Chapter 107 World Three [21]
"What's going on here? This isn't the way to raise the price, is it?"
"Madam, where's the madam? It's true that Miss Qiuyue is the most popular courtesan, but her price shouldn't be so high as one thousand taels! Are you kidding us?"
"What do you mean? You want me to increase the price from one thousand taels? You are too greedy, madam!"
After the sword-dancing girl came out to make an offer, those who could only offer seven or eight hundred taels of silver at most became unhappy.
If this sword-dancing girl hadn't jumped out to disrupt the situation, he might have been the one who could have gotten Miss Qiuyue tonight.
"One thousand one hundred taels." Another female voice came, but this time it was not from the sword dancing girl on the stage, but from Yin Honglian in red clothes under the stage.
Jing Ke subconsciously looked over and found that there was another familiar person standing next to Yin Honglian, that was Ye Wenxin from the Wulin Alliance.
Why were these two people here? After she had said that theory about killing the emperor if he wasn't capable, they probably wouldn't want to have anything to do with her anytime soon, right?
A small doubt flashed through Jing Ke's mind, but she quickly focused more on the sword dancing girl.
After hearing Yin Honglian's offer, the sword-dancing girl's face changed, but she still agreed and increased the price.
"One thousand three hundred and sixty-seven taels." said the sword dancing girl.
Judging from her quotation in both decimal and round amounts, this should be all the silver she has. If anyone adds another ounce of silver, the sword-dancing girl would probably be helpless.
What Jing Ke could see was naturally visible to Yin Honglian. She had come here to disrupt the situation. Even though the sword dance girl looked at her angrily, Yin Honglian still gave the offer slowly and calmly.
"One thousand three hundred and sixty-eight taels." Yin Honglian said, adding one tael of silver, no more, no less.
Hmm, is this clearly an attempt to bully this sword-dancing girl? Jing Ke raised her eyebrows slightly.
After a moment's thought, Jing Ke knocked on the window of the private room and made his first offer: "One thousand three hundred and sixty-nine taels."
Jing Ke did not deliberately conceal her face, nor did she hide her voice.
So after she quoted the price, Yin Honglian, Ye Wenxin and the sword-dancing girl all looked over.
After recognizing Jing Ke, Yin Honglian and Ye Wenxin's eyes flashed with obvious surprise. From this, it can be seen that their presence here tonight was probably not due to Jing Ke.
Yin Honglian looked at Jing Ke hesitantly, but after thinking of his shocking remarks, she silently suppressed the idea of making an offer.
It was better not to provoke someone who even the emperor wanted to kill. Otherwise, it was hard to say whether she could get preferential treatment from the other party based on her relationship with him, even though they were not sure how distant it was.
The previous offer of one thousand taels had already made most people sigh in despair. Now Miss Jianwu couldn't offer more silver, and Yin Honglian didn't want to go against Jing Ke, a big Buddha. So, naturally, Miss Qiuyue's first night of receiving customers fell into Jing Ke's hands.
Seeing the madam walking towards him with a happy face, Jing Ke quickly took out fourteen silver notes of one hundred taels from his pocket and handed them over.
"Thank you, sir. Miss Qiuyue is yours tonight." The madam counted the banknotes, a wrinkle forming on her face. "You may go to Miss Qiuyue's room now. She is ready."
"One thousand three hundred and sixty-nine taels, this is my offer. Five taels of silver for the private room, you need to return me twenty-six taels of silver." Jing Ke said, who had no intention of wasting money.
Twenty-six taels of silver is not a small amount of money. If I use it to buy high-quality cloth, it will be enough for me to make a robe for my little apprentice!
The madam was stunned for a moment after hearing this, but the smile on her face remained flawless. "Okay, sir, please wait a moment."
After successfully getting his twenty-six taels of silver, Jing Ke followed the madam to the room belonging to Miss Qiuyue on the third floor.
After noticing that there was more than one breathing sound in the room, Jing Ke paused, sent the madam away with a few words, and then knocked on the door politely.
"Miss Qiuyue, is it convenient for me to come in and take the photo now?" Jing Ke asked while standing outside the door.
"It's convenient. The door is not locked. Please come in, sir." Miss Qiuyue's voice came from inside.
Jing Ke reached out and pushed the door open, scanning the layout of the room at an extremely fast speed.
Hmm, is that sword dancing girl hiding? Isn't she planning to sneak attack me after I get in?
Jing Ke raised her eyebrows slightly, pushed the door open and walked in, then closed the door.
After seeing Jing Ke closing the door, Miss Qiuyue's breathing changed noticeably. Unlike the sword-dancing girl with internal strength, Miss Qiuyue was just an ordinary person, the kind who couldn't hold a horse stance for more than a quarter of an hour.
"The girl who is performing the finale, I don't want to look for you on the beam. Could you please come down by yourself?" Jing Ke said politely.
Although Jing Ke brought a sword with her, she came here to learn piano skills, not to fight.
The sword-dancing girl seemed a little surprised that she was discovered. After a brief silence, she jumped down from the beam and looked at Jing Ke warily.
"I remember your previous bid was one thousand three hundred and sixty-seven taels, right?" Jing Ke asked directly.
The sword-dancing girl nodded hesitantly. That was not only her entire net worth, but also Qiuyue's entire net worth. They only had that much money together.
"How about we make a deal? I only need half an hour of Miss Qiuyue's time, and I will sell the remaining time to you for one thousand... one thousand three hundred taels. How about that?" Jing Ke asked in a good manner.
It turned out that Jing Ke was planning to ask for 1,367 taels of silver, but after seeing that the two girls felt a little pitiful, he kindly left them 67 taels of silver.
"You, you want to make a deal with me?" The sword dancing girl was stunned when she heard it. "What do you want to do with half an hour?"
"Let's discuss piano skills." Jing Ke said, "If you're worried, you can stay here. I don't mind having one more person."
After hearing that she could stay, the sword dancing girl became less vigilant. She first took out ten silver notes of one hundred taels each, and then scraped together another three hundred taels of silver.
Jing Ke counted them carefully, and after making sure there were no problems, he stuffed the roll of banknotes into his arms.
"Ms. Qiuyue, I can play music according to the score, but the sound I play is devoid of any emotion. Why is that?" Jing Ke asked humbly.
Qiuyue was stunned for a moment, "Um, could you please play a song for me?"
"Okay, but I didn't bring my piano." Jing Ke nodded in agreement.
"Xiaowu, help me get the piano." Miss Qiuyue ordered.
The sword dancing girl called Xiaowu stood up hesitantly and quickly took out the sandalwood harp from the cabinet.
Jing Ke didn't waste any time. He recalled the music score that Miss Qiuyue played on the stage and reproduced it almost exactly.
At the beginning, Qiuyue was listening very attentively, but after one-third of the music, she couldn't help frowning, and it lasted until the end of the song.
"Who did you learn the art of playing the qin from?" Miss Qiuyue asked politely, "Didn't that teacher warn you?"
"I taught myself and just played according to the music score." Jing Ke said.
Miss Qiuyue's face showed a trace of thought. "If you want to play an emotional piece of music, you need to understand the composer's original intention from multiple perspectives, and put yourself into the situation when playing..."
Miss Qiuyue gave an answer from a very professional perspective. Jing Ke's piano playing was indeed flawless, but if she, as a performer, could not put herself into the shoes of the protagonist of the story in the music score, she was just plucking the strings according to a certain pattern, and was not playing a specific piece of music.
Today's music scores are usually a condensed version of a story and require abundant emotions to perform.
"Really?" Jing Ke could understand what the other person meant, but she couldn't seem to put herself in his shoes.
"Who was Miss Qiuyue thinking about when she was playing? Was she thinking about the person she liked?" Jing Ke asked.
"Ah? This..." Miss Qiuyue was confused by the question and subconsciously looked at Xiaowu.
Xiaowu was also stunned for a moment. When he found Qiuyue was looking at him, his face turned red and he clenched his fists without saying a word.
"If I don't have someone I like, will I not be able to express the emotions in the performance?" Jing Ke continued to ask.
"Hmm... well, you don't have to have someone you like in order to express your feelings. You can imagine what she would look like if you had someone you liked, and what kind of feelings you would have when you saw her..."
Miss Qiuyue explained haltingly, not knowing what she was thinking about, and her face became redder and redder.
Jing Ke thought seriously, if this is the case, then the zither will become like poetry, a part that he cannot understand.
"Thank you Miss Qiuyue for your answer. I won't bother you any more." After getting the answer to the question, Jing Ke didn't stay any longer and immediately got up and left.
Jing Ke was so fast that Qiuyue and Xiaowu didn't have time to say the second sentence before they saw the door was closed again.
"Qiuyue, this, this gentleman, his pursuit of the art of playing the zither is so pure..." Xiaowu said dryly. She had no idea what would happen tonight.
Whether it was being troubled by Yin Honglian because of her past sins, or meeting this mysterious gentleman who paid a high price just to ask questions, it was all beyond her expectations.
"Yes, but..." Qiuyue hesitated to speak.
While pursuing his musical skills, that gentleman seemed to be good at business as well, and he didn't waste too much money.
-
Jing Ke didn't care what was going on between Miss Qiuyue and that Xiaowu.
But when she walked from the third floor to the first floor, she saw Yin Honglian and Ye Wenxin standing at the door as door gods.
"Are you waiting for me?" Jing Ke asked.
After seeing Jing Ke come out in neatly dressed clothes, Yin Honglian finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, let's talk somewhere else?"
Jing Ke did not refuse and took the two of them back to Luo's house.
"So, you know that Xiao Wu, and she was once the talent you chose, but after she went to the Central Plains martial arts world, she disappeared?" Jing Ke briefly understood what happened.
To sum up, Xiao Wu, who was raised by the Demon Cult, was too upright and had a bottom line. After being taken in by Miss Qiuyue when he was half dead, he became her loyal guard. He abandoned the so-called Demon Cult and followed Miss Qiuyue wholeheartedly.
"Yes, the leader actually has high hopes for her. I came here this time just to bring her back." Yin Honglian said, shrugged at Jing Ke, "I originally planned to use Miss Qiuyue to control her, but something unexpected happened in the end."
"Oh, what about Hall Master Ye? May I ask why you are here too?" Jing Ke looked at Ye Wenxin.
"The leader wanted me to keep an eye on the Demon Cult," Ye Wenxin said succinctly, "so I followed the left protector."
Jing Ke raised her eyebrows slightly, understanding Ye Wenxin's subtext, "Are you so afraid of the court? You are actually willing to put aside your past grudges and shake hands for peace."
"It's just the situation that forces me to do so." Ye Wenxin said, with a hint of helplessness in his tone.
"I have no intention of interfering with what you are doing, but I don't want my peaceful life to be disturbed." Jing Ke directly stated his attitude, "I can deal with the emperor, and I can also deal with others who cause me trouble."
Is this a naked threat?
Yin Honglian and Ye Wenxin looked at each other, then looked away together.
"I understand. I'm only here for Xiaowu." Yin Honglian stated.
"I just followed Protector Zuo and paid attention to her every move." Ye Wenxin followed up.
"Okay, then I won't see you off." After figuring out why the two people were here, Jing Ke quickly drove them away.
Yin Honglian glanced at the sky and said, "Jing Ke, it's curfew outside now. We don't want to go against the court for the time being."
"Do you want to stay overnight?" Jing Ke asked back.
"If possible, I hope you can take me in for one night. After all, we are friends, right?" Yin Honglian winked at Jing Ke, trying to improve their relationship.
"Sure, there should be an empty room in your house. For one night... just give me thirty-seven taels of silver per person." Jing Ke said.
In this way, the money the two people spend on staying overnight can just cover my expenses for tonight.
"No problem!" It was just a few dozen taels of silver, and Yin Honglian agreed without thinking.
"Excuse me." Ye Wenxin was not someone who was short of money, so he quickly agreed to the offer.
In this way, there were two more guests in the Luo Mansion in the evening, and they were arranged by Jing Ke in another courtyard.
-
"Why aren't you sleeping yet?" Jing Ke, who had just returned from collecting the money, immediately saw his apprentice sitting in the yard.
"Master, did you go to Fengming Tower today?" Luo Yuezhu asked.
Her internal strength was not weak. Even though Jing Ke and the others did not control their voices, Luo Yuezhu could hear the conversation between the people in the front hall.
"Well, I went to ask the courtesan a few questions." Jing Ke nodded and raised his hand to touch the little apprentice's head. "What's wrong? Are you also interested in Fengming Tower?"
Luo Yuezhu wanted to shake her head, but she didn't know what she thought of. She nodded and looked up at her master.
"Master, can women also go to Fengming Tower?" Luo Yuezhu asked.
Jing Ke nodded. "Of course, as long as you have money, you can enjoy music. It doesn't matter if you are a man or a woman. There is no rule in the world that women can't like women."
"But if you want to go, remember to tell me, Master, and I will go with you," Jing Ke said.
The fifteen-year-old apprentice is still too young. If he goes alone, he might be cheated.
At this moment, Luo Yuezhu no longer cared about what her master said. Her mind was full of her master's previous words.
There is no rule in the world that says women can't like other women.
Is there any rule in the world that prohibits apprentices from liking their masters?
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