Change(3)
Ye Jian's rest stop inn was busy during late morning when we entered the establishment. Customers were busy chatting over food and tea. The innkeeper and three waiters were busy weaving in and out of the tables along the side, serving food and taking orders.
Who knew weiqi, or Go, was also a popular game in Lingyu Kingdom? I was unaware until Ye Jian suggested it himself. Perhaps a deity brought it to Jinshi from Earth or vice versa. Or a transmigrator who found himself in the same shoes before me.
Weiqi is an abstract strategy board game for two players with the sole aim of capturing in more territory with more of their seeds, black or wide, from the opposing player. On Earth, they used a 19 by 19 grid. The ancient Chinese regarded the skill of Weiqi as one of the four key talents which a cultured aristocrat should possess.
In Lingyu, they used a 17 by 17 board. Instead of being the four key talents for a particular social class, weiqi is regarded as a necessary talent for all men. Even the peasants knew how to play the game.
Six small weiqi boards were placed on the tables were at the center for keen players. All tables were occupied, surrounded by curious onlookers.
Lianfeng and Xuanyi watched the games from the vantage point. The window of the quiet private room on the second floor overlooked the game area. I could hear clapping as an indicator of a game won.
The door was left opened. I could see the corridor as other customers of wealthy status made their way up the now repaired stairways, which were to the side near the weiqi tables.
Not all customers were ling qi practitioners. Some are ordinary folk toiling away as peasants or merchants with shoddy ling qi skills. In short, they can't just fly up to the second floor or pull a stair way out of thin air.
So unlike some other more 'exclusive' snobbish teahouses which I had seen in Youdu, Ye Jian's rest stop allowed some of the 'common folk' to try out a luxury denied to them.
A young man, barely in his teens, came scurrying to our room. Ye Jian had given them new uniforms and shoes, instead of their patched rags and stinking shoes with holes. A clean white towel slung over his shoulder.
"How can I help you, gentlemen?" a waiter asked.
His eyes trailed to a distracted Lianfeng who was still watching the spectacle below. Then back at me. I shook my head, and the waiter understood. All the employees had strict instructions to keep my identity under wraps.
Lianfeng is not aware of my arrangement with Ye Jian. Some secrets are best kept for now.
"Young Master Si, what would you like?" Xuanyi asked.
"Anything… oh, he placed the black seed there. He is going to lose this game," Lianfeng mumbled without a care, while being engrossed in a weiqi gameplay below. I could hear the gasps of disapproval and murmurs wafting in from the ground floor.
"Hot tea, two plates of steamed mushroom dumplings, the house special and five meat buns," Xuanyi said as the waiter jot down the order on a small writing pad.
A smug sense of achievement filled me with slight pride at the sight of that writing pad. The rest stop was not doing well because they kept using memory to fill in the accounting books.
Nothing made financial sense when Ye Jian had shown me the accounts. With the writing pad, the method of tracking expenses is more accurate.
"A plain bun for me," I added.
"Ok, make it four meat buns and a plain bun."
Their meat buns were mystery meat to me, which tasted awful. Xuanyi enjoyed wolfing down those buns during each visit. My stomach churned at the thought of it.
I am partial to beef, pork or chicken but the Longyu's meat versions had an unusual taste. So far, chicken and deer meat were tolerated. Beef appeared to be as tough as a rubber sole, no doubt from dead old oxen who outlived their use in pulling carts.
The waiter looked up and asked, "anything else?"
"That's all, you can go." Xuanyi waved him away as the young waiter bowed and left.
Out of the blue, a large commotion broke out enough to drown the noise of the rest stop. It sounded like an official entourage with the commands yelled.
"PLEASE SIR, LET MY SON GO, HE DID NOT MEAN TO STEAL," a man's hoarse voice pleaded loudly.
Xuanyi quickly opened the window nearest to the road side. Lianfeng and I rushed to look at the unfolding scene. There was a gawking crowd gathering around a local official and his entourage. A sobbing skinny child, of no more than 10-years-old, in rags was being held by the cuff, while a man was frantically kowtowing to the official.
"Excuse me, officer sir, the owner here will pay for the losses this child may have caused to another business." the innkeeper came out and bowed to the fat lump of an officer with the gold coin offered.
Another well dressed man rushed up and said, "it is okay… I don't want to press charges anymore."
The guards shoved both onto the cobbled ground with force. The crowd was getting restless as many fingers were starting to point.
"SHALL I CHARGE YOU WITH FALSE REPORT?" The officer raised his voice for all to hear while pointing at the other man.
"Weird," Xuanyi muttered.
"Can they withdraw the charges?" I asked.
This is a new learning experience for me. Almost all laws in Lingyu exempted me. Being a prince meant almost instantaneous legal immunity.
"Yes, I wonder why he doesn't want to. Usually the officials rather have it dropped than to see the charges through," Xuanyi said.
Lianfeng clenched his fist into a tight ball. "Because if the family can't afford to pay the fine, that child becomes indentured labor for however long the sentence is."
"Come with me," I said.
Xuanyi stared at me in disapproval. "It is a dangerous game to make enemies left, right and center."
"You of all people, should know one more enemy is really nothing." I raised my eyebrow with a slight smile and started walking out. "A couple of them started already and want me dead for just being a prince. This guy can join the queue."
My hands quickly felt for my waist pendant. That was the most important item - my identifier. Once down the stairs, the waiters spotted me and asked some men to move aside.
The customers were at first unwilling to give up their prized gawking spots. Then they glanced at me, deliberately rubbing my pendant. A way cleared for me as the wary men peered at me.
Nothing like power tripping.
To them, I am just another tall teenager until authority is shown. In my moment of triumph, I turned around.
They didn't make way for me. They made way for Xuanyi who had been walking behind me quietly, showing his magenta coloured killing aura in inglorious magnificence. That's really fucked up.
"Master, you can go on ahead," he whispered with a grin.
Show off. I shot him a glare.
Irritated, I made my way out and cleared my throat.
"Excuse me, officer, why not let the child go?" I asked. "If there are no charges pressed, that child is not a criminal."
The poor wretched father was still kneeling on the grown with a bloodied forehead. His cheekbones were pronounced, along with the sunken cheeks. The child looked like a 40-year-old dwarf.
"HOW DARE…"
*THUD*
The officer jumped back in horror. Xuanyi had slammed his guard to the ground by the neck.
"H-how d-dare y-you attack an official!" He said. "Men! Get him!"
I tugged at my pendant. It was not coming off. My fingers tried to pull the knot, yet it was too tightly stuck. Shit always happens at the wrong time.
"Before you touch him, recognise this authority," Xuanjing appeared, his arm outstretched with his hand holding his pendant projecting my royal emblem of a three-legged crow, in full glory. "Anyone who lay hands on him will be executed on the spot."
Bitter disappointment overcame me as I gritted my teeth. I wanted to blow my cover. Instead Xuanjing got to do it on my unwilling behalf.
The crowd gasped at the hideous monstrosity that was the holographic black crow circling above us and started muttering about an aristocrat close to the royal family. That's a consolation prize for me in this ignorant regional city, where most can't even recognise a royal emblem.
"I can't break the rules." The trembling officer fell to his knees, along with his fidgeting guards.
"If you cannot bend, how about he breaks you?" I pointed to Xuanjing and added with a yawn, "You will be very flexible after he is done with you, if you survive."