Lanke Chess Edge -
Chapter 95: Fortune Gained, Fate Lost
Sixteen days later, outside the capital city of Juntian Prefecture in Yi Province, a man in a green robe with a free-flowing bun was walking along. It was Ji Yuan, who had been wandering all this way.
When Ji Yuan left Ning’an County, he brought some inner clothes and two sets of outer clothes. The gray set had gotten a tear under the armpit a couple days ago, so he had been wearing the green set all this time.
Ji Yuan actually felt some attachment to these two sets of clothing, just like he had with a sweatshirt in his previous life that was very old and had been worn for many years. It was not a valuable item, but it was comfortable to wear. Everyone in his family loved to wear it, and they never thought of throwing it away.
Similarly, Ji Yuan had no intention of throwing away the gray set. He was even thinking of buying a sewing kit or something similar to see if he could mend the hole under the armpit by himself.
At this moment, Ji Yuan is still carrying his gray bag and the oil-paper umbrella, with the Green Vine Sword at his back, walking leisurely. The wooden box had long been pawned for 300 coins in the previous county. The golden nanmu wood, which was very valuable in his previous life, was just considered a good material for making desks and decorations in this life. The quantity of material was too small to sell at a high price.
As he approached the capital of Juntian Prefecture ahead, the number of people along the official road naturally increased. In addition to horse-drawn carriages and ox-drawn carts, there were also many lone pedestrian passers-by like Ji Yuan.
Of the twelve prefectures in Yi Province, Juntian Prefecture actually had no outstanding features. It could be said to be average, quite different from the famous Chunhui Prefecture in Ji Province. Although it had once produced someone like Zuo Kuangtu, who had been regarded as the best swordsman in the world, it had been many years since then.
Compared to Ji Yuan’s previous life, this was a world where forgetting was easier. The obstacles to the spread and recording of information were enough to make even a famous figure in the martial arts world from decades ago disappear without a trace.
With the decline of the Zuo family, most of the younger generation in the martial arts world today didn’t even know that there had once been a top master who was so arrogant so as to call himself a sword immortal. Even fewer were those who could dig up the “grave posts”1 to uncover the past. Perhaps only a small number of storytellers still remembered the old classic tales.
As he approached the city gate, the noise of the city washed over Ji Yuan’s eardrums over and over again. These days, perhaps due to the True Fire of Samadhi, or perhaps because his own spiritual energy had grown stronger after having been tempered by the True Fire, Ji Yuan had the feeling that his eyesight had improved a little bit. He was trying hard to rely on his vision to see whether there was any true improvement, but unfortunately everything was still blurry.“Flatbread cakes,2 selling flatbread cakes~!! Freshly baked flatbread cakes~!! One coin a piece~!!”
Just as he entered the city, Ji Yuan saw someone walking past the city gate carrying a heavy shoulder pole.3 The sound of shouting attracted his attention towards the peddler. He could vaguely see that the other party was not too short in stature.
It just so happened that he also saw that person’s aura. Although it was not strange, it was still somewhat special. After thinking about it, he hurried over a few steps to follow him.
“Brother, give me two cakes!”
“Okay!”
Hearing that he had business, the man hurriedly put down his load and waited for Ji Yuan to come up. Then he lifted the cover of the flatbread cake box, and a puff of hot steam came out. It felt like taking steamed buns directly from the steamer.
“Here, sir. I see that you are also from out of town. Our steamed buns and rice cakes here in the capital are exquisite and delicious.”
Ji Yuan smelled the fragrance of the flatbread cake, nodded, and accepted it. He paid the money, then took a bite and praised the vendor, saying, “it tastes good.”
The latter smiled, picked up his shoulder pole, and continued walking, shouting and selling as he walked.
However, Ji Yuan followed him while eating a piece of bread, which puzzled the vendor carrying the shoulder pole.
“Sir, why do you keep following me?”
“Oh, I’ve just arrived in Juntian’s capital, and I don’t think there’s anywhere I need to go, so I’ll just take a walk with you. How far do you have to walk carrying this load in one day?”
The gentleman’s reaction amused the bread vendor. He had never met such a customer before.
“I bring this load and sell cakes once at noon and once in the evening. When business is good, I can sell out in just half a street. When business is bad, I might walk over half of the city in one day.”
“Wow, old man, you have good legs!”
“Hey, I’m just trying to make a living! Selling flatbread cakes~!! Freshly baked~!!”
The vendor chatted with Ji Yuan and shouted like this every once in a while. After some time, Ji Yuan had finished his two bread cakes, and took out two more coins to buy some more.
“Brother, two more!”
“Oh, sir, could it be that you’re following me around because you like to eat hot food?”
“Hahaha, that would make sense!”
……
Ji Yuan chatted with the peddler, asking about the Zuo family and also inquiring about the peddler’s own situation in a roundabout way.
Two quarters of an hour later, the peddler was beginning to feel a bit panicked. This gentleman next to him was still following him, and had already eaten at least a dozen flatbread cakes.
It wasn’t that his appetite was exaggerated, but it was a bit creepy that he would buy two pieces of bread every now and again and kept walking and chatting with him as if nothing happened.
“Sir… These are my last two cakes. Would you like me to give them to you?”
In front of a shop selling stationery and writing materials on a street corner, the peddler carrying the shoulder pole spoke with a cautious smile on his face, fearing that Ji Yuan would continue to follow him even after eating the cakes.
As if he werewaiting for these words, Ji Yuan suddenly laughed.
“Haha… They are good, but isn’t that taking advantage of you, brother? How about this, can I write a few words for you?”
“Huh?”
“Please save the bread for me, keep your promise and wait for me here!”
“Uh… ok!”
The vendor was still in a daze, but Ji Yuan went directly into the shop next to him without taking the bread. The shop owner was reading through an article in a book, and when he saw Ji Yuan come in, he greeted him warmly.
“Sir, what would you like to see? We have the finest inkstones and wolf-hair brushes, famous fragrant inks and paperweights…”
“Uh, shopkeeper, how much is a piece of Xuan paper?”4
The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment.
“Sir, you just want to buy a piece of paper?”
“Yes, how much is a piece of Xuan paper?”
The shopkeeper lost interest and walked back to the counter.
“Ordinary Xuan paper is two coins per sheet, with one sheet being one foot in width; larger sizes are more expensive, and Xuan paper made from fine blue sandalwood5 is significantly more expensive, costing…”
“It’s alright, shopkeeper, I just want the most ordinary one…”
A piece of paper was worth two cakes, which was really a coincidence. Ji Yuan took out three coins and put them on the counter.
“Shopkeeper, may I borrow your brush to write a few words?”
The shopkeeper glanced at Ji Yuan, then looked him up and down. He took out a piece of rice paper and placed it on the counter, and only took two coins. Then, he pointed to the brush holder and the inkstone beside him and said:
“I’m also a scholar, sir, please make yourself at home!”
Ji Yuan smiled, took remaining coin, picked up the brush, smelling the fragrance of the ink, and carefully dipped it into the ink in the inkstone, then stood next to the counter and began writing on the foot-long piece of Xuan paper.
The wolf hair brush twirled and wrote a line of words. The four large words “Good Prevails Over Evil”6 were completed in one breath.
“Thank you very much!”
Ji Yuan returned the pen and walked out of the shop, blowing on the piece of paper to dry it. The shopkeeper opened his mouth slightly, stunned for a moment, and then hurried out after him. The handwriting just now was extremely good, which shocked him a little. This man must have been a master of calligraphy!
When Ji Yuan left the store, as expected, the peddler had already run away with his shoulder pole. Ji Yuan just stood there and looked at the corner of the street in the distance, with no intention of chasing him.
“Sigh… I really have nothing to do…”
While Ji Yuan was muttering to himself, the shopkeeper had already run out of the shop holding the hem of his robe.
“Sir! Sir, please wait–!
“Sir, I have some of the best blue sandalwood Xuan paper in my store. I can give you some. I wonder if the gentleman could leave some calligraphy7 for me!”
Ji Yuan turned to look at the shopkeeper, who had an expectant look on his face, and casually handed over the paper in his hand with the ink still wet.
“How about I give you this one, and you can return the two coins to me?”
“This… would this be alright?”
The shopkeeper was pleasantly surprised and took the paper very delicately. He held it in his hand and looked at it carefully. The more he looked at it, the more he liked it. He even felt as if he could sense the artistic conception in the words.
“Two coins!”
“Oh, oh, oh, wait a minute, sir, please wait a minute, sir!”
The shopkeeper hurried back to the counter to get the money, but he didn’t take out two coins. Instead, he grabbed a handful of change and rushed out of the store, handing it to Ji Yuan with both hands.
Ji Yuan laughed and took the money without any hesitation. He didn’t think much of it.
“Alright, it does merit that amount!”
After speaking, he left without looking back, without even learning the name of the store. The shopkeeper opened his mouth but didn’t have the nerve to ask Ji Yuan to write something more or to leave a signature.
Then, with a smile on his face, he returned to the store and appreciated the four large characters written on the one-foot-long Xuan paper. The more he looked at them, the more they appealed to him, and he had an urge to copy them.
“This calligraphy must be framed. It must be framed!”
T/n: RIP bread guy, you missed a great opportunity, but in all fairness if some rando just walked around eating bread and following me I would be creeped out too
- i.e. literally grave digging (like JY did) and metaphorically digging up traces of his past and memory in whatever records remain. ↩︎
- 炊 (chuī): to cook food, 饼 (bǐng): round flat cake, as seen here. I ended up translating it as “flatbread cake” ↩︎
- Also known as a carrying pole ↩︎
- 宣纸 (xuānzhǐ): Xuan paper.is an ancient Chinese fine writing paper suitable for calligraphy and painting. It is a kind of rice paper (despite not being made from rice, but instead from the “rice paper plant,” thank you Europeans for your weird naming sense) and changes in quality depending on the materials used. ↩︎
- Pteroceltis tatarinowii, cool tree ↩︎
- 邪不胜正 either “good will always triumph over evil,” or “evil cannot prevail over good” but I translated it so as to have 4 words ↩︎
- Lit: calligraphy = “ink treasures” thought that tidbit was cool ↩︎
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