Anything Else to Add?

Jing Yu said calmly, "Here's what happened. Since I'd only just arrived here, when I tried to book a room last night, the landlady told me they were full.

But they'd recently introduced a room-sharing service, where you paid half the room rate to the original guest.

Then you could stay there. She asked whether I wanted to try it.

After that, she took me upstairs, and a young woman opened the door.

Although the room really wasn't worth five taels of silver, this innovative concept was quite considerate.

I thought I ought to encourage this emerging industry."

The constable nodded and said, "Anything else to add?"

Jing Yu shook his head. "No."

"You visited an unlicensed brothel. You now have two choices: pay a fine or go to jail."

Jing Yu didn't hesitate. "Definitely the fine!"

He paid the money and completed the paperwork.

"All right, just sign your name and you can go."

Jing Yu picked up the brush and wrote three large characters.

Then he left without looking back.

What did Li Ping'an visiting a brothel have to do with me, Jing Yu?

Jing Yu strolled leisurely toward Huailu Academy.

Huailu Academy.

Its gate stood open, with green trees reaching out from within.

There was no clinking of wine cups, no rumbling of carriages and horses, only the clear sound of reading aloud.

This Confucian academy could almost be called the place every scholar in Great Sui dreamed of attending.

Yet very few could gain admission.

In the centuries since Great Sui's founding, it had produced over forty top-ranking imperial examination graduates, while its second- and third-place graduates and other successful metropolitan candidates were too numerous to count.

Quite a few people came to visit every day.

Although they couldn't enter, even soaking up some scholarly