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Chapter 640: Mist Disperses

But what’s the reason? They could have simply used wooden pieces to make a box, which would make surface engraving and gilding much easier, yet someone went out of their way to hollow out every side of it. Now, to be precise, it’s not really a box anymore, but a closed structure assembled from six board-shaped pieces.

Besides, according to the rules, this wooden box shouldn’t even be part of the game, but it’s been sitting on the table the whole time. Could it have some other purpose?

Before Qi Xia could figure it out, Di Hou had already stood up, snatched the box back, and carefully wiped it down. After checking the edges to make sure there was no damage, he placed it back on the table.

“Next time you want to touch my things, please give me a heads-up,” Di Hou said with a hint of annoyance. “Even if you want to kill yourself, I’d hand you a knife right away. Why go through the hassle with the box?”

Qi Xia stared at him, slowly revealing a sly smile.

With his flushed face, devilish grin, and slightly trembling right hand, he looked eerily like a demon, making Di Hou instinctively lean back.

“Now I’ve cleared my head a bit…” Qi Xia said. “You just told us that ‘Shuang Jiang’ is on the 23rd of the ninth month, right?”

“…Yes,” Di Hou replied.

Qi Xia nodded in response, realizing that Zheng Yingxiong’s question had hit the key point. Now he knew how to play this game of “comparing sizes.”

The fog lifted a little, revealing the hidden knowledge.

The twenty-four solar terms aren’t based on the solar calendar or the lunar calendar alone, but on a lunisolar calendar.

So, regardless of whether you use the solar or lunar calendar, the dates change every year. To figure out the numbers on all the cards, there are only two ways:

First, know the exact year.

Second, know the exact date of one specific day.

Traditional festivals are straightforward since their lunar dates are fixed.

For example, “Qi Xi” is always the seventh day of the seventh month, “Yuan Xiao” is the fifteenth of the first month, “Chong Yang” is the ninth of the ninth month, and “Chu Xi” is the thirtieth of the twelfth month.

So, for comparing sizes, Di Hou couldn’t possibly use the controversial solar calendar, or the results wouldn’t be convincing, and the game would get even harder.

Based on all this, if dates are the key for this “comparing sizes,” it has to be the relatively fixed lunar calendar.

The issue now is the dates of the solar terms.

Luckily, Di Hou provided the crucial clue—that “Shuang Jiang” is on the 23rd of the ninth month.

So, we don’t need to know the exact year; even if it’s a fictional one, we can work backward from what he said.

With that, everything becomes clear. Each solar term is fifteen days apart, so we can figure out all twenty-four for the year. In Qi Xia’s eyes, the cards on the table turned into a series of numbers.

He looked at his own card, “the seventh of the seventh month,” then at the one on the table, “the fifteenth of the seventh month,” and finally at the one in Di Hou’s hand, “the 21st of the fifth month.”

Once this round ends and Di Hou announces the largest card, the full rules of the game will be revealed.

Qi Xia wiped the blood from his right cheek, looked up, and said, “Di Hou, shall we continue?”

Di Hou noticed that the look in the man’s eyes was completely different from when he first entered, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had changed.

“Spring rain startles the spring clear valley sky, summer fullness links with summer heat. Autumn dew brings autumn chill and Shuang Jiang, winter snow with minor and major cold.” With a clear mind, Qi Xia quickly recalled the stored knowledge in his head. “In the first half of the year, dates fall on the sixth and 21st; in the second half, on the eighth and 23rd. ‘Chu Shu’ and ‘Shuang Jiang’ are sixty days apart, so ‘Chu Shu’ is on the 23rd of the seventh month.”

All the dates in the first half of the year are on the sixth and 21st, and in the second half, on the eighth and 23rd, along with the solar month equivalents—these are the dates used in this game.

Qi Xia finally understood what Di Hou meant when he said before the game that the people he’d met over the years either had gambling skills but no knowledge, or knowledge but no courage, so no one could really gamble with him.

This deck requires so much—gambling skills alone aren’t enough.

After all, each card has just two characters, and you have to compare their sizes based on that. Without enough knowledge, you’d be stuck right from the start.

The one thing Qi Xia still couldn’t figure out was the name “Shuo Wang Yue.”

If he remembered correctly, Shuo Wang Yue is also called the lunar month, representing the cycle of the moon’s phases. What does that have to do with this game?

If we have to explain it, the sun is “yang,” the moon is “yin,” and when the ancients created the lunar calendar, they based it on the moon’s waxing and waning.

“So it’s really the lunar calendar…”

The moon goes from full brightness to complete disappearance, which the ancients saw as a “reverse” process, so they took the ancient form of “reverse,” added “moon,” and called it “Shuo.”

When the moon is at its brightest and visible overhead, the ancients called it “moon full,” which is “Wang.” As explained in “Shi Ming · Shi Tian”: “Wang is the name for the full moon.”

So, “Shuo Wang Yue” refers to the time within thirty days from “Shuo” to the next “Shuo,” or from “Wang” to the next “Wang.”

Since it’s determined by the moon’s phases, those thirty days are called a “month.”

And the calendar made from the moon’s waxing and waning is the lunar calendar, so it’s called “Yin Li.”

“In other words, this game reveals the method of comparison right in its name…”

Qi Xia narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling he could temporarily control his chaotic mind.

He glanced at the cards on the table. The deck has only about thirty cards, each with two characters, at most sixty characters total.

But if you really need to study it, it’s far more complex than Western playing cards or tarot cards. If the game weren’t called “Shuo Wang Yue” and was instead “Tai Yang Li,” the rules would be completely different.

Qi Xia had to admire Di Hou as the master of “intellect,” and this short, stout man in front of him was probably even more capable. If he could be brought under his command, he’d be incredibly useful, but the smarter people are, the harder they are to control.

Focusing back on the game, Qi Xia knew that once Di Hou revealed the largest card at the end, he could deduce the full rules.

The plan was going smoother than expected, thanks in part to Zheng Yingxiong’s help.

After everyone had placed their “secrets,” Di Hou spoke again: “Anyone else want to place a bet?”

No one knew the rules, so they had no confidence in betting big or small and all shook their heads.

But Di Hou slowly smiled and looked at Qi Xia.

“What?” Qi Xia asked.

“I’m raising the bet,” Di Hou said.

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