Chapter 61: Xu Yan's Oath
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After repeated confirmation, Xu Yan finally gave up hope.
Plum Fragrance Tower was indeed a brothel, not a tavern.
“Third Sister! Why isn’t Plum Fragrance Tower a tavern? I’m a Taoist—I can’t live in a brothel!” In the back courtyard, Xu Yan said angrily to Mei Sanniang, who was dressed up in flashy attire and clearly had the bearing of a brothel madam.
“Who said Plum Fragrance Tower was a tavern?” Mei Sanniang giggled. “I burned your Taoist robes in a fire. Without the robes, who would know you’re a Taoist?”
Before Xu Yan could argue, Mei Sanniang spoke first: “What’s wrong with a brothel? A brothel isn’t a bandit den. It’s willing business between consenting parties. We haven’t broken any laws or angered heaven. Some of those poor women I bought back from human traffickers, others came willingly. Everything was explained clearly beforehand—no one forced anyone. Do you think the current state of the world is good? Fengshan City is indeed prosperous beyond compare, but what about the surrounding small cities, small towns, small villages, and small settlements? How many households don’t worry about food and drink? Qi Nation has floods, and the climate isn’t as good as Pu Nation’s. Grain can only be planted once a year, and that’s in good years. If natural disasters strike, people starving to death is common. Wealthy families won’t care about poor commoners. If you can’t eat your fill, you can’t blame others—you can only blame your own incompetence. Third Sister has been helping the family with trade since I was seventeen. Everything I’ve seen and heard has been nothing but the warmth and coldness of human relationships, the fickleness of the world—these eight characters. You’re a Taoist who doesn’t enter the mortal world. How could you know the difficulties within this red dust?”
As she spoke, Mei Sanniang’s eyes reddened, and her hands holding Xu Yan’s began to tremble, like an elder sister who had weathered many storms confiding her troubles to her younger brother.
Unable to bear a woman’s tears, Xu Yan reluctantly agreed to live at Plum Fragrance Tower. Actually, Mei Sanniang had already built him a small courtyard in a corner. The courtyard wasn’t large, but it was quiet and peaceful.
“Now that you know Third Sister’s difficulties, you must help Third Sister. Go on, we can’t have no one greeting guests at the entrance.”
Like a woman changing faces, her seductive manner returned as she covered her mouth and laughed: “When you grow up in a few years, Third Sister will arrange two courtesans for you, so you’ll know what feminine charms really are. Hehe.”
With a bitter expression, Xu Yan returned to the entrance, feeling he had failed his master’s teachings.
Helping to greet guests at a brothel—if his master knew, would he beat him to death?
He couldn’t think too much about it. The little Taoist forced a smile at the entrance that looked worse than crying. When someone came, he would mutter “mercy.” When someone left, he would also follow with “mercy”…
In the small courtyard of Plum Fragrance Tower, Xu Yan, who had been busy all day, fell into deep sleep. Little Black lived in a pigsty built in the courtyard, sleeping just as soundly.
Pigs should sleep in pigsties. As long as there was food and drink, it didn’t matter whether it was a butcher’s pigsty or a brothel’s pigsty. But the faint sounds of coquettish laughter and playful noise that came from deep in the night were like demonic sounds, disturbing Xu Yan’s sleep and making his teeth grinding even louder.
At dawn, all was quiet.
The little Taoist who rose early exercised his muscles and bones in the courtyard. Sometimes he stepped forward and bent down, sometimes he moved both arms together, sometimes he stood on one leg like a golden rooster, sometimes he spun like the wind. After completing a set of unknown movement techniques, he felt his whole body flowing smoothly, making him want to howl at the sky.
With too many residents nearby, Xu Yan ultimately didn’t howl. He washed his face with cold water and finally felt much more refreshed.
That set of movement techniques was the foundation of the Flying Stone Three Forms, specifically used to practice accumulating power, storing power, and releasing power. Xu Yan had been practicing this set of movements under the old Taoist’s guidance since he was very young—he had been practicing for over ten years.
At Yuan Mountain Stronghold, Xu Yan couldn’t reveal his skills. Now that he had settled down and had his own residence, he resumed his daily practice, because his master had said this set of movements must be practiced until he came of age.
His master’s teachings were never wrong, so after settling down, Xu Yan resumed his habits—practicing martial arts before dawn every day, then carrying water and chopping firewood.
Although Plum Fragrance Tower was a brothel, its kitchen was quite large. Not all guests who came to the brothel were there for carnal business. Some scholars and literary men also came. Visiting brothels was considered an elegant pastime in the current world. Some merchants even frequently chose brothels as places to discuss business, provided your brothel was refined and impressive enough.
Even the fierce Qi Nation was like this, so one could imagine what kind of prosperous scene the great Pu Nation, known as the land of literature and scholarship, must present.
Xu Yan was from Pu Nation but now lived in Qi Nation. However, national distinctions didn’t really matter to the little Taoist, because his master had said that people outside the mundane world should consider all corners of the earth as home. So as long as he could eat his fill, Xu Yan wouldn’t mind even living in a pigsty.
Xu Yan didn’t mind which country he lived in, but living in a brothel inevitably brought many troubles.
“Brother Yan, come help me quickly! Red Head flew out of its cage and I can’t catch it! Ah! It’s going to fly away!”
Red Head was a bird that had escaped from its cage. Amid the cries of one of Plum Fragrance Tower’s top courtesans, it flapped its wings. The bird was finally caught by Xu Yan, but couldn’t she put on some clothes before calling for help? The smooth, gleaming white back made the little Taoist’s nose bleed again.
“Brother Yan, help me go to the newly opened shop on the street to buy some rouge—the pink kind. Don’t buy the bright red—it looks like a ghost when applied to the face.”
The expressionless little Taoist took the silver coins and left Plum Fragrance Tower like a walking corpse. He didn’t know how many times he had run this kind of errand.
“Brother Yan, my zither string broke. Help me install a new one. The old zither master at the music shop went out today.”
Installing zither strings was also one of Xu Yan’s jobs. Fortunately, his master occasionally played a tune or two, and Xu Yan had secretly played around with it many times. He couldn’t play any famous pieces, but he had broken quite a few strings, so he was experienced with this work.
“Brother Yan, Brother Yan!” The young courtesan who only sold her art, not her body, had a delicate face that inspired pity.
“My undergarment is missing—the one embroidered with peonies. Help me find it. You’ve seen it!”
Pfft…
Xu Yan felt like he was going to cough up blood. When did I ever see your undergarment?
They say there are no years in the mountains, and a thousand years pass in the blink of an eye. Actually, there are no years in brothels either. At least Xu Yan felt like he was living each day like a year, with sweet voices constantly in his ears and beautiful women constantly before his eyes. Who could stand it for long?
He was a Taoist!
Xu Yan felt he needed to practice another skill. Having the ability to see without seeing wasn’t enough—he needed to cultivate the ability to hear without hearing.
Fortunately, he was a Taoist and had pure-hearted scriptures to recite. Combined with his young age, gradually Xu Yan became accustomed to life at Plum Fragrance Tower. Most of the time he would run to the kitchen to help, preferring to cook and prepare meals rather than stay close to those dangerous women.
As the year-end approached, heavy snow sealed the mountains.
In the blink of an eye, deep winter had arrived.
They had come to Fengshan City in autumn. The Mei family had dismissed Mei Sanniang, but unexpectedly, this strong woman was no ordinary person. With her clever mind, she maneuvered among various wealthy clients. Silver flowed in like water every day. On New Year’s Eve, she paid back Li Gui’s three thousand taels.
The Li family was wealthy and didn’t lack a few thousand taels of silver. Li Gui was also generous, hosting a banquet at Plum Fragrance Tower for several business partners. He spent lavishly, dropping three thousand taels in one night at Plum Fragrance Tower.
With someone supporting her, plus Mei Sanniang’s superior methods of winning people over, after the New Year passed, Plum Fragrance Tower had become the most famous brothel on East Street. Its reputation was even beginning to spread throughout the entire city.
After the new year, Xu Yan was already sixteen years old. Sixteen was the age when young men were growing their bodies. To make himself stronger, on New Year’s Eve, watching countless fireworks exploding in the night sky, Xu Yan secretly made an oath.
This year, he would definitely eat more than last year!
