Chapter 87: First Day, Bountiful Harvest

Before Xiao Yu awoke, Hong Qu had been sitting beside the bed, studying her with a scrutinizing gaze... at first, but gradually she drifted off, staring blankly at Xiao Yu.

Now Xiao Yu had left.

Hong Qu moved a chair to the window and stared blankly at the riverside, shaded by green willows.

Only when Aunt Liu pushed the door open again and smiled sweetly said, “Hong Qu, hurry and prepare—pack your things, we’re moving.”

Hong Qu turned her head and asked calmly, “We’re living fine here. Where are we going?”

“Hehe, if Feng Xian said that, I’d understand. Compared to the Northern Wastelands, even this pavilion becomes a fairy’s paradise.”

“But you, Miss Hong Qu, have seen the world. I’ve heard even the Lu Kingdom’s royal palace pales beside the Dou Chancellor’s mansion in wealth and splendor.”

Aunt Liu glanced around, opened the wooden cabinet in the corner, picked out garments one by one, and teased.

Hong Qu pressed her lips together, dark clouds returning to her lovely face. “Don’t try to needle me. Noble households may produce frail, delicate daughters—but I am not one of them.”

“I’ve been here many days. Have I ever complained about my quarters or meals?”

“Hmm, you truly are admirable—even after witnessing your former pride crushed into mud, enduring unbearable inner torment, you still maintained grace and dignity.”

“But compared to Feng Xian, you’re still far behind.”

Aunt Liu idly tossed out a fashionable silk dress and laid it on the bed, folding each piece as she spoke. “Even if you’ve never stepped outside, you must know—this is the pavilion in the front courtyard of Hongxiu Fang.”

Put plainly, it’s the ‘signboard’ displayed at the street corner for guests to see.”

“Within this pavilion, your room is top-tier—spacious and quiet compared to others—but compared to the private ‘elegant gardens’ behind, it’s still far inferior.”

“You were placed here because that’s the rule.”

“New girls are first ranked.”

“You are ‘top-tier girls,’ housed in second-floor private rooms; lower and lowest-tier girls must sleep in dormitories on the first floor or back courtyard.”

“Rooms like yours house seven or eight girls.”

“Once girls become ‘young ladies’ and start earning money, they’ll naturally be moved again.”

Hong Qu gasped in shock. “Who’s starting to earn money? Is it Sha Man Yu? Has she begun taking clients?!”

“So what if she takes clients? Does taking clients mean only selling your body? Hmph—in the pleasure quarters, selling your body is always the least profitable. Anyone who relies solely on that—I’d never treat them with such kindness in my life!”

Aunt Liu glanced at her, then grinned proudly. “Hongxiu Fang, as the premier pleasure quarter of Tianmen Town, has never lacked sword maidens.”

“Singers, dancers, qin players, painters, poetry goddesses... whatever the client desires, we have it all.”

“Yet even our strongest specialty pales beside ‘Five Perfections Sword Maiden’ Li Manman.”

“Now, Auntie sees hope—in a few years, either the ‘Five Perfections Sword Maiden’ will change, or Li Manman will change her title. Either way, the title ‘Sichuan’s First Sword Maiden’ will soon belong to our little Feng Xian!”

At Aunt Liu’s urging, Hong Qu opened her cabinet and packed her clothes and belongings into a bundle.

There wasn’t much—mostly a few seasonal changes of clothing.

As ‘top-tier girls,’ she and Xiao Yu had been given garments of premium fabric, specially tailored by the famed tailor from Siji Fang, and these must be taken.

Towels, teapots, study utensils—none of those needed to be carried.

Aunt Liu summoned a sturdy maid, around twenty, to carry the bedding.

The cotton quilts were new too.

The three women turned left and right through the back courtyard, passing through seven or eight gates, finally arriving at a quiet little pavilion.

The pavilion was a blue-tiled brick house with two large glass windows, roughly forty to fifty square meters, slightly low, its eaves barely two meters above ground.

To the right of the pavilion stood a grape arbor; beneath it, a stone-lined pond, about a zhang long and wide, housed a school of small golden carp.

On either side of the pond grew a weeping round cypress; under the bright spring sun, their green shadows swayed beautifully, utterly charming.

Along the outer wall of the courtyard stood several emerald cypresses, like a green screen blocking outside surveillance.

Beneath the green screen stood three stone rockeries, small in size yet exquisitely sculpted like layered mountains.

The rest of the courtyard was not empty—it was carpeted with velvet golden-thread grass and embroidered grass.

Hong Qu, discerning as she was, knew these two grasses never withered, even under winter frost.

At the pavilion’s entrance, she saw a carved cage hanging along the corridor, inside which sat a parrot with a green head and red beak.

“Master, hello. Master, I’m hungry.” It could speak.

Hong Qu was not surprised.

A parrot that couldn’t speak human speech didn’t deserve to be hung here.

“Squeak~~~” As the door opened, it revealed a study: first, a desk with a porcelain vase of flowers, an inkstone, brushes, and other items.

Four gold-embossed paper slips were pasted on the whitewashed wall, each bearing a poem—both poem and painting seemed the work of masters, though likely forgeries.

“How’s this? Nearly comparable to your Dou family’s lowly maids’ quarters?” Aunt Liu set down the bundle and turned to smile.

“Aunt Liu says ‘lowly maids’ quarters’ aloud, but thinks of my elegant pavilion and boudoir, doesn’t she?”

Hong Qu’s disdain dripped to the floor. “When I was a child, I heard a story: a farmer in the field, speaking of the king, dreamily imagined the king’s carrying pole must be made of gold.”

Aunt Liu grew furious.

She stepped forward, pinched Hong Qu’s cheek, twisted it half a turn, and scolded, “You really think your Dou household is a royal palace! I may be lowborn, but that doesn’t mean I’ve never seen the world.”

“Open your eyes and look—this is Tianmen Town.”

“Tianmen Town is the most prosperous place in the West.”

“Many things here, your distant western Lu barbarians, have never seen in your lives.”

Hong Qu pressed her right hand to her cheek and sneered, “So what if I’ve seen them? Everything you’ve seen in Tianmen Town eventually gets sent to nobles outside the town. Can you even use any of it yourself?”

Aunt Liu was left speechless, rolling her eyes. “You’re no longer the Chancellor’s daughter! The Dou household is gone—you’re just a destitute orphan!”

Hong Qu didn’t anger; she remained calm. “Auntie, don’t rage and humiliate me! You started this conversation—you can’t forbid me from speaking the truth!”

“Ohhh, my chest aches, ohhh~~~”

Aunt Liu clutched her chest and groaned until a maid came looking for her; then she pointed at Hong Qu’s tiny nose. “If you had even a shred of noble maiden pride, you wouldn’t keep living off little Feng Xian’s charity, hmph~~”

Seeing Hong Qu remain silent, she felt she’d won the round, swayed her slender waist, and marched out with grandeur.

“Wow, this is our new home? So beautiful!”

Near dusk, Xiao Yu returned to the pavilion, carrying a large bundle, guided by the little girl Zi Ying.

“Yes, though small, this ‘Xiao Jing Xuan’ is the quietest and most refined place in the neighborhood.”

“When Sister Shao Yao was still a ‘girl’ here, she lived here for three years.”

Zi Ying had a round, fair face, large round eyes, a plump round nose, a tiny mouth, her hair tied into two round buns, exposing her entire face—adorable and full of vitality.

“This place is called ‘Xiao Jing Xuan’?”

Xiao Yu stepped back two paces to the courtyard gate and indeed saw a weather-beaten wooden sign hanging on the wall, the characters “Xiao Jing Xuan” faded.

“Who is Sister Shao Yao? Has she stopped being a ‘girl’?”

“Hehe, Sister Feng Xian, you just arrived, so you probably haven’t heard ‘Luo Capital’s Li Manman, Tianmen’s Shao Yao Red.’”

“Li Manman is called the ‘Five Perfections Sword Maiden’—poetry, sword, song, dance, beauty—five perfections.”

“Though ‘courtesan’ sounds unseemly, add ‘Sichuan’s First’ before it, and it’s quite different.”

“Shao Yao Red can stand beside Li Manman—heehee, Sister Feng Xian, now you know how formidable Sister Shao Yao is!”

Zi Ying loved to laugh; every few words, she grinned and chuckled.

Only when saying “courtesan” did her clear, once-pure eyes flicker with a brief shadow of sorrow.

“Where is Sister Shao Yao now? Can we meet her?”

Xiao Yu entered the room, glanced around, and placed the brocade bundle on the table.

She felt a twinge of regret.

Earlier, chatting with Zi Ying, she’d blurted out her birth date when asked—and now she was “little sister.”

If she’d been sharper, made Zi Ying state her age first, she could’ve become “Big Sister.”

Either way, her current life as a barbarian meant she barely remembered her real birthday; the month was just a guess.

“Hong Qu, you’re here too? Please pour us some tea.”

“No, no need to trouble Hong Qu sister—I’m not thirsty... ah, I’ll do it myself.”

Zi Ying glanced at Hong Qu’s cold face and starry eyes, seemed to lose confidence, waved her hands quickly, found the teapot herself, poured tea for Xiao Yu and Hong Qu, then held her cup without drinking, smiling brightly at Xiao Yu. “Sister Shao Yao still belongs to Hongxiu Fang, but now she has her own house outside and rarely returns.”

She pointed at the brocade bundle on the table and grinned. “Didn’t Sister Feng Xian strike gold today?”

Xiao Yu nodded thoughtfully.

The top courtesan of Western Shu was still a courtesan; even the reddest Shao Yao of Tianmen was still from the teaching house.

But at their level, their circles were entirely different from ordinary people.

Afterward, Zi Ying stayed to chat about Hongxiu Fang’s basics, then was called away by another girl named Du Juan in a green dress.

Before leaving, Xiao Yu lifted the brocade bundle. “Come on, don’t be polite—everyone gets a share! If you don’t take it, you’re disrespecting me.”

The bundle took up half the table; when opened, gold and silver light flashed through the room.

Gold ingots, gold leaves, silver coins, jade pendants—ordinary items aside, there were pearl necklaces, pearl the size of chicken eggs, even three swords, two gem-encrusted daggers, and four thin old books...

Du Juan gasped “Wow!” Zi Ying only grinned and thanked her, showing no surprise.

As for Hong Qu...

While Du Juan and Zi Ying were still there, she cast them a scornful glance.

When only Xiao Yu and she remained, she sneered outright. “I knew you were a Sha barbarian, but didn’t expect your vision to be this narrow.”

Xiao Yu flipped open “Ghost Shadow Grasping Hands” and said coolly, “I fought your father—he was pathetic.”

“You~~~” Hong Qu’s temper flared again, but she stopped mid-rage, glaring at her with hatred.

Xiao Yu ignored her, focused on the manual in her hands.

Hmm—the four books were all martial arts manuals.

Along with the swords and daggers, they were gifts from Jianghu “elders” like Xu Dahao of Yunzhong Flying Crane.

It came without effort at all.

She merely announced her title: “Guan Yu, who slew Kong Zan and crippled Zhou Lang.” The martial artists, including Xu Dahao, gasped in awe, rose to their feet, bowed to her, and begged her to demonstrate a few moves of “Slaying the Hunter Flag Immortal.”

Aunt Liu still worried her injuries had not fully healed.

Xiao Yu treated it as mere exercise after long illness, picked up her sword, and performed a set of “Tiger Roar Sword.”

Hmm, the Seven Great Secrets of “Tiger Soul Seven Kill” — seventy-seven techniques, derived from the “Tiger Roar Blade” — the Tiger Roar Sword is the simplest first-level secret, comprising only seven sequences.

The result: the martial elders were stunned, exclaiming, “Is this the legendary art of controlling the sword with spiritual intent?” “Heavens, at such a young age, she’s already grasped sword intent?” “Wasn’t it said her sword bone was ruined? Why is her sword intent still so piercing, sending chills to the bone?”

Even Aunt Liu beside her stared with shining eyes.

The young girls like Zi Ying wore faces full of admiration, tinged with clear awe.

Xiao Yu was bewildered by their overreaction.

——I’ve barely warmed up, why are you all screaming? And “legendary”? If “spiritual intent” is legendary, then what’s a Sword Immortal? What about the Marquis of Radiant Sun?

But their expressions were genuine, not feigned flattery.

Xiao Yu felt puzzled: she had entered and said, “I pay my respects, Father Figures,” and a string of killing techniques activated.

The fact they activated meant their combat power was not weak — at least enough to threaten her now.

She spoke respectfully, urging the “jungle magnates” to take the stage and demonstrate their skills.

One by one, their “magnate faces” flushed red, eyes darting, waving hands frantically, declining: “We dare not!”

Only after Xiao Yu pleaded repeatedly, her expression and gaze utterly sincere, did they muster courage and demonstrate their signature moves on the spot.

Combined with the killing techniques provided by the Purple Mansion, Xiao Yu gradually began to grasp something.

These heroes were not undeserving of their reputations.

Their techniques were brutally sharp, their battle experience seasoned, their true qi and blood qi immensely thick — sword strikes like dragons, punches like gales.

Several of them were even at the True Qi realm, like Ge Qing, having fused true qi with Gang qi into unbreakable, invincible “Refining Gang Masters.”

But all of them relied solely on physique, technique, and true qi — as for spiritual intent, they didn’t merely lack it; they hadn’t even touched the threshold.