Book 2 Chapter 3 - Acting Without Thinking
When Du Fuwei pursued outside the restaurant, he saw all the lanterns along this shady street were still shining brightly. It was only then did he realize that this was the red-light district; most of the brothels in this town were concentrated here, the sound of people and carriages still lingered in the air.
Without thinking he dashed into a side alley, jumped onto the roof, focused his eyes and ears, and tried to listen with all his might, while at the same time unleashed his lightness skill to fly over houses and jumped over the roof. In just a short period of time he had already been around several streets in a big circle. But he still did not see the two little demons, neither did he hear hurried footsteps of people running away.
With Du Fuwei's ability, he still suffered a big headache.
He had already made a prompt decision of leaving the enemy and running out to pursue, yet he was still too late to intercept these two boys. He knew the boys were exceedingly smart, they must have hidden someplace nearby. Unless he could search every place within a hundred zhang radius, he could forget about ever finding them.
While running around, he could not stop cursing his own stupidity; if from the beginning he controlled them by sealing their acupoints, without any care whether he would hurt them or not, all these maddening things would not have happened.
Could it be that he had lost his mind that he made such a gross miscalculation? It was really unlike his usual style of always make thorough planning on everything.
He sighed, and then jumped back to the ground to carry out his search operation.
Meanwhile, Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling, two boys had just stepped into a low-grade brothel more than ten buildings away.
Naturally it was Kou Zhong's crafty idea. Because common sense dictates that they would run as far away as possible. But if they do that, Du Fuwei only had to grab any passerby and asked, and he would immediately know the direction these two boys were running madly. Besides, Fu Junchuo once told them that martial art masters are also experts in following a trail. Therefore, they deliberately did the opposite. They looked for the most crowded place nearby, and mingled among the crowd. Naturally it led them into this ‘Piao Xiang [floating fragrance]' Courtyard.
But their clothes and down-and-out appearance gave the people no reason to compliment them. Upon entering the gate, they were immediately intercepted by four bouncers who looked like they were also the bodyguards of somebody important. "We are full!” one of them shouted, "Please go someplace else.”
Kou Zhong giggled and put his hand into his pocket. It was only then did he recall that in his anxiety to rescue Xu Ziling and thought that he would not return alive, he had generously donated all his silver to Susu. Thereupon he hurriedly slapped Xu Ziling's arm.
Having known each other so well, naturally Xu Ziling understood what the slap means. He took out a few pieces of silver and stuffed it into one the men's hand, while saying with a laugh, "Our father and all our five uncles are government officials in Yangzhou. This time we came with our [paternal] uncle to do some shopping here. Serve us well, and you will be heavily rewarded.”
Looking at the silver in his hand, the man smiled and said, "Shaoye [young master[1]] please follow Xiaoren [little/lowly one, referring to self].”
Greatly delighted, the two boys stepped into the hall. The procuress, who dressed like an old demon, stepped out to meet them. As soon as the two boys saw her, they sucked in a mouthful of air; thinking that just by looking at this old procuress, they knew that compared to the ‘Zui Feng Lou' [drunken wind balcony; actually, lou means multi-story building], this brothel was several levels below. But this time escaping with their lives was a more pressing matter, so they could not be bothered by it.
When the procuress saw them, she immediately frowned as well. Not because the smell of their mother's milk had not dried yet, because she had seen a lot of patrons even younger than they were, but because it was the very first time that she saw customers that looked like they have not taken a bath in a year, with their unkempt hair and filthy face.
The procuress stared mercilessly at the bouncer and without any trace of politeness said, "Ah Yuan, what's going on here?”
Grinning, Xu Ziling offered her some silver. Who would have thought that the procuress did not even cast him a glance? "Rules are rules,” she said in disdain, "Didn't you see the sign at the main entrance, ‘No proper attire, no service'? If you want our Piao Xiang Courtyard girls to entertain you, go home, take a bath and change your clothes; then you can come back!”
Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling thought: wasn't her request the same as asking for their life? Giggling, Kou Zhong said, "The reason we came here other than to spend money is exactly to find a place to take a bath and change our clothes.”
Puzzled, the procuress asked, "You don't have even half a bundle, where will the change of clothes come from?”
Kou Zhong calmly turned to Xu Ziling and said, "Xiongdi, please give this Dage a lot of money so that he can buy two sets of clothes for us.”
Xu Ziling reluctantly took out a quarter of all the silver in his possession and handed it to the man. The man and the procuress immediately broke into smiles.
After the man left, still with a big smile on her face, the procuress accepted Xu Ziling's tip and said respectfully, "Shaoye please follow Nujia [female slave, referring to self].”
When the two boys heard her, whose face was covered in heavy rouge, whose bloody mouth wide open like a sacrificial bowl, saying the two words ‘nujia', the hair on their entire body stood on its end; they looked at each other and smiled bitterly.
Just as they were about to step forward, a chirpy oriole-like voice came from behind, "Chen Daniang [aunt, father's older brother's wife]! Which auntie are these two Gongzi looking for?”
All three of them turned around in surprise. They saw a beautiful, lively girl stood behind them. Behind the girl stood a quiet maid and two bodyguards. The girl stared coyly and smiled flirtatiously at the two boys; her posture was extremely provocative in a loose way.
The girl had a fair skin, youthful and tender, her figure shapely, her face elegant, dazzling and beautiful. Even in Yangzhou, which was well-known for its prostitutes, this kind of youthful glow, which was without ‘broken flower, withered willow' feel at all, was extremely rare.
The two boys stared blankly at her, while that Auntie Chen immediately stepped forward to greet her, beaming with joy. "Turns out it's Qingqing, my obedient daughter,” she cooed, "Lu Daye has been waiting for you the whole night.”
Qingqing looked at Kou Zhong and Xu Ziling up and down several times. "Pfft!” she giggled and said, "The sky has just turned dark, how could they wait for me the whole night? But if they still want to continue waiting, they will wait the whole night.” She spoke while walking over toward the two boys, and circled around them in great interest.
"Is this the first time you two boys come to this place?” she asked, "Just now Nujia saw you outside, but I was inside the carriage, so you did not see me.”
Auntie Chen put on her best smiling face; she came over with a forced laugh, "The two Gongzi are here to visit the bathhouse. Why don't my Qingqing be a good girl and greet Lu Daye, huh?”
Qingqing let out a tender snort and said, "Tonight your Miss only want to accompany these two Gongzi.” Reaching out to grab the two boys' arms, she said, "Come! Follow me!”
She turned to her maid and ordered her to get some bath supplies, leaving the procuress stood in the hall while staring blankly at her.
The two boys exchanged glances, they were both very excited with their luck that has just flown in; they thought that if their virginity was destroyed by this kind of woman, it was certainly worth it.
However, they had just left the hall, the smiling expression on Qingqing's face immediately vanished without a trace. Pushing the two boys through a long corridor, they arrived at the bathhouse; turns out it was a hot spring bath.
Qingqing pushed the two boys in and coldly said, "Go take a bath!”
The two boys were still stunned when the maid arrived with bath towel and other bathing supplies. Qingqing took one set and pushed it into Xu Ziling's hands. With a wooden expression she said, "Take your time! No need to hurry!” And then she turned around and left. She even closed the door.
While the two boys were still staring blankly at the closed door, they heard Qingqing's nervous voice outside, "Has Huang Gongzi arrived?” And then they heard the sound of footsteps going farther and farther away.
They suddenly realized that they were being used by this girl. Kou Zhong angrily threw the towel and everything else on the floor.
The two boys looked at each other, and then almost simultaneously they doubled up in laughter; they laughed so hard that they were nearly out of breath, with tears flowing down their face.
[1] I feel that I need to explain this ‘young master' term more. Shao means ‘younger' or ‘lesser', while Ye means ‘master', as in ‘master-servant' or ‘superior-subordinate' relationship (Laoye, old master, Daye, big master, Shaoye, young master]. The other term is Gongzi, which is a polite term to refer to young men in general. I figure it is similar to ‘Master' in old English literature, like Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, where Scrooge addressed Bob Cratchit's son as ‘Master'. Example would be last chapter, where Shen Naitang addressed Liang Shunming as ‘Gongzi'.