[Translation] Don't Let The Country Go (不讓江山): Chapter 11 — For the Sake of Delicious Food

 

If you make a date with dawn, dawn will never disappoint you. It always arrives on time.

But Li Diudiu did not want to date the dawn.

He only wanted breakfast.

And so he arrived at the dining hall even earlier than dawn itself.

Talking about “making a date with dawn” sounded far too poetic. Li Diudiu had no such refined sentiments. Right now, all the beauty in his heart was concentrated in the delicious food spread across the long tables in the dining hall.

When Aunt Wu saw Li Diudiu, she smiled.

Although this child never left leftovers when he ate—which made him a little less lovable in her eyes—everything else about him was likable, especially his politeness.

Other than Li Diudiu, no one ever spoke to her with such respect.

How could she know that Li Diudiu respected her far more than he respected Yan Qingzhi?

Li Diudiu’s thinking was very straightforward.

Food was important.

“What would the young master like to eat today?”

Aunt Wu asked.

Li Diudiu looked over the table, unsure how to choose. Suddenly he remembered hearing common folk say, nothing’s more fun than dumplings… bah, nothing’s tastier than sister-in-law… bah!

“Do you have dumplings?”

Li Diudiu asked.

Aunt Wu nodded quickly.

“Yes, yes. We people of Ji Province mainly eat flour-based foods, so of course we have dumplings. Would the young master like meat filling or vegetable filling?”

Li Diudiu was already eleven years old.

He had never eaten dumplings before.

Naturally, Master didn’t know how to make dumplings, nor would he spend money taking him out for dumplings. Ever since the day Master began wandering the world with him, he had wanted to defy fate and change Li Diudiu’s destiny. How could he bear to waste even a single copper coin?

And now, his fate was finally beginning to change.

So if people heard that a northern-born child like Li Diudiu had never eaten dumplings before, most probably wouldn’t believe it.

Seeing Li Diudiu hesitate, Aunt Wu assumed that children from wealthy families might not care much for meat dumplings.

So she introduced another option:

“These are freshly wrapped this morning. Shepherd’s purse and egg filling. They should be delicious.”

Li Diudiu asked,

“What’s shepherd’s purse?”

“A kind of wild vegetable. Very tasty.”

Li Diudiu immediately shook his head.

“Impossible. Wild vegetables aren’t tasty.”

Aunt Wu thought to herself that he really was a rich family’s child if he didn’t even know the taste of wild vegetables.

Before she could continue, Li Diudiu decisively declared:

“Meat filling! Three portions!”

Li Diudiu thought to himself:

Trying to trick me into eating the cheaper kind? Not that easy.

He couldn’t remember the names of most wild vegetables, but the thing Master had fed him most often over the years was wild vegetables.

Master even used to say wild vegetables were good, much tastier than ordinary vegetables.

Li Diudiu had once asked why wild vegetables were supposedly tastier than regular vegetables.

Master had immediately thrown out an analogy.

Master said:

“A wife isn’t as good as a concubine, a concubine isn’t as good as sneaking around, and sneaking around isn’t as good as what you can’t steal.”

“Meat is the legal wife. Ordinary vegetables are the concubine. Wild vegetables are the thing you can’t steal.”

Back then, Li Diudiu’s thoughts had become thoroughly tangled.

Because no matter how he thought about it, it felt wrong.

According to Master’s logic, shouldn’t meat be the “unobtainable thing,” while wild vegetables were the legal wife?

Each serving contained twenty dumplings.

Aunt Wu assumed Li Diudiu couldn’t possibly finish them. After all, he looked thin and small. Twenty dumplings alone were enough to make her full.

But Li Diudiu devoured all three servings—sixty dumplings in total—in one breath without stopping.

Then he shouted toward Aunt Wu:

“One more serving!”

Aunt Wu was so startled that she almost jumped.

What was that tiny stomach of his made of?

“Young master, stop eating. I’m afraid you’ll feel sick from overeating. Meat dumplings are heavy.”

She hurried over.

“If you think they’re delicious, come back again at noon.”

Li Diudiu shook his head firmly.

“No. One more serving.”

Left with no choice, Aunt Wu cooked another serving.

Just as she set the bowl in front of Li Diudiu, a young student who looked about sixteen or seventeen walked over and glanced at him.

“What’s so tasty about these things?”

Li Diudiu replied,

“They’re delicious. Really delicious.”

The student picked one up and tossed it into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully.

Then he frowned.

“There’s barely any flavor.”

Without even swallowing it, he turned and spat it into the nearby waste bucket.

As the student turned to leave, Li Diudiu refused to let it go.

Looking at him seriously, he said,

“You owe me a dumpling.”

The student froze.

This little brat sure had spirit.

One dumpling—especially one from the free dining hall—and this kid actually wanted compensation?

“How should I repay you?”

The student sat down across from him smiling and pointed to himself.

“My name is Xiahou Zhuo. Tell you what, I won’t compensate you with a dumpling. I just saw you eat three portions already. If you can finish this fourth serving too, I’ll give you one tael of silver.”

Li Diudiu’s eyes instantly lit up.

“One tael of silver?!”

Seeing his expression, Xiahou Zhuo paused briefly before understanding.

“Right. Everyone here’s a student at the academy. Who would care about one tael? How about two taels instead? Let’s call it a joke. I’m placing a bet on your dumpling-eating.”

Li Diudiu nodded seriously.

“No taking it back.”

Then came the storm.

Before long, Li Diudiu had eaten nineteen dumplings.

Xiahou Zhuo stared with wide eyes.

From inside his sleeve he pulled out a piece of silver and placed it on the table.

“It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve seen someone eat like you. And it’s also been a very, very long time since I ate like that…”

Li Diudiu asked curiously,

“When was the last time you ate like this?”

Xiahou Zhuo replied,

“When I was still being carried in their arms. Back when they fed me whatever they wanted and I just ate it. Back then I ate because it was food. Now I eat for amusement.”

Li Diudiu wondered silently what exactly he had been eating back then.

Xiahou Zhuo stood and smiled.

“I’ll come watch you eat again tomorrow morning. This is pretty interesting.”

Li Diudiu waved his hand.

Xiahou Zhuo laughed.

“No need to see me off.”

Before he could finish speaking, Li Diudiu continued waving and added:

“Bring money.”

Xiahou Zhuo: “……”

He didn’t even have to wait until the next morning.

At lunchtime, when Li Diudiu returned to the dining hall, Xiahou Zhuo and seven or eight students around sixteen or seventeen years old were already there waiting for him.

None of them were eating.

It looked like they had come specifically to wait for him.

Aunt Wu was just about to ask Li Diudiu what he wanted to eat when Xiahou Zhuo waved him over.

Li Diudiu thought that since he had accepted two taels from the man already, he ought to at least greet him.

“So this is him.”

One young man laughed.

“I heard you can eat eighty dumplings?”

Li Diudiu corrected him seriously.

“Seventy-nine.”

Another young man added,

“I also heard you’re the academy’s only poor student.”

Li Diudiu looked awkward and didn’t know how to respond.

Xiahou Zhuo immediately said,

“Stop talking nonsense. Fun is fun—why bring up someone’s background?”

“Yes, yes…”

The others all nodded.

It was obvious Xiahou Zhuo was the leader among them.

Li Diudiu thought it was probably because Xiahou Zhuo’s status was more noble.

“Do you want to make money?”

Xiahou Zhuo asked.

Li Diudiu nodded.

“Yes.”

He didn’t think there was anything shameful about admitting that.

Who didn’t want to make money?

What he didn’t realize was that in this academy, perhaps only he cared about earning money.

The others had never needed to worry about such things.

“Good.”

Xiahou Zhuo pointed at the long tables of food.

“We’ll choose what you eat. For every portion you finish, I’ll pay you according to its price. A serving of buns costs twenty copper coins? I’ll give you twenty. Dumplings cost fifteen? I’ll add fifteen. The more you eat, the more you earn.”

Li Diudiu asked curiously,

“Why?”

Xiahou Zhuo sighed dramatically.

“Because I’m bored and want to amuse myself by playing with you.”

The others burst into laughter.

Looking at Li Diudiu quite seriously, Xiahou Zhuo continued:

“People born into families like ours can’t find entertainment at the academy anymore. Spending a little money to buy amusement is nice.”

Li Diudiu asked,

“This morning you gave me two taels. Why did the price go down now?”

“Because now I know you’re poor.”

Xiahou Zhuo smiled.

“I asked Instructor Yan Qingzhi about you. He told me all about your background. So now I think two taels was a bit too much. Of course, you can refuse us. We won’t make things difficult for you.”

Li Diudiu fell silent for a moment.

Then he turned and walked away.

One of the young men sighed.

“How boring. Is he pretending to feel humiliated?”

Another said,

“Looks like there’ll be no entertainment today.”

Li Diudiu sat down by the food tables and slowly exhaled.

Are rich people really this bored?

“Go ahead and order.”

He said.

“Hm?”

Xiahou Zhuo, who had already started walking away, turned back to look at the boy’s back and smiled.

“This is getting interesting.”

That lunch, Li Diudiu ate three baskets of soup buns—thirty in total, the small kind—drank two bowls of rice porridge, ate a small bowl of rice with two dishes, one meat and one vegetable, and also devoured an entire soy-braised pork knuckle.

From all that, he earned one hundred copper coins.

According to Great Chu law, one tael of silver should equal one string of copper cash, and one string contained one thousand coins.

But the empire was now in chaos and the people suffered terribly. Exchange rates had long stopped following official standards.

These days, one tael of silver could be exchanged for sixteen hundred copper coins, assuming they were old coins of good quality.

For the newly minted coins of recent years, one tael could fetch two thousand coins because the quality was terrible.

Two taels plus one hundred copper coins.

That was what Li Diudiu earned today.

He was very happy.

“I think I roughly understand your limit now.”

Xiahou Zhuo said.

“In the future, if I make you eat beyond your limit, I’ll multiply the price by three.”

“Five times.”

Li Diudiu looked directly into Xiahou Zhuo’s eyes.

“Eating after reaching your limit hurts a lot. So it can’t be lower than five times.”

Xiahou Zhuo thought about it and nodded.

“Reasonable. Then five times.”

Li Diudiu gave a satisfied hum and turned to leave.

“See you tomorrow.”

Suddenly Xiahou Zhuo asked,

“Why did you agree to earn money this way? Don’t you feel humiliated?”

Li Diudiu turned back to look at him.

“Why should I feel humiliated? You have money and I don’t. I want to earn money and you want to give it. I’m not stealing, robbing, or cheating anyone. Even if this isn’t exactly a respectable way to make money, I’m exchanging what I can do for equal payment. There’s nothing shameful about that.”

Xiahou Zhuo fell silent for a while before saying,

“That was the answer to my second question.”

Li Diudiu blinked.

“What second question?”

Xiahou Zhuo replied,

“You answered my question about humiliation. What I actually wanted to know first was why you want money at all. Even if you came from poverty, you won’t spend money at the academy. You could completely pretend you weren’t poor. No one could tell.”

Li Diudiu asked in return,

“Why would I pretend to be rich?”

Then he added with genuine confusion:

“You people don’t even eat yourselves. You spend money watching someone else eat. So why do you still think you’re making fun of me?”

Xiahou Zhuo asked,

“Then what would count as making fun of you?”

Li Diudiu answered,

“If you promised money but didn’t pay me afterward, that would be making fun of me.”

Xiahou Zhuo thought for a moment and nodded.

Still, he felt that sort of behavior would be terribly beneath him.

Then Li Diudiu asked one more thing.

“Do you really think the dining hall food isn’t tasty?”

Xiahou Zhuo let out a soft sigh.

“Probably only you think it’s delicious.”

Li Diudiu thought to himself:

In the future, I absolutely must earn lots and lots of money.

Over all these years, even his master had never eaten food as good as the academy dining hall’s.

And the Taoist temple probably wasn’t much better.

Once he earned enough money, he could take Master to eat the foods that Xiahou Zhuo and the others considered truly delicious.

Those foods must be unbelievably tasty.