Chapter 15: Chicken is Really Delicious
Yuan Ye’s request was strange. A Man asked in surprise, “The first year of Tenbun? Twenty years ago? You don’t know anything about Owari?”
“My home is very far from here. I’ve only been in Owari for two or three days,” Yuan Ye replied.
“Hmm… your accent is indeed strange. You’re definitely not from Tōsandō or Tōkaidō, nor do you sound like you’re from Kinki, or San’indō or San’yōdō,” A Man became curious. She glanced again at Meng Ziqi, who was still unconscious, “Where are you from? Is your home in Nankaidō?”
Nankaidō is the four provinces of Shikoku Island （ Tosa, Iyo, Awa, and Sanuki ）, plus Awaji Island and the Kii Peninsula.
Yuan Ye casually brushed her off, “Further west.”
Further west is Saikaidō, which is the area of Kyushu Island in later generations. This was too distant for A Man, feeling as if it were at the edge of the world in this era.
She couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Then why did you come all the way to Tōkaidō? Were you exiled?”
“I’m asking you now!” Yuan Ye regretted letting her off so easily. She was more talkative than him, the interrogator. He should have kept her as a captive for another day and tortured her properly.
A Man pondered, feeling that Yuan Ye seemed to be somewhat wary of people asking about his origins. Perhaps he had failed in a succession dispute and was banished, thus living incognito far away. However, looking at his fair and tender skin, he was likely from a direct lineage of a prominent family…
Yuan Ye’s height of nearly 1.8 meters, his neat and white teeth, and his healthy, lustrous skin were a great advantage. Upon seeing these, everyone instinctively felt he came from an extraordinary background, a noble of high status, even a “primitive ninja” like A Man was no exception. She was already imagining his tragic past.
But it didn’t matter. Yuan Ye was no one to her. Whether he was the young master of a great family or a beggar, he was the same in her eyes. However, she was not one to be taken advantage of; she was wild by nature. Seeing that Yuan Ye needed her help, her dark eyes darted around, and she said, “I’m hungry.”
Yuan Ye looked at her speechlessly for a moment, then got up to call Yayoi.
What else could he do? This little brat looked only slightly older than Yayoi, and in his eyes, she was still a child. He had mistaken her for a thief in the dark and beaten her, but now that the misunderstanding was cleared, it wouldn’t be appropriate to scold her further.
Besides, he had already prepared food for her. After all, not everyone would travel four hours for six mon coins to save him. Just for that gesture, he had to be courteous and treat her with respect.
Uh, this was actually his mistake. He had just given her six mon coins （ in Japanese mythology, the toll for crossing the Sanzu River is six mon ）, which A Man saw as a sign from heaven, believing he was fated not to die, and thus ran over with the intention of a righteous robbery. However, Yuan Ye didn’t grasp the mythological context of the Warring States period and was completely unaware, thinking A Man was simply kind-hearted, chivalrous, and grateful. He couldn’t help but look highly upon her, when in reality, it was nothing like that.
One could only say, this was the fate between people!
Yayoi was very attentive. She first carefully helped A Man sit up and lean against the straw mat, then brought a small wooden table to place in front of her. She brought water and a cotton cloth for A Man to wipe her hands and face, and even re-tied her hair. Finally, she brought a clay jar, a bowl and chopsticks, and a small bucket of rice.
A Man’s small face was quite pretty after being wiped clean. She had a small, round face with large, clear black and white eyes. She wore the common hairstyle for young boys of that era, with neat bangs and a small bun on top of her head. Her dark hair was very lustrous. At first glance, she was quite cute, not wild at all.
The only drawback, perhaps, was her eyebrows – she had a pair of thick, short eyebrows like broad beans, not delicate at all, and they twitched constantly. Her eyebrows were dark and prominent, immediately shifting her appearance from cute to comical.
But overall, she was still better looking than Yayoi. Yayoi had an ordinary appearance, at best described as delicate, and her face was pale, her hair dry and yellow, clearly malnourished, looking like a refugee fleeing famine.
A Man’s complexion was much better than hers, at least her skin and hair color were much better, and she appeared more energetic.
A Man didn’t care how Yuan Ye was looking at her; her mouth was already watering. She picked up the bamboo chopsticks, stirred the contents of the clay jar, and exclaimed with surprise, “No wonder it smells so good, it’s really stewed chicken! Both legs are here, a whole chicken stewed with radish, more chicken than radish, and mushrooms too!”
Then she looked at the white rice in the rice bucket. It was all cooked with polished rice, like white jade, with almost no impurities.
She had originally hoped for a bowl of mixed grains and black bean rice, with at most two strips of pickled radish, but she hadn’t expected such a lavish feast.
She ate meat. Martial artists would urinate blood if they didn’t eat meat, but she occasionally caught a field mouse, hunted a bird, or caught a fish to roast. She had almost never eaten proper meat with white rice. After all, why wouldn’t one exchange a chicken and polished rice for mixed grains to eat more meals in this era?
She couldn’t help but exclaim with surprise and joy, “You really are a spendthrift! No wonder you were exiled!”
“If you don’t want to eat it, you don’t have to!” Yuan Ye was speechless.
He had good intentions. Although A Man was spouting nonsense, she was actually quite injured. That’s why he had specifically bought a chicken to make chicken soup to nourish her body. He hadn’t killed anyone yet, and although in these turbulent times it was likely unavoidable, he was mentally prepared. However, he absolutely did not want the first person he killed to be a child; he wasn’t Jewish.
Of course, the foolish son also had some chicken soup; he had already been fed.
A Man stopped talking, afraid Yuan Ye would snatch it from her. Regardless of whether it was hot, she grabbed the chicken meat and started stuffing it into her mouth, her cheeks puffed up like a hamster. She was so hot that tears were about to stream down her face, her Dou Dou eyebrows rising and falling incessantly.
In this era, everything in Japan was shrunken. People were shrunken, and chickens were also shrunken, not even half the size of chickens in later generations. After plucking, they looked like quails, pitifully small. Yuan Ye couldn’t even be bothered to look. When Yayoi brought his meal, he would eat his own. He had already sent the Momoi brothers to buy fresh fish, mushrooms, and dried bamboo shoots. Since he was well-off now, of course, he had to ensure his quality of life.
With quality of life comes good health, and with good health, one won’t die from minor injuries or illnesses. The average lifespan in this era was only 29.6 years, and he didn’t want to further lower the average.
As for what to do after spending these ten-odd kan of money…
From the first day he transmigrated, he had never worried about money. As a university student from the 21st century with a complete basic education, if he couldn’t even earn enough money for a proper meal after familiarizing himself with the situation in the 16th century, he might as well commit suicide and stop embarrassing himself by living.
A Man wolfed down the food, finishing the entire jar of chicken, the radishes, and the mushrooms. She even gnawed on the chicken bones to suck out the marrow. She also ate two bowls of rice. Only when she could eat no more did she lie down on the ground, pat her little belly, and touch the warm quilt, sighing, “Is this the life of you high-ranking samurai? It’s truly wonderful. I have no regrets even if I die now.”
Yuan Ye had already finished eating and was reading the Barefoot Doctor’s Manual 《 he had copied last night 》, preparing to treat the sick or cure the working people of medieval Japan. Hearing her, he glanced at her and said faintly, “No one wants you to die.”
A Man grunted twice, finally remembering the main business. She got up and said seriously, “You want to know about Owari, right? Don’t worry, after eating your food, I’ll definitely tell you everything clearly. Although I wasn’t born in the first year of Tenbun, my grandfather often told us stories… Uh, where should I start?”
“Start with the Maeda Family!” Yuan Ye immediately said. After all, they were currently in the Maeda Family’s territory, so it was best to inquire about them first.
He also spread out a piece of Mino paper, preparing to jot down the key points.
“The Maeda Family, I know about them!” A Man thought for a moment, looking at the ceiling. “My grandfather said they migrated from Kōan District in Mino Province along the Odaigawa River. They settled in Kaito District in Owari Province about sixty or seventy years ago, or maybe longer, seventy or eighty years. Anyway, the ancestors of the Maeda Family have always been reclaiming land.
About ten years ago, they finally established branch families. The construction of Aragiko Castle, Higashi-oki Castle, and Shimo-no-Isshiki Castle only began in the last decade, and they haven’t even finished building them all yet.”
She paused, then spoke about the present. “Now… the head of Aragiko Castle is Maeda Kurando Toshiharu. His reputation is decent; he’s said to be a kind old man, but his health seems poor, he’s sickly. The head of Higashi-oki Castle is Maeda Saburō Shirō Masatoshi, a lecher. He has a lot of maidservants and often messes around outside; he’s a regular at whale houses everywhere.
Hmm, and one more thing, the head of Shimo-no-Isshiki Castle is Maeda Soreyū Tanetoshi. He’s said to be a very rigid person, very stubborn. In other aspects, he’s unremarkable, his martial arts are average, his talent is average, nothing particularly noteworthy.
Then, the Aragiko Maeda Family is the direct lineage, with a strength of over two thousand kan. The Higashi-oki Maeda Family and the Shimo-no-Isshiki Maeda Family are branch families. Although they are called castle lords, they are actually just village heads of small villages, with a strength of a few hundred kan… Uh, of course, this is their apparent strength; in reality, it’s much higher. If the three families combined, and fought with all their might, they could mobilize six to seven hundred people for battle, including a hundred or so devoted retainers and followers who dare to fight and strive. They are considered powerful local powerful families in Kaito District.”
She had eaten chicken and white rice, and she was indeed working hard. As she spoke, she moved a few steps while hugging the quilt, snatched the brush from Yuan Ye’s hand, and drew family crests on the paper for him. This was a required skill for an “information broker” – to be able to identify which family’s troops by looking at their family crest, banners, and uma-jirushi from afar, to avoid getting too close and being shot.
“All Maeda families have plum crests. The Aragiko Maeda Family has a solid circle in the center surrounded by five hollow circles. The Shimo-no-Isshiki Maeda Family has a hollow circle in the center surrounded by solid circles. All hollow circles belong to the Higashi-oki Maeda Family.”
A Man explained as she drew. Yuan Ye finally solved a mystery. The “five circles surrounding one” drawn on Jubei and Jikuro’s short haori referred to the plum blossom （ which was actually a divine radiance flower, but it was called a plum crest because it resembled a plum blossom ）. It was truly simplistic; he would never have guessed it before.
“Can you draw a map? Mark the locations of their castles,” he shifted his body to make space for A Man and changed to a new sheet of paper, gesturing for A Man to draw a map as well.
A Man had no objections because the chicken was truly delicious. Holding the brush, she thought for a moment and first drew a winding line from northeast to southwest, then drew three small circles next to the line. “The source of the Odaigawa River is in the mountains of Mino. The three castles of the Maeda Family are on both sides of the downstream of this river, roughly like this.”
After finishing, she fiddled with the paper. After a moment of hesitation, she crookedly wrote the Chinese character “North” above the paper and drew a horizontal line in the middle, writing “Mino Province” next to it to indicate the direction.
Yuan Ye was somewhat surprised, “You can write?”
A Man was also proud of mastering this “advanced skill,” but she pretended to be nonchalant, “You’ll learn if you see it often. It’s not difficult.”
After speaking, she crookedly wrote common Chinese characters like “rice,” “sake,” “meal,” and “chicken” on the paper to prove she wasn’t lying, although her handwriting was terrible. The right half of the character “chicken” looked more like a drawing of a bird, making it a bit difficult to recognize. Fortunately, she didn’t show off further and continued to sell information to Yuan Ye.
“There’s not much to say about the Shimo-no-Isshiki Maeda Family and the Higashi-oki Maeda Family. Their population is small, their territory is not large, and their strength is relatively weak. They always act according to the wishes of the direct lineage. The face of the Maeda Family is the Aragiko Maeda Family. You already know the current head, Maeda Kurando Toshiharu. This old man is very fertile and quite lucky; eight children survived.
Let me think… The eldest is the heir, named Shinichiro Toshihisa. The second is Umenosuke Toshiharu. The third is Yasusaburo Katsuyasu. The fourth is Sonschirō Toshiie. The fifth was sent to the Sawaki family as an adopted son and renamed Tōhachirō Yoshiyuki. The sixth is too young to have heard much about; he probably hasn’t had his coming-of-age ceremony yet, named Rokurō Hideyoshi.
Then there are two daughters. The eldest, about ten years old, is named Tsuharu. The younger daughter, six or seven years old, is named Tsu-yo. They are both said to be beautiful and many families are already interested.
Oh, and besides these eight, Toshiharu has three adopted daughters.
One is Aru, the illegitimate daughter of Maeda Saburō Shirō, fostered by him. Another is A Song, the daughter of Toshiharu’s wife’s sister. After Toshiharu’s wife’s sister remarried, she left her daughter to be raised by his wife. The last one is Yoshiyo, the daughter of Maeda Soreyū. After he remarried, he sent his daughter to Aragiko Castle.
Yuan Ye almost wanted to tell Yayoi to stew another chicken for A Man. This information was so detailed it made his scalp tingle. Even a neighborhood policeman in later generations of China wouldn’t be this thorough; it was as if she had seen the Aragiko Maeda Family’s household register.
He couldn’t help but ask, “How do you know so much detail?”
A Man waved her small hand, her Dou Dou eyebrows raised, and said nonchalantly, “This isn’t a secret. If you meet someone from Aragiko Castle and ask, you’ll know! Those stupid farmers are just like your two stupid followers. Give them a drink of water, and they’ll tell you their entire ancestry to avoid seeming ignorant or inferior.
Since we know all this, let’s write it down. Maybe someday another fool will want to know, and we can earn some money, don’t you think?”
Yuan Ye nodded silently, admitting she had a point. But there was no need to stew chicken; this foul-mouthed brat could just gnaw on dried radish for the next meal.
