The Rise of Phoenixes Novel Translation #167

The guard’s captain, Captain Liu led the newly selected guard into the secondary door. People greeted the lucky chap with smiles all along the way but there was something strange in their smile. It was as if there is a good show that is about to happen but you have to hold it in and not let the people involved detect what is afoot.

The lucky tall chap didn’t sense any of the strangeness. Eyes bright, he looked all around, the prime example of a sheltered villager visiting the big city, trying to get his fill in one shot. 

“I say, what’s your name?” With an arm draped over his shoulder the guard captain asked him. 

The tall chap looked down a bit quizzically, wondering why the guy who is shorter than him by a full head had to put an arm on his shoulder and speak with his head raised in a rather awkward position. Doesn’t he feel uncomfortable? Despite what he is thinking, the man’s voice is still full of respect as he replied “My humble name is Liu Sanhu.” (Straight translation in Chinese would be Liu Three Tigers.) 

“Sanhu, a good name. You even have the same last name as me. What a rare fate.” The captain laughed and slapped his back mightily, “Don’t worry, follow me and I will treat you well from now on.” 

His lips widened into a big grin, Liu Sanhu immediately bowed deeply “Thank you, sir!” 

“My name is Liu Yuan.” The captain pulled him up, grabbed him by the hand and looked him up and down, a hidden smile appeared in his eyes as he said “I will train you well. From today on, you can live in the same room as me.” 

The surrounding guards are all listening with their ears perked up, hearing Liu Yuan’s words, their lips collectively curved into a strange angle as they glanced at the tall man’s figure before they all then quickly turned away to pretend they are busy with some task. 

Not reacting with a smile this time, Liu Sanhu reluctantly asked “To be in the same room as you, sir? This…is not fitting, isn’t it?”

If I live in the same room as you, then how is this king going to go searching for her? 

“Hmm?” Liu Yuan raised his voice as he gave Sanhu a side glance “What talk is this? If I say it’s fitting, then it is!” 

Reacting quickly, the hesitation promptly left Liu Sanhu’s face as he bowed once again, “Yes sir!” 

“Come, I will take you to go see our room.” His anger turning to joy, Liu Yuan pulls Liu Sanhu towards the west courtyards. The guards behind them poked out their heads, exchanged yet more mysterious glances at each other before bursting into laughter after the two men finally walked off. 

“Another one again!”

“Old Liu is going to enjoy himself.” 

“Let’s make a bet. Is that guy going to come out tomorrow limping or will he take a sick day?” 

“I am betting on sick day!”

“Limping!”

“Sick day!”

Naturally ignorant of the laughter they left behind, Liu Yuan pulled Sanhu into a room on the west side of the manor. The room’s location is quite isolated with gardens on all four sides and no servants in sight. 

Liu Yuan pulled Liu Sanhu right into the inner bedroom, leaned on the bed, pat it and waved a hand at him “This is your bed, come.”

Liu Sanhu tilted his head and let out a puzzled “Eh?” 

“Come here.” Liu Yuan smiled until his eyes were squinted together “Let me look at you, see if your body is sturdy or not?” 

“Didn’t you see it before, sir?” A surprised Liu Sanhu slowly shuffled over and stood by the bed. 

“I did, it was very beautiful…” Liu Yuan grinned “I want to see more…”

Seemingly frozen to the spot, Liu Sanhu stood unmoving. 

“Fool! Don’t you realize that I have set my sight on  you?” Liu Yuan looked up with a smile and slapped Liu Sanhu’s buttocks.

The crisp slap sent Liu Sanhu jumping, holding his buttocks, glaring at Liu Yuan, even his squinting eyes has opened wide. 

Liu Yuan pursed his lips, “Why are you pretending ignorance? You look to be a sharp fellow. This sort of thing to put it nicely is male “fashion” and to put it not so nicely, is “buttock lawsuit”…come, play with me, there will be benefits for you.” 

Standing up, Liu Yuan put both of his hands on Liu Sanhu’s shoulder and pushed the still stunned man onto the bed. 

“What a great body…” Liu Yuan grinned, “I like to play around a bit, so be good, and bear with it.” 

Liu Yuan opened the cabinet drawer on the bedside. The drawer was full of ropes and whips. Pulling them out one by one to lay them out methodically, Liu Yuan pressed Liu Sanhu down with one hand, and rips his shirt open with another to reveal the strong honey-color chest, glittering in the candlelight. 

“So beautiful…” Liu Yuan praised, “Your face is ordinary but your body is definitely a rare prize…” 

Liu Sanhu kept his eyes closed, frowning. He has not moved, nor has he spoken. His eyelashes are trembling rapidly, seemingly as if he was thinking intently. Trembling at the same time are his fingers, gripping the side of the bed, making marks on the wooden board. 

“Little darling…be a good boy…bear with it…” Liu Yuan laughed, picking up a piece of rope, wrapped it around Liu Sanhu’s neck and down to his bare chest, “Let me have a good time…”

“?#$@!%!” 

Liu Yuan was startled by a lion-like deep roar then immediately felt a fierce strong force coming right at his face. *Bang!* Liu Yuan was kicked to the ground. 

He looked up in shock to see the person on the bed has already jumped up, kicked him down with a swift kick then pressed a knee on his chest, causing his ribs to creak and crunch, nearly breaking. 

This all happened in an instant. All of Liu Yuan’s amorous thoughts scattered like they were doused by a bucket of cold water. His mind was completely blank, unable to react, vaguely hearing Liu Sanhu muttering in a low voice: “… Sorry, I really couldn’t hold back anymore…” 

Unable to understand the meaning of those words, Liu Yuan looked up in fear only to see Liu Sanhu’s face closing on him viciously, “You damn rabbit!” (I have seen the word used in Chinese novels but actually never looked up why it’s used in this context so I had to go google it. As far as one can trust google, apparently in historical Chinese novels, rabbits are used to describe male concubines.)

Liu Yuan opened his mouth, wanting to say that I am not a rabbit, I like to play with rabbits but Liu Sanhu has already torn off the rope around his neck and tied Liu Yuan up “Damn, a soldier can be killed but not humiliated, since we are already like this, we might as well go all out… Old Rabbit, bear with it!”

Pulling open the whip filled drawer, Liu Sanhu grabbed one randomly and promptly slammed it down on Liu Yuan. 

With every strike, he asked a question. 

“Who ?#$@!%! Told you to play rabbits?”

*PA!*

“Who ?#$@!%! Told you to call my little darling?”

*PA!*

“Telling me to bear with it?”

*PA!*

“Let you have a good time?!”

*PA!*

“If you want to play then play but you had to make it so disgusting? I was going to just grit my teeth and sacrifice myself but you caused me to not be able to keep going!”

*PA!*

Liu Yuan was howling as he was being beaten, rolling around on the ground but then he gradually stopped howling, only using his arm to protect his head yet secretly looking up at Liu Sanhu through the cracks in his arms. 

The person above him, from the angle of lying on the ground looked extra tall and long with broad shoulders, thin waist, narrow hips. Skipping over two paragraphs describing on manly and good looking Helian is. 

Liu Yuan stared up in fascination. Suddenly forgetting the pain– this kind of whip was for entertainment purposes anyway so it doesn’t cause severe harm. Releasing his arms slowly, Liu Yuan pounced up and grabbed hold of Liu Sanhu’s legs. 

“Great King!”

A call shocking enough to break the heaven, Liu Sanhu with the whip still in his hand, froze. 

“Great King…good man…” Liu Yuan hugged his legs, panting and rubbing against him, tilted his head and smiled seductively “Hit me…hit me some more…” 

Liu Sanhu slowly lowered his head and stared at him, completely forgetting what he should be doing.

“You are my hero, my king…” Liu Yuan reached out to grab the whip in his hand, “They all say I like to play with rabbits…in reality, I love it more for you guys to torture me…just no one ever dared…so I can only play with them…when I am using the whip on them, how I wish there is a real man…who can like this ruthlessly…ruthlessly…” He grabbed Liu Sanhu’s hand and pressed himself towards the whip, “Come…come… hurry…as long as you are willing…I will promise you anything…”

A dazed Liu Sanhu looked down at the whip in his hand then at Liu Yuan whose face is full of joy and excitement. 

An expression of disbelief and joyful surprise surfaced on Liu Sanhu’s own face. “Damn…” He muttered “This world is so ?#$@!%! crazy…”

He then immediately looked down, waved his whip fiercely at the masochist rabbit, “Want me to hit?”

“Yeah.” Liu Yuan nodded dreamily.

“You will promise me anything?”

“My good man…” Liu Yuan grabbed onto the whip, “Anything…”

“I want to enter into the inner manor to be the prince’s personal guard!”

“Alright!”

“Shoot, now if I don’t beat you then it’s me robbing you.” Liu Sanhu tossed back his hair, resisted the impulse to look up at the sky and shout out a belly laugh. He randomly snapped the whip three times before throwing it down to leave.

There was no need to suspect this was a conspiracy, no conspiracy can be this ridiculous. 

His pant leg was abruptly pulled back by someone. 

“My heart!” Liu Yuan pants, grabbing onto his boots, “One more whip!” 

The newbie, guardsman Liu didn’t take a sick leave the next day. It was Captain of the guards, Captain Liu who took a sick day. 

The guards all stared at guardsman Liu who is proudly walking towards the inner manor with an expression of utter disbelief. 

How did this kid accomplish it? Is he so fierce? The rabbit defeated the grand master? That must be some crazy fighting skill. 

Guardsman Liu excitedly reported for work at the inner manor only to find out that while he is technically the prince’s personal guard but he is not the sort that will follow His Majesty around. Even among the prince’s personal guards, there is a division between the inner and outer. He is only one of those that guard the door of the inner manor. Guardsman Liu is quite displeased. He very much wants to go back and beat the old rabbit again in exchange for a post as the real personal guard but he finally gave up the idea once he thought it through and realized something like that would require Jin Siyu’s personal permission and not something within the old rabbit’s power to do. 

Jin Siyu spent most of his time in the inner manor. Rumor has it that he has brought in a new concubine and favors her especially. The concubine has fallen ill so he has spent every night in her room. The guards are all well-informed and get very excited as they discuss it. They say that no one has seen the concubine. His Highness hides her like the rarest treasure. Someone has seen her from afar, said she looked as fragile as wind and couldn’t see what was so special about her. They also said that His Highness might seem easy going but in actuality, he has always been indifferent when it comes to women.  Now that someone has finally caught His Highness’ eye, if this woman can give birth to a son or a daughter, then perhaps a glorious future could come to her. His Highness already has a wife, but the position of the consort is still vacant. 

Every time this topic comes up, Guardsman Liu would listen silently. One day the topic came up again, he asked: “The concubine is sick? Would His Highness like a sickly woman?” 

“A fragile beauty is even more attractive.” A guard waxed poetic then said, “His Highness especially brought the famous physician from San Ding Mountain here for her. I heard her condition has improved lately. His Highness was afraid that she might need a physician at any time so he especially gave the physician and his apprentice the permission to stay in her courtyard. It’s rare His Highness is paying such close attention.”

“Outside male can be allowed to live in the inner courtyard?” Guardsman Liu asked with amazement, “We can’t even set a single step into it.” 

“Come on, it’s your good fortune to not go in.” A guard said lazily, “What’s the inner courtyard? That’s the dragon’s den! Danger in every step. Just the stuff that was shipped from the Capital…” 

“Fourth!” A guard suddenly shouted. The guard that was talking previously immediately stopped, smiled sheepishly and patted Liu Sanhu’s shoulder and said “Bro, that pace is not something we should concern ourselves with anyway, so why ask.”

“Who’s interested in the inner courtyard?” Liu Sanhu sneered then said longingly “The thing I am interested in is women…my family is poor so I still don’t have a wife even though I am already 22!” 

The guards roared with laughter. A deputy captain laughed “Your words are reasonable. The outer manor is filled with lonely men while the inner manor is filled with resentful women. I saw a few before, they were indeed pretty. With our status, when we go back with His Highness to the Capital, no one would spare us a single glance. We would be better off to stay here, get ourselve a wife or concubine. Sanhu brother, if you really are serious then I can keep an eye out for you.” 

“Then I would ask older brother for this favor!” An overjoyed Liu Sanhu jumped up and bowed, “My old mother is looking so much for me to bring back a wife that she is almost blind!”

The guards brust out in laughter again, they teased Liu Sanhu that he will have to treat them to dinner when he gets a wife before turning the discussion to which maid is not bad looking and would make a good candidate. Liu Sanhu grinned good naturally, ran out to pee and while peeing, he muttered “After seducing men, I am now seducing women. I sure am popular with both gender…” before suddenly yelled in a low voice “Who’s there!” 

 A black shadow on the wall flashed to reveal a human figure. Seemingly unable to see clearly, Liu Sanhu squintted his eyes before abruptly striking out with his elbow, aiming straight for his opponet’s chest, “Die!”

The black shadow skipped lightly, swimming past under his elbow like a dried leaf. Raising a hand, the shadow blocked Liu Sanhu’s all paths of attack then let out a laugh. 

Liu Sanhu frowned, feeling vaguely that the laugh sounded familiar. A thought flashed across his mind, Liu Sanhu stared at the black shadow without saying a word. 

The figure slowly revealed himself. Green robe, small hat, the uniform of outer manor servants. The person’s appearance was ordinary, yet his eyes were very lively. 

Looking at his figure carefully, Liu Sanhu said hesitantly after a bit “You…”

The figure pursed his lips and said “You, what? Don’t ask me, I don’t know who I am right now either.” 

Liu Sanhu’s eyes flashed, recognition dawning on his face… listen to this despondent tone, this is probably a certain someone’s personal guard who intervened and caused her to lose her mother and brother. 

He certainly holds no benevolent feeling towards this person. 

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