As long as contradictions and conflicts exist, they will always erupt. If these contradictions are witnessed by many people, there are even more factors pushing them to explode—how can watching a show be satisfying without a good conclusion?
When there are many spectators, inevitably one or two will hope to go up and show their faces. Li Er and Zhangsun, being conscious of their status, wouldn’t do this. Yun Ye, considering his teacher-student relationship, wouldn’t do this either. As for Xiao Wu, whose intelligence was extraordinary—after easily handling the trivial affairs of the Yun and Di families, this bored person wanted to watch the show. However, she discovered that the plot was severely dragging, which aroused her great dissatisfaction.
Thus, a servant in blue clothes and a small cap came leisurely to Yanlai Tower. His eyes seemed to grow on top of his forehead, not even glancing at the madam. He simply said that his household wanted to invite someone to a banquet, but the occasion was rather cold and desolate, so they were inviting Yan Zi to entertain guests. The servants of the Yun Family were all of this character—they not only displayed this attitude at Yanlai Tower, but were the same everywhere else they went.
The madam knew that such servants, dressed plainly yet incomparably arrogant, could only come from those few households in Chang’an with long-established family backgrounds. She was just about to ask which household was preparing to invite Yan Zi to their banquet when she saw the servant impatiently snort and say: “Troublesome! Why is it so troublesome to call a singing girl to sing a song? Fine, summon Yan Zi down here. If she looks decent and her voice is pleasing to the ear, just buy her back home.”
Yan Zi was a famous courtesan of Yanlai Tower, and her value was absolutely considerable. Now seeing this servant buying a singing girl back home as casually as buying a hen at the market to make soup, the madam’s expression immediately changed—she couldn’t afford to offend such a household.
The one who felt most distressed was actually Yan Zi, who received the news. She scurried around her room like an ant on a hot pan. Once a singing girl entered a noble household, her life or death was uncertain. Because the master didn’t care, he absolutely wouldn’t cherish her. Once she fell out of favor, no one had heard of any good outcome for singing girls who entered noble households—instead, beautiful corpses would often appear in mass burial grounds.
So when Li Yifu stepped into Yan Zi’s room, he received Yan Zi’s gracefully indirect and circuitous service. At this moment, Yan Zi only wanted to use every means possible to make Li Yifu buy her. She would rather follow Li Yifu and live a poor life than be thrown into a mass burial ground to be dragged away by wild dogs.
The singing girls at Yanlai Tower were actually all very loyal and righteous. At this time, even those who got along worst with Yan Zi would do everything in their power to help her, including the madam.
Thus, the servant in blue clothes and small cap was immediately submerged in the crowd of singing girls. Grabbing here, touching there, he was so delighted he seemed to be floating on clouds—who still remembered what he had come to do?
“My lord, save me!” Yan Zi knelt on the ground, clutching Li Yifu’s legs and pleading mournfully. Li Yifu stroked Yan Zi’s cloud-like beautiful hair with his hand, feeling extraordinarily pleased—this was the first time Yan Zi had been so humble and submissive.
For ordinary people to compete with noble households over women was unwise, but students of the academy were not among this category. They regarded such matters as a means of displaying their moral backbone. Noble households mostly cherished their reputations, and competing with poor academy students over women would only add to that student’s popularity if word got out. Therefore, the victor was generally the student.
A single noble household couldn’t block a student’s path of advancement, unless like Ma Zhou one provoked universal anger and resentment. The academy students’ path of advancement relied on the Emperor’s favor, the support of teachers and friends, plus their own efforts. Li Yifu actually had no psychological pressure at all. The only thing he considered was how to drive the price down to the minimum, and incidentally squeeze out all of Yan Zi’s money—perhaps he wouldn’t need to spend any money at all and could obtain a charming beauty of a thousand graces.
“Yan Zi, how could I not save you? It’s just a pity that I come from a humble background, and your redemption price is expensive. How can you ask me to raise such a large sum of money in such a short time?”
“This servant also has some private savings. I’m just short one hundred and forty silver coins. I wonder how much you have? If we pool our resources together, perhaps it will be enough. I beg you—Yan Zi doesn’t want to go to a noble household to die.”
Li Yifu laughed heartily. He had already tasted the bone-eroding, soul-melting flavor of beauty. He was young and romantic, just at the right time. When reading at night, having a beauty to add fragrance with red sleeves wouldn’t be bad either. One hundred and forty silver coins—for the current Li Yifu, this was not a problem.
Those fools at the academy actually thought that managing finances was an extremely vulgar task. Someone like Pang Yuhai actually believed that silver coins greatly contradicted his gentlemanly manner. Because he was a newcomer among the student leaders, they deliberately bullied him. Who would know that managing finances had countless benefits?
The butcher who delivered pigs and sheep to the academy would slip him benefits, the grain merchant who delivered rice and grain to the academy would give him benefits, even the farmers who delivered vegetables would send him the freshest vegetables to taste. Including beauties like Yan Zi who would automatically throw themselves into his arms. The usually proud beauty now resembled a frightened little beast praying to receive his comfort and protection. At this moment, Li Yifu felt himself incomparably tall and mighty. That saying of Marquis Yun’s was correct—I can replace him and do just as well.
Just as the servant in blue clothes and small cap was having a good time, he suddenly discovered that the beauties beside him had disappeared, and even the male servants who poured tea had vanished without a trace. His temper flared up immediately, and he slapped the table and roared.
The madam immediately came over with her powder-covered face plate, smiling broadly, speaking very politely to the servant. The servant looked around and saw there were no more advantages to be gained, so he wanted to immediately take Yan Zi away. Whether for redemption or to serve at song and dance events, in any case, he didn’t plan to return her.
“Dear guest, wouldn’t you like to look at this old one’s other daughters? Their singing voices are also quite good, melodious as birds, and their figures are slender. They’re all good girls.”
The servant looked in the direction the madam’s finger pointed, and his face immediately darkened. Seven or eight singing girls were leaning on the second-floor railing—not only were their figures bloated, but each one had a fierce and evil appearance. Most outrageous of all was that one even had graying hair.
The current Yanlai Tower actually very much did not welcome people coming to redeem singing girls. Great Tang people were now precious, and finding a Tang daughter with both beauty and talent was harder than ascending to heaven. Poor families also didn’t lack the food to support their daughters, so brothels could only accept those women who had been driven out by their husband’s families with nowhere to go. Such women weren’t valuable.
What the madam wanted was Li Yifu’s promise. As for that bit of money, she wouldn’t care about it. As long as Yan Zi went to serve song and dance at noblemen’s houses two more times, the investment would be recouped. There was no reason to so easily let go of a chicken that laid eggs.
Yan Zi also didn’t want to be redeemed. She was Yanlai Tower’s future madam. As for marriage, she had long since lost confidence in it. She only wanted to live together with those homeless sisters of hers. Growing old like this wasn’t such a bad thing.
She could also make use of those sisters’ husbands. If there were children, they could all raise them together. It sounded bad to say it out loud, but for singing girls like herself, this was already a very good ending.
“Madam, get it straight—the person our household wants, do you dare not give her? Never mind our master, believe it or not, if our young master comes over, he’ll tear down this broken brothel of yours.” The servant flew into a rage and viciously threatened the madam.
“But I wonder who your master is? This student is very curious to know—are the Chang’an County Office and the Court of Judicial Review just for show? Li Yifu, though without talent, would like to ask how your noble master views the Great Tang Code of Laws. If the father and son have new insights regarding the law, Li Yifu would like to pay a visit to ask for instruction.”
The servant turned at the sound to see Li Yifu in his fluttering blue scholar’s robe passing through the throng of flowers, and immediately shut his mouth. Academy students were famously difficult to deal with. They frequently traveled about to pay visits to various big shots. Because they bore the great banner of being the Son of Heaven’s students, seeking advice from various venerable elders was their daily homework. Those big shots were also happy to have these young people visit them. Therefore, in Chang’an city, stories of the older generation supporting and promoting younger generation would occasionally emerge—this was the greatest topic of conversation among the noble circles. Now it wasn’t just the Emperor who desperately needed talent; families also needed to absorb fresh blood. Family estates were increasing and expanding daily. Relying solely on family members, they simply couldn’t manage everything. Because of this, those big shots were each extremely eager to treat worthy men with courtesy.
The servant clearly could have beaten Li Yifu, because his household’s retainers were right outside the door. If it were other nobles picking a fight, getting into a fight would certainly earn the master’s praise when returning home. But fighting with students would lose face for the master’s household—it would be strange if he weren’t punished upon returning home.
Li Yifu watched the servant steward with great interest. He saw him stand up very efficiently, point at the madam and scold her, then turn to leave. After taking two steps, he came back, threw two silver coins to the madam, pushed open the door and left angrily.
Naturally, the victor would receive cheers. Li Yifu very much wanted to discuss with the madam the destination of his one hundred and forty silver coins, and incidentally ask when he could take Yan Zi away. However, he was held tightly by the madam. The two soft masses of flesh on the madam’s chest rode on his neck, making his breathing very unsmooth—uncomfortable. Yet he was also unwilling to get up from the chair. What a rare moment this was!
Li Yifu didn’t know how he got out of Yanlai Tower. Intoxicated and drowsy, it was only after being blown by the cold wind that his mind cleared somewhat. Only then did he remember that he seemed to have agreed to treat those one hundred and forty silver coins as Yan Zi’s tips, deposited at Yanlai Tower’s counter, waiting for him to slowly spend.
“Young men of noble families compete in lavishing gifts; after one song, who knows how much wealth disappears.” Young people indeed should guard against lust. Li Yifu looked back at the towering Yanlai Tower, shook his head and laughed loudly. Sooner or later, he would become the master of Yanlai Tower. Depositing money here was merely his advance payment to purchase Yanlai Tower, stored here for the time being.
Today’s pork payment—Old Cui should extend him credit, right? When he used to do cash-on-delivery transactions, Old Cui always said he was being too polite. Today he would be impolite with him for once.
Li Yifu called over a horse carriage and headed straight for the West Market. Today’s timing was a bit late. In a little while, the West Market would close. He must handle these matters before the West Market closed. Otherwise, the academy wouldn’t have braised pork to eat tomorrow.