SIAS Chapter 76.1

[You sign in at the Tieling County Scrap Station and receive a double-sided embroidered Huanghuali carved screen with four beauties.]

Yi Qingqing passed by the scrap station on her bike and signed in at the same time.

She was surprised. It turned out to be furniture again, and it was a screen!

The four-panel foldable curved screen had double-sided embroidery in the middle, with each panel depicting: Xi Shi Washing Silk, Diao Chan Worshiping the Moon, Zhaojun Going to the Frontier, and Guifei Getting Drunken.

The four beauties of ancient times were lifelike on the double-sided embroidered screen.

The embroidery was bordered with jade, and the Huanghuali carved screen frame was as exquisite as the embroidery.

She decided that she must come to the sign-in location at the entrance of the scrap station often in the future!

Picking up antique gold bars was nothing, but this kind of ancient furniture that was enjoyable to look at was what she liked!

Maybe she could even put together a set to decorate her home in the future!

Yi Qingqing continued to walk around the county town, looking for a sign-in location.

[You found the sign-in location of Tieling County Textile Factory. Do you want to use 1 sign-in point to sign in?]

[You found the sign-in location of Tieling County Meat Processing Factory. Do you want to use 1 sign-in point to sign in?]

[You found the sign-in location of Tieling County Machinery Factory. Do you want to use 1 sign-in point to sign in?]

There were sign-in locations at the entrances of several factories that she had inquired about before, but they were all sign-in locations that cost 1 sign-in point. According to past experience, it was likely that what was signed out was an item.

Yi Qingqing did not sign in at these locations.

Then, she went to the residential areas, where there were many sign-in locations everywhere on the road, and their names were all kinds of strange.

[You found the sign-in location at Sanchakou¹三岔口, Sān​chà​kǒu​: At the Crossroads, a famous opera, based on a story from Water Margin or Outlaws of the Marsh by Shi Nai’an, one of the Four Classic Novels of Chinese literature., Tieling County. Do you want to use 1 sign-in point to sign in?]

[You found the sign-in location of the stinky puddle in Tieling County. Do you want to use 1 sign-in point to sign in?]

[You found the sign-in location of Tieling County Half-Standing Telephone Pole. Do you want to use 1 sign-in point to sign in?]

…

These were all places where she was afraid to pay for the sign-in points just by looking at the names. What could she sign at the crossroads? What could she sign at the stinking puddle and the half-standing telephone pole?

Although because of the bicycle ticket signing incident on loess road, she tended to spend 1 sign-in point to sign in at locations whose names were confusing and couldn’t guess what they could sign in, but she didn’t dare to try these places.

After all, she could really find blood-stained corpse soil in the cemetery, and she could probably really find sewage in the stinking puddle.

Although there were still sign-in points, she didn’t want to take risks.

Wouldn’t it be better to save the sign-in points to upgrade special skills? Why would she rely on her luck to draw a lottery in a place like a stinky puddle sign-in location?

She rode her bike and walked through almost every inch of public land in Tieling County and didn’t even go to a state-owned store for lunch.

In addition to the strange sign-in locations mentioned above, she also found some interesting sign-in locations.

*****

Translator’s Little Encyclopedia:

Four Beauties in China (Part 1)

四大美女 (Sì Dà Meĭnǚ), the Four Great Beauties, are legendary Chinese women, all of whom have inspired idioms that are used to describe people who are exceptionally beautiful.

The four are usually identified as Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Guifei. Among them, Diao Chan is a fictional character while the rest have been greatly embellished by legend. They gained their reputation from the influence they exercised over powerful men and, consequently, their impact on Chinese history.

Xi Shi (西施)

Xi Shi lived around the 7th to the 6th centuries BCE, during the Spring and Autumn period. Similar to the story in the Zhuangzi, she was said to be so entrancingly beautiful that fishes would forget how to swim and sink below the surface upon seeing her reflection in the water.

Xi Shi was from Zhuji, the capital of the Ancient Yue Kingdom. Goujian, the King of Yue, had surrendered to the rival state of Wu, with the aim of biding his time before enacting his revenge. Part of his plan was to dispatch Xi Shi as a gift to Fuchai, the King of Wu, in the hope that Fuchai would become infatuated with her and become distracted from his official duties. The plan was successful, with Fuchai spending all his time entertaining Xi Shi and not attending to military matters. In part due to his distraction, Goujian was able to defeat an unprepared Fuchai in battle. Fuchai, full of regret, committed suicide.

There are two accounts of what then happened to Xi Shi. The first is that Goujian killed her by drowning her because he was afraid that he too would be mesmerized by her beauty. The second was that she eventually came together with her lover Fan Li and they lived in seclusion together.

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