A Pawn's Passage

Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu grew impatient as the sky darkened. That was when the star of the day finally appeared.

Despite the long wait, they were certainly not disappointed. The world-famous Miss Li was impeccable in terms of appearance. It was hard to describe how perfect she was, like an ethereal beauty who had stepped out of a painting, the epitome of grace.

Her smile could captivate the entire nation.

Qi Xuansu was in a trance for a moment. Everything in the pavilion quickly disappeared, leaving only the beautiful woman in front of him as the focus.

It was not until Zhang Yuelu smacked Qi Xuansu’s head with her folding fan that Qi Xuansu woke up from his trance.

Zhang Yuelu did not seem upset by this. Instead, she warned him. “Be careful.”

Qi Xuansu’s face turned solemn. “Something weird is going on.”

“Of course.” There was purple energy flowing in Zhang Yuelu’s eyes. “Miss Li actually has a high level of cultivation. She seems to be a Diviner.”

Qi Xuansu scanned his surroundings again.

Everyone in the pavilion was still in a trance. It was obvious that these young masters did not have Zhang Yuelu’s cultivation level. This made sense because, besides innate talent and money, one’s cultivation level mainly depended on hard work.

These young masters were not short on money, but they were not so talented or hard-working. Although Qi Xuansu did not train much when he was traveling, he would usually meditate and practice his breathing when he was in Jade Capital. Before settling in Jade Capital, Qi Xuansu practiced diligently. But even so, he was only at the Kunlun stage due to his lack of aptitude.

Some of these young masters had some cultivation, but they were at most at the Kunlun stage. Some were not even Xiantian Beings.

At the same time, Li Qingnu noticed Zhang Yuelu and quickly averted her gaze after meeting Zhang Yuelu’s Immortal Eye of Providence.

At this time, four servants in green turbans brought out a short table, which had a zither and an exquisite incense burner with a swirl of purple smoke wafting from it. Li Qingnu sat on her knees, her face blurred by the smoke, making it seem as if she was transcendent.

She plucked the strings of the zither in a rhythmic beat. At first, it sounded like beads falling on a jade plate, then the beat gradually accelerated until it sounded like rapid raindrops in a deadly storm. After a while, the rhythm slowed to a gentle tune.

Aside from Zhang Yuelu, everyone in the pavilion who had just woken up from their trance became dazed again.

Qi Xuansu kept his guard up, struggling to resist the hypnotic melody and desperately trying to remain alert.

Zhang Yuelu did not understand music, so she did not know how to evaluate Miss Li’s skills. But she could tell that there was something strange going on with her music.

It seemed like Miss Li was at least at the Guizhen stage. This finding was interesting because being at the Guizhen stage was not a small feat in the Daoist community. As long as a Guizhen-stage Daoist priest persevered for a few years in an office, they could at least be promoted to a fourth-rank Jijiu Daoist master.

This indicated that Miss Li must have some hidden agenda for pursuing a career as a courtesan. She was most likely not just a cash cow for the Li family.

At this moment, Li Qingnu’s gaze fell on Zhang Yuelu again. It was not because Li Qingnu saw through Zhang Yuelu’s disguise, but because Zhang Yuelu was the only sober and alert person among the enchanted crowd. Zhang Yuelu stood out because she was unaffected by the music.

Zhang Yuelu stared back at Li Qingnu. The purple energy in Zhang Yuelu’s eyes became more intense, almost overflowing from her eyes.

Li Qingnu was frightened by Zhang Yuelu’s gaze, so she skipped a beat, messing up the hypnotic tune. Thus, the audience in the pavilion instantly returned to their senses, as if they had awakened from a dream.

Seeing this, Miss Li simply stopped playing the zither and smiled sweetly, enchanting the audience once again.

As soon as Qi Xuansu was freed from the spell, he breathed a long sigh of relief and whispered, “Isn’t this a poetry gathering? Why is there a zither performance?”

Zhang Yuelu remarked, “This is probably the opening act, like an introduction to a story.”

While they were talking, the poetry meet began. Under normal circumstances, a poetry gathering would have only a dozen people, making it possible to play games, in which one person recited a verse of a poem and another continued until everyone had a turn. However, at this scale of more than a hundred people, this would not be feasible.

Since Li Qingnu was famous, most of the people in attendance only wanted to catch a glimpse of her. The villa also capitalized on this and made it into a large-scale event, with only those seated in the first two rows participating in the poetry meet.

The people in the back rows were just in the audience. That was why Li Qingnu performed a song as the opening act, so that the people in the back would not feel as if their money was wasted.

However, since Qi Xuansu struggled to resist the hypnotic music, he already felt like he had wasted money to get duped. Meanwhile, Zhang Yuelu was a little vexed that her brothel experience was ruined yet again due to this strange episode.

During the poetry meet, scholars showed off their talents like male peacocks, while Li Qingnu acted as the judge.

Qi Xuansu was not interested in poetry and felt sleepy after a while. He occasionally observed Li Qingnu, who was the center of attention. He felt that Li Qingnu was not very enthusiastic about this poetry meet, but she did not look impatient either. Her smile just seemed a bit perfunctory. That was because Li Qingnu’s focus was mostly on Zhang Yuelu.

When the poetry meet ended, Li Qingnu hesitated for a moment before she stared straight at Zhang Yuelu and asked, “Sir, I wonder which family you are from.”

In an instant, everyone’s envious gaze turned to Zhang Yuelu, who was disguised as a man. Zhang Yuelu stood up slowly and waved her folding fan. “I’m from the Tantai family.”

Li Qingnu smiled and said softly, “Young Master Tantai, will you grant me the privilege of meeting you in private?”

The crowd was in an uproar as soon as they heard this invitation.

The people present pretended to be elegant and classy with their affinity for poetry and music, but they only attended this poetry gathering for the sake of Li Qingnu. According to the rules, Li Qingnu could choose one person from the crowd to meet with in private, which usually meant that she would allow that person to stay with her overnight.

However, staying the night did not necessarily mean being intimate with her. They could just sit there and talk all night. Even so, it would allow one to boast about having spent the night with the Finest Courtesan. After all, being invited to stay overnight was one’s biggest hope for being intimate with Li Qingnu.

Since Miss Li only invited Zhang Yuelu, everyone else was out of luck.

As a result, Zhang Yuelu asked bluntly, “Can I bring a friend?”

This question, asked in such a setting, became ambiguous. To outsiders, they thought that Zhang Yuelu was asking for a threesome. Ordinary courtesans would likely accept such requests if they were paid more, but most Scarlets would not accept this arrangement unless the customer was extremely powerful. It was even more unlikely for the Finest Courtesan of the Imperial Capital to agree to it.

Hearing such a blatant request, a young man protested. “You should feel honored that Miss Li likes you. How dare you ask to bring a friend along? What do you take her for?”

Zhang Yuelu retorted, “I’m asking Miss Li the question. What does it have to do with you? Who are you to her? Her pimp?”

The man was speechless, and his face flushed with embarrassment.

Someone snorted. “How vulgar.”

Before Zhang Yuelu could speak, Li Qingnu smiled faintly and agreed. “I don’t mind.”

Li Qingnu’s answer was like a bolt from the blue, causing a commotion in the pavilion. Delighted, Zhang Yuelu smiled and nudged Qi Xuansu. Meanwhile, Li Qingnu lowered her head slightly, signaling to the maid that she would personally lead the way for Zhang Yuelu and Qi Xuansu.

The trio left the pavilion and walked along a corridor to a heated room. Li Qingnu pushed the door open and stepped inside. There was a carpet from the Western Region on the floor, with cushions placed around the small table for warming wine and making tea. There were all kinds of tea sets on the table as well as a small copper incense burner.

Li Qingnu asked her guests to take a seat while she kneeled behind the small table to make tea.

That was when Qi Xuansu had the opportunity to observe Li Qingnu up close. Her dark eyebrows were shaped like willow leaves, her eyes sparkled like stars, and her lips were rosy and thin. Zhang Yuelu was not as pretty as Li Qingnu, but Qi Xuansu felt that Zhang Yuelu was more adorable.

Zhang Yuelu sniffed the aroma and stated, “This is the soothing incense unique to the Li family. Which generation are you from, Miss Li?”

“Although my last name is Li, I’m not included in the Li family registry. If I were part of the Li family, why would I be in such a lowly industry?” Li Qingnu replied.

Zhang Yuelu asked, “How can you say this is a lowly industry?”

Li Qingnu smiled faintly. “I make a living by selling my smile and body. Don’t you think that’s lowly?”

Qi Xuansu quipped. “Well, that depends on who you compare with. There’s a saying that people will laugh at the poor, but not at prostitutes. The villa can easily earn 10,000 Taiping coins with one poetry gathering. I think that can’t be considered lowly.”

The two women turned to look at Qi Xuansu at the same time.

Under their stare, Qi Xuansu felt a little uncomfortable and coughed dryly. “I’m just saying...”

Zhang Yuelu was used to Qi Xuansu’s remarks, so she ignored him.

However, Li Qingnu gained a bad impression of Qi Xuansu. She said with a straight face, “Is money all you care about?”

Qi Xuansu retorted. “It seems like you have never experienced what it’s like not having money. If you have been poor, I guarantee that you will have the same views as me. Of course, that’s only if you don’t have such a high level of cultivation.”

Li Qingnu was not offended. “Actually, I have experienced what it’s like to be poor. Back then, my father was convicted of a crime, my mother died of an illness, and my family property was confiscated by the Imperial Court. I used to live on the streets.”

Qi Xuansu kept quiet.

Zhang Yuelu waved her folding fan and tried to smooth things over. “Why are we talking about these things? Miss Li kindly invited us over, so we should talk about something lighter.”

Li Qingnu was silent for a moment before saying, “Young Master Tantai, you’re already at the Guizhen stage at your age, so you must have made a name for yourself in the Daoist Order, right?”

Zhang Yuelu replied, “There are many skilled masters in the Daoist community. I am nothing compared to them. Miss Li, you are so well known within the empire, but I have never heard of people talking about your high level of cultivation.”