Title In Progress

101 - [TanGua] - Flowers in the Mirror¹ 01 & 02

01

Ye Tan suddenly felt that something wasn’t right.

He felt as if the strength in his body had been drained, and his senses also became very sluggish. His body was heavy and weak, like his perception had been blocked by some kind of drug, but he couldn’t tell what kind of poison it was, nor did he know when he could have been poisoned. ——Earlier, he’d clearly felt that this place was strange and he’d been overly cautious, so who on earth had such skills?!

He suddenly opened his eyes, and could only feel that everything was very dark.

——Crap. He thought.

This shouldn’t be!! He trained his night vision for twenty years, and his ability to see things had never been hindered by the amount of light, he should still be able to see clearly even if it was pitch-black, let alone with the current fragments of moonlight that still…..

…..Wait, moonlight?

Ye Tan turned over and went to open the window, confirming something in astonishment: Not only did his night vision become weaker, even his field of vision had been reduced by a lot. Even his sense of hearing and smell had become much slower, he couldn’t even search out his surroundings.

“Oh, A-Tan, what are you doing…..”

The person beside him was unhappy with his movements, groaning and turning over, and when Ye Tan looked at him, he was entirely stunned.

The person sleeping next to him, with his black clothes and black hair, was just like another “Ye Tan”.

Ye Tan was stunned, tentatively saying: “Master?”

As he opened his mouth, Ye Tan was undoubtedly convinced that this was not his own voice, it was Jun Xuanheng’s voice! He again looked at his weak and slender wrists, and immediately felt as though his head could explode——

He and his Master had switched bodies!!

02

It all started three days ago.

Yang Qingzhou said his younger brother had disappeared.

It was midnight when Yang Qingzhou arrived, and Jun Xuanheng was still half-asleep. Ye Tan heard a servant coming to make a report, got up, and put on his clothes to receive the guest. Yang Qingzhou had always been very well mannered, so he wouldn’t come to trouble them so late at night unless it was something very important.

Since the older generation in Yanxi didn’t take part in the war against Zhongli Court, Jiangnan had been thrown into chaos. Yang Qingzhou had a mild and scholarly temperament, and couldn’t keep the situation under control. He was already struggling to deal with everything and couldn’t pull a few of his trusted subordinates away for this, so he could only come and ask his friends at the Sword Pavilion for help.

When Ye Tan heard why he had come, he felt like he shouldn’t decide this by himself. Although he was unwilling to disturb his Master’s rest at this hour, he knew his Master held justice in high regard, so he had no choice but to wake Jun Xuanheng up.

Jun Xuanheng woke up when he heard it, hurriedly asking: “What happened? Was he kidnapped, or did he get lost? Where did he go missing, when did he go missing? Where are we going to search?”

“I know where he is.” Yang Qingzhou handed him a letter, “This is a map of the roads, I’ve already marked it down.”

Jun Xuanheng was puzzled: “Then why do you need us to go search?”

“Although I know where he is, I don’t know which one he is.” Yang Qingzhou had a difficult expression on his face, sighing, “I….. I don’t know how much I should say, you two will be able understand once you go see.”

In the evening of the next day, Jun Xuanheng followed the map and searched all along the way. The situation was urgent this time, so they ditched the carriage and the two of them rode together on a horse, but their way was blocked as they directly faced the sheer rock faces of a towering mountain range.

Jun Xuanheng stretched out his head from Ye Tan’s embrace, staring at the barrier-like cliff in front of them as he wondered: “This doesn’t look like a place with roads?”

After walking along the stream for a while, the peach trees on both sides became denser, and the way in front of them was blocked by a rock with moss and green vines creeping up on it. Ye Tan waited for a moment, then turned the horse around and walked to the side. After half a cup of tea’s time, he suddenly saw a crack in the cliff covered by the peach blossoms. The crack was about a zhang² wide, and he could see the sky through it.

Jun Xuanheng’s eyes shone: “There really is a road! A-Tan, how did you know there was a road here?”

“The wind.” Ye Tan answered briefly.

The ground in the stone alley had been artificially chiselled into steps, the corridor was hidden and deep, and it was difficult to make out the situation inside. Ye Tan stood at the mouth of the alley and looked around for a moment, then drew his arms tighter around Jun Xuanheng and urged the horse inside.

Coming out of the corridor, their view opened up to a wide space, and brilliant rays of light suddenly appeared. As a habit, Ye Tan lifted his hand to cover Jun Xuanheng’s eyes, blocking the sudden strong light for him. Before their eyes was an ordinary village, the type that could be seen everywhere, with a great number of merchants set up and vast fields for farming, and both hunters and farmers bustled about. It seemed like most people didn’t have a martial arts foundation, the atmosphere was bustling and undisturbed, seemingly very safe…..

As Ye Tan first arrived to this place, he concentrated his full attention on examining his surroundings, and suddenly felt Jun Xuanheng rubbing against his palm, clearly feeling his soft eyelashes brushing past it.

Ye Tan withdrew his hand’s like he’d been shocked.

Jun Xuanheng swept a look around their surroundings, laughing: “It’s actually a bit like the legendary Peach Blossom Spring³.”

Ye Tan agreed in a low voice, as usual.

Ye Tan urged the horse down from the stone steps. There was a scholar playing chess by himself under the peach trees to the side of them, who lifted his head when he heard the sound. Ye Tan got down from the horse, and asked: “Excuse me, is this place Mirror Flowers Spring⁴?”

“Precisely.” The scholar returned the salute, and nodded with a smile.

Jun Xuanheng: “Seems like we found it.”

“You two don’t seem familiar, are you from out of town?” The scholar asked.

Jun Xuanheng nodded.

The scholar said: “The scenery here is charming, you two may roam around as you wish. Come find me if you need something.”

Jun Xuanheng hurriedly said: “We didn’t come to hang out, we’re here to find someone.”

The scholar asked: “Who are you two looking for? I’ll do my best to help.”

These kinds of small settlements that shun the world were usually not too welcoming towards foreigners, so this type of cordial hospitality was very rare indeed. Jun Xuanheng spoke: “Then we’ll have to trouble you, sir.”

“You’re too polite, Young Master.” The scholar laughed, and took out two round medals from his cuff, saying, “It is our custom here to write our names on these medals, I hope you two are willing to try to accommodate?”

Ye Tan took them and examined them carefully. Those medals looked to be metal in both their colour and lustre, but they felt extremely light as he held them in his hand, they were not the same as aluminium, and he didn’t know what kind of material they were made out of.

The scholar was indeed wearing that embroidered medal on his chest, with the words “Zhao Tong” written on it in clerical script, and the farmers in the surrounding paddy fields were also really wearing these medals, so Jun Xuanheng naturally agreed. Zhao Tong handed them some pen and ink, and Ye Tan took them one by one.

“A-Tan, help me write mine.” Jun Xuanheng saw that he’d finished writing and pushed his own medal into his arms. During these few years, Ye Tan’s writing had gotten better and better, and he’d long since gotten used to passing off all the writing he needed to do to Ye Tan.

Zhao Tong smiled: “Where’s the sincerity in that? You need to write it yourself.”

Jun Xuanheng sighed: “Fine….. it’s just that my writing is really ugly, is that okay?”

Zhao Tong said: “It doesn’t matter.”

Jun Xuanheng wrote the word ‘Jun’ very crookedly, and suddenly felt a little distressed: If I had known this earlier, I wouldn’t have made the last word so complicated⁵.

Zhao Tong saw that his ugly writing had not been mentioned out of modesty and laughed out loud, not forcing him: “It’s fine like that. Let’s go into the village and look for the person.”

Mirror Flowers Spring had a lake in the middle known as Mirror Lake, peach blossoms lined its banks, and the trees cast shadows on the embankment. The sunshine fell like a rainbow, and it’s dazzling reflection on the lake was extremely pretty. Ye Tan led Jun Xuanheng along, walking through the embankment that cut through the glittering waves of the lake, and as the sky gradually turned to dusk, bright lights twinkled in the village one by one.

There was a night market in town, and many people were strolling around. Both sides of the street were filled with dazzling displays for jewellery, rouge, and snacks, but none of the stalls had vendors to hawk their wares.

Jun Xuanheng looked around back and forth, and Zhao Tong understood his doubts by watching him, so he smiled as he said: “We don’t use silver currency in here, don’t hesitate to just take whatever you two want to eat. You can just arrange with someone else for whichever house you want to stay in.”

Jun Xuanheng was astounded: “Then, won’t there be fights to take stuff?”

“How could that be? We are not good at fighting in this town, and besides, there’s plenty of room here, so what’s there to fight for?” While he spoke, Zhao Tong took out a tray of meat buns from the steamer, “In addition, in this case steamed buns are not made for profit, they were all made by a few gentlemen dedicated to the study of fine food, and their craftsmanship is something that cannot be bought with money on the outside.”

Jun Xuanheng had just reached out with his hand, but Ye Tan rushed to take it first. He carefully sniffed it, then took a small bite, and then put the meat bun in Jun Xuanheng’s hand when he was sure nothing was wrong.

Jun Xuanheng smacked his lips as he chewed: “!! Wery tahshty!”

“Haha, it’s good that you like it.” Zhao Tong also ate one as he walked, “This way.”

Jun Xuanheng turned towards Ye Tan and stuffed one in his mouth and, not caring about his oily hands, pulled him along to catch up.

Zhao Tong led the two of them into a relatively wide hall. There were about a dozen people studying music scores inside, and after Zhao Tong explained their purpose in coming, everyone put down the scrolls in their hands and went to help them find the person.

Jun Xuanheng felt very awkward, hurriedly saying: “That would be too much trouble for everyone, we can just look ourselves.”

Zhao Tong said: “When you help others, others may help you, it’s all the same.”

The crowd asked for clarification on the person’s name, age, physical appearance, and other traits, then found an expert who could paint and had him come to draw a portrait according to the description. After verifying everything, Jun Xuanheng carried the portrait and filed out onto the streets to search.

The two of them had travelled all the way here, so Zhao Tong took them out to go eat something. Halfway through the meal someone came looking for them, and the crowed pushed a sleepy-eyed man wearing a dark green long gown in front of them. Sure enough, it was Yang Qingzhou’s younger brother, Yang Su.

“I’m tired.” Yang Su looked dreary, rubbing his eyes as he spoke, “If you need anything, let’s talk about it tomorrow. Even if you really wanted to leave it would have to be tomorrow.”

Since the person had been found, they were not in a hurry, so Jun Xuanheng said: “Okay.”

They found a random house nearby that seemed to have been empty of residents for several days, since there was only a small layer of dust left behind. Ye Tan went in to tidy up and lay out the bedding, Jun Xuanheng sat cross legged at the living room table, munching on a few things, and sincerely praised: “This is a really good place.”

Ye Tan spoke: “There shouldn’t be such a place.”

Jun Xuanheng: “Huh?”

Ye Tan said: “Every person is selfish, it’s impossible for there to be a place with people without disputes. This subordinate thinks this place is strange.”

Jun Xuanheng asked: “Do you think the villagers are putting on an act to deceive us?”

Ye Tan shook his head: “I haven’t found any clues for now.” The villagers were really friendly, and had no gongfu foundation at all, so it didn’t seem like an act. This was also what puzzled him.

Jun Xuanheng propped his chin up as he pondered: “In addition, finding Yang Su was also too easy. Qingzhou said it was hard to explain clearly, and we would understand once we arrived, but I still don’t understand yet?”

“Indeed.”

Ye Tan tidied up the bed, walked around the screen and picked him up to go clean up, then finally stuffed him inside the quilt and also laid down with his clothes on. Jun Xuanheng had been rushing about for the whole day, and he’d been feeling tired since earlier, so he clung to the shadow guard beside him and very quickly went to sleep.

Ye Tan waited until he was asleep, then very cautiously pried open the hands Jun Xuanheng had put around his chest. He stood up and went to set up some simple mechanisms and concealed weapons at every entrance of the house, then went out for a round of patrol. He ascertained the directions of the paths around the house, the number of people in the vicinity and their general identities, and, after not discovering anything strange, returned to rest.