Chapter 61
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Chapter 61:
As Li Chunzhou walked downstairs, she thought about many things, recalling everything from her childhood to now, still puzzled about why Gu Lingfan agreed to become an Oiran.
Training an Oiran requires a lot of money. Typically, young and beautiful girls are selected and trained from a very young age. The proprietress hires teachers to train them in various skills like tea ceremony, chess, poetry, and more.
In their daily lives, the proprietress also strictly controls their diet to ensure that the chosen girls do not gain weight during their development and do not grow too tall. The training in skills and etiquette costs the proprietress a huge amount. This is why the status of an Oiran in the pleasure quarters is much higher than that of an ordinary courtesan.
After so many years of hard work and careful preparation, the ultimate goal was to be selected as the Oiran in the annual Oiran Contest after coming of age.
Before and after the Oiran Contest each year, the entire Pingkang Alley bustles with activity, attracting a crowd to the taverns and creating unprecedented prosperity. Additionally, businesses related to clothing and accessories also benefit from the event.
Once a courtesan is chosen as the Oiran, her value significantly increases. If someone wants to become an exclusive guest of the Oiran, they must not only be wealthy but also earn the admiration of the Oiran in terms of looks and personality.
Therefore, for all the girls living in Pingkang Alley, being an "Oiran" is not just a title; it signifies two entirely different lives.
Li Chunzhou never expected that Gu Lingfan would suddenly retire just two days before this year’s Oiran Contest.
In all the times before, this kind of thing never happened.
Li Chunzhou rushed down the stairs, gritting her teeth and with tears in her eyes. She forcefully pushed Bi Yuansi away from the carriage, saying, "Get out of here!"
She gave Chihong a look, and Chihong held back Bi Yuansi who was about to act. Then Li Zhexuan lifted Li Chunzhou up and helped her onto the carriage.
In Gu Lingfan’s surprised gaze, Li Chunzhou ran up and grabbed her collar, anxiously asking, "Are you out of your mind? Trusting a man! Especially a man who visits brothels!"
Gu Lingfan looked at her silently, without saying a word.
"Are you still going to marry him?!" Li Chunzhou was so angry that her hands were trembling. "Don’t you realize? Men are fickle creatures… How could you fall in love with him?"
From childhood to now, Gu Lingfan always walked ahead of Li Chunzhou. In Li Chunzhou’s short first half of her life, the only thing she was determined to do was to surpass her.
But Li Chunzhou didn’t understand why someone as outstanding as Gu Lingfan would fall in love with someone destined to ruin her life.
Li Chunzhou was sold by her parents to a young man when she was five or six years old. Growing up in the Spring Flowers Tower, she had seen all kinds of false affections between men and women over the years. She knew better than anyone – it’s hard to develop any feelings of reliance, let alone love, when facing people with lower emotional intelligence and cunning schemes.
She didn’t believe Gu Lingfan would not see that Bi Yuansi was foolish.
Li Chunzhou couldn’t understand why Gu Lingfan didn’t look down on that fool when she had to show respect for him due to his status.
Even if she really liked Bi Yuansi now, all the intense feelings in the beginning would eventually fade away. How could she just entrust her life to him like that?
Gu Lingfan looked at Li Chunzhou’s beautiful face, mixed with anger and confusion, and suddenly sneered. Li Chunzhou was a money tree cultivated by Spring Flowers Tower’s madam. She had always had the best things to eat, wear, and use.
To broaden Li Chunzhou’s horizons and appreciation, Mama Li let her choose from all kinds of jade jewelry, gold and silver accessories, and flowing fabrics. Li Chunzhou didn’t even need to bind her feet like other girls for fear of early death. Her toes and foot bones were normal. The shoes she wore from childhood to adulthood were all specially made to fit her height and foot size.
In the end, Li Chunzhou had received too much favoritism. She had seen love given through tangible gold and silver treasures, so she wasn’t fixated on getting "love" from men. She might even say… that she no longer knew how precious "sincerity" was to others.
"Yes, you are clear-headed, the most clear-headed…" Gu Lingfan’s expression was equally complex and difficult to describe. "In the end, aren’t you just a plaything for the Second Prince? Do you really think your situation is any different from mine?"
Just as Li Chunzhou was more clear-headed than Gu Lingfan about the situation between her and Bi Yuansi, Gu Lingfan also had a clearer view of Li Chunzhou’s predicament than Li Chunzhou did.
"If you have to be obedient for him to keep liking you, do you think that’s love?" Gu Lingfan stared into Li Chunzhou’s eyes, bluntly exposing what Li Chunzhou had been avoiding. "…The most precious quality in a dog is unconditional obedience to its owner. Do you not understand that?"
Li Chunzhou closed her eyes tightly, feeling very sad about everything that had happened that day. She was too exhausted to speak.
The two of them sat in silence for a moment in the quiet atmosphere. Li Chunzhou opened her eyes and looked at Gu Lingfan’s face. The evening breeze made the curtains by the window sway gently, letting the sunlight in, turning a strand of Gu Lingfan’s hair golden.
Gu Lingfan was a few years older than Li Chunzhou. When they first met, Gu Lingfan was not yet the clever adult she would become. Gu Lingfan would make dolls out of cheap fabric and secretly buy notebooks filled with love stories to read with Li Chunzhou. She was skilled and reliable but also gentle. Li Chunzhou could share all her daughterly affection that she couldn’t express to Mama Li with Gu Lingfan on their small bed, whispering as they chatted.
Li Chunzhou remembered many lessons Gu Lingfan had taught her. She remembered flying kites together with Gu Lingfan, braiding hair like Gu Lingfan, and wearing Gu Lingfan’s pretty clothes that were too big. Until Li Chunzhou first went to Guishui, she followed Gu Lingfan around like a little shadow.
Sometimes, Li Chunzhou would lean on Gu Lingfan’s shoulder and feel that it was the happiest moment of her life.
Despite the years of ups and downs, the impression Gu Lingfan left in her heart was still of that bright-eyed, unstoppable girl. Li Chunzhou felt a pang in her heart and tears streamed down her face as she choked out, "But you said before… you wouldn’t leave me for a man."
When Li Chunzhou and Gu Lingfan were young, they saw many girls in the building come and go, some thinking they had found the perfect man and leaving to start a new life. However, those girls who left with a smile, some disappeared without a trace, while others ended up back on Pingkang Alley. The returning girls mostly ended up in the higher-class brothels, unwilling to be mocked at Spring Flowers Tower again.
In those days, the two of them would lie in bed, Gu Lingfan holding Li Chunzhou’s hand, advising her, "When you grow up, don’t let men deceive you… I won’t leave, we’ll always stay together."
But when Li Chunzhou finally reached the age of fifteen, acquiring various true and false powers and statuses, she discovered that Gu Lingfan was tired of everything in Spring Flowers Tower and was preparing to leave with a man who had nothing exceptional except for his status and appearance.
She had made up her mind to leave, only leaving behind the part of Li Chunzhou that had deeply influenced her, forever staying in the place where she had once been.
Gu Lingfan could tell that Li Chunzhou wanted to talk about some old things with her, but she didn’t want to talk about the past anymore.
She looked at Li Chunzhou’s teary eyes for a moment, then suddenly smiled gently. The image of Li Chunzhou crying with watery eyes when she was young appeared in Gu Lingfan’s mind. Li Chunzhou’s beautiful and familiar face still had a natural innocence and stubbornness. After all, Li Chunzhou had been pampered since she was young. Who could resist her beautiful little face…?
"Lady Chun, I’m actually very jealous of you," Gu Lingfan said candidly. "You have everything, no matter who compares with you, the one who has to make a choice will always choose you… But Bijaro chose me the first time he met, so I am willing to believe in him too."
Gu Lingfan’s gaze lingered briefly on Li Chunzhou’s face, then she raised her sleeve to wipe Li Chunzhou’s face and calmly said, "Not everyone in this world has had the advantages that you possess."
"You are not unable to let go of me. You just don’t want to believe that someone is willing to truly bid you farewell."
Gu Lingfan’s gentle and familiar action of wiping Li Chunzhou’s tears made Li Chunzhou increasingly sad. She would rather have Gu Lingfan scold her a bit more than see her like this now.
Li Chunzhou knew in her heart that Gu Lingfan had truly let go of herself and was ready to move forward.
***
Li Chunzhou didn’t know how she got off the carriage, but she remembered Chihong’s hesitant gaze.
She couldn’t even speak anymore, stood on the sidewalk, watching people coming and going in front of Spring Flowers Tower.
The news of the Turks approaching the capital city had spread throughout Shengjing. The townspeople hurriedly packed their belongings. Some plain-dressed women hurriedly packed jewelry and fabrics, while men carried bags and hurried to safe places outside the city. The streets were filled with hurried footsteps, people bustling through alleys, calmly packing their belongings, ready to leave as soon as the city gates were breached.
Li Chunzhou looked at the scenes in front of her and felt like it was all a dream. She snapped out of it, suddenly thinking—could it be a dream?
As long as she could restart this cycle, there was still hope.
Li Chunzhou rubbed her face and regained her composure, pulling herself out of the sadness. She returned to her usual self.
Qi Leyuan squeezed next to her, worriedly asking, "Lady Chun, what’s wrong? Did you have a fight with Gu Lingfan?"
Since Jian Hou said in the group that they all had to catch the Time Beast to leave smoothly, Qi Leyuan had been silent. He didn’t get in the carriage with Li Chunzhou, so he didn’t know what they talked about inside. But seeing Li Chunzhou’s red eyes, he knew that something had happened between them.
Li Chunzhou picked up Li Li, who was peeking around the floor, pursed her lips, and said, "Fan Nuo left with Bi Yuansi, and we had a fight."
"Are you worried about her?" Qi Leyuan stayed silent for a moment, then persuaded, "Bi Yuansi already knows that Gu Lingfan is not a ‘Oiran’ anymore, but still willing to help her, there must be some true feelings there."
"Hmm, Li Li makes sense." Li Chunzhou nodded, looking up at the June Snow tree in front of the door, which was covered with black feathers of crows at some point.
A group of crows was nothing unusual, but the scene in front of them was extremely eerie – because these dozens of crows were strangely standing in formation facing Li Chunzhou, their dozens of blood-red eyes staring at her without blinking.
Li Chunzhou reacted calmly, with a hint of hidden anticipation in her tone, softly saying, "It seems that Jian Hou has found his way here."