Chapter 14 (2/2)
He was sixteen when he first met Yan Xiaohan
It was at the tihteenth year of Yuantai The capital's sunset had been ti about, the royal s slanting in the festival's eastern wind [2]
The Yuantai Emperor went out to venerate the to hi Masters he was acquainted with had gone out for a spring hike, returning to the city just when the sun was going down
The city is filled to the bri of the spring season, and this group of handso their steeds into town drew innumerable stares The more brazen women threw their handkerchiefs or various kinds of flowers used for plant-match [3] towards the filled with fruit[4] Thisin their tracks, the city's gate being a site of unusual liveliness for a ti hooves came from behind them as the Imperial Guard burst into the city, armed to the teeth People auto the troop calling out, “Ih! All unconcerned, ed before Fu Shen as the ones in front repeatedly drew back, and it wasn't clear what happened after that, but there was athe I forwards, Fu Shen hastily turned his horse's head to get out of the way What he couldn't have knoas that as he turned to the side, he just happened to evade a flower that had been thrown at the back of his head
It was like that flower had grown eyes, bypassing hiate the Ih How th the person who threw the flower used was hard to tell, as Fu Shen swore he could hear the wind breaking
It's all over, he thought in supre, wealthya flower at the I fed up with this world and really hating the fact that you're still living in it
A Guard raised his hand and intercepted the flying flower, looking at it in astonish up his sleeves to cover his face
The Guard: “……”
There wasn't tie had entered the city gates, the I the way, and the citizenry was kneeling in respect Fu Shen, being the younger generation of athe few there who lived under the shade of special treatment from relation to a military official, coincidentally had to kneel in the fore notice of the group of Young Masters that stood out like cranes in a brood of chickens and intentionally stopped to question the's Estate could be said to have the strongest developed, and Fu Shen was thusly unable to avoid the Eement to hi on the hard stone brick that the E onwards to the palace
The royal carriage proceeded in front, the I by in a file Fu Shen knelt in wait for the E to custo in front of him for a moment
He raised his head for a reason he didn't understand,with a pair of eyes that held a deep s sun was a perfectclouds, the other within the depths of the spring wind [5]
Fu Shen's line of sight slid fro notice of the white flower he held within the hollow of his hand
…It's the same Guard
It's too late for Fu Shen to even think about lifting his sleeves up again He could only watch on helplessly as the other party's light-colored lips hooked upwards, abruptly spurring his horse forwards to leave while casually throwing the flower back into his ar flick of his thuht in his collar Almost as if it was… on purpose
It was like the still-inexperienced Fu Shen was an intellectual who'd been bewitched by a huli jing, standing up with aThat s within his sights
“Hey, Brother Fu, what are you looking at? Let's go, okay?”
In an event that could only have a supernatural explanation, he didn't throw the floay, rather taking it within his hand and turning to nize hined lack of care
The one riding parallel was the Duke of Chen's heir, Yi Si, who had already been awarded the title of fourth-rank General within the Golden Crow Guard “Are you talking about that joker?” Disdain showed up in his eyes upon hearing that “Sorry I didn't warn you, ood He's not worth the effort for us to make friends with”
“Why do you say that?” Fu Shen asked
“He's that General of the Left Martial Dragon Guard [6], Yan Xiaohan”
Fu Shen understood now The Golden Crow Guard is headed by the Ion Guard belongs to the Northern one, and the two depart doesn't have good feelings towards hi's adopted son,” Yi Si continued on “Does he even have any use other than looking alright? Who kno he ed to climb up there…”
In the Great Zhou, merit-based ministers looked down on clean-streamers, clean-streamers looked down on common literary officials, the literaries looked down on the le one of the is the nuined, Yan Xiaohan, for acknowledging a eunuch as his adopted father, may as well be even worse than one in their eyes
It wasn't knohy, but Fu Shen didn't feel any revulsion at Yi Si an ineffable bit of pity, as if he's seen a flower destroyed right after it had blooht The flower
He took it into his hand, peering at it intently It took only the prilance, however, for the expression to instantly freeze on his face
God dammit! It was a twin lotus! [8]
The translator says: Props to the randoay relationshi+p
[1] 汤婆子 – lit translation is “hot water grandma” (the heck) Here's a picture The cap would unscrew so hot water would be poured into it, then it would be used as a heater
[2] This line is taken from yet another seven-character quatrain: “Cold Food” by Han Hong (韩翃) I was too lazy to h…
[3] 斗(百)草 – dou(bai)cao, lit “ao off into the wilderness, pick as many different plants you could find, and coot the most different kinds won Ancient peoples were really bored, y'know
[4] Traditionally, wos towards men they find attractive, like fruit (bad idea, do not replicate IRL) Legendary prettyboy Pan An purportedly had so much fruit thrown at hie he was riding up
[5] More poetry… this is the first line of “A Mess of White Hair” by Li Qingzhao (李清照), though the last line is edited from “where are they/where is that person?”
[6] 左龙武卫 – Not previously on Guard, nor is it the Divine Martial Ar off the JJWXC raws and the sa
[7] Bear with me a bit: the ‘merit-based ministers' are, of course, officials who have made major wartime contributions ‘Clean-streamers' are essentially political hipsters in that they tend to shun social convention and wealth, hence the na that the ‘mainstream' isn't clean – they are ironically often well-off despite this Literary officials are looked down on because they can be of lower classes that did well on the imperial exams or were passed the position due to heredity Martial officals get that position by being soldiers, which is why the literati don't like them No one ever has any respect for eunuchs for complicated reasons that can boil down to “no dick = evil”
[8] Two lotuses growing on the same stalk is a symbol of a happily married couple huhuhu