"From the golden censer, incense smoke drifts into the evening; upon a snow-white pillow and brocade quilt, Cloud Dream returns. Loosening her gauze robes, too shy to speak, she calls to the bamboo lad as jade mountains topple across..."
Yan Jing, newly promoted third-rank God of Constables, entered the room and casually shut the door behind him, refusing to let the song carry too far.
The beaded curtain fell behind him, clattering softly.
He had no master or lineage. If he had to say, he had studied Youxie and regarded Earl of Heavenly Net Lin Kuang as his idol in life.
Linzi was not peaceful tonight. As a famed constable of this age who had "restored the glory of the Green Badge," of course he had to patrol the streets and suppress the demons and monsters.
The sultry song continued—
"Bamboo lad treads upon the moon of jade, coming to lift the amber curtain."
"Startle not the magpies on the branches, disturb not the strings of my heart."
"Sweat dampens the crimson gauze curtains; fragrance reflects against painted screens."
"Can you undo the mandarin-duck clasp, my lord? The tassels vex the heart, and the lamplight sways and sways again."
As she sang "sways and sways again," the songstress's waist also seemed to sway in the wind like a willow branch.
A scroll of painting lay spread across the wine table by the window, its colors brilliant. On the left of the painting was a jug of wine, on the right an inkstone, and at its center, a beauty taking shape beneath the brush.
The beautiful artist, who took a sip of wine for every stroke she painted, wore loose scholar's robes and a square blue scholar's cap, yet neither could conceal her allure.
Her eyes were faintly intoxicated, her cheeks