Hu Xiaotian looked closely and saw an enormous skull inside the jade box. Blue and transparent, it was a size larger than a normal human skull, and its structure was somewhat different, with a more pronounced forehead. Such a structure would have accommodated a considerably larger brain than a human's. At first glance, it looked like a work of art carved from blue crystal. Hu Xiaotian picked it up and cradled it in his hands, studying it for quite some time. He was now certain that it was the skull of some living creature-perhaps one of the two giants depicted in the relief.
Xi Yan took a black rod more than a foot long from the jade box. It felt quite heavy in her hand, but she had no idea what it was. She turned it this way and that, then asked Hu Xiaotian, "What is this?"
Hu Xiaotian glanced at what she was holding, then curled his lips into a mischievous grin.
Xi Yan glared at him. "What are you laughing at?"
"Every man has one," Hu Xiaotian said. "You'll understand once you're married."
Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Xi Yan let out a startled "Ah!" and flung the black rod away. Hu Xiaotian had only been teasing her. The moment she threw it onto the floor, he picked it up. This was no pleasure wand. He had recognized it at a glance as a sword hilt, somewhat like a lightsaber from Star Wars. It was probably made from some kind of metal, though none he had ever seen before. It felt quite heavy in his hand, yet lacked the chill of ordinary metal, and the patterns on it were exceedingly archaic.
Immediately after throwing it away, Xi Yan realized Hu Xiaotian had tricked her.