The next day!
Early morning!
In Ning City, the prefectural capital of Huzhou, sunlight leaped over Chaotic Cloud Mountain to the east and spilled across Moon Lake.
The middle of the seventh month had just passed. By the seasons, autumn had already arrived.
The northern lands had begun to show traces of autumn, but in Jiangnan, birds still sang amid fragrant flowers.
Beneath the early autumn sunlight, Moon Lake inscribed itself with shimmering scales of light.
Several pleasure boats that had spent the night on the lake drifted leisurely back. Scholars stood at their bows, the scent of rouge and powder clinging to them and lending Moon Lake all manner of delightful possibilities for the imagination.
These boats belonged to Ning City's Immortal Melody House, Wondrous Music House, and Heavenly Melody House.
A house bearing the word "melody" or "music" in its name gave an impression of refinement.
In truth, some parts were refined, and some were anything but.
The Immortal Melody House, for instance, truly was refined. Everyone knew it was renowned for music and offered nothing else. When people said they were going there to listen to music, they really meant listening to music.
But not every house hung up a sheep's head and actually sold mutton.
Other houses might have "music" in their names, yet often hung up a sheep's head while selling dog meat. Was there music? Of course. Singing a tune counted as music. Were there other sounds besides songs? Certainly. If you were strong enough to work a singing girl in bed for an hour or two, you could draw every sort of sound out of her. Would you dare claim those sounds were not music?
Most people who chartered a boat overnight on the lake were after precisely that kind of music.
Hadn't