WNOC 09

Chapter 08

Crawling out of the bath, Xia Qian felt as though she had been thoroughly rehydrated, her entire body soft and pliant.

Whether it was merely her imagination or not, she noticed her skin was even fairer and more delicate than before, prompting her to steal a second glance at herself.

She casually grabbed a nearby bath towel, drying herself quickly, then selected a long robe that didn’t appear as ostentatious as a peacock’s plumage.

No sooner had she tied her waistband and taken a couple of steps than the faint shuffle of footsteps pursued Xia Qian’s shadow once more.

Several blue-clad youths, like phantoms, seemed capable of materializing from any corner at any given moment.

Each of them still wore that same artificial smile, one that made Xia Qian long to deliver a punch.

“Our new Brother—”

The leading youth spoke in a saccharine, high-pitched voice.

“It’s time for you to learn the rules, as arranged. Daddy Liu instructed us to take good care of Brother.”

“Take good care?”

Xia Qian stepped back half a pace, almost laughing in exasperation.

“Following my every move, sticking to me like a persistent plaster—is that what you call taking good care of someone?”

The youths covered their mouths, giggling softly, their silver wrist bells jingling.

The leader poked Xia Qian’s jade plaque at her waist with a lantern pole. “Brother jests,” he said. “We are merely following the rules of the house. You see, the Willow Lane courtesan house has numerous private rooms and compartments, with winding staircases and corridors. What if you were to get lost and offend a distinguished guest?”

“Stop, stop, stop that—”

Xia Qian raised a hand to halt him, wiping a non-existent bead of sweat from her forehead.

So, these fellows, masquerading as personal attendants under the guise of ‘taking care’ of her, were essentially breathing surveillance cameras, were they? They looked exactly like monitors.

Since there was no immediate way to shake off these persistent followers, Xia Qian decided it was pointless to argue. She pouted, resigned.

“Consider me intimidated by you all. Do as you please.”

Upon hearing this, the blue-clad youths immediately clustered around their new Brother with glee, beginning their tour of the pleasure house.

The leading blue-clad youth walked at the very front, pointing to their surroundings as he recounted to Xia Qian:

“Brother, please observe. Most people usually enter and exit through the back side door, traveling from the back garden to the front building of the house. The front building of Willow Lane has a total of seven floors. Allow me to explain further…”

The interior of Willow Lane’s building was vast and spacious.

On the ground floor, numerous round tables were grandly arranged in the central hall, with decorations as vibrant as a flower room.

The hall buzzed with clinking cups and lively chatter. At the nearest table, a group of women laughed heartily, exchanging crude jokes and not forgetting to embrace male courtesans, urging them to drink.

The embraced youth wore an obsequious smile, his hands busy tucking away the tips slipped into his waistband by the patrons.

Nearby, on some particularly long counters, many female guests shouted and cheered, holding up bamboo tally sticks, counting copper coins and placing bets, egged on by their accompanying male escorts.

“These elder sisters are the most infatuated,” the blue-clad youth whispered with a smile, a hint of disdain in his tone. “They save up half a year’s wages just to grope a bit while getting drunk.”

Xia Qian observed the guests in the hall. Indeed, most were women dressed in plain silk or even common cloth.

They couldn’t compare to the tank-like Steward Li she had seen earlier, nor even to the men serving in the pleasure house. They were clearly of the poorer class.

While there were a few refined young ladies who appeared to be from wealthy families, they always seemed to lack a certain air of nobility.

Of course, Xia Qian’s focus was not on these ordinary scenes.

It seems the female guests who come here are simply for drinking and hiring male escorts; there’s nothing particularly special about it… It appears one needs to spend more money for deeper interactions.

As she pondered, the leading blue-clad youth tugged at Xia Qian’s long robe sash.

“Brother, look at that big sister in the coarse linen shirt—”

He pointed to a female guest in the corner who was picking at her feet.

“I hear she worked as a mud artisan on the city wall for three days just to scrape together enough money, specifically to request the cheapest young man.”

Xia Qian followed his gaze.

She saw the strong, robust big sister vigorously pushing the head of a young man, about Xia Qian’s age, into a wine jar.

The young man choked, his face turning crimson, but the female guest slapped her thigh and roared with laughter:

“Drink more! This dozen copper strings I spent wasn’t to watch you act high and mighty!”

Just watching from afar, Xia Qian herself felt a sense of repulsion, as if she too were being submerged in the wine, her nose and throat burning.

As if sensing her discomfort, the leading blue-clad youth ‘comforted’ her thoughtfully:

“However, these female guests cannot afford the entrance fee for a private room, so they can at most order some wine outside. I imagine they won’t have any dealings with Brother. So, Brother needn’t concern yourself with them at all.”

After speaking, the leading youth beckoned, and the other attendants chuckled, pushing Xia Qian to continue forward.

Long staircases led upstairs from both the west and east sides of the main hall. Along the upper corridors were various private rooms.

The warm glow of palace lanterns filtered through paper windows, and the creaking of wooden beds, interspersed with the heavy breathing of men and women, could be heard with alarming clarity.

Although Xia Qian knew this was a pleasure house and understood what went on inside the private rooms, passing these shockingly poorly soundproofed rooms, the sounds of carnal revelry emanating from within still made her heart anxious.

“Our new Brother is quite thin-skinned, it seems.”

Hearing the leader’s remark, Xia Qian shot a disdainful glance at the blue-clad youths, who were half-hiding their mischievous smiles.

“But Brother, don’t let the low-grade private rooms on the second floor fool you. The higher up you go from this floor, the more luxurious they become. It’s said that the top-floor private rooms are as serene as an immortal’s dwelling, as wondrous as a heavenly realm. Inside, you can do whatever you wish, however you wish, without any disturbance whatsoever.”

“Go on, go on…”

Xia Qian waved her hand dismissively, as if shooing away a dog.

“I don’t care what they’re doing; it’s none of my business!”

She spoke with an air of impatience, walking straight ahead.

As they walked, turning through a corridor, Xia Qian roughly counted. On the west corridor of the second floor alone, there were thirty-six private rooms marked with jade plaques.

If all the guests were stunningly beautiful noblewomen, it might be somewhat tolerable, but how could that possibly be the norm? How many of the dissolute young ladies who come to pleasure houses for fun could be considered normal?

Unable to forget the near-encounter with the ‘tank,’ Xia Qian felt a shiver run down her spine.

This had nothing to do with gender or position; it was the inherent nature of a pleasure house.

Regardless of gender, normal people with normal, reasonable desires surely had reasonable ways to satisfy them. It was those abnormal individuals, unable to resolve their unreasonable desires through normal means, who created a market for brothels and courtesan houses, for ‘chickens and ducks’ alike.

This principle held true in any world.

Moreover, this Willow Lane was a pleasure house established for women, and all the services within were provided by men.

And men, unlike women, had no ‘monthly period’ or restricted service days.

No service date restrictions meant enduring such torment every single day. While those with a ‘Spirit Cauldron’ physique might at least qualify for spiritual spring baths to recover, what about ordinary men?

They probably wouldn’t even live long enough to become old, unattractive, or physically weak; in not many days, they would simply face the end of their vitality and their lives.

A wave of revulsion washing over her, Xia Qian involuntarily quickened her pace, wanting to quickly pass these unsettling rooms and leave this hellish corridor.