Copper Coins Chapter 2

*

Novel Summary from jjwxc.net (Translated by radishtears):

It was the twenty-third year of Tianxi*. Rumours traversed the streets that the all-knowing Imperial Advisor suffered a great calamity and could not help but enter seclusion to focus on cultivation. However, the commoners secretly clapped their hands and rejoiced. In the winter of the same year, a young monk appeared in the Hui Zhou Fu's Ningyang District.

The monk's monastic t.i.tle was Xuan Min, his memories all missing, yet was versed in the arts of Feng Shui Kan Yu**. On the very first day arriving in Ningyang, he did not hesitate to take care of a dangerous manor, picking up Xue Xian, who was hidden there, along the way.

Since then, Xue Xian - who had been all-powerful in the first half of his life - gained a new life pursuit: to get this baldy*** who had only a good outer appearance to take his last breath and "smile from his grave".

Xue Xian: If you are unhappy, then I will be happy. If you die, I'll laugh my a.s.s off.

Xuan Min: …

The dynamic: Aloof, repressed monk top (actually fake) x hot-tempered, eccentric bottom (actually dumb)

*Apparently a 34 year period during the Liao Dynasty. The 23rd year = 1200 AD.**Feng Shui art: a mix of geology, astrology, reading the energies, etc. Didn't bother to research so I'm not super familiar with what this is tbh***literal translation: bald donkey

=========================================

Chapter 1 Paper man (1)

In the summer of the 23rd year of Tianxi, a dragon fell in Huameng County, Guangdong Province. It was very tall, its length tens of feet. It was trapped in a net, with split skin, torn flesh and missing its spine. When officials and the people went to look, a coincidental rain poured, causing the waves to crash and the tide to surge. The dragon was then swept into the sea, never to be seen again. —Records of Huameng County [1]

Winter of the same year, Ningyang County, Huizhou Prefecture.

Wugeng#'s gong had just been sounded. It was still dark, yet faint voices could already be heard from Xingtang street. The waiter of Nine Taste restaurant carried some freshly made steamed buns and went to set up a breakfast stand in front of the building.

The watchman came, rubbing his hands and bought three buns. He swallowed one in two bites, swallowing it with difficulty and while frowning at the Nine Taste restaurant's waiter said, "Well? Is the thing prepared?"

"It's prepared. Here." The waiter patted the lunch box kept beside the drawer with a distressed face.

Astonished, the watchman said, "You've really gone and prepared it? What if he... the thing doesn't come today?"

The waiter shivered in silence and said dryly, "I pray to my ancestors, please don't come."

This Nine Taste restaurant was a relatively famous restaurant in Ningyang County. The chef's nickname was "Liu Sanyang". It was said that he could walk the world with three famous dishes, namely, roasted meat with peach, clay pot roast chicken and crisp pear with masked palm civet. The meat was pork belly without skin, the chicken was a pheasant caught just off the mountain, and the civet had to be raised in the snow.

The Nine Taste restaurant relied on these three dishes and was full of customers every day. But Liu Sanyang was a man who put on airs when it came to his dishes. He only provided ten servings a day, not a single extra serving. So if you wanted to eat, you'd have to come early.

However, for ordering solid food as early as five o'clock, one would most probably have to be a little sick in the head.

This dear guy who had been sick in the head had been here for two days straight.

On the first day, he ordered three dishes from the waiter and never spoke again. It was really boring. In the cold winter, when a normal person breathes out and opens their mouth, a white mist would form, but his face was clear and transparent, not the slightest hint of mist. On the next day, he asked for more - not to put the clay pot chicken in the clay pot, not to put star anise, fennel, crisp pear, oxtail, not to put pear...

This requirement wasn't like requesting a proper meal for breakfast at all, but more like smashing its reputation. However, the waiter not only didn't shoo away the suspect guest, but also served him, all the while trembling, for two days. Today, he even prepared all the lunch boxes in advance.

He looked at the sky. Legs trembling, he stretched his neck like a chicken and asked the watchman, "It's almost time. How-how-how are you not trembling?"

"I walk through the night as my job, why would I tremble?" The watchman lowered his voice and said: "Besides, it hasn't been peaceful this year. It wouldn't be unusual to see any demons. Have you heard about the true dragon that was spotted in Guangdong in June? It was lying on the beach. I heard that someone removed its spine and bones! Dragon bones! What omen is this? In the last two months, it was rumoured that the National Advisor almost died—"

Before the watchman finished speaking, the waiter looked terrified and looked as if he wanted to slide beneath the stall. "Here he is, he-he-he's here again..."

As soon as the voices stopped, there was a man who looked like a scholar standing in front of the stall.

He looked ordinary, with a weary face and his cheeks showed an abnormal red color, like a long dry fire. This man was wearing a long grey-green robe that was as thin as the man himself, like someone had draped a piece of cloth on a stick. It seemed as if the wind would blow him up to heaven with it.

Under the light of the white lantern, the watchman stared at the scholar's face for a long time. Even when the steamed bun in his mouth went cold, he did not swallow it.

The scholar murmured to himself, "Here we are", and slowly raised his head, looking at the waiter with flat black eyes. It was terrifying.

The waiter immediately clamped his legs together and felt like peeing.

"Excuse me, roasted meat with peach please—", this scholar had a nice voice when he was speaking properly. It was unlike the tone he was using earlier, but it didn't fit his expression nor did it match the shape of his mouth. It looked even more terrifying.

The waiter averted his eyes, picked up the lunch box and handed it to him cautiously: "All, all of them are ready. Inside porcelain jars, without pear or star anise. They're just out of the pot and still hot."

The scholar seemed to choke for a while. He stared at the food box for a moment and then gave a reaction slowly, "Thank you."

His voice was hoa.r.s.e and differed slightly from the one before.

The food box seemed to be a little heavy for the scholar, as if a kilogram of pendants were hung onto a tree branch. He walked a lot slower than when he had come and took a long time to get far.

The watchman shivered and returned to his senses.

The waiter said with a pale face, "Have you seen it this time? That face... Eh? What are you doing in such a hurry?"

Watchman: "I want to pee!"

Waiter: "..."

However, as soon as the watchman left, he came back again with his gongs and stick.

Before the waiter spoke, the watchman patted him on the shoulder and made funny faces at something far away: "Look over there!"

Just across the street, a white shadow appeared silently from the dark.

The waiter who had just been startled immediately felt his knees go weak, thinking that he had seen something dirty again. Fortunately, he took another look and found that it was a monk. He was wearing thin, plain white monk's clothing with wide sleeves. No other color could be seen from head to toe, as if he was in mourning. It was very unlucky to see something like this early in the morning.

The waiter didn't understand: "I see it, but isn't it just a monk?"

The watchman said in a low voice: "I glanced at him when I pa.s.sed by just now and saw that he has five emperor's coins hung on his waist!"

The five emperor's coins were used to drive away evil spirits and for gate-keeping. It was rumoured that the National Advisor favoured them and always hung a string on his waist. From then onwards, the five emperor's coins had been the item most commonly used by the people who exorcised ghosts for a living. Although there were some charlatans among them, most of them had a few tricks up their sleeves.

From a distance, the waiter looked at the monk from top to bottom and thought that he had an indescribable aura. In short, he didn't look like a charlatan. He couldn't care less anyway. Three days was already the limit. And if the scholar visited again tomorrow morning, he might've lost control and peed on the spot.

The monk walked slowly, but came near soon enough. Seeing as he was about to pa.s.s the stall, the waiter quickly called out to him: "Master, please stay!"

The monk's steps halted. The hem of his white robe swayed gently, yet it was unstained by dust. He cast a glance towards the waiter. The gaze was calm yet without warmth, somehow even colder than the wind blowing on his face. It wasn't until he came close that the waiter noticed that he was quite tall, so much that his gaze was directed at him from above. This made the waiter shrink back a step inexplicably. He b.u.mped into the watchman who had also shrunk back a step.

This b.u.mp knocked the courage right back into the waiter's stomach. He opened his mouth again: "I noticed that there are five emperor's coins hanging on the master's waist. Are you familiar with the skills to exorcise evil spirits?"

The monk glanced at the copper coins on his waist without much of an expression. He did not say yes, nor did he say no.

The waiter glanced at the watchman awkwardly and thought that this monk was colder than the evil winds of this winter month. He froze, mind blanking out from the chill. He did not know how to continue.

Thankfully, the watchman was more resistant to the chill and spoke for him. In a few words, he described the appearance of the scholar-like visitor and said to the monk: "We weren't familiar with the face, but we could never mistake it. That was the son of the Jiangs' who ran the medicine hall. But...But the Jiang's medicine hall burned down three years ago. With the exception of the daughter who has been married off to Anqing, no one survived, all of them died in the fire! As the saying goes, 'wugeng time is when the ghosts roam'. A dead person appearing for three days straight and it so happened to be at wugeng time. How could it not be terrifying?!"

The monk glanced briefly at the sky and finally opened his mouth. He spoke three words coldly: "Where is he?"

On hearing this, the waiter suddenly became excited. He pointed at a bend some distance away and hurriedly said: "He just left! I'm sure he hasn't reach the door yet! I recognise the Jiang's medicine hall. Master, shall I, shall I lead the way?"

Soon, however, the waiter regretted saying this and wanted to slap himself: Who told you to run your mouth!

How much did he hate life that he'd agree to walk in this cold winter beside a human icicle. The waiter was sure he had lost half of his life just walking these few alleys. He glanced at the young monk from time to time, repeatedly. Still, he didn't dare ask what he wanted to and instead memorised the small mole on the side of the monk's neck.

Before the waiter would freeze to death, they finally arrived at the corner of the back lane leading to the Jiang's medicine hall.

Just as the waiter had predicted, the scholar who looked like he couldn't stand the wind hadn't made it through the door and was inching step by step in the alley with the lunch box in hand.

Strangely enough, he was murmuring to himself in two different voices. Sometimes it was clear and pleasant, sometimes low and hoa.r.s.e.

"Did you go up a mountain by yourself and catch a chicken for me? With this speed you're going at, can we even reach by the end of this month?" This was the clearer one.

"Still beats not being able to walk." This was the lower one.

"I think you're sick of being alive."

"Nope, I just died three years ago."

"……"

The scholar played two characters by himself and acted out a play of "what do you mean you're so sick" in two voices. After that, he turned into a paper man and slipped through a crack in the wall of the Jiang's medicine hall.

After witnessing the entire ordeal by accident, the waiter was terrified to the bone and wanted to escape. He had his feet in the air before remembering that the icicle monk was still beside him and hurriedly took out a money pouch, shoving it into the master's arms. While he was still muttering "For your compensation," he was already two li# away.

The monk creased his brows and lowered his eyes, sweeping them over the money bag.

Who knew when was the last time this thing was washed. The color had long since been unrecognizable and it reeked of oil from a long time ago.

He wanted to throw the dirty thing as soon as he touched it, yet he hooked it back before the string had a chance to leave his finger. With an almost indifferent face showing slight disgust, he carried the money bag and walked quietly to the front of the Jiang's medicine hall.

The waiter who had escaped back to the Nine Taste restaurant caught his breath while supporting himself against a wall and with no less hand gestures, finally managed to describe what happened to the watchman who helped him guard the stall while he was gone. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Hiss-- The master earlier looked familiar."

"You watch the stall all day. So many people pa.s.s by, of course you'd say everyone looks familiar." The watchman said gruffly.

"……" The waiter gasped for air and straightened up. His gaze swept past and caught on the wall that he was leaning on support for.

A "wanted" poster from half a month ago was hung up on the wall. Unfortunately, it had snowed heavily right after it was posted. After it was frozen and drenched, the picture could not be seen clearly anymore the next day. He had only taken a quick look at the time and it left a blurry imprint in his mind.

Now, more than half the poster had been peeled off, leaving only the neck area. However, a mole could still be seen, in the exact same place as the one on the master's neck.

The waiter felt excitement surge through him: This was a wanted criminal that had a bounty on his head!

-----

The author has something to say

I'm here again~

This novel may contain a lot of dog blood#. Xuan Min is gong, Xue Xian is shou, don't board the wrong ship ~ still 1vs1, HE, kisses ~

Note [1]: The first paragraph is the original source of inspiration, which is translated from the seven repair ma.n.u.scripts written by Lang Ying. The original text: My friend, the father of Jin Mao, visited Xinhui County of Guangdong Province at the end of Chenghua. One day, just after the morning tide, a dragon fell onto the sandy ground from the air. The fishermen, each with their own wood planks, beat it to death. The officials and the people looked at it. It was very tall and could be as tall as a person. It was tens of feet long, with scales on its head and feet, just like a painting, but its belly was only red. This could be described very clearly by anyone who had seen it.

******

Translation: nucleatedrbc and LunaaChecking: ascii—Suibian Subs and Scanlations

Chapter 2 Paper man (2)

The Jiang's medicine hall was located in YanChao alley. Most of the wooden structures had been destroyed in the fire three years ago and only half a room towards the west end had survived. It could still provide shelter against rain and strong winds, but nothing more than that. Unsuitable for humans to live, but a great place to hide ghosts.

Jiang Shining, son of the Jiang family who hadn't even turned twenty yet, had become a stray ghost in his own backyard.

He slipped into the house through a crack and hesitated, but his mouth was not idle-

"Is the front door and the wing room separated by the East China Sea?", the clear voice couldn't hold back anymore.

Jiang Shining finished speaking with his own mouth and rolled his eyes with a weary face. After a moment of silence, he said in a lower voice: "I'm in, but the lunch box is stuck outside."

He scoffed, talking to himself: "Awesome job."

A moment later he changed his voice again and said: "I'm flattered."

Jiang Shining: "..."

Judging from the slightly green face that shone in the moonlight, he didn't want to open his mouth anymore.

The three crumbling walls of the room had turned black from the smoke and the north-facing window was now a gaping hole. There was no morning light during wugeng# time in winter, save for a shadow of a crescent moon that shone a pale light in a corner of the room. The person who sat on the side of the window hole was half drenched in solemn moonlight, half hidden in darkness.

He was dressed in a robe that blended in with the night and had two curves under his well-structured eyebrow bone. His deep black eyes reflected just a bit of light and it was easy to tell just from his silhouette that this person was good-looking… But half his face that was visible in the moonlight was too pale, the wrist bone that supported his chin was also very prominent, showing a state of serious illness.

In fact, he was sick- He couldn't stand up, nor could he walk.

As for the cause of the illness? n.o.body knew, not even ghosts knew. He stayed at the Jiang house for four days and except the fact that his surname was Xue and his given name was Xian, Jiang Shining knew nothing about him.

"I'm begging you, please change your posture. You can't even sit properly. Your upper body will also be paralyzed if you sit crooked like that all day." Once Jiang Shining entered the room, he stuffed the lunch boxes into Xue Xian's arms. Before he died, he had at least read ten years' worth of sage books and his eyes hurt whenever he looked at Xue Xian's lazy posture.

"Paralysed after only sitting incorrectly, did you take me as you?", Jiang Shining had just turned away and he opened his mouth to chide himself in that clear voice.

"......" Jiang the scholar was thoroughly unwilling this time and crumpled his face towards Xue Xian, saying: "I've stepped inside already. Ancestor, can't you use your own mouth to speak?"

Xue Xian opened the lunch box cover and squinted his eyes, smelling the still warm food. He finally opened his mouth lazily: "All right, I'll tire myself for the sake of the meat. You want some?"

Jiang Shining said, "Are you going to burn them to ashes for me?"

Xue Xian: "Keep dreaming."

"Just eat your food!", said Jiang Shining and did not pay any more attention to him. Instead, he walked towards the edge of the wall and crumpled into a thin paper man, sliding onto the floor- He could walk only for a limited number of hours every day and had to rest once his time was up.

This paper man must have been cut out by some genius; the edges looked like they had been bitten by dogs, but with just a few strokes it depicted Jiang Shining's features clear enough. However, there were two rouge blushes on his cheeks, making it seem silly amongst the creepiness.

After a moment of lying dead on the floor, he got sick of Xue Xian's poor mannerism and came back to life, frowning at him: "I've wanted to ask this since two days ago, why can't you use such a simple thing as chopsticks?"

Xue Xian raised his eyebrows and glanced at him blandly: "Thanks for asking. My upper body has also been paralyzed for quite some time. Only recently have I been able to sit up, so I still can't handle chopsticks yet."

He then lifted his hand and threw an a.s.sa.s.sination weapon right at Jiang Shining's forehead, knocking the paper man back onto the ground. He seemed very impatient.

With some difficulty, Jiang Shining turned his head to look at the a.s.sa.s.sination weapon: Bleh, chicken bones!

The paper man stopped for a moment and then as if he had just remembered something, struggled upright: "Let's talk this out, can you not add two red splotches on my face next time?"

Xue Xian was even lazier this time, answering with one single word: "No."

Jiang Shining: "..."

As the saying goes, after dinner comes the reckoning. If not for Xue Xian helping him make this paper body, he might have still been floating around mindlessly for who knew how long.

But concerning this matter, Jiang Shining was a little confused-

Huizhou was a vast place and wasn't lacking in abandoned houses. He could have taken shelter in any one of them, but he just had to choose an empty house such as the Jiang's medicine hall. Who knew what he had been possessed by? Besides, Xue Xian mentioned during the first day he came that he was here for an important task. But even after four days, except for eating, all he did was help Jiang Shining by making a paper body for him.

It couldn't be that his important task was to make a paper man, could it?

Jiang Shining lay on the cold ground for a while and once again came back to life as if he had remembered something.

Xue Xian had a bad temper and was already impatient by the second time. He stopped him directly the third time: "I'll cut off your mouth if you talk anymore. If you have something to say, say it tomorrow morning."

Jiang Shining said hurriedly: "One last thing."

Xue Xian side-eyed him: "I get a headache every time you talk. I'll get paralysed if you talk anymore. Now shut it."

"I felt someone following us when I was entering the door, so I took a glance when I entered the yard. He looked like a monk. He had a string of copper coins hanging by his waist. He should be at the door by now." Jiang Shining flopped back onto the floor after saying this and there was no more movement by the paper man.

So far, he had used up all his hours today and until dark, he could neither move nor talk and could only be a spectator at best.

Xue Xian: "..."

A monk following a ghost, what can he do?

A monk with a string of copper coins hanging by his waist following a ghost, what else can he do?

Such an important matter, you nerd, why didn't you say it earlier?!

With Xue Xian's violent temper, back then when he was able to move, he would have sent Jiang Shining as well as the entire house up to the heavens. But now, he could only stare impa.s.sively through the hole as the door creaked open from the outside.

These days, charlatans that relied on only talking for a living were everywhere. Xue Xian had had his fill of them and knew that those who did have some skills relied on experience to succeed. So the older they looked, the harder they were to fool.

Therefore, when the monk who was outside the door stepped in, Xue Xian heaved a sigh of relief- The visitor was unexpectedly young and Xue Xian could tell that he wasn't a charlatan, but he wasn't that far away from one either. When he swept over the monk, who was still far away, and the copper coins hanging by his waist, with his extraordinary eyesight, he was completely relieved.

The more capable they were, the more evil spirits they would have exorcised. From a distance, they looked quite different from the common copper coins. The copper coins would have a l.u.s.trous surface like they were coated evenly with oil. Although some people could imitate this layer of yellow shine by using unscrupulous methods, they could only fool the eyes of the ordinary people at most, but not Xue Xian.

The young monk in front of the door didn't even bother to imitate. Let alone the bright shiny surface, even the surface of the copper coins had almost worn away. Who knew where he might have found them from. Maybe they hadn't been properly used even once.

You want to earn a living with that? With what? With your face?

Xue Xian sneered silently and put down the lunch box. He cast a layer of camouflage and turned it into a wooden pillar with scorched marks.

He quietly leaned back in his seat and his tall and thin body crumpled. Within a blink of an eye, he had also turned into a thin paper man, but the edges of this paper man were much smoother than Jiang Shining's and the paintwork was quite fine as well. Plus, there weren't any red splotches on his face.

Jiang Shining, who couldn't move on the ground: "..."

This showed that someone was probably an *sshole, a pure b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

The thin paper man possessed Xue Xian slid down the chair and laid next to Jiang Shining's paper man. In the blink of an eye, the two pieces of paper on the ground transformed into a layer of dark moss lying on the ground, integrating completely with the dilapidated house perfectly.

If it had been more than half a year ago, Xue Xian would not have done such a troublesome thing. Whoever ate a belly full of courage and came knocking at his door, he would have blown up a new grave for them on the spot. Now, however, he had no other option but to bend and put up camouflage spells layer by layer—

He had just recovered from full paralysis to partial paralysis and it was extremely difficult for him to move from one place to another by himself. There was only a limited amount of energy that this paper body could withstand and it was fortunate enough not to dig his own grave.

Fortunately, the monk who came here this time was an embroidered pillow#. Only his face had any worth.

He guessed that the monk would take a look around, find n.o.body in sight and would leave, go back to where he came from.

The young monk in white stopped in the courtyard, looking around coldly.

The Jiang's medicine hall originally had three main rooms, three wing rooms and a medicine garden with a large front door. It was not a small house. However, after the big fire and three years of abandonment, everything could be taken in in just a few glances...

The monk retracted his gaze, raised his feet around the debris on the ground and walked straight to the remnant west wing room.

He stepped inside through the door of the chamber and the fingers hidden inside his sleeves twitched imperceptibly. Subconsciously, he rubbed the copper coins on his waist with the pad of his thumb and then let go with a slight frown.

Jiang Shining, who had turned into moss and was stuck to the ground, stared fixedly at the monk's footwear, deathly afraid that he would step on him when he came in for a round. Xue Xian, on the other hand, rested leisurely and did not pay attention to the monk at all.

Sure enough, the wing room was so small that it could be swept through at a glance. The monk didn't even enter, just stood at the door for a while, then turned around and left.

Xue Xian scoffed again, silently.

But in a moment, he couldn't scoff anymore… Because the monk was back!

He had a piece of white linen in his hand when he returned. Judging by the material and size, it had been torn carelessly from the hem of his clothes. With a piece of copper, that n.o.body knew where it came from, wrapped in the piece of clean cloth, he walked over to Xue Xian calmly, bent down and shoveled "moss" Xue up from the ground.

Xue Xian: "..."

When he shoveled it up, his eyebrows were clearly wrinkled. If one wasn't mistaken, it seemed to be an expression of slight disgust.

Xue Xian: "..."

How dare this baldy think that he was dirty!

Translation: nucleatedrbc and LunaaChecking: ascii—Suibian Subs and Scanlations