During the meal, Zhong Minyan saw Xuanji put a chopstick of the most hated ginger into her mouth and chewed it, throwing the meat on the table as if it was ginger, and finally holding the bowl and gnawing it slowly as if it was delicious white rice.
He quietly tugged on Yu Sifeng’s sleeve and whispered: “What has her so troubled? Did she quarrel with the master again?”
Yu Sifeng shook his head and did not say anything, extended his chopsticks out steadily and grabbed a pepper that he usually hates to eat and calmly put it into his mouth.
These two people are crazy. The two of them are crazy.
On the other side of Duanping suddenly laughed: “Speaking of which, we have been at Fuyu Island for two days, how come I did not see the pair of very famous double swords together? What are they called …… Pian Pian and Yu Ning, right?”
Xuanji heard the two names and the rice grains suddenly stuck in the throat, coughed fiercely and her face flushed red.
Duanzheng quicjly poured a glass of water and handed it to Xuanji, before saying, “People also have their own things to do, and are not set up at any time for you to visit.”
He doesn’t know! He must not know about Yu Ning’s thoughts! Xuanji looked down and drank water while feeling sorry for Yu Ning.
“You can’t say that. You and those two have some history, so you should come over and say hello!” Duanping moved his eyebrows and winked, doesn’t know how to hint that ‘that young lade is very good, why don’t you go’.
Duanzheng said in a serious manner, “It’s common to get hurt in a martial arts competition, what do you mean by “history”? We have not said a word from the beginning to the end, where is the history of what. According to you, one time you compete with a person is a relationship, how is this something to remember.”
What a hypocrite, hypocrite! After he was hurt by Yu Ning, he obviously hated her so much! Now he is pretending to be generous again. Duanping rolled his eyes and didn’t say anything further.
Xuanji is still thinking about this, how come they didn’t even say a word to each other? When she hurt his wrist, she even went to deliver medicine, that also counted … said a word, uh … the word ‘thank you’ should also be considered words.
The dinner is finished in a troubled way, everyone is in their own mind and went back to the rooms to rest. Zhong Minyan was about to leave when his sleeve was suddenly tugged and Yu Sifeng gave im a wink, he immediately understoof and laughed, “Oh, speaking of which, we haven’t played tiles for a long time. I went to the town the other day and saw a nice deck of imitation jasper dominoes, so I bought them back. How about it, want to play a few games?”
Play tiles? Xuanji didn’t know what to say, she couldn’t remember when they had played tiless.
Ruo’Yu was very quick to agree. The three of them smiled back at her, and Xuanji reacted at once and hurriedly laughed, saying, “Yes, yes! The last time I lost three coin to you, I must win it back this time!”
Zhong Minyan scoffed: “Cut it out, you’re so delusional! If you want to beat me, wait a hundred years!”
The four of them jokingly ran to Zhong Minyan’s room to play, those Fuyu Island disciples followed them for a day and saw that they had no intention of leaving Fuyu Island, so they secretly complained that Master was cruel and assigned them such a boring job. So also became somewhat careless, slowly followed them, squatting in front of the room’s door and began to chat.
The four of them were gathered around the table, crackling the dominoes, when Xuanji suddenly said softly, “I …… don’t know how to play this.”
Zhong Minyan bit his tongue and said vaguely, “Stupid … just make a pattern. Just play the tiles.”
After that, he took out his money and poured out two pieces of silver, and smilingly pushed them up, “Come on, if you want to bet do it right! Put the money in!”
He did it on purpose! Xuanji looked at him helplessly, knowing that she didn’t know how to play mahjong1, but he still came with so much money, clearly wanting to make a profit! She had to take out a tael of silver and put it on the table.
When Zhong Minyan took out the dice and was about to throw them, Xuanji suddenly clapped her hands and laughed, “I know this! A chain in the same suit[2]! I’ll take it!”
She pushed the tile in front of her, and it was a one-colored tile. The dice in Zhong Minyan’s hand fell to the ground with a thud. It’s true they say you can’t bully a novice, the first time she played it she got a full hand! The two five-penny pieces of silver became someone else’s even before they were cold.
The disciples of the Fuyu Island were sitting outside the door in desolation, listening to the shouting from the inside of the room about ‘two cylinders, three-in-a-row, and seventy thousand winnings’. They were playing cards in a frenzy inside, not knowing how long they would be playing but they have to sit at the door all night, not even sleep.
Finally, a man could not hold back and also took out the dice from his sleeve and laughed: “It’s itchy to hear them play, how about we also bet on the outcome?”
This proposal immediately won the favor of the crowd and simply gathered under the window, shouting big and small bets.
They heard a faint sound from the windowsill, it seems that someone opened the window to see, the people hurriedly looked up, only to feel a smell of fresh fragrance that poured out, immediately their bones became soft and they fell to the ground without even a grunt.
Zhong Minyan tucked the small spray bottle of Ruan Xiangsu[3] back into his sleeve and waved back: “All down, let’s go!”
The group jumped out of the window silently and quietly towards the northern slope. There are still many disciples guarding the gate of Fuyu Island, so they can’t expect to go there, they can only try their luck and swim down to the sea for a while, leave the area of the sword net and then fly away.
At the northern slope, probably because of Steward Ouyang, there are also many more guards. The good thing is that there is a forest there as a cover, so they can go in other directions. The four of them easily turned around and came to the entrance of the sea, but it was dark and quiet, no one was there, only the sound of the waves.
The people tied their swords on their backs, rolled up their sleeves and trousers, about to jump down, suddenly heard a splashing sound in the sea, as if something was swimming quickly towards here.
Zhong Minyan hastily drew his sword, retreated two steps and saw the thing on shore gasping for breath, he raised his sword to stab, the black shadow immediately reacted and in a whoosh jumped up, with a salty splash, it jumped high.
“Ah! It’s you guys! I finally found you!” The black shadow let out a cheerful voice, soft and delicate, sounded like a woman.
Zhong Minyan wanted to stab again but listening to her words the sword slowed down a bit. The group focused their eyes to see clearly but all they saw was that the black shadow is fluffy and wet, two big ears twitching around, eyes bright and round, its actually a fox!
Xuanji wondered aloud, “Uh …… its you …… you how ……”
It’s the purple fox from Gao’s mountain, why did she come to Fuyu Island?
Zihu shook the water on her body, and said: “Do not ask why, but I had a hard time to swim up here! It’s all because of that damned sword …… I tell you, Tingnu disappeared! I can’t find him! He’s a mermaid and can’t walk, so if some fool sees him and catches him, he’ll be too kind-hearted to hurt anyone …… and I don’t know how he’ll be tortured!”
The people were shocked, Zhong Minyan hurriedly said: “How did you get separated? That day were you not in the cave to escape the rain?”
Zihu sighed and glared at Xuanji, saying, “It’s all because of this little girl! I saw that you had set off an early warning signal at the bottom of the mountain, so I said I would go and help you. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we encountered a group of vicious demons who released the Bi Fang bird to burn us before we could say a word. He is a man of the sea, so he is good at water, but I cam not! When we got into the water, we were swept away by the undercurrents and we didn’t know where we were! When I got to shore, I couldn’t find Ting Nu. …… I heard you guys say you would come to Fuyu Island, so I thought it would be better to look for one place rather than many people. …… I, I spent a lot of effort to find it! Tingnu he …… has helped you so much, you can not ignore him!”
The people were silent when they heard that.
Ziu saw that they did not say anything, anxiously waving a big tail, shouted: “You really do not care about him! You’re so heartless! I thought you were good people! If Ting Nu dies, I …… will definitely find you guys to settle the score!”
The fox cried out, but it was somehow comical, despite its misery.
Xuanji sighed and said softly, “Of course we won’t leave him alone, but …… we are in a hurry to find Mount Bu Zhou.[4]”
The purple fox shook her ears and smiled smugly after listening to everything, “You are going there for nothing! With just a few of you, even I can win a fight, not to mention those demons! And they are trying to break the iron chain, release that person, I can only be happy!”
After seeing the people are speechless and staring at her, she suddenly felt as if what she said was unseemly for this situation, then coughed twice, and said: “I have heard of the soul-takinging technique, indeed, as long as you find her two souls and six bodies the problem will be fixed. How about this, I’ll take you to Buzhou Mountain, but as a reward, you have to find Ting Nu first!”
Zhong Minyan said urgently, “Do you know how to get to Buzhou Mountain?”
Zihu laughed: “Of course, I used to go there when I was a kid. However, there is Shenshu at the top of the mountain to guard the gate of the underworld, no one can go near. As long as you don’t go there, I can lead the way to other places.”
Hearing her say this, Zhong Minyan couldn’t help but be moved: “Shenshu[5]? Is there really a god guarding there? I thought …… I always thought …… that was just a legend.”
The purple fox looked at him pityingly with a look that implied ‘you are so ignorant’, and said charmingly, “Mortals, the eyes of mortals can see no one but themselves. Every mountain is guarded by a mountain god, and Kunlun Mountain is the Heavenly Emperor’s garden on earth, where any one of them is a god. You want to see, you can see whenever you want, now let’s go find Ting Nu. After finding him, I’ll take you to Bu Zhou Mountain. It’s very quick, the sword flying is only half a day’s work.”
Xuanji was the first one to roll up her trouser legs and jumped into the sea. The cold water sent a shiver down her spine and she turned bach to them and waved, “Quick! Let’s go! Let’s go find Ting Nu!”
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[1]: Mahjong or mah-jongg is a tile-based game that was developed during the Qing dynasty in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century.
The game is played with a set of 144 tiles based on Chinese characters and symbols, although some regional variations may omit some tiles or add unique ones. In most variations, each player begins by receiving 13 tiles. In turn players draw and discard tiles until they complete a legal hand using the 14th drawn tile to form four melds (or sets) and a pair (eye).
[2]: 清一色 (qīng yī sè) – in Mahjong is a Full Flush. A hand consisting of number tiles of only one suit.
[3]: 软 (ruǎn) 香酥 (xiāngsū) – is the name of a Shaoyang Sect herb that they use to subdue people. literally the name translates as 软/ruǎn (soft) 香酥/xiāngsū (crisp-fried)
[4]: Mount Buzhou was an ancient Chinese mythological mountain which, according to old texts, lay to the northwest of the Kunlun Mountains, in a location today referred to as the Pamir Mountains. It is the mountain said to have supported the heavens, against which the Chinese water god Gonggong smashed his head in a fit of anger, requiring the goddess Nüwa to repair the sky. Nevertheless, once the spacer between the Earth and Sky was damaged, the land of China was permanently tilted to the southeast, causing all the rivers to flow in that same direction.
[5]: 神荼 – (Shentu or Shenshu) is one of the two door gods in Chinese mythology known as Menshen. It can found in an early text from Shanhaijing. The gods were later incorporated into Taoism.
Lazy Cat Translations 