Lanke Chess Edge

Chapter 455: The Couple Returns Home

Sun Yaya rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but she didn’t actually know what foxes looked like; she had never seen a live fox, only their pelts in the market, which were brightly colored. “Sir, is there a big red dog over there?”

Sun Yaya tugged at Ji Yuan’s sleeve and pointed to Hu Yun by the stone table. Ji Yuan glanced at Hu Yun, hearing her words, and that the latter’s hair was indeed standing on end.

“I’m not a dog! Have you ever seen such a beautiful dog? I’m a fox! A fox! A red fox!”

Hu Yun stood up, baring his teeth and brandishing his claws, and jumped in front of Sun Yaya, gesturing wildly as he argued with her.1 He hated dogs more than anything else in his life, followed by thugs and hooligans.

This terrified the little girl, who immediately shrank behind Ji Yuan, hugged him, and screamed.

“Sir! Sir! It can talk! It can talk!!!”

Hu Yun immediately covered his mouth and cautiously looked at Ji Yuan, who shook his head slightly and walked back into the courtyard.

Sun Yaya followed nervously, her eyes fixed on Hu Yun.

“Sir, this…this fox can talk, is it a monster? Will it eat people?”

Ji Yuan walked straight to the stone table in the courtyard, sat down, and carefully read the contents of Yin Qing’s letter. He pointed to the paper on the table and spoke.

“Yaya, practice your calligraphy.”2

“But, but…”

Sun Yaya hesitated, her eyes never leaving Hu Yun. Then she looked at Ji Yuan, only to find that her teacher was not reacting in any particular way.

Hu Yun walked back into the courtyard, put his two front paws on his hips, pointed at Sun Yaya, and then pointed at himself.

“You…can you see me?”

Sun Yaya glanced at Ji Yuan again and noticed that he was engrossed in reading the last few pages of the letter and hadn’t noticed what was happening here. Recalling the fox’s words, a thought suddenly struck her.

‘Could it be that Mr. Ji can’t see the fox, and that’s why he’s ignoring it?’

Although Sun Yaya did not answer, the little girl’s gaze was fixed on him, making Hu Yun realize that he had asked a pointless question. So he gathered his monstrous power again and used his spiritual technique.

That wasn’t enough. Hu Yun knew that Mr. Ji had mentioned the issue of focus, so he shifted his body and jumped behind the stone-slab-covered well in the courtyard, making himself disappear from Sun Yaya’s sight. Then he tiptoed out from behind the well again.

Sure enough, Hu Yun saw that Sun Yaya was still staring at the well and hadn’t noticed that he had come out, which meant that she couldn’t see him anymore.

Ji Yuan glanced at Hu Yun. He had also seen the Red Fox’s actions. Looking at Sun Yaya’s reaction, he could only say that the little girl’s own spiritual sense had grown increasingly sharp.

The little girl noticed that the fox hadn’t come out after quite some time. She glanced at Ji Yuan, then walked around the trunk of the jujube tree to the well, and looked around, only to find that the fox wasn’t there. She looked around but couldn’t find it anywhere else.

“Yaya, practice your calligraphy.”

Ji Yuan called out again.

“Oh…”

Hearing her teacher call her for the second time, the little girl responded and obediently returned to the table, picked up her brush, and began practicing calligraphy. However, she kept absentmindedly glancing around the courtyard.

Just as dusk fell and the hour of You arrived,3 Sun Yaya bid farewell to Mr. Ji and left Ju’an Pavilion to go home. As soon as Sun Yaya left, Hu Yun immediately jumped out again.

“Mr. Ji, Yaya really saw me just now! Although it was partly because I spoke up to get her attention, her eyesight has improved a lot.”

“There’s nothing to be surprised about. Young children, especially toddlers, are very perceptive and can see strange things. As Yaya’s spiritual perception is growing stronger, so it’s not surprising that she could see you.”

Then Ji Yuan added another sentence.

“Many children may have seen some supernatural things when they were young, but they suffer from protective amnesia as they grow up.”

Hu Yun made a mental note of it, then jumped onto the stone bench and looked at the letter on the table.

“Sir, when exactly is Yin Qing getting married? If you’re going to his wedding, can you take me with you?”

“No rush, no rush. You don’t need to travel. He will bring his fiancée to Ning’an County and personally visit some close relatives like his uncles and cousins. Of course, he will also come visit Ju’an Pavilion.”

According to the customs of Ning’an County, an engagement could either be a big deal or a casual affair. Some betrothal arrangements only required a verbal promise. However, for weddings, one had to personally visit relatives to invite them.

Given Yin Zhaoxian and Yin Qing’s circumstances, whether due to their status or busy schedules, this step could have been omitted. However, for some reason, Yin Qing clearly wanted to bring Princess Changping along for the invitation.

“Really? When will they arrive?”

Hu Yun suddenly became excited. Compared to the restrictive environment of the capital, Ning’an County was much more comfortable. He could even take Yin Qing to visit Niu Kui Mountain.

Nowadays, none of the spirits, whether they be jackals, tigers, or leopards, dared to provoke Hu Yun. It wasn’t that Hu Yun was powerful enough to be invincible within Niu Kui Mountain, but rather that the animals and spirits in the mountains were afraid of Lu Shan, and by extension were are also afraid of Hu Yun, who often appeared alongside him and shared a similar scent.

Niu Kui Mountain even lacked a mountain god for quite some time now entirely due to Lu Shan’s presence. The name “Lord Lu Shan,” which Hu Yun had learned from a group of spirits, meant “Lord of the Mountains,” and in some obscure tomes it was also used to refer to a fierce tiger that reigned supreme over the mountains.

Unless necessary, Ji Yuan didn’t bother to divine his friends’ trivial matters, but it was clearly permissible in this situation. So, after a quick calculation, he smiled at Hu Yun.

“Their wedding boat is already on the Chunmu River, so probably in a few days. You can make preparations, it might be difficult for you to attend his wedding.”

“Okay, I’ll head back to Niu Kui Mountain now!”

With that, Hu Yun jumped off the stone bench and leapt over the wall. After he left, Ji Yuan frowned slightly as he looked at the letter in his hand.

“It seems Qing’er trusts his future wife very much!”

The fact that he could directly state in his letter that he would bring Princess Changping to Ju’an Pavilion, based on Ji Yuan’s understanding of Yin Qing, implied that there were no secrets between husband and wife. Otherwise, Yin Qing might not have even planned this trip to Ning’an County.

Indeed, it wasn’t just to satisfy Ji Yuan; he knew that Yin Qing’s trip back to his hometown with Princess Changping was less about inviting the elders of the family according to local customs, and more about inviting Ji Yuan specifically.

…

In Chunhui Prefecture, Yin Qing led Princess Changping on a tour of the academy where he had studied. They also went to the large willow tree reaching out over the river, while some of the servants and guards stayed a little further away.

“Dear fiancée,4 is this the place you used to come to study when you were a student?”

“Indeed, this is the place where I came to recite poems to the river, both to cultivate my character and to let the fish and shrimp in the river hear them.”

Princess Changping covered her mouth with her fan and smiled.

“Yes, yes, that was an interesting story you told me, dear fiancée. You said that when you were studying here, a big fish and an old turtle would occasionally come by and linger in the water.

“By the way, dear fiancée, how big were that fish and turtle?”

Seeing Princess Changping’s playful expression, Yin Qing made a serious gesture with both hands.

“Bigger than a person, definitely bigger than you think.”

At this moment, two guards came from the direction of the city. They were not dressed in guard uniforms, but rather in tight-fitting clothes, each carrying a jug of wine.

“Sir, we have bought it.”

“What is this? Wine?”

Princess Changping asked in confusion. Yin Qing picked up one of the jars, shook it, and explained.

“This is Chunhui Prefecture’s famous wine: Qianrichun. These two small jars… right, they’re twenty years old, aren’t they?”

“Reporting to Your Excellency, both jars are 20-year-old Qianrichun. We watched the owner of Yuanzipu dig them up from the wine cellar in the warehouse.”

Yin Qing nodded.

“Alright, you didn’t shortchange him, did you?”

The guard smiled.

“Of course not. If the shopkeeper hadn’t insisted that he wouldn’t sell them, I wouldn’t have shown him the imperial order for procurement.”

“Next time, if you can’t buy a 20-year-old one, then forget it. There’s no need to show the imperial decree.”

Yin Qing offered a light criticism, and the guards quickly clasped their hands and acknowledged it. Their main duty was to protect Princess Changping, but they dared not disobey Lord Yin.

“Alright, there are so many places worth visiting in Chunhui Prefecture. Let’s come back another day to explore them properly. Today we visited the academy and the River God Temple, and strolled along the riverbank. That’s about enough. We should board the boat and set off now.”

“Yes, we’ll do as you say, my lord!”

Thus, the group turned around and started walking towards the dock.

From the willows along the far bank in the other side of river came the sound of water rippling. Princess Changping subconsciously turned her head to look and vaguely saw a very large fish swimming away in the water.

Following the Chunmu River and branching off onto the Xiaoshun River, the large tower ship finally docked at the pier at the foot of Laohua Mountain. Yin Qing and Princess Changping waited on the ship for a while before boarding a carriage prepared by the servants, and traveled along the mountain road through Laohua Mountain.

While admiring the scenery along the mountain road, Princess Changping suddenly asked a question.

“Dear fiancée, is there really a clear pool deep in Laohua Mountain, with little fish whose bones melt when boiled in soup?”

“Yes, there is indeed…”

…

As a princess and her prospective husband, even if they tried to keep a low profile, they still needed a large entourage. Three carriages and a dozen or so riders accompanied them. In a bustling place like Chunhui Prefecture, this wouldn’t be particularly notable, but in a “countryside” region like Ning’an County, they immediately stood out from the crowd.

As the carriage and its entourage entered the county, many people nearby whispered among themselves, speculating about the identity of the important figures who had just arrived. The carriage proceeded to Tian Niu Lane under this scrutiny, without sending anyone to inform the county government.

T/n: subtlety, thy name is Hu Yun T/n: Ji Yuan, gaslighter extraordinaire XD ~5-7pm, dusk So the literal translation here is “my lord,” which can also be translated as “husband,” but they are not married yet and “my lord” is just weird, so I’m using “dear betrothed” or “dear fiancée”

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