Chapter 62: Erotica Fieldwork

I have been very busy these days and have almost no time to paint spring pictures. Lu Chen has no way to get his work done and he almost wants to knock on my door to ask for it.

"...I shouldn't have asked you to find other work. In the end, you just walked away. Where else can I find an artist as good as you?"

I chuckled and said, "There are many people who can draw better than me. If you give them ten taels of silver as a reward, they will definitely accept it with joy."

Ever since I found out that Lu Chen could make five times the profit from a best-selling spring picture, I have been a little upset. What an evil black-hearted boss!

Lu Chen said with a pained look, "Little aunt, I'll double your writing fee, what do you think?"

I was delighted: "That's pretty good."

In order to arouse my passion for painting spring pictures, Lu Chen insisted on asking me to do field research with him. He said that he wanted me to see the business empire he had built for me.

I found this behavior very confusing, because I really couldn't think of any field in Chuntu that could be used for investigation, but seeing that Lu Chen was determined to pull me out, I slowly agreed.

He lent me a set of his servant's clothes and asked me to tie my hair into a turban. I did so. After looking at it for a long time, he still felt that it was not right and said to me, "You should at least tie your chest."

I paused: "You are the first person to admit that I have breasts..."

He chuckled, "Once you've packed everything, come with me."

I muttered quietly, "You're being so secretive. Who knows what bad intentions you have?"

But soon I knew where Chuntu's fields were.

What a vast field! A silk handkerchief sprinkled with jasmine powder was slapped on my face, and the woman in front of me was laughing so hard that she was shaking with laughter.

Oh shit.

This bastard Lu Chen dragged me directly into a brothel!

I have been a clean and honest person for generations, and have never been to such an exciting place. I immediately ran away as if I had encountered a flood or a beast.

Lu Chen was quick-witted and grabbed me: "Why are you running?

I was furious: "You brought me to this place with fireworks and you won't let me run away!"

Lu Chen looked at me with disdain: "You can even paint erotic pictures, and yet you're afraid to come to this romantic place?"

How can this be the same? I angrily protested: "I am just talking about it on paper, writing nonsense, and you are so..."

Lu Chen touched his nose and said, "I don't mean anything else. I just want you to see how big a market your spring pictures have."

"market?"

He pointed to a shelf nearby and said, "Look, this is a big customer. They buy at least three copies of each of your illustrated books. Even so, they're always stealing, so we often have to buy more."

I looked in the direction he pointed, and saw many spring pictures displayed on the shelves in an extremely exaggerated way. Some of them were already worn to pieces, and some were missing countless pages. It was obvious that they were torn away by uncultured customers.

Lu Chen said, "And look over there, there's a whole long corridor hung with your paintings. It's a long string, so spectacular! Even the most self-satisfied person would be moved by it. Wouldn't that be good for their business?"

Seeing this grand scene, my anger subsided a little, and I even felt a little embarrassed.

There were actually people who stopped to watch and kept flirting with the prostitute next to them. Although the prostitute looked at these pictures every day, she was still very professional and blushed, and lightly hit the customers with her little pink fists, which made me grit my teeth.

"It always feels a bit strange to frame these pictures and hang them up in a row..." I frowned and said, "Why don't you ask them to make a folding screen? It will look much better."

Lu Chen raised his eyebrows. "You've really seen the rich and powerful in Chang'an. This is a great suggestion. However, making a screen is expensive and difficult to replace. The brothel owner may not be happy with it."

"I just said it casually," I said. "Next time you give me advice, I'll charge you for it."

"Sure, sure," Lu Chen agreed, pulling out five handwritten copies of my latest work, "Heavenly Fragrance and Erotic Bone Diagram," from his bag. He smiled and said, "I'll be selling it myself today. Let's go find the shopkeeper!"

The head of such a place is usually written as "zhanggui" and pronounced as "laoyuma". According to Lu Chen, the madam of this brothel is a very interesting woman. Other brothels are rough and simple, but this brothel treats the intersection of yin and yang as an art seriously.

"How serious is it?" I couldn't help but quip, "Are you reciting the Analects while practicing ethics?"

Lu Chen is not a virgin who blushes when teased. He said dirty words without hesitation: "Yeah, it's so exciting to have Confucius watch."

He sighed, "There are so many things in the world of love, but most ordinary people don't understand them and just do things blindly. We are lucky to have met someone like Shopkeeper Lu who understands love and is willing to spend money on expensive erotic paintings. We must seize the opportunity."

Just blindly doing it? Wasn't he referring to Li Siyan, who had just started having sex and still hadn't figured it out?

Several bad images appeared in my mind again, and I quickly cleared them away.

After waiting in the hall for a while, the madam Lu came over leisurely. She was an elderly woman with a lot of red rouge on her face, which was the most popular makeup in the palace last year.

Lu Chen flirted with her for a few rounds, then presented her with a copy of "Heavenly Fragrance and Erotic Bone Collection" and said, "Shopkeeper Lu, despite your busy schedule, is willing to take the time to review the new work of Mingshui Fengliuke. I am deeply grateful."

Madam Lu took the book, flipped through two pages, and then set it aside. She said to Lu Chen, "I'm not worried about the quality of the book you received, but the government has been coming to investigate brothels lately. I've spent a lot of money just on running them, and I really don't have any spare money. How about this? I'll give you a deposit first, and you can have someone copy it and send it back next month."

Lu Chen's playful smile disappeared almost instantly, and his eyebrows became sharper.

"Why did those officials think of you?" He inquired calmly, "I know Manager Lu best. He is a very honest man. He always sends tributes to the government during festivals. Could it be that someone is jealous of your business and is deliberately making things difficult for you?"

Madam Lu shook her head. "No, they didn't want to tell me why they came, but it looked to me like they were looking for someone."

After leaving the door, Lu Chen's face was as dark as a cloud.

My face looked very bad, and I was obviously worried.

"I was wondering why even the brothels have been closed lately. It turns out it's because of this." Lu Chen said sarcastically, "Looking for someone? Who else can we look for? It's the one posted at the city gate. To find her, we'd almost turn the whole country upside down."

I didn't dare to say a word. To be honest, I was very scared and panicked.

Almost a year has passed, and Li Siyan hasn't given up yet. How long does he want to keep looking for me? Why can't he believe that I've been eaten by fish?

The most terrifying thing about Li Siyan is that he is crazy. He does not weigh the pros and cons. In order to get the desired result, he is willing to pay any price he can.

"What’s wrong with you?"

While I was lost in thought, Lu Chen stretched out his hand and waved it in front of me: "Don't worry, even if I don't make any money, I won't default on your royalties."

I forced a smile and said, "Nothing, I just saw this Shen Yingge before, and I felt a little sorry for him knowing that he had suffered such hardship."

Lu Chen asked, "Have you seen her? Then tell me, is she really a thousand-year-old fox fairy from Tushan with three heads and six arms?"

Although I was worried, Lu Chen still made me laugh: "Your Mingzhou is remote and the news is hard to come by. In fact, this woman is the incarnation of the evil star Tai Sui, even more vicious than a fox fairy."

"I didn't expect His Majesty would like this." Lu Chen muttered softly: "The evil star Tai Sui has cut off my financial resources. Go back to her heaven!"

When I learned that Li Siyan was still looking for me, I was really worried.

It's really annoying that the bastard still won't give up.

During this period, I tried to stay at home as much as possible and never stepped out of the door except for teaching students.

Li Siyan's thinking was much clearer this time. He no longer searched blindly like a headless fly. Instead, he conducted targeted inspections of Chuguan, Qinlou, temples and Taoist temples, because these two places harbored at least 80% of the illegal residents. He might think that based on my imagination, I might be hiding in a small temple as a nun.

The result was of course in vain.

A month later, he ordered all prefectures to check the people who had registered during that period, but the fake identity Wen Baibi made for me was very perfect, and she had registered in Mingzhou early on. Thanks to her, I once again avoided the strict search.

After these two waves of searches were over, there was no other movement. I felt relieved to have survived, so I started walking outside.

Xiaozhi has a small scale at home, which was used to weigh silver. I spent a few dollars to buy it and enjoy counting the money every day.

"Thirty-five taels." I smiled so hard that my teeth showed. "That's great! I can afford to buy pear wood furniture."

Xiaozhi had already noticed my obsession with furniture and said to me, "If my wife insists on having furniture made, she can go and order it now. She doesn't have to collect fifty taels."

I've never heard of a carpenter's shop offering credit.

"But you need to find a reliable person to guarantee it." Xiaozhi said.

I pondered, "Reliable? Is Zhang Zhi reliable?"

Xiaozhi hesitated for a moment: "...Mr. Zhang's family has a lot of property, so it should be counted."

I thought about it and decided to give up. I was afraid that Zhang Qian would cause trouble for me.

"Besides, he's leaving soon," I said as I drew the study materials I'd show Miss Du tomorrow. "He'll be going to Luoyang to take the civil service exams in August. Considering the timeframe, there's no way he can guarantee me."

Xiaozhi nodded slowly: "If Mr. Zhang can pass the exam, we will live in Luoyang permanently."

"Yes," I squinted my eyes, "Luoyang is a good place."

Recently, Kaizhi and I were chatting about gossip, and we talked about a piece of news from the sewer. It said that His Majesty the Emperor suddenly put aside his government affairs and hurried to Luoyang. He was on the road day and night for five days, and he went straight to the government office as soon as he got off the horse.

No one knew what happened in the government office or how the emperor's hopes were dashed. They only knew that after staying in Luoyang for half a day, the emperor walked out of the government office in a daze and whipped his way back to Chang'an.

"I've made progress this time, at least I didn't vomit blood." I actually had the energy to comment: "I always feel that this story is missing some plot points. If I were to write it, I would at least add a plot about hair turning white overnight and summoning spirits, etc., to make it interesting."

Even someone as bold as Kaizhi was frightened by me and lowered his voice to say, "You can't go out and say this. You will be punished by being beaten if you talk nonsense about the emperor!"

"I'll just tell you something," I said. "Who among us wealthy families hasn't investigated rumors on the orders of our masters? So we know how ridiculous this kind of messed-up news is. Who among the true masters would devote all their attention to a woman? Their talk of deep affection is all a lie."

Kaizhi pondered and said, "That's true, but His Majesty seems to be quite sincere about the Imperial Concubine. The news just came that the missing Imperial Concubine has been posthumously honored as Empress. This is extremely rare."

Wow, he really put the queen's hat on me?

I raised my eyebrows in surprise: "When did it happen?"

He said, "News just came in the day before yesterday. Her posthumous title is Empress Wenlie."

I was even more surprised.

People at that time were very cautious about awarding posthumous titles. Only those who were completely dead could be given such titles. Li Siyan named me Empress Wenlie... Perhaps he finally accepted the reality and believed that I was dead.

My nose felt sore and I almost cried out loud: I am finally dead! Finally I don’t have to worry about it anymore!

It's the choice of words, Wenlie, that doesn't sound like a posthumous title for an empress, but rather a tribute to some old civil official with a strange temper...

But it is also possible that this is really the image I have in Li Siyan's mind.

My only comment on this is: "This posthumous title is very suitable for Chen Ying. The emperor is thoughtful."

The autumn wind blows, the war drums beat, and another busy half year has passed. The decoration of my new home has finally come to an end, and it is time for Zhang Zhi to set off for Luoyang to start his journey of studying in the big city.

On the day Zhang Zhi set off, Zhang Qian personally sent him out of the city, wiping her tears and saying, "My brother has finally made it." I thought to myself, "Sister, that's not the case. Your brother is just going to take the exam. Whether he passes or not is another matter."

Zhang Zhi looked very nervous. I understand. When I sent Meng Xu to take the imperial examination, Meng Xu, who was always very confident, didn't say a word the whole way and was visibly nervous.

well……

As for Miss Du, I have already taught her the basic etiquette and manners of mixing in with aristocratic families, but the most important things like interpersonal relationships and observing people's words and expressions cannot be taught. This skill is either innate or acquired through years of immersion and learning. She can only rely on herself.

But even so, Mrs. Du was extremely satisfied. Seeing her naughty daughter being brought up to be chaste and virtuous, as a mother she was only relieved. No matter what she did behind the scenes, she could always keep her composure in public.

But I knew her daughter was still a real monkey at heart. It was okay for her to pretend to be a lady occasionally, but if she kept doing that she would definitely be exposed. So I kept telling Miss Du in secret: "When you get married, you must make sure your husband finds a job outside the family. The farther away the better. Otherwise, he will go crazy sooner or later if he is always under the eyes of his mother-in-law."

Miss Du's greatest strength was her optimism. Upon hearing this, she simply nodded, "I know. He said his mother was very understanding and told me not to worry."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Silly girl, men can lie. If you believe his lies one day, he'll lose all his memory the next day.

But then I thought, who hasn’t been brave and lonely when they were young?

Wasn't it the same for me at that time? I knew that Madam Meng didn't like me, but I still insisted on marrying Meng Xu. I was betting that I had good vision and didn't choose the wrong person.

Forget it, I thought to myself, there are thousands of detours in the world, it doesn’t hurt to take a detour while I’m still young.

On the day Miss Du got married, I also took Xiaozhi to see her off. I spent a huge sum of two taels of silver to make a pair of earrings for her. The pattern was drawn by me, and the shape and weight were very good.

Kaizhi came to congratulate on behalf of Zhang Qian, and laughed: "Our wife said that one should look at a scholar with new eyes after three days of absence. Madam Du looks like this now. At first glance, I thought she was the daughter of a wealthy family in Chang'an."

Zhang Qian always praises people with great force, and thanks to Kaizhi's steady delivery, she didn't burst out laughing in the middle of the conversation.

Mrs. Du was so happy after being flattered that she didn't know what to do. She kept thanking Zhang Qian for finding such a good female teacher for her. She was very grateful.

All right, I'm the one doing the work, so the credit goes to Zhang Qian. This woman is really smart...

There were so many people at the wedding and I was afraid of revealing my whereabouts, so I said goodbye and left after putting on my makeup.

Outside the Du Mansion, they had just finished setting off fire to burn bamboo, and the ground was covered with red fragments. I stepped on the fragments and looked towards the main entrance. I saw a handsome young man jumping down from a tall horse. He was smiling appropriately and reciting a poem to urge people to get ready.

The sound of gongs and drums filled the air with joy. The man's family had hired the best music band, and the sounds were lively and boisterous. Not long after, Miss Du came out gracefully, stepping on the fallen petals on the ground, and got into the sedan chair with the elegant posture I had taught her.

I wasn't envious, just melancholy. I stood there watching for a while, then said to Xiaozhi, "In two years, I'll marry you off in a grand manner like this."

Xiaozhi just smiled and said nothing.

After two students graduated one after another, I had almost all the free time. I took advantage of this time to catch up on some sleep. Every day I either ate at my high-legged round table or rolled around on my carved bed.

When Lu Chen heard that I had resigned, he came to my door again and asked me for my manuscript.

Boss Lu is very good at demanding submissions. All the painters he takes a fancy to are squeezed dry by him. In his life, he only suffered a loss because of Zhang Zhi.

Speaking of this, Lu Chen became angry: "... Seeing how poor he looked, I thought he was really short of money. Who would have thought that his ancestral property was enough to fill an entire street."

I showed no sympathy: "You must have made a mistake. They don't need your small gifts."

He approached again with a playful smile: "Yayu, we are acquaintances now. You were busy before, so I didn't bother you. Now that you have some free time, why don't you show your talents? I'll give you a raise for your manuscripts."

I said, "I have a legitimate business. Painting erotic pictures is not good for my reputation, so I'm considering gradually withdrawing from the art world. So, I'll leave my pen name to you. How about you find someone to take my place?"

When Lu Chen heard that I wanted to retire, she immediately said, "Oh, my dear, you can't just abandon me. I'm giving you this fee. There's no more in the whole Hebei Province. Just for this favor, you should at least draw ten books for me!"

"Ten?" I raised my eyebrows. "Boss Lu, aren't you afraid that I might have kidney deficiency?"

"You don't have a man, how can you have kidney deficiency?" Lu Chen pretended to be dumbfounded. "Anyway, you paint fast, why don't you paint more for me during this period, and I will sell them slowly in the future."

"Ten is too many," I said, "Six, maybe. This isn't something you can just draw casually. It needs to be interesting and novel. But people only have two legs and two hands, how can they come up with so many new poses..."

Lu Chen had a broad mind and acted wildly: "If the postures are not enough, then add a few more people and make a feast of bliss, a pool of wine and a forest of meat."

I was horrified: "This is too vulgar, I can't do it!"

Lu Chen said, "Okay, why don't you write some erotic poems, add pictures to them and sell them, leaning towards elegance and sadness, the effect will definitely be good."

This inspired me: "Why don't I write a story about a demon monk wandering around the Land of Daughters at night, and then add a few illustrations to it, what do you think?"

"Genius," Lu Chen slapped his thigh fiercely, praising her like he was free. "Yayu, you're such a genius! Just write it like this. The more erotic the better. And make the evil monk more handsome. What's a mere Mingzhou? I think this book will be famous all the way to Chang'an!"

When I heard the words "famous as far as Chang'an", I felt like a basin of cold water was poured over my head.

Oh my god, this is not allowed!

I immediately lost the desire to create and shook my head, saying, "Forget it. I need to keep a low profile first. I can't let the people of Chang'an see this book."

Lu Chen was extremely anxious: "Why? Aren't you keeping a low profile? This is a spring painting by the romantic poet Mingshui. What does it have to do with you, Wang Yayu? No one knows it was you who painted it. My sister, books are expensive in Chang'an. You can earn more by selling one than by selling two in Mingzhou. Why can't you figure it out?"

I muttered, "Don't try to persuade me. I don't write romances easily. I'll give you the subject matter, and you can find someone else to write it. I'll just do the illustrations."

I am used to writing history and am unique in the world of legendary stories. If I don't handle it well, I will be recognized. I dare not take this risk.

Lu Chen's expression eased a little, but he still didn't give up. He said to me, "Of course I can find someone else to write it, but you won't earn the royalties. You can only make money."

I said, "It's not a question of money. I simply don't want to write a legend. To be honest, I agreed to draw this picture because you're my friend. I'm grateful for your recognition of my skills, so I wanted to make some money for you. As for how much I take, I don't care anymore. Look, since I finished making the furniture, when have I ever argued with you about the writing fee? Let's end this matter here. Please don't ruin our friendship. It's not worth it."

Boss Lu wasn't very good at studying, but he was very good at business. When his attempt to persuade me failed, he quickly changed course and said with a smile, "Hey, since you're so considerate of me, why would I force you? If you don't want to write, then don't write. If you want to just draw pictures, then just draw pictures. You're right. The money is secondary. What matters is the relationship between you and me."

Lu Chen's shamelessness rivals Li Siyan's. I just said it casually, but he climbed up the pole in a flash. What is this sentiment? It immediately made our pure financial relationship not so pure.

I said, "You are more suitable to be my boss."

Lu Chen was eager to make a move and said, "It's too strange for the boss. Why don't we become sworn brothers..."

I can only say that Boss Lu is a true role model of professionalism. In order to win back his outstanding employees, he is willing to sacrifice his looks and moral integrity.

What a shameless and self-sacrificing man! If he doesn’t make money, who will?

I was very touched and rejected him: "No, I don't want to have such a flirtatious brother."