Playful Dragon Teases Phoenix

Shuzhou City was large, stretching wide from east to west and narrowing slightly from north to south, with four horizontal and eight vertical main streets.

Marquis Dingyuan's Xiao Manor sat on the north side of Bashan Street along the central axis of the urban area, near Zhennan Street at the intersection of two streets.

Facing south with its back to the north, it occupied an extremely vast expanse of land.

Chen Yi and the others stepped out of the manor gates, turned two corners onto Bashan Street, and headed all the way south.

During this time, he kept pulling back the brocade curtains of the carriage, curiously sizing up the outside.

The road surface was paved with neat bluestone slabs, with very few potholes, let alone dust or debris, which clearly showed that someone was responsible for cleaning it.

On both sides were wooden buildings of uniform height, their deep purplish-red paint bearing plaques hanging above every doorway inscribed with names such as "Moon Gazing Restaurant", "Jiangnan Cloth Shop · Shu Brocade", and "Black Mountain Inn".

Although it was morning, there were already quite a few pedestrians coming and going along the route.

Most of them were people wearing fine linen, along with a fair number of martial artists carrying weapons who belonged to Jianghu.

During the journey, Chen Yi also spotted several foreigners dressed in gaudy, multicolored silks; just as Xiao Die had said, most of them wore necklaces of various gemstones, wrapped in turbans or veiled with cloth masks.

"Those are Poshir people, and they're terribly wicked." Xiao Die looked past the curtain at those foreigners and said indignantly:

"The old masters of the household mentioned before that these Poshir people frequently disguise themselves as horse bandits to plunder caravan parties on the Tea Horse Road. A few years ago, Second Miss even led troops out to raid and suppress them."

Chen Yi glanced at those slightly dark-skinned, gently curly-haired Poshir people, nodded, and then looked at the others, especially those Jianghu people carrying weapons on their backs.

Yet after looking for a long time, he could not make heads or tails of it.

These people who moved through Jianghu mostly wore plain--even tattered and disheveled--attire, and from their outward appearance alone, it was entirely impossible to tell what skills they possessed; they were nowhere near as razor-sharp and formidable as Eldest Miss Xiao's bodyguard, Shen Huatang.

At that moment, Xiao Die glanced at Xiao Wuge and whispered secretly: "Son-in-law, can, can you please not go to the south of the city?"

Chen Yi chuckled upon hearing this, feeling her warm breath brush against his face, and comforted her while inhaling the fragrance drifting between his nose: "Don't worry, I'm just going over to take a look, I won't do anything."

If not for the fact that there were "gossip melons" to pick over there, he would not have chosen the Yanhuaxiang in the south of the city for his very first outing.

"Even if I were to do something, your son-in-law would have to go at night, wouldn't you say?"

Xiao Die lowered her head to ponder for a moment, then asked with a blank, uncomprehending expression: "Son-in-law, what difference does daytime make?"

Chen Yi turned his head and caught a glimpse of the curiosity on her face; clearly, this lass had only heard tales from others and understood nothing of the mysteries within.

Seeing him smile without speaking, Xiao Die realized she seemed to have asked a foolish question. "I-it's just that the older sisters in the manor said that place isn't a good spot, and I-I'm worried that if people find out, they'll gossip about you, son-in-law."

Chen Yi smiled and patted the hair bun on her head. "Let them gossip. You can't plug everyone's mouths anyway."

Xiao Die's pretty face flushed red: "Son-in-law, patting the head makes people stupid."

"It truly does." Perhaps overhearing their exchange, Xiao Wuge nodded solemnly:

"Brother Heir Apparent often gets his head beaten by his father, and that's how he turned out like this."

Chen Yi laughed in spite of himself; here was another curious babe and problem child combined into one.

"You two..."

Amidst the idle chatter of the three, the carriage journeyed all the way to the south of the city, stopping in front of a secluded tavern.

Wang Lixing knocked on the carriage. "Young Marquis, we've arrived in the south of the city."

Originally, the guards following Xiao Wuge did not include Wang Lixing, but upon hearing that they were leaving the estate, the people of the Marquis's mansion had dispatched two additional guards.

Aside from Wang Lixing, an Eighth Rank Realm powerhouse, there was also an older middle-aged man responsible for driving the carriage, whose name was Liu Si'er.

The several Marquis's Mansion Guards all addressed him as "Fourth Brother".

Chen Yi leaped down from the carriage first, then helped Xiao Wuge and Xiao Die descend. Glancing around to the left and right without the slightest clue where the so-called Lihong Courtesan House was located, he found an excuse and stepped into the neighboring tavern.

Before long, he walked out calmly, tapped his finger to point eastward, and then led the way forward with his hands clasped behind his back.

Xiao Die hurried to keep up with him.

The several guards clustered tightly around Xiao Wuge; clearly, in their eyes, the safety of the Young Marquis was far more important than Chen Yi.

That Liu Si'er remained seated on the carriage without moving, and only after seeing Chen Yi and the others walk far away did he step into the tavern.

Surveying the interior and seeing that it consisted entirely of ordinary folks who had come here for a light breakfast after seeking out pleasure houses, he walked straight up to the counter and asked:

"What did that young gentleman just inquire about from you?"

Hearing this, the tavern keeper clicked away on his abacus while speaking leisurely: "Five cash."

Liu Si'er narrowed his eyes, then tossed down five copper coins.

The tavern keeper collected the money, finished his abacus calculation, and replied: "He asked for the location of the Lihong Courtesan House."

Liu Si'er memorized the name, turned back to the carriage, and secretly pondered Chen Yi's purpose in visiting such a place.

Instantly, a somewhat bizarre expression surfaced on his face: "He couldn't possibly be pent up for too long and heading to a pleasure house to vent his fire, could he?"

Previously, he had never heard that this illegitimate son of the Chen Family possessed the hobby of visiting pleasure quarters.

Besides, in broad daylight, and with the Young Marquis in tow, wasn't he afraid that Second Miss would hang him up and lash him with a whip upon her return?

He wondered if this intelligence was worth reporting upward...

On the other side.

Once Chen Yi located the Lihong Courtesan House, he led the others to stroll around the vicinity as if taking a genuine leisurely walk.

Truth be told, the scent of cosmetics in this Yanhuaxiang was truly heavy.

In a narrow alley nearly two li long, there were no fewer than fifty or sixty brothels of all sizes, their doorways lined with identical red lanterns.

Some distinctive ones even hung several brightly colored breaststalls, which looked almost like face veils if one didn't look closely.

Xiao Die cast a glance at them and instantly blushed, lowering her head in embarrassment and not daring to look much.

As for Xiao Wuge, he was exceptionally open-minded, looking left and right before abruptly asking: "Brother-in-law, what are we doing here? It smells awful."

Pfft.

Hearing his words, one of the guards could not hold back his laughter, prompting the other several guards to follow suit in snickering.

Even Wang Lixing's face turned completely red with suppression, clearly pushed to his limits by the "smells awful" remark.

Chen Yi turned his head and blinked: "I'm taking you to experience the wider world."

Naturally, he was here to experience the wider world himself.

Putting aside private items like those breaststalls, the mere sight of signs reading "Poshir", "Western Buddhist Kingdom", and "Japanese people" hanging over doorways was enough to thoroughly broaden his horizons.

This Shuzhou truly lived up to its reputation as a major southern city of the Great Wei Dynasty, genuinely doing business with all four corners of the world.

Xiao Wuge still remained entirely clueless. "They all just look like multicolored garments, nothing special."

"Children should ask fewer questions."

Just as his voice trailed off, a group of more than ten people strode out from the outer alley. At the lead was a broad-built, corpulent matron dressed in luxurious silks and satins.

The women following behind her were likewise no pushovers, sporting fierce and aggressive expressions.

Chen Yi quietly motioned for the others to back away, then had Xiao Die pull out melon seeds, passing them around to the rest while speaking in a low voice:

"Looks like there's a show to watch. Don't speak."

Before Xiao Wuge, Xiao Die, and the others could fully grasp the situation, they watched the matron walk straight up to the doors of the Lihong Courtesan House and wave a massive hand: "Smash it!"

The fierce women behind her immediately stepped forward, tearing apart the clothing hanging by the doorway and shattering the plaque, their mouths hurling curses without a pause.

A woman clad in bright red robes and heavy makeup dashed out from inside the shop, running and shouting at the top of her lungs: "Oh dear, oh dear, what-what are you all doing?"

"Get Liu Man to crawl out here!"

"That's right, make Scholar Liu come out! This old lady wants to see which vixen seduced him into staying out all night!"

Soon, amidst Xiao Wuge's bewildered expression, a middle-aged man with disheveled clothing was shoved out stumbling.

Despite this scholar's lean and slender physique, his martial skills were extraordinary; he shifted and dodged left and right, narrowly evading the matron's heavy-handed palm strikes.

"Madam, Madam, let's talk this over calmly, no hitting, don't hit..."

Yet the Poshir woman behind him, wearing only a breaststall, lacked such nimble skills; she was dragged out by those fierce women and subjected to relentless beatings and scoldings, trembling in sheer terror.

Facing such a spectacle, not only did Chen Yi continuously crack open melon seeds, but even Wang Lixing and the others stood dumbfounded, their mouths split wide in broad grins.

Only Xiao Die shrank behind Chen Yi in fright, not daring to watch.

As for Xiao Wuge, he had purely no idea what was happening, staring with idle curiosity as those people brawled.

"Brother-in-law, are we leaving?"

Chen Yi glanced at him, and right at that moment, a prompt materialized before his eyes:

[You comprehend the profound mysteries of Body Movement Technique from Scholar Liu's evasive maneuvers. Reward: Yellow Tier Body Movement Technique -- Playful Dragon Teases Phoenix, Fortune +4.]

[Evaluation: The person arrives, voices are heard, the scene is witnessed--observe the myriad states of human life, watch the phases of all living beings.]

Chen Yi swept a glance over it, his expression deadpan. "Let's go!"

Playful Dragon Teases Phoenix?

If this movement technique were used to deal with Lady Xiao Jinghong, he probably wouldn't even be able to dodge a single slap.