Seeing the beauty before her lower herself and act so submissively, Zhao Si was momentarily spellbound. Slowly extending her fingertips to pull the person before her into her embrace, Zhao Si raised her hand and swore an oath: “A humble nobody like Zhao Si has actually won the affections of my lady. Zhao Si expresses her deepest gratitude to the heavens and the earth, and is willing to never part from my lady for this entire lifetime.”
When Zhao Si spoke, genuine emotion moved her. Once the words were finished, her eye sockets grew moist with emotion as well.
Seeing this, Yun Qing was equally stirred, repeating calls of “Gratitude to the heavens and earth” several times before Ying’er’s repeated urging finally prompted her to tidy her garments and lower the partition boards enclosing the palanquin.
The moment the partition dropped, the pink light gauze fluttered in the wind.
Zhao Si sat on the couch, smoothing her collar and looking around in profound self-deprecation.
Indeed.
Just moments ago, isolated from the mortal world and being entirely bare and open with Yun Qing, Zhao Si had found the courage to agree to the marriage.
Now, clad in ragged clothes, Zhao Si felt her heart pounding like a battle drum merely sitting on Yun Qing’s palanquin, not daring to imagine what kind of scene awaited them once they entered the pavilion.
Even though Zhao Si still had no idea what kind of establishment Yun Qing meant by “returning to the pavilion.”
What kind of establishment could it possibly be?
Though her past was completely forgotten, Zhao Si vaguely remembered that ordinary aristocratic ladies ought to live within formal manors. Yet Yun Qing had repeatedly spoken of “returning to the pavilion,” causing several answers to tumble through Zhao Si’s mind. Places commonly called “pavilions”—at best, optimistically speaking, might be establishments of chivalrous heroes of the martial world or wine and dining taverns; at worst—
Well, she must not think the worst.
This, after all, was her own wife.
Zhao Si sat stiffly, imagining that perhaps Yun Qing’s residence within the Yun Manor was named “Such-and-Such Pavilion.” Within that pavilion, one could perhaps lean against the balustrade and idly watch the winds and clouds arise, or perhaps pools gathered below where one could await the blossoms and flora filling one’s robes.
That would truly be wonderful.
Zhao Si narrowed her eyes, imagining herself and Yun Qing drifting together in a boat upon the pool, scattering a handful of fish food to attract hundreds and thousands of carp, watching the lingering rays of the setting sun, while the corners of her lips curved upward involuntarily.
“Is the husband thinking of something pleasant?” Yun Qing reached out and climbed onto Zhao Si’s shoulder.
“Thinking of drifting on a boat with my wife!” Zhao Si nearly blurted out what was in her heart.
Yet Yun Qing had no intention of letting Zhao Si voice it.
Noticing Yun Qing raise a jade finger and hold it steady before her eyes, she softly breathed out a single “Shh.”
Zhao Si was bewildered by the situation.
Yun Qing raised her hand and pushed her flat onto the couch, tearing open her newly arranged outer robe to reveal half a glimpse of fragrant shoulder, and gave an instruction to Ying’er.
“Start the music!”
Yun Qing’s command of “Start the music!” pulled Zhao Si’s thoughts right back to the sedan palanquin.
Pricking up her ears to listen, Zhao Si felt that the surroundings were bustling with the din of voices. Breaking it down carefully, there were hawkers peddling sundry goods, vendors shouting out rat poison, a little girl begging for candied hawthorns, and a fortune-teller loudly proclaiming his Daoist title.
Zhao Si arrived at a conclusion: at this very moment, they were actually right at the street corner!
This was far too uninhibited.
A light film of sweat broke out on Zhao Si’s back.
Sitting cross-legged diagonally across from Zhao Si’s line of sight, Ying’er drew the jade flute from her waist and began to play.
The flute notes suddenly pierced the air, and Zhao Si, lying flat on her back, caught a wave of fragrant wind in her nose.
Wafting in gentle spirals, Zhao Si heard a lusty male voice ring out from outside the palanquin.
“Come quick and look! Come quick and look! The top courtesan of Yulu Pavilion, Yun Qing, is touring the streets on her fragrant palanquin!”
“Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter—”
The sound of gongs ringing beside Zhao Si’s ears was thunderous.
“Come quick and look! Come quick and look! As the old saying goes, when the golden wind and jade dew meet, they triumph over countless souls in the mortal realm! Today, Lady Yun Qing is even willing to offer prayers for all you gentlemen, bestowing special grace upon the lame Zhao Si!”
“Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter”
The gongs struck a second time, leaving Zhao Si clinging to a shred of wishful thinking. She had touched the jade tray Yun Qing used for medicine; such a prized object surely meant no, wait, it could also mean…
Wasn’t what that boorish fellow shouted just now “top courtesan”?
Good heavens! Zhao Si was dumbfounded. Was the “returning to the pavilion” in Yun Qing’s words actually returning to Yulu Pavilion?
Yun Qing was the top courtesan of Yulu Pavilion, and she was Yun Qing’s husband.
As Yun Qing’s husband, following Yun Qing—the top courtesan of Yulu Pavilion—straight into Yulu Pavilion, would she honestly not be chased out by the madam of Yulu Pavilion?
While Zhao Si’s internal organs were being roasted in anxiety, Yun Qing had already leaned down, letting her jade-like form cascade toward her chest. Unbothered by the stains on Zhao Si’s collar, Yun Qing lowered her gaze, moistening Zhao Si’s neck with her breath while her slender fingers probed inward through the seams of Zhao Si’s upper garment.
“Mmph.” Zhao Si found her breathing growing difficult under the wandering pads of those fingers.
Panting softly, she reached out to catch Yun Qing’s hand.
The clamorous human voices abruptly leaped out of Zhao Si’s ears, replaced instead by a sharp, caustic female voice.
“Yun Qing! You have no shame! It’s one thing for you Yulu Pavilion folks to steal business from our Golden Wind Bower, but how can you lower your own status to receive some beggar?”
That female voice arrived with overwhelming aggression. Zhao Si turned over and propped herself up on the palanquin, wanting to rise, but was pressed back down by Yun Qing.
“She” Zhao Si wanted to play the hero no, a toad trying to rescue a swan—only to find someone else beating her to the punch.
It was an even more caustic female voice, pitched an octave higher than her opponent’s.
“Mother Liu, that just shows how utterly useless your Golden Wind Bower is. Guests are guests, and we at Yulu Pavilion open our doors to do business! So what if he’s a beggar? As long as a guest can cough up the silver, we’d dare to receive even a bald nun! Look at your Golden Wind Bower instead—is it because you only have a pack of worthless gigolos and pansies that you block our procession and ruin our reputation?”
“I heard it said,” the caustic voice shifted directions, half-mocking and half-satirical, “that yesterday the steward of the Prince Regent’s Manor suffered a stroke of ma-shang-feng [sudden death from exhaustion during intimacy] right inside your establishment. It just has to be your Golden Wind Bower, day in and day out, knowing only how to offend the God of Wealth and summon bad luck.”
The woman’s scolding wound through twists and turns, making Zhao Si burst out laughing.
Once Zhao Si laughed, her laughter rippled outward, scattering all around her.
First Yun Qing and Ying’er, then the sedan bearers outside the palanquin, and finally the gathered onlookers. In the span of a moment, the sparse laughter converged into a vast ocean, completely swallowing up the mouth of the alley.
Zhao Si lay amidst the laughter, looking up at Yun Qing’s jawline. Yun Qing possessed exceptionally fine bone structure; gazing up from below, waves of deep affection surged within Zhao Si.
When that affection accumulated to the point of a tight ache in Zhao Si’s heart, she could not help reaching out to stroke Yun Qing’s cheek.
The gesture of reaching out caused Zhao Si’s sleeve to slip down, exposing her bronze-toned forearm.
Yun Qing smiled faintly, pressing against Zhao Si’s gauze-wrapped palm.
“Husband.” Yun Qing protectively cupped Zhao Si’s elevated hand.
Zhao Si remained in a daze until the sedan palanquin was carried straight into Yulu Pavilion, where she awoke as if from a dream.
The moment the palanquin crossed into Yulu Pavilion, over twenty scantily clad women stepped forward to take over from the bearers, carrying the palanquin into the main hall, which was draped in pink satin and adorned with carved beams and painted pillars.
The female bearers stepped back, and the gauze curtains beside the palanquin were lifted with golden poles by four young children.
As the pink gauze rose, Zhao Si leaned over the edge of the palanquin to look down, only to see a nine-layered golden lotus beneath the palanquin, its arm-length petals overlapping layer upon layer so densely that one could not count them at all. Beneath those petals, bluish mist rose leisurely, and in an instant, streams of water cascaded down from above.
Tracing the water streams upward, Zhao Si was astonished to see several golden toads. Each toad was as large as a millstone, spitting streams of water from their mouths while mist and haze intertwined, shrouding everything in sight like a fairyland.
“Yun Qing?” Zhao Si could hardly believe the sight before her.
“Husband.” Yun Qing rose to her feet, her silk ribbons slowly parting. “During the procession just now, my husband must have already learned of Yun Qing’s identity. Since Yun Qing is to be united with you in marriage, she naturally wishes to cast off this life of the dust and winds. But before leaving this Yulu Pavilion, I beg my husband to grant Yun Qing the privilege of serving you as you bathe and change your clothes.”