“What? That madam said you’re a Rakshasa ghost? She must be blind!”
She patted the woman’s shoulder, feeling the taut lines of muscle. With a fanatical smile, she continued, “Your frame is a natural gift for martial arts. I want you to practice the sword and the Hu-style whirl dance! I want you to be a female Asura on the battlefield, a wild rose of the Western Regions! When you don your armor and dance with a longsword in hand, I want every soul in Jiangning City to prostrate themselves before your beauty!”
“Remember, from today onward, your name is Asura!”
In one breath, Xu Qinghuan selected seven or eight women, assigning each of them a strange, unheard-of path.
Finally, she stopped in front of Yunniang.
Yunniang was still clutching her pipa, her knuckles white from tension.
“I heard you’re the best pipa player in the Drunken Red Pavilion,” Xu Qinghuan said, looking at her.
Yunniang lowered her head. “I am... but the madam said my playing is too rigid, not seductive enough...”
“Play a piece,” Xu Qinghuan interrupted. “No ‘Eighteen Touches,’ and none of those whimpering, vulgar tunes. Play what you want to play most. That one song you keep hidden in your heart, the one you only dare to pluck at when no one is around.”
Yunniang looked up with a glimmer of longing.
She looked into Xu Qinghuan’s clear, bright eyes, and her heart gave a violent thud in her chest.
What she wanted to play most?
She had suppressed that song for ten years in the Drunken Red Pavilion. When she was first sold there, she had played it once; the madam had snapped two of her strings and locked her in the woodshed for three days, claiming it was a tune for the dead, a harbinger of bad luck.
Could she really play it?
Yunniang glanced at the encouraging gazes of those around her. She took a deep breath, stepped back, and sat firmly on a stone bench.
She closed her eyes, centering her breath. When she opened them again, her previously miserable expression held a hint of resolve.
Zheng—!
The first note tore through the air like rending silk!
It wasn't the lingering tenderness of Jiangnan rain, nor the flirtatious charm of the Qinhuai River. It was the desolation of a lone plume of smoke in the desert, the grandeur of a setting sun over a long river!
“The Frontier Song”! Even the wildest musicians in the Great Qian Empire wouldn't dare play such a song of slaughter in a brothel!
At first, Yunniang’s fingers were a bit stiff, but as the melody progressed, the emotions she had suppressed for ten years burst forth like a collapsing dam.
Her fingers flew in a tremolo, moving so fast they became a blur. The pipa was no longer just an instrument; it was the sound of iron cavalry and armored horses, the clash of blades, the roar of a thousand armies!
The stirring music echoed through the dilapidated Liu Garden, shaking the dust from the roof tiles and sending shivers down everyone’s spine.
The women who had been wiping away tears forgot to cry. Their mouths hung open, feeling a fire burning in their chests.
This wasn't just playing an instrument; it was a violent tear through the fabric of this decaying world!
The song ended.
As the echoes vibrated through the courtyard, Yunniang’s fingertips were bleeding. Her chest heaved, and her forehead was drenched in sweat. She felt dazed, as if she had just survived a life-and-death battle.
Silence. A deathly silence.
Then—
“Holy shit!!”
A crude exclamation broke the silence.
Xu Wuyou practically leaped off the pillar he was leaning against, his face flushed red and the veins on his neck bulging. He snatched a broom from a nearby servant and brandished it like a sword, hacking twice through the air.
“Refreshing! That was so damn refreshing!”
The young master Xu was so excited he was incoherent. He snapped his folding fan in half with a loud crack. “This is the kind of music I want to hear! What was that crap I listened to before? After hearing this, I want to go out and hack a couple of people just to celebrate!”
This "music review"—crude as it was, yet utterly sincere—immediately moved Yunniang to tears.
Not from grievance, but from the profound emotion of finally finding someone who understood her soul.
Xu Qinghuan stood up, a "just as I expected" smile on her face.
She walked over to Yunniang, helped her up, and announced to everyone, “This song will be the opening battle anthem for our Hundred Flowers Pavilion!”
The surrounding women gasped, their gazes shifting instantly.
If they had been lost and uncertain about the future moments ago, now, looking at the sword-wielding Asura who looked like a goddess of war, and the sweat-soaked but radiant Yunniang, a seed named "ambition" finally sprouted in their hearts.
So, they didn't have to kneel and sell smiles. They didn't have to please men.
As long as you had true skill—even if it was a "killing technique"—in the hands of this County Princess, it could become a legitimate ladder to the heavens!
Xu Qinghuan looked at those faces coming to life and peeled an orange with satisfaction.
The gloom of Liu Garden had finally dissipated.
***
The doors of the Xiaoxiang Hall were half-closed. The hinges lacked oil, letting out a sound like a rat gnawing its teeth whenever the wind blew.
The manager, Qian Duoduo, was slumped over the counter. His abacus beads clacked rapidly, but the more he calculated, the tighter his brow furrowed, until his face looked like a bitter melon.
For the past six months, the Drunken Red Pavilion across the street had been doing business so booming it looked like they’d lit a sky lantern, while his own Xiaoxiang Hall was so deserted you could race horses through the lobby.
If he kept hemorrhaging money like this, he wouldn’t just lose the shop; he’d lose those two acres of thin land he owned outside the city too.
Clack.
A thick-soled official boot stepped over the threshold, crushing a withered leaf on the floor.
Qian Sanduo didn’t look up. He didn’t even blink, assuming it was just that debt collector from the rice mill back again.
"I don't have any money. I’ve got no rice to give you, so you might as well take my life instead. This shop is on the brink of collapse anyway—are you lot really trying to drive me to my grave?"
"Who said I was here to collect a debt?"
The voice was full of vigor, carrying the rich, oily resonance of someone who had just tucked into a bowl of braised pork.
Qian Sanduo’s hands froze. He lifted his head.
Standing in the doorway was a burly man dressed in a navy-blue silk robe. A heavy rosewood box hung from his waist.
Li Sheng didn't stand on ceremony. He strode directly to the Eight Immortals table—which was none too clean—and sat down. Four equally broad-shouldered guards followed him in, standing behind him. Their presence immediately made the already cramped lobby feel suffocating.
Qian Sanduo recognized that face.
Between the public distribution of porridge and meat on the streets a few days ago and the massive scene he’d caused at the Drunken Red Pavilion recently, who in Jiangning City didn’t know Li Sheng, the head steward of the Xu family?
Qian Sanduo’s heart skipped a beat. He nearly dropped his abacus.
"Steward... Steward Li?" Qian Sanduo scrambled out from behind the counter, his legs feeling like jelly. "You... you must have the wrong door. The Drunken Red Pavilion is across the street. My place is just a respectable teahouse. We... we don't look for trouble."
The Xu family was a hornet's nest right now. Anyone who poked it was as good as dead.
The Four Great Families were watching them like hawks. If he got mixed up with the Xus, how could he possibly expect a happy ending?
Li Sheng reached out and poured himself a cup of cold tea. He didn't drink it, merely swirling it in his hand.
"Manager Qian is a sensible man. My young mistress said she’s taken a liking to this plot of land."
Li Sheng set the teacup down on the table with a sharp thud.
"Give me a price. The building, the courtyard, and every piece of junk furniture in this room. We’re taking the whole lot."
Qian Sanduo stared blankly for a moment, then his head began shaking like a rattle.
"Not for sale! Not for any amount of money!"
Qian Sanduo backed away two steps, his miserable expression instantly replaced by sheer terror. "Steward Li, please don't make things difficult for me. You know the rules of Jiangning City. If I sell this shop to the Xu family, the Wangs and the Zhaos will skin me alive! I might have the life to take the money, but I won’t have the life to spend it!"
"Rules?"
Li Sheng let out a mocking laugh. He reached into his robe and pulled out a stack of banknotes. He didn't bother counting them; he simply slammed them onto the table.
Smack!
Dust billowed into the air.
"These are the rules."
Qian Sanduo caught a glimpse of the denominations on the notes, and his eyelid twitched violently.
They were all high-value notes, redeemable anywhere. That single stack had to be at least a thousand taels.
But he gritted his teeth and shook his head. "No... I really can't... it's not about the money..."
Smack!
Another stack.
"Two thousand taels," Li Sheng said, his face expressionless.
Qian Sanduo’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His eyes began to glaze over.
"Steward Li, have mercy, please just let me be..."
Smack!
"Three thousand taels."
Li Sheng’s hand was steady. Every strike was like a heavy hammer pounding against Qian Sanduo’s chest.
"This is double the market price. Take this money and move your whole family to Suzhou or Hangzhou. You could even buy a mansion in the capital and live like a retired gentleman. Do you really think the Wang family is going to hunt you to the ends of the earth?"
Qian Sanduo’s breathing grew ragged. Fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.
Smack!
"Five thousand taels."
Li Sheng slammed the final and thickest stack of notes onto the table. He leaned forward slightly, pinning Qian Sanduo with his gaze.
"Manager Qian, think carefully. If you offend the Great Families, you might struggle to survive. But if you miss this chance, you’ll spend the rest of your life wallowing in this mud pit. Being poor is sometimes more painful than dying, isn't it?"
Five thousand taels.
Those words were like a bolt of lightning, shattering the last of Qian Sanduo’s fear of the Great Families.
The most money he had ever seen in his life was the five hundred taels of capital he’d used to start the shop.
Five thousand taels was enough to buy his life ten times over.
Qian Sanduo swallowed hard. He reached a trembling hand toward the pile of banknotes. The moment his fingertips touched the paper, it felt like he was touching glowing red iron.
"I’ll sell... I’ll sell!"
Qian Sanduo frantically grabbed the notes and stuffed them into his tunic, terrified that Li Sheng might change his mind. He spun around and began rummaging under the counter for the land deed.
"I’ll sign right now! I’ll leave tonight! I won’t take a single thing from this shop—it’s all yours!"
Half an hour later.
The old signboard of the Xiaoxiang Pavilion, which had hung for over a decade, was brutally torn down and tossed to the ground, snapping into two pieces.
In its place, a massive, eye-searingly red silk banner was unfurled.
Written upon it in thick, bold ink were several characters in wild cursive. The brushwork was powerful and arrogant, radiating a total lack of restraint:
The Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
The sign was hung with calculated precision.
Not too high, not too low—it sat exactly opposite the main entrance of the Drunken Red Pavilion.
As soon as the Drunken Red Pavilion opened for business, they would see those characters the moment they looked up. It was no different from having a finger poked directly into their forehead.
Standing behind the railing on the second floor of the Drunken Red Pavilion, the madam’s silk handkerchief had already been shredded into ribbons.
She watched the craftsmen bustling in and out across the street, her eyes fixed on Li Sheng as he directed the unloading of cart after cart of expensive timber. The venom in her gaze was so potent it could have been distilled into poison.
"This is too much... This is absolutely intolerable!"
The madam gnashed her teeth, spinning around to bark at the servant behind her. "Go and send word to the Wang family! Tell them that crazy Xu girl is opening a brothel right under our noses! She’s trying to cut our legs out from under us!"
The news grew wings, soaring through every corner of Jiangning City.
In an instant, the city's entire community of scholars erupted in a frenzy.
The tea houses and wine shops were filled with the sounds of righteous indignation and furious cursing.
"Absurd! This is an utter insult to the dignity of the literati!"
"The daughter of a high-ranking court official, a lady bestowed with a title by the Emperor himself, actually stooping so low as to run a brothel? What has the world come to!"
"It is a depravity that mocks the very moral fabric of our Great Qian Dynasty! We must submit a formal petition to impeach her! This toxic woman must be driven out of Jiangning!"
Countless letters, written in the most heated and stinging prose, were dispatched overnight to the major academies. Even the undercover agents of the Censorate worked through the night, drafting memorials to ensure this "scandal" reached the golden halls of the Imperial Palace.
The Xu family had become the target of a thousand arrows.
