"Wife, I want to eat meat” 《娘子，我要吃肉》Chapter 57 It was raining again. Xia Fen lifted his head, quite angrily poking the ground with the long pole in his hand, the rainstorm had emerged suddenly, drenching his entire body dripping wet, entirely like a drowned rat. The imperial bodyguards very quickly put up a simple rain shelter, the crown prince minding his own business took off his outer garment, entering the shelter he threw his head down and slept. No one paid attention to the tiny, discontent Xia Fen. This journey was honestly so troublesome. Xia Fen couldn’t help jabbing the pole into the mud, a group of ants ‘xixisuosuo’ climbed out up the pole. He had accidently poked an ant nest. Maybe interested, Xia Fen with a kick was on the tree trunk, the downpour of rain hanging on the tree leaves fell, wrapping the ants up. Black and small insects struggled and rolled in the rain and dew, they looked extremely pitiful. Finally an imperial bodyguard noticed him, yelling: “Young son of an official stop playing, you’ll get typhoid from being soaked, at that time it will cause delay.” Qi, he wasn’t concerned about him falling ill, rather he was afraid if he fell ill he would burden their journey. He didn’t want to follow the crown prince. He remembered at that time he had secretly hidden himself in the beam of the east palace’s roof, watching His Highness the crown prince who he usually beat up badly be held in the emperor’s arms forcing him to learn things by heart. In his memory, his cheap father Wang Yun Feng had also forced him like that, and even torn apart his trousers. When he thought about it, the little elephant between his legs itched again. Xia Fen scratched it, watching the crown prince shake his head learning by heart things like the four common characters of classical Chinese, both envious and despising. The emperor was even more fierce than the cheap father! Not allowing anyone to oppose his words, if he was not please he would punish someone by beating, how was he like the cheap father, who would only chase after him with worry, unable to catch him. Too yielding! Certainly, he has never seen Wang Yun Feng beat and scold anyone, Xia Fen sort of knew, the cheap father was very scared of him. Hehe, don’t ask him how he knew, anyway he just had a feeling. The emperor however wasn’t scared of the crown prince, when the crown prince made an error, the emperor will pull down his trousers and use all his strength to spank his bottom, bright red, Xia Fen was so invigorated watching this. So happy, he laughed out loud, the emperor and the crown prince discovered him at the same time. As a result, Xia Fen was trussed up, his trousers pulled down by the crown prince, hitting him viciously with a bamboo for some time. He was so humiliated, but moreover in front of the crown prince. Xia Fen decided he and the crown prince could not exist together! Afterwards, every time he would think of all the methods to mount a sneak attack on the crown prince. The crown prince was as cunning as the emperor, after that one time he would remain alert anytime and anywhere, when he discovered his trail he would think of all the ways he could pull down his trousers. Xia Fen was not scared of being beaten with a bamboo, he was scared of his trousers being pulled off, at those times the older girls in the palace would hide in the shadows secretly laughing at him. Once he asked the crown prince, if the older girls at the palace had seen him get thrashed? The crown prince exploded, the tips of his ears were red. Yes, it seems the crown prince were fellow suffers who emphasised slightly with each other. Xia Fen decided to secretly forgive the crown prince a little, as tiny as a fingernail. The crown prince
’s life was actually very depressing, he couldn’t make a tiny mistake.
The emperor took him to court every day. Sometimes the morning court only lasted two hours, sometimes it lasted four hours. Anyway by the second quarter ofchenshi,[1] the crown prince would have to leave for Bailu academy. At noon, Xia Fen would find the crown prince to compete in martial art, of course, other people who also wanted to pick a fight would take advantage of this time. Xia Fen was tired from fighting, he would find a tree to sprawl on to sleep. The crown prince still had to take a bath and burn incense, then not resting again. After finishing lessons in the afternoon, the two of them would leave the city to find the expert amongst the people to compete in martial art, for the most part they were beaten up together, Xia Fen again pitied the crown prince a little. The crown prince’s body wasn’t as firm as his, those people also did not the crown prince’s identity, in every case the crown prince would be injured a bit.
When he returned at night to the palace that was the most painful, because the empress demanded to do a spot check on his schoolwork on that day. The crown prince and Xia Fen needed to recite their studies in front of the empress, if Xia Fen made a mistake, the crown prince will loudly correct him. That chubby dragon, wanted to humiliate him, so spiteful.
The empress with an ice-cold expression, that expression was even more indifferent than that cheap father of his. That wild intuition of Xia Fen’s told him, the empress was not to be trifled with. This was the Wang residence, and wasn’t the Xia residence, there was no one here who truly cared for him, cherish him, pamper and spoil him. He only has to make the slightest mistake, at any time he would suffer a beating, the crown prince would laugh at him at the side; if he couldn’t recite a book he would be starved, the crown prince would place delicate light refreshments beside him, while eating he would hypocritically study.
The most important was, there was no one here to shelter him.
Regardless if he was angry, or if he was happy, or wanted to find someone to vent his anger, the people around him had a matter of no concern to them expression. When he was hurt, no one bandaged him; he laughed, no one was happy with him; when he cried, also no one comforted him…
There were many children in the palace, some were the emperor’s sons, there were plenty of sons of princes, and companions sent by the chancellors, also imperial bodyguards specially chosen for the crown prince, were also more or less the same age as him, they were all very clever and quick-witted, moreover they knew how to secretly plot, on one hand praising him, on the other setting him up, putting him in an extremely difficult position.
At that time, the crown prince he hated, very, very, very much would arrive like some kind of god, supporting him, help him think of a plan, secretly taking revenge with him.
The crown prince wasn’t that bad. Yes, if he didn’t tell on him in front of the empress, it’ll be fine if he didn’t loudly correct him when he made a mistake reciting.
Other people thought his relationship with the crown prince was very bad, therefore they bullied him. But there were also some people who gradually noticed the crown prince protected him, slowly they were also willing to speak to him, for the most part it was you can’t do this, you can’t do that.
There were too many people around his age, Xia Fen discovered apart from his martial arts being slightly better, he didn’t have anything he was good at. He depended on the Xia family’s status arrogantly, here it simply meant nothing. His fists also weren’t the most vicious in the palace, his clumsiness in speaking instead became the joke of everyone’s ridicule.
When the crown prince felt wronged he would run to the empress’ arms acting like a spoiled child, even though the empress wouldn’t stick up for him, but would gently caress and stroke the top of his head, silently reassuring him. When Xia Fen was set up, he could only stay in the side chamber of the east palace, waiting for the day his mother would enter the palace.
When he couldn’t see his mother, every day he would sneakily wake up early, follow the crown prince to the court. Afterwards he would stand high up, he would watch that man slowly walk over at the break of dawn.
That was his cheap father.
Without his mother’s love, he could receive a little comfort looking at his father from afar.
Sometimes his cheap father would be kept back deliberately until very late by the emperor, up until he came back to the palace from outside. Afterwards his father would explain the laws and decrees to the crown prince in the east palace, he would sprawl out on the roof beam, falling asleep listening to the other person’s voice.
He thought, he was a bit homesick. No matter which home, so long as there was someone who genuinely cared about him, pampered and spoiled him, took his side, will be fine.
But that devious, cunning, crown prince who lied without blinking, deceived him to go outside, saying the palace wasn’t fun, his home was too restrictive, the vast outside made people feel refreshed travelling around.
Xia Fen was fed a bunch of lies the entire day, afterwards he was unwittingly dragged out of Beiding city by the crown prince, walking towards brambles and an unknown journey.
The most, most hateful thing was, the crown prince only brought along three imperial bodyguards, and the three tall and strong guys only knew to take care of the sweet crown prince, and ignored the fact he was also a child. This whole journey, Xia Fen simply had no choice but to suffer in silence, itching to rip these three social climbing scoundrels apart.
The crown prince turned over, opening his eyes in a daze, beckoning Xia Fen who was still standing in the rain: “Why are you staying in the rain, why haven’t you come in.”
Xia Fen sat on his bottom beside him, taking off his clothes he dried them on the frame above the fire. Even though he was young, he was actually more knowledgeable than the crown prince in surviving in the wild. And he knew if he really caught typhoid, the people with him wouldn’t take care of him with all their heart, no matter what he could only rely on himself.
The crown prince didn’t know he was having these thoughts, his clothes had long ago been dried by the imperial bodyguards, after putting them on he picked up a hare, following the imperial bodyguards manner he slowly roasted it.
Xia Fen finished drying his clothes, again taking off his trousers, his bare bottom completely exposed he sat to the side, shaking out his clothes every now and then, again brushing off the dust on his legs, completely deserving of a spanking.
The crown prince also did not mind, he used a knife to cut the hare in half giving it to Xia Fen: “Help yourself to food and clothes.”
Xia Fen was just roasting his own little bird[2], lifting his head to look at the half dried trousers, again looking at his gradually warming `little bird`, then his line of sight stopped on the hare, before finally running outside to wash his hand in the rain, picking up the roasted hare. They had been on this journey for many days, when they were in the desolated countryside, he still really was responsible for roasting his own food, of course, if there were pheasants, the fowl’s bottom unconditionally belonged to him.
The rainstorm continued day and night, the weather also turned colder and colder. Xia Fen didn’t know where the crown prince was going, after asking a few times with no answer he could only follow along. By himself, he didn’t dare to run off, in any case the crown prince wouldn’t hurt him, following him his life no matter what would be safeguarded. Like this they continued for more than ten days, Unexpectedly they went around a mountain forest, going along a river bank.
At first the bustling travel boats could still be seen, the more north they went, the river water
gradually overflowed the banks, on the way they saw many large crowds of victims pass by.
The crown prince carefully avoided everyone, only when they were near to a town did he buy some rations and steamed buns, when they arrived at a remote place he would ask the imperial bodyguards to distribute them to the victims. Xia Fen had seen fishermen along the coast, and had seen the strangest people in the Jianghu, he also knew quite a few children of influential families and relatives of the emperor, this was still the first time he realised people could actually be so impoverished to this extent, and not all children had their parents to protect them, not all parents treated their children with love.
He personally saw parents in order to survive, selling their small and weak daughter to a person’s child, or a passing stranger. A girl not of five years old could be sold for a few silvers, the least only several hundred coppers. A very young boy was worth even more, they would be sold to merchants or influential families as servants. Even more children were bought by women and men who had deliberately come dressed charmingly.
The imperial bodyguards said, those were the female brothel keepers of pleasure quarters, the men were male prostitutes from courtesan houses, those children weren’t sold into the labour force, rather for their life.
When they said this, a male prostitute happened to glance at Xia Fen, only thinking this child had some sort of beautiful wildness, when those black eyes looked at people, it would make timid children shiver to the bottom of their bones. Xia Fen’s intuition made all the hairs on his body stand up, tagging along behind that male prostitute, turning into a place with no one around, without the slightest hesitation he knocked the slave by the male prostitute’s side to the ground, snatching away those children who had been sold, returning them to their parents.
That male prostitute without any special intention lightly laughed agitating his eardrums, he was certain he was in a nightmare, shaking from the bottom of his feet.
The second day when they set off, he once again passed by that place, finding those parents once again without an expression selling their own son.
Xia Fen could not understand, why they didn’t protect their child well? Could those children not be their own flesh and blood? Do they not care for their child? Why do those children whose lives are being sold not cry or complain? Do they perhaps not know how to rebel?
They headed north, there were even more fertile lands submerged by flood water, more and more towns destroyed, people dying could be seen anytime and anywhere. Before they could even take out the rations to give up, they were completely looted by the surrounding people. The imperial bodyguards were worried about the crown prince’s safety, afterwards they meticulously hid themselves, placing the rations beside the disaster relief giant wok at the temple doorway, let the Buddhist monks distribute them in an orderly manner.
The soil beneath their feet became softer and softer, when there were more and more victims, Xia Fen gradually heard a person’s name, passed along the mouths of victims every few days.
“Lord Wang…”
[1] 7-9am.
[2] Penis.