Chapter 4

Chapter 4-5

The person I want to kill is surnamed Zhuo-the same Zhuo as Chief Grand Secretary Zhuo.

I grew up in a small village of mixed surnames. We were always scraping by, but we managed to survive. However, in times of chaos, natural disasters are inevitable. When the imperial disaster relief funds failed to arrive, our entire village was forced to migrate south.

What does a great catastrophe look like? The sages and literati actually described it quite aptly.

How did that saying go? Oh, right. It’s very short, only seven characters.

“In that year, there was a great famine; people ate one another.”

When the mountain bandits came brandishing their great sabers to steal the last of our grain, the village chief hurriedly stuffed my mother and me into a narrow mountain crevice-one so thin that only women and children as gaunt as paper could squeeze inside.

Before he left, he said, “Who wouldn’t want their own kin to be the ones hidden away? But it just so happens that you two were the ones sleeping next to this crack. Heaven chose you mother and daughter to live.”

Then he charged out without looking back.

But I know how wicked the human heart can be. There is nothing wrong with dragging a few people down with you when you’re about to die.

Yet, the silence of all sixty-four people in the village was the greatest kindness they could have shown us.

Hiding in that narrow crack, I watched with my own eyes as the fellow villagers I had been fighting and playing with over dinner just hours before fell one by one into pools of blood, filled with resentment or terror. To this day, their unclosed eyes haunt my dreams.

I often wonder: if the relief funds had arrived, would we have been forced to leave our homes? If the relief funds had arrived, would that grain still have become a death warrant?

But where were the relief funds?

They were in the five-courtyard palatial mansion of the precious and noble Chief Grand Secretary Zhuo, amidst its carved beams and painted rafters.

This whole thing is too senseless. I feel that the people of our little village surely died without understanding why, so I want to send Chief Grand Secretary Zhuo down there to explain it to them in person.

Chapter 5

I am actually not the only one here with a grudge against someone named Zhuo. The woman living next door is General Wu’s daughter, a government prostitute demoted by imperial decree.

Her father was a great hero and a man of integrity known throughout the country. Unfortunately, with a mere flick of his tongue, Chief Grand Secretary Zhuo accused him of colluding with the enemy. The Emperor actually believed it. Then again, without a fatuous ruler, how could there be such a chaotic world?

Thirty-eight members of the Wu family were lost, yet the Emperor deliberately left only Wu Ruizhu alive. He demoted her to a government prostitute and, supposedly, intended to send her to the military camps. It was only after an Old Censor struck his head against a pillar and died in protest that she was sent here instead.

The current Son of Heaven truly hates General Wu; he wouldn’t even let the man have a clean legacy after death.

I chose Bamboo Rhyme Pavilion because of this Miss Wu. A brothel that can take in government prostitutes must have significant backing.

However, this Miss Wu is truly a disappointment. Instead of thinking about revenge, she looks for opportunities to kill herself every other day.

If smashing one’s head open could achieve revenge, I would immediately find the hardest wall and splatter my blood on the spot.

I remind myself not to be as useless as her.

I never expected that, in the end, she would be the one to do me a great favor.

She wailed and threw tantrums day and night. Even the most experienced guards have moments when they doze off, and she finally found an opportunity to use a porcelain shard to slash her own face. From her right cheek to her brow bone, it looked agonizing.

Zheng Mama’s plan to use her to achieve fame that would shake the world was ruined.

She pinched Wu Ruizhu’s face, digging her long nails into the wound, and said through gritted teeth, “Take her away. Throw her into the Grass Court. Since the eldest young lady doesn’t want to live with dignity, we’ll teach her what true degradation means.”

The Grass Court is where the lowest-tier prostitutes of Bamboo Rhyme stay. Rather than a place to make money, it’s more like a punishment block. They only handle basic physical business there, catering to all sorts of lowlifes.

A government prostitute cannot be beaten to death, but going there would surely be no better than dying.

I seized the opportunity and stepped forward. “General Wu’s daughter, the young lady whose talent was famous throughout the capital-wouldn’t sending her to the Grass Court be a waste of her value? Mama, why don’t you give her to me as a maid?”

At that time, Zheng Mama had just discovered that I was no longer a virgin, and her interest in me had waned significantly.

Having two future pillars of the establishment ruined at once made her very unhappy, and she spoke with cold sarcasm.

“What? At such a young age, you want to play the great hero who protects the descendants of the loyal and righteous?”

I swayed my hips as I stepped toward her and gave a soft laugh. “What kind of joke is that? I’m keeping her for myself, of course.”

My voice trembled slightly, sounding so tender it could drip like water-and, naturally, enough to make a man’s legs go weak.

Zheng Mama’s expression softened slightly. “You are a fast learner. In just a few days, you’ve mastered fifty percent of Master Fu’s skills. It’s a pity your first night is gone; you can never be a top-tier courtesan after all.”

I leaned down and cupped Wu Ruizhu’s face, asking, “A top-tier courtesan? Are you talking about this kind of talented woman with a face like a hibiscus flower?”

“Mama, the pavilion has used this standard to select the top courtesan for over a decade. Have we dominated Anfu City yet?”

“Think about it. If the top courtesan is so noble that even the talented daughter of the Wu family is only fit to be her maid, how high-born will men imagine her to be? But when the veil is lifted, they find someone even more proficient in erotic songs and vulgar verses. You’ve seen more men than I have; what do you think of that kind of shock?”

While I was observing Zheng Mama’s complex expression, a man walked in clapping his hands. He smiled and said, “Aunt Zheng, you’re getting old. You’re not even as decisive as a little girl.”

He was a man dressed in plain cloth and a scholar’s hat, looking completely out of place in a den of vice. However, I knew I had struck gold-he was the true master of this place.

I had originally planned to win over Zheng Mama first and then proceed slowly, but I hadn’t expected to reach the top in a single step today.

I exerted my full effort, assuming the most heart-wrenching posture as I bowed. “You overpraise me. Mama was merely being cautious.”

Zheng Mama also bowed and said respectfully, “Greetings, Young Master.”

The man did not stay long. He glanced at Wu Ruizhu. “She is, after all, the daughter of a loyal official and a brave general. Consider this as earning some merit for the pavilion.”

Then he turned to me and asked, “Little girl, do you want to do something more interesting with me?”