Chapter 19 - The small loyal dog is really honest.

After hearing many legends about famous swords1 , I decided to go take a look at the Qiu Manor, an influential sword-casting family in Suyang that offers good quality at a good price.

Ye Tan drove the carriage while I hid away inside, dozing off while we wandered towards the south-east. It had not been more than two days when we arrived at a new place, I stepped outside of the carriage for some fresh air, and in passing stuffed two glutinous rice cakes in Ye Tan’s mouth. Unexpectedly, we were stopped at the city gates.

It was not soldiers blocking our path, dressed with plain clothes, holding knives and swords, they seemed rather like men of the Jianghu.

“Which sect and group are you from? Where do you come from? Where are you going?”

I, not understanding the situation, naively answered: “We don’t have a sect or a group, we come from Jincheng, and are going to Suyang.”

A swordsman wearing a bamboo hat rudely said: “What nonsense is this? If you are going from Jincheng to Suyang, how did you end up coming to Helan?! This is the complete opposite direction.”

“The opposite direction?” I was astounded.

Hearing this, the guests inside the teahouse next to the relay station all tuned their ears to watch the joke unfold.

I asked doubtfully: “Huh? How can that be? For as long as we’ve been on the road, every time we came across a fork in the road we asked someone, and every time they pointed to this direction, it never changed.”

The bamboo hat-wearing swordsman turned towards the men beside him and laughed: “This can also be the opposite direction, these two are stupid, ha ha ha ha.”

“Brother He, don’t be careless.” Amongst the group there was a youth wearing robes and a belt2 , having heard what happened, he came over and took a look at the situation, “To be mistaken in such a strange way, I see you’ve been deceived.”

✦✧✦✧✦✧

✧1 名劍 lit. name sword or famous sword. Top.

2 褒衣緩帶 lit. loose clothes loose belt. Refers to the clothes of ancient Confucian scholars.Top.