Chapter 20 The Evil Courtesan (2)
"Hey, are you okay?"
Songshan tapped the peasant girl with his long pipe.
She had passed out from the pain.
Songshan gave her some water.
The peasant girl's dry lips were moistened, she frowned, and woke up.
She opened her eyes, and the look of despair and sorrow had become sharp.
She is no longer "her".
But it’s Shisui!
Just now, when she was unconscious, Nong Nu and Shi Sui made an agreement.
Shisui will borrow her body to help her change her fate.
"I will save you, but it's not just about saving you." Shi Sui told the peasant girl frankly, "I might even kill you. If you don't accept it..."
The peasant girl was terrified, thinking that Shi Sui was here to take away the soul, and dared not object: "I will leave everything to you, sir."
So her soul was temporarily sealed.
…
Tokiho supported herself on the floor with her arms and slowly sat up.
She is still very weak.
According to the memories received, the peasant girl was born in an ordinary family in the countryside, with seven or eight brothers and sisters.
Her parents were unable to take care of her, so they sent her to be raised by her uncle when she was young.
Everything was going well at first, but later, for some reason, her uncle became addicted to gambling and owed a large sum of money. Under the instigation of others, he wanted to sell the peasant girl to Jiyuan to work as a prostitute to pay off his debts!
However, the two are related by blood after all. The uncle came to his senses at the last moment and after kidnapping the peasant girl to Yoshiwara, he did not hand her over to the human traffickers.
But her uncle was in financial difficulty and could no longer support her, so he abandoned her on the streets of Yoshiwara and ran away to avoid his creditors.
well……
Tokiho pulled out a mirror.
A poppy symbolizing self-destruction was tattooed on the left side of his face, a few blue will-o'-the-wisp flames were tattooed on his collarbone, and a crow with an ominous omen was tattooed on his back...
Even Songshan felt that she had reached the end of the road.
Tokiho gently stroked her skin, which was still red and swollen from the tattoo, and said to Matsuyama with a smile, "Thank you. I like all these designs."
"You're still laughing! I was born here and have lived here for over twenty years. It's rare for a woman to leave Yoshiwara, let alone find happiness... For someone like you, with your virginity and appearance ruined, it's even harder."
Matsuyama brought Tokiho a cup of hot tea and a new set of clothes.
Shi Sui: "Three tattoos and a new set of clothes, I'm afraid the little money I gave you isn't enough."
"It's not enough." Songshan brought over a small, delicate brocade box, the size of a palm. "So you have to do me a favor and take this box of rouge to Yuejian Tower to a prostitute named Xiangyu."
Tsukimi-ro is the busiest and most popular of the dozens of arcades in Yoshiwara.
On a moonlit night, I met a beautiful woman.
Tsukimi-ro is a four-story building with 108 rooms. It is a landmark building in Yoshiwara Village. Every night, it is decorated with lights to welcome guests.
Half of the women there were descendants of impoverished aristocrats. They were beautiful, knowledgeable, and well-versed in poetry, calligraphy, painting, singing and dancing, tea ceremony, and flower arrangement, attracting many high-ranking officials and nobles to come and patronize them.
What a coincidence.
Shisui originally planned to go to Yuejianlou to find a job...
She rested in the tattoo shop in Songshan for a day and a night, and her strength gradually recovered.
Tokiho discovered that Matsuyama, a handsome young tattoo artist, was not only proficient in tattooing, but also in clothing making, hair styling, makeup and perfume making. He was simply the logistics captain of the prostitutes.
Furthermore, he and the prostitute Xiangyu he mentioned seemed to have some kind of inexplicable special relationship...
After noon the next day, she changed into new clothes and went out.
…
"Excuse me, I need to see Miss Xiangyu. Could you please accommodate me?"
Tokisui arrived at the side door of Yuejianlou and was stopped.
When the guard saw the tattoo on Shi Sui's face, his face immediately darkened.
"Go away! What do you think this place is? Is Yuejian Tower a place where lowly people like you can just come and go?!"
In Yoshiwara, women with tattoos on their faces are assumed to have made mistakes and were kicked out by their former owners, and their identity and status are extremely low.
Shi Sui took out a brocade box and said, "This is the precious rouge that Miss Xiangyu needs. If we don't deliver it to her, it will delay her important event and we will not be able to bear the consequences."
The guards looked down on Shihui and refused to listen to her explanation. They even drew their knives and tried to use violence to drive her away.
In this situation, it is inevitable to spend some money to smooth things over.
Just as Shisui reached into her sleeve to take out a few coins, the vermilion side door behind the guards was suddenly opened.
The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman in her forties or fifties.
She wore a neat, dark purple embroidered kimono, a bright peony in her hair, and her hands folded at her waist. Although there were noticeable crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, her overall appearance was well-maintained, giving her a uniquely mature charm.
The two guards saw her and respectfully addressed her as "Madam Ya".
She is the manager of Yuejianlou, responsible for the daily life and food of the prostitutes.
Madam Ya's face was serious. She looked Shi Sui over from head to toe and asked softly, "Are you the one who wants to give Xiangyu rouge? Did Songshan ask you to come?"
Shi Sui bowed slightly and said, "It's my daughter."
"Why would Songshan let a disfigured woman run errands for him... Just give me the things."
Although Yaren said this, he still gave off a cold air that kept people at a distance. He raised his chin and signaled Shisui to hand the brocade box to the guard.
no.
I can't just hand over Rouge so easily.
Tokiho also wanted to take this opportunity to sneak into Yuejianlou.
So she lied without blushing or beating her heart: "Mr. Songshan said that using this rouge requires some special skills..."
Madam Ya said impatiently, "What skills are needed to apply rouge?! Just write a note and attach it."
"But... I can't read!" Shisui lowered her head in shame, vividly portraying the embarrassment of a woman from the lower class. "How about you help me write it?"
"How dare you!" Madam Ya felt offended and shouted.
Tokiho looked for help at the two obviously illiterate security guards.
Before she even opened her mouth, the two men started to cower and waved their hands repeatedly: "Little... Little one can't do that either..."
So, the three people present looked at Madam Ya at the same time.
Madam Ya flicked her sleeves, looked up at the sky and saw that it was still early, then said to Shi Sui in a bad mood, "I'll give you an hour at most. Send the rouge in and get out quickly!"
"Yes~"
In this way, Tokiho broke through the defense openly and successfully sneaked into Tsukimi-ya.
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