Chapter 58: 45

Chapter 45 - No rowing boats today either.

After releasing the lanterns, we got up to go somewhere else. To the right ahead of us a person slowly staggered down from the decorated boat, stumbling in his steps, and when he got to shore he rushed to a nearby tree and leaned on it for support as he bent down.

Hey, he seems familiar. Isn’t that Yang Qingzhou?

Since we encountered an acquaintance, I happily went to greet him, but as soon as I got close my nose was assaulted by the smell of alcohol, and without any warning Yang Qinzhou opened his mouth and threw up. Luckily Ye Tan pulled me back by the waist just in time, or else I would have received this filthy mess head-on.

Yang Qingzhou had on a painful expression as he stooped and vomited for a while, until he finally slid down from the tree trunk, I hurriedly took hold of him and carried him to sit on a chair at a distant noodle stand, pulling out a silk handkerchief from Ye Tan’s arms and giving it to him.

There was no toilet paper in this century, but luckily there still was this multi-purpose Ye Tan, he’s very useful.

“Xuanheng?” Yang Qingzhou seemed to have sobered up a lot after throwing up, and he was just now recognising me, “I’ve let you see me with such a discourteous appearance, I’m truly sorry.”

Before, he had always been knowledgeable and courteous every time I’d seen him, skilfully and easily bearing the manner of a noble gentleman, I wouldn’t have thought there would also be times where he would cut such a sorry figure, it was really a little unexpected. I called the shop assistant he and placed a bowl of broth in front of him: “Were you drinking?”

“Thank you.” Yang Qingzhou took a small sip, and replied, “Yes.... I’m not very good at drinking. It makes me feel a little unwell.”

I: “Then why do you still drink.”

Yang Qingzhou gave a bitter laugh: “I always have to accompany guests when they come, I must drink even if I can’t drink.”

I don’t really understand these people’s logic.

I watched him drink the broth, and I asked: “Why are you alone? What about your younger brother Yang Su?”

Yang Qingzhou: “He never attends these kinds of occasions.”

I wondered: “Isn’t a holiday like the Winter Solstice supposed to be spent with the people who are closest to you?”

Just like how A-Heng and A-Shu went back to their homes, Qiqi went to look for her friends, and how Ye Xiao and Ye Lan are together, and Ye Tan and I are together.

“He doesn’t need to come, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” Yang Qingzhou put down the bowl of soup, and quietly said, “Xuanheng, I apologise, I should go back to the boat.”

“Is it your boat?” I saw when he came down, and remembered he was part of a local rich family, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they had one or two decorated boats. I began to get a little restless, “Could you lend me one to go rowing?”

Yang Qingzhou hesitated: “Now? You really know how to pick a good time.... Could it be another day?”

I wondered: “What’s wrong with today?”

“There are other people on the boat.... it might not be very convenient.”

As Yang Qingzhou was speaking, a person came to look out of the railing of the second floor of the boat, laughing loudly and saying: “Brother Yang, you drank so little and you already want to leave? We still have a few rounds just waiting for you!”

Hey, isn’t that the guy that spilled hibiscus soup on me and provoked us at the Swords Conference, Wuyi Hill’s Yi Qiao?

Yi Qiao also recognised me and his smile faded, he clicked his tongue and said: “Bad luck.” Then he sneered and knocked on the railing, “Brothers, come see, there’s a great person here.”

In turn, a few figures came out to have a look, glancing in my direction and muttering amongst each other.

Yang Qingzhou’s expression suddenly became very poor, he had just said he was leaving but now he wasn’t moving.

Yi Qiao finished chewing something in his mouth and suddenly asked in a clear voice: “Brother Yang, how can you be together with this kind of person? What on earth do you mean by this?”

He emphasised the words “this kind of person” so heavily and peculiarly that it sounded extremely harsh to me: “Is it inappropriate to drink a bowl of soup with a friend?”

When that group of young men heard this, they abruptly laughed loudly, Yi Qiao especially so: “You’re saying you’re his friend, you admit it? Brother Yang, I want to hear it from your own mouth, let’s not hurt anyone’s feelings.”

Yang Qingzhou’s expression was pale and, in spite of everything, he didn’t answer.

I was confused, regardless of whether he was or not, this shouldn’t be a big deal, I couldn’t help but frown: “Why do you always make things difficult for him?”

Yi Qiao: “What did you say?”

I: “You’re familiar with Qingzhou, naturally you know he can’t hold his drink, so why do you still force him to drink alcohol? The kinds of people he’s friends with, how is it any of your business, why are you pressing him? If you really consider yourselves to be his friends, why are you bullying him?”

Yi Qiao was furious and opened his mouth to curse at me, but he hadn’t even said a few vulgar words when suddenly a serious and dignified voice interrupted him, shouting: “Enough.”

Yi Qiao suddenly stopped talking and turned to bow, “Mister Yang, please forgive this young one for acting out of line.”

That voice spoke again: “Qingzhou, don’t lose face so publicly, come back.”

Yang Qingzhou didn’t even glance at me as he turned around and quickly got back on the boat. As soon as he got on, the boatman lifted the anchor, and the decorated boat set off from the shore.

I paid the bill and patted Ye Tan: “Let’s go, we need to go look for that lost lamb Ye Xiao.”

Ye Tan suddenly asked: “Aren’t you angry?”

I asked: “Are you referring to Yi Qiao or Yang Qingzhou?”

“Yang Qingzhou.” Ye Tan didn’t care about that other low rank cannon fodder at all.

“He was clearly forced by the circumstances, I’ll just clear it up another day. If he really doesn’t consider me his friend, then there’s no shame in it.” I sighed, “Today I unexpectedly felt that he was a little pitiful, I can see that people who have boats to row on are no more happy in their everyday lives than everyone else.”

Ye Tan lowered his head, looking pensive.

He didn’t move for a long time, so I asked: “What are you thinking about?”

“I have thought a lot.... I’m still not clear about it.” Ye Tan seriously said, “When this subordinate clears up my thoughts, I’ll let you know.”

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I nodded: “Okay, I’ll wait.”


Afterwards, a few days passed of going around in circles. I had sent Ye Xiao, A-Heng and A-Shu running around to the various surrounding towns and cities, until we were at last able to collect all the medicinal ingredients that I had asked Yang Qingzhou to lend me. I checked that everything was complete and no errors had been made, and then I went to visit the Yang Lake1 Residence to express my gratitude.

When Yang Qingzhou saw me arrive, he was somewhat taken aback, he didn’t welcome me in, instead taking us back out of the gate and inviting us to take a seat in a simple pavilion at the centre of the lake area.

“Xuanheng, thank you for helping me out that day, and for not bearing a grudge against me.” Yang Qingzhou seriously said, “Xuanheng, could it be that you truly think of me as your friend?”

Shouldn’t that be my line?

I said: “I said it before, it wasn’t a lie.”

A servant girl served us tea, and Yang Qingzhou stroked his teacup as he pondered for a while, and spoke: “Since Xuanheng recognises me as a friend, I have a few questions.... if I may be so bold, I would still like to hear what you have to say, Xuanheng.”

I said: “Please speak.”


Yang Qingzhou slowly considered his wording, and cautiously said: “Xuanheng, you surely know a thing or two about the recent trends in the Jianghu. That day when Qiu Manor and One Sword Tomb let you choose a sword, it was also a way to find out your opinion. If you had picked the one from Qiu Manor, you would have been an ally from then on, naturally, to everyone’s satisfaction..... but it turned out you chose the one from One Sword Tomb, Xuanheng, you.... what exactly are your intentions?”

I was baffled: “.....I’m sorry, I didn’t understand a single word you just said.”

Yang Qingzhou lowered his eyes: “Don’t mind me, I was being rude.”

I sensed that he suddenly rejected me a bit, and hurriedly said: “I really don’t know, what on earth are the recent trends in the Jianghu? What exactly do the Qiu Manor and One Sword Tomb represent? I truly picked the sword that best matched the clothes, I never considered anything else.”

With this, Yang Qinzhou changed again and he began to doubt: “Xuanheng, you’re also a person from the Jianghu, how could you not know anything at all?”

I sighed: “I’m not lying to you, I’ve only just been in this country for one or two months. The things you speak about, I’ve really never even heard a hint of them.”

Yang Qingzhou was clouded by even more suspicion: “Xuanheng doesn’t look like a foreigner.”

I was forced to quickly come up with a lie: “Yes, I used to live on a mountain, I was the only person there and I also don’t know what the mountain was called. Later, I went down the mountain one time, but I couldn’t find the road to go back up again.”

“Just like a banished immortal who mistakenly strayed into the mundane world.” Yang Qinzhou laughed, fixing his gaze on me when he finished, and spoke again: “If other people were to say this to me, I would think of it only as nonsense, but since it’s you.... I can only believe it.”

Before I could say anything, I heard Ye Tan talking to himself behind me: “No wonder.....”

I looked at him with a stupefied expression: You can’t also believe that?!

I don’t feel bad about lying to others, but when I think about ultimately also being one of those people that always lies and scams poor Ye Tan, I feel very guilty. That’s fine, I’ll wait a while until there’s no one around and then explain it to him.


Yang Qingzhou accepted this story and unexpectedly seemed to have relaxed a lot: “If it’s like this..... then everything makes sense. It was my vile heart, I hope Xuanheng doesn’t blame me.” He got up and saluted in apology, then returned to his seat, “Nowadays, the Jianghu has three great powers, the Henglian Alliance, the Zonglian2 Union, and Zhongli Court, they are all unwilling to concede with each other and have found themselves in a mutual deadlock, and since Zhongli Court and Zonglian both behave in somewhat extreme ways, the friction has grown more intense. Before, they were afraid of the consequences of getting involved with that guard by Zhongli Zixi’s side, Yaksha, so no group made a move, but after Yaksha betrayed him and defected to Zonglian, having had his wuggong destroyed and having been expelled from Zhongli Court, this pool of stagnant water was only then able to once again turn back into a torrential current..... After this event, Zonglian and Zhongli Court have been even more hostile towards each other, they had already engaged in a dozen or so bloody battles in the first month alone.”

I was secretly alarmed in my mind, Yaksha’s expulsion had actually caused such a big disturbance. We had been wandering aimlessly for these few months, simply travelling and having fun, almost completely forgetting about the Eldest Young Master’s warning of “Zhongli Court will be involved in war soon”.

“We at Henglian would be happy to see both Zhongli Court and Zonglian worsen and suffer damage. We can only hope for both sides to suffer, so we can properly benefit from their conflict. But since we are located at the heart of the struggle, we are even more afraid of other powers taking root and branching out, which is why recently we have been paying even more attention towards any new faces of unknown origin.....” Yang Qingzhou stopped as he said this, and smiled as he looked at me, “Among these, Xuanheng is the most conspicuous new branch.”

Us two salted fish don’t pose a single threat, how on earth are we conspicuous.

Yang Qingzhou said: “When you first came to Yang Lake, I discovered that there were a lot of people secretly following you. Ultimately, I didn’t know if they were your guards or soldiers sent to investigate you, but regardless of what it was——it indicated that you two were not as simple as you appeared on the surface.”

“As we appeared on the surface?” I wondered.

Yang Qingzhou smiled: “Since we are friends, pardon my discourtesy, but when I first met you I thought you two were both stupid and poor.”

I bitterly held my forehead: “I really..... can’t argue with that.”

Yang Qingzhou laughed for a while, then continued speaking: “Your clothes and sword were not carefully chosen, so you looked to be from a poor family background. The admissions fee for the Swords Conference was considerable, but Xuanheng didn’t even bat an eye, so you didn’t seem to be a poor person. Xuanheng’s manners and etiquette at the banquet were extremely thoughtless..... not even a farmer from a mountain village would be as bad, and calling you uncouth would not be an exaggeration. But when others came to provoke you, Xuanheng resolutely struck back with remarkable strength, both staunch and unyielding, and it whas then that I knew..... I was the one who had eyes but failed to recognise Taishan3 .”

.....No no no you are overestimating me.

A barrage of ten thousand objections flashed across my mind, but I remained calm and collected on the outside. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with my behaviour, but surprisingly it had such deep meanings in the eyes of ordinary people.

“Later, at the competition, the silent guard at your side.... Young Master Ye Tan, was able to cut down a hundred weapons like it was nothing. With you two being this kind of characters, who would dare look down on you?” Yang Qingzhou held up his chin and stared intently at Ye Tan, and continued saying, “Qiu Manor is also an ally of Henglian, so they sent a sword to explore your beliefs. If Xuanheng accepted, you would have been a comrade to Henglian from then on, if you refused, then you would be our enemy.....” He sighed again, and lowered his eyes, “Unfortunately, we didn’t foresee that your extraordinary charm would also attract the attention of One Sword Tomb. If you had.... simply refused Qiu Manor that would have been it, but unexpectedly, you chose One Sword Tomb.”

I asked: “You are from Henglian, what about One Sword Tomb? I’ve never heard of them being one of Zhongli Court’s subordinates, could it be that they belong to Zonglian?”

Yang Qingzhou shook his head: “One Sword Tomb does not belong to Zonglian, they are also on bad terms with all of the powers in the Jianghu..... they are a group of lunatics.”

I was confused.

“One Sword Tomb believes that only the single strongest and sharpest sword should be allowed to exist in the world, to be enshrined and worshipped at the Tomb, and that all others are a disgrace to the path of the sword. Their reason for casting swords is for the purpose of interring them.” Yang Qingzhou took in a deep breath, and his expression became sombre, “Accepting their sword is the same as accepting their desire to bury all the weapons under the heavens.

“Since you accepted One Sword Tomb’s sword, no sect or group on the Jianghu will be friendly with you, and the enemies One Sword Tomb has made will naturally also hold you accountable. That is the reason why you could not get on that boat on that Winter Solstice day no matter what. I was being observed by thousands of staring eyes, so I also could absolutely not admit that I had a friendly relatioship with someone from One Sword Tomb.

“This already has nothing to do with Zonglian or Henglian or Zhongli Court.... Your choice at that time meant that the entire Jianghu has become your enemy. Anyone in the world who possesses martial abilities will treat you as a mortal enemy.”


......

I was stunned: “Can I still return it???”

 

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1 Updated Yang River to Yang Lake. I mixed up the characters the first time I translated it and then I just didn’t catch it until now? Lmao my bad. Top.

2 This is the same as the Zongmeng Union of Ch 24, but this time the author is using the same word for alliance/union for both of the perpendicular powers. Seems like the important part to remember is the prefixes: ‘Heng-’ for horizontal, and ‘Zong-’ for north-south vertical. Top.

3 有眼不識泰山 idiom that means to fail to recognise someone who is important or who has great talent. Taishan, or Mount Tai, is one of the five Sacred Mountains of china (some would say the most important one) and is considered a UNESCO world heritage site, so it’s a pretty big deal. Top.

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