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A child’s “innocence and purity” was the most malicious thing in this world.

The little lord of the ruined family could not help but use their own sleeve to block the pebbles being thrown at him, and listen to the immature and playful laughter.

“My parents said, someone like you with skin so thin and flesh so tender, who can’t even lift their shoulder or arms, can only go to become a little rabbit figure[1].”

“Little beggar, little rabbit figure, if your family financial situation has come to ruin you should just go to the prostitute’s mansion[2].” The children said as they laughed, reciting the words they had privately agreed on in unison.

Even with this, the young lord still did not understand- before their family’s financial situation had fallen, these children would rush to try and get close to him; but once his father died, and the Shen family collapsed, everything changed. He was no longer the moon all the stars would bend towards[3] .

After patting down the dust off his body, the little lord hurried back home. The door to the house had been opened. The little lord looked on at the men who just left not ago, who bantered with each other. He had recognized them- they were from a small family neighbouring the Shen household. He spared great effort, and stepped over the door sill that was still a bit tall for himself, then the little lord called out to his mother in a grieving voice.

“Mother…… Mother……”

Mother’s hair buns had been dishevelled to the point they had lost their shape, her clothes were also loosely arranged, the neck had many red marks, and her hands even had bruises from a struggle. The little lord had strained himself to climb onto the bed. The little person stood up, and held out his wounded hand to wipe the tears in place of his mother, “Don’t cry, Mother. Father said, Mother won’t look pretty if she cries.”

When he recalled what just happened, the little lord had also wanted to cry too. But when he thought about how his father would say the thing Mother could not stand the most was to see him cry, and if he cried, Mother would hurt the most. Mother loved pretty things the most. If one cried, they wouldn’t look good. He was a small, but real man- he should protect his mother well, “Don’t cry, Mother. You still have Hang Zhi[4] to protect Mother.”

When the beauty shedding tears heard the little lord say this, she raised her lips to reveal a calm set of rice-white teeth, and smiled, “Hang Zhi is so well-behaved, shall Mother bring you to see Father?”

“Really?” Hearing it was see his adored father, the little lord’s sad feelings had cleared up a lot, “But they all say Father is dead…… Can Hang Zhi really still see Father?”

The pupils in his eyes had overlapped with the ones in her memories, and were even much more dazzling. In the end, Mother Shen could not bear it. The fingers finely wiped off the dust on the little lord’s cheeks, with tears unable to stop flowing down from her cheeks on both sides, she smiled and said, “Of course Hang Zhi can see Father again. It’s just that Hang Zhi needs to grow up a bit more, a bit more will be good.”

“Then Mother should go off to see if Father is doing okay in Hang Zhi’s stead. If it isn’t good, Mother should first take care of Father, then wait until Hang Zhi grows up to find you guys.”

“Hang Zhi has been very lovely and cute since you were young. Surely, you must grow up to be a handsome and graceful young man. Remember to find a nice looking girl, then take her with you to see us.”

“And then, also……” Mother Shen lightly hugged the little lord, sniffled, and softly said, “No matter at what time, Father and Mother will always be watching you. Hang Zhi must remember, me and your Father will always love you.”

After she finished, she patted the little lord’s head, and rubbed the tears from her eyes, “Mother is feeling a little hungry. Hang Zhi, quickly go to the kitchen to see what is there left to eat.”

“Okay.” The lovely little lord obediently got off the bed. Afraid that his own mother would starve, he quickly rushed out the door.

After seeing the little figure disappear, Mother Shen’s heart had tightened. Unable to hold back, she loudly called for him, “Hang Zhi.”

When he heard Mother call for himself, the little lord turned his head to reveal a smile, “Mother, Hang Zhi will come back after finding something to eat.”

Once the little lord turned his body around, he did not notice the person behind him grievingly[5] weeping in silence.

When the little lord had excitedly returned to the room, he had discovered his mother suspended from the house’s beams. The one and only pot in the house accidentally dropped to the floor from his hands, staining it with dust, but the little lord could not attend to that much. He ran over, only to discover he could only hug his mother’s legs. He lightly swayed his mother, very carefully called out, “Mother?”

The colour of the face was a pallid white, the tongue had slightly stuck out. The woman had her eyes closed, unable to softly call out to him Hang Zhi any longer.

This person was not his mother. Mother normally loved being pretty- she would not make this kind of facial expression.

The little lord cried, called out to, and at last, lost his voice. His eyes also felt dry and astringent, but the person up on the beams no longer opened their eyes to reveal a pretty smile so this bad child would no longer cry.

He picked the pot off the floor, without a care the dust, he took the only food within the house and swallowed it into his belly. The little lord looked at the corpse in front of him, turned and ran out the door, with nobody knowing where he went.

When the little lord came back, the Little Father[6] from the Southern Wind Mansion south of the city was by his side. He pinched the little lord’s face, and smiled, “Is it this?”

“Yes.“ The little lord raised their head to look at the smiling man in front of them, then with a pair of sparkling eyes carrying unease and certainty, “If Little Father is able to help bury Mother, then Shen Hang Zhi will forever become a person of the Southern Wind Mansion.”

Having witnessed many who were extremely unwilling and even those who would run away, he had never seen a child as cooperative as Shen Hang Zhi. But what did it matter- he originally was in the business of dealing with skin and flesh[7]. On the basis the child’s skin now, if it was taken care of properly, who knows how eye-catching he would become when he grew up. It only costed two silvers to bury a person- this business deal would definitely not be a loss.

As temperatures during the midsummer get very hot, Mother Shen’s corpse had long already decayed- the face had already started to rot, unable to make out the original face of the beauty.

It seems that one would look like this after death. If Mother had known she would turn into something like this, would she be very upset?

The still young little lord had thought, but long when he had went to seek an audience in front of the Southern Wind Mansion, he was no longer that little lord.

Ten years passed by in a flash, and the previously young Shen Hang Zhi had long since grown into a beauty of sin[8]. No matter if it was a guy or girl, once one saw him, they could not help but lament to call him a first-rate beauty. But how unfortunate, for he was a man, and even a small prostitute.

But Shen Hang Zhi knew- the real beauty was not him, but instead was a good friend of the Little Father of the Southern Wind Mansion.

He previously had the honour of seeing him once. Behind him was a child, his body was donned in black, with jet black long hair carelessly tied behind the body, and the five facial features refined as though sculpted with great care. One would be unable to hold their heart from beating when those pair of eyes looked at you.

It was a beauty that could not be described by words.

Nobody knew how the Little Father came to know of this kind of person. Only Shen Hang Zhi had accidentally come to know- this good friend of his had a very special ability: bone engraving.

It was rumoured that a bone engraver could inscribe one’s name into the bones of another- whether or not it was heartfelt love or bone-deep hatred, however, would depend on your luck.

Shen Hang Zhi laughed when he heard the rumour. He looked at himself in the bronze mirror, and touched his own cheeks.

Bone engraving? He was not one to chase after such strange rarities. But if he could change skins, he would really like to have the skin of that bone engraver. If he had that kind of skin, what kind of person wouldn’t be moved?

The eyes had filled with malicious intent. After lowering his brows, he lifted his face. His eyes contained some smiles, as though he returned to being the youth that smiled as though basked in the spring breeze.

[1] A clay figurine with a rabbit for a head- a toy popular among children during the Mid Autumn festival particularly in the Beijing area that was once used as an item of worship (about how rabbits come from the palace of the moon etc etc) but I think the term used in this context is more in line with simply being a plaything for children- and later down the line, for adults, hence the title.

[2] According to baidu, the term used for prostitute here (倌) dates back from the Qing and Su dynasty. However, the word can also be used for other positions or trades in which the person is “taking care” of something e.g. a <ruby>羊倌儿<rp>(</rp><rt>take care of sheep</rt></ruby>would be a shepherd and <ruby>马倌儿<rp>(</rp><rt>take care of horse</rt></ruby>would be a horse groomer. Hence, you can also say the people of the mansion are also “caretakers”, for a more elegant term.

[3] 众星捧月- An expression meaning ‘many clustering around the one they respect’.

[4] The character 行 of his name, 行之, actually has multiple ways of pronouncing it- hàng, xíng, háng, and héng. After flipping through my 15-year old dictionary and some consideration of naming schemes and the meaning parents embed in them, xíng (in conjunction with action or behaviour, or to mean ‘alright’/’capable’), háng (meaning a line/row, or profession) and héng (from the word related to path of cultivation) isn’t really fit to be used, so hàng (to be bold) should be the correct pronunciation to his name.

[5] The expression here used is, “as though the heart was torn apart and lungs split open”

[6] Assumed to be the male equivalent of the one in charge of the mansion’s prostitutes, like how the “Mama” is in charge of introducing the clients suitable girls to accompany a gathering in the dark corners of somewhere unspeakable, but it feels too awkward to call him “Papa”, hence Little Father.

[7] Term for business of prostitution; you are showing off your skin and offering your body in exchanges.

[8] The term here (妖孽), can interpreted in several ways. The first one involves taking the 妖 from 人妖(ladyboy), meaning to possess inhuman characteristics such as youthful looks or extreme beauty. Anything that is against human expectation is considered ‘evil’/ 孽 – Making this mean that one is very much inhumanely beautiful. But if you just run down the list of definitions that the term here can be interpreted as, you can see how this term was very much an intentional pick by the author. e.g. the more common definition is ‘evildoer’ which if you read on just a bit further is very much applicable to him. Another definition is ‘to approach situations and people with evil intent’, and finally, ‘like a object of ruin, bringing danger’.

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