[Revised TL] 59 铜钱龛世 | Tong Qian Kan Shi | Copper Coins -- 木苏里 | Musuli -- 英语翻译 | English translation -- Chapter 59

The JJWXC raws are here. Please support Musuli if you can! The novel is very cheap to buy; this guide tells you how to use JJWXC.

---

Chapter 59: Bone Threads (IV)

But as soon as the words came out of his mouth, Stone Zhang regretted them. He saw Xuanmin’s brows furrow slightly as he faltered.

Stone Zhang: “...” It was just a casual question. You don't need to think that hard, dashi... 

He slowly turned his head and exchanged glances with Jiang Shining, who stood by the stove as well. Stone Zhang mouthed, What do I do? I'm freaking out.

Jiang Shining shrugged. You brought this upon yourself.

    

When Stone Zhang turned back to the stove, Xuanmin had taken his hand away and was frowning contemplatively at the boiling glue in the pot. Xuanmin’s pristine white robes contrasted dramatically with the steam and grease of the kitchen stove: even the stove’s flame seemed to retreat from him with timidness. 

    

Stone Zhang couldn't begin to understand what Xuanmin was pondering, but from the look on his face, it did not seem to be something happy. So Stone Zhang did not dare to disturb Xuanmin by gently asking him to leave the kitchen. All he and Jiang Shining could do was stare and wait.

    

Fortunately, although Xuanmin was socially inept, he was still miles above people like Xue Xian, who made trouble on purpose. As the glue in the pot began to gurgle, Xuanmin seemed to come back to his senses. He took one last look at the pot and said, "The heat is too weak."

Then he strode out of the kitchen, without even a glance back at Stone Zhang and Jiang Shining inside.

    

The snow-white robe swept past the door frame as Xuanmin vanished without a trace.

Stone Zhang let go of the breath he’d been holding. "I can breathe again! I'm too old for frights like these. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest..."

Jiang Shining sighed too. Wordlessly, he began to add dry hay into the belly of the stove.

    

"But dashi really is powerful. How does he know everything?" Stone Zhang added, mystified. "Like this thing––" 

He pursed his lips in the direction of the pot, and continued: "Like this mask. No one in our area works on these. One time, a patron brought me to Liangzhou, and that's how I got to know about the process. That city is close to a strategic mountain pass, [a] and is a dangerous place to live. In order to protect themselves, some people pick up some skills here and there. This kind of thing looks simple, but you need to have a wealth of experience under your belt. And if I may... Dashi is awfully young. Even though he's powerful, at this age, there's still only a limited amount of things he could have seen and places he could have been. How much experience could he possibly have?"

    

In reality, even Jiang Shining sometimes had his doubts –– he always got the feeling that the knowledge and stability that Xuanmin demonstrated far exceeded the wisdom of his years...

As a middle-aged man, Stone Zhang had few hobbies, but gossiping and speculating about people was definitely one of his favorites –– and he was very good at it too. He peered out into the courtyard and lowered his voice. "And look at the zuzong named Xue... When he's with dashi, sometimes it seems like he's the secondary one. Today, I got the feeling that he was following dashi around. Think about it. A twenty-something guy, taming a dragon? That's a real live dragon –– he must be a million years old!"

   

That mouth really would not stop talking –– Stone Zhang was like a plucked sparrow with eight extra mouths attached to it. He couldn't help but add, "Oh, right... How old is the zuzong?" 

Jiang Shining patted his poor, worn ears and snapped, "Who the fuck knows?"

    

Although Stone Zhang did not know why Xuanmin would know how to make yirong masks, he nonetheless did exactly as instructed and made the flame hotter, then waited a bit longer.

Finally, he took the glue off the heat and carried a steaming hot bowl of it into the courtyard, slamming it down onto the table with a clang. Pinching his ear, he hopped up and down and said, "Okay, where are the other materials?"

    

Fang Cheng gathered the ingredients they'd collected and placed them onto the table. He'd already chopped what needed to be chopped and juiced what needed to be juiced –– the little plates of materials were arranged immaculately across the table, like a banquet spread.

Stone Zhang did not delay –– he began making the mask.

    

The others were extremely curious, but, knowing that it was a fine process and not wanting to disturb Stone Zhang, they all stood as far as possible and dared not ask any questions. They only stood there and watched.

    

Xue Xian found this all quite interesting too. He had heard of the so-called human skin masks, but had never seen one being made. And yet, because of certain things on his mind that he did not wish to express, he found himself unable to sit still––

    

Every time Xue Xian caught sight of Xuanmin, he would turn his wheelchair in the other direction and escape. Sometimes he would go to speak to the twins in the front shop, and sometimes he would go to bother the beggars. As Xue Xian hid, terrified, from Xuanmin, he grumbled to himself, I just want to sit back and watch Stone Zhang make the mask! Is that so much to ask?

    

Because of all the running around, Xue Xian naturally did not get to observe the full process behind the mask. By the time he'd circled the compound and finally come back, Stone Zhang was already half-finished –– all he needed now was the cast. The little beggar was still lying in bed, her face ravaged by the rash, and it was not the right time to try and touch her.

    

It was at this point that Stone Zhang could really show off his skill. He walked into the room and studied the good half of the girl's face for some time, memorising every detail. Then, he moved onto the ravaged half and studied that too, comparing the two sides.

When he came out, he seemed to know exactly what to do –– he immediately picked up the cast material and began to carve...

    

This was the most effortful and time-consuming part of the process.

It was only after many hours that Stone Zhang finally presented the onlookers with his product. However, the product was different from what Xue Xian had expected –– he thought the mask would be a full face, but it was in fact two separate pieces: one slightly thicker and concave, and the other as thin as a cicada's wing.

    

"Why is it two pieces?" Xue Xian couldn't help but ask as his wheelchair skittered to a halt.

Stone Zhang explained, "When it comes to making such masks, the approach is to add on, not to take away. For instance, you might make thinner parts fatter, and raise the bridge of someone's nose... The little girl is missing chunks of flesh on her face, and the two parts are not balanced –– they need to be balanced out. This first thick piece is to fill in the gaps caused by the rash, and the thin piece is to bind the thick part to the rest of her face. The thin piece is like a second skin on top of the mask."

As Xue Xian listened to Stone Zhang speak, he stared at the two masks. Stone Zhang had panted the colors very accurately, so that, from afar, the masks looked exactly like real human skin...

Hold on––

Real human skin…

Xue Xian turned his head and immediately rolled himself to Xuanmin's side. He tugged at Xuanmin's sleeve, bringing Xuanmin down to chair level, and said, "Bald donkey, look at what Stone Zhang's holding. Does it resemble your memories from Wen Village? You said that in your memories from your youth, there were two images where you were holding human skin. Could this be it?"

    

Although Xue Xian had asked it as a question, he felt almost certain that he was right. Indeed, how could a teenager, especially a teenager with a personality like Xuanmin's, end up holding someone's flayed skin in his hands? He hated touching even a drop of blood –– would he touch human leather? No way.

But he might touch human-skin masks...

    

As he thought this to himself, Xue Xian suddenly realised that Xuanmin had still not answered him. When he looked up, he saw that Xuanmin was looking down at him too, and could not decipher whether Xuanmin’s face was a happy or unhappy one –– he seemed cool and detached as normal, yet somehow different.

But how different, Xue Xian couldn't say. He just knew that, after being stared at like that for a while, he began to feel guilty. He wished he could roll his wheelchair away and escape again.

    

"Not running away anymore?" Xuanmin finally said. His tone was a bit... salty.

Xue Xian: “...” 

Now Xuanmin was making Xue Xian sound like a coward. Xue Xian was irritated, but when he replied, it was to return to the topic at hand: "So you really were holding human-skin masks? At that age, why would you be making yirong masks instead of dutifully copying your sutras?"

"I don't remember," Xuanmin replied.

    

The fact that Xuanmin did not deny the first part meant that he acknowledged Xue Xian's guess –– he, too, now thought that the objects he'd been holding in his memory were masks, or at least fragments of masks. But what would a thirteen or fourteen year-old be doing with that?

    

Xue Xian squinted and began to ponder; as he did so, he felt the sleeve he'd been holding between his fingers slip out of his grasp. Next, a hand arrived to pinch Xue Xian’s chin, moving it so that Xue Xian was looking at Stone Zhang, before letting go again.

Beside him, Xuanmin's voice said, "First, do what you agreed to do."

    

Startled, Xue Xian absentmindedly touched his chin where Xuanmin had pinched him. When he turned back, Xuanmin was striding back into their room, with no intention of staying in the courtyard. And Xue Xian wasn't sure if it was just his own feeling, but...

The bald donkey seemed... unhappy?

    

Now that Stone Zhang had crafted a similar-looking exchange item, Xue Xian effortlessly placed a spell [b] on the two halves of the mask. Jiang Shijing obeyed Xue Xian's instructions and tested the mask on the back of her hand. As soon as the mask came into contact with her skin, it stuck to her, looking as though it were growing out of her body. The colors and wrinkles were all perfectly accurate –– even the small blemishes on the girl's face had been faithfully reproduced.

"Simply give this to the little girl when she wakes up,” Xue Xian said. “You should wait until her scars have healed. If she doesn’t mind the way she looks, then don’t force her. But if she wants to cover the damage, then simply stick the mask on her face and it will work just fine. As long as I'm alive, this object will never lose its effect.”

    

At that moment, Xingzi, who had yearned for Xue Xian’s attention all day, brightened, and her large eyes kept darting back to gaze upon him. Even Chen-sao couldn't help but glance at him every once in a while and half-joke, "Xue-xiao-shaoye, do you think you could give me a facelift? How about making me twenty years younger?"

Chen-shu averted his gaze and led Chen-sao away so as not to let her embarrass herself further.

    

Although the Fang family were a lively bunch, they all seemed to tacitly agree to close their mouths at this moment. They had witnessed Xue Xian perform an extraordinary feat, but not a single one of them tried to ask him about it –– it was polite, and quite caring, of them to be so restrained.

    

As the group tidied away the little plates on the table, Lu Nianqi, who had been curled up in the corner all day, suddenly waved manically at Xue Xian.

"What is it? Have you made progress?" Xue Xian asked.

Lu Nianqi nodded and said, "I'm not as good as Shijiu. I can't divine it accurately. But I can say that, at least during the period between last night and this morning, the person who touched this black blindfold was still at the location that I divined. Whether or not he'll still be here tonight, I can't be sure."

    

"No worries. Let's go take a look first. If we can seize him, that would be ideal, but if not, we'll know that he can't be far, and will have surely left some kind of clue." Xue Xian wagged his chin at Lu Nianqi and said, "Tell us –– where is it?"

Lu Nianqi said, "A mountain that looks like a dustpan."

    

"Looks like a dustpan?" Xue Xian was not familiar with the area, so he had no idea what that meant.

"Oh, Boji Mountain!" [c] Xingzi, who had been silently observing them, suddenly said. "I know, I know! Look –– if you walk straight in that direction, and take the southwest road once you leave town, it's right behind the forest."

Seeing that noon was about to come upon them, Xue Xian did not want to delay. He slapped his armrest, signalling that he wanted to get going. From what Xingzi had said, it did not seem like it would take long for them to get there.

    

At the end of the southwest mountain road, the Ministry of Ceremonies’ carriage train came to a halt. One of its leaders, the Taizhu, lifted his head and looked at the mountain in front of them. "We’re almost there,” he said. “It's right behind the forest." 

---

The author has something to say: 

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone! I wish that all those who are taking grad school exams know the answers to all of their questions, or that if they guess the answers, the guesses are right. I hope that everyone gets good results~ (Says the marinated fish that is currently buried in essay-writing and wants to die. 

---

[a] The Chinese term here is 关隘 (guan1 ai4). 隘 means “narrow” or “pass”, and 关 is a character with a broad meaning that can mean “gate/pass” or “border”. In this case, the geographical location is a mountain pass, but it is “strategic” because it is on the contested/ambiguous borders between the Chinese empire and foreign forces. I chose not to use “border” because it is anachronistic to apply our modern understanding of strict and violent political borders to the historical complexities of the Silk Roads. 

[b] Musuli uses 做功夫 (zuo4 gong1 fu) here, which literally means “to do something”, where 功夫 is the word that gets transcribed into English as “kung fu”, but here, just means “task” or “skill”. 

[c] 簸箕 (bo4 ji) means dustpan. In my original TL this was called Boji Mountain. Normally, in keeping with other ‘locations named informally after their appearance’ in the novel (eg Thumb Mountain, Gravestone Island), I would translate the name into English. The only reason why I have chosen no longer to do so here is because [slight spoiler alert] Boji Mountain will become a highly important location in the story. In light of this, I have chosen to signal the importance by using the Chinese name.

This chapter was beta'd by Rogue!