Title JWQS CH 11-20 ✅

泾渭情殇 Jīng wèi qíng shāng - Clear and Muddy Loss of Love Author: 请君莫笑 Please Don’t Laugh Support the author | JWQS carrd Do not repost this translation anywhere else, do not share this as an epub. For better readability, use browser extension for dark mode or docs app for mobile. Jump to chapter... Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 11: Planning every step in making a new friend Pupils who wished to participate in the pre-student test have already started to enter the city before the sky brightened. Ever since Nangong Rang had ascended to the throne, he made vigorous efforts to make the kingdom prosper. He valued intellectual pursuits, and he held martial skills in high regard. That was why the standards for pre-student exams were extremely high. The road from the city gates to the examination hall was cleaned attentively early in the morning. All of the shops and stalls nearby were quiet. The Yun province was a big province, and it was adjacent to the capital city. Many pupils who had the same idea as Qi Yan hurried over from distant lands. A majority of them travelled alone with a trunk on their backs, while some of them had brought child assistants or servants along. Nangong Rang greatly encouraged frugality, hence most pupils dressed plainly. If one wished to differentiate their backgrounds, there was a way to perceive it directly: by the way they walked.
Those who walked at a quick pace and swayed their sleeves as they looked all around their surroundings would be pupils from a poor family. While those who had focused gazes, a steady and quiet pace, even and straight shoulders, were mostly from a family of scholars. If someone kept their chest raised but their head slightly lowered, their hand right above their abdomen but below their chest, and their other hand left to sway slightly in its wide sleeve in accordance with their footsteps, walking soundlessly without excessive movement; that person must be an important young master from an aristocratic family. That particular way of walking was passed down from the previous Dynasty. It was known as: a cultured and refined bearing. A ‘cultured and refined bearing’ did not just mean walking. It encompassed many aspects like speech and mannerism. If one wished to grasp the essence of it, they did not just have to start learning it at an early age; they would also have to pay a high price for a master of etiquette to teach them with the utmost care. Qi Yan had seen this cultured and refined bearing before, on her Shifu’s body. But she had not taught it to her before. Qi Yan had always been curious about the masked person’s identity. But the masked person had curated all of her reading material, so she could only deduce from scarce hints that the masked person was once nobility. It was not yet time to enter the examination site. Six square tables were placed before the gates of the examination hall. The pupils waited patiently in six orderly rows. Suddenly, a commotion could be heard. The pupils frowned as they glanced towards the noise. They saw a young master dressed in brocade clothes, sprawling lazily on a litter carried by two people.
Qi Yan swept a look over, then she retrieved her gaze right away: Ding Fengshan had come. The house servants carried the litter all the way to the front of the outermost row. One of them shoved the first pupil roughly: “Let out this position!” That pupil did not look older than fourteen, and he wore a robe of coarse cloth that was a washed-out white. His face turned red from anger: “This is the examination hall, how can you act so brutishly in a formal place like this?” The house servant made nothing of it. He shouted: “It’s your life’s fortune for the great young master of Ding estate to use your position! Step aside!” That young man was taken aback for a moment. Evidently, he knew about Ding Fengshan’s status. His attitude weakened down, then he shot a look at Ding Fengshan. He muttered: “Fine, I’ll move.”, then he picked up his trunk and went to the back of the queue. The house servant placed a bundle of the scholar’s four treasures onto Ding Fengshan’s lap. He bowed, then he said: “Young master, may you have a swift success!” More than a few people were secretly laughing to themselves: this house servant’s words weren’t just unsuited to the occasion; it was also very crude. Ding Fengshan was participating in a pre-student exam as a nineteen-year-old; now that was already unheard of. Only one person gave a cold snort. He said scornfully: “Ignorant.” Qi Yan turned her head to see that the one who had spoken was a young man her age. He wore simple clothes, and he carried a trunk on his back. A lustrous jade pendant hung from his waist.
The young man sensed Qi Yan’s gaze; hence he turned his face over with a cold expression. Meeting her unique amber eyes, he changed his tone: “What does this brother think?” Qi Yan answered calmly: “There’s no need to bother one who’s making a state of themselves.” The young man digested the meaning within Qi Yan’s words, then he nodded with a smile. The indignation in his heart was now much fainter. “This one is Gongyang Huai, from the capital. Courtesy name Baishi. That’s the ‘white pebble’ from ‘glittering with white pebbles’.” (TN: 公羊槐 huai - sophora japonica 白石 baishi - white stone) Qi Yan curved the corners of her lips: “Flowing river waters, glittering with white pebbles. White clothes and a red collar, I accompany you to Quwo. With you here, how can I feel any unhappiness?” (TN: a poem《诗经·唐风·扬之水》Stream Water Runs Clearly) Gongyang Huai was greatly delighted: “This brother is well learned. May I ask for your name?” “Qi Yan, from the Jin province. Yet to have a courtesy name.” Gongyang Huai gave a courtesy with his hands: “Nice to meet you.” Qi Yan returned it politely, though she was thinking of something else entirely. The capital city was extraordinarily prosperous and prestigious, so there was no need to go all the way to the Yun province for a pre-student exam. Additionally, his unique surname, ‘Gongyang’, reminded Qi Yan of one person.