Zhangsun Chong, Li Huairen, and Cheng Chumo came together to visit, each dragging a cartload of gifts. Knowing Yun Ye’s temperament, they brought none of the usual medicinal herbs, brocades, paintings, calligraphy, or scholar’s four treasures. Instead there were massive corals, whole blocks of jade, and agates so large it took two people to carry them. Seeing these made Yun Ye’s heart bloom with joy. That’s right—this was what visiting a sick person should look like. Seeing these things, his illness was already half cured.
Not like Li Chengqian, who had sent over two large chests of books, claiming that sick people reading more books was beneficial to physical recovery. Never mind that the books were printed all messy—he still had the face to say these were palace treasures that he’d gone through great trouble to obtain. Yun Ye didn’t give him a good expression, but Li Chengqian was a shameless person who played familiar. Relying on his status as Crown Prince, he plundered extensively throughout the Yun residence. Old Grandmother, who usually guarded the household stricter than a prison, unexpectedly wore a face full of smiles encouraging His Highness the Crown Prince to take more. Newly made tables and chairs, newly forged iron stoves, iron pots, and the copper hot pot that had just been made by a coppersmith were all packed up and taken away.
Yun Ye anxiously stamped his feet. In the dead of winter he had originally planned to make a steaming hot pot meal to warm himself up—now it was all gone. The day after tomorrow was New Year’s. Finding a coppersmith now was too late. If his two arms weren’t still in slings, he would have grabbed his weapons long ago.
Seeing a wooden tray of vigorously growing bean sprouts in Yun Ye’s room, Li Chengqian casually stuffed it into an attendant’s hands, saying that having green vegetables in the depths of winter was unprecedented—he’d never seen any so fresh and tender. He’d take them back for the Empress Mother to taste. Yun Ye closed his eyes—out of sight, out of mind.
Old Grandmother respectfully invited Li Chengqian to the front hall. Under the supervision of palace guards, the cook tremblingly used his utmost ability to prepare a table of dishes: braised pork, sweet and sour spare ribs, stewed pig’s feet, cold dressed bean sprouts. The sausages were also pan-fried. The shredded radish was cut uniformly, then paired with garlic shoots and doused with sesame oil—the garlic fragrance assailed the nostrils, sweet and sour and delicious.
The dignified Crown Prince ate in a manner worse than a beggar. Finished, while picking his teeth, he forcibly took away the most skilled cook, leaving the household cooks with tears in their eyes.
The plague god was hard to send off. Before leaving, this fellow patted Yun Ye’s arm saying he should recuperate well—he’d be waiting in the palace for them to study together as brothers. Completely ignoring Yun Ye who was in such pain he gritted his teeth, he set up the Crown Prince’s ceremonial procession and returned laden with goods.
This humiliating matter, when mentioned to his brothers, became an amusing anecdote. After laughing heartily, they said that learning their brother was injured, they’d come in such haste they hadn’t eaten lunch. They planned to impose for a meal and solve dinner at the same time while they were at it.
The Yun residence’s meals wouldn’t disappoint them. They didn’t touch a drop of wine but ate all the dishes clean. Each person packed a portion for home, saying it was to show filial piety to their fathers and mothers. After sending off the servants, the lanterns were just being lit. The four brothers sat in the front hall drinking tea and chatting. Without realizing it, the conversation turned to the foreign peoples they’d seen in Longyou. The atmosphere immediately became heated. They chased away the serving maids. The guest hall became a haven for wolves—waves of breasts, shadows of buttocks flying about. Zhangsun Chong howled like a wolf a few times. With tacit understanding, the four brothers walked outside. The thing was, Yun Ye had long wanted to see Chang’an’s red light district—Pingkang Ward.
Being injured, he couldn’t ride a horse. The four squeezed onto Zhangsun Chong’s carriage, cursing and kicking to urge the driver to whip the horses faster. The carriage flew along Zhuque Avenue. Pedestrians hurried to avoid it. The night patrol officers didn’t even dare ask questions. The Zhangsun family’s carriage—avoiding it wasn’t fast enough, who had the guts to question it?
A fine name—Yanlai Pavilion. The four-story wooden structure building was brilliantly lit, heads surging. Before people arrived, the fragrance of rouge and powder rode the wind to welcome guests. Two attendants shouted once, clearing a path.
The four young masters swaggered into Yanlai Pavilion. Although one had both arms in slings which looked somewhat unseemly, who made a rule that disabled people couldn’t visit brothels? Besides, did visiting a brothel necessarily require using hands?
From ancient times to the present, as long as there was a brothel, there would certainly be a madam who knew how to be tactful and interesting. Sure enough, before people even crossed the threshold, a soft glutinous voice came first: “My my my, I said why were the magpies calling incessantly today, why Tingfang wouldn’t come downstairs to receive guests—so it’s because Young Master Zhangsun has arrived! You haven’t come in quite some days. My daughter has been washing her face with tears daily!”
Zhangsun Chong laughed extremely arrogantly. Reaching out, he embraced a woman who floated over. Her age wasn’t great—only about twenty years old—her features merely delicate. Fending off Zhangsun Chong’s wandering hands, her eyes rolled about looking over the other three.
“Don’t ask. Anyone who came with this young master is no ordinary person. Find a few virgin girls, and summon Tingfang for this master. Attend well to wine and food. You needn’t manage anything else.” Having said this, a longan-sized pearl flew into the woman’s deep cleavage and disappeared.
Li Huairen’s saliva was flowing out. Having entered the building, his eyes wouldn’t even blink. This bastard was a pure carnivore. When looking at women, he didn’t look at faces at all—only at chests. The madam deliberately thrust out her chest to make that pair of assets appear even more magnificent. Li Huairen looked like he was about to pounce. Cheng Chumo hurriedly held him back—don’t embarrass the four brothers. They hadn’t even seen any beauties yet and he’d already fallen to the madam first.
“Ha, bad man! Remember back when this brother’s virgin body was surrendered to Yaoniang? Three years later, you also can’t hold out!” Having said this with a face full of vicissitudes, his hand opportunistically reached toward Yaoniang’s towering breast peaks.
The madam twisted her body and dodged—the movement extremely practiced, clearly frequently rehearsed.
“Four young masters, please follow this slave to the elegant room upstairs.”
Her long skirt train dragged on the ground. Her legs and feet couldn’t be seen—one only felt she was floating across the floor. When going up the stairs, her waist and hips twisted seemingly with rhythm, like dancing. Zhangsun Chong kept trying to grab with his hands but could never catch anything.
Li Huairen stared at her round buttocks without blinking. Cheng Chumo seemed uninterested in older women. While walking, he chatted with Yun Ye. As for Yun Ye, this was really child’s play for him. In his previous life, under the earnest teachings of teachers like Aoi Sora and Saki Kozai, he could already achieve a heart like still water toward ordinary vulgar things. Wasn’t it just a woman with some beauty? Why were bad men infatuated to this extent?
A middle-aged person’s mindset in a youth’s body—now suddenly entering a flower cluster, he no longer had the interest of sitting on a curb whistling at beautiful women like in his younger days.
The forty to fifty square meter elegant room had Western Region carpets laid on the floor, embroidered tapestries hanging on the walls, and in the middle a huge copper coal furnace heated the room until it was warm as spring. Stepping on the carpet could submerge one’s ankles—soft and gentle as if in the clouds. Exquisite as a candy box, it made one desire to sink into this tender village and never wake again.
Sitting behind the soft low table, looking at several types of exquisite pastries on the table, Yun Ye felt he couldn’t make them. The sweet Hami melon—who knew how it was preserved until now—immediately gave rise to thoughts of eating it with utmost pleasure.
Yaoniang performed a light courtesy: “The four young masters are of noble status. This slave doesn’t dare ask your names. Today this slave’s daughter Jiuyi makes her debut. I beseech the four young masters to give face. This slave is endlessly grateful.”
Zhangsun Chong smiled and replied: “You know me. Pointing at Li Huairen, he said this is Seventh Li. This is Third Cheng. As for the one with injured hands, just call him First Yun.”
After greeting again, Yaoniang half-knelt on the carpet, picked up the golden pestle from the table and struck the golden bell on the low table. With the lingering bell sounds, several paintings of court ladies on the inner wall instantly flipped around. Several music ladies holding instruments filed out, gently playing their instruments as they walked.
Upon reaching the low table, they had already formed a dance formation of three in front and four behind. The pipa made a sound like tearing silk. Music erupted greatly. The dancing ladies either made flying celestial poses or stood on one leg. White silver bells were tied to their bare ankles. With each leg lift, each step moved, the bell sounds were crisp, actually penetrating through the tinkling pipa sounds, creating several degrees of liveliness right there. As the dancing lady beating the hand drum began to spin, the bell sounds became increasingly intense, interspersed with the pipa’s long sliding notes—like a fierce wind blowing past eaves corners, provoking the bells to ring chaotically, and also like the chaotic thoughts of a resentful woman urgently anticipating her husband’s return.
The four wolves seemed to have forgotten the purpose of coming here. Their eyes were full of only fluttering long skirts, dancing colorful clothing, and lotus-root-like arms urgently plucking various instruments. Was this ancient hot dancing? Yun Ye watched with dazzled spirit and mesmerized mind.
The drum sounds abruptly ceased, like a sudden rainstorm moving far away and all things returning to silence. Seven dancing ladies prostrated themselves on the ground, their instruments placed beside them. Only their backs rose and fell—the dance just now was extremely physically demanding.
Yun Ye’s hands weren’t convenient. He instructed a singing girl who had entered at some unknown time to take out a cloth bag from his bosom. Inside were some gemstones. He had the singing girl take out one piece and place it in the silver tray Yaoniang held. Cheng Chumo and Li Huairen also gave rewards. Yaoniang smiled with a face like peach blossoms. One dance performance and they’d rewarded dozens of strings of cash—rare to encounter such wealthy guests. Seeing they were young yet made extraordinary expenditures, she wondered which noble family’s young masters they were.
The dancing ladies gave thanks and withdrew. A white-clothed boy with red lips and white teeth held a blind man’s staff, leading a tall blind man carrying a qin bag who entered from outside the door. After cupping hands in salute, with the boy’s help he sat in the corner, set up the qin table, and placed an externally mottled ancient qin on the table.
Ancient simple qin sounds arose. Gone was the earlier liveliness. A long time passed before plucking the strings once. The qin sounds buzzed endlessly. A mournful tender beautiful voice came from behind the screen. The singing voice was melodious, complaining and lamenting: “There is a fox, sleek and graceful, at Qi’s beam. My heart is troubled—that one has no clothes. There is a fox, sleek and graceful, at Qi’s shore. My heart is troubled—that one has no belt. There is a fox, sleek and graceful, at Qi’s bank. My heart is troubled—that one has no garments.”