Xi Ping is a bastard, his heart is as hard as a bastard’s, and since he was a simple-minded person, Wang BaoChang’s death didn’t move him in any way.
In his opinion, with Wang BaoChang’s behavior, it wouldn’t even be surprising if someone beat him to death in the middle of the street. The surprising thing was that someone would kill him using such an odd method, as if they were putting on a show for JinPing City.
He treated the instructions the Mortal Realm Walker Senior Zhao and Prince Zhuang left him as wind just passing by his ears--to an eighteen/nineteen-year-old young man whose heart was full of fire, he didn’t know what it meant to hold someone or something in reverence.
He returned to the guest room and slept comfortably until dusk, when this night owl woke up.
He got up and bared his fangs and brandished his claws while stretching his back, and when he got up, he ate bird’s nest porridge and three trays of crystal dumplings till he was full--his older cousin was young, but seemed like an old man all day long, as the meals in his palace were mainly soup and watery, so it wasn’t satisfying to eat--so Xi Ping planned to go somewhere else to look for other food.
This eldest son snapped off a currently blooming rose in the garden, and carelessly stepped on the tail of Prince Zhuang’s large black cat. The large black cat suddenly counterattacked.
These two battled with their bare hands, and Xi Ping won.
He enthusiastically stuck the flower on his chest, emitting a dignified fragrance, and snuck out of the palace, running to ZuiLiuHua to play around again.
When a servant came to report to Prince Zhuang, he was in the middle of a conversation with his advisor, Wang Jian, and after hearing what the servant had to say, he said, unsurprised: “He ran off again?”
He took the aggrieved black cat, and flicked its forehead lightly: “You too, always getting bullied. Shouldn’t you know by now to hide farther away from him, silly?”
The cat that loved to bully the weak but fear the strong couldn’t beat the one with the surname Xi, and let out his anger at his owner, his claws flashing in his direction. Fortunately, Prince Zhuang was used to avoiding it, and his hand wasn’t hurt. Only his long silk sleeve was hooked by the cat’s claw.
The little eunuch was so frightened that his knees gave way, hitting the ground with a “putong”.
The black cat wasn’t afraid, though, and after leaping down, kicked his owner with his hind legs, scolding while he ran away.
“No matter, you can go now.” Prince Zhuang waved his hand and said: “Should I lower myself to the level of a brat that I spoiled myself?”, but it was unclear whether he was talking about a person or the cat.
Wang Jian smiled and replied: “Your Royal Highness treats shizi...not any worse than if you were his own elder brother.”
“Elder brother?” Prince Zhuang picked up a porcelain cup. “I feel like I’m his father.”
He drank some hot water to suppress a couple of coughs, and his fingertips were scalded until they were slightly red, like a fatigued snowman.
Only when the little eunuch closed the door and left did Prince Zhuang put down the porcelain cup and glance at Wang Jian.
Wang Jian understood, and took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, saying in a low voice: “This is the list of selected disciples that we have received so far, a total of 30 people. Xuan Yin’s immortal envoy hasn’t arrived yet, so if an immortal sets their eyes upon someone, then they might add one or two more people to the list at the last minute. Usually, there won’t be any large changes, so the grand selection should be just like this this year.”
Prince Zhuang took the paper and glanced at it, then took a pen to tick off a couple of names: “These people are either lacking some moral honesty or have had ill bodies before the immortal envoy arrives in JinPing.”
The tone of his voice was flat and mellow, as if he was talking about it with a sense of finality.
“Yes.” Wang Jian replied, waiting for Prince Zhuang to tell him who to push up onto the list--although the grand selection is said to be immortals choosing their disciples, in the end, whoever is chosen still depends on the intentions of the court.
But Prince Zhuang didn’t mention it and instead turned his face to the side to cough a few times, casually mentioning: “Let Prince Yue’s family know about this. I remember my elder brother has a younger brother-in-law who should be around the appropriate age this year.”
Wang Jian paused and couldn’t help but glance at Prince Zhuang.
The luminescent night pearl hanging in the study shone brightly like the moon, and the light scattered across Prince Zhuang’s body, just like moonlight shining onto the snow.
Showing the frosty meaning.
There were people from nobles’ families in Xuan Yin Mountain, and could “send proposals directly to the Emperor”. Even if it was the Emperor, he couldn’t remove or censure it whenever he wanted to. That year, the TaiMing Emperor’s calamity of suppressing his relatives actually took advantage of the internal strife within Xuan Yin immortals. After the incident was over, several noble families in Xuan Yin were shuffled. The Zhang family, the family where the prince’s mother came from, was “washed” off like this, and their fate with the immortals was since then cut off--the descendants of the Zhang family were not to be included in the grand selection list.
The crown prince who was both the “son of the Empress” and the “eldest son” was known for his benevolence and filial piety; after being implicated by his mother’s family, he’d been walking on thin ice these years. If there is a chance to plant the Yue family into Xuan Yin Mountain, would he be tempted to do it?
Would he reach his hand out to Xuan Yin’s grand selection right under the eyes of the Emperor that was in the prime of his life?
Wang Jiang didn’t dare to think more clearly about this, paused respectfully, then said, with a flattering tone: “If the crown prince can’t control himself and makes a move first, then we can move accordingly. We may be able to send shizi in as well.”
Prince Zhuang didn’t even raise his head when he said: “I asked him already and he doesn’t want to go.”
Wang Jian smiled and responded: “Young people are not knowledgeable and don’t understand how important their future is. Or maybe shizi was embarrassed to say it to you…”
Prince Zhuang set down his go stone piece with a pa, then raised his eyes and glanced at Wang Jian.
Wang Jian quivered for a moment and hurriedly tried to withdraw his big teeth into his mouth.
“My hand slipped; there’s no reason for ziqian to be nervous--when that bastard asks me for something, when has he ever had shame? If he says he doesn’t want to go, then he doesn’t want to go. Besides, xuanmen isn’t some clean place, and I’m not so cowardly as to expect him to travel the path for me.”
Wang Jian responded quietly: “This student’s thoughts had diverged.”
“I’m tired,” Prince Zhuang responded, “Don’t clean up the go board, I’ll continue it another day. You can go ahead.”
Wang Jian exited the door while looking down in shame. There was some sweat on either side of his forehead, and when he walked into the courtyard and raised his head, he saw the ill-lit stars of the galaxy, the darkness pressing.
He couldn’t help but secretly sigh: There was a flowing undercurrent within the court, but heaven and earth did not stop.
Even Xi Ping, when he went out, felt like JinPing’s atmosphere wasn’t right.
The LingYang River runs through JinPing City and separates the city into two: In the west is the imperial city with its nine gates, surrounding GuangYun Palace, where the high-ranking officials and nobles gather; in the east is where the peddlers, carriers, and common people gather. There was a river between the high and low social hierarchies, and there were parties with singsong girls in attendance, as well as music and song; the river was always full of ornate pleasure boats.
But during this part of the day, the LingYang River that was usually lively until dawn was quiet, and the steamboats were silently moored to the shore.
Without the row of pleasure boats painted with clouds and fog, the view of the river was much clearer and one was able to immediately see how the city guards who came and went were much more dense than usual on the east side of the bank. Those from out of town that were saving money by sleeping on the streets were afraid of getting into trouble, and not a single one could be seen.
Even ZuiLiuHua was deserted.
The flower festival was just yesterday, but when Xi Ping walked around the lobby once, all he could hear was people discussing Wang BaoChang, as if Wang DaGou was the new top courtesan.
There were even people who claimed to have fast and accurate information, splashing their fun words everywhere when describing Wang BaoChang’s appearance in death, with their “face with tusks”, “face sprouting red hair”...as if they had seen it with their own eyes; when they spoke excitedly, their hands danced and their feet tripped, accidentally knocking half a glass of wine out of Young Master Xi’s wine glass.
Xi Ping suffered for no reason as a bystander, and was about to become upset when he heard noisy sounds coming from the stairs.
“It’s the top courtesan lady!”
“Look look look, it’s Jiang Li! Jiang Li came out!”
Jiang Li loosely held her hair and came down the stairs as a group of people crowded around her. She lazily glanced around the lobby and found out that today was different from yesterday, with no noble to be her first customer of the day. The look in her eyes immediately became cold--Jiang Li always and only entertained nobles or distinguished guests, and everyone else wasn’t even worth a glance from her.
Logically, when opening a shop and doing business, everyone only entertains the rich, but nobody else was like her, directly putting on a “this lady is a snob” face.
But then again, human nature is lowly, and things that are out of reach are the most priceless, so there really were people that ate her act up.
Xi Ping looked at the scene from afar and found it amusing--Jiang Li typically liked to wear plain clothes, but she wore the camellia crown today and specially picked a red dress to wear. Her rouge was thicker on her lips, and her arrogance had suddenly increased, like a blood cuckoo with deceiving grace.
It was as if the other courtesans, large or small, who liked to contend with each other when there was nothing to do, had discussed it already; they were all dressed as if there was a funeral at home, which made her stand out all the more.
When she saw Xi Ping, Jiang Li’s cold face finally let out a smile: “I was just wondering why you didn’t come today. What stained your sleeve?”
She didn’t spare the others even a glance when she stepped towards Xi Ping and pulled him away: “I’ve washed and perfumed the clothes you changed out of last night. Nobody else has touched them, let’s go and have you change into them.”
Xi Ping originally planned to abandon the clothes that he left behind at ZuiLiuHua, but feeling a bunch of sour, jealous eyes look towards him, he couldn’t help but feel hyped in front of an audience. He triumphantly opened his “National Grace, Divine Fragrance” fan and happily followed the top courtesan to the lady’s chamber.
“After receiving the camellia crown, things really are different for the lady.” As soon as Xi Ping entered Jiang Li’s room, he was almost blinded by the flash of hairpin bracelets that patrons had rewarded her yesterday spread out on the cabinet in the corner, not cleaned up. The old screen that had been in the corner was also replaced for one that had a pair of peacocks exquisitely embroidered onto it; on the screen, there was a blue, pearled, embroidered peacock cloak that was haphazardly placed without much care, probably privately given to her by some bloke with more money than sense.
Jiang Li washed cups and brewed tea in the outside room, then rolled her eyes: “You’re here to ridicule me, too?”
Xi Ping, noticing how she sounded peculiar, was surprised: “You’ve wronged me, beauty, why do you say so?”
When Jiang Li spoke, her voice carried a Ning’an accent. Ning’an is a hundred and fifty li away from JinPing, but the accent is very different. People from there will lengthen the end of their words, making it sound soft, and when women spoke, it sounded especially sweet to the ear. It’s said that Ning’an has three specialties--"Smoke Cage Hook Bridge, peddling MaLianJiao, and fat water chestnuts deep in the lotus flower”; the aforementioned “peddling MaLianJiao” refers to a girl who calls out that she’s selling flowers along the street. Both the sound and color of this action is moving, and is a grand scene around the area.
Jiang Li’s voice was very pleasant to the ears, but she never had good things to say from her mouth: “Everyone is saying that last night, ‘Sir Yu Gan’ played the music himself, so even if you brought a donkey onto the stage and had it let out a couple of sounds, then it would have won the crown too.”
“Sir Yu Gan” is the pseudonym Xi Ping uses to write small tunes to mix in with the singers and actors; at first, he paid beauties to sing his songs, but afterwards, perhaps because the songs were different from existing ones and sounded fresh, they somehow became sought after and beauties begged him to let them sing his songs instead.
After this silly thing heard Jiang Li’s words, he said elatedly, ignoring whether or not it’d make her happy: “Haha, I dare not.”
Jiang Li slammed the teapot down with a peng sound, and her face reddened: “Xi ShiYong!”
“Ai,” Xi Ping put his clothes on, came out from behind the screen while merrily fixing his outer robes, and half-heartedly tried to persuade her: “Don’t be angry, who’s talking about you? Tell me later so in the future if these broken-mouthed people try to beg me for a song, they’ll have to learn to bray like a donkey three times before I give it to them...Ah, what’s this?”
He took out a well-embroidered silk brocade bag from the inner pocket of his newly changed clothes, and was about to open it.
“Don’t open it yet,” Jiang Li stopped him. “Look at it when you get back.”
“What is it?”
“A thank-you present.” Jiang Li’s face looked tight as she put the teacup in front of him heavily. “I’m afraid next time Mister Yu Gan will make me bray like a donkey as well.”
“Alright.” Xi Ping put it back in his pocket, lifted his cup and took a sip, then frowned and put it down--the tea brewed was too strong, and there was a faintly strange smell.
“With me, you pay particular attention to random things; as long as you normally cover for the people around you, then the musician wouldn’t have had an accident right before going onstage. You didn’t even remind them.”
“It’s not worthwhile.” Jiang Li pressed down on her eyelids, like an arrogant and willful cat. “For someone like me, whose life is not good and has bad luck, it’s better to keep some distance from others so I don’t pass the bad luck to them.”
“Nonsense,” the elder son didn’t agree with these words, and retorted: “If your life wasn’t good, would you be able to meet me?”
Jiang Li: “...”
Because he was overly bold and self-confident, this eldest son often gave others the incorrect illusion that he was frivolous and couldn’t get over himself for good reason.
Jiang Li always felt like she was despicable because despite how many people coaxed and comforted her, she only felt annoyance. Only this young master who is more arrogant and self-confident than she is had become the one she longed for...this “person she longs for” is heartless, had thousands of favorites in the rouge pile, and never took her seriously.
Jiang Li was stunned by his words and couldn’t continue her thought, and it was a long while before she sighed: “I’m serious--yesterday there was even a death at the decorated pleasure boat’s crossing, and he had just left ZuiLiuHua...didn’t you see how there weren’t many people that dared to come today? I just put on the camellia crown, and such a negative thing happened. Maybe God doesn’t want me to think about the things that I’m not worthy of.”
Xi Ping casually threw her some honeyed words: “What a joke, what is there that our top courtesan isn’t worthy of…”
Jiang Li rolled her eyes: “Oh, you.”
Xi Ping continued the second half of his sentence without his face changing color: “...it’s true.”
Jiang Li stared at him blankly, suddenly suspicious that she’d heard him wrong, for it’s impossible for there to be such a bastard of a man in the world.
Xi Ping calmly returned her gaze, undisguisedly frank so that his external appearance and inner thoughts coincided.
He had thin skin, a thin frame, and a sharp jawline, yet his facial features were strong and compelling, so eye-catching that it was almost frightening, a naturally ungrateful, heartless face.
Jiang Li was momentarily speechless, so she could only point to the door as her body shook and signaled for him to scram.
Xi Ping felt like she was about to get her period, since two sentences she said out of three was unreasonable, and couldn’t be bothered to comfort her. He stood up and stuck his fan in his waist, then said: “You should just let it go and stop overthinking everything--it’s time to throw your kettle away; even strongly brewed tea can’t hide the taste of rust. Are you not afraid of upsetting your stomach? Change it to a moon-plated gold one quickly. I’m leaving.”
“Shizi.” He was just about to push the door open and leave when he heard Jiang Li say something behind him quietly. “Are you not even willing to join in on the fun occasionally?”
Xi Ping turned back and glanced at her inexplicably.
Most of Jiang Li’s body was in the shadow of the dimly lit yellow steam lamp, and her expression carried a bit of incomprehensible gloominess: “Coax me like other men do and let me have an unrealistic rosy view while I’m happy for a while. From now on, I can not see anyone else and only dress and groom myself for you. Isn’t it good?”
“Oh!” Xi Ping “suddenly realized”, “After saying all that, you just want me to pay you and buy back your freedom, right?”
Jiang Li: “...”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier! There’s nothing wrong with asking for something so small, but you should know that usually I spend more than I have and I don’t know by how much. So, wait for two months and I’ll save up some pocket money.” As he said this, he started to grumble again, “You really are good, why’d you get the camellia crown if you wanted to buy your freedom? Didn’t you know that the value of a courtesan is doubled once she wins?”
Jiang Li was so angry that her lungs were about to burst, and she gritted her teeth to interrupt him: “I will buy my own freedom, there’s no need for shizi to make such an expense!”
Xi Ping wondered: “What’s the plan?”
“I’m happy to tell you my plan! The assets I’ve acquired over the years…”
“Forget about that, with the little money you have, what ‘assets’?” Xi Ping waved his hand and put himself in her shoes to persuade her, “If I were you, I’d take advantage of the hype and earn some good money for a few years and use it in the future when I’m old. I’d spend time fussing over nothing and being idle all the time.”
“You’re willing to lie to me when I’d cut open my liver and intestines for you. What use are assets?”
When the conversation reached this point, Xi Ping finally put down his face.
He had gotten used to mingling around, and after hearing someone’s voice and their way of speaking, he knew what they were going to say next. It wasn’t that he didn’t understand that Jiang Li meant.
But the field of love wasn’t even as thick as steam. By accepting money to sell a laugh and spending money to buy happiness, both parties were satisfied after doing their business. No matter how watery the Yong Ning Marquis’ threshold was, he would never allow him to marry a woman who makes a living as a courtesan. Their family wasn’t allowed to take in concubines either, so where would he put her? Besides, there were too many beauties of all sorts around him, and he was almost tired of looking at them. Jiang Li only had her singing voice going for her so he gave her a couple more of his songs. As to how uncommon that was, it wasn’t worth mentioning. There was no need to delay or inhibit her, so he was patient and pretended to be a fool while he slacked off with her.
But today this girl seemed to be irritated by something, and as if she took the wrong medicine, wouldn’t let it go!
“Pushing something towards someone who doesn’t want it will only end up with you being tricked,” Xi Ping said while putting away his smiling face. “What good does it do for you?”
Jiang Li mournfully asked him in return, “Then what harm will it do to you?”
“No harm will be done, but no good will be done either. Why would I need your liver and intestines?” Xi Ping spread his hands. “It’s not like I don’t grow my own, so wouldn’t it just be harming you without any benefit to me…”
He thought he was persuading her with good advice and good intentions, but before he could finish, Jiang Li pushed him out the door.
Xi Ping was disappointed for a moment, and thought he might as well exit ZuiLiuHua.
When he turned towards downstairs, he could hear fragments of Jiang Li singing. Xi Ping stopped and listened for a little while, and realized that she was singing a strange southern tune--she was singing a song about a witch who loved someone but wasn’t able to receive their love. She stitched her lover into a doll, and bitterly, secretly confessed while sewing.
The south was uncivilized territory, and many of their tunes were ghostly and ghastly. Jiang Li was singing in a lower range, and the tune that was only three parts ghostly suddenly became seven to eight parts ghostly when she sang it. Whoever heard her singing would feel uncomfortable all over.
Xi Ping said to himself: I so painstakingly gave her earnest and well-meaning advice for nothing.
Then he raised his head and throatily shouted: “You’re too full after eating, right?”
The strange tune stopped abruptly, and after a little while, a flowerpot flew out from the window and smashed away shizi.
“He’s gone.”
Jiang Li wasn’t actually the one who threw the flowerpot. It was a shriveled, thin old man who was so hunchbacked that he almost looked like a hook. It was unknown when he appeared in the lady’s chamber, like a ghost that grew out of the shadows.
Jiang Li pressed down on the string of her instrument, and absent-mindedly gave an “n” sound in affirmation.
“Miss.” The hunchback’s voice sounded like a water-damaged sanxian. “He’s not someone on the same path as we are, so there’s nothing to miss about him.”
“I know.” Jiang Li smiled bitterly. “I don’t deserve to miss him either. You saw it; he couldn’t even bother to be perfunctory with me, so how could there be any affection? It’s just…”
“Hm?”
Jiang Li hesitated for a moment: “It’s just that I remembered although he has a bad attitude, he really didn’t bully or take advantage of me before. I feel somewhat remorseful for hurting him like this.”
“A respectable person can’t bear to see animals die, and thus stays far away from the kitchen, but they still aren’t vegetarian,” the hunchback responded coldly. “There are no good people on the west side of the LingYang River, Miss, think of your parents’ whole family and think of all the bitter hardships you’ve endured!”
Jiang Li pursed her lips and stayed silent.
The hunched old man lowered his voice: “If the fire doesn’t go, the cicada sounds won’t stop.”
After a long time, Jiang Li finally said, almost inaudibly, “It is better to die than go against one’s heart...Fourth Uncle, I know this.”
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The author has something to say:
Happy New Year everyone~
Translator's Notes:
i have a editor/proofreader now!! pls welcome my lovely friend ning (@heiyanquans on twitter) give her a follow! ^^ thus, chapter 1 and chapter 2 have been edited a little~
luminescent night pearl - https://m.sohu.com/n/432937712/?pvid=000115_3w first pic in this article has a pic of it! it's not an actual pearl!
ziqian - really hard to translate this into english so i left it in pinyin--an ancient honorific term for men, and used in this way, he's warning wang jian to be modest and prudent rather than arrogant
xuanmen - used generally, refers to taoism. apparently it describes the subtle and invisible nature of taoism, but its really hard even for me to understand so i will leave it in pinyin! hope u all dont mind!
smoke cage - refers to the pipe from a stove or boiler--i dont know if there's a term for this in english other than just...pipe LOL
Xi ShiYong - another name, xi ping seems to be his courtesy name
sanxian - three string plucked chinese instrument
Twitter: @jiyangtrans