Upon hearing this, Cui Ling blurted it out almost without thinking.
"good!"
"My dear daughter, I'll grant you any request, not just one, but a hundred or a thousand!"
She held Yu Luo's hand, her well-maintained hand adorned with an expensive jade bracelet, and her eyes were filled with excitement.
Yu Luo's eyelashes trembled slightly.
She raised her head, her calm, still eyes gazing quietly at the agitated woman before her.
"Mother, don't you even ask what your daughter wants?"
Cui Ling was taken aback for a moment, then burst into laughter.
She raised her hand and tapped Yu Luo's nose, a gesture that was both intimate and slightly boastful.
"Silly child."
"Having a daughter like you is the greatest blessing in my life, Cui Ling!"
"Whatever you want, whatever you want to do, I'll do it for you even if it means selling everything I own!"
Her voice was full of an air of self-righteous dominance.
Yu Luo looked at her, and a faint smile finally appeared in his calm eyes, like the first snow melting.
"But my daughter wants the Spring Breeze Pavilion."
"..."
The ecstasy on Cui Ling's face froze instantly.
The evening breeze in the garden seemed to pause for a moment.
She thought she had misheard.
Spring Breeze Pavilion?
The most notorious brothel in the county, frequented by Magistrate Wang?
What would her precious daughter need a place like this for?
Could it be those women?
Countless thoughts flashed through Cui Ling's mind in an instant.
But she was, after all, a woman of the Cui family who had been navigating the inner quarters for many years and whose intellect far surpassed that of ordinary people.
After that moment of stiffness, the astonishment in her eyes quickly faded, replaced by a deeper scrutiny.
Looking at her daughter's calm and expressionless face, she suddenly understood.
yes.
It's just Chunfeng Tower in a county town.
Compared to his daughter's future, and compared to the favor of the Right Chancellor, what does it matter?
She nodded heavily, her previous domineering aura returning, even stronger than before.
"purchase!"
"It's just a building! Mother will go and figure something out for you!"
"At that time, whether the girls inside stay or leave, whether they are dismissed or sold, will all be decided by my esteemed empress with a single word!"
Yu Luo smiled again.
"Thank you, Mother."
…
The news quickly spread throughout the small county town.
"Have you heard? Spring Breeze Pavilion has changed hands!"
"Who is it? Who has such a big spender?"
"Who else could it be! Madam Wang!"
In teahouses, restaurants, and on the streets, everyone was talking about it.
"Tsk tsk, this Madam Cui is notoriously jealous. Every time Magistrate Wang goes to Chunfeng Tower, he has to kneel on an abacus when he comes back. This time, she's gone and bought the whole building. What's she up to?"
A slick vendor winked and lowered his voice.
"You don't understand, do you? This is called keeping a mistress in a golden house! Once we buy her, when Lord Wang goes there again, it's like he's going back to his own home. Out of sight, out of mind for the lady, brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
The crowd immediately burst into knowing laughter.
However, they didn't laugh for more than a few days before they all stopped laughing.
Because of Chunfenglou, a brothel that had been operating for decades, its signboard was removed and replaced with a brand new one—Huangshan Department Store.
The girls who used to speak softly and sweetly were nowhere to be seen; in their place were rows of neat shelves.
The shelves were filled with all sorts of novel and unheard-of gadgets.
Portable soaps, crystal-clear glasses, and skincare creams that supposedly improve women's skin...
They all came from that mysterious, desolate mountain.
For a time, the men in the county town sighed and lamented, beating their chests and stamping their feet in frustration.
"Sigh, now we won't even have a place to listen to music and relieve our boredom anymore!"
Unbeknownst to them, at that very moment, inside a large carriage heading towards the capital, the girls they thought were "missing" were tightly embracing each other.
They changed into clean and neat men's shorts, their hair tied up high, and each of them held a brand new identity document in their hand.
Chunxue clung tightly to Yu Luo as he crawled into the carriage, tears streaming down her face like a broken string of pearls.
“Lingyi, no, Master…”
"Can we really have our own names and new lives?"
Yu Luo gently patted her back, constantly comforting her.
"Don't cry."
"With your new identities, you will have a new life from now on."
"Whether you want to take the imperial examination like me, or do something else, it's up to you, my sisters."
This sentence seems to possess some kind of magic.
The low sobs in the carriage gradually subsided.
The girls looked up, their eyes red and swollen, and stared at each other in bewilderment.
In those eyes, there was confusion and timidity, but more than anything, there was a yearning to break through the soil.
"I want to continue my studies..." a usually quiet girl whispered, "I want to take the imperial examinations..."
"I want to open a music studio!" the other immediately chimed in, her eyes shining brightly. "Just the two of us sisters, we'll only play the music, we won't sell our laughter! Anyone who wants to listen has to buy a ticket and come in properly!"
"Me! I want to learn martial arts!" A tall girl suddenly raised her hand, her face full of excitement. "I just saw the female guards from the desolate mountains at the department store. They were so impressive!"
"I want to go see the desolate mountains..." Chunxue murmured, wiping away her tears. "I heard that things sell exceptionally well there, and I want to open my own shop..."
"I want to too..."
"Then we..."
The carriage instantly became lively with chatter.
They instinctively looked out the carriage window.
A ray of golden sunlight pierced through the clouds, gently bathing their new clothes and hopeful faces.
The road ahead is long, but it is exceptionally beautiful.
In that instant, Yu Luo felt as if her soul was gradually floating out.
She saw her golden soul body, facing the rising sun, absorbing rays of light into its own body, and then becoming even more radiant.
Behind him, a bewildered soul opened its dazed eyes.
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