Prajna City, Gathering Colors Pavilion.
Shanghua wore a red veil over her face, with a huge curtain embroidered with exquisite landscapes before her.
Her eyes were lowered as she looked intently at the zither beneath her hands.
Her slender, fair hands danced gracefully, with an exceptionally steady rhythm.
The melody was lilting, with a touch of stirring intensity.
To a knowledgeable ear, her skill with the zither had already crossed the threshold into true proficiency.
Even those who knew nothing about it could call it pleasant to hear.
After all, most good art had the virtue of appealing to refined and common tastes alike.
But however well one played, one still needed to choose music suited to the occasion.
For example, if someone played festive music at a funeral, they would probably get beaten up, however consummate their performance.
Shanghua strained to listen to every note she played, drowning out the unspeakable sounds that kept drifting through the curtain.
The melody was refined, but the guests beyond the curtain were not.
A man's filthy words mingled with a woman's delicate, accommodating voice.
Those two extreme sounds intertwined in jarring discord.
Shanghua's hands moved faster and faster. She bent forward, tilting her ear slightly, trying to listen only to the lilting zither.
She only needed to play a little longer... then she could leave this nauseating place.
Suddenly.
Bang-
The abrupt noise made Shanghua look up involuntarily. A sizable lump of silver had been thrown onto the stage.
The curtain on the stage was not secured on all four sides, but suspended in the air.
There was a purpose to that design.
Anyone who performed behind a curtain on this stage would, in the future, at least become one of the celebrated courtesans the Gathering Colors Pavilion promoted.
Besides having exquisite