"Silly girl, what is your name after all?"
"Umm... I’m called Xiaochai, they call me Xiaochai."
"Xiaochai? Who is this ’one dish’ then?"
"There’s, there’s no ’one dish’, it’s just Xiaochai. I live in the firewood room, the firewood for firewood, rice, oil, salt. However, there’s a maid in the main courtyard named Die’er, which sounds nice. Umm, are you, are you still eating?"
"No more for me, you eat, you eat. Don’t mind Qing Jun and me. I was stuffed with anger by you this afternoon, talked all afternoon and you ignored me, didn’t give me any face. I thought you were pressurized into sickness by me. Just went back a while ago, and this young hero mastered ’Dragon Draws Water’; I’m also filled up."
"Right, right, I’m sorry."
"That’s fine, don’t kowtow, as Uncle Bai would say, we folks of Jianghu, we don’t do that, let’s just make it a friendship, um, besides, no borrowing or freeloading booze."
"As for Qing Jun, she can’t eat anymore either. Just pushed her over the wall, and never would have guessed her bum had grown flesh again, it was so heavy I almost got crushed to death, nearly got my waist wrecked by her. My lifetime of reputation almost ruined by an egg, but luckily, I managed to push her up in the end."
"Rong’er, please don’t talk about me like that... Where did I get fat?
"Where? Your butt. You thought you could hide it from me?"
"Naughty Rong’er! Take these bones back yourself, I won’t pick them for you anymore. Only Xiaochai will get the fish bones picked from now on."
"Big brother, the young lady really doesn’t look fat, she’s tall and slim, and also so pretty. None of the maids in our courtyard look as good as her."
"Thanks, Xiaochai. You are pretty too. Did your face get hurt? Later I’ll apply some medicine for you."
"Alright, alright, enough with the mutual flattery. Ah, Xiaochai, no, no, Xiaochai, take this plate away too, saw you eyeing it for a while."
"Eh, Xiaochai? What a mess, is that a name someone could come up with? Die’er too, it’s too cliché."
"Uhh, okay. We were foundlings, the old matrons in the courtyard named us after things in the kitchen. When it was my turn she just circled around and pointed at the wood by the stove, so I got my name... Xiaochai, grew up in Zhao Mansion, I’m Zhao Xiaochai."
"Oh, so this is why you eat wood? Because your name is wood, you eat wood?"
"My mother said, when we name, there must be thought and meaning, the more elaborate and meaningful the better, so it impresses people. So do you know what thought and meaning is?"
"It means that when spoken, it makes others not understand at first. Or after you tell them the meaning, they have to digest it for a long time before they slowly realize, and even nod pretending they understand. They can’t help but mutter internally that this person really is sophisticated and impressive. Got it?"
"Got... got it a bit. So it’s... not talking human language with others?"
"Ah, well summarized. But you must add one more thing, while not speaking human language, you also make others not realize you’re not speaking human language, thus making them feel ashamed and doubt their own understanding, believing they aren’t the sophisticated one, then they’ll think you are."
"Oh, got it, um, but it sounds hard."
"Let me give you an example, and also introduce us a bit."
"This young hero’s surname is Zhao, a single character Rong, as in ’to abandon the pen and take up arms’. If you split the character Rong, it includes ’weaponry’, the shield and the spear, representing armaments."
"So the character Rong also implies armaments and army. My mother said, my dad picked my name. It’s a bit fierce, if later I study, I might ask my teacher for a gentler character."
"As for the very skilled at picking fish bones and peeling grapes Qing Jun... there’s a saying, ’When cold days leave the grass and trees yellow, only then you realize it is evergreen.’"
"Bamboo is green and upright, symbolizing the demeanor of a gentleman, hence the name Qing Jun, sounds like a boy’s name, ah, if only she were a boy, could have one more buddy. But alas, a smelly girl who likes to wear skirts."
"Silly girl, impressive isn’t it? Isn’t it very sophisticated, completely understandable?"
"Umm, firewood... bamboo... soldier spear, umm, aren’t they all just wooden sticks?"
"Big brother, miss, do you eat wood?"
"Eat your big head, ghost, how are they the same? Mine is Soldier Spear, even if it’s made of copper and iron, a strong, thick rod, whereas you’re just bamboo and firewood, only suitable for making a wooden scabbard, a bamboo scabbard. So, hmph, this young hero alone is enough for both of you, an easy catch. As Uncle Bai would say, I can simply cleave open this tiny Wangque Continent with a single sword. So from now on among the three of us, I’m the boss, and you both better listen to me!"
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey. You’re shameless."
"Speaking of which, Xiaochai, when you saw me at the window today, why were you so scared of me?"
"I was afraid you’d hit me."
"Am I really that scary?"
"It’s not that, I just didn’t recognize you, and you kept staring at me, which was scary, and you kept nodding..."
"Oh. That’s because I recognized you. You don’t know me, but I definitely know you. Let me ask you, those tiles outside our fourth room back then, those square grids, the stones laid in them, was it you who cleaned them up?"
"Ah, it seems so, how did you know?"