Although Hu Xiaotian had regained consciousness six months earlier, it had taken him a full four months to restore his health. The body Heaven had bestowed upon him was anything but robust: frail and pale, with aching, weak limbs and barely any strength. The Hu household was wealthy and kept him in fine clothes and lavish meals every day, so malnutrition should not have been an issue. The real reason was that Hu Xiaotian had spent the past sixteen years afraid of sunlight, always preferring to hide in dark corners. Such a prolonged lack of sunlight naturally impaired vitamin D production, which in turn affected his body's absorption of calcium. In other words, for the past sixteen years, he had been deficient in both brains and calcium.
Over those six months, while quietly learning about this new world, Hu Xiaotian had begun exercising with a clear plan and purpose. With brilliant sunshine, fresh air, pure, unpolluted water, and a rich variety of nutritious food he could eat without worrying about its safety, he had needed only four months to build a physique that could fairly be called athletic. Only someone who had experienced death understood how important health was. The body was the capital for revolution, and equally the capital for enjoying life.
Hu Xiaotian walked at the front, dressed in a blue-green robe with silver-thread cloud patterns embroidered along the collar and cuffs, a broad brocade sash around his waist, and a black gauze cap set with a lustrous blue jade above his forehead. He stood 1.78 meters tall, which came to nearly seven chi and five cun by Great Kang's measurements; a chi here was roughly twenty-four centimeters. On his feet were thin-soled riding boots. Thin-soled though they were called, they still added three centimeters. They could not compare with the seven-centimeter soles of the official boots his father had specially commissioned to boost his height, but they did provide a little lift. Thus, Hu Xiaotian's height naturally exceeded 1.80 meters. Walking through the crowd, he might not have stood out like a crane among chickens, but he could just about pass for a jade tree swaying gracefully in the breeze.
Hu Xiaotian had not taken a sedan chair on this outing, but a horse was essential. Bringing up the rear was Hu Fo, a groom who shared his name with an American president, carrying a water-and-fire staff in one hand and leading a handsome bay horse with the other. Its bells chimed softly, drawing glances from passersby. More than once, Hu Xiaotian had thought, Here, Hu Fo's lot in life is nothing more than leading my horse.
The young master of the Hu household had many peculiar habits that others could not understand. For instance, he liked to lie in the courtyard wearing nothing but his underpants and sunbathe, insisting on turning his fair skin a wheat-brown shade. Then there was the pond he had recently ordered dug in the rear courtyard. He neither raised fish and shrimp nor planted lotuses in it. Instead, he had it lined with bluestone in a neat rectangle, then set aside time every day to strip and swim back and forth. The maids and older serving women were too embarrassed to venture there, and whenever they passed that way, they tried to take a detour. If there was no way around it, they had to close their eyes. Because of this, maids and serving women frequently ended up with bruised faces after walking into corridor pillars.
Most outrageous of all, he had hung several sandbags of different sizes from the large tree in the courtyard. Whenever he had nothing to do, he would rush over and kick and punch them like a madman, refusing to stop until he was utterly exhausted and drenched in sweat.
The Hu household possessed vast wealth and property, with carriages, cushioned sedan chairs, and hundreds of fine horses, yet on the few occasions this fellow had gone out, he had chosen to walk. As for that bay horse, almost every time Hu Fo led it out and then led it home again. He was rarely seen riding it.
In the eyes of the Hu household servants, this young master liked tormenting himself and had no idea how to enjoy life. Although he had recovered his senses and could speak, his mind was still far from normal. To the Hu family, even an idiot turning into a madman was acceptable cause for celebration. After sixteen years as an idiot, how much worse could things get?
Visitors thronged the shores of Emerald Cloud Lake. Its green waters lay smooth as a mirror, and the afternoon sun spread silver brocade across its surface. Rows of pleasure boats and painted barges moved through the middle of the lake. From time to time, startled gulls and egrets rose from the water where they had been resting, spreading their white wings and tracing beautiful silver arcs through the mild spring sky.
Hu Xiaotian's gaze was captured by the beautiful spring scenery. White clouds were reflected on the lake, and he watched fish swim through the clouds and birds soar through the water.
Sweet strains of strings and flutes drifted from the pleasure boats and painted barges, occasionally mingled with peals of laughter like silver bells. In such lovely weather, girls who had spent the winter cooped up in their inner chambers could not resist coming out for some fresh air under the pretext of a spring excursion. Countless scholars also strolled along the lakeshore to enjoy the spring scenery-what was commonly called experiencing life. Naturally, there was no shortage of wealthy young gentlemen using that same excuse to hunt for beauties.
Where there were young gentlemen hunting for beauties, there would naturally be maidens yearning for romance. This was, after all, a season when love readily began to bud. Hu Xiaotian watched the young women passing beside him, some beautiful and alluring, others fresh-faced and charming, all dressed like flowering branches and brimming with feminine appeal. Then he remembered the daughter of the Li Family to whom he was betrothed. Supposedly, she had been paralyzed for five years and was hideously ugly. The spring scenery had only just lifted his spirits, and now his mood turned foul again. Spending his entire life beside a paralyzed patient like that would be worse than killing him.
The crowd ahead suddenly grew agitated, and people hurried to either side. Rapid hoofbeats rang through the warm spring air. Hooves struck the bluestone road in a sharply rhythmic cadence, making the fine grass along its edges tremble slightly.
A girl in red came charging toward Hu Xiaotian on a crimson horse. As she rode, she shouted, "Move! Move!" It all happened in a flash; in the blink of an eye, she was already before him.
Hu Xiaotian had been lost in his thoughts, and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. Just as the horse was about to crash into him, the girl in red reacted with lightning speed. Her slender, snow-white hands hauled hard on the reins. Forced to halt its headlong charge, the crimson horse let out a long neigh and reared so high it almost stood upright.
Its hooves came crashing down on the bluestone pavement with a thunderous bang! barely two chi from Hu Xiaotian. It was truly heart-stopping. Had the girl hesitated even a moment longer, the horse would surely have sent him flying.
The servants behind Hu Xiaotian turned deathly pale with fright. Their duty was to protect this precious young master. If anything happened to him, the minister would surely flay them and tear out their tendons.
Hu Xiaotian, too, was startled by this sudden turn of events. Looking up, he saw that the girl wore a red, front-fastening martial outfit with narrow archery sleeves, a feather-satin cloak woven with emerald-patterned brocade, red lantern trousers beneath an openwork gauze skirt threaded with gold, and black, thin-soled embroidered riding boots. Her glossy black hair was divided into two sections and looped atop her head without supports, hanging naturally down with the ends tied and trailing over her shoulders like a spring swallow's tail. Her brows and eyes were as lovely as a painting, and paired with her attire, she was truly fetching.
The very first thought that sprang from Hu Xiaotian's heart at the sight of her was-What a beauty! In his previous twenty-eight years, he had devoted himself to work and professional pursuits, leaving his romantic life a complete blank. Add his dissatisfaction with his betrothal, the restlessness stirred by a sunny spring day, the universal love of beauty, and, above all, the male hormones he had suppressed across two lifetimes, and this fellow had become especially sensitive to beautiful women.
If only the Li Family's young lady looked like this, Hu Xiaotian thought privately. I wouldn't mind sharing a bed with you, or marrying you and having children. Spending a whole lifetime drifting along in peace and leisure wouldn't be such a bad thing.
The girl in red's pretty face was flushed, partly from her headlong ride and partly because Hu Xiaotian was staring at her so lecherously. This was an age when gentlemen were expected to let feelings arise but restrain them within propriety, an age when one must not look upon anything improper, and also an age when men and women were forbidden even incidental physical contact.
The girl in red had never had a mild temper. First Hu Xiaotian had blocked her path, and now the scoundrel was staring at her without the slightest restraint. Fury instantly surged in her heart. Raising her riding whip, she lashed it straight at his head and face, snapping, "Shameless wretch! What are you staring at?"
Hu Xiaotian had not expected the girl in red to actually attack him. In haste, he raised an arm to block her. The whip struck his arm with a sharp crack!, tearing open his outer robe and leaving a long, bloody welt on his arm. The burning pain was fierce.
Seeing that the girl in red dared to strike someone-and their young master, at that-the four household servants immediately rushed her together. Liang Dazhuang charged first. As Hu Xiaotian's personal servant, he naturally had to lead the charge when his master was in danger. The girl in red was a skilled fighter. Her whip seemed divinely guided, striking wherever she aimed and leaving the servants in miserable pain.
Although Hu Fo was the last to act, his methods were the cleverest. To capture bandits, seize their chief first; to shoot a rider, shoot his horse first. This fellow quietly circled behind the crimson horse, leveled his water-and-fire staff, and thrust it hard into the middle of the horse's rump. More than half of the three-chi staff plunged inside at once, and the crimson horse began bucking and neighing in agony. Having raised horses for years, Hu Fo understood their temperaments thoroughly. Making a horse obey was not easy, but if he wanted to make one disobey, he could find thousands upon thousands of ways.
The girl in red might have been wielding her whip with impressive force, but an open spear was easy to dodge while an arrow from the shadows was hard to guard against. She had never dreamed someone would attack her mount underhandedly. It suddenly went wild, violently flinging her delicate body off its back and sending her flying as though riding clouds and mist.
Hu Xiaotian was still aching from that lash. Before he could recover, he heard the girl in red give a startled cry as she flew from the crimson horse. He had to admit that she looked rather lovely in flight, like an immortal descending from beyond the heavens, completing a series of graceful, elegant twists in midair.
But no matter how beautiful her flight, she would have to land eventually. Gravity! Newton had proved that long ago. Hu Xiaotian's gaze followed her delicate body, eagerly awaiting the sight of her landing face-first and ending up with a bruised and swollen face. Serves you right for whipping me, damn it! Such spite-Hu Xiaotian seemed to have an extraordinary amount of it lately.
In the end, the girl in red did not fulfill Hu Xiaotian's heartfelt wish. She flew farther than anyone could have imagined, sailing off the horse's back, over the bluestone road, across the lush green grass at the water's edge, and straight toward the shimmering waters of Emerald Cloud Lake.
The Way of Medicine and Food and Desire have been blocked one after another, leaving Octopus rather helpless. This isn't the first time, and I hope it will be the last. Looking back over Octopus's writing career, Three Palaces 1 and 2 and Records of Erotic History met the same fate in succession. When I click my author icon, the only work still standing among those that entered VIP is Illusory World Hunter. Longtime readers won't know yet that I've started a new book, and new readers don't yet know this old Octopus who keeps diligently tilling away. I shouldn't be saying such dispiriting things just as I'm launching a new book. In truth, none of this is a problem. Before long, I believe readers both old and new will gather together, and I firmly believe that this time our strength will be greater than ever before.
After six years, I'm returning to historical fiction. Many readers have already forgotten that Octopus once wrote historical fiction, but I'm back. Just as I proved myself when I first entered the urban fiction category, from this day forward, one of the top three spots in historical fiction will be mine!
Finally, a word about Food and Desire: if the ban can be lifted, I will certainly continue it. Until then, please give all your support to Jiangshan!
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