Lanke Chess Edge

Chapter 430: A Farce

Over the years, a rumor had been circulating among the people who made a living by the Chunmu River, on the outskirts of Chunhui Prefecture: if someone fell into the water and was in grave danger, they were very likely to be rescued by the river god of Chunmu River.Unlike many people who simply heard the story, the man on the painted boat, named Li Jinlai, knew that many of the rumors were likely true. He had already sought confirmation from three people who had previously fallen into the water.

One was a drunkard who fell into the water from a brothel ship, another was a woman washing rice who had accidentally fallen in, and the third was a child from the village outside the city who had gone to the riverbank with his friends to release homemade lanterns.

None of the three knew how to swim, or for some reason or other were unable to swim in that moment. They all confirmed that they had been choking and suffering after falling into the water, but at the critical moment, they saw a faint blue light flowing through the water, which carried them to the shore and allowed them to survive.

The most bizarre story was from the child who fell into the water. According to the child, when they ran out of the village to play by the riverbank and were releasing their homemade lanterns, they saw a very exquisite lantern on the river. It looked like it had been carved from wood. Although the candle on it had gone out, comparing it to their homemade lanterns was like comparing a phoenix to a crow.

The children immediately tried their best to reel the lantern back to them, seeing as it was a little further away on the rover. The lantern kept drifting downstream with the current, and the children kept chasing after it. Finally, they reached a section of the river where the waterline was higher on the shore, and the lantern stopped on a piece of waterweed.1 The children wanted to fish it out from there.

As a result, one child balanced on a protruding rock on the bank, grabbed his friend’s hand, and leaned down to grab the lantern. When he grabbed it, he felt a pull that caused him to fall into the water, and his friend on the bank was almost pulled in as well.

Then the child felt his feet get tangled quite firmly in the seaweed. Even though he could swim, he choked on a lot of water. When he opened his eyes underwater, he saw a terrifying figure with long hair and a swollen body. The terrified child panicked and could only thrash wildly.

Just then, a bluish light approached underwater, followed by a tremor in the water. The child felt a sudden pull on his ankle and something pushing him up from underneath, and he floated to the surface and was carried to shore. He crawled out of the water and was helped out by his friends, tumbling and crawling all the way to the shore.

The villagers, especially the elders, firmly believed that the children had encountered a water spirit, and that the blue light must have been the river god of Chunmu River coming to their rescue. It was fortunate that the children’s parents had always respected the river god.

Afterwards, all three children believed that the river god of Chunmu River had saved them, and they and their parents went to the River God Temple with offerings to express their gratitude.

Of course, Li Jinlai didn’t just stop at asking these three people; he also asked many more people who had fallen into the river. Many of them were rescued by luck or by boatmen who knew how to swim. Countless people fell into the Chunmu River every year, but only a very small number actually claimed to have been saved by the River God.

All three of them shared the same account: they all vaguely saw a blue light underwater, and all three of them did so when there were few people around, or at least when there was no one around who could help them.

However, the man was almost certain that the one who saved these people was not the River God of Chunmu River, or at least not the River God himself, but rather a divine fish in the river.

Last autumn, Li Jinlai attended a wedding banquet at the home of the Wei family, a wealthy family in Anda County, Qinglu Prefecture whom he had some blood relation to. He saw a wooden carp sculpture in their ancestral hall. After asking around, he learned that it was not a simple carp, but a black carp, but he did not explain why it was enshrined there.

Later, at the dinner table, an elder who was closer to the Wei family told him a story. He said that their second master had encountered a strange event more than ten or twenty years ago. After getting drunk, he fell into the Chunmu River and was saved by a divine fish. Later, on his way to play, he met an immortal in the mist.

The elders didn’t go into the details of the encounter with the immortal, perhaps because he didn’t know them. However, he did clearly recount the story of the divine fish saving their second master. And after that, supposedly thanks to the immortal’s guidance, the Wei family enshrined this black carp statue in their ancestral hall.

Li Jinlai knew very well that the Wei family in Anda County had been doing very well all these years and was now quite wealthy. After hearing this story, he felt that the Wei family’s rise to prominence must be related to these matters.

It just so happened that Li Jinlai had overheard several stories of several other people being rescued from drowning in the Chunmu River of Chunhui Prefecture. He took it to heart. After some effort and inquiry, he grew increasingly certain that what he had heard from the Wei family was true. His mind became more and more active.

Li Jinlai knew of a very powerful expert who lived in Chunhui Prefecture. It was said that even high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital had to show him some respect. Li Jinlai had previously sought the expert’s secrets for wealthy and fortune, but the expert claimed to be an immortal cultivator, and as such could not help him.

However, this time, Li Jinlai visited the expert again with “sincerity,” explained to him the matter of the divine fish, and pleaded with him again. The expert relented and, seeing his “sincerity,” gave him a talisman and some detailed instructions.2

So Li Jinlai, who could swim, orchestrated this scene on the river this night, hoping that the divine fish would come to his rescue.

…

“Help! Someone’s drowning! Someone’s fallen into the water!!”

The woman’s screams carried far across the quiet Chunmu River in the night, while the man in the water struggled violently. In fact, the man was putting all his strength into the struggle and even swallowed several mouthfuls of water.

Although it was already springtime, the weather i=was still very cold, and people are wearing heavy clothing. The man hadn’t expected that wearing such clothes would restrict his movements so much when entering the water, as if he were being weighed down by a heavy iron block.

The river water was also very cold, and with the evening breeze and the surging waves of the Chunmu River, even a manlike him, who was usually a good swimmer, had already swallowed several mouthfuls of water. He was so cold that he was shivering as he spoke.

“Quick, keep shouting, quick…”

“Okay, okay! Help! Someone, come quick! Someone, help me!!”

The woman shouted with all her might. Even in the distance, boats with lanterns turned around and headed in their direction, though they still seemed to be quite far away.

The man’s hands and feet were frozen stiff as he struggled to swim, his clothes feeling as heavy as iron.

He drank several more mouthfuls of water, but after such a short time, the man’s spirit and strength were starting to give out.

“No, no… I have to go up, I, I have to go up!”

The man struggled to swim closer to the pleasure barge, reaching out to grab the gunwale. However, his strength was insufficient to allow him to leap any height in the water. The gunwale of the pleasure boat was higher up, and he could not reach it, only touching the smooth side of the hull.

“Xiaoyu, quick, pull me up!”

The man in the water was frantic. His head was bobbing up and down in the water. He kept waving his hands, trying to get on the boat. Each time he struggled in the water, he was expending even more of his precious energy.

“Huh? Grab my hand, grab it!”

The woman on the boat also started to panic. She could tell that something was wrong with the man, but she was terrified of water. She huddled by the side of the boat, stretching out one hand while gripping the gunwale tightly with the other. Their hands touched several times, but slipped away each time.

“Use the pole, use the pole!”

The man was in a panic, and the woman became increasingly frightened. She grabbed a bamboo pole and struggled for a while before finally straightening it and handing it over. However, the man almost dragged her into the water as he clung to her lifeline. She was so frightened that she quickly let go of the oar.

The man, who had just emerged from the water, fell back into it with a “plop.” He choked on several mouthfuls of water, his strength almost completely depleted.

He tried to grab the bamboo pole, but it wasn’t buoyant enough.

“Quick, throw some– throw some tables– throw some chairs and benches down, I– I can’t take it anymore…”

The man was truly panicked now, but he was too weak to even utter a complete sentence.

The woman on the boat was more flustered than the man below. After hearing what he said, she quickly ran back to the cabin of the pleasure boat, looked around, found a stool, and picked it up.

The man rushed to the side of the ship, his splashing the water much less vigorous than before. But when he saw the woman emerge with a wooden stool, a glimmer of hope returned. At that moment, he had no thoughts of the divine fish; the wooden stool was his only hope.

“Quick, throw it to me…”

The woman quickly threw the wooden stool into the water, but…

With a “thud,” the wooden stool struck Li Jinlai squarely on the forehead. His eyes rolled back, and he sank straight into the water.3

“Ah—Young Master Li! Young Master Li—someone help!”

The woman on the boat screamed in terror, the sound several octaves higher than before.

The instant the stool struck Li Jinlai, his only thought was, ‘I’m doomed!’

However, not long after he sank into the water, a blue light flashed past beneath him and then slowly lifted him to the surface.

The man had already lost consciousness, and the women on the boat were clearly unable to lift him, as his clothes were soaked through. So, with a “bang” and a large splash of water, the man was thrown directly onto the pleasure barge.

“Young Master Li, Young Master Li!”

Seeing the ripples on the water gradually subside, the woman panicked and ran to the man’s side, pushing and slapping him.

Li Jinlai spat out a few mouthfuls of water. He was clearly still unconscious, and just instinctively curled up, shivering.

Ji Yuan, Bai Qi, and the old turtle in the water all looked in that direction, watching the big black carp swim back after rescuing the man.

“Heh, what a complete farce.”

Ji Yuan said calmly.

T/n: Li Jinlai gets a delicious serving of Consequences, as JY flexes his roasting skills.

Elodea, or Waterweed, is a plant that lives in freshwater, native to the Americas. It’s considered an invasive/noxious weed in other parts of the world, which is making me wonder what it’s doing here T/n: in case it wasn’t obvious, “sincerity” = “a lot of money”. Funny, for a guy claiming to be an immortal cultivator expert T/n: lady, I dub thee one of the worst servants ever. Unless you’re an assassin, in which case amazing job

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