Chapter 61: Flying

When Ming Huashang saw Shancha circling several times but never landing on the ground, she thought it was a move she had planned. It was not until Hongyi heard a sound of tearing cloth and Shancha lost control and fell from mid-air that Ming Huashang realized something had happened.

The crowd downstairs screamed, and Ming Huashang ran to the lobby. She ran so fast, and the stairs were very narrow and dark. When there were only a few steps left, she accidentally stepped on empty air and fell straight to the ground.

Ming Huashang closed her eyes instinctively, but suddenly a pair of hands stretched out from the side and caught her steadily and powerfully. Ming Huashang looked up in shock and met a pair of eyes filled with clear dreams and stars.

Ming Huashang suddenly understood the scenes in the operas where one repays a life-saving favor with one's own life. Even though his face looked ordinary at the moment, his calm eyes, strong hands, and calm and steady demeanor gave people a sense of security that far exceeded his appearance.

Ming Huachang thought that he might have seen her quarreling and making a scene just now, so she was embarrassed for a rare moment. Ming Huazhang helped her stand steadily and whispered, "Watch the road, don't be rash."

Appearance can be modified, but voice cannot be changed. Ming Huazhang's voice was light and deep, like a bolt of lightning passing through her ear. Ming Huachang's face turned red. She nodded slightly, embarrassed to look at Ming Huazhang again, and looked towards the center of the stage.

The stage was already packed with people. Shan Cha's ribbon suddenly broke while she was performing a dance. She made quite a noise while dancing and fell down, shocking the entire building. The madam, maids, and prostitutes all gathered around to watch.

Fortunately, Shancha was not far from the ground and was not seriously injured, but she kept screaming in pain, probably because she had hurt her bones.

Jiang Ling and Ren Yao also ran down from the other side. Jiang Ling asked anxiously, "What happened? Why did you fall down suddenly?"

Shan Cha was a new talent that the madam had spent a lot of money to train. The madam was probably the second person in the building who didn't want anything to happen to Shan Cha. She surrounded Shan Cha and yelled at her. Ren Yao's ears hurt from the noise of the group of women. He couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Stop yelling. Get out of the way."

The women were talking to themselves, no one paid any attention to her. Jiang Ling took a breath and suddenly shouted, "Shut up, everyone! Get out of the way!"

Jiang Ling's words had a great effect. The hall immediately fell silent. When the brothel ladies saw Jiang Ling, they all made way for him. Jiang Ling snorted disdainfully, turned around and gestured to Ren Yao politely: "You come."

Ren Yao glanced at Jiang Ling unhappily and strode to Shan Cha. She was not polite and directly grabbed Shan Cha's ankle, causing Shan Cha to scream.

Shancha's voice was high-pitched and sharp, and even though she was close to him, her ears were ringing. She frowned and was about to endure it when she suddenly felt a warmth on her ears.

This was quite frightening. Ren Yao instinctively shook off the hands and turned back in shock. Jiang Ling stood behind her and raised his eyebrows nonchalantly: "What? Don't you mind the noise? Then I blocked my own ears?"

Ren Yao seemed to be thrown into the air and stuck, with her breath stuck in her chest, unable to move up or down, with no power to use. She glared at Jiang Ling angrily and said fiercely, "Don't do anything."

Jiang Ling snorted and covered his ears in a familiar and natural way. Ming Huashang squeezed through the crowd and saw Ren Yao kneading Shancha's calves. Shancha would scream from time to time. Jiang Ling held his head like a koala and stood by to watch the excitement.

Ming Huashang glanced at Jiang Ling in a strange way. What was he doing? Jiang Ling saw it and said unhappily, "Why are you looking at me? Don't you have hands?"

Ming Huashang's eyes flashed fiercely, and she glared at Jiang Ling warningly, then looked at Ren Yao: "How is it, is it serious?"

Ren Yao had practiced martial arts since childhood and was used to falling, so she could easily straighten her own bones. She pinched Shancha's shin bone and then her instep, saying, "It's okay, just a flesh wound, it will heal in a few days."

Shancha asked nervously, "Will it affect my dancing?"

Ren Yao said truthfully: "It won't affect normal dancing, but if it's like today, I'm afraid it's a bit worrying. I need to rest well for the next month. If the ligament recovers well, maybe I'll be fine."

Shan Cha was devastated after hearing this and started to sob: "Why is my life so miserable? I practiced this dance for three years and finally mastered it, but it was ruined after just one performance. What should I do in the future..."

Shancha cried, and the madam wanted to cry too. Ren Yao hadn't expected that her casual words would cause such serious consequences. She said awkwardly, "This is the worst case scenario. You are still young and can recover."

"I'm already sixteen. If I don't become famous, how can I stay in Tianxianglou?" Shancha was filled with grief, and the more she cried, the more emotional she became. Although the brothel sisters surrounded her, their consolation was perfunctory, and some even openly showed that they were gloating.

Ming Huashang scanned everyone's expressions calmly and asked, "Shancha, I saw that you were able to control yourself when you were at the highest point, so why did you fall down when you were at the bottom?"

Shancha sobbed and said, "I don't know. I wanted to land on the ground, but I don't know what happened today. It was different from what I rehearsed. My toes couldn't reach the ground at all."

After Ming Huazhang caught Ming Huashang, he quietly disappeared into the background. He was so tall, and walking in the shadows, no one noticed him. When the crowd surrounded Shancha, he looked silently at the beam above his head, then walked under the beam and picked up the pile of red silk.

His fingers were cool and slender, pressed against the red silk, and the fingertips were like jade. Ming Huazhang searched purposefully, and after a while, his fingertips paused slightly and carefully rubbed the edge of the red silk.

Yes, he was right, this section of ribbon had been tampered with. He looked carefully at the edge of the red ribbon and saw that the threads on it were twitching in one direction, and it looked like it had been cut by a knife.

So someone cut the ribbon that Shancha used to dance with a little shorter, so that when she jumped down, she naturally couldn't reach the ground. She was forced to spin in the air for a long time, causing Hongcai to be unable to bear the weight and tear in the middle.

Is this related to yesterday's murder? Was it some kind of arrangement by the murderer, or was Shan Cha simply being retaliated against because she had offended too many people?

Ming Huazhang watched for a while and put Hong Mei back to where she was. The madam and the prostitutes comforted Shan Cha, either genuinely or pretendingly, while Ming Huachang took this opportunity to observe everyone's expressions. Their body movements and facial expressions were much more honest than what they said.

Ming Huashang noticed that Yuqiong also came downstairs, but she stood at the stairs and watched from a distance, without approaching. Ming Huashang also noticed that Ming Huazhang took a pile of red silk and flipped through it for a while, then put it back in its place without saying anything.

Is there something on the ribbon? Although Ming Huachang is not diligent, she is very sneaky. She quietly rubbed to the position where Ming Huazhang just sat, picked up the silk cloth and looked at it slowly.

Isn't it just an ordinary red tape? What was he looking at just now?

Ming Huashang knew that the correct answer was here, so she calmed down and observed. She flipped through it for a while and seemed to have found something.

Why are the edges of this piece of cloth so uneven? Ming Huashang had seen Zhaocai making clothes at the Duke's Mansion. When the cloth-cutting knife rolled down, even if the edge was crooked, it should have been crooked into a straight line. How could there be teeth marks?

Could it be that someone has used scissors to make hand and foot?

This was a matter that could kill someone. Shan Cha was still crying in the hall. Ming Hua Shang felt obliged to tell Shan Cha about this matter. So, holding the red ribbon, he quickly walked to the stage and said, "Shan Cha, when you were dancing last night, you were able to land smoothly, right?"

Shan Cha wiped her tears and sobbed, "Of course, there are so many guests in the hall, they all applauded for me."

"Did you trim the silk with scissors after you returned?"

Ming Huazhang was checking the terrain on the stairs and sighed helplessly when he heard this.

The clues were right in front of her, yet she still made a mistake. It wasn't a pair of scissors, but a short weapon like a dagger.

Shancha, who was a fish-brained person, also felt something was wrong. With red eyes, she asked cautiously, "What's wrong?"

Ming Huashang pointed to the edge of the red silk and said, "Look, it looks like someone has trimmed it here."

Shancha stopped crying immediately and tried to stand up with the help of someone. The madam was afraid that she might hurt her leg and delay her future earning, so she told her not to move.

After a flurry of activity, Shan Cha grabbed the ribbon, her face livid. A group of women surrounded her, saying, "It looks like it. The edges look like they were gnawed by a dog. It doesn't look like it was cut in a cloth shop."

Shancha clenched the fabric tightly and said through gritted teeth, "Who wants to harm me?"

In just two days, two terrible incidents occurred in Tianxianglou. The shadow of Zhang Sanlang's suicide has not yet dissipated, and today the popular small flower camellia in the building almost got into trouble again.

The servants brought seats. Shancha did not return to her room, but half-leaned on the beauty couch. The maid was applying an ice pack to her feet. Jiang Ling claimed that watching the judges was much more interesting than listening to the music, so he also had seats brought. He took two "beautiful maids" on his left and right and sat beside them to watch with great interest.

Shancha raised her chin, glanced at the many beautiful girls below, and said angrily and majestically: "Tell me, who cut my red silk?"

All the women avoided his gaze, and no one admitted it. This was natural, who would confess without being asked? Shancha became even more angry, and slapped the beauty couch hard, scolding: "If you don't tell me, then you are deliberately making things difficult for me? Well, I will ask them one by one, I don't believe that I can't catch this rat in the gutter!"

Shancha was arrogant by nature, and now that she was on the raft, she considered herself a victim and became even more lawless. She even called out the names of everyone, asking, "Duya, is that you?"

"Yin Tang, what are you hiding from? Is it you?"

Finally, a little maidservant couldn't bear the psychological pressure anymore and said weakly, "It's not me. But last night, when Sister Shancha was dancing, the guests in Guanghan Yueyuan were fascinated. Sister Yuqiong was unhappy, so she took her pipa to rest in the small compartment for a while and came back later."

There was a slight gasp in the hall. Ming Huashang, Ren Yao and Jiang Ling instantly perked up. They all turned around and looked at Yuqiong.

Shancha was delighted. She had been shouting fiercely before, but it was just a show of force. She suspected Yuqiong as soon as she saw the silk cloth, but she had no evidence. Shancha was just worrying about how to direct the blame to Yuqiong, but coincidentally, Yuqiong herself gave her evidence.

Shancha raised her eyes and said in a sinister tone, "Guanghan Yueyuan has always been the guest of Yuqiong, but I stole the limelight yesterday. I am really sorry to Sister Yuqiong. Sister Yuqiong, are you holding a grudge and so you have a vicious plan to secretly tamper with my sash, hoping that I will break my legs and never be able to dance again?"

Yuqiong held the pipa, still with a calm and unperturbed look, and said quietly: "It's not me. Yesterday, the distinguished guest was busy seeing you and ignored my pipa. I was naturally angry, but I went to the compartment to calm down for a while and then I figured it out. Guests come to Tianxiang Tower to show their favor. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't even be able to survive. How could we wear gold and jade and call servants like today? They are not only our parents who provide us with food and clothing, but also our benefactors, so they are called benefactors. If the benefactors praise us, we should be grateful. If they don't praise us, that's our fate. How can I lose my temper with the benefactors and be jealous? So I went back after I figured it out, and then I stayed with the guests until the hour of Hai. I left only when my mother found the dead body."

Yuqiong spoke softly and with reason, instantly suppressing Shancha's aggressive attitude. Shancha hated Yuqiong's hypocritical look the most. They were all prostitutes, but she kept talking about women's virtues and precepts. Did she really think she was a lady from an aristocratic family?

Shancha said angrily, "You speak better than you sing. Who knows what you are thinking?"

"It doesn't matter what I think in my heart." Yu Qiong wiped the pipa with a handkerchief and said calmly, "You just need to know that I didn't go downstairs before midnight last night. If you don't believe me, go ask everyone. There were so many people in the lobby yesterday. Who saw me?"

The women looked at each other, and finally said, "It seems that there really is no such thing."

Shancha finally caught Yuqiong's handle, how could she let it go! She turned around with great effort and pointed at the red pillar next to the stage and said, "Yesterday, in order to cooperate with my performance, mom lowered the curtains. You could sneak downstairs and hide behind the curtains to avoid being seen."

Yuqiong sighed, "Yes. But there is no shelter behind the stage. Let me ask you, where did Hongji fall after you landed yesterday?"

Shancha choked up, and a maid whispered, "After Shancha flew down from the upstairs, my mother was afraid that Hongji would trip the dancers, so she asked me to put it away. I was serving wine at the time, and I couldn't free my hands, so I just stuffed Hongji behind the curtain."

Ming Huashang looked in the direction the maid pointed. That was the east side of the stage, while Guanghan Yueyuan was on the west side.

The corridors on the east and west sides were not connected. If Yuqiong wanted to get here, she had to go downstairs, cross the stage or the guest seats, and then pick up the red silk.

It is impossible to not be seen by others with such a grand display. But according to Shancha, the curtains were drawn in the hall during yesterday's performance, so perhaps the view was not as wide as it is today.

Ming Huashang said, "We might as well repeat yesterday's format and see what the situation is."

Shancha was determined to find out the villain who was plotting against her, so she supported the plan. Shancha had just injured her foot, so the madam couldn't openly refute Shancha's face. In addition, she also wanted to make a warning to the girls in the building, so she acquiesced.

They competed openly and secretly, snatching customers from each other, and the madam turned a blind eye, but she would never allow anyone to harm others under her nose. Every girl was her cash cow, and if this trend continued, it would be her money that would be lost!

Anyway, there are no customers today, so let them have their fun.

Everyone was there yesterday, and after reminding each other, they quickly restored the lobby to its appearance last night.

Ming Huachang looked around and saw that the lobby on the first floor of Tianxiang Tower was very spacious. In order to support such a high building, two rows of big red pillars stood in the hall, supporting the private rooms on the east and west sides respectively. At this moment, in order to highlight the stage, red curtains were pulled up behind the red pillars, covering the stairs on both sides.

Standing at the main entrance of Tianxiang Tower, you can see the stage in the middle, with two curtains on the left and right, covering up all irrelevant objects. There is an open space behind the stage, and a landscape screen is placed against the back wall, which visually deepens the space, so that it does not appear cramped even with the curtains lowered.

The place where the maid stuffed the red silk was behind the curtain on the east side. Ren Yao disguised himself as Yuqiong, walked out of Guanghan Yueyuan, walked downstairs quietly, and hid behind the pillar: "Can you see me?"

Ming Huashang and Jiang Ling were sitting in the guest seats on the first floor. They shook their heads together and said, "You can't see it if you don't pay attention. Now try to go behind the curtain on the east side."

Ren Yao tried various methods, including crawling, running, and hiding through the guest seats, but none of them worked.

Jiang Ling sat in front of the spacious and bright stage, propped up his chin and said, "Unless everyone in the hall closes their eyes, it's impossible not to see it."

Yuqiong stood at the side holding the pipa, her tone still calm and indifferent: "I already said it wasn't me. Now, you should believe it."

Shancha was extremely unconvinced, but after much thought, she could not think of any way to pass through the stage, through the crowd of spectators below, and reach the other end without being discovered.

She was the main dancer last night and knew the dance formation very well. There was no loophole for the dancers to stand in a row for the people behind to pass through. Moreover, even if there was such a move, it would be like a fool dreaming to walk behind someone without startling the people on the stage.

After a whole night of hard work, Shan Cha got nothing in return and had to rest for a month without receiving any customers. Shan Cha was so angry that her face turned blue. Ming Hua Shang saw her expression, sighed and said, "You have an injury on your foot. It concerns your whole life. The most important thing is to heal it. Don't be angry. Go back and have a good rest."

Shancha reluctantly agreed, glared at Yuqiong viciously, and asked someone to carry her upstairs.

In order to accompany Master Jiang to his fullest, everyone in Tianxiang Tower had been busy, and now that the night was dark, everyone was tired. The madam couldn't stand it any longer, so she smiled and said, "My dear, look, it's already midnight. Isn't it time for you to rest?"

Jiang Ling was still thinking, and said, "Let's stop here for today. Bring hot water to my room. I want to take a bath."

The madam agreed attentively and asked expectantly, "Sir, which room should I send it to?"

Jiang Ling asked for a bath out of habit, but when the madam reminded him, he blinked his eyes and realized that something was wrong.

He was not in the Marquis of Jiangling's mansion, nor in his own villa, but in a brothel. What was even more terrifying was that there were two women following him.