Volume Two, Chapter Twenty-Five

"Yes."

"Unless we have no other choice, don't make a move. Our courtesan ought to suffer a little before she learns what it means to behave."

"Yes."

Author's note:

I went over the plot with a friend again last night and decided Student Park really is a wall no one can prop up. My Weibo inbox is full of messages saying people don't like him QAQ. I won't have a computer tonight, so I'm posting early while I have internet access...

Thank you to everyone who follows the story every day, and to everyone who keeps leaving comments to encourage and support me. Love you all =3=

Volume Two, Chapter Twenty-Five

All splendor ended this way; she reined in her horse and lingered, watching the sun sink west.

Zhu Bafu had always thought her father was a White Lotus with a taste for beauty. When the Zhu Residence had been at the height of its glory, pavilions, terraces, artificial hills, and strange stones had stood everywhere. Now broken stone and shattered tiles lay strewn across the ground. Beyond the ruined stone corridor, the green bamboo her father had transplanted had withered yellow and died. The quiet little courtyard behind the bamboo grove had been her bedroom.

She pushed open the door, thick with dust. Torn silk and satin dresses lay scattered across the floor. The dressing table had been overturned, the wooden comb snapped, and traces of deep-red rouge powder were still visible. She touched a fingertip to the scented powder on the floor and brought it to her nose.

It really was the finest rouge. She could still smell its fragrance. Once, in this very room, she had been a young lady who only had to reach out to be dressed and open her mouth to be fed.

She