Hua Hua You Long

Chapter 3- The Sound of Bamboo Flute Through the Rainy Night

The noisiness of Tong'an's mornings was not second to that of Hangzhou's. Because the inn that he had selected was situated right by the street, Lu Cang, woken up from his dreams in early morning, became at once deeply-acquainted with the prosperity of this Datong imperial city.

Rubbing his tired eyes, Lu Cang draped some garments over his shoulder and went to stand at a window overlooking the street. Below was a food market, the streets filled tightly with wives who woke up early to purchase groceries and grocers setting down baskets of vegetables, hollering out to buyers with the northern dialect[1] hat Lu Cang only roughly understood. Wave after wave of breakfast foods' heavy fragrances floated to his nose from the stalls across the street

But this scene of a sunny, happy, everyday life was, nevertheless, unable to lift the spirits of a Lu Cang whose chest was filled to the top with gloom.

Yesterday, in a small house in this strange city, a type of bodily contact that could be described as cruel occurred once again between he and that super male beauty whom he didn't even know the full name of—in a more crude manner of speaking, Lu Cang, for the second time, was brutally and forcibly xxx[2]-ed by the same man...

Unbelievably, things like this were occurring again and again t him, an outlaws' overlord who could be said to be renowned in all of southern wulin[3]. It was no wonder that Lu Cang, who had always had quite a high opinion of himself, was, from the very bottom of his heart, having a difficult time accepting this.

But despite his inability to wrap his mind around everything, he was still not brave enough to leave for the thousand-mile distant Hangzhou on a spontaneous burst of heroism without ensuring first that the drug that freakish man used on him was a fluke.

Reaching into the folds of his clothes, his hand came into contact with the fancily-adorned box containing the pill Maybe it's best to go try out the drug...

nbsp; What if it's fake...?

The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the possibility was greater. Lu Cang seemed to already see a spark of hope rising into a flame before his eyes. After contemplating the behaviour of that freakish male beauty for a moment, it seemed perfectly possible that man had found some strange, random pill to use as a trick.

The thought of the fact that he was trembling from the effects of a sex drug while that shameless man was hiding somewhere, secretly laughing, made a blast of rage swiftly dominate the entirety of Lu Cang's mind.

Calm down...calm down.. he told himself obsessively as he made a silent decision:

It's better to just quickly find some dog and try out the drug. If it's fake then it's better for me; I could quickly escape this self-deprecating place and return to the mountain.

After making his decision, he no longer hesitated. He hurriedly finished his morning routine then left the inn to find the ideal "drug trial subject."

Only when leisurely turning through Tong'an's alleyways did Lu Cang find that his flawless plan seemed to have some holes. Despite Tong'an's magnificent size, there were rarely any dogs that appeared on the streets. Even the occasional two dogs were led around on a leash by servants. Though he had full confidence that he could deal with these commoners who knew no martial arts, but robbing "commoners' dogs" under the sun was really something that Lu Cang's pride could not swallow.

fter going in a few more circles with no avail, he finally gave in to impatience. He pulled over a random old man strolling by.

"Old sir, can you tell me why, though Tong'an is so large, I see no cats or dogs and the like?"