Pixiu Rearing Guide Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Strange Man

With their trip completed and their purchases loaded into their car, the atmosphere relaxed and sleepiness began to fall upon them. It was raining outside. Large raindrops splattered onto the car windows with a dull sound. Du Ziyu leaned into the corner of the back seat and fell asleep.

He dreamed of a man.

The man wore an indigo cheongsam, with an ink coloured outer robe that was embroidered with a golden silk dragon brocade and had rolling clouds along the edges. Long, waist-length black hair cascaded down his back, and his left hand was pressed against the back of his waist, holding something he could not see.

The man stood alone within a fog, giving off a solemn and dignified atmosphere. The fog rolled by, slightly revealing the man's black boots. It seemed like he was standing on the surface of placid water.

Du Ziyu smelled a wonderful scent in the air; not a fragrant scent nor one that could be described in words. He only felt that this smell made people feel at ease, and his body was so comfortable that he couldn’t help but to follow the mysterious man step by step. Suddenly, Du Ziyu felt a chill under his feet as he had stepped into the water. Looking up, he was surprised to see that the man was actually standing on the surface of the water. The ripples from his feet spread towards the man, ruining the tranquility of the water. Waves began to form as the water level rose. Du Ziyu anxiously took a step back but the water began to submerge him inch by inch. As he struggled, he saw the man slowly lowering his hand and turning his body…

Du Ziyu woke with a violent shake while he was still half dreaming. His forehead thumped against the seat in front of him and he was showered with shattered glass as the world spun around him. When all was quiet, he heard a voice screaming beside him: "Shit! The car rolled over!"

Du Ziyu was hanging upside down in the car. Looking through the broken window, he could only see a sliver of the asphalt road, shattered glass and a huge stone.

Soon, he was pulled out of the car. Fortunately he was not hurt but a bruise had formed on his brow bone. And when he was crawling out of the car, he accidentally placed his hand against some shattered glass, cutting the area between his thumb and index finger, and getting blood on his jade ring.

"Fuck! The car rolled down!" Li Wu stood on Panshan Road and looked down. In the mountain valley ten meters below them, a pickup truck had collided into the car. They were truly fortunate that no one was hurt.

The driver called the police. Du Ziyu walked beside Li Wu while frowning, and looked down. They were three stories high from the pickup truck. They didn't know if the people inside were dead or alive, and they were thinking of a way to get down to help when they heard Ah-Mao calling for them.

"Look over here! Jade stones!" Ah-Mao was squatting on the ground, holding a stone in his hand, looking excited. Looking at the road, they saw ten or so stones of different sizes scattered around him.

Li Wu stared blankly, then turned his head and looked at the overturned Jeep and said, "Turn over the car! Get the car first, then we'll talk about it later!"

It was weird. Even though the Jeep rolled over, only the exterior was damaged. The engine was fine. When the rescue team arrived, the police asked them about the accident. The pickup truck's driver was heavily injured and unconscious, and was taken away by an ambulance.

"Young Master Du, pardon me but the Pixiu you bought, can it really ward off evil and bring wealth?" As they headed back to the city, Li Wu cracked jokes at Du Ziyu while taking close note of his reaction. "Come! Let me touch it! Give me great fortune as I go back to examine the white uncut stones!"

"Young Master Du, Brother Li, I’m not in a hurry to ‘open the skylight’ today." The car stopped at the door of a hotel, and the driver turned around to speak. "The good craftsmen don't live here. Once we head over to them, they'll do the work for us. Let’s eat, play mahjong, get some sleep, and go straight out of town tomorrow morning!"

'Open the skylight' was an industry term that meant cutting open raw, uncut stones to examine the colour of jade inside.

What the driver said was not unreasonable. In order to get a hold of the high quality goods they saw today, they had barely slept last night. Everyone needed a break. Du Ziyu and Li Wu exchanged glances and nodded.

"Good! Let’s stay here first." Li Wu took their luggage into the hotel and requested for four rooms at the front desk. "Don't be so polite. We're all staying here. Tonight, we'll play mahjong in my room. No one is allowed to run!"

"Luckily Young Master Du's Pixiu hasn't been consecrated1 yet!" The driver joked. "Otherwise who would dare to play mahjong with him? They'll just lose money!"

"Not consecrated?" Du Ziyu heard the words and blinked in confusion.

The driver laughed and deliberately kept him in suspense. "Listen closely, I'll explain it later after dinner…"

In the end, the locals proved to be skilled players, and after a couple rounds of mahjong, the driver explained how to consecrate the Pixiu. It's a pity that Du Ziyu's natural luck was excellent. Even though his Pixiu was not consecrated, he still destroyed the other three. 'Thirteen Unique Wonders', 'Three Big Dragons', with outrageous hands like these, the other three men lost so much that they smoked through an entire pack of cigarettes.

"Not playing! Not playing! Hey! Young Master Du, head back early and consecrate your Pixiu!" The driver said with a cigarette in his mouth, while frowning and sighing.

Du Ziyu won all the money and was very happy. Once the driver and Ah-Mao left, he split his winnings and gave half to Li Wu. He raised his chin and said, "When you leave, give them a tip."

"Hey! You sure are generous!" Li Wu widened his eyes. "There’s a lot of money that I lost in here!"

Du Ziyu hooked the corner of his lips, stood up, and swept his eyes over him. "Okay! Tomorrow's uncut stones will be your profit then!" After saying that, he took the Pixiu back to his room.

According to the driver and Ah-Mao, if you want the Pixiu to recognize you as its owner, you have to consecrate it. However, the process was not easy. First, you need to use 'rootless water' or 'yin-yang water' to purify the Pixiu. 'Rootless water' referred to rain water, and 'yin-yang water' referred to well water. Where can that kind of water be found nowadays? Du Ziyu played with the Pixiu. He'll have to put aside consecration for now. He yawned, put down the Pixiu, and walked to the bathroom.

Li Wu chose well; the hotel was not bad. Du Ziyu soaked in the bathtub and comfortably closed his eyes. Not long after, he noticed strange movements coming from his room. Du Ziyu narrowed his eyes. The movements stopped after a while.

Room service? Or is it a thief?

Du Ziyu loudly stood up, wrapped a towel around his waist, and put on slippers. As he walked out of the bathroom, his eyes sank.

There was a man sitting on his bed, a strange man…who was completely naked.

"How did you come in?" Du Ziyu tensed his beautiful eyebrows and glanced at the door and window. "Who told you to come? Li Wu?"

Du Ziyu liked men, and it had been a tacit secret in the Du Family since his teenage years. In the recent years, he had always been quite comfortable with sex and he never lacked playmates. This wouldn't be the first time that Li Wu had sent someone to his room. However, to find this kind of MB ("money boy"; male prostitute) in this small border city, Li Wu must have had a difficult time!

While speculating, Du Ziyu took a few steps towards the man and looked down condescendingly. This was a young man in his early 20s, with sparkling eyes, a tall nose, and smooth and firm wheat coloured skin; it was rare to find someone with such beautiful skin. Du Ziyu's eyes trailed down his body, sweeping across his wide chest and tight abdomen, before resting his eyes on his vibrant male organ and licking his lips.

"Are you a local?" Du Ziyu was puzzled by the beauty. His attitude eased and he couldn't help but to stretch out his thin white fingers and touch the side of the man's slim face, sliding his fingers down to his chin, like a dragonfly dipping across water.

Hey, this face is really sexy!

The man was expressionless and he looked at him dumbly, as if he couldn't understand him, and didn't answer. Du Ziyu laughed: "Burmese? Don't understand Chinese?" The man opposite of him had a strong and powerful body, unlike the thin ones of the locals, and his complexion was much lighter as well. It was really hard to guess his ethnicity. Du Ziyu exhausted his patience and sighed. "Take a shower first," he said as he threw his bath towel towards the man. He sat on the bed with his legs crossed and took out his phone to send a few words on WeChat to Li Wu.

[ The man you brought is not bad. Is he sick2? ]

After successfully sending the message, Du Ziyu raised his head. The man was still sitting there, staring at him. He couldn't help but to raise his eyebrow. "What?" He waved his hand in front of the man's eyes. "Have you seen enough?"

Suddenly, the man grasped his hand and surprised Du Ziyu. He tried to pull his hand back but the man pulled his hand forward and rested it on his lips, gently kissing the jade ring on his thumb. Du Ziyu's brows trembled. He pulled with more strength but the man refused to let go of his hand. The man's lips slowly moved up from his thumb towards the area where he had cut himself earlier. The wound had not been treated but it had stopped bleeding. The man's tongue covered the wound and he gently sucked on it until it opened up and bled again. The saliva made the wound sting.

"Hey….That's enough….." Du Ziyu pushed away the man's head, unconsciously doing so weakly. The man looked up at him; his pitch black eyes sparkled like the shimmering sea, as if there were a sea of stars within them. Du Ziyu was stunned. The man rubbed his nose on his wrist, breathing in deeply, and continued to rub his nose up along his wrist to his forearm, upper arm, shoulders…all the way up to his neck. He then took his earlobe into his mouth.

Du Ziyu's left ear had an obsidian stud earring, and the man's tongue was in love with it. Soon after, the man's teeth replaced his tongue as he pulled off the earring and held it in his mouth. Di Ziyu's opened his mouth in dissatisfaction, but soon his ear was once again pleased by the man's soft tongue, and the reprimand forming in his throat turned into a quiet hum.

There was a wonderful scent.

He didn't realize it but his nose was already filled with the smell of the man. It was somewhat like pine, like the smell of grass after the rain, or like sun-dried cotton? Whatever it was…it smelled amazing. Du Ziyu unconsciously relaxed and his last line of defense was brought down.

"I feel that you're somewhat familiar…" Du Ziyu muttered with his eyes closed. He suddenly thought of the dream he had in the car earlier about the man with long flowing hair and a jade-like face…

On the bedside, his phone lit up with a WeChat message from Li Wu:

[ What man are you talking about? Sick or not sick…It seems like Young Master Du is the one who is sick.2 ]

Translator's Notes:

"开光" - aka kaiguang or Buddhābhiṣeka DZY is talking about STDs, while Li Wu is talking about mental illness. I left it as ‘sick’ because the last sentence wouldn’t make sense otherwise.