Chapter 028
Author: Feast of Masks
Raws: https://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=3185016
Translated by Pill Bug
Edited by Gumihou
When the other person did not say anything, the little fatty took the initiative to introduce himself. “I’m Mao Badou. The characters mean ‘eight measures’, from the idiom ‘Eight Measures of Talent’. Of course, it could also mean that we have ‘Eight Measures of Surplus Grains at Home’. [1]
Xue Tingxiang could not help but laugh as he asked, “Is your family very rich?” If not, why emphasise so much on surplus grains?
Mao Badou scratched his head awkwardly, “It’s not like my family is that wealthy. We only have a little grocery store. My grandfather gave me this name and this is what he always says to everyone he meets.”
So, it was all a family thing.
Xue Tingxiang held back his laughter and said, “My name is Xue Tingxiang.”
“That’s kind of difficult to pronounce. By the way, where are you from?”
“I am a person from the rural area of Huyang called Yuqing Village.”
As they were speaking someone pushed the door open and walked in.
This person towered over them in height, but their face was open and honest. From the looks of it, he was probably from a rural village of Huyang as well. Sure enough, when the little fatty introduced the youth, Xue Tingxiang learned that his name was Li Datian, his name essentially carried the meaning of Great Field Li. He was, in fact, the grandson of Dawang village’s lizheng or village chief. [2]
Mao Badou and Li Datian had been studying at the private school for two years already. This would be their third year of schooling and they had been living in this dorm together since last year. Therefore, they knew each other quite well.
Thanks to Mao Badao being a little chatterbox, even Xue Tingxiang could not help but be drawn into their talk after a while. While the three of them chatted enthusiastically, the final person entered the room.
The youth was thin, gloomy and silent. From his patched clothes and worn-out shoes, it was clear that he came from a rather poor family. He remained silent from the moment he stepped through the threshold, saying nothing as he placed his bundle by the bed near the door and kept his head down as he made his bed.
“Tingxiang, since you’re new here, I will show you around,” Mao Badou said enthusiastically.
Xue Tingxiang did not refuse, and the three of them left the dormitory together.
The dormitory was situated to the rear left of the library. Beyond the dormitories were the archery grounds. Naturally, this was where students were expected to practice their archery skills. Since ancient times, the Six Arts of a Gentleman were as follows: etiquette, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy and mathematics [3].
Since the previous dynasty, the imperial examination system had seen numerous changes and adjustments, eventually becoming the test for the selection of officials through essay writing. The full practice of the Six Arts of a Gentleman eventually faded out, leaving only etiquette, calligraphy and mathematics. Other arts such as charioteering, music and archery were no longer seen as the standards of a gentleman, which was another word for a refined scholar. These other ‘arts’ were eventually seen as elegant hobbies for the refined instead.
In short, although having an archery ground was a standard feature in places like private schools, official spaces and the Imperial Academy, these ‘archery grounds’ were more symbolic than anything else. At Qingyuan Academy, students mostly used this archery ground to relax and entertain themselves.
The archery grounds were not large, only about half a mu, but they were decorated with many trees and plants. At that time, it was the beginning of the season of rebirth, and there was a vibrant green all around.
As they strolled along the path to the archery grounds, Mao Badou, after a quick look around to check if anyone was around, leaned closer to Xue Tingxiang and whispered, “That Chen Jian is a bit difficult to get along with. It’s best not to talk to him too much.”
From the sounds of it, this was more than just a clash of personalities. Could there be some kind of grudge between these two and Chen Jian? When Xue Tingxiang casually brought up the question, the talkative Mao Badao suddenly became tight-lipped. Even the honest Li Datian was evasive in his answers.
After having talked to these two, Xue Tingxiang could see that they were not the type to practice deep schemes or speak ill of others behind their backs for no good reason. Since the two appeared a little helpless, could it be that there was something truly wrong with this Chen Jian?
Since both of them were reluctant to talk about it, Xue Tingxiang did not question them further and kept the matter to himself instead.
Although it was officially the first day of school, it was meant for students to settle into their respective dorms or renew their friendships. Therefore, official classes would only begin the next day, after the ceremony to honour Confucius.
Mao Badao was the one who informed Xue Tingxiang of all of this. Not only that, he also shared a lot of other information about the academy.
For example, although there were more than 30 students in the school, there were only three teachers, and one of them was the principal. Which meant that teachers were quite scarce.
These 30-odd students were divided into Class A and Class B, with Class A consisting of students with outstanding performances and Class B reserved for newcomers and those who had failed to pass the quarterly or annual examinations. As a newcomer, Xue Tingxiang will naturally be placed in Class B along with Li Datian and Mao Badao, both of whom were not particularly bright.
“I only missed ranking last year because I had an upset stomach during the annual exam. If it weren’t for that bad luck, I would have gotten into Class A and could study under the personal guidance of the principal,” Mao Badao declared.
Li Datian scratched his head honestly and said, “Although my family has high hopes for me, I know my own abilities. I will most likely study for a few years before taking up honest work as a farmer and eventually take over my grandfather’s position.” As the only child of his family, this much was expected of him.
Chen Jian, who shared their dormitory, was also a Class B student. According to Mao Badao, his qualification was rather mediocre. Still, with Mao Badao’s coarse way of speaking, Xue Tingxiang decided to reserve judgment until he had more information.
By that point, he had gained a general understanding of the entire Qingyuan Academy.
The three of them finished their walk around the academy and then returned to their dormitory.
There were more than ten dormitory rooms. Since quite a lot of people were still busy settling in, the whole place was rather noisy. When the three of them returned to their room, they found Chen Jian bent over his desk, studying his book.
His bed was not in the best location. Being next to the door meant that he was far from the window, and therefore lacked lighting. He had also closed the door against the outside noise, which meant that the room was quite dim, making it difficult to study under such conditions.
When the three of them entered, Chen Jian looked up briefly once, before returning to his books. Despite what Mao Badao had said about this fellow, Xue Tingxiang thought that he was quite diligent.
Since there was nothing better to do, what with the atmosphere brought down by the one ‘unsociable’ person in the room, the three of them did not feel like laughing and chatting anymore. Li Datian got out his book and started studying. As for Xue Tingxiang, he took out his half-done transcribing work.
A curious Mao Badao came over to watch as Xue Tingxiang copied the book. After a while, he lost interest and escaped the room. According to Li Datian, Mao Badao was quite the popular one at school with plenty of friends among those who chose to stay at the school’s dormitory.
The quiet room suddenly became noisy again when Mao Badao ran back in, “Tingxiang, Someone sent you something.”
“What is it?” Xue Tingxiang was startled.
Mao Badou shook the brass lock in his hand, “According to the servant, it was a young lady.”
As he spoke, he leaned in with an odd grin on his face, “Come now, tell me quickly. Where is she from, ah? Is she your little sister? She looks pretty healthy~”
Li Datian, looking embarrassed on his friend’s behalf, pulled Mao Badao away and said awkwardly to Xue Tingxiang, “Just ignore him. That’s just him being silly, he means no harm.”
Xue Tingxiang naturally understood. He took the brass lock from Mao Badou and said, “Not my sister, she is my wife.”
That stunned them both. Even Chen Jian, who had been minding his own business and studying, could not help but look up.
“A wife? Just how old are you?”
Mao Badou was only fifteen but prided himself on his maturity. However, Xue Tingxiang was clearly too young to be married. Surely he was not even fifteen yet, but to have already gotten himself a wife?
While it was common for men and women to marry young, young men would usually marry at seventeen or eighteen while women marry at fifteen or sixteen. It was shockingly early for a boy under fifteen to marry.
“We haven’t married yet. We’ll marry once I turn fifteen.”
“So, she’s your fiancée? Well, well, your little wife sure treats you well, coming all the way here just to hand over a lock. Is she trying to lock you down or shackle your heart?”
After learning how to read, Mao Badao felt as though he had opened the door to a brand new world and spent his time secretly reading all sorts of risqué literature, especially popular novels and other light ‘literature’. Most of the pocket money his father gave him was devoted towards buying these things.
However, Xue Tingxiang had no knowledge of this side of his new friend yet and just assumed that this was a typical townie attitude. The youth was well-informed and very good at talking, which was typical of people from town. Fortunately, Xue Tingxiang already had some experience with these townspeople, otherwise, like any young country bumpkin ignorant of the world, he would have been frightened off by Mao Badao’s brash way of speaking.
Mao Badao was still stretching his face forward despite having been pulled away by Li Datian, so Xue Tingxiang unceremoniously pushed the pudgy face away to reach his cabinet. He tested the lock first before decisively locking the cabinet up. “As you can see, this lock is meant for this cabinet and has nothing to do with hearts or people.”
Foiled by Xue Tingxiang’s indifferent attitude, Mao Badao flopped onto his bed and drummed his feet in frustration while muttering about how ‘Xue Tingxiang was too clueless about romance’ and ‘what a waste of his performance’.
Soon, noon came, and with it, lunchtime.
Mao Badou, who had been lying motionless on the bunk, suddenly leapt into motion at the sound of a gong. He flipped upright, nearly knocking Xue Tingxiang’s inkstone off the narrow table.
It looked like he had not noticed this near miss as he flipped once more, this time towards his cabinet, and took out two large bowls, practically rolling off the bed as he yelled, “Hurry up! If we’re too late, we’ll only get leftovers!”
Xue Tingxiang shook his head helplessly at this little fatty’s antics. He tidied up the clutter on his narrow table, sedately took a bowl from his cabinet and got off his bed too.
As the three of them got ready to head towards the dining hall, Chen Jian remained in place. When Xue Tingxiang passed by the youth, he caught the youth making some furtive movements.
The dining hall was located in a small courtyard next to the dormitory.
The hall was spacious enough to house more than 10 sets of square tables and benches. By now, many students have lined up for food. Some wore scholar’s robes while others dressed in simple short coats. The queue shuffled along very slowly.
Mao Badou stomped his foot and lamented, “Late again!”
Meals provided by the school canteen were quite standard. The grains used by the canteen were provided by the students in exchange for meal tickets which the students could use to exchange for food.
Each ticket was valued at a ‘tael’. How many taels of tickets one obtained depended on how much grain the student brought to the school. Xue Tingxiang brought 50 catties of grain and received a large stack of these ‘taels’ in return.
Each ticket could be exchanged not only for the set meals but for side dishes as well. The set meal came with a side dish, of course, but they were all vegetarian dishes which were quite cheap to make. Meat dishes were available as well, but only on order. That is, the kitchen staff would only fry them up if students asked for them.
Finally, it was Xue Tingxiang and his friends’ turn. By then, the bottoms of the two pots of vegetarian side dishes could be seen. One was some kind of Stewed Cabbage and the other was Stewed Winter Melon. Both side dishes were white and did not look appetising at all, which made people doubt the cook’s skills. Moreover, it looked kind of greasy…
Mao Badou clapped his hands and said, “Forget it, just looking at these things ruins my appetite. Luckily, it’s the start of the term and I am still relatively wealthy. Therefore, I shall treat you two to some stir-fried dishes.”
Without waiting for Xue Tingxiang and Li Datian to respond, he boldly pulled out a handful of meal tickets, counted out a stack and handed them to the canteen worker.
“Give me a large portion of Braised Pork with Pickled Cabbage and one Stir-fried Meat with Pickled Beans. I want large portions for both.”
Since Xue Tingxiang had just met them today, he naturally felt a little reserved, but before he could say anything, Li Datian stopped him.
“Just consider it as you doing a good deed for the day. He won’t be able to keep those meal tickets on his person for more than a few days. Instead of wasting them, let’s just appreciate his generosity and eat together. A month later, once he is out of tickets, we can treat him in turn.”
Xue Tingxiang blinked, he was a little confused by this inefficient arrangement but did not say anything more about it.
It did not take long for the stir-fried dishes to be ready. They were served two small bowls, packed to the top, enough to feed three half-grown boys. The boys ordered three bowls of rice and found an empty table to sit down at.
Oddly enough, even though those meat dishes did not look appetising, they still tasted pretty good. As he ate, Mao Badao said, “You can’t tell from the looks of these dishes, but our canteen cooks are pretty skilled. It’s just, their food always turned out bad looking.”
The sour and spicy pickled beans went very well with the rice. Even Xue Tingxiang could not help but gulped down several more mouthfuls of rice.
Now that they were leisurely eating, Mao Badou started up his line of questioning again, “By the way, tell me about your fiancée. How did you two meet? Did your parents play matchmaker? I don’t think so! It looks more like two young lovers who fell for each other and made a secret pact for life! Tsk tsk, why is this so similar to the “Romance of the Western Chamber” story? [4] Come on, tell me more.”
Xue Tingxiang looked at him helplessly.
Please read this at kitchennovel dot com ~
After Zhao’er and Jiang Wu left Qingyuan Academy, the first thing they did was go to a locksmith to buy a copper lock.
Who would have thought that when they returned to deliver the lock, the gatekeeper refused to let her in? In the end, she had to persuade the gatekeeper to help pass the lock to Xue Tingxiang. Only then did the two of them return to the cart and head home.
“Zhao’er, what do you plan to do next? How about we walk around the town for a little while?” Jiang Wi said casually as he drove the cart.
“Better not, Elder Brother Jiang Wu. Find a place to stop the cart later. I’ll change clothes and take you to do some business.”
“Today?”
“Yes, today! I’ve been too busy lately. Otherwise, I would have come to find you earlier.”
After travelling a bit further, Jiang Wu found a secluded spot and stopped the cart.
Zhao’er lowered the cart curtains and then opened a small bundle beside her.
Jiang Wu sat outside, his heart pounding. Just as he was lost in his fantasies, the curtains were lifted, and Zhao’er stepped out dressed in men’s clothes.
“Let’s go to the Southside.”
He glanced at her.
At that moment, it was impossible to tell that Zhao’er was a girl. She was tall and slim, with wheat-coloured skin and sword-like eyebrows extending into her temples. Under those brows were eyes that were neither too big nor too small, yet still particularly dark and bright. Overall, she looked neither overly masculine nor too feminine, but had an extraordinarily striking charm.
Zhao’er looked good in men’s clothes, and even better in women’s clothes, as Jiang Wu had seen.
Sometimes he couldn’t understand how that skinny little girl from back then had grown into this.
Unknowingly, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“Elder Brother Jiang Wu, what’s wrong? Is there some dirt on my face?” Zhao’er asked, touching her face.
This girl was just too stubborn. If she knew his feelings, she would definitely avoid him. It was better to take it slow. If he could get that boy to accept him, half the battle would be won.
Thinking of that, Jiang Wu smiled and said, “It’s nothing. I was just wondering what kind of business you’re planning to take me to.”
Zhao’er gave a sly smile, “In a while, you’ll find out.”
[Gumihou: Uh, way to bark up the wrong tree, Brother Jiang Wu…]
Pill bug TL Notes:
[1] From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_units_of_measurement
| Pinyin | Character | Relative value | Metric value | US value | Imperial value |
| sháo | 勺 | 1⁄100 | 10.354688 mL | 0.3501 fl oz | 0.3644 fl oz |
| gě | 合 | 1⁄10 | 103.54688 mL | 3.501 fl oz | 3.644 fl oz |
| shēng | 升 | 1 | 1.0354688 L | 2.188 pt | 1.822 pt |
| dǒu | 斗 | 10 | 10.354688 L | 2.735 gal | 2.278 gal |
| hú | 斛 | 50 | 51.77344 L | 13.68 gal | 11.39 gal |
| dàn | 石 | 100 | 103.54688 L | 27.35 gal | 22.78 gal |
Little Fatty’s name comes from the Chinese idiom 才高八斗, “Talent as high as eight Dou”.
The original idiom describes Cao Cao’s son 曹子建 Cao Zijian’s outstanding literary talent. As the saying goes, there is a total of one Dan of literary talent in the world, and he himself accounts for eight dou. Ten Dou equals one Dan.
家有八斗余粮 “There is still Eight Dou of grain remaining at home”.
That’s around 80L of rice. At an average of 1.45g/ml, that’s around 116kg of rice at home.
An average person consumes around 100g of rice a day, making that enough rice for around 3 years for one person. Plenty of rice!
[2] 大王村 “Great King Village”. Someone sure had great ambitions in the past!
[3] The Six Arts which form the basis of education in ancient Chinese culture, namely rites 禮／礼 (lǐ), music 樂／乐 (yuè), archery 射 (shè), charioteering 御 (yù), calligraphy 書／书 (shū) and mathematics 數／数 (shù)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%85%AD%E8%97%9D
Six Arts – Part 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn7uLDazMB4&t=0s
Six Arts – Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns35f3QZ300
[4] 西廂記 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Western_Chamber
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