1976, the beginning of autumn.
In the road-construction section of Dongxi Lake mountain region, Hanshi City, Hubei Province, an oil-braided female comrade was passionately propagating labor slogans.
She wore a half-worn Leninist-style double-breasted autumn coat, with a red ribbon tied to the megaphone in her hand:
“Take up positions in the countryside and accept re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants, go up the mountains and down to the countryside to build a new socialist rural area!”
“Grasp revolution, promote production, promote work, promote preparedness!”
“…”
In the labor squad of hundreds in the mountain range, the diligent hoes and shovels gave off clanging sounds that drowned out the gunshots coming from far away.
Only the startled birds from the distant mountains circled above this area.
A moment later, three or four suspicious figures gathered behind a concrete pile after searching around.
The short man spoke in an angry tone: “It took so much effort, yet we let that surnamed Gu escape! How many people were we down, you bunch of fools!”
They had set an inescapable net, thinking they could capture alive that young general who was specially cultivated, and pry open his mouth to learn certain secrets. Yet the prey fought back viciously and killed them, which they had not expected.
The mastermind behind it was furious and wanted to eliminate the other side at all costs, but Gu Wenshan seemed to have grown wings and disappeared into the continuous mountains.
“I asked around, and no one has seen such a man,” the bowlegged man who spoke said anxiously. “Let’s withdraw quickly.”
Gu Wenshan was not only capable but also had outstanding beauty. Wherever he went, he became famous and left a lasting impression. They had asked around among the laborers in the village, and they said they had not seen him, which meant he definitely had not appeared.
“He must have gone into the mountain, with such serious wounds he cannot possibly survive in the mountain.”
“We cannot give him any chance, otherwise we will all be uprooted!”
“I guarantee I hit his vital points. Within a few days we will definitely receive news of his death. This operation was too big, if we don’t leave now it will be too late.”
The short man looked up at the misty mountains, and the dull air hinted at an approaching heavy rain. “…Withdraw.”
Xiangzhi Mountain was two li south of the road-construction section, which was the direction the short man’s gaze had swept across. He did not notice that on the stone steps beside the mountain waist of Xiangzhi Mountain, there was a pool of bright red blood.
Gu Wenshan had simply bandaged the bullet wound on his chest, and years of frontier guerrilla warfare had given him excellent survival instincts.
He walked upstream along the mountain stream, his nose faintly detecting a sweet fragrance in the air. He left a mark and then leaned against a thick dried pine tree to catch his breath.
His sturdy and powerful legs supported his blood-soaked upper body, his handsome face covered in mud and blood, his narrow phoenix eyes revealing his unwillingness.
Finally he had drawn out the big fish [1]big fish (da lao hu, 大老虎) Metaphor, slang for a powerful, high-ranking wrongdoer (a corrupt “big shot” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3244983_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3244983_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });) hidden in the organization, if his life ended here, then the fallen comrades would never be able to rest. If he too went down to the yellow springs [2]the yellow springs (huang quan, 黃泉) Metaphor, the Chinese underworld / land of the dead — i.e., dying jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3244983_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3244983_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); today, he would have no face to meet them.
Gu Wenshan’s vision blurred, blood churning in his body, he wiped away the blood flowing into his eye sockets and looked up at the rolling dark clouds.
The black oppressive clouds hung low, as if coming to seize him, half-dead in the deep mountains and old forests, with fierce wind and terrifying rain ready to strike.
He could barely hold on.
Gu Wenshan’s eyes gradually darkened, and excessive blood loss caused his body to lose temperature. In the wild and lush shaking of the tree leaves, he smelled that wisp of delicate fragrance again.
The tangled tree roots under his feet made him stumble, as if by divine intervention, he corrected his steps and walked toward where the fragrance was coming from, with his hand on the gun at his waist.
Gu Wenshan had once served as a military representative and traveled across the length and breadth of great rivers and mountains, left his mark in the Soviet area, yet had never seen such a strange sight as what lay before his eyes.
One step away was wild wind and sudden rain, broken leaves falling. Yet before his eyes lay mountains and valleys full of fresh flowers, blooming peacefully, swaying with petals of five colors, as if they were a mirage deliberately appearing before his dying moments to confuse his mind.
He waded through the flower sea, and at one glance he caught sight of a spotless white among the variegated colors.
Just then, four or five armed enemies suddenly appeared behind him. They wanted to encircle him, yet they did not expect that the strong-willed man at the end of his rope had his aura fully released, and he pulled the trigger against their assault.
Startling blood flowers bloomed continuously, frightening all the flowers in the mountains and valleys to tremble in fear, rustling as they moved wildly.
Among them, that spot of white silently curled up its petals and restrained its fragrance, fearing the suddenly appearing dangerous man would hurt her. Even if he had a stunning handsome face.
Yet just as the man finished dealing with several enemy spies, he suddenly raised his eyes and looked toward Xiangzhi’s direction. The dangerous scrutinizing gaze made Xiangzhi shudder with fright, and in her panic the gardenia petals filled with her fragrance carelessly opened.
Gu Wenshan stepped over the fallen corpses, steadied himself against the trunk of a wild cherry blossom tree, and coughed violently. The torn wound on his chest flowed down to his waist, then down his pant leg to soak into the ground, leaving each step he took marked with scarlet.
He wanted to cross the flower valley to reach Route 117, and when he struggled to walk to the gardenia flower cluster, he inexplicably lowered his head and looked at the white, warm jade-like gardenia flower.
This lowering of the head made his dazed mind unable to lift again, his heavy body collapsed onto the delicate flower branches, fainting over the fragrant blooms.
The message had not yet been sent out…
This was his only thought before near death.
…
It hurts so much.
Xiangzhi, the gardenia flower spirit who was pressed down under Gu Wenshan’s body, carefully tried to pull back her flower branches in the heavy smell of blood.
Yet Gu Wenshan, a man on the verge of death, had a naturally tall build that made him even heavier, pressing down on Xiangzhi until she could not bear it.
The wild cherry blossom in the distance knew that Xiangzhi was a bully within her own circle [3]a bully within her own circle (wo li heng, 窩裏橫) Slang, someone tough only among their own kind/family but timid facing real outside threats jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3244983_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3244983_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, but when she truly faced a person filled with murderous aura, she likely showed some cowardice. It looked down at the corpses sprawled all over the ground, took a heavy breath, then “spat spat spat.”
Xiangzhi was on the verge of tears, she was indeed a bully within her own circle. She often quarreled with her many sisters across the mountains, with a sharp-tongued and willful temperament. Yet facing this living King of Hell radiating “not to be trifled with” aura, ah, perhaps soon to be a dead King of Hell, she was still somewhat intimidated.
Since the wild cherry blossom would not help her, the red fruit ten meters away curiously rustled its leaves, saw clearly the face of the person lying on the ground, and said with a start: “Hey, this person has really good bone structure, he is the most handsome man I have ever seen.”
Xiangzhi, pressed down and unable to breathe, felt the man’s heavy breathing from the pain, all his breath fell on Xiangzhi’s white petals, making her both tingly and numb.
“Being handsome is no use when he’s about to die, quick, help me move him away.”
“I, I can’t help.” The red fruit stared dumbly at Xiangzhi, and gradually the fruit became even more red.
Xiangzhi felt her delicate branches about to break, and then heard the wild cherry blossom say: “You are young and don’t understand this. A handsome man means he is delicious, far better than these ugly things beneath my feet.”
Xiangzhi did not know how old she was. In any case, in her faint memories, every day was simply absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth, accumulating drops of “dew” for materialization, hoping to become human one day.
As for what she would do after becoming human? She was actually not clear on that.
Xiangzhi spread out her emerald leaves, which glowed with translucent jade green under the soft light. She gently touched the man’s face.
She did not have the wild cherry blossom’s power to discern a man’s handsomeness or ugliness, she only felt that the other party was the same as all humans, merely two eyes and a mouth. Whether beautiful or ugly had nothing to do with her, for in her understanding she herself was the most beautiful and fragrant!
Xiangzhi tried hard to make him wake up, yet no matter how hard she tried, the man would not wake. The blood soaking his chest fell onto her root-pile, disappearing into the soil almost instantly.
The smell of blood made the little flower spirit, who had never been stained with life before, tremble from root to tip.
The wild cherry blossom was envious, for spirits like them, the consequences of actively eating people and passively eating people were completely different. And people were different from people too.
It could tell that this man was not an ordinary person, he was a one-in-a-million extraordinary person. Ah, eating him would be a great tonic.
Xiangzhi waited another two days, and the man still had not woken up. His precarious body temperature grew increasingly cold. If the other party died on her, what would she do about a rotten root and stinking flowers?
“Don’t you have ‘dew’? Feed it to him, and once he wakes up he can leave,” the red fruit said quietly. “At worst, I can help you condense it for another few years.”
One drop of flower dew condensed over five years, this was her last drop of dew, and if she ate it, she could quickly transform into human form.
Yet if she did not save him, then in the future… she would have no future, and her main branch was on the verge of breaking!
Xiangzhi thought about it more and felt more wronged, she pressed her small flower branch against his wound, and after thinking it over, still felt that she had suffered a tremendous loss.
*
Gu Wenshan did not know that the little flower spirit had suffered a loss.
He opened his eyes in deep sleep, able to clearly sense that he was in a hazy dream. The sound of wild wind and sudden rain was far from him, he discovered he was lying in a verdant bed, and a beautiful, pale hand was pushing aside the bed curtain.
The young woman’s breathing was soft and fine, her palm-sized small face had beautiful eyes that glowed, and it seemed he could smell the tender fragrance on her body.
She bent down, her neck and shoulders entering his line of sight. The bed curtain swayed, and everything before his eyes was hazy yet real.
The woman’s face was right here, yet he felt it was blurry. Slender jade fingers hooked under his chin, caressing his lips.
Gu Wenshan’s breathing suddenly deepened, the wind discipline button pressed against his throat strangled him with pain. He kept swallowing the flower dew passing through his mouth, the honey-sweet sensation stimulating his numb taste buds, his nose was filled with a familiar yet strange fragrance, and the pain in his body faded away like the receding tide.
He reached out and grasped the woman’s hand, wanting to see her face clearly, yet in the contact with delicate skin, he fell asleep once more.
“Regiment Commander Gu is here!”
Gu Wenshan’s comrades and adjutants had searched continuously for two weeks, with their lives on the line, they would either bring back the living or the dead. After their expectations fell through again and again, they finally discovered blood traces not yet washed away by the heavy rain.
Gu Wenshan was deaf to the noise outside, he propped up his stiff body and lowered his head to check the wound on his chest.
It had healed?
“Hiss,” he sucked in a breath of cold air, raised his hand and discovered it had been pricked by some unnamed plant. Looking around again, he realized he was lying collapsed on a delicate, easily breakable gardenia flower.
The sweet, intense fragrance still lingered in his nose, he was not a man who loved beauty, yet he could not help but tread lightly and straighten up the crushed gardenia flower.
When his soldiers found him, he raised his hand to block any possible trampling of the flowers, and said lightly: “I’m fine.”
How could that be?
The soldiers looked at each other.
They were equipped with weapons and ammunition, and with the worst possibility in mind they saw their unmarked Regiment Commander Gu.
Before leaving, Gu Wenshan bent down to caress the gardenia flower petals, and also sniffed the tender fragrance of the flower.
That frivolous self in the dream made Gu Wenshan furrow his handsome brows and retreat a few steps. He shook his head with an amused smile, thinking it was a mirage before death.
Yet it felt so real.
Gu Wenshan tenderly touched the gardenia flower petals once more, and finally, urged on by the soldiers, left the flower valley.
He actually harassed a flower!
Xiangzhi finally had him leave, and not only had she paid out her dew, she was also angered to trembling by his presumptuous actions!
“He, he actually touched your petals! Beast, beast!” The red fruit kept chewing over this phrase, not knowing it was adding insult to injury.
Xiangzhi had hoped the red fruit and wild cherry blossom would pretend not to see the man’s sexual harassment, but the red fruit’s shouting was too loud, stirring up all the flowers across the mountains and valleys to shake their bodies in anger: “Good deeds go unrewarded.”
“Humans are shameless.”
“You lecher!”
Xiangzhi was humiliated to the point of despair, which left her with no face to live. The wild cherry blossom added fuel to the fire, and an enraged Xiangzhi retorted: “It’s easy to talk when it’s not your own back that hurts [4]it’s easy to talk when it’s not your own back that hurts (zhan zhe shuo hua bu yao teng, 站着說話不腰疼) Idiom, it’s easy to criticize or offer advice when you’re not … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3244983_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3244983_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, it is I who was bullied by humans.”
The wild cherry blossom said coolly: “Then go find him, we are spirits, and according to our rules, anyone who wrongs us must be eaten. What’s more, he is also an ungrateful man. He sexually harassed you, and if you are willing to endure it, then we will pretend we did not see it.”
This would not do.
Xiangzhi was a presentable flower, a flower with face to maintain. She looked shamefaced as she waved her leaves and deflected: “Fine, once I transform into human form I will go find him.”
The wild cherry blossom let out a cold snort, that would be who knows when.
Just as the words fell, something strange happened.
Xiangzhi’s roots absorbed the man’s blood and gradually underwent a change. Caught off guard, the Xiangzhi who had just set a flag [5]set a flag (li xia Flag, 立下Flag) Slang, modern internet slang for making a confident declaration that fate immediately undercuts, i.e. jinxing oneself jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3244983_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3244983_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); actually transformed prematurely into the form of a human girl, standing foolishly in the flower valley sprawling across the mountains and plains…
So embarrassing.
“Eat or not eat?” The wild cherry blossom laughed heartily, looking at her slender and rounded curves and taunting: “It seems you really want to eat him, right?”
Recalling the man’s intimidating presence and the heavy bloody smell covering his entire body, even killing his own kind, so terrifying.
Xiangzhi said timidly: “Yes, yes, I will go eat him right away.”
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