When the ripples on the water surface had subsided, everyone in the Wei family was still feeling as if in a dream.

Although it was almost June, everyone still felt a chill from the evening breeze on their clothes soaked with cold sweat.

After Wei Wuwei shouted his thanks toward the river, he simply stood and stared at it, deep in thought.

“Patriarch… how is the situation?”

The Uncle of the Wei family was the first to break the silence, and asked about what had happened just now. Wei Wuwei finally raised his head at his words, and smiled at the people around him.

“Naturally, it’s done. All of you are my Wei family’s trusted aides. I hope you will all keep your mouth shut about what happened tonight. You are not allowed to mention it, even to the people closest to you!”

These words were mainly spoken for the sake of the other staff. As for the old butler and the two brothers of Wei Wuwei’s father, they were of course his own people.

After saying this, Wei Wuwei waved a hand.

“Let’s go to the pier, and not come back until we’re drunk!”

At this time, the city gate of Chunhui City were closed, and there was only one busy place outside of the city: the big pier, where many people who made a living on the water resided. There were wine shops, restaurants, inns, postal stations, and even many decorated pleasure boats,¹ flower boats,² and river touring cruise ships. The latter were all places where wealthy sons and daughters of boatmen gathered.

The big pier at night was even more lively than Chunhui City during the day!

Long after the Wei family members had excitedly left, Ji Yuan was still lying on the willow tree in the distance, only the shadow of the tree under the moonlight blocking his view.

On the surface of the river where the willows stretched across the water, there remained only the slight waves caused by the evening breeze and the flowing water. The noise made by the old turtle from before was no longer there. In the distance, he could hear the faint sound of singing and dancing coming from the boats on the river far away.

From the beginning to the end, Ji Yuan had simply been watching and listening. All he could see clearly was the old turtle and the hint of light from the Wei family’s jade pendant, but he heard every word that had been spoken.

The old turtle did not make things difficult for Wei Wuwei, and his final sigh was full of emotion. If it weren’t for the fact that only one’s family should know of one’s own affairs, he would really have had the urge to help him.

But what the old turtle wanted was most likely related to spiritual practice. Ji Yuan didn’t feel that he was really qualified to give him guidance, so up until this moment he continued looking at the bright moon.

Originally, it had just been a fun event he wanted to watch, but Ji Yuan was now left with many emotions.

“When I look up, I see a full moon, but in my regret, my heart is empty of light. You seek fate, they seek fate, and I am no different…”³

He had no intention of moving. It wasn’t cold now, and anyway, Ji Yuan could easily withstand it with his current physique. He stayed like this until the morning light finally began to rise. In the blink of an eye, he had stayed on the willow tree holding the empty wine jug, half asleep, all night long.

When he came to his senses, he stretched and subconsciously shook the wine jug. He looked around but failed to find a trash can, and couldn’t help but laugh.

. . .

In Chunhui Prefecture Capital City, at the famous Yuanzipu in the west corner of Piaoxiang Lane, the shopkeeper was calculating the accounts at the front counter as usual.

The sound of wheels rolling and shouting suddenly came from outside. The shopkeeper looked up and saw that it was the wine collector, Third Old Master Wang,⁴ who had come over in person with two ox carts.

The shopkeeper quickly put down his tools and came out from behind the counter, stepping out of the store, and bowed to greet him.

“How are you these days, Third Master?”

This Third Old Master Wang’s original name was Wang Zizhong, and he was an elder of the wealthy Wang family, one of the most powerful families in Chunhui Prefecture. He was the brother of the current head of the Wang family and the third child of that generation. However, he lived far away in Zhouzhuang,⁵ hundreds of miles away, taking care of the Wang family’s property and seldom returning to Chunhui Prefecture.⁶

Hearing the shopkeeper’s warm greeting, Third Old Master Wang responded cheerfully.

“Hahahaha, I am eating well and sleeping well. I was just thinking about the Qianrichun from Yuanzipu. Shopkeeper Zhuo, how are you?”

“Thank you, Third Old Master, I am also in good spirits. The Qianrichun has been ready for you since a long time ago, and have just been waiting for the Third Old Master to come pick it up!”

The two entered Yuanzipu together, smiling. Without the shopkeeper’s instructions, the staff in the shop all busied themselves, carrying out jars of fine wine from the inner storehouse one by one. The Wang family members also helped with the two ox carts.

“Third Old Master, would you like a drink?”

“Shopkeeper Zhuo is too polite. How could one drink be enough?”

“Hahaha, my memory must be failing me!”

Shopkeeper Zhuo walked back to the counter, took out a tray with fine porcelain cups and wine jugs, placed it on a table in the store, and personally poured wine for the Third Old Master Wang.

“Third Master, please enjoy!”

“Thank you very much!”

Wang Zizhong sat back on the stool, took the cup, and drank it all. Shopkeeper Zhuo, standing to the side, stared at the empty glass, and found that there was a lot of wine residue left at the bottom, just like usual.

Wang Zizhong noticed the look in Shopkeeper Zhuo’s eyes, and asked with some confusion.

“Manager Zhuo, what are you looking at?”

“Oh, it’s nothing, it’s nothing. Third Old Master, please have another drink!”

After speaking, the shopkeeper hurriedly poured the wine.

This went on for three cups, with the shopkeeper looking closely at the wine glass each time. Wang Zizhong felt awkward. If he hadn’t known shopkeeper Zhuo well, and were not confident in his own martial arts skills, he would have suspected that he had been poisoned.

“Shopkeeper Zhuo, are you going crazy? What’s the matter?”

Shopkeeper Zhuo didn’t avoid the subject this time, and instead sat down opposite Wang Zizhong, and poured himself and the other party another glass of wine.

“Third Old Master, where do your martial arts skills rank in the martial arts world?”

“Why do you ask?”

Wang Zizhong was quite surprised, but he answered anyway.

“If you really want to talk about this, it should be above first-class, only one step away from the innate level. With another eight to ten years, it might be possible for me to break through!”

“Uh… How many martial artists in this world are as skilled as you?”

“Hehehe… It’s rare!”

Wang Zizhong drank the wine quite contentedly, and Shopkeeper Zhuo hurriedly refilled his glass.

“Third Old Master, forgive me for being so presumptuous, but would it be possible for you to drink all of the wine in the glass in one gulp, without leaving any residue?”

“How difficult can it be? Just watch!”

After saying this, Third Old Master Wang, holding the cup in front of his chest, suddenly moved his arm. His right hand seemed to swing the wine into his mouth. Then, he raised the wine glass to show Shopkeeper Zhuo.

The latter saw that the bottom of the cup was indeed clean, but still didn’t seem to be the original white color of the porcelain. He stretched out his finger, wiped along the bottom, and found that there was still a little wine left on his finger.

“Please don’t blame me, Third Old Master, I’ll give you another cup!”

“Shopkeeper Zhuo, you seem to have a lot of things on your mind. What’s the matter? Did my move just now disappoint you?”

Wang Zizhong’s words were not meant to be sarcastic, but rather to express genuine doubt.

“Third Old Master, if you drink like this, is it possible for you to drink it all and have the cup feel dry when your fingers touch the bottom of the glass?”

As he spoke, the shopkeeper made a gesture as if he were drinking. There was nothing special about the movement, just the way an ordinary person would raise their glass to drink. He first mimed taking a sip, then slowly mimed pouring it into his mouth.

Wang Zizhong looked at the actions of Shopkeeper Zhuo and answered with a frown.

“I’m afraid that won’t work. You’ve seen it too. Even if I shake the wine out with all my strength, there would still be some residue left. What’s more, it’s quite thin. Even a top-notch expert who could move objects from a distance of two feet couldn’t control such invisibly thin water!”

The speaker might not have been all that intentional with his words, but the listener took it seriously. The words “control such invisibly thin water” shocked Shopkeeper Zhuo to the core.

“I see. Thank you, Third Old Master, for clearing up my confusion.”

After expressing his thanks, Shopkeeper Zhuo seemed somewhat absent-minded.

But sometimes, some things were just too coincidental.

“Shopkeeper, if I bring my own wine flask, could I get a cheaper price? I’ve been drinking your Qianrichun… it’s addictive!”

Ji Yuan’s peaceful voice sounded from outside the door. Shopkeeper Zhuo suddenly stood up, startling Wang Zizhong next to him.

He raised his head and looked outside the door, and, sure enough, he saw the person he had seen two days ago.

“There are, there are some— No, no— Really cheap, really cheap—!”⁷

Even if he tried his best to pretend to be normal, he couldn’t hide his excitement at all, puzzling Wang Zizhong. Ji Yuan frowned slightly, wondering why he was like this. In any case, he couldn’t figure out what was wrong even after some time.

Wang Zizhong looked at the person outside the door again. Could it be that this person was special?

When he saw Ji Yuan also looking at him, Wang Zizhong raised his arms and bowed slightly in greeting. Ji Yuan also cupped his hands and bowed politely in return.

“Sir, sir, please come in! This is 20-year-old Qianrichun, do you think it is suitable?”

“Hey hey hey! Shopkeeper Zhuo, isn’t this inappropriate? Didn’t you say that there weren’t many 20-year-old ones left, and that you wouldn’t sell them?!”

The prince stood up and shouted loudly, fuming,⁸ not even bothering to drink his own wine.

1. 画舫 (huàfǎng): “decorated pleasure boat” is the official translation, it sounds like a brothel but it is not. These are boats designed for leisure activities, socializing, sightseeing, and hosting gatherings, usually very ornately decorated. ↩︎
2. 花 (huā): word for “flower” is the same as the word for “lustful,” so “flower houses” is the Chinese name for brothel. In this case, it’s a brothel on a boat. ↩︎
3. These lines (& themes of full moon and regret) are most likely a reference to the Song Dynasty poem “水调歌头·明月几时有” (“When Will the Moon Be Clear and Bright?”) by poet Su Shi. Once again, because it’s basically almost a poem, I did my best with the translation, but just know that there are some lyrical beats and poetic form that I couldn’t quite translate over ↩︎
4. 三爷 (sān yé): 3rd Grandpa/Old Gentleman, I went with “Old Master” ↩︎
5. In the current day, Zhouzhuang is a canal town and popular tourist destination. ↩︎
6. This confused me to no end, and here’s why. The guy’s name, Wang Zizhong, is comprised of these 3 characters: 王 (wáng): king/monarch/great, 子 (zǐ): son/child, but together with the previous character means “prince,” and 重 (zhòng): serious/important. So we have a guy whose name literally means “Important Prince,” who also goes by the title “Third Old Gentleman Wang” or “Third Grandpa Wang” or “Third Old King,” a member of one of the most powerful families in Chunhui. Am I supposed to translate his name or his title??? Is he a royal family member (probably not)??? So yeah I just went with the simplest, which is assuming it’s a name and not worrying about the rest ↩︎
7. He’s stuttering in excitement so his sentences make no sense ↩︎
8. 吹胡子瞪眼 (chuīhúzidèngyǎn): this whole thing means “to fume” or to get unspeakably angry ↩︎

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read