Volume One: The City by the Sea
-- written by Maoni
Chapter 2: The Nameless Yellow Book
As far as Fan Xian
was concerned, maybe the only benefit of a second life was that he could freely
move his limbs. He could run and jump all he wanted now. That was indeed a very
gratifying feeling. It would probably be very difficult for people who had not
suffered from the same kind of illness to truly appreciate the joy.
“This must be a
blessing from Heaven,” he comforted himself.
It took him all
four years to finally comprehend it and accept the fact. Now that he had the
opportunity to live again, why not make it a good one? Since God was so kind to
bestow upon him a brand new life, just for consideration of God’s feelings, he
should live it sincerely. For instance, since he could move now, why not move
some more?
Therefore, all the servants of the Count’s
Manor soon learned that this baseborn Young Master was not the idling type
.
“Young Master, come
down please! I beg of you!”
At the moment, Fan
Xian was sitting at the very top of the rockwork hill in the courtyard, staring
at the ocean horizon in the far distance, smiling.
In the eyes of the
servant girl, the fact that a four-year-old would climb that high together with
such a mature smile on his face clearly indicated that the little fellow had
gone completely mad.
The crowd by the
foot of the rockwork hill gradually grew in size and soon there were seven or
eight servants surrounding the rockwork hill worried sick.
Although the Count
of Southernland was in His Majesty’s favor, neither his rank of nobility nor
the post he held was of great importance. Naturally the income wouldn’t be very impressive. Even if there was quite a bit of
income, the majority of the money wouldn’t be spent on his mother and a
baseborn son. Therefore, the Count’s Manor didn’t have many servants.
Seeing the worried
faces of the people at the foot of the rockwork hill, Fan Xian let out a sigh and
eventually climbed down.
“I am just doing a
little bit exercise. What’s there to worry about?”
The servants
obviously had grown accustomed to the Young Master’s odd habit of speaking in
an adult’s tongue. Wasting no time, they quickly grabbed him and sent him into
the bathtub.
After Fan Xian had
been thoroughly cleaned from head to toe, he was soon picked up by a servant
girl. Holding the Young Master in her arms, the girl caressed his face, grinning
jokingly.
“Young Master is
as pretty as a girl. I wonder which little miss will be so fortunate to be your
bride when you grow up.”
Fan Xian didn’t
reply and kept a stupid look. He didn’t want to flirt with a teenage girl through
the tongue of a four-year-old kid. He would never consider such a tasteless act
– he’d rather wait till at least six before taking on such grand challenges.
“Time for your
nap, my little boss!” The servant girl smacked the little kid gently on the
behind.
For the servants, it
was always beyond their understanding why the Young Master of the Count’s Manor,
who had began to demonstrate clear signs of naughtiness and disobedience despite
his young age, would display the kind of self-discipline and assiduity only
shown from grown-ups when it came to certain things: for example, taking naps.
For anyone who had
a normal childhood, it would probably be difficult to forget in the old days how
great battles were fought against those big devils who forced them to take naps
in the beautiful and enchanting sunshine of the early afternoon.
Among those
devils, some were called Dads, others were called Moms, and some were even
called Teachers.
Young Master Fan
Xian never exhibited the need for anyone to force him into a nap. Every day by
noon, he would put on the most lovely and innocent smile and submissively go
back to his bedroom to take a nap. He
also wouldn’t make any noise during the nap.
At first the Old
Madam had great doubts, and even assigned servant girls to monitor the kid,
thinking he was just pretending to be taking a nap and would make some kind of
trouble in bed instead. For the next half a year, their close monitoring only
revealed that the kid was truly sleeping very soundly. So soundly that it
proved to be quite difficult to wake him up.
Ever since then,
the servant girls never paid more attention, and only kept their watch outside
while the Young Master took his naps.
It was the summer
time. Naturally, the servant girls were quite weary. Leaning slightly, they
swayed the fans in their hands occasionally, as small flying insects danced
swiftly in the breeze.
……
……
After returning to
the bedroom, Fan Xian climbed into bed. Lifting up the bamboo matting on top,
he gingerly pulled out a book from the secret casing he hollowed out himself.
The cover of the
book appeared slightly yellowish, as though it was quite aged. There was
nothing on the cover, not a single character, other than a few silk fabric
patterns embroidered onto the edge and the corners. It was unclear whether
these patterns really meant anything, except that the end stroke of each
pattern curled up, like clouds flowing in the wind or the large and loose
sleeve corner of ancient robes.
He opened the book
gently and turned to page seven. It was the drawing of a naked male figure
whose body was covered by some vaguely seen red lines. Whatever paint was used
to draw these lines, it must have been special, because it seemed to have
created this visual illusion that the lines were slowly flowing toward a
certain direction.
Fan Shen
heaved a sigh. With the look of a mere four-year-old, he dared not reveal his
true self. Luckily he had this book to help him kill some of the boring time.
The book had been
left for him by that blind youngster named Five-Bamboo, when he was still an infant.
Fan Shen always remembered that blind
youngster, the servant of his mother in this world.
Many years back when he had found himself
trapped inside the infant’s body, the youngster held him in his arms. During
the journey all the way from the Capital City to this port by the sea, the
blind youngster probably thought that he wouldn’t remember anything for his
young age, however, the soul of Fan Shen was not that of an ignorant infant.
Along the journey, he could clearly sense the sincere consideration for the
little baby coming directly from the blind youngster’s heart. There was no
pretending.
For whatever reason, the blind youngster
left right away as soon as he escorted the baby to the Manor of the Count of
Southernland, despite the Old Madam’s strong urging for him to stay. Before his
departure, he had placed the book right next to the little baby.
This had troubled Fan Shen for quite a
while. Shouldn’t this servant be worried about the possibility of him starting
to practice things out of the book blindly? But soon he thought of the answer.
Being a young kid, there was no way for him to recognize the writings in the
book. Then of course such a problem wouldn’t have existed.
Fan Shen happened to know the characters of
this world, and after such a dramatic reincarnation, he’d have no problem
believing in things such as ghosts or celestial beings. He had no doubt that
this book, which looked very much like a prop in a Hong Kong TVB TV series,
contained the secret methods of developing some sort of inner energy.
Too bad the book didn’t have a name.
Otherwise, he could have asked those kids on the street about it and find out whether
this type of inner energy was any good.
Fan Shen couldn’t help but giggle when he
reflected on these thoughts. Since God gave him the opportunity of a second
life, he’d better cherish it. A manuscript for inner energy was something great
that he didn’t have in his own world. Even if this nameless manuscript was no
good, it didn’t stop him from practicing it ever since he was one year old.
One can’t really
start any earlier than that unless someone starts training as a fetus still
inside their mother’s womb.
There was
absolutely no one else in this world, including those few Supreme Grand
Masters who were pretty much regarded as deity beings by the common people, no
matter what kind of geniuses they were, who could have started developing inner
energy almost right after birth like Fan Shen did.
“How do you call
this? This is called the early bird gets the worm. It’s also called the slow walker
needs a head start. Besides, I am no dumber than those who are just starting
their training,” Fan Shen thought to himself.
He could already
feel a stream of inner energy slowly circulating around his body following the
lines shown in the book. That was a very relaxing feeling, as though a warm
stream of water was rinsing every inch of his inner organs.
Gradually, his mind
went into a trance, and soon he fell asleep comfortably in bed.
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