Chapter 3#

Hua Jinian forced a smile, a few drops of sweat clinging to his eyelashes, and nodded slightly. Tianxiang understood in her heart that for the past ten years, this child had really heard too many praises of the fortress, truly regarding his father as a perfect man, an emperor of the ages, a hero of the world.

Seeing the slightly forbearing expectation on Hua Jinian’s somewhat childishly handsome face, her heart softened immediately. Knowing clearly that he would be disappointed upon seeing him, she could not refuse any request from this child. Tianxiang sighed, reached out to tuck in the quilt on Hua Jinian, tapped her index finger lightly on Hua Jinian’s forehead, and sighed: “You… how about having a good sleep? Tomorrow I will ask the servants to carry a soft couch out. You can wait at the entrance of the Sweet Dew Room. When the Fortress Master comes out of the room, you can take a peek from the side. As for the formal meeting, wait until you recover, okay?”

Hua Jinian chuckled softly. With some difficulty, he held the finger Tianxiang had rested on his forehead, his eyes gentle, and thanked softly: “Thank you, Sister Tianxiang. You are… truly the best to me in this world.”

Tianxiang smiled bitterly, but felt a burst of joy in her heart. For this precocious little master, she had three parts respect, three parts protection, three parts pain, but ten parts love, somewhere between maternal love and romantic love. She forced herself to be calm for a long time before settling down, praying secretly in her heart that the night tonight would be dark enough so that Hua Jinian could not see that person’s face clearly in the blur. Otherwise, meeting tomorrow would truly be a broken dream of paradise, only causing sadness in vain.

Early the next morning, Tianxiang indeed sent people to carry a soft couch over. Hua Jinian rested for half the night and felt his spirit was better. At this moment, he changed his mind again and refused to let anyone support him no matter what. He walked over, stopping and resting along the way. The sun had risen high, and the warm golden light sprinkled all over the mortal world, lifting one’s spirit. The road, wide enough for three carriages to run side by side, was still covered with yesterday’s large red carpet. Colored ribbons were tied on the treetops on both sides, and lanterns hung high. The candles that burned to their heart’s content during last night’s revelry had now burned out, leaving only heavy candle tears.

The Thousand Stone Steps were at least two meals’ walk away from Chaohua Pavilion. Hua Jinian felt a bit dazzled by the sun. Wearing layers of outer robes, coats, and inner jackets, he seemed to have sweated a little. A few strands of black hair were stuck to the corner of his mouth by sweat. He struggled to tuck them behind his ears. In his eleven years of green life, he had never experienced any pain or illness. The hard impact against the tree last night seemed to have cracked his spine a bit, and his hand tendons were also sprained. Of course, the most serious was the one on his neck, forcing him to pull down his collar from time to time today to cover those black and purple finger marks.

“Sure enough, still a child.” In his daze, Hua Jinian heard the servants whispering while carrying the low couch, with somewhat teasing smiles. The hall masters who taught him literature and martial arts and the maids in the fortress praised his precocity and intelligence endlessly, but the outer servants looked at him, this young adult, with some fear. Seeing him so dispirited now, they must have finally breathed a sigh of relief. Sure enough, still a child.

He closed his eyes tightly, pretending not to hear, and walked all the way to the front of the Thousand Stone Steps. He straightened his body, his waist straight as a sword, unwilling to lose his manners in front of a group of adults. He half-lifted his hem and climbed the stone steps steadily step by step.

Outside the Sweet Dew Room stood two huge stone lions, setting off the main gate dominated by black and red colors, looking majestic and extraordinary. He didn’t know how long he stood outside the door before he heard the door creak a few times, slowly opening from the inside, exposing the Juyi Hall standing on another set of stone steps inside. Densely packed weapons unbuckled by the hall masters were piled up beside the door.

When Hua Jinian remembered to avoid them, it was still a beat too late, and he ran right into the hall masters filing out. Su Meiniang, the Hall Master of Fusu Hall, dressed in a palace dress with a tightly bound waist and heavy makeup on her face, saw Hua Jinian. Her phoenix eyes lit up, and she walked up a few steps, tapping her fingers painted with red nail polish lightly on his lips: “Little Young Master, long time no see. I have missed you dearly.”

Behind her, Geng Yong, the Hall Master of Pojun Hall, with knotted muscles and two mountain-splitting giant axes re-wrapped around his waist, roared: “Witch, get away.” A layer of embarrassed thin red covered Hua Jinian’s face, and he greeted awkwardly: “Sister Su, Uncle Geng, long time no see. Jinian often thinks of you two.”

“Has the Little Young Master never thought of this poor Daoist?” Hearing this laugh, Su Meiniang didn’t even turn her head, frowning and saying: “What a Daoist. Before you were within three li of me, I smelled your stench first.” Geng Yong laughed loudly: “Brother Qiuping, your water transport failed, and today is the big day for rewarding good and punishing evil. Tell us how you walked out alive!”

Wu Qiuping, wearing a gray and white Daoist robe, a Seven Star Crown on his head, and holding a horsetail whisk, was in his twenties, with a handsome face. He was walking towards the three with a smile. Hua Jinian bowed respectfully again: “Uncle Wu.” Wu Qiuping beamed with joy at being called, seemingly wanting to rub Hua Jinian’s head, but just patted it and withdrew his hand, laughing repeatedly: “If this poor Daoist’s son could be half as sensible as you in the future, I would have returned to secular life long ago.”

Su Meiniang spat at him: “Bah, you have long been a Daoist who sleeps among flowers and willows. When have you ever kept any clear rules and precepts?” Wu Qiuping laughed loudly: “Meiniang, you don’t understand. This poor Daoist is also cultivating the body and seeking the Dao honestly. It’s just that cultivating the body is dual cultivation, and seeking the Dao is the Western Paradise.”

Hearing this, Hua Jinian frowned slightly in his heart, but his face remained calm, not showing a trace.

Su Meiniang and Wu Qiuping joked around like this for a while. Seeing a black-robed old man coming out from the door and picking up a soaring dragon purple jade staff from the weapons, joy appeared on Hua Jinian’s face, and he called out: “Master.” The old man turned his head, his face covered with dense wrinkles. It was Luo Xiaofeng, the Hall Master of Qiyun Hall. Seeing Hua Jinian, a rare kindness appeared on the old man’s face, but his tone remained cold: “Good boy, why are you playing here? Have you practiced the Tiangang Saber Technique and the Demon Wailing Nine Swords that this old man asked you to practice?”

Hearing him mention martial arts, Hua Jinian felt gloomy in his heart and whispered: “I have learned them all… It’s just, Master, you said before that if I work hard for another two years, I can enter the ranks of first-class experts in Jianghu. Was that… a lie?”

Hearing this sentence, Geng Yong laughed loudly: “Why should the Little Young Master be so modest!”

Hua Jinian fell silent for a while upon hearing this, thinking of his vulnerable appearance last night, and secretly clenched his hands. Just then, a bell rang in the Sweet Dew Room, followed by the shaking of silver bells, fine and dense as rain. Everyone knelt on the ground at the same time, respectfully welcoming the Fortress Master.

The bronze bell rang three times before the twelve women in palace attire appeared on the stone steps. The soft sedan chair in their hands was replaced by a purple bamboo lounge chair. Several exquisite long poles on the chair supported a white gauze curtain, separating the lounge chair from the bright sun. Looking at that patch of coolness, Hua Jinian subconsciously wiped the fine beads of sweat from his forehead, feeling inexplicable melancholy and loss in his heart.

The group gradually approached. The clothes on the women seemed to be for the occasion, changing from the previous gorgeous red to light and thin white gauze. While walking, they raised their sleeves and waved their hands without scruple, revealing large patches of snow-white skin. Hua Jinian frowned slightly, looked away, suddenly remembered something, and looked up behind the gauze curtain when the bamboo chair passed in front of him.

In the lounge chair, through the indistinct white gauze, a man wearing a Nine-Dragon Jade Crown sat upright on the lounge chair, holding a woman covered in silk in his arms. Hua Jinian suddenly gave a small cry, his eyes widening in disbelief.

Hua Jinian didn’t know whether he was shocked or angry in his heart. He couldn’t help but touch the wound on his neck. Hua Qianjue held the woman in the sedan chair with one hand, his beast-like, heartless, and sharp eyes sweeping carelessly over the kneeling crowd. Suddenly, he laughed. He pulled the woman’s long hair, dragged her further into his arms, pointed at the slender and small figure among a group of adults, and laughed softly: “Look, that person.”

The woman said coquettishly with a sticky voice: “Fortress Master, what about that person?”

Hua Qianjue laughed low, with a little contempt in his eyes, but more pride: “That person, I once asked him to kowtow three times to me, but he refused even if he died… Look now, how honestly he is kneeling.”

Hearing this, the woman looked at Hua Jinian carefully a few more times and finally recognized the child’s identity. She immediately laughed charmingly: “Isn’t that your son? As long as you are his father, how can he not observe the order of young and old? Even the son of a beggar knows to cut his flesh to feed his father and lie on ice to seek carp, let alone you, the Fortress Master?”

Hua Qianjue seemed to have heard something fun and asked with a low laugh: “You mean… as long as I am his father, let alone kowtowing and bowing, if I tell him to die, he has to die?” The woman giggled: “That is natural. Ruler, subject, father, son. The world has its rules. You are so happy, do you find it interesting?”

Hua Qianjue turned his head again to look at the person kneeling on the ground, his smile gradually fading: “It is somewhat interesting, but thinking carefully, these rules are really boring…”