Chapter 11: Wandering around the city

“If you want to go to the pleasure quarters, it’s still a bit early.”

After sneaking Xun Qiu out of the Su residence and avoiding the guards Master Su had arranged at the gate, Su Wantian explained to the inexperienced country bumpkin Xun Qiu.

“It’s a bit… you know, to go over now.

Why don’t we wander around other places first?

Let me tell you, there’s a Wang’s Fried Pork Ribs in the city, and it’s golden, crispy, and an absolute delicacy.

It’s made with a secret recipe, and not only is the skin crispy and the meat tender and juicy, but even the bones can be crunched and eaten.

Tsk tsk tsk, the taste of that bone marrow is just divine.”

Xun Qiu’s eyes lit up as she listened, and she quickly urged Su Wantian to hurry.

But after the two of them really started walking, she suddenly remembered something.

“Hey, you good-for-nothing… forget it, I’ll call you ‘rich dog’ when we’re outside.

Did you bring enough money?”

Su Wantian glanced at her sideways.

“More than you have on you.”

“Is being richer than a penniless former beggar something to be proud of?”

“It’s still more than you.”

Su Wantian repeated, unmoved.

He had already mastered the supreme secret to dealing with Xun Qiu, which was to not engage with her words and just talk about his own thing.

‘As long as I don’t fight with you, I am invincible!’

Xun Qiu was stunned, then said angrily:

“Don’t you have any sense of shame?

If you get kicked out of a brothel because you don’t have enough money, your life as a normal person will be over, right?

For the rest of your life, people will point at your back and say, ‘Ah, that’s the person who wanted to get a free ride at the brothel.’

Aren’t you afraid of such a miserable life?”

Su Wantian sneered coldly.

“You’re telling someone who failed the imperial examinations three times and lost repeatedly that getting a free ride will make him lose face?”

Xun Qiu was speechless.

‘This guy has completely lost his mind.

He’s been beaten down by himself to the point of being shameless… he’s already invincible.’

‘I can only risk my life to accompany a gentleman.’

Xun Qiu showed a determined expression and reached out to pat Su Wantian’s shoulder.

“Even if you are ridiculed for a lifetime, I will stand on the side of those who ridicule you… so, let’s go quickly, I’m hungry!”

“Sometimes I really envy your cheerful optimism.”

After the joking was over, Su Wantian shook the money pouch hanging inside his clothes.

It contained the travel money he had saved up when he was out and about some time ago.

He had originally planned to use it to buy some dry rations and travel gear, but since he had to use it now, he took it out.

Anyway, as the son of a wealthy family, he was not short of this little bit of silver—Master Su was angry with him, but he wouldn’t go so far as to not give him pocket money, or at least he wouldn’t stop him from asking Madam Su for money.

Both of them had some worries in their hearts, more or less, but neither of them showed it.

Xun Qiu and Su Wantian happily wandered around Xinyang City for a day, looking for famous old shops everywhere to eat, drink, and have fun.

At the very beginning, Su Wantian was shocked by Xun Qiu’s appearance of a starving ghost reincarnated and secretly counted his money to see if it was enough, but he finally found that this person’s appetite was about the same as his own.

She looked fierce, but in reality, she was a paper tiger.

Xun Qiu would walk into a shop, grandly and heroically shout to bring her one of everything on the menu, but in the end, she could only sheepishly ask the shopkeeper if the untouched dishes could be returned…

To be honest, although it was a bit immoral, Su Wantian felt that her wronged and pitiful appearance was cuter than her normal state.

Although it was mostly an act to arouse sympathy.

The economic conditions of the residents of Xinyang City were not bad… or rather, the local customs were simple and honest.

Many shop owners, perhaps because they found a little girl dressed as a man cute, perhaps because they wanted to give Su Wantian, the sole son of the Su family, some face and build a relationship, or perhaps because they thought it was nice to feed a dog once in a while, would wave their hands and waive the bill, and didn’t even ask for the food back, truly letting her eat and drink for free for quite a few meals.

Su Wantian could only lament that there were many face-judging dogs in Xinyang City.

The sun rose in the east and set in the west.

When dusk arrived and the daylight gradually faded, the two of them had already reached the riverside in Xinyang City.

A light mist lingered over the river.

Su Wantian casually took the candied hawthorn that Xun Qiu handed him because she couldn’t eat it anymore, and while she stubbornly insisted “it’s not that I can’t eat it, it’s just that this thing is too sweet and cloying,” he casually bit off the top hawthorn.

“The flower street is about to open for business.”

Xun Qiu raised a question mark.

“What is a flower street?”

“It’s the brothels.”

Su Wantian used a term that even an illiterate person could understand.

“A whole street of them.”

“Eh?

But I’m too full to walk…”

“Get moving.”

Su Wantian said indifferently.

“If you can’t even do this little thing, how are you going to cultivate after entering the Grand Profound Sect?

Crunch crunch…”

“But I’m still carrying things…”

“Throw them away.

It’s just a small snack.

You have to give something up to get something.

If you can’t even give this up, how will you climb to the peak of the immortal path?

Chew… chew…”

“…”

Xun Qiu struggled to her feet and followed Su Wantian step by step to the flower street he had mentioned.

Looking from a distance, the street was full of flower lanterns, and the windows of the buildings on both sides were wide open.

There were already many figures of girls by the windows, casting beautiful long shadows under the lights.

Seeing two more customers step into the flower street, the pimps immediately gathered around, their words explicit, their hospitality excessive.

Su Wantian casually pushed them away and led Xun Qiu deeper into the flower street, explaining casually:

“The ones that can solicit customers at the entrance are definitely not good houses.”

“How do you know so much?”

Xun Qiu was a little timid, but seeing Su Wantian’s natural demeanor, she gradually relaxed and said suspiciously, “I think I’m starting to understand why you couldn’t pass the exams…”

“Young master~~ Come on up and play~~”

On the upper floors of the buildings on both sides of the flower street, the girls were lined up, their red sleeves waving.

The clothes they wore were not as revealing as Xun Qiu had imagined; at a glance, they were very well-covered.

But with the girls’ every frown and smile, a patch of fair skin would be inadvertently revealed, giving off a beauty akin to ‘holding a pipa that still half-covers the face.’

“Now I recall the joys of Jiangnan; back then, in youth, with a thin spring shirt, riding a horse by a slanting bridge, the whole building filled with waving red sleeves.”

Xun Qiu muttered to herself.

Noticing Su Wantian’s strange gaze beside her, she coughed and explained:

“There was an old scholar in the town before.

I learned it from him.

I didn’t know what it meant back then… but listening to him, I became a little curious about these places too.”

She paused for a moment.

“Now that I’ve looked around, it’s actually not that interesting.”

“Of course.

What’s so interesting for you, a woman, to look at women?”

Su Wantian crossed his arms.

“If I were to see a man acting coy with me… ugh…”

Xun Qiu glanced at him.

“Let’s go back.”

“Hmm?

Not looking around anymore?”

“There’s no one prettier than me.

What’s the point of coming here?”

Xun Qiu said.

“Your standards for courtesans are a bit too high…

Never mind, I was just accompanying you to have fun today anyway.”

Su Wantian clapped his hands.

“Let’s go back.

Tomorrow we have to seriously think about how to persuade my old man.

The Grand Profound Sect is quite far, and we can’t get there just by walking…”

On the floor above them, someone who had overheard their conversation fell into silence.

Thoughts surged in his mind.

He glanced at the bloody hole in his chest.

Not long after, he called someone over with a hoarse voice and said amidst the reek of blood in the room:

“Go down and invite a young master in a green robe and a white-robed woman disguised as a man to come up.

If they refuse… just say, a disciple of the Grand Profound Sect requests their presence.”