Chapter 75 How are you different from prostitutes on the pleasure boat?
The pleasure boat of Qin Sensen, the most beautiful courtesan of Yifeng Pavilion, is named Jinbo Liuguang Boat.
The ship's hull is so magnificent that it can be described as a floating palace.
The bow of the floating palace struck the rocks on the shore and came to rest sideways. Many women rushed onto the painted boat and dragged out a woman of stunning beauty.
Beating and verbal abuse.
They tore at her clothes.
Someone in the crowd shouted angrily, "A prostitute doesn't deserve to wear fine silks! Strip them off! She's not allowed to wear them..."
Yifeng Pavilion's living advertisement is praised for its talent, not for its beauty. Therefore, except when performing on the dance floor or underwater, her attire is always appropriate, and her hair is always styled in a bun.
A group of angry women dragged her to the moss-covered ground by the Xu River, surrounded her in the center, and at first they were somewhat hesitant, only daring to shove her a couple of times, curse her a few times, and spit at her.
A chorus of cheers erupted from the crowd. The clamor of support and praise grew louder, and the crowd became increasingly emboldened. They tore at her clothes, grabbed her hair, and yanked hard. Forced to tilt her head back in pain, she was seized by a woman beside her, her face flushed with anger, who slapped her hard across the left cheek.
"She can spout a few lame lyrics to seduce men, I'll tear her mouth apart!"
"It would be better to slash her face!"
...
There were many sharp-edged pebbles and broken tiles along the riverbank. Upon hearing such sounds, someone actually picked up a piece of tile that could hurt her and slashed it hard across her delicate face, making no attempt to hide the jealousy and resentment in their eyes.
"I am not...a prostitute..."
Li Yujing tried to resist, but many hands held her tightly, not allowing her to explain or defend herself, let alone fight back.
“I am not a prostitute!” she said clearly, word by word.
Her voice was too weak, and the curses were deafening; no one could hear her defense. No one wanted to listen or believe her.
Since she started the elegant style at Yifeng Pavilion, brothels and pleasure quarters all over the country have followed suit. After the poetry competition at the Eastern Mansion's birthday banquet, the world's literati praised and judged her, and for a time, Qin Sensen of Yifeng Pavilion was considered to be on par with Gu Xie, the great talent of the Gu family in Cangnan, attracting literati from all over the country to pursue her.
A few years later, Gu Xie quietly closed his doors, and his fame gradually faded. With the rise of girls' schools, Qin Sensen's reputation became even more prominent.
As a result, the hearts and souls of men everywhere remained elsewhere. They no longer liked women without talent and began to admire "talented women."
Beautiful women skilled in poetry and song kept him company day and night, composing lyrics and reciting melodies. Many lingered in the brothels, unwilling to return home. Some even sang lyrics:
My wife's beautiful face is hard to find now; she looks haggard and faded.
It is difficult for Jing Chai to understand the meaning of writing and ink, and his bare hands have not touched the fragrance of poetry.
Eyes fixed on the book, all is incomprehensible; mind devoid of knowledge, clinging to ignorance.
Youthful years have passed, and your face has changed; how can you compare to the beautiful woman's lovely appearance?
These lyrics, which mocked the "old hag" in the house for being past her prime, illiterate, and incredibly stupid, actually spread and became very popular.
The world has changed. And some people are panicking.
The women in the mansion could no longer hold onto their husbands' hearts, so they directed their anger at the two culprits who had "stole" their husbands: the girls' school and the geisha who could compose poems and sing about the moon and the wind.
A literary uproar broke out in the court and among the people, causing a major setback in the women's examinations. Like a pebble thrown into a flood, the waves quickly spread to the common people, leading to a united attack by unsuccessful scholars against Lingjiu Academy, while women from wealthy families began to denounce the "talented women" of low social status.
When flies and ants swarm together, and there are too many people, the denunciation turns into a war.
Li Yujing's limbs were restrained, and several burly women who were closest to her kicked and stomped on her.
She was clearly too weak to struggle, but the crowd did not stop. Someone took off their shoe and smashed it hard on her back, leaving a dirty footprint.
"You can play the piano and write, huh? Step on her hand! Let's see what she can use to play the piano or write now!"
Her hand was pressed to the ground, and a large foot suddenly came up, spinning and grinding her fingers.
"You vixen, what's so great about having read a few books? Do you really think all the men in the world are head over heels for you? Look, has any man come to your rescue?"
"A prostitute is a prostitute, why pretend to be a scholar? If she's so capable, why doesn't she take the imperial examination? All she does is seduce other women's husbands."
The excruciating pain in her fingers brought Li Yujing back to her senses for a moment. She didn't know where the strength came from, but she pulled her foot away from the hand that was crushing her. Her eyes were red, and in her frantic state, she grabbed someone's arm and bit down.
"Ah!" A woman's scream came from above, followed by an even more violent barrage of slaps landing on her head.
Li Yujing stubbornly refused to budge.
They tore off a piece of bloody flesh while the person was still alive.
When Gu Xie and Gao Guan arrived at the banks of the Xu River at breakneck speed, they indeed saw a dense crowd surrounding a scantily clad woman. The woman had gone mad. Gu Xie knew that figure all too well; without needing to look closely, he recognized her at a glance.
"Ayu..." Gu Xie dismounted and, ignoring Gao Guan's obstruction, pushed through the crowd to squeeze next to Li Yujing.
The woman was still clutching a tuft of bloody hair in her hand. A small patch of blood was seeping from Li Yujing's scalp.
Li Yujing caught a glimpse of a reflective metal object out of the corner of her eye—a hairpin. Ordinary hairpins are pointed and rounded for easy wearing, but this one, a gift from Xie Wenjun, was flat, and its sheath concealed an extremely fine knife. She had never used it before.
Fortunately, the people who were beating her were focused on her, and the hairpin fell into a crevice in the rock and got stuck in the fine moss, so it wasn't picked up by anyone in the chaos.
"Ayu!"
Li Yujing crawled two steps, enduring the pain as she held the hairpin in her hand.
"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!"
The hairpin sheath struck the ground with a very faint "clang." She swung it wildly through the crowd, blood blurring her vision. In the chaos, she didn't know how many people she had injured with her sword.
She spat out the flesh she was biting and burst into maniacal laughter, "Haha ...
She burst into laughter, swaying with mirth, tears streaming down her face.
Tears mingled with blood, streaming down his face.
Seeing that she seemed to have gone mad, the crowd immediately moved back, clearing a space.
Li Yujing stood in the center of the open space, her makeup disheveled, pointing a knife at the crowd. "I'm a prostitute. And what about you? Aren't you all the same, climbing into men's beds? What's the difference between you and prostitutes? Do you even have control over your own bodies? I sell my body to survive, and so do you. The only difference is that you sell yourselves to one so-called husband!"
"Those who consider themselves virtuous women think that people like me are dirty and can be spat on or trampled on by anyone. What? Are you noble because you are fucked by men, bear children for men, or serve as slaves without receiving money? We all survive by using our bodies, so why should we distinguish who is more lowly?"
"No desire for a foothold, no thought of change, no freedom, numb and ignorant! Look at your wretched appearance, surviving on your husbands' charity and pity, how are you any better than prostitutes? You rat-wolves in the gutter, short-sighted, seeing only the small patch of land in front of you, how could you know there are mountains and rivers beyond? Haha ...
Someone on the periphery of the crowd shouted, "The officials are arresting people!" The crowd scattered. The women who had been so arrogant and aggressive tried to run away, but they were surrounded by the soldiers of the Twelve Guards of the Southern Court.
Someone with sharp eyes recognized the leader of the soldiers, who, clutching his wound, collapsed in front of Gao Guan's horse and cried out, "Sir, that madwoman is attacking people with a knife! Arrest her and lock her up in jail!"
Gao Guan glanced at her impatiently, "I've never hit a woman in my life, but you slut dare to distort the truth, so I'll make an exception for you today."
Before the whip could even be raised, the woman fainted from fright.
Gao Guan waved his hand and said, "Take him away." He casually glanced into the distance, and whether he was seeing things or not, he saw a wealthy figure standing in a tall pavilion in the distance. The figure disappeared into the pavilion the instant he looked over.
Li Yujing's eyelids were covered in blood and tears, making it difficult to see clearly. She vaguely saw a figure running against the crowd towards her, about to touch her, when the sharp knife slashed forward again. Gu Xie reacted quickly and dodged the blow.
“Ayu, it’s me.”
Gu Xie took off his outer garment and draped it over her.
Li Yujing was trembling all over, clutching the thin blade tightly to her chest, refusing to let go.
"It's alright, Ayu, it's alright, let's get on the boat. Here." Gu Xie took out a handkerchief and wiped away the sticky blood that had smeared into her eyes. The blood wasn't her own; it was someone else's blood that had splattered into her eyes when she swung her knife.
But blood was seeping from the many crisscrossing wounds on her face.
The handkerchief was stained red with blood, and some of the wounds were quite deep. No matter how hard Li Yujing wiped her face, she couldn't get them clean. Gu Xie held a medicine stick and applied medicine to her face. "It's alright, Yujing. I'll go ask the Princess to find a royal physician to treat your wounds. There won't be any scars, there won't be."
Li Yujing laughed bitterly, "Without this face, I, Princess Yu, am a useless person. How could I be worthy of having the imperial physician treat the wounds of a lowly woman?"
Blood was still seeping out.
Gu Xie was too busy to attend to the details. Just as he was about to apply the medicine, he saw blood seeping out again and had to hurriedly wipe it away. Li Yujing's eyes were as dark as a dead pool, seemingly unconcerned about the injury on her face.
Li Yujing said, "I wrote you a letter before, but I didn't get a reply. Do you remember?"
Gu Xie paused.
Of course she remembered; it was the only letter she never replied to. It was the one Li Yujing asked her to divine her marriage prospects.
Li Yujing said, "I thought the letter might have been lost in transit and you didn't see it. You're knowledgeable about fate, so did you foresee that I would end up like this?"
Gu Xie kept her head down, not daring to meet her gaze. She stirred the white ointment, then applied it to Li Yujing's festering hand.
Li Yujing wiped away the tears that had just welled up in her eyes and said, "When Father was convicted, he thought it was nothing to be reduced to a lowly status so that Mother and the other sisters could have a better life. At least he was still a useful person. Who knew it would taste like this? It would be so unbearable."
Gu Xie said, “Don’t listen to those filthy words. Your ability to read and write, sing and dance are all your own skills. You rely on your talent to make a living and earn a living with your skills. How is that despicable? People misunderstand you. How can you talk about yourself like that? It’s so unpleasant to hear.”
Li Yujing said, "Is there a difference? Being of lowly status means being a prostitute. Don't just think so, even you and I thought so back then. Earning a living through skills, what skills? Poetry, songs, and dances? You still have to climb into Sheng Yu'an's bed to have a peaceful life. What difference is there between submitting to Sheng Yu'an alone and submitting to thousands of people?"
Is there still affection? Yes.
But when she and Sheng Yu'an were having sex, was it really out of their own free will?
Gao Guan boarded the ship and called out from the deck, "Headmaster."
Gu Xie put down the medicine bottle. "Commander Gao from the Southern Garrison is outside. I'll go out and take a look. A-Yu, you are not worthless, so please don't belittle yourself."
The sunlight outside was a bit dazzling, and Gu Xie raised his hand to shield his eyes from the light. "Commander Gao."
Gao Guan pointed to a small group of people and said, "It seems that someone is behind this incident involving Miss Qin Sensen. Of the dozen or so pleasure boats on the river, only Miss Qin's boat was intercepted and caused an accident. Has Miss Qin offended anyone?"
Li Yujing was usually accompanied by thugs and attendants who never left her side. Today, however, she wanted to take a boat trip alone for some fresh air, so she only brought two maids. What a coincidence that both disturbances occurred today!
Gu Xie already had a picture in his mind.
The Southern Court of today is not the Southern Court of yesterday; it belongs to the Twelve Upper Guards and is no longer the "miscellaneous service office" of the past. The Commander Gao before us is also a favorite of the current Emperor, wielding real power. But can he be trusted?
Gu Xie said, "It's still unclear."
Gao Guan was not a fool. He immediately saw the suspicion in Gu Xie's eyes. Without making a fool of himself, he said, "I will take these suspects back for questioning first. Headmaster, please do as you see fit."
She hurriedly ran back, and Gao Guan rushed in after her.
Sure enough, apart from a blood-stained handkerchief, Li Yujing was nowhere to be seen in the room. The window overlooking the water was opened, and Gu Xie leaned over to look down; the ripples from the falling water were still spreading in circles.
"Ayu!" Gu Xie, a landlubber who was afraid of water, suddenly became anxious and his eyes turned red.
Gao Guan shouted at the top of his lungs to Bingwei, "Someone jumped into the river! Save him!" After shouting, he took off his sword and armor, jumped out of the window, and jumped into the water.
Gao Guan and his men searched in the water for a long time, but ultimately had no choice but to turn back.
This section of water is strange; the surface is calm, but the current is swift beneath.
If a person gets caught in it, they'll be swept away in the blink of an eye.
Overwhelmed with grief, Gu Xie could only weep bitterly amidst the vast expanse of the river and sky.
Author's note: Thank you for reading this far!
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