Chapter 34: Ancient Shu Kingdom!
Carrying this doubt along with the urgent mood of a single dog, the three of them finally arrived smoothly at Quanjude. At this time, Quanjude wasn’t as commercial as it would be later; the roast duck taste was still very authentic.
Looking at the long line of people in front, Lin Yan and Wu Xie were a bit dumbfounded: “So many people?”
Fatty leaned back confidently: “Of course! But no worries, Fatty Ye had the foresight and called ahead to reserve, even the main course is reserved!”
Wu Xie gave a thumbs up: “Fatty Ye is reliable!”
Fatty chuckled: “Of course! But it might be a bit different from what you thought.”
Is there any trick to reserving a table?
Wu Xie and Lin Yan followed Fatty to the hall, watched him communicate with the waiter for a bit, then led them to a four-person seat by the window: “Mr. Wang, this is our menu. We’ll bring out the sliced skin for your one duck three ways first. Would you like the duck frame soup with the stir-fried three shreds together or later?”
Fatty waved his hand: “Together, together! Oh right, add a serving of rice!” “Yes, sir.”
After the waiter left, Lin Yan was fine, having seen scenes before time travel where you had to reserve way ahead and still couldn’t get a hall seat, but Wu Xie’s expression was a bit strange.
Can’t blame him, Third Master Xiao had eaten in halls before, but reserving and still sitting in the hall was a first for him.
Seeing his strange expression like he wanted to say something but held back, Fatty could guess what he wanted to say, flicked his hair: “Sigh, you guys came too rushed. If it was ten days or half a month ahead, we could get a private room. Booking one day ahead, getting the hall is already good! Quick quick, look at the menu for what you want to eat, we’ll start together when the duck comes.”
While speaking, a chef pushed a cart beside them, a waiter placed lotus leaf pancakes, cucumber shreds, scallion shreds, and sweet bean sauce on the table, filling it up almost completely: “Sir, hello, this is your duck.”
Although he had eaten it before time travel, seeing the duck sliced in front of him still made Lin Yan drool, completely missing the female waiter touching Fatty’s hand as she stood up.
“Hm? What’s up?”
Three men eating fast was always quick, especially with two foodies among them; only Wu Xie’s eating manner was a bit more refined. After eating half and slowing down a bit, he suddenly noticed a strange atmosphere between Wu Xie and Fatty. Wu Xie kept giving Fatty teasing looks, and Fatty always avoided his gaze, turning frustration into appetite.
Hm? Frustration? What happened while he was focused on eating?
Feeling he couldn’t get anything out of Fatty, Lin Yan shot Wu Xie a look: What’s going on? What did Fatty do? Why did it suddenly become like this?
Wu Xie raised his brows, a gossipy expression on his face: You didn’t see, that female waiter touched Fatty’s hand before leaving! There must be a story between them!
Lin Yan was shocked; his only impression of Fatty’s romantic history was that little girl Bana later on—how come? How didn’t he know? But thinking about it, Fatty had many experiences not on the main storyline, Third Uncle didn’t write them, but this is the real world, definitely more complete than the novel world. Fatty’s past life experiences wouldn’t be summed up by two “Ominous” cold texts.
With Fatty’s funny and responsible personality, finding a girlfriend should be simple, right? But looking at it, it seems it didn’t work out? Unrequited love?
Wu Xie glanced aside and shot him a look: Quick look, here she comes!
Lin Yan glanced aside, and sure enough, that female waitress came back. He hadn’t paid attention before, but now looking closely, this little girl was really pretty! And you could tell at a glance, no makeup, pure natural!
Fatty has good taste!
But seeing Fatty with his eyes on his nose and nose in his heart, like he’s avoiding? Oh, there must be something going on here!
As the saying goes, gossip is humanity’s driving force. With this scene in front of them, Lin Yan and Wu Xie found the duck at hand not fragrant anymore. Fatty saw the two gossiping at him—how could he not know what they were thinking? His face flushed with embarrassment, but he couldn’t say it in front of the female waiter. In their eyes, wasn’t this just Fatty being shy!
What kind of person is Fatty? Beautiful shells are all the same, interesting souls are represented by this 200-plus jin figure! Seeing him blush is truly rare!
Finally after watching the show, once the person walked far, Fatty glared at the two and lowered his voice: “What are you two looking at me like that for!”
Lin Yan blinked: “Fatty, you’ve got a situation!”
Wu Xie followed up: “Definitely a story!”
Fatty’s face turned red: “No situation! No story! Why are you two gossiping about me! Fatty Ye lives a free and unrestrained life loving freedom, how easy is it to bury myself in love’s grave?”
He looked at Wu Xie, wanting to say something but stopping, finally turning to glare at Lin Yan: “If you keep this up, Fatty Ye won’t tell you!”
What? Tell me what? Lin Yan was confused for two seconds, finally remembering the message Zhang Qiling sent via old man’s phone a few weeks ago: “Don’t! Fatty Ye, I was wrong!”
Humph! Fatty leaned back tactically—Fatty Ye can’t handle Wu Xie, but can’t handle you?
“Cough cough, no more messing around. Fatty, what’s the situation with what Lin Yan asked you to investigate?” Wu Xie saw the two going further off track and pulled the topic back to business.
Fatty looked around left and right, leaned his head toward them: “The thing young comrade Lin Yan asked me to check is no small deal, probably hides a big secret! Young comrade, before I tell you my investigation results, can you tell me where you encountered these four characters?”
Lin Yan nodded: “In the Qinling Mountains! But I don’t know which specific mountain, you’d have to ask Zhang Qiling for that; I basically followed behind him.”
“Zhang Qiling again.” Fatty muttered to himself, then continued: “That makes sense! These four pronunciations, I asked many people, finally got an answer from an old professor, and only for one character! The other three completely untraceable, no records in archaeological history!”
“What’s the situation?” Lin Yan frowned. He thought it was some ancient language, at most Han or even Qin dynasty; modern archaeology has some research on such languages, didn’t expect it to be completely untraceable. What’s going on? Could it be an even older language? But Qinling side… isn’t that just Qin country?
Fatty teased: “Do you know what this old professor studies?”
Lin Yan probed: “Spring and Autumn Warring States? Zhou dynasty?”
Wu Xie thought for a bit, slowly said: “Could it be Ancient Shu Kingdom?”
Fatty slapped his thigh: “As expected of Wu Family Third Master Xiao, exactly Ancient Shu Kingdom! Many ruins of Ancient Shu Kingdom have been discovered, but research on its characters and language has made no progress to this day. That old professor said, if these characters are deciphered, not exaggerating, the contribution to Ancient Shu Kingdom language research would be inestimable! So young comrade, you gotta try hard to remember where you got them; maybe you can even get a name at that institute and become a professor!”
Lin Yan was now confused; he didn’t remember any Ancient Shu Kingdom related plot in the original story. The only Qinling related thing was the bronze divine tree! But, is the bronze divine tree Ancient Shu Kingdom’s? He remembered it wasn’t. Also, these syllables were influenced by that thing in his brain when he said them, doesn’t that mean that thing might be Ancient Shu Kingdom’s? Logically, from Shang to Qing, famous tombs he should know from his previous life, after all CCTV popularizes this stuff every day in this country—how no impression?
He asked Fatty: “This Ancient Shu Kingdom civilization, roughly when was it?”
Fatty replied: “Can only speculate it started around 3000 BC, about 3000~5000 years ago.”
3000 to 5000? Isn’t that Xia Shang Zhou? But that’s in the Central Plains area. Qinling side wait, Ancient Shu Kingdom, Sichuan province, Sanxingdui! He remembered! It’s that Sanxingdui civilization that was buzzing before time travel! If it’s really confirmed as Sanxingdui civilization, then that thing in his brain has been dormant for three to five thousand years… uh, what thing? Can’t say zombie, it has no body either, somehow came onto him.
“Lin Yan, Lin Yan?”
“Hm?” He found Wu Xie looking at him with worry: “What are you thinking? Did you remember some clue?”
He didn’t answer, urgently asked Fatty: “Did that old professor say what the deciphered character is?”
Fatty nodded: “He said, this character’s pronunciation should be ‘dong’, just not sure which ‘dong’, east of direction or winter of winter.”
“Then which pronunciation is this?”
“The third. How about it, remember anything? Also young comrade, one thing I’m curious about: normally for such language stuff, after so long at most you find characters, pronunciation research basically impossible, can only speculate based on oral tradition and modern pronunciations—how did you get it spot on?”
Lin Yan didn’t answer; he was immersed in his thoughts, muttering: “dong? Winter’s winter? East’s east? Wait for winter? Go east? To the east? Or a title? What does it mean exactly?”
Wu Xie worriedly tugged him: “Lin Yan, don’t think too much first. This kind of thing, just speculating is hard to get an answer. After we buy the pearl, I’ll go with you to Qinling again?”
Lin Yan jolted, looked at Wu Xie: In the original, it was Lao Yang, now it’s him—is it guiding Wu Xie to Qinling? Is it that bronze divine tree or something else? What exactly influenced him, or rather them? Could it be, he’s an NPC role like Lao Yang? How is that possible?
