The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

(Extra: Wu Xie's Private Notes) Chapter 4: Er Yuehong

Er Yuehong ranked second in the Mystic Nine. He was a famous Huaguxi [1] performer in Changsha.

Er Yuehong took the typical tomb robbing approach of the old society. On the surface, he was the leader of an opera troupe, and took them with him everywhere. They performed in the daytime, and went grave robbing at night.

The theater troupe was full of martial arts talents, and they put their tools in their suitcases. They were a wondrous sight to behold once they were in the tomb, and my grandfather said that he even got to see them work underground once. Their feet didn't even touch the floor when they robbed the small tomb, because they used bamboo poles to walk along the walls. Their movements were incredibly smooth, and he didn't know how they practiced that kind of skill.

Er Yuehong sang beautifully and possessed special skills, but it was also said that he was a handsome man. He had a lot of love affairs, had ambiguous relationships with many celebrities, and liked to go to the brothel. But his most famous story had nothing to do with tomb robbery. Instead, it was the story of how he redeemed a "girl" when he was young.

At that time, traffickers sold prostitutes from Yangzhou by walking around the downtown area with the girls on their backs. This was to tell the world that the girl was about to be sold.

If there were people who wanted to fight against injustice, they could step up. But they had to pay money if they wanted to get involved, so that the traffickers wouldn't push the girls into the fire pit. Once they entered the brothel, however, it was too late and there was nothing they could do.

In addition, this was also an advertisement telling those high-ranking officials and nobles that there would be virgin girls who could be deflowered that night, and they could prepare money to 'beat the golden stick'.

Er Yuehong wasn't the leader of the opera troupe at that time. This kind of troupe was hereditary, so when his father was around, he was just a young master.

One day, when he was drinking morning tea in the Kuaihuolou, he saw a teenage girl being carried on someone's back. Er Yuehong knew the ways of the world, and wasn't surprised at this kind of thing.

In that era, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing for a girl from a poor family to be sold into a brothel, since they wouldn't have to worry about starving. If they somehow met good benefactors, they could even become one of their concubines, which meant that they had the opportunity to turn their life around. It was common to be abused when out and about, after all.

But Er Yuehong was taken aback when he saw this particular girl, because he actually knew her. She was the daughter of a noodle shop owner, whose shop he often visited. She was five years younger than him, so it could be said that he was like her elder brother and saw her grow up when they were little. She was very smart and well-behaved, so he couldn't fathom how she ended up here.

Seeing the little girl crying uncontrollably on the trafficker's back, Er Yuehong couldn't help but sigh.

Since the girl was very smart and there were a lot of people around, she looked into the crowd while crying, desperately searching for something. These people may all become her one-night benefactors soon. She saw all kinds of faces and tried to find an ounce of sympathy or pity from among them.

At that moment, she saw Er Yuehong at the teahouse. When Er Yuehong also looked at her, the little girl recognized him instantly. As if she had seen the only hope in her despair, she suddenly tried her best to shout at Er Yuehong, "Brother!"

The desperate and pleading gaze shook Er Yuehong, and he remembered the little sister who followed him around while holding his little hand. He wondered if he could sit on the sidelines and bury a part of his memories.