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"Hey, kid. I still don't know your name or how old you are. How many springs have you seen?"

Busy looking left and right, he forgot there was still a noble young master in front of him. With impeccable courtesy, he bowed and replied, "This humble student's surname is Zhu, and his given name is Bafu. I've just passed eighteen. May I ask the young master's name?"

"Me?" He walked on with a laugh, glancing back with a smile. "You'd best not know my name. In any case, no one has dared call me by it for a long time. Let's not bring it up."

"Huh? Is the young master's name difficult to say?"

"Heh, not that. I'm just afraid that once you say it, your head will have to move house."

If calling his name would make one's head move house, could his surname be Kill and his name Emperor? Was his full name Kill the Emperor? Bah! Even the revenue office wouldn't let him register under that name. With such a treasonous name, he'd have been dragged off and beheaded long ago.

His doubts unanswered, Zhu Bafu quietly followed Unnamed Young Master through the noisy hall. He watched the young master walk deep into the courtyard as if he knew the place by heart. After passing through a long corridor leading to the rear courtyard, they saw a few Lotus Lanterns swaying faintly on a waterside platform at the end. A qin and a censer had been left idle on a stone table. The person was gone, the fragrance drifting away, the qin's music scattered. Perhaps the beauty had left in haste, leaving a gauzy shawl beneath the stone chair, still exuding a lingering fragrance.

The young master hooked up the perfumed gauze with his long fingers and lifted it to his nose for a gentle sniff. He raised his brows and cast a sidelong glance toward the Elegant Chamber on the tower, where candlelight flickered. Then he looked back and gave him a wicked smile. "Pig Kid, the woman you want to see is right there."

Zhu Bafu followed his gaze. On the paper window of the secluded chamber, two dark silhouettes were reflected—a man and a woman. The man was tall and thin, standing before the window with his back to the woman behind him. The woman's figure was graceful, her body leaning slightly forward as she stepped up and embraced the man from behind.

An affair... an affair in the flesh!?

Was that the legendary number-one Courtesan in the Capital, Liu Rongrong? From the silhouette cut against the thin window, her figure was indeed slender and exquisite.

"It seems we came at a bad time. She appears to have another guest."

"Th-that seems to be the case... Then, then why don't we... go back?" He pointed toward the way they had come as he made the suggestion, but the young master remained unmoved. His lips curved in a half-smile as the candle flames fluttered throughout the courtyard, his gaze fixed on the silhouettes of the man and woman's private tryst in the little tower.

"Go back? You mean I should pretend I didn't see the two of them embracing and simply turn around and leave?" His dark eyes shifted toward the man who had offered that rotten idea.

That intimidating gaze, which commanded awe without anger, made Zhu Bafu awkwardly swallow. Only then did he recall what had happened when he encountered this young master at the entrance. He had said... Liu Rongrong was his woman, his lover... Then the man being embraced by Liu Rongrong in her room right now was...

Heavens above! Why, on his first visit to a brothel, had he stumbled into such a complicated love triangle—and the most violent, terrifying scene of catching an adulterer in bed at that!

"Tell me..." The young master glanced over and asked his opinion in a flat tone. "Should I be angry? At a time like this, shouldn't I be jealous?"

It would have been better if he hadn't asked. Once he did, Zhu Bafu's head grew even larger.

What kind of ridiculous question was that?! If a man's woman flirted and embraced another man right in front of him, wouldn't it be strange not to feel jealous? But she was a Courtesan who opened her doors to all guests, doing business with the whole world and selling affection for a living. Whoever paid received her service—that was her professional integrity. To insist she had betrayed him, acted disgracefully, or lacked chastity would be strange too, wouldn't it? Besides, even if he did become jealous, envious, and angry, what could he do? Charge in and beat up that man? Well... for the record, Young Master Ba was merely passing through to mind his own business. If he got dragged into some bizarre incident, that would be terribly unfair!

"Pig Kid, do you know what a man should do when someone tries to steal his woman?" He narrowed his eyes and asked the little brother behind him in a sinister whisper. The fist inside his sleeve clenched hard, his bones cracking crisply.

"Don't... don't fight! A gentleman can't lose his poise over some insignificant woman! Confucius would be heartbroken. Have you considered his feelings? We have more peaceful ways to resolve this one-woman-two-husbands situation! Trust me!" Afraid he would do something reckless, Zhu Bafu rushed forward and grabbed his robe. "Fighting over a woman is something only females do. W-women are strange creatures. They won't like a crude brute who resorts to violence when his advances are rejected—they'll look down on you! Don't fall for that lowlife upstairs's scheme! Stealing a woman is simple! You don't have to let your fists do the talking. There are plenty of ways!"

"Oh? Let's hear them."

"Let's hear what?"

"How to steal a woman. Methods besides beating someone up. I'm waiting."

"Huh?!" How was he supposed to know? He had never fought another man over a woman before. But with the crisis hanging over them, Zhu Bafu could only try to revive a dead horse as though it were alive. "Y-young master, are you rich and powerful? For example, do you have relatives—or a Father working in the imperial court?"

"Hmm? You could say that."

What did "could say that" mean? Was he deliberately being so cryptic? Still, to have that kind of commotion at the entrance of a brothel clearly wasn't something an ordinary commoner could arrange. Even if he didn't have a Father in the court, he surely had some sort of godfather backing him, right?

"Then crush him to death with banknotes, smash him to death with gold ingots, and use your wealth and influence to finish him off! You won't need to lift a finger yourself! Compete with him in money and power! The woman who follows you can wear gold and silver for the rest of her life. What woman doesn't love silver? What woman wouldn't rather sit laughing in a sedan chair than cry on a wooden cart?"

His crooked reasoning made the young master snicker repeatedly. The young master raised his brows, though he still refused to admit that the nonsense made any sense. "You put that beautifully. I like it. Fine! We'll compete with him in wealth and power. Let's go!"

"W-we?" Hey, hey, what did Young Master Ba's woman-stealing have to do with him? Where were they going?

"We're going upstairs to compete with him in wealth and power!"

"Pfft! Y-young master, calm down!" He was rich, powerful, and imposing enough that going alone to cast his head before the enemy and spill his blood would be plenty. Why drag along a penniless nobody like him, who barely scraped by on odd jobs, to compete? What did he have to use—his hair?