A house of pleasure

The night breeze brushed gently past, the Xiang River rippled, pleasure boats lay moored on the water, and a hundred flowers vied for beauty along its banks.

The Flower Cultivation Garden was a famous house of pleasure beside the Xiangshui River. High officials and nobles streamed through its doors, scattering a hundred gold in a single night just to win a beauty's smile.

When the moon rose above the branches, Li Ziye arrived, hauling and dragging Bai Wangyu along, and pulled him into the Flower Cultivation Garden.

Inside the Flower Cultivation Garden, song and dance celebrated peace and prosperity. On the raised stage on the first floor, four dancers twirled gracefully with pipas in their hands, their figures willowy, their bodies flickering in and out of view, leaving mouths dry and throats parched.

"Please come inside, young masters. Are there any girls you fancy?"

The two had barely entered when a heavily made-up woman approached, holding a painted fan. She looked at them with a face full of smiles.

"It's our first time. Spare us the chatter and find us two untouched courtesans. My brother here has no interest in ordinary painted beauties. As for silver, you won't be short of it."

With a lavish air, Li Ziye took out a large, gleaming silver ingot and placed it in the woman's hand, speaking with swagger.

"You truly are generous, young master!"

Looking at the silver in her hand, Hua Gu smiled so broadly she could not close her mouth. She turned toward the back and shouted at the top of her lungs, "Quick, have Xinghua and Lihua come down to entertain our honored guests!"

"Xinghua? Lihua?"

Li Ziye nearly spluttered when he heard those two names.

Couldn't they come up with some decent stage names?

"Brother Li!"

Beside him, Bai Wangyu looked at the fluttering beauties all around, so nervous that sweat broke out on his face. "Let's leave."

"What's the hurry?"

Li Ziye pulled him over to an empty table and sat down, smiling. "We finally made it here. We should at least relax a little before going back."

"Young masters, here we are!"

Just then, two flamboyantly dressed women descended from the second floor, their figures so seductive and their hips swaying so much with every step that they almost seemed about to snap their waists.

"Take a look, young masters. What do you think?"

Hua Gu brought the two girls forward with a smile.

"Untouched courtesans?"

Li Ziye looked at the two women, seductive to their very bones, and asked with a face full of doubt.

"Rest assured, young master. They are absolutely virgins whose buds have never been plucked."

Hua Gu spoke with a beaming smile.

Li Ziye looked skeptical at her words, but asked no more. He could hardly ruin his own family's business. After glancing at the two women, he pointed at Little Red Riding Hood beside him and grinned. "Ladies, take good care of my brother here, and you won't be short of silver."

"Yes."

At his words, Xinghua and Lihua exchanged a glance, then sat beside Bai Wangyu and pressed against him like water snakes.

"Ladies, you mustn't! Men and women must not touch. This violates propriety. What sort of conduct is this?"

Surrounded by the two women, Bai Wangyu sat on a bed of needles, dodging them as he spoke in alarm.

Seeing this, Li Ziye felt thoroughly refreshed.

That'll teach you to wear that unruffled face every day. Panicking now, aren't you?

Even the child everyone else gets compared to had a day like this!

"Ha ha!"

Li Ziye felt increasingly delighted and could not help laughing aloud.

"And you, young master? Won't you find a girl to keep you company?"

Hua Gu could tell that this young man was the God of Wealth of the pair. The smile on her heavily made-up face grew ever more ingratiating as she asked.

"No hurry. I'll wait."

Li Ziye grinned. "I heard that Yu Qingxuan, the capital's courtesan queen famed for her peerless zither playing and dancing, will be performing at the Flower Cultivation Garden tonight. Is that true?"

"It certainly is."

Hua Gu smiled. "Miss Qingxuan is already on her way. She should arrive very soon."

"Good, then."

Li Ziye answered, then lifted his wine cup and drank quietly, unwilling to say anything more.

Seeing this, Hua Gu tactfully refrained from disturbing him further. She gave the two women at the table a meaningful look, signaling them to serve their honored guest well, then turned and left.

The first floor grew increasingly lively. Clearly, besides Li Ziye, quite a few others had heard that Fairy Qingxuan would be visiting the Flower Cultivation Garden that night.

As the courtesan queen whose fame shook the capital of Great Shang, Yu Qingxuan had an exceedingly mysterious identity. No one knew her background. Ever since her Startled Swan Dance had stunned the world at the courtesan queen contest three years earlier, the capital's noble young masters had gone mad for her. Even scattering a thousand gold could hardly win the beauty's smile.

The private rooms on the second floor were all occupied by the capital's most distinguished guests, who were likewise waiting for Yu Qingxuan to appear.

On the third floor of the Flower Cultivation Garden, however, there was only one person. Dressed in a loose silver-gray robe and cloak, he looked down at the crowd, his handsome face betraying not the slightest ripple.

Little brother!

Li Qingzhi watched the young figure on the first floor. A rare trace of warmth appeared in his cold expression, only to vanish a moment later.

Coming here on the day Yu Qingxuan was to appear at the Flower Cultivation Garden was only natural and would not arouse anyone else's suspicions.

Ting!

Just then, zither music like the music of immortals rang out from the second floor. A single note silenced the entire Flower Cultivation Garden.

Weeping and pleading, each note urgent, the music came from the private room directly opposite the stairs on the second floor. Behind its swaying beaded curtain, a lovely figure appeared and disappeared. One fleeting glimpse was enough to make that city-toppling face unforgettable.

Dressed in blue-green, her hair bound up, her features picturesque and her bearing orchid-like, she seemed a celestial maiden banished to the mortal realm, untouched by the slightest trace of worldly dust.

Gradually, the zither music on the second floor grew faster and faster, like a silver vase shattering, like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses thundering past.

"Bravo!"

On the first floor, all the guests listened in rapture, unable to keep themselves from cheering aloud.

"Ambush from Ten Sides?"

Li Ziye froze for a moment, then curled his lips and muttered very quietly, "Pretty average playing. It's a perfectly good pipa piece. Why insist on using a guqin?"

Clang!

The zither music stopped in an instant, abrupt as tearing silk.

All the guests on the first floor froze as well and fell silent at once.

As a result, everyone heard Li Ziye's very quiet complaint.

Behind the beaded curtain on the second floor, Yu Qingxuan rose abruptly. She looked at the young man who had become the focus of every gaze on the first floor, shock appearing on her face.

It was him!

"Where did this brat come from? Do you know anything about music, spouting such nonsense here?"

On the first floor, many wealthy young men angrily rebuked him when they heard someone disparaging the fairy in their hearts.

"Pretending to know what you don't! Aren't you afraid you'll sprain your tongue?"

"Who is this? Does anyone know him? Has he no shame?"

"Where are the attendants? Throw him out!"

One person opened fire, and the others joined in. At once, curses and rebukes rang endlessly through the first-floor hall. Clearly, Li Ziye's earlier assessment of Fairy Qingxuan's zither skills had provoked public outrage.

Cold laughter also sounded from the private rooms on the second floor. Their occupants watched the unfamiliar young man who had angered the crowd below, amusement appearing on their faces.

Whose brat was this? He really dared to say anything.

"Your Highness, he is the Li Family's third young master."

In one of the private rooms, an effeminate voice sounded in reminder.

"Oh? The Li Family's legitimate son?"

Behind a gauze curtain that partly concealed him, a man who appeared to be around thirty spoke in a curious tone.

The man looked quite ordinary, noticeably plain compared with Great Shang's other princes. A thick blanket covered his knees, as though something was wrong with his legs.

Mu Yuan, the eldest prince, had been born with crippled legs and could only get around in a wheelchair. Had he been born to an ordinary consort, a prince like him would never have had a chance to inherit the throne.

However, the eldest prince's mother came from an illustrious family. Together with his status as the royal family's eldest son, this meant that, despite his disability, he still had quite a few followers.

Behind Mu Yuan stood a somewhat older eunuch named Zhao Jie. He had followed Mu Yuan for over a decade and possessed formidable skills, making him a renowned expert within the imperial household.

"Your Highness, shall this old servant summon him upstairs?" Zhao Jie asked.

"Not yet."

Mu Yuan shook his head. "Let's watch how things unfold. I, too, would like to see just what is different about this legitimate son of the Li Family."

"Yes!"

Zhao Jie answered softly, then stood quietly without saying anything more.

In the first-floor hall, Li Ziye looked at the indignant crowd, his expression slightly stunned.

Was that really necessary? He had only told the truth, yet these people were so worked up they looked ready to come up and eat him.

Brainless fans really were terrifying in every era.

"I remember now! He's Li Ziye, the son of Li Baiwan from Yuzhou City!"

Just then, among the many young masters on the first floor, someone finally recognized Li Ziye and shouted out his identity.

"Li Baiwan? That nouveau riche?"

"No wonder. What insight could the son of some nouveau riche have?"

"An ignorant country bumpkin, making a spectacle of himself here."

Once Li Ziye's identity was revealed, the crowd's mockery immediately rose again, right on cue.

At that moment, the capital's young masters once again savored the superiority of their status, raising their chins so high their nostrils were almost showing.

"E... eldest senior brother."

Amid the waves of mockery, a young nobleman suddenly noticed the white-robed Confucian scholar entangled with two women. He froze, then shock appeared on his face as he blurted, "Eldest senior brother, why... why are you here?"

At those words, everyone instinctively turned toward the white-robed young man beside Li Ziye. A moment later, their expressions all turned startled.

Was this Bai Wangyu, Venerable Law Confucian's foremost disciple?

Surrounded by Lihua and Xinghua's soft jade and warm fragrance, Bai Wangyu noticed the shocked gazes around him. Embarrassment appeared on his face, and he nodded to everyone in greeting.

"Eldest senior brother, why are you here?"

A student of the Imperial Academy stood up and asked, his expression filled with disbelief.

"I came with Brother Li."

Bai Wangyu answered awkwardly.

"Brother Li?"

The Imperial Academy student froze, then looked at Li Ziye beside his eldest senior brother, who had just provoked the crowd's anger. His fists clenched, and his face grew even more furious.

This man had actually brought their eldest senior brother to a place like this!

Their eldest senior brother was the pride of the entire Imperial Academy.

Feeling the crowd's murderous gazes, Li Ziye could not help reaching up to rub his nose. These people came to a brothel to amuse themselves, yet wouldn't allow anyone else to come?

In the private rooms on the second floor, pairs of eyes watched the situation below, waiting for a good show.

The Li Family's legitimate son had actually brought the Confucian School's eldest senior brother to this house of pleasure. What expression would Venerable Law Confucian wear when he heard?

As the crowd on the first floor grew increasingly agitated, Yu Qingxuan suppressed the turmoil in her heart behind the beaded curtain upstairs and said, "Young Master Li, might I invite you upstairs for a meeting?"

As her words fell, every sound in the first-floor hall immediately vanished. The silence was almost frightening; a falling pin could have been heard.

Everyone was stunned, unable to recover for a time.

"When a fairy extends an invitation, refusing would be disrespectful!"

Li Ziye grinned, then rose and headed for the second floor.

However, after climbing just three steps, Li Ziye stopped again. Turning to look at everyone on the first floor, he grinned and said, "A bunch of country bumpkins!"