Chapter 1: Has No Mercy
Cold wind whipped about like blades, and snow flew around, falling to the ground.
Lu Sheng opened his eyes and found himself seated in a dull-yellow horse carriage, which shook left and right. He could hear a young girl speak in a soft and gentle voice beside him.
Outside the carriage was a sea of buzz and commotion. Hawkers were trying to sell their goods, people were yelling and others exclaiming. Children were making a din.
Lu Sheng heaved a deep sigh.
He knew he could no longer go back. He was originally a seasoned player in a state-owned enterprise. However, he'd gotten drunk, and when he woke up from his stupor, he found himself in this present world.
It had been five days since then.
He sniffed at the air, smelling a wafting aroma of wine, mixed with the fragrance of pies and fried nuts.
"Sigh… The Osmanthus Winery's white osmanthus wine is getting more and more fragrant," the personal servant girl in the carriage, Little Qiao, whispered in a childish voice.
Little Qiao was only twelve this year, but with her natural dollish features and petite figure, she looked no different from a ten-year-old.
Her small, chubby face carried a natural blush. She donned a small green cotton skirt and her hands were now rubbing a hair tie she was preparing to tie up Lu Sheng's hair with when they alighted.
This kind of hair tie was made of the expensive bark of a species of rubber tree which emanated a light fragrance. The only bad thing about it was that it stiffened when the weather got cold and needed to be warmed and softened by rubbing it with warm hands.
Lu Sheng laughed and kept silent. Meanwhile, the carriage quickly came to a stop.
He pulled back the carriage's veil and alighted, stepping onto the greyish white street covered with bluestone tiles, each as big as a face basin.
On the street, carriages and horses led by people travelled in either direction. Hawkers chatted with ladies who were out on a stroll, and wives appeared in public and laughed without care or restraint, peals of laughter resounding incessantly on the street.
Lu Sheng raised his head and saw the winery ahead. On a white rectangular signboard, three giant words danced – The Osmanthus Winery.
"Young Master Lu, you're here! Come in, please! Room A has been reserved for you!" A servant greeted them with a welcoming smile.
Lu Sheng nodded. From Little Qiao's hands, he received a silver-bordered white paper fan and shook it open like a rich young master. A scenery of mountains and a river intertwined with each other was painted onto the fan, and a poem had been written on the side. It was clearly the work of a great literati.
He followed the servant into the familiar winery.
It was divided into two stories. The hall on the first story was presently filled with many of those who were listening to song performances.
A young lady dressed in green stood in the middle of the empty space, her clear voice twisting and turning melodiously. Beside her, a middle-aged woman was playing a lute.
The song being performed was called Three Meetings, a tragic love story about a general on a mission of conquest and a fox lady in the mountain wilderness.
But it was a shame that those present were a boorish bunch, and only few somewhat cultured ones among them were barely able to understand the song. The rest of them treated the two ladies like thin air.
Those who tipped were even fewer.
Lu Sheng paused. Seeing how lively it was, he sat down on an empty seat on the first story.
"Who picked Three Meetings?" He asked the servant casually.
He held an uncommon status here in The Osmanthus Winery. Had it been an upscale place of entertainment on Earth, he would have been a VVIP guest: a patron whose annual spending was at least in five digits.
In a small northern city like this Nine Links City, such spending was enough to make one a VVIP customer.
"It's Young Master Zhou. Young Master Zhou Que," the servant replied softly.
Not intending to make things difficult for him, Lu Sheng dismissed him with a wave of his hand.
After pulling Little Qiao down onto a seat, his gaze swept the crowd on the first story and quickly landed on a pale and frail gentleman clad in white robes. He was fanning himself lightly with an ugly gold fan he held in his hand.
"I bet he's targeting that young girl who's singing," Lu Sheng shook his head.
"Young Master just warned him last time. That lad's really a rotten egg!" Little Qiao pouted angrily. [1]
Lu Sheng smiled and no longer said anything. He started listening to the song quietly.
Dishes soon filled the top of the mahogany table. Lu Sheng grabbed some stir-fried meat slices with lettuce and started eating.
He also drank a mouthful of white osmanthus wine, drinking it as if it were a normal beverage. The faint and sweet floral fragrance mixed up in it made it taste like fruit juice.
'Food and clothing fit for royalty, without any lack or want, and I've even got a pretty servant girl to warm my bed… this lifestyle is way too decadent,' sometimes, Lu Sheng would think about simply living the rest of his life this way. The pursuit of his previous life was to eat, drink and laze around anyway.
He ate another mouthful of dishes, and drank another mouthful of wine. Then, he opened his mouth so Little Qiao could put in a salted ice prawn she had just shelled.
Those ice prawns were the local specialty of this snowy northern city. Just a casual scoop in a thick ice hole would draw up a large amount of translucent prawns.
Those were ice prawns.
They were half the length of a normal prawn but were a fresh delicacy. The meat melted instantly in one's mouth, serving up an indescribable gastronomic pleasure.
Of course, it was extremely pricey.
It was already considered extravagant for an average person to eat it once a month. Who could enjoy it during every meal like him?
Lu Sheng enjoyed the delicacies and wine before him while listening to the song, but his mind was elsewhere.
He had already arrived in this ancient China-like world for so many days. Yet, according to his observations, this world was riddled with many strange happenings.