Having experienced the mysteries of listening to the world as the rain falls, Ji Yuan was now very confident in his current hearing. Although he hadn’t had any distracting thoughts just now, at such a close distance there was no way he could miss the sound of a person’s footsteps.

Recalling what Jin Shunfu had said just earlier, Ji Yuan couldn’t help but feel chills in his heart.

On a cold night in the barren, wild mountains, having a scholar of unknown origin suddenly appear… No matter how you thought about it, this situation was not normal.

But none of this man’s demeanor or actions were out of place, and through his identity as a scholar and powerless appearance, it seemed that he had successfully gained the trust of the merchant group.

To be honest, this mountain temple was not the private property of the traveling merchants: everyone had the right to come in and rest. After all, the people in the group were not vicious or unreasonable, so even if they were wary of the scholar, it would have been impossible for them to drive him away.

Of course, the merchants did not completely let their guard down. Although they politely greeted the scholar and invited him to sit down, they also politely asked about the scholar’s situation.

“May I ask, sir, what is your name? Where do you live, and where do you go to school?”

Zhang Shilin had read a couple books, after all, so his language when questioning the scholar seemed to be much more elegant and polite, such that the youngest, Wang Dong, couldn’t help but glance at him several times.

Upon hearing his words, the scholar didn’t dare ignore them, and bowed to Zhang Shilin.

“This junior student’s surname is Lu, and my single name¹ is Xing. I live in the archway of Narcissus Town. I am a student of Qing Song Academy in Desheng Prefecture. This time, I and my friends from the academy went to the mountain after returning home from our travels…”²

Because of the eloquent way Zhang Shilin had asked, the scholar regarded him as a learned man, and so changed his pronouns from “I” to “this junior student”.³

The scholar was both reminiscing and sharing his fears. He explained in detail which of his friends he had gone up the mountain with, why they had accidentally gotten separated, where he lived, and which academy he studied in. From time to time, he would recite a small poem, and his words flowed well. It clearly did not sound like nonsense.

The scholar’s behavior was neither timid nor pretentious, and his words were polite and appropriate.

In particular, hearing that the scholar was a student of a formal academy awed all of the merchants. Compared to a scholar who studied hard at home alone, the academy students had much higher status, better family, and talents: as they saying went, they were practically made of gold.⁴

Scholars had always been admired, especially students of Qing Song Academy.

Slowly, even Zhang Shilin put down his guard. Moreover, everyone began treating Scholar Lu with great respect.

The scholar was also not arrogant. Anyone who offered him water or food would always be thanked profusely, but politely refused, saying he was not hungry and would not eat for the time being.

Ji Yuan’s heart had sunk to the bottom. This so-called scholar was so good at acting. If Ji Yuan had not already come to the conclusion that this guy was definitely not a human being, he would surely have believed his act long ago.

It’s so scary!

If Ji Yuan could now choose between staying in this new world and going home immediately, he would have chosen the latter without hesitation. But unfortunately, he did not have the luxury of that choice.

Ji Yuan was still a little fortunate, because this scholar needed to keep up his act, which meant that this thing should not be be able to kill everyone in the temple, and the other party didn’t seem to have noticed the beggar lying behind the statue of the mountain god.

Scholar Lu and the merchants were already chatting and laughing. It was rare for a student from a large academy not to have prejudice against mere merchants, and the conversation was naturally very harmonious.

As if he had suddenly thought of something, the scholar patted his head and mysteriously proclaimed to Zhang Shilin and the group.

“That’s right! This junior scholar doesn’t have much money on his body, so I can’t repay your kindness, but I saw a something good on the way up to the temple, which will certainly bring you some benefits!”

Sure enough, his words immediately aroused everyone’s interest.

“I wonder what it might be?”

The scholar lowered his voice.

“A mature ginseng!”⁵

Ginseng was a precious medicinal material, and adding the words “mature” before often referred to the best quality ginseng.

As a traveling merchant who forded mountains and rivers all year round, if someone encountered suitable medicinal materials, they would carefully dig them up and take them away, as they would bring considerable profits.

When everyone heard the words “mature ginseng,” they became a little excited.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shilin frowned and looked at Scholar Lu.

“Master Lu, you are a scholar, how did you recognize the appearance of a mature ginseng?”

“Hahaha, what Brother⁶ Zhang said makes sense. Although I did read about the characteristics of ginseng in the compendium⁷ ‘Essentials of Plants and Trees,’ I can’t identify mature ginseng at a glance. But even if I can’t do it, others might be able to!”

When Scholar Lu said this, he looked around carefully, and then lowered his voice.

“I’m from Narcissus Town. I know that occasionally there will be a group of mountaineers who come to town to sell medicinal herbs at the market. I’ve talked to them a few times, and I know a little inside information.”

“That ginseng on the mountain has nine large leaves, and the red seeds of the central flower stand tall, but the most important thing…”

All the businessmen, including Zhang Shilin, could not help but have an image start to form in their heart.

“The most important thing is that there are three small red ropes tied to the ginseng’s stalk. This is a local method developed by a clever mountaineer to prevent the ginseng from escaping!”

This statement was exciting for many of the merchants.

“Yes, I heard an old man say that a mature ginseng will dig into the soil to escape, and only the most powerful mountaineers can catch them!”

Jin Shunfu also recounted what he had heard before.

“That’s right! What Brother Jin said is true!”

Scholar Lu clapped his hands and nodded in agreement.

“The mountaineers tied the ginseng with a red rope, but did not dig it up to take it away. They must have been waiting for the ginseng to reach the optimal maturation period, but you don’t need to do this. If you can get this ginseng, it will undoubtedly be worth a lot of money. If it weren’t for the fear in my heart at that time, I wouldn’t have hesitated to dig up the medical materials myself. Maybe by now they have already been dug up.”

“That’s right!”

“Brother Shilin, let’s go dig it up!”

“Scholar, where did you find the ginseng?”

…

The traveling merchants were so excited that they could not wait to dig up the ginseng.

Money and silk moved people’s hearts, and the motivation of profit made them trust Scholar Lu’s words even more.

The chill in Ji Yuan’s heart grew colder and deeper, and there was only one thought left in his mind – this is bad!

Facing the merchants’ eager faces, the scholar thought for a moment before answering.

“That place is not far from here, where this junior scholar hid from the rain. You can go back and forth in about two sticks of incense.⁸ If you really want it, we should probably go before dawn.”

“Why? The road is slippery at the moment, wouldn’t it be unsafe?”

Zhang Shilin asked suspiciously.

“Brother Zhang might not know this, but the mountaineers all go into the mountains before dawn. I saw that the red ginseng flowers were already standing tall. If the mountaineers come to dig up the ginseng in the next day or so, wouldn’t we have missed it had we not gone tonight?”

“Yes!”

“That makes sense!”

“Brother Shilin, I have a good sense of balance, I’ll go!”

“Yes, let’s go dig quickly!”

These days, their first priority was to support their families. If the mountain ginseng was ready to be picked, then it didn’t matter whether the people who tied it with a red rope claimed it was theirs. As long as the two parties didn’t run into each other, they would be fine.

“You don’t have to go with the whole group, just take a few people who are sure-footed,⁹ and the rest of us can keep watch here.”

Zhang Shilin didn’t hesitate any longer, and began to take out torches, oilcloths, and other items from the baskets.

“Lao Jin, Xiao Dong, Liu Quan, and Li Gui, the four of you will go Mr. Lu.¹⁰ The road in the mountains is slippery. Be careful and ensure Mr. Lu’s safety on the road!”

“You can count on me!”

“Don’t worry, Brother Shilin, I won’t let Mr. Lu fall!”

“Thank you for your hard work!”

Scholar Lu bowed his thanks. But, to the side of the fire where no one was paying attention, his smile stretched wider into a pale and strange arc…

Ji Yuan felt the chills go straight to his scalp, and he roared in his heart.

‘Don’t go! Don’t go with him!’

1. “First” name, but not first because last names go before individual names in Chinese. I will be using “surname” and “single name” as the translations ↩︎
2. Lit: “study trip,” in Ancient China scholars would have to travel to other prefectures to take exams or go to higher level education (boarding schools). Having a scholar in the family was a huge investment, because not only was there 1 fewer person to help work, there were also book expenses, travel expenses, school expenses, etc. This is part of the reason why good scholars were so respected. ↩︎
3. The exact translation has Lu Xing referring to himself in 3rd person for that whole paragraph where he speaks, because that is the English translation of Chinese polite language. Leaving it as is would cause confusion as to who is speaking, so I changed it to 1st person. Short of translating it to Shakespearian English, there’s not much else I can do, since English doesn’t have that situational language distinction. ↩︎
4. 含金量高 lit “high gold content,” as in made of gold – studying was EXPENSIVE, especially going to a formal academy ↩︎
5. 年份十足的山王参！It was either “full-vintage” or “10-year-old,” and considering the next sentence talks about it as a quality modifier, I chose the former since that made more sense. EDIT: changed to “mature” now that I thought about it for a bit ↩︎
6. “Xiongtai,” the polite honorific of “Brother” this time ↩︎
7. Lit: “miscellaneous book” ↩︎
8. Without clocks, you would tell time by how long it took a stick of incense to burn. One stick of incense burns for approximately 45 to 60 minutes, so Lu Xiao is saying that a round trip would be about an hour and a half to two hours – not bad considering the scale of a mountain. ↩︎
9. Lit: “flexible hands and feet” ↩︎
10. Lit: “Young Master Lu,” but that reminds me of Korean NovelBins and manhwa more than Chinese. Several other translations also seem to stick with Mr., so that’s what I’ll be using. ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read