CH 58

Chapter 58: Debate with Yun Wenfang[1]

When Ren Yaoqi came out again, Qiu Yun and Yun Wenfang were really still waiting outside.

Qiu Yun looked up at the sky, fished out a folding fan from somewhere, struck it into his left hand and said to Ren Yaoqi, “Fifth Sister has moved quite quickly, I thought you would keep us waiting for an hour.”

He was not saying this as a sarcastic remark. Ren Yaoqi said she had to go back to pack and did not have the luxury of delaying. Because she knew that with Yun Wenfang’s temperament, even if she delayed until the evening before coming out, he would still be waiting outside.

She did not want to anger these two masters over such a trivial matter.

So at Qiu Yun’s jibe, Ren Yaoqi merely smiled faintly and said nothing.

It was only then that Ren Yaoqi realised that Qiu Yun was a man of many words. As the three of them walked along, without waiting for Ren Yaoqi to ask him about it, he introduced the fan in his hand: “This was brought back by Yun Wenting from capital city, and the words on it were written by him. It is said that the Eldest Young Master of the Yun Family writes well, what do you think, Fifth Cousin?”

Ren Yaoqi glanced at it. The Yun Family’s Eldest Young Master, Yun Wenting, was also a very famous talent in Yunyang City. She had met him once in her last life when Yun Wenfang was taken back by the Yun Family. He was suave and elegant looking. It would not be too much to say that Yun Wentian’s handwriting was also like him.

“Mm, good.” Ren Yaoqi nodded in approval.

Qiu Yun proudly raised her fan in front of Yun Wenfang, “Look, Fifth Cousin also said it was good. You’re the only one who says his writing is ugly! It can see that you just jealous!”

Yun Wenfang glanced at Ren Yaoqi and said in a cold voice, “Be careful of catching a cold in this cold weather.”

But Qiu Yun shook her fan more and more and said slowly, “You don’t understand, do you? From the beginning to the end of the year, people in capital city have a fan in their hands. They don’t take the fan to blow the wind, but to do this,” said Qiu Yun, covering most of his face with the fan, leaving only one pair of eyes out.

“Block your face like this. Tell others, I don’t want to greet you right now, so please go ahead! People in capital city call this ‘face cover'(便面 bianmian, tried so hard to translate this, my other best attempt is flat face like the emoji but I don’t think it is right).”

Ren Yaoqi bowed her head and smiled. She had lived in capital city for many years and knew the custom. What Qiu Yun had said was true. Originally, it was only popular among women, and later scholars and officials outside began to use it, but women used round fans.

With Qiu Yun’s interruption, the atmosphere became more natural.

Yun Wenfang suddenly said to Ren Yaoqi, “I heard that Han Yunqian lost a painting to you?”

Ren Yaoqi didn’t bother to find out who had told him about it, so she nodded. “Then you can bet with me too.” Yun Wen paused, and then said expressionlessly.

Ren Yaoqi finally understood why she had confronted Yun Wenfang in her last life. Even now she sometimes couldn’t help but want to teach him a lesson.

“What do you want to bet on?” Ren Yaoqi asked casually.

Yun Wenfang slowed down slightly and said after a moment’s thought, “Whatever you want to bet on. If you lose, you can give me a painting, if I lose… if I lose, you can mention your conditions!”

Ren Yaoqi looked embarrassed, “Can I not bet?”

“No!” Yun Wenfang said firmly.

Ren Yaoqi paused in her steps and turned to look at him. Then a hint of cunning flashed in her eyes, but she nodded reluctantly, “Alright then.”

A trace of doubt flashed across Yun Wenfang’s eyes.

Ren Yaoqi tilted her head to think about it. By this time they were almost arrived at the Nuan Pavilion. She turned her eyes and saw a few bamboo branches sticking out diagonally behind the Pavilion, where a small bamboo forest was located

Ren Yaoqi waved at Yun Wenfang and Qiu Yun and led the way around the right side of the Nuan Pavilion towards the small bamboo forest.

Yun Wenfang and Qiu Yun looked at each other, Qiu Yun stroked her chin and smiled slightly. Yun Wenfang went after Ren Yaoqi and Qiu Yun followed.

The small bamboo grove behind the Nuan Pavilion was just a scenic spot, so not many masters did plant there. But because it was tended to on a daily basis, it was also lush and verdant, with a very charming charm.

The soil inside the bamboo grove was a little loose, so Ren Yaoqi just wanted to make it quick and didn’t want to ruin her new deerskin boots.

“The dew washes away the leaden powder knots, the wind shakes the green jade branches. I am like a gentleman, there is no place that is not suitable.” Qiu Yun shook her fan and recited with a shake of her head, “No wonder the ancients said, ‘I’d rather eat without meat than live without bamboo.’ This is a wonderful place!”

Ren Yaoqi ignored Qiu Yun’s literary tugging as she surveyed the bamboo while walking back and forth, then turned to Yun Wenfang and said, “Are you sure I’m in charge of what to bet?”

Yun Wenfang looked at Ren Yaoqi and nodded, and Qiu Yun also walked over and looked at Ren Yaoqi with interest, wanting to see what questions she could come up with.

Ren Yaoqi smiled, her eyes vivid, “Well then, do you believe me when I say I can tell the male from the female of a bamboo?”

Qiu Yun was stunned for a moment, then laughed softly, “I have never heard of bamboo able to be distinguished between male and female, this is really something.” How had he not realised before that her Fifth Cousin was an interesting person? He had really misjudged her.

Yun Wenfang however, looked at Ren Yaoqi steadily for a long time before shaking his head, “I don’t believe it.”

Ren Yaoqi turned around and stroked a cultivated bamboo next to him, tilting her head, “Alright then, let’s bet on this. If I can identify the male and female of the bamboo, I win. If I can’t, or if I’m wrong, then it’s a win for Young Master Yun.”

Before Yun Wenfang could reply, Qiu Yun called out, “Wait, wait. What kind of a bet is this? Although I am your cousin, I cannot be biased. Is it just a matter of your words whether you win or lose?”

Ren Yaoqi said confidently, “When the time comes, I will naturally be able to produce evidence that will convince you, so let you be a witness, and you will be the one to decide who loses and who wins.”

Qiu Yun closed her fan and tapped her jaw, thought for a moment, nodded and smiled, “Alright! Just don’t blame me for biased to my cousin when the time comes.”

Ren Yaoqi smiled faintly and looked at Yun Wenfang, who was clasping his arms next to a mature bamboo, his slender figure seeming to blend in with the bamboo in the forest, equally upright and handsome.

“I have no problem with that.”

“If I lose, I will give you the painting. If I win,” Ren Yaoqi’s eyes turned slightly, her smile innocent and harmless, “you will not trouble me ever again.”

Qiu Yun laughed so hard he couldn’t even stand up straight.

Yun Wenfang’s face darkened and he gritted his teeth and yelled, “When did I bother you?”

Ren Yaoqi blinked innocently, a look of dilemma on her face, “What should I do? We both seem to have a different understanding of what ‘trouble’ actually means. Then, if I say no towards you in the future, it’s a refusal, you’re not allowed to be angry or take revenge afterwards!”

Qiu Yun laughed even louder, just about falling down laughing.

Yun Wenfang’s face was ugly and his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Ren Yaoqi.

Ren Yaoqi looked scared and pointed at him, “Look, this is what anger looks like!”

Yun Wenfang: “…”

“Are you going to bet or not? If you don’t bet I’m leaving.” Ren Yaoqi smiled, returning to her usual meek and well-behaved appearance.

“Bet.” How Yun Wenfang said this word sounded a bit gritty, it was as if he had deliberately curbed his temper.

Ren Yaoqi nodded, pointing to the bamboo leaning behind Yun Wenfang and affirming, “This one is the female!”

Yun Wenfang frowned and went to look at the bamboo behind him with a depressed look on his face. He couldn’t help but glare at Ren Yaoqi.

Qiu Yun ran to Yun Wenfang’s side, rubbed her chin and carefully examined the bamboo, which was no different from any other bamboo, for half a day, snorted and looked askance at Ren Yaoqi and said slowly, “Cousin, you have said that I will help decide and not biased to relatives.”

Ren Yaoqi slowly said, “The Compendium of Materia Medica[2] said : ‘Bamboo has male and female, look at the first branch on the root, if branched it must be female, and it has a shoot.’ In short, if you count from the root of the bamboo upwards, the one that has bamboo shoots is the female.”

The two of them looked at what Ren Yaoqi was pointing at, and saw that there were new shoots coming out.

Qiu Yun looked at Ren Yaoqi with an odd expression on her face and exclaimed, “This is from the compendium? You’re actually reading that?”

Ren Yaoqi said with a straight face, “For a while I couldn’t sleep, so I asked my maid to take the dustiest book in this room and read it. It was really useful, and I could even learn something unexpected in the process. Cousin can try it too.”

Qiu Yun gave a puff of laughter.

Ren Yaoqi looked at Yun Wenfang, who had pursed his lips and was silent, “If Young Master Yun don’t believe me, you can go back and look in the book.”

Yun Wenfang snorted softly and turned his head away.

Ren Yaoqi smiled as she walked outside, saying as she did so, “It’s getting late, let’s go to Aunt’s place.”

Qiu Yun smiled and went up to speak to Yun Wenfang in a whisper, “If you lose, you lose, there’s no shame in it, Han Yunqian also didn’t win anyway.”

Yun Wenfang really felt better.

Ren Shijia was very happy to see the three of them coming to her courtyard. She quickly ordered her maid to bring out the snacks she had brought from Yunyang City.

She knew Yun Wenfang and had learned from Old Madam Ren why he had come to the house, so she only called him ‘Zishu’, as did Qiu Yun.

Qiu Yun and Yun Wenfang did not sit for long, but only come for a greeting and sat a while before leaving.

As they left, Qiu Yun reminded Ren Yaoqi, “Remember that we go out tomorrow, we’ll leave after we’ve paid our respects to the Old Madam and return in the evening.”

Qiu Yun doesn’t put on a haughty attitude towards people he was familiar with, but instead was very talkative and funny. His attitude towards Ren Yaoqi in this life was much better than in the previous life.

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[1] Chinese sentences that I can’t understand time! The title of this chapter is (智整云文放). Please help, is the translation right or not? I’ve tried a bunch of different machine translations and they all said different things.

[2] 本草纲目 (bencaoganmu) known in English as the Compendium of Materia Medica or Great Pharmacopoeia,[1] is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine, natural history, and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen and published in the late 16th century, during the Ming dynasty. Its first draft was completed in 1578 and printed in Nanjing in 1596. The Compendium lists the materia medica of traditional Chinese medicine known at the time, including plants, animals, and minerals that were believed to have medicinal properties.