Chapter 19: A Qing
Yuan Ye and A Man chatted all night, getting a basic understanding of the major families in Owari Province. Along the way, he also obtained a disproportionate map of Owari Province and its surrounding areas from the medieval period, with most of the locations of mountains, rivers, and cities being incorrect, but all the place names were present 《》.
A Man chattered all night until her mouth was dry. Feeling she had repaid his stewed chicken and white rice, she contentedly pulled up her small quilt, patted her belly, and fell asleep, letting out a satisfied snore. Yuan Ye, on the other hand, spent some more time looking at the familiar and unfamiliar castles, family names, and family crests on the map, diligently recalling relevant historical information and making annotations in Pinyin.
A good memory is not as good as a bad pen. While his memory was still clear, he should quickly write it down. Otherwise, if he stayed here for too long, he might forget some things, and it would be too unfair to die because of it.
When it was late at night, he couldn’t recall anything and blew out the lamp to rest. However, his mind was too full of information. Facing this Japanese Warring States period, which was completely different from his ingrained impression, he couldn’t fall asleep at all, his mind racing with thoughts.
The historical knowledge he possessed didn’t align at all with what A Man had said!
In this chaotic and bizarre era, could he, a foreigner, truly survive safely?
Just as he was feeling uneasy, his sense of superiority from transmigration beginning to waver, he suddenly heard A Man shout, “Who is it!?”
Immediately after, the sounds of punches and kicks, blocks and collisions, grunts, and the sharp cries of some animal followed one after another in the dark earthen floor room, instantly descending into chaos.
Yuan Ye instinctively rolled to the side of his foolish son, Meng Ziqi, and also grabbed the signal flare gun and taser from under the covers. His wild thoughts turned into a belly full of curses.
He was truly speechless. He had only exchanged a little over ten copper coins, which, calculated at the price of rice in later generations, was equivalent to only twenty to thirty thousand RMB. While not a small amount, it wasn’t excessively large either. Was it necessary to attract thieves for two consecutive nights because of this?
However, before he could finish complaining in his mind or figure out how to help in the dark, the fight at the edge of the earthen seat was decided within a few breaths. In the darkness, A Man let out a scream, seemingly struck heavily. With a “splat,” she fell and went silent. She probably couldn’t win and was forced to play dead again.
Yuan Ye’s gaze sharpened. He dared not hesitate any longer. Listening to the sounds to locate the position, he was about to fire a shot towards the intruder’s approximate location. At the very least, he wanted to stop them from pursuing A Man further, or to attract their attention, giving A Man a chance to sneak attack and turn the tables. But as soon as he raised his gun, he heard a clear voice, with a hint of hesitation, softly call out, “Sister?”
There was a moment of silence in the darkness, and then A Man’s groans and complaints immediately came, “You bastard! I wondered why it felt like a little beast was digging at me, but it was you… hiss, my eye… it hurts so much! Damn it, you still have the nerve to call me sister? You’ve grown wings now and dare to hit even me. I saved you in vain back then. I might as well have saved a dung beetle…”
After another moment of silence in the darkness, a voice emerged, “You kicked me first, Sister.”
“Would I have kicked you if you hadn’t come near me? Besides, I didn’t kick you, did I? Look what you did to me…”
There was no more movement in the darkness. The intruder did not continue to reply, seemingly unwilling to argue with A Man. Only A Man’s groans and complaints continued incessantly, constantly chattering about how ungrateful the intruder was and how they were worse than a dung beetle.
Yuan Ye took out a fire starter and lit the oil lamp. He saw that A Man had fallen from the earthen seat onto the earthen floor. Not only was she covered in dirt, but her hair also looked like it had been clawed by some animal. One of her eyes had a black and blue bruise around it, making her look extremely pitiful and miserable. At the edge of the earthen seat, where she had been lying, stood a strange little girl, with a red-eyed little monkey perched on her shoulder.
As soon as the little girl saw the light, she instinctively turned to face him. Her expression was blank, her gaze clear and focused. She placed her hand on the shuriken at her waist and slowly bent down into an attacking stance. The little monkey on her shoulder also rose, baring its teeth at Yuan Ye, revealing sharp canines, as if it could leap up at any moment and turn his head into a bird’s nest.
“Alright, alright, stop being so nervous,” A Man said, scrambling back to the earthen seat, clutching her bruised right eye in pain. “We’re all on the same side. Don’t fight anymore. It’s me who suffers when you fight.”
She had been having a rather happy day, with exceptionally good luck. She had been caught during a black-on-black operation but wasn’t killed. She even got to eat fatty chicken and rice and drink tea from the Ming Dynasty. She never expected to face another ordeal in the middle of the night, almost losing an eye for no reason. She truly had the worst luck in eight lifetimes.
As she lamented and complained, the strange little girl obediently relaxed her stance, lowered her eyes, and stopped staring at Yuan Ye. The monkey on her shoulder also quieted down but still stared at Yuan Ye with wide, curious eyes. It was likely a Japanese macaque, with white fur, red face, and a short tail. It wasn’t large, weighing only about seven or eight jin.
A Man sat there, still clutching her eye for a while, then hissed and painfully introduced them to each other. “Hiss, you two, get acquainted. Ha, A Qing, this is the Western Samurai Yuan Ye I just met… hiss, what was your courtesy name again? Oh, Yuan Ye Saburo… A Qing, this is Lord Yuan Ye Saburo, a Western Samurai who just treated me to a meal. He’s a decent person. And, hiss, this is my sister, A Qing, and the little beast she raised, Rotten Asshole.”
A Qing looked about the same age as A Man, but she was a head taller. However, she was very thin, even thinner than A Man, who wasn’t fat to begin with. A Qing looked even more slender and delicate.
In terms of appearance, she, like A Man, dressed as a young boy. She had short hair, bangs, a dirty little face, and a small bun haphazardly tied on top of her head. She wore a tattered, patched coarse cotton cloth outfit and went barefoot in straw sandals. However, the two of them bore no resemblance to each other, making it highly unlikely they were biological sisters. A Man had a round face, big eyes, and bean-shaped eyebrows, while A Qing had a small, delicate oval face, delicate eyebrows, and narrow eyes. Her temperament was also less lively and spirited than A Man’s, instead possessing a distant, aloof aura that kept people at arm’s length.
Simply put, she looked like she had been taken out of a refrigerator after three days.
Yuan Ye glanced at her briefly and then gave her a polite smile. He didn’t treat her dismissively just because she was young and instead nodded respectfully, “Hello, I look forward to your guidance in the future.”
When A Qing had stared at him with that cold gaze just now, he had an instant feeling of being targeted for death, his hairs standing on end. Therefore, he was exceptionally polite.
Of course, it might have been a hallucination.
A Qing looked up at him with a cold gaze, then lowered her eyelids and remained silent, appearing quite impolite.
A Man, unfazed, casually explained to Yuan Ye, “Don’t mind her. That’s just her personality. She’s not talkative; it takes three strikes to get a fart out of her.”
Yuan Ye glanced at A Qing, waved his hand, and smiled, “It’s alright.” Knowing that the sisters must have something to discuss, he tactfully went to the earthen floor to start a fire, preparing to boil an egg for A Man to apply to her eye.
It was truly tragic. In just this short while, A Man’s one eye had swollen shut, appearing shiny and black and blue. It looked incredibly miserable no matter how you looked at it.
After Yuan Ye left, A Qing walked over, looked down at A Man, and asked, “Sister, what happened? Didn’t you get caught trying to steal something?”
Before the righteous black-on-black operation, A Man had left her a secret message, saying she was going to Hibitsu Village to earn some extra money and that A Qing shouldn’t wander off but wait for her in the castle town of Nagoya, after which they would head west together.
A Qing had indeed waited obediently after seeing the secret message. However, A Man hadn’t shown up to meet her by morning. She suspected A Man had fallen back into her old habits, going to gamble again after stealing money.
To prevent a repeat of the previous tragedy, she quickly went to the casinos and gambling dens to look for her. She searched all day but couldn’t find her, which led her to suspect that A Man was in trouble. Theoretically, with A Man’s skills and experience, if she intended to steal money, she shouldn’t have been caught even if she failed.
So, she hurried over and rushed to Hibitsu Village. She even tied up a night watchman to interrogate him and discovered her suspicions were correct: her sister and two river pirates had failed in their theft and been caught.
The river pirates had already been sent to Aragiko Castle, and their fate was dire. Her sister, however, was being held in the village by an outsider samurai.
Originally, she had mentally prepared herself for her sister to be tortured into a rag doll, her killing intent soaring. She planned to sneak attack Yuan Ye first, rescue her sister or find out her whereabouts, and then slit Yuan Ye’s throat in front of her sister, washing away the humiliation her sister had suffered with blood. She never expected her sister to be lying sprawled by the earthen seat. As soon as she touched the earthen seat, it was a case of mistaken identity.
A Man was wearing a strange outfit （ her clothes were smelly and needed changing, but Yayoi only had one set of clothes and couldn’t lend her any. So, Yuan Ye cut a piece of cotton cloth, made three holes in it, and put it on her to make do for now ）. She slept on the earthen seat covered by a strange mat. To be honest, it was a bit bizarre, and she couldn’t understand it at all.
“Nonsense! Who said I was caught? How could I possibly be caught? No one in this world can catch me!” Hearing A Qing say that, A Man felt a bit embarrassed. A Qing’s words were an insult to her professionalism and a lifelong stain. She couldn’t admit it.
She quickly recounted the “Six Mon Coins” incident to prove her good intentions, that she had saved a life, and that she was a 24K pure gold diamond-encrusted good person.
The reason she was here now was definitely not due to lack of skill or ability, rendering her injured and unable to move. It was purely because she was too kind, and Yuan Ye had forcibly kept her to express his gratitude. After saving him, she had intended to leave discreetly, her merits hidden. But Yuan Ye was too moved, clinging to her leg on the ground, tearfully begging her to stay and accept his hospitality. She had no choice but to reluctantly enjoy the fatty chicken and rice and sleep temporarily by the edge of the earthen seat.
A Qing listened silently, likely not believing a word, but she didn’t argue with A Man. After A Man finished explaining, she softly said, “So that’s how it is. Alright, Sister, shall we go now?”
“Go now?” A Man blinked, hesitated while covering her bruised eye, and her tone was very hesitant. “I don’t think we need to?”
A Qing frowned slightly in confusion and looked down at her, not quite understanding why she wanted to linger at a stranger’s house, especially with a samurai.
A Man turned to glance at Yuan Ye. Seeing him starting a fire and not paying attention to them, she lowered her voice and said to her, “He bought a lot of rice. We’ll eat for a few days before leaving. Anyway, the old man won’t be back anytime soon. We can wait anywhere. At most, we can go to Nagoya and leave him a letter.”
“But Grandpa’s orders…”
A Man interrupted her before she could finish, “You don’t need to worry about gathering information. I’ll tell the old man when the time comes. At worst, we can fart at each other, and who knows who’ll die first!”
A Qing was silent for a moment, then lowered her eyelids and said, “But he’s a samurai. Samurai are not good people. We shouldn’t stay here!”
“That’s true, samurai are all bastards, but… he seems different,” A Man hesitated for a moment, glanced at Yuan Ye, and whispered, “Someone like me, when caught by him… uh, saved by him, he actually believed my words and didn’t kill me. That’s a bit strange. No matter what I, a lowly thief, said, he should have just killed me. He should have felt it beneath his status to even speak to us.
But he didn’t. He even treated my injuries, gave me new clothes, gave me chicken to eat, let me sleep in the earthen floor room, and spoke to me politely, as if treating me as an equal… He doesn’t seem like a samurai, at least not like an ordinary samurai. It should be fine to stay for a few days.”
A Qing fell silent, silently protesting. She clearly disagreed with her words but didn’t want to argue or refute. She could only express her dissatisfaction in this way. A Man, however, didn’t care if she was happy or not. Seeing that she had nothing more to say, she waved her hand and made the decision, “Alright, alright, I’m not wrong about people! Besides, the old man isn’t here, so I have the final say. If I say we stay a few more days, we stay a few more days!”
Then she turned and called out to Yuan Ye, “My sister came all this way so late. Can you give her some food and let her stay here for a few days too?”
She was already a part-time blind monk and a beggar of sorts, with a thick skin. She had no psychological burden about begging for food. Yuan Ye, hearing this, didn’t mind and readily agreed.
He had already planned to let A Man recover from her injuries before leaving, and he was going to provide food anyway. Adding another sister wouldn’t matter; he wasn’t lacking in rice.
Compared to the “intelligence” provided by A Man, spending a little more rice was nothing.
…
A Qing was thus forced to stay. She had worked hard to come rescue her sister, only to find her sister’s greed resurfacing, wanting to eat a few more meals of rice. She insisted that the stranger she had just met was a good person and shamelessly refused to leave, ultimately preventing her from leaving as well, forcing her to temporarily stay there. Fortunately, they were both children （ children in Yuan Ye’s eyes ）, so they didn’t take up much space. Sleeping in the same bed wouldn’t be crowded, and the earthen floor room could accommodate them.
Twenty minutes later, Yuan Ye managed to cook a pot of watery rice porridge and boiled an egg for A Man to apply to her black eye. A Man snatched the peeled egg and quickly stuffed it into her mouth, fearing Yuan Ye would take it back. But before she could swallow it, she hesitated for a moment and spat out half of it, reluctantly throwing it into A Qing’s bowl, which left Yuan Ye speechless. People in this era, upon seeing food, acted like lunatics. It was unbearable.
A Qing, along with the little monkey, sat alone in the dim corner by the hearth, quietly sipping her porridge. Her expression remained somewhat distant and vigilant. Occasionally, when her gaze accidentally met Yuan Ye’s, her eyes would be cold, and she would quickly look away, showing no intention of interacting with him. She was somewhat like a proud, aloof, and slender crane, refusing to associate with ordinary mortals.
Yuan Ye even felt a hint of hostility in her gaze, which was inexplicable, but he couldn’t be sure. So, he didn’t insist on enthusiastically adding more porridge to her bowl with his wooden ladle or try to show his hospitality. Seeing that she was uncomfortable with him there, and that he had nothing else to do, he politely excused himself and returned to the earthen seat to rest.
As expected, after he left, A Qing seemed to relax a bit and began to add porridge to her own bowl. Occasionally, she would exchange a few words with A Man. Of course, most of the time, A Man was the one chattering. No matter what A Man said, she would just gaze at the hearth, drink her hot porridge, and listen quietly.
Yuan Ye slowly closed his eyes amidst these soft murmurs. Half-asleep, he suddenly remembered something and abruptly sat up, asking A Man, “By the way, do you have any other siblings?”
If so, he should call them over quickly. At worst, he would buy another stone of rice; he wasn’t short of money. He absolutely couldn’t have one person after another assassinating him every night. His heart couldn’t handle such stimulation. This time, he was lucky that A Man happened to be sleeping outside. Otherwise, he would likely have woken up with a knife to his throat, at least losing three days of his lifespan. And if the next one was brainless and threw a shuriken from afar, hitting him in the head and killing him before anything else, who would he complain to?
“No more, no more!” A Man was slurping her rice porridge, as if she could never eat enough. She mumbled, “Only the two of us came from Kaito District. Sleep soundly, you won’t be disturbed again.”
“That’s good!”
Yuan Ye was relieved. He tucked in his foolish son’s blanket, lay down, and closed his eyes, slowly drifting off.
