"Hey hey hey, someone’s coming out! Let’s quiet down!"
Upon seeing some movement on the stage, everyone fell silent, eagerly waiting.
Although they had been waiting impatiently, they had come with high hopes, not simply because Yihong Courtyard’s promotion had been so successful.
Yihong Courtyard’s promotion method was modeled after Flower House, which previously held a successful and amazing Oiran competition with such a promotional approach.
Since Yihong Courtyard followed the same path and their beautiful painting was indeed eye-catching, naturally, everyone was eager to see. One could say that if the ten stunning girls really appeared, the frustration of waiting for half a day would vanish instantly.
However...
As the girls on stage slowly stepped out, waving their water sleeves and dancing the most ordinary and unremarkable ancient dance, even their faces and figures bore no resemblance to those in the beautiful painting.
The previously quiet Yihong Courtyard gradually became noisy again.
"What is this?! They hyped it up so much, and this is what they show us?! This isn’t anything new! I’ve seen this dance hundreds of times! Are you joking with me?!"
Someone directly compared the girls with the beautiful painting, angrily saying, "Which one of these girls is from the painting? I can’t recognize any of them! Have Madam Zhao come out and point them out to me! I’m starting to doubt my own eyesight!"
"Isn’t this just a scam? Not only are they taking our money, but they’re also wasting our time! We spent the whole night waiting for this, and this is what we get after waiting so long? Who’s the owner of Yihong Courtyard? Tell him to come out! I want to see if he’s really that desperate for money that he dares to scam us like this!"
The shouts and curses grew louder, causing the girls on stage, who hadn’t finished their dance, to tremble in fear and not dare to move, and the music teacher’s music was completely drowned out by the noise.
The chaos in Yihong Courtyard only grew worse.
Madam Zhao hid backstage, watching nervously, and then rushed to find Sun Yaowen with a mix of panic and desperation: "Young Master! Things are going terribly wrong! The guests don’t buy it now! They came with high expectations because of the promotion, but the girls on stage don’t even match up to it! The crowd is causing a ruckus! What can we do now?!"
Sun Yaowen was also at his wit’s end, pacing around anxiously. Of course, he had heard the noise outside! But what could he do in the face of Madam Zhao’s urgent demands?
Infuriated, Sun Yaowen kicked over a chair and shouted, "Where are the people we sent to look for the missing girls? Haven’t they been found yet?!"
The servant looking for the girls complained, "It’s hard to find them, especially at night! We can only look for them on the streets and alleys. What if they hid in someone’s house? We can’t just barged in."
"Why can’t we barge in?!" Sun Yaowen snapped.
The servant hesitated and said nothing.
Although the Sun family was a wealthy merchant family in Lian’an Town, and even had some connections with the government, it wasn’t powerful enough to warrant using the county office’s authority to raid people’s houses on a whim.
At the very least, they would need a search warrant to do so.
Sun Yaowen, of course, knew he was being a bit unreasonable, and paced back and forth angrily. After a while, he suddenly stopped and exclaimed, "Jinghua... no, she’s already dying. Who else? Who else? Ah! Yi Ling! Quickly, bring Yi Ling here! She can at least hold the fort!"
Sun Yaowen, in his desperation, grabbed the servant’s collar, as if wanting to strangle him.
The servant’s face turned pale as he stuttered, "Yi, Yi Ling...hasn’t she already become your concubine? She’s a respectable woman now. How, how could she go on stage again?"
"Do we have the time to care about that now?! Bring her here!" Sun Yaowen scolded.
Yi Ling was now part of the Sun family, after all. If Grandpa Sun found out that his own concubine dared to go on stage in a Flower House, he might just die of anger on the spot.
The Sun family would likely become the laughingstock of Lian’an Town.
To Grandpa Sun, this blow might be worse than Yihong Courtyard’s closure.
But what could Sun Yaowen do, paralyzed by fear and concern for his family? All he knew was that he had to come up with a solution, or the angry guests might just destroy Yihong Courtyard on the spot, driving away all potential business for good.
If Yihong Courtyard fell to pieces under his management, would Grandpa Sun ever forgive him?
Just thinking about it gave Sun Yaowen chills down his spine.
He had destroyed half of the Sun family’s empire in one fell swoop, and even being banished to the countryside seemed like a luxury. Perhaps Grandpa Sun would simply beat him to death instead.
As clueless as Sun Yaowen was, Madam Zhao knew better. She was loyal to the Sun family and couldn’t let Sun Yaowen act recklessly. Knowing that Sun Yaowen was already shameless, she had no choice but to gently persuade him, "Aunt Yun, who is now Young Master’s third wife, can’t be brought here. Besides, I heard that she’s still bedridden from her severe injuries and can’t get out of bed. Her face is even worse..."
Upon hearing Madam Zhao’s words, Sun Yaowen immediately thought of Yi Ling’s bruised and swollen face, which still hadn’t healed.
All hope seemed to vanish instantly, leaving Sun Yaowen feeling drained. He slumped to the floor, white-faced and hopeless, with no way out but to await his doom.
In the face of such desperation, he didn’t even have the energy to berate his servants.
The shouts from outside grew louder and louder, and the servants’ attempts to calm the guests were futile. The anger of Yihong Courtyard’s guests was just as fierce as its promotion. Hadn’t Yihong Courtyard shot itself in the foot?
In no time, some hot-tempered guests began overturning tables, followed by others who also started wrecking the place out of frustration.
"What the hell is this?! We waited all night just to see this?! Yihong Courtyard has really gone to hell! If I ever set foot in here again, I’ll take your last name!" The man kicked over a chair and stormed off.
"Yihong Courtyard must think it’s something special, playing us for fools! We really fell for it! To hell with this!"
"Tch."
After the whirlwind of chaos, Yihong Courtyard finally quieted down. All the guests had left, leaving only the spacious and empty hall.
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