Twin Lotuses

Every tree had roots, and every stream had a source.

The corpse worker at the Cui Family Mill naturally had a source as well. The only question was whether it had been made by someone from the Yin Sect or by a fellow Corpse Driver.

Smelling that familiar scent, Xu Qing reckoned that the other party could not have settled down too far away. They might even be inside Cuiyun Tower.

With the thought that each should mind their own business, he had no intention of investigating the source of that incense-like smell.

Gathering his thoughts, he arrived at the embroidered-tower private room. Xu Qing sat by the window. Before him hung a red Shu brocade curtain. Once he pushed it aside and hooked it up with the silver clasp, he could see the lively scene beneath the winding corridors.

The main hall of Cuiyun Tower covered a rather large area. Some guests who had come to drink tea and seek amusement sat at the tea tables below, watching the young women sing and dance seductively on the stage.

Upstairs were incense burners and warm bedcurtains, with their own beautiful women in splendid attire to keep them company.

Hearing faint footsteps, Xu Qing lowered the curtain and turned to look at the screen painted with lotus blossoms.

The tower he had booked had an elegant name: Twin Lotuses.

It was called that because the flower house's star attractions were not one person but a pair of twin sisters who performed together.

At that moment, the two sisters stepped gracefully out of the room.

Xu Qing took a glance. One wore a purple short jacket and silk skirt, her figure alluring. The other wore a pink jacket and white skirt, her features delicate and charming.

"What are your names?"

"I'm Zixi." "And I'm Qiaorui."

When Xu Qing had originally selected their nameplate, he had felt that the tower's name looked familiar. Now that he saw the two girls before him and heard their names—

Wasn't this the place the county magistrate's daughter, the one blessed with the sacred physique for grinding tofu, often visited?

Tsk. Cuiyun Tower really did embrace everything under heaven.

Xu Qing's spirits lifted. He began asking the twin flowers what special talents they possessed and what arts they were skilled in.

The broad-minded Zixi smiled seductively. Swaying her slender waist, she handed over an illustrated program booklet.

After pouring himself a cup of tea, its fragrant steam mingling with waves of perfume, Xu Qing chose the must-order performances at Twin Lotuses from among the many services: Twin Sisters Play with the Lotus and Spring Boudoir's Lament.

He quietly watched the first performance to the end, only to discover that it was essentially a routine of Two Phoenixes Crying Out and Playing with the Jade Bell.

The second performance was a song. It told of two young ladies in their boudoirs, consumed by yearning and spring desire, who often played music together in perfect harmony. Naturally, as they sang and played their instruments, there were also segments in which the women shared and eased one another's feelings, relieving the restlessness in their hearts.

"Dripping fire, incense candles falling, powdery faces, brows lightly creased, half-drunk.

Suppress the restlessness, loosen the jade silk, gaze down at a hundred birds grown haggard.

The tide gathers, the tide ebbs, beneath the moonlit night, sweetly sleeping in the cage."

Even Xu Qing, whose experience in his previous life had been broad, could not help sighing at how little he knew.

With singing like that and figures like theirs, calling it art would not have been an exaggeration.

When the intermission arrived, Xu Qing tapped his teacup and asked Big Teapot to bring over some more candles.

Through the curtain, Big Teapot could not see what was happening inside. He could only wonder inwardly, Why are these candles burning up so quickly today?

After hesitating for a moment, he still could not resist offering a reminder:

"Sir, please take it easy. Don't wear our girls out. If you burn them, you'll have to pay compensation."

At daybreak, Xu Qing, his experience once again elevated, walked out of Cuiyun Tower.

During the night, he had used the imperial secret technique, Thirteen Methods of Chastity Discrimination, to inspect many of the girls who had shown themselves. Unfortunately, the twin flowers of Twin Lotuses were not untouched blossoms. Even the flower queen of the First Pavilion's Jinluan Lodge, who claimed to sell her art but not her body, already showed signs of having lost her virtue.

But when he thought about it, he became resigned. In a place of smoke and willows like this, how could there be any truly chaste girls?

Even if there were, they would be as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns—a rarity one might not encounter after visiting a thousand brothels.

After leaving Changdeng Street, Xu Qing walked through the marketplace as though nothing had happened.

At the breakfast stall, a group of diners were discussing the fire at the Cui Family Mill the previous night.

"I heard dozens of people died. I wonder if that's true?"

"Don't talk nonsense. The manager already came out to clarify it. Dozens of donkeys and mules died, not people!"

The speaker was careless, but the listener took it to heart.

Xu Qing was puzzled. He had personally seen people from the Patrol Office heading toward the mill earlier. The Cui Family Mill's use of walking corpses in place of donkeys and mules surely could not remain hidden.

Yet why did it seem as though the matter had not been exposed at all?

Arriving at a food stall, Xu Qing ordered a bowl of steaming duck-blood soup, its surface sprinkled with scallions and cilantro. It smelled fairly decent.

He sat at the stall and continued listening to the diners' discussion.

Unfortunately, everything they said afterward was trivial gossip and sordid nonsense. Not one thing could stir Xu Qing's emotions.

When he had performed rites for corpses and read through their lives, he had seen matters both great and small far more interesting than anything known by ordinary townsfolk. His palate had long since become too refined. These half-baked greenhorns were nowhere near enough to satisfy his appetite.

Listening to the neighborhood gossip, Xu Qing blew away the froth floating on his duck-blood soup. Just as he was preparing to taste it, a handspan-wide, three-foot-three-inch-long Guangzhong Treasure Blade suddenly slapped down on the table before him.

"Old Zhang, count the heads. One bowl of mutton-offal soup and two flatbreads per person. Add plenty of scallions!"

Zhao Zhonghe plunked himself down opposite Xu Qing. Separated by the long table, their gazes met.

At that moment, Zhao Zhonghe reeked of smoke and scorching heat. On closer inspection, there even seemed to be the smell of roasted flesh.

Looking at the broad hand with its thick knuckles and the charcoal-black stains covering its back, it was obvious he had just come from the fire scene and had not yet had time to wash himself.

"What are you staring at?"

Zhao Zhonghe was already in a foul mood. He glared at Xu Qing, and when he saw the other man lower his head and silently drink his soup, he spat and repeated the words he had spoken when they first met—

"Girly as a woman, smelling of face powder. Bah!"

"."

Xu Qing stopped drinking his soup and slowly raised his head to look at him.

He had the Mute Dog Curse on him and had sprinkled himself with powder that concealed the scent of a zombie. It was true that he carried a fragrance resembling face powder, but what the hell did that have to do with you?

When Zhao Zhonghe saw him look over, he snorted roughly. It was unclear where he got such a huge temper.

The two of them had disliked each other from the very beginning, and Xu Qing was unhappy now as well.

Fine, you've picked on me time and again, and I tolerated it. You flaunt my Dream Lover's Staff around town every day, and I tolerated that too. But you could just eat your mutton-offal soup in peace. Why the hell are you picking every piece of cilantro out of your bowl?

This, I won't tolerate!

Xu Qing deliberately looked for a flaw and found an excuse. Then he rose and went to settle the bill with the stall owner.

"How much?"

"Eight copper coins."

"Here's twenty. Keep the change."

After taking out a string of copper coins, Xu Qing used Stealthy Theft and Sun-Stealing to quietly swipe the thin, cloth-wrapped stick the stall owner used to clean chimneys as he left.

When he passed by Zhao Zhonghe, he repeated the trick, pulling off a switcheroo and exchanging the chimney-cleaning stick for the Dog Beating Staff he had discarded.

Then he swaggered away.

After Zhao Zhonghe finished his bowl of mutton soup and was preparing to rise and pay, he reached toward his waist and immediately sensed that something was wrong.

The feel was wrong!

He ran his hand around the staff he favored, then raised it and lowered his head.

Whoa! His hand was covered in pitch-black soot!

The stall owner happened to see this and hurriedly waved his hands. "Captain Zhao likes that stick, so take it. I can make another one later."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhonghe's face instantly turned even blacker than the soot on his hand.