Chapter 1166: Xie Yulong

"Big Brother should be in the center directing things. Leave charging the lines to us brothers!" Wang Zhaojing said in a deep voice.

"No. Speed is what matters here. He doesn't have that many mounted household retainers. Only with the thousand riders I brought will we have enough strength and efficiency. You go back first and proceed according to what we agreed." Zhao Jin replied in a muffled voice.

Wang Zhaojing hurriedly acknowledged. At this moment, he, Niu Jinbao, and Sun Dalin were positioned around and behind Zhao Jin, tightly guarding him. The moment they left the tournament ground, a household retainer company commander came over to request instructions. Outside, the ground was likewise covered in blood. Corpses were being carried away, while the wounded and captives were being gathered on the other side. Zhao Jin gave a few orders, and they hurried off to their tasks.

"Big Brother, once we get through this, what do we do next? Shouldn't we start making preparations for the future?" Wang Zhaojing pressed closely and asked.

Zhao Jin did not answer immediately. He stood there in silence for a moment, then spoke: "If they really force us onto the stage, we'll have to step up. But if the situation allows, we still need to strengthen ourselves. You saw what happened at Qingjiangpu this time. They've kept so close to us, yet they still wanted to seize our properties for themselves. And the Feng family of Yangzhou — we sent their people's heads rolling, yet they still joined in this time. Of course, it's because they don't know what's good for them, but it's also because our roots aren't deep enough."

To Zhao Jin's reply, Wang Zhaojing merely nodded, then looked north and said, "The agreement was to act around these two days. I wonder how things are going with Second Brother over there."

Outside Jining city, on the eastern bank of the canal, there was an estate called "Green Ripple Garden." Common folk thought it was just the manor of a wealthy family, but high officials and rich gentry knew what it truly was — the finest pleasure house in Jining city, or rather, in the entire Yanzhou Prefecture.

The finest also meant the most expensive, yet it didn't make much money. That was because the garden had only two places where guests could stay overnight; the rest was all bamboo groves and landscaped scenery. Moreover, everything used here for food, clothing, and daily needs — from the furnishings and decor, the tea, wine, and banquet fare served to guests, to the clothes and jewelry of the maids — were all of the finest quality. The maids themselves, of course, were each outstanding in beauty, dignified enough to be concubines in a middling household. Not to mention the opera stage, just like those in Suzhou, and the troupe bought at great expense from Suzhou — over thirty girls, all fifteen years old, each one exquisite.

This garden was used by the wealthy merchants of Jining to entertain honored guests. Jining, a canal hub and water-land port, allowed many to earn a fortune in gold daily through the grain transport trade. But just like at Qingjiangpu, anyone wanting to get rich off this canal had to have official background and connections of one kind or another behind them. To maintain their wealth and power, they had to maintain those connections. And being right on the canal, there were too many high officials and honored guests coming and going. Some were so influential that everyone had to jointly host them. "Green Ripple Garden" was maintained with pooled funds from all of them.

Sitting on mountains of gold, they also needed a place to display their status, and "Green Ripple Garden" became that place. Gaining entry required meeting various restrictions on status and wealth. But if you could get in, it meant you were already one of the top thirty figures in Jining city. Because it was backed by merchants of boundless wealth and influence, the underworld and common folk absolutely dared not touch it — they even had to help with its affairs. Officials and runners dared not come to harass it either, for only the Magistrate of Jining was qualified to enter.

During the great chaos of the Smelling Incense Sect, the atmosphere inside and outside Jining city was extremely tense. The rich and noble fled if they could, yet this garden was actually escorted all the way into Ziyang city by government troops, and later returned safe and sound. The original garden had been severely damaged, but once vast sums of silver were thrown at it, it was immediately restored to its original state and resumed hosting those top-tier honored guests and great lords.

However, people associated with the Zhao Camp and Xuzhou had never come here. In front of these godlike killers, the Jining wealthy merchants naturally dared not put on airs. But after several invitations were sternly refused, they stopped asking for trouble. Yet when word spread outside, it became a fine tale of how the Jining elite considered Xuzhou folk rustic and vulgar and resolutely barred them from entry. Even the commoners on the streets spoke of this with smug pride — Xuzhou still couldn't compare to our Jining.

Generally speaking, the nominal mistresses of "Green Ripple Garden" were always three sisters or two sisters, and these sisters were replaced every year. Over the past five years, only one person was never replaced: Xie Yulong, now twenty years old. Anyone who could serve as mistress and host guests in this garden would not meet a poor fate — taken to the capital or Nanjing as a concubine by some powerful and wealthy figure, or brought to an official post to serve, with the chance to be elevated to principal wife and achieve a proper outcome. More than one person had wanted to buy Xie Yulong's freedom, but not a single one had succeeded.

Xie Yulong was a peerless beauty, incomparably alluring and charming. Women of the demimonde usually came from impoverished backgrounds and could not carry off an air of refined nobility, while those "slender horses" raised from childhood often tended to be overly affected. Such roles often could not handle themselves well at wealthy banquets. Even if they performed well, it was all superficial; everyone was polite on the surface but still treated them as lowly figures of the demimonde.

But this Xie Yulong was different. Not only was she a peerless, alluring beauty, well-versed in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, she also possessed a natural grace and noble bearing. Such an aura in an ordinary pleasure house would be fine, but here, it drove the high officials and nobles mad, because this was an aura they had only seen in the women of their own households. Yet this noble aura was mixed with a hint of seductive charm — how could it not make men utterly infatuated?

A woman of such heavenly beauty and outstanding bearing could not be raised by a pleasure house. But the guests of "Green Ripple Garden" were all well-informed enough to know Xie Yulong's background. It was said she was the daughter of a certain Vice Minister in the capital. Her family had met with great calamity, and relatives and old friends all stood by with folded hands, which was how she had fallen into the demimonde.

Pleasure houses and brothels bought many girls from respectable families, and those from scholarly households were not rare either. But these women's forced smiles always made people feel awkward. Aside from those with peculiar tastes, who wanted to watch someone grieve, weep, and be unwilling? That sort of thing was tolerable only occasionally; over time it became tiresome. Xie Yulong, however, seemed to have not a trace of sorrow or resentment. She was very happy in this garden, and her manner with everyone made people feel as if bathed in a spring breeze.

To say she was content with her degradation and naturally licentious would be wrong. Xie Yulong always maintained excellent boundaries. She never actively flaunted her charms, yet neither did she put on an icy aloofness that kept people at a thousand miles' distance. Someone once remarked that her natural ease was perfection itself — it made you unable to feel pity for her, yet there was no attitude of contempt either. Everyone together felt entirely at ease.

Unlike those top courtesans who relied on their beauty and treated others with arrogance, Xie Yulong was amiable to everyone, high and low. She loved learning things — not just music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but even her culinary skills and embroidery were outstanding. This only spread her reputation further. Even in the circles of the top-tier elite in the capital and Nanjing, people remembered her and spoke of her.

Jining's beauty lay in spring and summer; autumn and winter appeared bleak. During the twelfth and first months, unless a guest of immense importance arrived, Green Ripple Garden always closed its doors to visitors. Xie Yulong's "younger sister" would usually be taken by some family to their country villa to be kept for the winter, and the opera troupe would go to the major patrons' residences to perform. Xie Yulong, however, would spend quiet days in the garden with a few maids and older serving women. At that time of year, those high officials and wealthy guests either did not come or were extremely busy, so naturally they paid no attention to the place.

But this year was different from previous years. Ever since the chaos erupted in Jining, the atmosphere inside and outside the city was tense and fearful, and no one was in the mood to come to Green Ripple Garden for pleasure. It had closed its doors in the tenth month. Xie Yulong's "younger sister" had this time been contracted for several months by a powerful figure in Jinan Prefecture and had gone north at the end of the ninth month. Xie Yulong and the serving women below her lived there quietly on their own.

The maids here were meant to be trained as future "mistresses," while the older women were faded, aging demimonde figures with nowhere to go. Without Xie Yulong's care, their lives would have been very hard. Following Xie Yulong, not only was their livelihood much better, but their status in the garden was also much higher. And they could not find such a life outside, so each of them was utterly loyal and devoted to Xie Yulong.

During the days Green Ripple Garden was closed, Xie Yulong never came out. All food and daily necessities were brought in and out by these serving women. Moreover, Green Ripple Garden was relatively secluded, surrounded by the mansions and villas of great households, and at this season almost no one was around. So as long as the serving women kept quiet, no one knew that a man had already moved into Green Ripple Garden — and had been living there since the tenth month.

The serving women could vaguely guess a few things. The garden's closure was probably for this man. His behavior was rather peculiar; he often had them deliver letters into the city or outside it, handing the letter to someone before returning. Each delivery earned a reward, and the young miss had repeatedly exhorted them, so everyone was very careful. This man who had moved in also won their goodwill — he was handsome, courteous, and strikingly dashing when practicing with his sword. And he was not at all overbearing like those honored guests; he was kind to everyone. The only slightly odd thing was that he seemed a bit gloomy.

Everyone could see that their young miss, who was inwardly very proud and reserved, was quite taken with this man. In private, they discussed it among themselves: if the two of them could be together, it would be a match made in heaven. Such a good person as the young miss would finally have a future.

But the maids and serving women of Green Ripple Garden could never have imagined Xie Yulong's true feelings. She was more than just taken with this man — she was almost fanatical.

Xie Yulong felt she had never met such a wonderful man. Talented in many fields, decisive in strategy and judgment, yet also gentle and warm-hearted, considerate and caring. Scholarly men were often physically frail, but this one was tall, handsome, and dashing. Moreover, Xie Yulong could sense that this man respected her from the heart, unlike those guests who came and went — no matter how they postured, they still saw her as a woman of the demimonde.

Never mind having her freedom bought — if this man showed even the slightest inclination, Xie Yulong would willingly spend everything she had to buy her own freedom and follow him.

How many shrewd women, thinking themselves experienced judges of men, are blinded by passion at such a moment, abandon everything to follow a man, and in the end are left with empty hands, nothing remaining, ending in a miserable fate with no one to rely on.

Thanks to old friends "Qi Sanwen, Duan Yichen, marcoliu" for their gifts, and thanks to everyone for your subscriptions and monthly tickets. Thank you all.