Way of Choices II_Youths We Were, Schoolmates

by Mao Ni

  Xuanyuan Po stood by the roasting deer, waiting for the meat to cook, his eyes fixed in an unblinking stare. Tang Thirty-Six stood with knife and plate, occasionally gulping in anticipation. Only Chen Changsheng was not by the bonfire. Even though the Grand Examination was soon to begin, he did not relax in the slightest, but strictly continued his routine. How could he possibly eat something as unhealthy as roast deer?

  He was still swiftly moving through the snow by the lake, borrowing the memories of his body to make the Yeshi Step an instinct. The question leaked by Priest Xin was not at all difficult for him. At present, he had at least three methods of crossing a lake, but using them would expose his secrets and would harm his chances in the one-on-one matches, so he was still thinking of other methods.

  After some time, the deer was done roasting. Xuanyuan Po called across the lake to him and he waved back, indicating that he really didn't want to eat any of it. He then saw Xuanyuan Po tear at the meat with his arms, Tang Thirty-Six cut at the meat with his knife, and Jin Yulu carry out a pot of good wine that he refused to share with the two youths.

  Chen Changsheng shook his head, thinking to himself, What's so good about wine and meat? …But the ox tongue had truly been delicious. As he thought about these insubstantial things, he climbed up the great banyan tree and stood at the tip of one of its thick branches. The snow had stopped, and he stared silently at the white roofs and black eaves of the capital, his hands on his waist, for a very long time.

  There was probably a vast plain of snow outside the capital by now.

  There was also a vast plain of snow in his own body.

  Perhaps right beneath his palms.

  That snow plain was entirely made of star radiance. At any moment, it could be converted into an incalculable amount of true essence.

  Although he did not dare to touch this star radiance, its existence soothed his mind.

  He was just like the wealthy young master who possessed a ridiculous amount of wealth. He only had a few pieces of silver ready to use, yet he did not dare untie the bundle carrying ten thousand taels of silver. A demon was also inside that bundle, and if he untied it, that demon would escape.

  A normal person in his situation would probably have gone crazy by now, but he was still very calm.

  To have was always better than to lack.

  If ten thousand strings of cash were wrapped around his waist, even if he couldn't spend it, it was still something worth being happy about.

  He stood on the tree branch and looked upon the snow-covered capital, his heart happy.

  Only the sealing of the well in New North Bridge made him somewhat concerned.

  Just then, a white puff of smoke shot out of a distant cloud.

  At the very head of this smoke was a pure white crane.

  With several clear cries, the White Crane flapped its snow-white wings and landed on the tree branch, its weight causing the branch to slightly sink.

  It had returned from the Longevity Sect in the south, carrying Xu Yourong's letter with it.

  Chen Changsheng remembered that it had been a very long time since he had written that letter to Xu Yourong and was somewhat confused as to why she had not written back for so long. He was also curious as to what she had written in this letter. Was it still that he should not misunderstand, that he should do his best, or was she giving him a silver banknote?

  Fine, he admitted that this final scenario was too ill-intentioned; she would probably not do such a thing.

  He took the letter from the White Crane's body, opened it, and began to read. Then, he fell quiet for a long period of time.

  In this letter, Xu Yourong mentioned the Ivy Festival, offering him her congratulations. She mentioned the Grand Examination, offering him her blessings. She also mentioned that because of some matters she needed to take care of in South Stream Temple, she could not return to the capital to attend the Grand Examination. In his letter, Chen Changsheng had requested a face-to-face interview, but she could not fulfill it at this time.

  Lastly, she mentioned the White Crane, asking him just what he had done for the White Crane to treat him so amicably. She also told him to not misunderstand, she was just curious about the matter and didn't mean anything else by it. She also said that she had heard that he wanted to take first rank of the first banner in the Grand Examination. It was not convenient for her to offer any evaluation on this, so she only wished that he did his best.

  Very good.

  'Do not misunderstand', 'do your best'.

  Both phrases were included.

  Chen Changsheng shook his head, crumpled the letter into a ball and intended to toss it below into the cracks in the ice created by Xuanyuan Po. Unexpectedly, the White Crane closely stared at him, forcing him to put the paper ball into his bosom.

  Thinking about the matter Xu Yourong asked about in the letter, he felt incredibly grateful toward the White Crane, and warmly rubbed its neck.

  He suddenly remembered something and asked the White Crane, "Can you stay in the capital for a few days?"

  * * *

  The winter had just passed and spring had not even truly begun to return to the world. The branches peeking into the streets of the capital were still plum branches, not plum blossoms. The branches had only newborn daubs of green, no complete leaf in sight. In this period during which a haze of green enveloped the world like the oft-occurring morning fog, the Grand Examination began.

  To be continued…

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  [1] TN: The line about hunting geese but being blinded by one is uttered by Sun Wukong in the Chinese novel 'Journey to the West'. It is said when Sun Wukong, who usually swindles things from others, is swindled by the Bull King.

  [2] TN: Jin Yulu, '金玉律', literally translates to 'golden jade laws', and the aforementioned saying is to mean that rules and laws must be respected.

  [3] TN: Baidi, '白帝' translates to 'White Emperor'.

  [4] TN: '没劲' can mean 'boring' or 'tired/lacking in strength'.

  [5] TN: This horse-racing method is to race the weakest horse against your opponent's strongest horse, your strongest horse against their average horse, and your average horse against their weakest horse. It was proposed by the military strategist Sun Bin, a descendant of Sun Tzu, during the Warring States Period.

  [6] TN: The Three Forms of Wenshui take their names from the first line of a poem by Xu Zaisi,西山夕照, 'Sunset at Xishan'. The line goes “The evening clouds gather, the sunset hangs, a stream of maple leaves, two riverbanks brimming with reeds.”

  [7] TN: Another line from a poem by Xu Zaisi,皇亭晚泊, the title of which translates to 'The Evening Pool at the Imperial Pavilion'. This line is part of the first line, going “The waters shallow, the waters deep, flowing east or west. The clouds come, the clouds go, far and near the mountains.”

  [8] TN: The term 'Four and Nine City' is another name for the capital of China, specifically Beijing. It refers to the four gates of the Imperial City and the nine gates of the inner city, Beijing having once been divided into an outer city, an inner city, and the Imperial City.

  [9] TN: Chess here refers to Go, which has a nineteen-by-nineteen grid as a board. Three-three is a corner position and is a classic opening move.

  [10] TN: This refers to a myth in ancient China that when an antelope slept at night, it would hang its horns on a tree.

  [11] TN: This final line is evoking the image of the waters of a river dropping all the way until the white stones at its bottom are revealed. The line originates from 'An Account of the Old Toper's Pavilion' by Ouyang Xiu.

  [12] TN: Flying White is a literal translation of Feibai. It is also an actual calligraphy style noted for using a brush that is not dipped in very much ink to write characters that end up with the center of the strokes being white from lack of ink.

  [13] TN: A line from the poem 'Self-Ridicule' by Lu Xun.

  [14]

  [15] TN:
Pai Gow is a game played with dominoes where hands are formed from domino tiles and one tries to get the highest value hand. Mahjong is a rather complex game played with 144 tiles and one attempts to form the best hand against three other players. The four players sit around a table, each representing a direction.

  [16] TN: To look at someone through the eye of a needle means to look down upon/underestimate them.

  [17] TN: Chinese coins of the past had holes through the center so that they could be threaded on strings. The meaning of Tang Thirty-Six's saying here is that seeing how people act in front of money gives you the best idea of their character.

  [18] TN: This rather vulgar phrase is an adaptation of a line from 'The True Story of Ah Q' by Lu Xun. The original line features a monk who gropes a nun; the protagonist Ah Q using this as an excuse for why he should also be allowed to grope the nun.

  [19] TN: A memorial in this case refers to memorials to the throne, the formal means of communicating a message to the emperor, usually in the form of an essay.

  [20] TN: This is a line from the short poem其二 by Zhao Yi, a poet of the Qing Dynasty. The full poem is “The poems of Li and Du were once on everybody's lips. Now they lack any freshness. Talented people appear out of the rivers and hills with each generation, each with their own works that will last for centuries.” Li and Du are Li Bai and Du Fu, two famous poets of the Tang Dynasty. The meaning of the quoted line is that the fame of each generation will eventually supplant the last, pushing forward the world.

  [21] TN: The final part of this line is a reference to a poem by Su Shi, a Song Dynasty poet, which he wrote after seeing his wife in a dream ten years after she died.

  [22] TN: This is a famous Buddhist saying expressing that all the truths of the world can be found even in a single flower.

  [23] TN: Chinese astronomy has twenty-eight constellations. The 'twelve knights' is probably a reference to the Twelve Knights of the Round Table.

  [24] TN: ‘哑语’, sign language, shares the same starting word as ‘哑谜’, which means ‘riddle.’

  [25] TN: New North Bridge is an actual place in Beijing, and a similar legend exists with regards to it.

  [26] TN: The words 'rocks' and 'annoy' here are硌 and硌应. The latter term might be directly translated as 'responding with rocks' and is a slang term that means making someone feel uncomfortable.

  [27] TN: The Chinese term for joy used here is痛快, which is made up of the words '痛' and '快', which mean 'pain' and 'quickly'/'pleasant' respectively.

  [28] TN: Ancient Chinese coins had holes in the middle, so you could tie them on a string, usually termed in English as a 'string of cash.’ If you had so many coins that you could have ten thousand strings of cash, you would be ostentatiously rich. Of course, tying them all around your waist would probably break it.

  [29] TN: 'Black bear' can also mean 'coward.'

  [30] TN: 'Other shore' can also refer to the Buddhist concept of paramita, meaning perfection.