江湖路弯弯: Jianghu Road is Curved! Chapter 10

_{(translated by xia0xiao1mei)}

^{(edited by anniaxx)}

CHAPTER TEN

Praying For Love: Low Low Fortune

Pang Wan felt for the first time, imitating Sang Chan is truly capable of bringing peach blossom luck to her. _{(Peach blossom luck – good luck in love affairs)}

And so she puts away all clothing with colours, only leaving behind white robes and white skirts (despite it being such a pain to wash them), hiding away all her hair ornaments, only leaving behind a few strands of lightly coloured ribbons (despite how the winds always blow it into her mouth).

Once she had packed it all away, she sees the Crimson Phoenix robe that Sect Leader had gifted her, that hint of stunningly bright red, just like the most vibrant roses of finest quality, beautiful, with thorns.

“White lotus flower, white lotus flower, I want to be a white lotus flower!” Pang Wan inwardly repeats to herself, enduring the pain as she folds away the Crimson Phoenix robe, placing it away in the bottommost section of the box.

Turning her head to see the cleanly dressed young lady in the mirror, not yet considered a lotus flower, but should still barely pass as a little lotus bud!

Leading the stallion as she leaves the doors, she prepares to go on an outing with Bai Xiao Sheng.

Bai Xiao Sheng is usually very busy, and does not come finding her often, the outing this time is because she heard there is a bodhisattva temple near the Capital that is highly efficacious in kau chim^[1], thus pleaded Bai Xiao Sheng to take her there. Seeing that Pang Wan rarely makes any requests, Bai Xiao Sheng could only give in.

Having queued up for a long time, it finally came to her turn, Pang Wan firstly presses her palms together, inwardly praying: “May the heaven bless me with the bestowment of a good sign.”

Who knew once she drew a bamboo stick, upon searching up the number, it actually turned out to be a low low fortune sign.

The humble monk who gave her the fortune paper corresponding to the stick, looks at this lady whose face had suddenly paled, his eyes containing pity.

Pang Wan helplessly stares at the divine message written on the yellow paper, the first thing her eyes caught onto were four big characters —— “mustn’t ask [about] marriage fate”.

Mustn’t ask, mustn’t ask, mustn’t ask……

Hong-long! Her mind suddenly clogs up, countless thoughts emerging, but are immediately suppressed.

“Do you want to have your sign interpreted?” Bai Xiao Sheng leans in.

“No need, no need.” Pang Wan folds up the divine message, shoving it into her sleeve in panic, “I don’t need it interpreted.”

“Why not have it interpreted?” Bai Xiao Sheng raises his brows at her, “I prayed for one, and was just wanting to go have it interpreted.”

“You also prayed?” Pang Wan lowers her head, indeed seeing his hand hold a yellow piece of paper, proudly revealing two words of “great fortune”.

“You go have it interpreted then, I’ll wait.” Pang Wan feels ashamed to speak of her own low low fortune sign to him, and could only force out a cheerful smile, “What I wanted to ask about, this sign tells me I mustn’t ask.”

Bai Xiao Sheng glances at the sign in his own hand, smiling without care: “Then I shall not have it interpreted either.”

Preoccupied with troubles on her way downhill, Pang Wan is utterly perplexed, her mind set on the thought of hurrying home, and find a torch to burn this fortune sign, lest it brings back luck.

“What lady had prayed for today, is it perhaps marriage fate?” Coming up to the halfway point, Bai Xiao Sheng suddenly asks from behind.

Pang Wan reveals a bitter smile, looking dejected: “But the Bodhisattva just had to tell me I mustn’t ask.”

“Perhaps it is not yet the right time?” Bai Xiao Sheng leads the horse as he walks to her side, softly comforting her, “Lady needs not let it get to you so much.”

Pang Wan thinks about Sang Chan’s great achievements of attracting three great male leads, then looks at her own solitary shadow and lonely figure, lacking a male lead’s interest in her, and could not help lamenting: “I fear the one I desire, will never like me in this lifetime.”

Bai Xiao Sheng was taken aback, and then says: “Exactly what is it that lady likes about Supreme Chief?” His tone delicate like a spring breeze, a timely rain^[2].

This one simple question, sure left Pang Wan stumped.

——why does she like Gu Xi Ju? Also, why did she carry hope for Zuo Nan Yi?

During her previous life in the land of Mary Sue, this a question that she did not need to consider at all, all sorts of male leads holding such qualities of “appearance of stunning beauty” “peerless elegance of a generation” “shocking talents with magnificent writings”, such diverse range of labels that practically says who else can you love other than me, giving her no chance whatsoever to even consider the question, the only factor that required her thinking, is choosing the correct type —— the devilish charm type? The elegantly refined type? The evil demon type? The torturous love type? As a Mary Sue female lead, she did not need to consider why she would love, in the end it is still love, one hundred percent love, who told the male lead to be so handsome?

Her mouth left agape for a long time, unable to sound complete syllables, in the end, Pang Wan could only resort to speaking nonsense: “I admire Supreme Chief’s thriving bravery and mightiness.”

Bai Xiao Sheng’s steps staggers a bit.

Having her thoughts interrupted like this, Pang Wan’s mood starts to clear up again. She believes that when it comes to such thing that are male leads, there will always be an endless stream that comes and goes, Supreme Chief, Palace Master, Prince and whatever, although they have all been taken by Sang Chan, there will always be more pearls left in the ocean! Besides, even if there are no polished goods, she herself can also personally foster one! For example, save a pretty youth in distress, offer material assistance to a beggar in the streets, a chance encounter with a young noble gentleman who is just starting to understand love……

As she thinks and thinks, she turns to glance back at Bai Xiao Sheng.

According to her many years of experience in life, this male in purple clothing before her, can also be considered to have graceful charms far above the mass, unfortunately, it seems that such label of “pretty man” is not suited for him. At a closer look, he is quite a tasteful one, but it is that sort of sediment taste resulted from going through thick and thin over the years, and is not the sort of male lead material that is popular in the land of Mary Sue.

“Already a matured form, not good for fostering” —— Pang Wan secretly makes eight words of assessment to herself.

But hears Bai Xiao Sheng’s mood turn solemn as he says to her: “That’s not right.”

Ah? Pang Wan shivers, thinking to herself, could it be this fellow has some sort of divine ability to see into my private thoughts? Upon taking a proper look, does she find that Bai Xiao Sheng is looking behind her —— approximately a hundred zhang behind her _{(one zhang /丈 is equivalent of 3.13 metres)}, faint smoke was billowing over.

“Mountain bandits.” Bai Xiao Sheng frowns.

Ahead, where the smoke is coming from, flags of the yellow and red waves around, the sound of ghost-like wails, wolf-like howls and metal blades are vaguely heard, one can imagine the situation there is inevitably tragic.

“Lady needn’t be alarmed, they are currently robbing others, looks like they wouldn’t be coming to us for the time being.” Bai Xiao Sheng seems to have sighed in relief, raising his arm to motion for Pang Wan to retreat back, “We could go to the temple for shelter first……”

Who knew that once Pang Wan heard the word “robbery”, her almond eyes would suddenly be bursting with a frightening shine.

“Insolent bandits, actually dares to rob innocent people!” All that can be heard is her loud yell, she pulls out the whip by her waist, and charges towards the area clouded in thick smoke, not even looking back.

The bandit leader Zhang Second laid in ambush for over a half a month, waiting for this day. Receiving news from heavens know who, saying that within these few days, there will be a carriage fleet loaded with treasures, passing though this mountain valley, and so he arrived very early to execute a thoroughly planned deployment, occupying the best choice of terrain, and completely blocked off the escape path ahead, they are bound to completely wipe out the people, with not even a fragment of armour remaining, and then take all the gold and silver as they make a victorious return.

All was going well according to plan, they had outflanked the carriage fleet, taking on a thunderous force as they charge downhill, originally thinking it is a guaranteed success, until the very moment this great-aunt came falling down from the sky.

_{(Gū nǎinai / 姑奶奶 or great-aunt -refers to girls who are overbearing and tyrannical)}

Oh dear great-aunt , this truly is a great-aunt, he didn’t even get see what this great-aunt looks like, and was thrown into the river with one lash of her whip, rendered immobilised. The sound of golden whip rattling, all that can be heard are cries for fathers and screams for mothers all around, seeing each and every one of his comrades get beaten into falling petals and running water by her, incapable of taking care of their own lives, he closes his eyes, better off just playing dead.

Peeking through a tiny slit, he sees that great-aunt gather away her whip, heading straight towards the only sedan amongst the carriage fleet.

…

A youth! A pretty youth in distress!

The moment Pang Wan lifts open the curtain of the sedan, even her hand starts trembling —— pretty youth in distress ah, big sister did not let everyone down and has come to save you! You must remain inside no matter what!

Inside the sedan, there is indeed a collapsed young noble gentleman in silk clothing, lying flat on his stomach, just that he is facing down, not sure whether he is pleasing to the eye or not. Pang Wan feels this whole “receiving the reward one wished for” is too good to be true right now, she reaches out and unsteadily helps the young gentleman up, then unsteadily turns his face towards her.

Great, now this feels real.

That young gentleman has a face that is even more pig-headed than an actual pig head.

Pang Wan’s expression goes through dramatic changes of different colours, just when she finally couldn’t handle it anymore and was just about to drop the young gentleman, the young pig head gentleman suddenly wakes up.

“Fai-…….-ry……sis-……-ter?” The young gentleman turns those eyes that are even thinner than that of a needle, his breathing very faint as he calls out to Pang Wan.

In the end, these lifesaving words, succeeded in preventing Pang Wan from continuing to loosen her grip.

“Little brother, you’ve been attacked by mountain bandits, big sister has already chased them away for you, you’re safe now.” Pang Wan whose vanity was flattered, starts to speak in a soft and gentle tone, completely absorbed in the role of a fairy.

“Thank……you……sis-……-ter……” The young gentleman tries to reach out to Pang Wan, but finds that she is beyond his reach, and could only weakly drop his hand.

Pang Wan maintains her composure as she avoids the young gentleman’s pig trotter, smilingly saying: “Saving people to the end, sending the Buddha all the way west^[3], little brother, do you have any firework signal on you? Let me help you light one up!”

The young gentleman nods his head, eyes signalling that the thing is in his chest.

Pang Wan reaches into his chest, but pulls out two objects, one is a firework, the other is a piece of black jade.

“My apologies, my hand’s too big.” She sheepishly smiles, intending to place the jade back.

But did not expect for the young gentleman to reach out to reject it.

“Keep-……-sake……find……me……in……Lin……Yi……” Once the young gentleman had feebly said this, he seems to have exhausted all his energy, his breathing becomes heavy, the corner of his lip leaking a trail of dark blood.

Pang Wan seeing his half-dead state, thinks to herself, how could she possibly turn her back on the entrustment of a dying person? And so puts away the jade by her waist side and generously says: “Sure!”

Once the young gentleman sees her accept the jade, he is finally put to ease, closing his eyes and falls unconscious.

“Put to rest just like that?” Pang Wan looks at him puzzled, walking out of the sedan, she lights the firework signal.

The bright firework illuminates the valley, also lights up her face, the carriage fleet gradually wakes up one after another, seeing this scene from the distant, they loudly call out to her: “May I ask of benefactor’s honourable name?”

“Me?” Pang Wan looks at the momentary brilliance in the sky, falling into a little trance in that moment.

After a moment, she softly says: “Sang Chan, I’m called, Sang Chan.”

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[1] Those who have read Chaos of Beauty may remember this but kau chim is a divination method that sort of works like drawing lots, it’s part of Chinese fortune telling practice, performed in Taoist or Buddhist temples, here’s a link for info – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kau_cim

[2] A spring breeze, a timely rain or chūn fēng huà yǔ / 春风化雨 literally means the sensation of a refreshing spring breeze brushing against the person, or like a timely rain nourishing the earth. The term is generally used to describe the stimulating influence of a great teacher.

[3] Saving people to the end, sending the Buddha to the west or jiù rén jiù dào dǐ, sòng fú sòng dào xī / 救人救到底, 送佛送到西 the more often used phrase would be bāng rén bāng dào dǐ, sòng fú sòng dào xī / 帮人帮到底, 送佛送到西 it’s pretty much the same but rather than saving people, it’s helping people in general. The phrase is used to say if you are going to do something good, go all the way with it. The sending Buddha to the west, refers to the Amitabha Buddha’s western paradise (aka pure land) which is seen as a blissful paradise, a step away from nirvana.

After a slight setback, Wan Wan once again gets another little morale boost, is she perhaps catching up to Sang Chan fairy status? Haha…and just out of pure curiosity, what are everyone’s thoughts on Bai Xiao Sheng up to now, think he’s a possible male lead…or not?? Hehe 😛