It turned out that without realizing it, Qiu Yizi had brought Yiran to the alley where brothels were concentrated.
You should know that there is a brothel called "Nuanxiang Pavilion" in this alley, which once hid the saint of Tianzun Sect. Other brothels may also have connections with the cult. Qiu Yizhi thought: If Yiran finds out that I have been involved with Tianzun Sect after coming to Luoyang, and then says a few bad words in front of my adoptive father, Prince Youyan, I will inevitably be punished and may even be driven out of Prince Youyan's mansion.
Thinking of this, Qiu Yizi hurriedly grabbed Yiran, turned around and walked back.
Yiran felt strange and asked, "Haven't we already walked through the back lanes? I think the front lane is quite lively, why don't we go and take a look?"
Qiu Yizi asked back, "Do you know what the buildings on both sides of this alley are used for?"
"Hey! Isn't it just a brothel?" Yiran answered straightforwardly, "There are brothels in Guangyang City. But I have never been in to see it. Today is a good opportunity for me to come to Luoyang to see the world!"
Qiu Yizhi frowned and said, "Do you think this is a clean place? You are a woman, and you have entered a brothel. Do you still want to keep your clean reputation?"
Yiran smiled and said, "The women in our Bohai Kingdom don't have such requirements. If you want to see, just go and see. What's the big deal?" After saying that, she walked towards the first brothel at the entrance of the alley.
When Qiu Yizi saw that this brothel was the "Nuan Xiang Pavilion", she was flustered and quickly pulled Yi Ran to say, "This shop is shabby, the door is small, and the plaques and couplets are nothing special. I guess there's nothing to see. I think the Xiaoxiang Pavilion in front is pretty good. We're going to go anyway, so why not go to a good one!"
Yiran turned her head and said angrily, "You are quite knowledgeable. Do you believe that I will go to your adoptive father and sue you?"
Qiu Yi thought: between two evils, choose the lesser one. Between the two crimes of colluding with a cult and entering a brothel without permission, the latter is indeed much lighter. So she said with a smile: "I have the same idea as you. I will come here to meet the world after I finish my business. But the price is too high. You know, I am a poor guy and I don't have money to spend here. How about taking advantage of the generosity of Her Highness the Princess today to make my trip worthwhile?"
After hearing this, Yi Ran spat at Qiu Yi and said, "How dare you ask me for this money? I'm telling you, after you go in, you can only watch, you can't... You can't even say a word, understand?"
After hearing this, Qiu Yizi smiled and said, "That's right. I'm an interpreter. If the princess doesn't say anything, how can I speak? But if our adoptive father gets to know about this, you and I will both be scolded. Today's matter is only known to you and me, okay?" As he spoke, he saw Yiran nodded in agreement, and then they walked into the Xiaoxiang Pavilion one after another.
The interior of the incense shop was decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and the decorations were very gaudy. It was far from the plain and elegant style of the Warm Fragrance Pavilion, and it was not much different from the brothel in Qiu Yi's mind. It was already dinner time, and more and more people came here to eat and drink, and the hall was already very lively.
The waiter saw two guests, a man and a woman, coming into the restaurant. He couldn't guess who they were, so he took two steps forward, bent over and said, "Sir, we never have the rule of bringing girls with you to our restaurant. This girl is so pretty, if you don't know her, you might think I'm here to challenge you!"
"What? Can't girls come here to play?" Yiran asked.
Seeing Yiran's extraordinary appearance, the old man did not dare to act rashly. He rubbed his hands and said, "I am young and ignorant. I have never heard of any girl or wife coming to play with us."
Qiu Yizi was afraid that Yiran would start arguing with this old man, so he interrupted and said, "You should also stop talking. We are from other places and just came to take a look." Then he threw him a silver ingot and said, "Pick an elegant seat in the corner for us, and bring us good wine and delicious food. Don't disturb us anymore."
Who doesn't love money when working in a brothel? The pimp took the silver, weighed it in his hand, and immediately changed his expression to a flattering one: "Okay, okay. The rules are dead, but people are alive. Please follow me, there is an empty seat by the window." After that, he led Qiu Yizi and Yiran to an eight-person table by the window, and said, "Since you are from other places, I'm afraid you haven't tasted the specialty of our Xiaoxiang Restaurant. I will take the initiative to serve you two, okay?"
Qiu Yizi smiled and said, "You have a good mouth. It's unfair for you to be a waiter here. There are only two of us here. You can pick some rare and exquisite dishes and order them. If you serve too much, we can't finish them and you will have to take them away."
After hearing what Qiu Yizi said, the old turtle seemed to be someone who was not easy to bully, so he had no choice but to retreat obediently.
As they were talking, the hall was already full of guests, and the sounds of clinking glasses and toasting filled the air.
The serving speed in the Xiaoxiang Restaurant was quite fast. After a short while, the waiter came with a plate of food, and put a squirrel fish, a plate of carp lips, a plate of steamed deer tail, some other small dishes and a pot of wine on the table.
Qiu Yizhi saw that these dishes were cooked very beautifully, and the ingredients were all rare delicacies among the people. Even compared with the one Zhou Cijing treated her to in Guangyang City that day, it was not inferior, so she smiled and asked: "Your Xiaoxiang Restaurant dishes are really good. If you don't know, you would think you were in a restaurant."
The old man glanced at Yiran who was sitting next to him, and said to Qiu Yizi with a smile: "Master, are you going to meet the girl in our museum? Don't worry, she will be there soon."
Before he finished speaking, the sound of stringed instruments rose in the hall, and a group of prostitutes dressed in colorful gauze skirts, holding round fans, came down the stairs, flirting with strangers and acquaintances, and shuttled back and forth in the hall. The whole incense shop was suddenly filled with singing and dancing, obscene talk and laughter, which made people blush. Most of the people who were sitting at the wine table just now, either chatting happily or whispering, also pulled over the girls they liked, hugged them left and right, and touched them all over, which was unbearable to look at.
Qiu Yizhi was a little shy when she saw this scene, but she saw Yiran staring at her with eyes wide open, so she looked around. However, she saw that these prostitutes were just ordinary women, and they were naturally far different from the pure and elegant Wen Lingjiao. They were also a million miles away from Yiran in front of her. Even He'er in front of Wen Lingjiao was several times better than them.
So Qiu Yizhi retracted his gaze and asked Yiran, "How is it? There's nothing special in this brothel, right?"
Yiran was still fascinated and said, "You Han people in the Central Plains are really strange. You are all righteous in books and in words, but in private you are all dirty and filthy. It's really boring."
Yiran's words caught all the Han people, including Qiu Yizi, in one fell swoop, and he also described the ways of the world without any error, leaving him unable to refute for a moment. He had no choice but to pick up the chopsticks and pick up the delicious dishes and put them into his mouth.
At this time, three people dressed very gorgeously came from nowhere, walked to Qiu Yizi's table, and asked casually: "We are late, there are two empty seats here, can we sit down?"
Seeing that these people all had frivolous looks, Qiu Yizhi knew that they were all uninvited guests, so she lied: "I have a few more friends coming, and I'm afraid it would be inconvenient for the three of you to sit here."
The leader looked no more than 25 or 26 years old, with bulging eyes due to excessive drinking and sex. He waved his folding fan and said, "Where did your friend come from? If he comes, we can let him go when the time comes, right?"
Seeing that these people seemed to be looking for trouble, Qiu Yizi sighed, and said submissively: "Since you like this seat, we will give it to you." After that, he stood up and asked Yiran to leave together.
Yi Ran, however, sat still in her seat, her eyes still observing the entire incense shop, and said calmly, "This is the seat we reserved, why are you leaving?"
Qiu Yizi just remembered it and didn't know the reason, and was racking his brains to explain it to her.
The young man who was looking for trouble laughed a few times: "This young lady is sensible. I saw the young lady was beautiful outside the window just now, but I didn't know she was with such a loser. I haven't shown my true ability yet, and he was scared away." After that, he picked up the wine pot on the table, poured himself a glass, and poured another glass of wine for Yiran, saying, "If the boy wants to leave, let him go. I'll have a drink with the young lady!"
When Qiu Yizhi heard them calling her a "coward", she was furious and thought: If this happened in Guangyang City, she wouldn't have to do anything herself. She could just call out their names and scare them to death. If her brother Yuchi Lianghong was by her side, she could knock them to the ground with just a flick of her little finger. If this happened in Nuanxiang Pavilion, relying on her friendship with the madam Gu Erniang, she could probably secretly give them some strange poison to make them look bad on the spot...
But he thought again, the Bohai Princess Yiran he knew was not such a patient person, and she must have thought of some way to play a trick on these people. Thinking of this, he was afraid that Yiran would make a big fuss and it would end badly, so he raised his voice slightly and said, "Okay, why bother with these people? Let's go to another place."
Before Yiran could answer, he provoked the young man who was leading the group. He shouted at the top of his voice, "Go away! What do you want here?" While shouting, he hit Qiu Yizi on the forehead with a folding fan in his hand.
Qiu Yizhi moved quickly, dodged to the side, and grabbed the man's right hand holding the fan. Although Qiu Yizhi had been in the army for a long time, his martial arts skills were mediocre, much worse than those of ordinary soldiers of Youyan Dao. However, he did not expect that he could easily pinch the troublemaker and make him scream.
Seeing this, the two men who looked like his followers immediately pushed Qiu Yizhi away, supported the young man and said, "You are so brave. Do you know who this young master is? Telling you will scare you to death!"
Qiu Yizi had already heard that the unruly young man was the son of some important official in the capital, and thought: If this matter were brought to the government, Yiran would not suffer any loss due to her status as the princess of Bohai State, or the title of Prince Youyan; but the incident happened in a brothel, which was a bit disgraceful after all.
Qiu Yizhi was just thinking about how to get out of this situation, when she heard Yiran say quietly, "I heard that here, if a man buys a woman a drink, he has to pay her, right?"
The young man immediately became energetic after hearing her say that. He rubbed his wrist which was swollen and painful from being pinched and said, "That's right. The girls in this incense shop can get a silver coin reward for drinking a glass of wine from a small cup like this. I'm in a good mood today, so I'll give you ten times the reward, one tael of silver per glass. How about that?"
At this time, there were at least 20 or 30 people gathered around the table to watch the fun. When they heard that the young man was generous, they all said "Oh" in unison.
The young man was delighted by the audience and was feeling proud when he heard Yiran say, "What if I want to buy you a drink?"
The young man was stunned for a moment, his eyes turned, and he said, "There are many people who want to treat me to a drink. If it were ordinary people, I would ignore them. Since it is the young lady who invites you, I will give you face today and give you one tael of silver for a glass of wine. I will not cheat anyone!"
After hearing this, Yiran raised the corner of his mouth, slowly stood up from his seat, took out an object from his arms, threw it hard on the table, and asked: "Then how much silver do you think this thing is worth? How many glasses of wine can it buy you?" (To be continued)