An Oriental Odyssey

  It was during the prosperous Tang Dynasty, under the rule of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, thirty miles west of Luoyang City.

    The situation in the sky was cloudy, the storm did not come, but the birds could not fly. The moon peeked from behind the clouds and cast its silver light on the river, at a certain point, the river forked and trickled into a crack in the ground. The water passed through large and small rocks, creating countless holes, gradually stirring the black sand and gravel. Beside the river, on the side of the cliff, countless caves of different sizes have been chiselled into the mountain. 

    During the day, the caves were usually sealed with wooden boards, seeming like abandoned tombs, but at this time of the night, these wooden boards were removed and bright red lights came on one after another, there was a wonderful business happening under each light. The boss was either a smuggler with great powers, a clever speculator looking for opportunities, or a wicked beast who digs graves and robs them.

    In Luoyang city, there were some interesting things that could never be seen under the sun: the glittering underworld jewels, the fragrant exotic herbs, I have heard that you can even summon evil spirits by chanting a mantra. Some people have brought strange live animals such as deer with really long necks and pigs with long noses and big heads. It is a truly cunning and strange place. 

    The time has come, the shops were open and the number of customers was increasing, so much so that the customers were rubbing shoulders to get passed. On the side of the street, there were masked beauties playing the pipa, singing and performing tricks. There were also dealers who slaughtered cattle and sheep on the spot and cooked them with willow wood. Someone stepped on a fruit skin, slipped and fell to the ground, the wine jar in his hand broke, and the street was filled with a fragrant and strong smell. He yelled and some people laughed at him, his voice got even louder and the scene became even more lively. 

This was outside Luoyang's ghost city. 

This is where their story begins.

At that time...

    He had no name or appearance. He was locked in an iron cage that was not even two feet high. A cage that normally housed dogs, domesticated dogs that would guard the house. The human trafficker had finished selling all the others, it was only him left. At that time, she could not see what he looked like: skinny, dirty all over, eyes closed, arms hugging his knees with his shoulders slouched, curled into a ball quietly on the ground at the corner of the cage, he was like a piece of black charcoal that had just been unearthed, this had nothing to do with the excitement of everyone. 

    The boy's owner at this time was a trafficker who had returned from the south. He was well-known amongst those who often came to the ghost market. He said that his green beard was dyed with the blood of a mythical qilin. He once set an inescapable net trap on an island and watched it for ten days and ten nights, when his eyes were starting to bleed, it finally caught a bird-man, a man with wings, he gave it to the land's Emperor, earning him several chests of gold. He also once threw a fish gun with a poisoned spearhead into a swirling whirling, bravely wrestled with it to death and finally pulled out a man with a fish's tail, he ceremoniously gave it to the great and wealthy Tang royalty to keep as a pet. But for a merman out of the sea, it did not take long for him to die. Although, money from this endeavour still ended up in his pockets, which he then squandered at gambling tables. 

    The goods the trafficker brought today were three slave girls with brown dark skins. He shouted and dragged the three female slaves onto the 3-foot square stone platform, ordered them to open their mouths to show their teeth and the trafficker announced loudly: "Hair is blood, teeth are bones, have you ever seen such thick hair and such even white teeth? This is the best physical health for a slave! Strong muscles and bones, will not get sick, on the farmland, in the house, can do any work! Buy and take home! Will never regret it!"

    One of the female slaves bowed her head, and the trafficker rushed over, twisting her hair, pinching her chin and turning her head about so the customer could see every angle: "Don't look at her dark skin, look at her big eyes and nose. Not bad, right? Strangely attractive, right? Buy and take home to have a baby!" 

    Someone heckled from below: "They were brought all the way here by you, I'm afraid she already has your baby in her stomach, isn't it?!"

    The trafficker didn't get annoyed when he heard those words, instead, he laughed and suddenly lifted up the slave girl's shirt, exposing her bully and brought a large knife to her stomach with the blade pointed: "It's fine to cut it open for you all to check."

    This was a big declaration, someone shouted from below: "Ah, can you really bear to? It was hard to acquire the goods, can you really bear to open her stomach?"

    The green-bearded trafficker smiled grimly, "Hey, you don't need to provoke me, let's make a bet. I'll cut open this woman open, if there is no baby in there, you pay me double the price. If there's a baby in there, then I've just added some fun to the ghost market tonight! Ghost market, ghost market, there's no laws or morality here anyway!"

    The crowd of onlookers let out a roar, and the female slave who didn't understand the language seemed to have a premonition that her life was like grass here, she was about to be disembowelled in public by the savage trafficker. The big knife cut straight into the flesh of the slave girl!

    Some onlookers had the guts to widen their eyes, and the cowardly covered their eyes, anticipating that they were about to hear the screams of the slave girl, who would have expected that it would be the green bearded man's scream they would hear! With a clang, the knife and his buttocks hit the ground. Someone had pierced through the hand that was holding the knife with a hidden weapon, leaving a bloody hole in its wake, blood was flowing!

"Who?! Who dared to plot against their grandfather and me?!"

No one answered.

    "An honest person should not do things in secret, who attacked me with a secret weapon? If you have a problem, come out, let's compete. Come on, this grandfather is not afraid of you!"

Still, no one answered. 

    The trafficker screamed in anger, but the onlookers were amused, there was a lot of discussion: "Look at the arrogant demeanour of this big green beard, he should have been dealt with long ago, didn't you just say you wanted to add some excitement to the ghost market? This time, someone added it themselves. I say, big beard, don't be arrogant, this time someone just cut a hole in your hand, be careful, otherwise someone might cut a hole in your head later."

  Hahahahahahahaha! The sound of laughter erupted, from every corner, and the ghost market instantly became noisy. The boy that was curled up in the cage had fallen asleep, this noise woke him up. He slowly opened his eyes and raised his head, looking around but was then suddenly startled. There was a face outside the cage, Ye Yuan'an was looking at him with eyes wide open. 

    Unlike his dirty face, the young man's face was luminous, even in the night light, one could still tell how good the complexion of this person was. His skin was as clear as jade, with rosy cheeks, his eyebrows and hair were black, his hair was tied up in a bun held in place by a golden pin, the usual style for young men. The young man had a straight nose and plump lips that looked as if he had just been scalded while eating a bowl of noodle soup, his lips were really red. 

    The skin on the back of his hand was also jade-like. The boy had heard the human trafficker selling people saying that anyone with a good colour must eat well and have a strong body. The boy thought that this young man looking at him must ear well, otherwise, how could he grow up to have such a fresh and clear complexion?

    The boy in the cage just stared at the young man outside the cage like this, while the other party carefully studied him, and then suddenly giggled and said to the people around him, "Oh, turns out it's a person! What a person! It's like a buttoned turtle!"

    His companion was so tall that the boy could not see his face even when he looked up, he could only see the pair of white boots on his feet. The ghost market was originally a stone waterway, so everyone's feet were covered with mud and water, it was unclear where this guy came from. What kind of shortcut did he take that his boots did not even have a speck of mud or watermarks. He didn't share the excitement of the young man and simply whispered: "Let's go. What more excitement do you want to cause?"

    The young man was a little unwilling, but he still had to get up and leave, but the boy in the cage suddenly stretched out a hand and grabbed his hand, as if he would not allow him to leave. The young man was quite surprised, but he let the boy pull his arm into the cage, wanting to see what would happen. The boy in the cage went up along his arm and gently caught the blue butterfly that had fallen on the young man's shoulder at an unknown time. The boy extended his hand again, and the butterfly flew away. 

    The young man laughed: "Yo, this kid is a bit interesting, the cage and the boy are for sale, right? Why don't I just buy him and take him home?"

    His companion did not want him to be unrestrained and said, "You don't care about our business anymore? Me bringing you here, did you really come here to go shopping?"

    The young man mimicked his companion, then clasped his hands, got up and left, while still casting glances back at the boy in the cage.