Chapter 640: The Fog Dispels
But why?
If they could simply use a piece of wood to make a box, it would be much more convenient for surface carving and gold stamping. Yet someone had gone out of their way to hollow out every side of this box. Strictly speaking, it was no longer a box—it was a sealed structure pieced together from six plank-shaped compartments.
Moreover, according to the rules, this wooden box wasn’t supposed to participate in the game at all. But it had been sitting on the table the entire time. Could it serve some other purpose?
Before Qixia could figure it out, Earth Monkey had already stood up, reached over, and snatched the box back. He carefully wiped it, inspected the corners, and only put it back on the table after confirming there was no damage.
“Next time you want to touch my stuff, please give me a heads-up,” Earth Monkey said with some displeasure. “Even if you wanted to kill yourself, I’d hand you a knife right away. No need to go through the trouble of using a box.”
Qixia stared at the other’s eyes and slowly revealed a sinister smirk.
With his flushed face, wicked grin, and slightly trembling right hand, he looked as eerie as a demon, causing Earth Monkey to lean back instinctively.
“Now I’m finally a bit clearer-headed…” Qixia said. “You told us earlier that ‘Frost’s Descent’ corresponds to ‘September 23rd,’ right?”
“…Yes,” Earth Monkey confirmed.
Qixia nodded after hearing that. Zheng Yingxiong’s question had hit the most crucial point. Now he seemed to know how to proceed with this game of “Comparing Sizes.”
A part of the fog had lifted, and the hidden knowledge emerged clearly.
The Twenty-Four Solar Terms are based on neither the solar calendar nor the lunar calendar alone, but on a lunisolar calendar.
Therefore, regardless of whether you look at it from the solar or lunar perspective, the dates vary each year. To deduce the numbers on all the cards, only two methods came to mind.
First, to know a specific year.
Second, to know the exact date of one specific day.
The “traditional festivals” were naturally straightforward—the “lunar calendar” dates never change.
For example, the “Double Seventh Festival” in his hand was certainly the seventh day of the seventh month. “Lantern Festival” was the fifteenth day of the first month. “Double Ninth Festival” was the ninth day of the ninth month. “New Year’s Eve” was the thirtieth day of the twelfth month.
So, if they were to compare sizes, Earth Monkey couldn’t possibly use the contentious “solar calendar,” because the answers wouldn’t be convincing, making the game even harder to play.
In summary, if this game of “Comparing Sizes” really used dates as the key point, it would inevitably rely on the relatively fixed “lunar calendar.”
The problem now lay in the dates of the various “Solar Terms.”
Fortunately, Earth Monkey had provided the most critical piece—the date of “Frost’s Descent” is September 23rd.
With that, it was no longer necessary to know exactly what year this was. Even if the year were fictional, one only needed to reverse-engineer based on the information Earth Monkey had given.
Because all the information would become clear: each Solar Term is fifteen days apart. That meant all twenty-four Solar Terms for this year could be inferred. At that moment, the cards on the table turned into a set of numbers in Qixia’s eyes.
He looked at the card in his hand—“Seventh Day, Seventh Month”—then glanced at the card on the table—“Fifteenth Day, Seventh Month”—and finally at the card in Earth Monkey’s hand—“Twenty-first Day, Fifth Month.”
As long as Earth Monkey announced the card of the biggest player after this round ended, the entire set of rules for this game would become crystal clear.
Qixia wiped the bloodstains off the right side of his face, then lifted his head and said, “Earth Monkey, can we continue?”
Earth Monkey noticed that the man’s eyes were completely different from when he first entered the arena, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had changed.
“Spring rain startles spring, clear valley days; summer full, summer heat, summer connected. Autumn dew, autumn cold, frost falls; winter snow, winter snow, small big cold.” Qixia, with his now clear mind, successfully retrieved the knowledge stored in his brain. “First half of the year meets the 6th and 21st; second half of the year meets the 8th and 23rd. ‘Limit of Heat’ and ‘Frost’s Descent’ are sixty days apart, so ‘Limit of Heat’ falls on the 23rd day of the 7th month.”
All dates in the first half of the year fall on the 6th and 21st; all dates in the second half fall on the 8th and 23rd. Combined with the solar calendar months, these are the dates that would be used in this game.
Qixia finally understood what Earth Monkey meant by the words he said before the game started.
He had said that in all these years, the people he’d encountered either had gambling skills but no knowledge, or had knowledge but no guts, so no one could ever play a round with him.
This deck required too much. Gambling skills alone were far from sufficient.
After all, each card only bore two Chinese characters, yet they had to use those characters to compare sizes. Without sufficient knowledge, that single step alone would be a dead end.
Furthermore… one thing Qixia still couldn’t figure out was the name “Synodic Month.”
If he remembered correctly, a “synodic month,” also called a “lunar month,” represents the cycle of the moon’s phases. What did that have to do with this game?
If he had to explain, the sun represents “yang,” and the moon represents “yin.” When the ancients compiled the “lunar calendar,” they referred to the waxing and waning of the moon.
“So it really is the ‘lunar calendar’…”
From completely bright to invisible, the ancients saw the moon’s process as “reverse.” Therefore, they took the initial form of the character for “reverse” (屰), added “moon” (月), and formed “屰月,” which became “朔” (new moon).
When the moon was at its brightest and easily visible, the ancients called it “moon full,” which is “望” (full moon). The *Shiming·Shitian* explains: “Wang (望) is the name for the full moon.”
Thus, a “synodic month” refers to the time from one “new moon” to the next, or from one “full moon” to the next, within thirty days.
Since it depends on the phases of the moon, these thirty days are called one “month.”
And because the calendar compiled from the moon’s phases belongs to the “yin” category, it is called the “lunar calendar.”
“In other words, this game’s name itself has already revealed the method for comparing sizes…”
Qixia slowly narrowed his eyes, feeling that he could temporarily control his chaotic mind.
He looked at the cards on the table. The deck had only about thirty-odd cards, each with two characters, at most sixty-something characters in total.
Yet if one really had to study them, it was far more complex than Western playing cards or tarot cards. If this game weren’t called “Synodic Month” but instead “Solar Calendar,” the whole gameplay would be completely different.
Qixia marveled that Earth Monkey was indeed the representative of “intelligence.” Moreover, Earth Monkey’s abilities probably went beyond this. If he could be recruited, he would be incredibly useful. But the smarter a person was, the harder they were to control.
Focusing his gaze on the game before him, Qixia knew that as long as Earth Monkey announced the card of the biggest player when the cards were revealed, he would be able to deduce the rules of this round.
Things were going more smoothly than expected. This time, he had Zheng Yingxiong to thank.
After everyone had wagered their “secrets,” Earth Monkey spoke again: “Does anyone else want to place a bet?”
The others didn’t know the rules, so naturally, they had no confidence in betting big or small. They all shook their heads.
But Earth Monkey slowly curled his lips and looked at Qixia.
“What?” Qixia asked.
“I want to raise the stakes,” Earth Monkey said.