the helpers in the kitchen began to serve the dishes.

“Let’s have a banquet!”

The best man’s call rang out loudly, and the wedding banquet officially began under the glowing red sunset.

Ji Yuan opened his eyes wide and looked around the banquet with a smile on his face. Bursts of “joy” rose in his heart, especially after the wedding couplets had been hung up.

With a sudden thought in his mind, he took a chess piece out of his sleeve, and the joy that had just begun to dissipate gathered again and moved towards the chess piece.

“Excellent, excellent! What wonderful joy!”

The green vine sword, which he always carried on his back wrapped in cloth, also radiated spiritual energy.

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T/n: I think I’ve broken my footnote record. Woo!

1. One of the skills supposedly held by EXTREMELY high-level cultivators is the ability to manipulate space, shrinking distances down in a kind of wormhole travel style. Ji Yuan is essentially faking that technique here without understanding that this is going to just make people even more likely to think he’s hiding his skills ↩︎
2. T/n: heck yeah you go girl ↩︎
3. Matchmakers were often used to arrange marriages, but it seems this lady had a very good idea of what and who she wanted. They’re saying her family didn’t need to pay a matchmaker, they matched themselves 😀 ↩︎
4. Red envelopes means a gift of money, often given during special occasions (like gifts or favors at a wedding, birthdays, etc.) but nowadays also used as a metaphor for work bonuses ↩︎
5. i.e. the rest will be paid in food ↩︎
6. I did some research, and nowhere does it mention that wedding banquets (even Ancient ones) were open to the public. Nonetheless, this is actually a very common trope in wuxia or ancient-times transmigration novels where the protagonists or other characters just show up to the wedding banquet. It’s not treated as an issue, but just so you know. ↩︎
7. The time and date of weddings and other special events was calculated (with various divination methods) to be auspicious ↩︎
8. 囍 (xǐ): happiness/double happiness. A symbol of good luck, especially in marriage. The character is made up of two 喜 characters (also meaning happiness, but more along the lines of being fond of or enjoyment), representing the bride and groom ↩︎
9. Couplets are two complementary poetic lines, written on red paper (or carved/cut out of paper), often representing love or good wishes. Wedding couplets are two-line poems for the bridge/groom. Aesthetics are a big part of poetry as well, which is why having the same number of characters for poetic and visual symmetry (and having both lines be the same length) is important. ↩︎
10. octagonal ↩︎
11. 新婚 (xīnhūn): newly wed, 喜事 (xǐshì): happy occasion, 多 (duō): many ↩︎
12. 早生出个胖小子 As you can see, there are 2 more characters here than in the previous one ↩︎
13. Couldn’t find anything in particular that it symbolizes other than general good luck and practicality to distinguish the groom, so I’m going to chalk it down to tradition. Here are some examples ↩︎
14. 百年恩爱双心结, 千里姻缘一线牵: tricky tricky translations! The literal translation would be something like “A hundred years of love and affection, a thousand miles of marriage fate” ↩︎
15. 新婚 (xīnhūn): newly wed, 大喜 (dàxǐ): exultation ↩︎