To his surprise, the women rolled their eyes and drifted away. Li Jinglong called after them, “What? Is there something wrong with her?”
“Something’s wrong with you,” one of the women said with a laugh. “There are so many women here—how would we know which one is Xiangyu?”
Hongjun laughed; the ladies had a point. It was rare for someone to get the better of Li Jinglong. He had no choice but to continue down the street with Hongjun, hunting for their quarry.
“Look, the ladies here are all quite picky,” Li Jinglong said to Hongjun. “Be careful not to stare and don’t appear overly curious. Just act like you’re strolling down a normal street.”
“All right,” Hongjun said reluctantly.
They tried their best to act like locals, resisting the urge to gawp. As they passed a plump foreign merchant’s stall, the owner yelled, “Ha!”
Hongjun jumped in fright, and the man laughed so hard his flabby flesh jiggled. Several foreign women with heavy makeup on their faces and bells around their ankles sauntered over, jingling, and yanked Li Jinglong and Hongjun away. Li Jinglong hastily waved them off, pushing a girl’s wrist down to free himself.
As they walked on, Hongjun glanced at the Han-style buildings on the left side of the street. At the sound of a sharp whistle, he looked to the right to see a tall, leanly built foreigner, naked from the waist up and flushed in the face. Something about him immediately reminded Hongjun of Mergen.
The man waved at him, beckoning him over. While Li Jinglong asked some new passersby for information, Hongjun stepped closer. “I’m looking for someone—”
“Are you Han?” the man asked, leading Hongjun into a tent.
When Hongjun nodded, the man said, “I’m Shiwei.”
So that’s why he reminds me of Mergen. Hongjun was about to ask more when the man said, “I noticed you a while ago. Who’s the guy with you?”
“He’s my lover.”
“Oh? Shall we ask him to join us?” The man yanked his belt free, and his loose white pants slid to the floor. “Pay me however much you want, Gege will show you a good time…”
He pulled Hongjun roughly into his arms and moved in to kiss him.
Li Jinglong was asking around in front of the tent when Hongjun ran out screaming. Before he could figure out what had happened, a Shiwei man strolled out after him, his erection on full display.
“It won’t hurt,” the Shiwei man said with a grin, flicking his proud member in a gesture that said, See?
“Did he touch you?” Li Jinglong asked.
“No! I just misunderstood…”
The Shiwei man looked at the pair of them. “How about a threesome?”
“So tiny, yet you’re trying to make money off it,” Li Jinglong said, letting his gaze drift down. “I’ll pass—I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”
The man gaped at him.
Hongjun laughed so hard he almost fell over. He grabbed Li Jinglong’s hand and made a break for it, dragging Li Jinglong behind him.
“Head toward the end of the street,” Li Jinglong said. “Apparently there’s a tavern halfway down where information is traded. We can ask around there.”
Hongjun heard yet another whistle. This time, he looked over to see a young Semu man, his naked body slicked with oil. A gold ring gleamed around the base of his cock. He beckoned to Hongjun. “Are you coming?”
Hongjun pretended to be deaf. Why are they all going for me? Go after Li Jinglong instead!
“No,” Li Jinglong said, pitching his voice higher. “We’re eunuchs, so we can’t come.”
Once again, Li Jinglong had rendered a man speechless.
Hongjun found Li Jinglong hilarious when he ran his mouth. As they crossed an intersection, more people whistled at them, the trills rising and falling in waves. Hongjun kept his eyes on the road, too embarrassed to look up.
“Hey there, handsome lads!” another young man called. “Come on in!”
Li Jinglong pulled Hongjun to his left side, offering the young man a smile as they sped past. The moment Hongjun turned, someone whistled at him again. This time, it was a Tokharian man who spoke to him in elegant Persian. Hongjun recognized the lyrics from a poem he’d heard A-Tai sing before. Written by a woman confined to her boudoir, the words meant: O beautiful young man, won’t you come to my window?
Li Jinglong yanked Hongjun back to his right side. The whistling at last died down as they exited the area where the foreign male prostitutes plied their trade. The lilting trills of the men were replaced with the crisp jingling of bells from the foreign women leaning against their tents, lightly shaking their wrists at anyone passing by. In the Han buildings on the other side, girls in resplendent gowns glanced lazily toward the street, waving stiff round fans.
“Why are they all so interested in you?” Li Jinglong asked.
Hongjun laughed, his cheeks slightly pink. “You’re right; they don’t seem quite as taken with you.”
Li Jinglong gave Hongjun a look. After a moment, he said, “Don’t you think—”
He suddenly stopped, frowning as if deep in thought. Hongjun arched a brow. “What is it?”
“This fragrance.”
Now that he’d mentioned it, Hongjun smelled it too; it was the same as the faint scent they’d picked up on Wen Bin. It had been obscured until now by the thick aroma of foreign spices, only gradually becoming apparent here in the center of the Galaxy.
“I’ll go take a look,” Li Jinglong said. “You wait here.”
Restaurants and taverns occupied the middle of the long street of the Galaxy, crowded alongside several nondescript shops that sold aphrodisiacs. No one solicited customers here. While Li Jinglong stepped into the first of the restaurants in search of information, Hongjun sniffed the air, trying to pin down the source of the smell.
Another whistle sounded nearby, and he turned to see a man on the second floor of a nearby building, wearing a thin robe that exposed his chest. A sword was sheathed at his waist. Setting a foot on the railing, the man drunkenly studied Hongjun, who grew nervous again under his gaze.
“You come here alone?” he asked.
Hongjun took a few steps back and looked up at the man in silence.
“You’re pretty,” the man murmured. His gaze was strangely tender. “Do you drink? Come up for some wine, my young friend.”
Hongjun could tell at a glance this man was versed in martial arts. His figure, with his leanly muscled chest and abdomen, resembled Lu Xu’s but on a larger frame. A jar of wine dangled from his right hand, and he shook it at Hongjun, gesturing for him to come up for a drink.
Considering this man had called him friend, Hongjun didn’t think he was trying to solicit him. He carried a sword and seemed like a traveler of the jianghu, so after a moment’s thought, Hongjun willingly went upstairs.
“Do you have money?” the man asked Hongjun. “Help me pay for the wine.”
Now Hongjun saw why he’d been invited: The man had run out of money to drink. He took out some silver and called for the waiter to bring more wine. The man—whose unshaven jaw only added to his slovenly air—said his thanks once the wine was served, though Hongjun wasn’t sure whether he was thanking him or the waiter.
After a few mouthfuls, the man asked, “Why aren’t you out there enjoying yourself?”
“I’m looking for someone,” Hongjun said. “Sir, what’s your name?”
“My name?” The drunk man chuckled. “If I say it, you’ll get a real shock.”
Hongjun laughed with him. “Tell me, and we’ll see.”
The man leaned lopsidedly against the table, almost falling out of his seat. “Who are you looking for? The Galaxy is made up of thousands of stars; how can you tell them apart?”
“I’m looking for a girl named Xiangyu,” Hongjun said. “Have you seen her around?”
“Xiangyu, eh…?” The man trailed off. “I’ve seen her, but I’ve never slept with her. Get some more wine for me, thanks.”
Hongjun noticed how quickly he was drinking and said, “If you keep going like that, your bladder’s going to burst.”
“You’re right. Hand me that chamber pot over there.”
Speechless, Hongjun obliged.
The man, sitting cross-legged on his chair in nothing but a dark-blue bathrobe, pushed the hem aside without an ounce of shame and urinated into the chamber pot he was holding.
Back in Chang’an, Hongjun had seen quite a few people drink themselves unconscious—not to mention the drunks who made a ruckus on the streets until they were arrested—so the sight wasn’t so bizarre to him. “Where did you see Xiangyu?”
“Over that way…” The man pointed eastward with an unsteady finger, then said, “Wait, I got it wrong. The other side…”
“I’ll buy two more jars of wine if you take me there now.”
“Deal!”
Hongjun led his new acquaintance downstairs and waited for Li Jinglong outside the tavern. The drunk slung an arm around Hongjun’s shoulders and sagged into him. This man was overly friendly, perhaps, but Hongjun didn’t sense any sexual undertones. He wasn’t afraid Li Jinglong would be jealous; everyone in the Department of Exorcism treated each other with the same level of familiarity. It was fine as long as there were no ulterior motives.
After asking around at all the nearby restaurants, Li Jinglong returned. Upon seeing a strange man hanging off Hongjun, he barked out, “Hey, let him go! Who are you?!”
The man looked up from behind his disheveled curtain of hair, his gaze unfocused as he squinted at Li Jinglong’s face.
Stunned, Li Jinglong exclaimed, “Taibai-xiong?!”
The man hummed as he set his palms on Hongjun’s shoulders and pushed him toward Li Jinglong. “Xiao-Long…? Hm… You two know each other? Now there’s a coincidence.”
Hongjun stared at the man. Li Jinglong’s voice seemed to fade away as he said something that sounded like, “Let me introduce you. Hongjun, this is Li Bai…”
At that moment, Hongjun’s world came crashing down.