“Don’t think I’ll tell you just because you helped a little.” The young girl looked straight ahead with a sweet smile, speaking in a flat tone. “Anyway, it’s not what you’re thinking—gambling to determine the world’s fate, one tile one city or anything like that.”
“You really overthink things.” Tie Ci looked at her strangely. “What ‘one tile one city, gambling to determine the world’s fate’—have you been reading too many third-rate fantasy novels? Setting everything else aside, do you even have a city?”
“I…” The young girl wanted to speak but hesitated, her cheeks visibly puffing up with anger.
“Then you should at least tell me what you’re gambling for, right?”
“We’re not gambling for anything!”
Seeing Tie Ci walking away, she thought for a moment and finally added: “It’s not about winning or losing, just about mood!”
Mood? Whose mood?
Tie Ci walked onto the small boat, sat down and said to the elderly man: “It seems you all don’t gamble for money? Mahjong without money has no soul. Old sir, let’s set some stakes!”
Those two people looked at her in unison, their eyes clearly saying “Ah, how vulgar you are, how dare you be so vulgar in front of this person!”
“You seem quite wealthy and generous.” The elderly man skillfully shuffled the tiles. “How about one hundred taels?”
This was quite a high amount. Tie Ci asked: “Gold? Silver?”
Young Master Qi said disdainfully: “To defile this game with such worldly things, you should really…”
“Then let it be gold.” The elderly man said casually.
The other two: “…”
This time their eyes clearly said “You should have said so earlier! If you’d said earlier we could win money, we’d be happy to give money too!”
The elderly man quickly built the wall. “…Winner pays the loser.”
Those two were stunned again. The woman in colorful robes tilted her head, clearly struggling to calculate whether she should win or lose now.
Winning meant having to pay money which was more than welcome, but giving money had already been proven not to please, and the old sir obviously didn’t like losing.
But soon the two didn’t need to worry about it.
Because Tie Ci was the true king. As soon as she sat at the table, she swept across like a tiger devouring thousands of li, using extremely exquisite tile technique to win twelve consecutive rounds.
The counting chips in front of her were piled mountain-high.
Even more wonderful was that, though no one knew how she calculated it, from beginning to end, it was basically the elderly man alone who lost the most.
This left those two with constipated expressions, truly not knowing whether to console the old sir for losing money or congratulate him for earning money.
But clearly, the pleasure of receiving money couldn’t offset the frustration of losing money. The old sir’s expression grew darker and darker. After twelve rounds, the sun reached its zenith and everyone’s stomachs began rumbling. The elderly man suddenly knocked down the wall with a clatter, saying that would be enough for today.
Those two stood up as if relieved of a great burden, while eagerly inquiring when the game would start tomorrow. As they asked, they glared at each other, coldly mocking that even if this side agreed, the other would still have to queue up—what was the point of arranging tomorrow’s time?
Tie Ci sat motionless. She had lost a total of two thousand taels of gold to the elderly man.
Across from her, the old sir slowly pulled out an enormous money pouch and shook it at her.
Tie Ci didn’t move.
The old sir shook it again.
Tie Ci still didn’t move.
The woman in colorful robes said in surprise: “You… refuse to pay?”
Her expression was rarely quite pleased.
She had originally worried this was a dark horse who would steal her opportunity.
Turns out it was just an idiot.
Tie Ci shook her head. “I won’t refuse to pay. But old sir, I have no money. Paying debts is natural law, and when one has no money to repay debts, compensating with one’s person is also natural law. How about this, old sir—I’ll do odd jobs and labor for you to offset this debt, would that be acceptable?”
The other three: “…”
You can travel all the roads in this world, but you can’t escape your schemes!
No one had ever been allowed to stay overnight in the valley. So many people sought but couldn’t obtain the chance to stay in this valley for even half a day. The opportunity to play tiles with the old sir had people fighting tooth and nail in the courtyard, but playing tiles was just to pass time and try to fathom his preferences, hoping that perhaps someday they might gain his favor. For this they carefully won, carefully lost, carefully neither won nor lost, and every day had to rack their brains seeking the chance to enter the valley again to play tiles…
And here comes some bastard from who knows where, using such shameless rogue tactics, planning to stay in the valley and gain the advantage of proximity!
The three were about to go mad, all saying in unison: “No way!”
But the elderly man laughed, pointing to a thatched hut: “Then you sleep there.”
“Old sir!” This time all three called to the elderly man together.
“He’s being a rogue!”
“This isn’t fair!”
The elderly man put his hands behind his back and slowly strolled away, not looking back: “Rogue or not, fair or unfair. You’ve come so many times—how come you never thought of this?”
Those three were speechless. The petite young girl stood dazed for a long while, then suddenly her eyes blinked and tears came streaming down.
She was actually crying from anger.
As she cried, she said: “Old sir! How can you be so heartless! I’ve brought my brother here to play tiles with you for three months! You won’t relent, and you even… even…”
The elderly man listened with smiles, even nodding as if deeply agreeing. But his facial expression clearly read:
You’re right.
But I’ll do it again next time.
The cold woman in colorful robes, however, sat down with a thud and said: “Old sir, need… cleaning up… much… I… help.”
She didn’t forget to turn and say to the petite woman: “Your… brother… causes trouble… leave… early.”
The petite woman’s tears stopped as soon as she willed it. She wiped with a handkerchief, her face clean and dry, and said with a stern little face: “You… a… foreign… woman… can’t even… speak… clearly. What… can you… help with? Can you… brew tea? Or can you… burn incense?”
With a sharp sound, the woman in colorful robes drew the curved blade at her waist, flashing like a bright rainbow. Young Master Qi suddenly pressed down on her half-drawn blade with one hand: “Hezhuo! No fighting here!”
Tie Ci’s eyes flashed.
Hezhuo was the Western Rong term for noble leaders. If she remembered correctly, today the only person who could be called Hezhuo and was also a woman was the Western Rong King’s sister-in-law, the younger sister of the Western Rong Queen.
The Queen came from a great clan no less prestigious than the Western Rong King’s lineage. Her family held extremely high status in Western Rong, and her sister was the female clan leader of that tribe, thus she was granted the title of Female Hezhuo by the Western Rong King.
This one seemed to also be Dan Ye’s little aunt?
Tie Ci heard Young Master Qi quietly say to the petite young girl: “What are you making a fuss about? Staying here at night might not necessarily be a good thing!”
After the petite young girl and the woman in colorful robes exchanged a few more words, they also knew that continuing to make trouble would only displease their host further. They each fell silent and politely took their leave. When the child was led away by his sister, he was still reluctant to part with the ants, crying and refusing to go. The petite young girl coaxed him while forcefully pulling him, working up a sweat, but always kept her brother protected in her arms.
Seeing her real struggle, Tie Ci gave all the remaining honey syrup to the child, telling him: “Take this with you, and all the ants will follow you. Isn’t that fun?”
The child became happy and walked away sprinkling honey syrup all the way. When the group left, they all looked at Tie Ci with eyes full of envy and jealousy.
Once everyone left, Tie Ci rolled up her sleeves, ready to work hard. She had recently learned quite a bit of housework and several dishes in the small village, so she wasn’t afraid of the old man being difficult.
Who knew the elderly man just looked her up and down a few times and said: “Didn’t sleep last night?”
Tie Ci: “Ah? No… yes, but it doesn’t matter…”
“Sleep when you’re tired. Why be hypocritical at such a young age?”
“Yes. But keeping one’s word is also a young person’s integrity. Since I’m not very tired yet, I should quickly repay the debt with labor. Whatever you need, old sir, please just give me orders.”
“Then just sweep around casually.”
“What would you like for dinner, sir? I can make wild scallion scrambled eggs, soft-boiled eggs with wild garlic, roasted venison, I can…”
“I don’t eat eggs, don’t eat scallions or garlic, don’t eat meat.”
“…Then I can make porridge.”
The elderly man smiled and pointed to the front under the eaves. Only then did Tie Ci see countless dishes on the table ahead, with flavors covering both north and south, including frying, braising, cooking, and deep-frying.
“The young fellows see this old man all alone and pitiable, so they send lots of food every day. I’m just worried about it spoiling, so you can help me eat more.”
Tie Ci: “…Oh.”
Not only did she not need to worry about food, but the ground was actually almost spotlessly clean. Tie Ci swept with the big broom for ages and only managed to sweep up one fallen weed.
The water vat was very full, the vegetable garden’s black soil gleamed, and the pigs in the pen were cleaner than she was.
Her Imperial Highness the Crown Princess very much wanted to humble herself and show her affability to this important figure through practical actions, but this small estate, like its master, was spotless with no cracks to exploit.
The elderly man was gentle in attitude but didn’t chat with her at all. Most of the time he sat in his study, slowly playing with a brush holder on his desk.
With nothing to do, Tie Ci discovered for the first time that leisure could also be awkward. She waved her big broom around everywhere, gradually walking to the depths of the valley, where she discovered that the clear stream from the valley entrance had turned into a circle here, surrounding a small independent garden. A small white jade bridge spanned the water, with a white stone path on the other side and rivers on both sides where water lilies had not yet bloomed. The characters “Nai He” were spelled out in black stone on the bridge, while transparent small fish clustered around equally crystal-clear water flowing below—exquisite and plain like an ink painting scroll.
Though the scenery ahead was also beautiful, it had rich colors full of earthly atmosphere. This small garden spot, however, followed a cold and elegant style that seemed out of place.
Tie Ci couldn’t help thinking of the brush holder the elderly man always held, with ink-wash beauties painted on blue porcelain—the same style.
Tie Ci instinctively walked onto the bridge. Looking down, she saw two shallow impressions on the bridge. She crouched down and placed her fingers in those impressions, then withdrew her hand as if electrocuted.
These impressions actually looked like… two toe tips…
Someone had once stood on this bridge for a long time, hesitating to move forward, and over the years had worn two footprints into this spot.
What kind of person would linger here for so long?
Tie Ci looked again at the characters on the bridge—Nai He… Nai He Bridge.
And that long path behind the bridge looked like a tomb passage, with water lilies on both sides facing each other like… stone guardian figures.
This was… a cemetery.
Author’s Note: Today I’m trying another new format—dividing into chapters but updating them all very quickly together so it won’t affect the continuity of everyone’s reading experience. What do you think?
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