Daomu Biji: 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.

People at that time had hearts made of stone, so it was fine for him to stand by and watch. But humans had emotions after all. Er Yuehong was a sentimental man, and would often do a lot of things because of a look from others. He knew at that time that he had to save her.

But his father definitely wouldn’t agree to let him do this kind of thing, so it was impossible for him to have enough money to save her.

Er Yuehong was very young and energetic back then. He took off his hat and used his skills to walk down the wall of the tea house like a gecko, stopping in front of the trafficker.

The trafficker was taken aback, because it had been a long time since he had met someone who would intervene. The trafficker naturally didn’t want that to happen. The interceptor did this in the name of justice, so the money the trafficker collected from him would be twenty percent lower than the money he would collect from the brothel.

It was still early morning, yet the trafficker already found himself unlucky. Where did this guy come from to stand in the way of him getting his money?

But looking at this master’s skill and how he climbed down from the tea house just now, the trafficker knew that he couldn’t be offended, so he laughed and greeted him.

Er Yuehong also knew that this was one of the businesses in the underworld, and this trafficker must’ve had a relationship with his own family. There could be no conflict between them; otherwise, it would bring trouble to the Mystic Nine. As a result, he didn’t dare kill the trafficker. When he asked about the price, the trafficker gave an exorbitant amount, meaning, “Get lost. You can’t save her.”

Er Yuehong had no other choice. He couldn’t get the money from his father, and he couldn’t intervene. The only way to save this girl was to pay the exorbitant price, but he certainly couldn’t come up with that much money.

The trafficker said to Er Yuehong, “This girl is being sent to the brothel in Ping Er. If this master can’t pay the money, please turn away. If you want to do something nice for this girl, then I suggest you order her tonight. It will be a blessing to her if you are gentle on her first night.”

Er Yuehong became angry and said to him, “I have the money. I also want to warn you that your money is ill-gotten. You need to think about whether you can afford such wealth. If you feel that you can bear it, I will get it for you, but I advise you to be careful of your wealth.”

That was it. The trafficker didn’t believe someone would pay that much money for a little girl, so he said he could bear it.

Er Yuehong’s underlings kept watch on the trafficker as he went around the downtown area again. Er Yuehong had to get the money ready before the trafficker finished his round.

Er Yuehong hurried home, put on all his equipment, and rushed to the western outskirts on a fast horse. He rushed back again with three gold hairpins and loess on his body.

This girl later became Er Yuehong’s wife and bore him three sons. She died of illness at the age of thirty-two. In just over ten years of happiness, she had been in Er Yuehong’s arms, and never suffered. After she was gone, Er Yuehong became unruly.

As a woman in that kind of society, I felt that she had lived a happy life. It was also because of this that women kept flocking to Er Yuehong after his wife was gone. But no one could touch the dead emotions in his heart.

The ordinary girl in the noodle shop would always live in his heart. No one knows when he first started to have feelings for her. Maybe it started when he heard her call him “brother”, or maybe it started when he rushed back to the city on the horse. But such a man was that girl’s greatest fortune, and also the greatest misfortune for other women in the world.

Er Yuehong never married again. He lived to 102, and was buried with his wife after death. The coffin was a bit taller than his wife’s, so that the girl who had been waiting for him for many years could finally lean on his shoulder again, listening to his gentle singing.

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TN Notes:

(1) Flower-drum opera. More info here