Our first ancient/period novel translation, hope everyone enjoys it!
Chapter 1.1
It was a small town, as it was also where the river begins, there were large groups of saury that spawn there every spring. Not only the locals, travelers, and businessmen passing by the place will all want to get a taste of the delicious saury.
On the second floor of the Xitong restaurant, the Xiaoer (words to shopkeepers and waiters of a restaurant/hotel in the olden days) was serving a simmered fish diligently, smiling to his customers: "My dear guests, this simmered fish is the most favored dish in the shop. I guarantee my words and if it fails to please you, you can hit me."
Merchants are accustomed to the behaviours of Xiaoer, thought for a moment before waving impatiently for him to leave, "tell the groom we will be having a long journey ahead tonight. We want my horse fed."
Xiaoer said joyously: "Yes! Let me pack some more food for you in case you are hungry at night."
The merchant’s wife sitting opposite of him frowned slightly and said in a begging town: "Are we still hurrying our journey tonight? But we are already far from the capital, can we..."
The merchant raised his hand to stop her from going on, poked the fish with his chopsticks and said, "It's better to be safe. Don't you love eating fish, dig in."
The lady didn't seem to dare to disobey her husband, and she kept quiet. Lowering her head, she started eating.
Soon, the Xiaoer came up to them with another two bowls of rice and placed them on the table, only to feel a gust of wind behind him. In a blink of an eye, a man emerged out of nowhere and appeared next to the couple.
"I am starving to death!"
The man stood next to his wife, with a tight little cap, ordinarily clothed. From the dust on his face and clothes, it looked like he had a long journey as well. He grabbed a pair of bamboo chopsticks from the chopstick holder while sitting down, and wiped it back and forth on his sleeves. He gobbled down the bowl of rice as if he did not chew on them.
Not only was the Xiaoer stunned, the merchant and his wife were also dumbfounded.
The guy with the tight cap lifted his thumbs up and praised vaguely: "This fish is delicious!"
Hearing the compliment and noticing where he sat, Xiaoer thought that he and the merchants were friends and quickly approached him, and he said with a smile: "The simmered fish in our shop is really famous. Everyone in this area knows about it. It tastes even better than sausage and chicken broth."
The guy with the tight cap chewed on the fish and asked, "Why does it not have bones?" He took another big bite of the fish.
Xiaoer smiled and said: "The fish have bones, a lot of them. But when we prepared it, we removed most of them with a sharp knife, and then extract the smaller ones with pliers."
"That seems to be a lot of work."
The rich merchant finally reacted, and shouted at the Xiaoer angrily: "What's going on?! Where did this person come?!"
"You don't know him?..." Dian Xiaoer was also taken aback and was about to shoo him away.
The man with the tight cap continued to chew on the fish while pulling out something from his pockets and flashed it in front of Xiaoerm, "... Don’t disturb me."
Upon seeing the item, the Xiaoer immediately backed away.
"Wait!" the man with the tight cap shouted, gazing at the bowl to give a rough measurement of its size. "Give me... six more bowls of rice!"
"Yes! Okay!."
Xiaoer obeyed and didn't dare to offend them.
Although the merchant couldn't see what was in the hands of the man beside him, he felt a little uneasy. He grabbed the edge of the table and stared at them, "Who... who are you?"
He gobbled down the last mouthful of rice, put down the bowl, wiped his mouth with the sleeves frowned and glared at the merchant, "All these while, what are you running for! Because you are tall and strong?! It took me days to catch up and I did not have a proper meal for days!”
The merchant's tone shivered slightly: "Who the hell are you?!"
The man with a tight cap slammed the object in his hand on the table. The heavy bronze medal made the “Bu” (捕 meaning for constable) of the unevenness on it very clear.
"I am Department Six. Someone asked me to bring you something." The guy with a tight cap touched his arms with his oily hand, he found a roll of paper and handed it to the merchant.
As soon as the merchant opened, his expression froze - “wanted with rewards”, and above it was his head, Cao Ge, male, 42 years old...
The tight capped guy leaned forward and looked at him, nodded after glancing at his appearance: "The painting is quite similar. From your appearance, you may not have such a good looking nose tip. It's a little chubby. What do you think?"
The lady next to him knew that something was wrong, trembling and moving her feet, slowly approaching the exit. Suddenly, the chopsticks flashed. There was pain in the little finger of her right hand. She looked down, and the little finger was firmly held by the bamboo chopsticks, unable to move.
The man with the little hat looked at her with a smile: "Madam Qi [husband’s last name] Qiu [her last name], or should I call you Madam Cao Qiu now?"
Qi Qiu struggled a few times, but the bamboo chopsticks were holding her tightly, just like iron tongs.
"Sit down!" said man with the little hat, while turning the chopsticks slightly, pulling her little finger towards him.
Madam Qi Qiu's pain was unbearable, and he sat down with a sad face.
"The two of you are also cruel enough to elope. Besides killing your maidservants, you cut off the maidservants' heads, put the headless corpses into your clothes and put them into your ex-husband’s Qixiucheng house, trying to frame Qixiucheng of killing his wife.” The man with the little hat shook his head twice." Anyway, you and him were husband and wife. It was because you fell in love with others, but why do you have such a vicious plan."
Qi Qiu's fumed: "Qi Xiucheng didn't die?"
