The Lost Tomb : Extras & Special Stories

(Extra: Wu Xie's Private Notes) Chapter 9: Huo Xiangu

The lower three clans.

The lower three clans had fewer stories because they were all business people, and didn't personally rob graves. Since the middle three clans and the lower three clans had close business relationships with each other, people from these two clans were often related by marriage as well. For example, my grandmother was from the Xie family.

As the only woman in the Mystic Nine, Huo Xiangu from Baishajing definitely wasn't inferior to men. Granny Huo had a son who joined the revolution led by Mao Zedong. During the Cultural Revolution, the Huo family's background was discovered, which resulted in their disappearance. Rumor had it that they went behind the scenes and were protected by powerful people.

Speaking of Huao Xiangu, my grandpa always had to see whether my grandma was nearby when he talked about her, since he and Hua Xiangu had history. It was a sensitive topic in our family, so we had to prevent my grandma from overhearing our conversations; otherwise, she would pinch my grandpa's ears and scold, "Old man, it's been decades, and you still haven't forgotten about that temptress."

That's right. Huo Xiangu and my grandpa had an ambiguous relationship in the past.

Since this topic couldn't be discussed in detail, I didn't know whether their relationship happened before or after my grandparents got together, but it would be a big problem if it was the latter. I couldn't ask my grandma about it, because she would hit me on the head with a knitting needle and shoo me away.

Of course, it may not be what I think. Maybe grandpa just had some business relationships with Huo Xiangu, but grandma got jealous because Huo Xiangu was so beautiful.

Grandpa said that Huo Xiangu was indeed beautiful, as evidenced by her nickname "Xiangu", which means "fairy". Her beauty was acknowledged by people, and my grandpa said that she was really like a fairy. This woman had a temperament that made people unable to look at her directly, or think dirty about her. It was the kind of temperament that was innate and couldn't be cultivated. Men who looked at her had no way of producing any evil thoughts.

When I asked my grandpa if he meant that Huo Xiangu's boobs were as flat as a washboard, he replied, "Of course not."

Huo Xiangu was 1.7 meters tall, and liked to wear cheongsams. Her skin was very white and she had short hair. Her temperament came from her gaze, which was something out of this world. Her eyes were so clear that it was as if she had never been polluted by the world. Once you looked into them, you would be willing to do anything she asked of you.

That sounds a little like Poker-Face. Does that mean that Huo Xiangu was a female version of Poker-Face? Then I started to imagine what Poker-Face would look like in a cheongsam.

However, Huo Xiangu's holiness didn't last her entire life. When she was about thirty years old, she fell in love with a military officer who later became a capable man under Mao Zedong.

It was said that she once showed up at a political ball after the founding of the country. Her appearance stunned all of the people who were present, and even a few Soviet Union officials looked at her intently.

However, this may have also caused a lot of trouble to her husband, and their family was overthrown in the Cultural Revolution. Fortunately, they were rehabilitated afterwards, but Huo Xiangu had become Granny Huo by that point. The last time my grandpa saw her was on TV. She was still graceful, and her temperament was still the same, but she wasn't a little girl anymore. It really made people think about how ruthless time could be.

For such a woman, I always felt that she was a bit like Ruan Lingyu [1]. I couldn't imagine how she could be in the Mystic Nine, and she was even ranked seventh. Could she also rob graves?