Hair Coiling Chapter 7 Brothel

         Till now, whenever thinking of beauty Yue’s facial expression at that moment, I couldn’t help laughing wildly. Unable to make head or tail of my word, she obviously didn’t keep up with my leaping mind, dumb founded, stammered, ‘What … what did u say?’
  I sighed, could my word be so tough to understand? Please don’t always follow your own pattern of mind, lady, give a try to coordinate other people’s pattern. I shook my head and recited earnestly and helplessly, ‘I want to eat. I’m hungry.’
  The food was delicious and I tried not to behave like a reincarnation from a ghost died of hunger, tried to act with the identity of Prime Minister’s daughter and her sensible, refined and well-educated quality – but seemed not work well. Because the beauty sitting at the opposite had been surveying me with a smile of surprise and a trace of interest flashed in her eyes.
  I licked my lips and turned my head around. Was there paper napkin provided in ancient time? Beauty Yue chuckled and handed over a silk handkerchief considerately. I thanked with a smile and took the silk to wipe the grease on my lips corner gently.
  ‘I will return it to you after I washed it.’ I played with the silk handkerchief in hands, thinking still paper napkin more convenient. Silk handkerchief was of pure snow white silk with an un-named flower embroidered on it. The embroidery was super exquisite.
  ‘You are welcome. It was thoughtless of Yue.’ Beauty Yue said courteously.
  ‘Where am I?’ I looked at her. I was nosing about information and didn’t expect she could truly answer me.
  ‘Yihong House.’ I was surprised she truly replied.
  Yihong House? Such a name was often seen as … I had a hunch in mind, ‘Brothel?’
  ‘Brothel.’ Her frank response surprised me again. Her eyes deepened, where a sense of survey was added. I looked back into her eyes without any despise or shame, only a pure inquiry. Seeing this, beauty Yue gave a meaningful but a relaxed and appreciated smile.
  I guessed I could much likely win her trust. An ancient woman, low in social position, her life was no more stronger than a piece of paper once born into a brothel girl. She must be living on the bottom level of society and become a toy of men. Men liked to travel with their whore partners while still visiting brothel constantly and thinking it as the filthiest place in the world at the same time. Brothel was an indecent existence in the eyes of a common lady and brothel girls were all wanton women as well. This idea had become a discrimination through long period of time and had taken root deeply in ancient people’s mind, which was extremely sensitive to brothel girls, too. I knew I had performed very well and even real Wei Lanxue might not be so calm as I was at that moment, just because the frankness in my eyes was not pretended. I was from 21st century and knew quite much of the situation of brothel girls in ancient times. I had no discrimination of them, only sympathy. I had seen a comment of brothel girls on internet: When she was alive, she was a falling flower; when she died, memories were gone together with her body like flowing water. Her life was like a grain of floating dust and couldn’t help the destiny of being trifled and squeezed, even though there were unyielding resistances. Li Bai, one of the most famous poets of Tang Dynasty, once talked of brothel girls, ‘Serving others by their body, how long could love stay with them?’ Another well known poet Liu Xiyi commented on the fate of brothel girls as ‘Blocked in a place flooded with singing and dancing in their prosperous age; could do nothing except crying for their disappearing youth in their late time.’ No wonder why the prettiest brothel girl in history Du Shiniang wrote the verse as ‘Pick the flower when there is still one left than bemoaning your inadequacy when there are twigs remained only.’ Living on their bodies, there would come one day when these girls face their sad end. Destroying beautiful things to please other people, what else could be more tragic?
  Beauty Yue, a real beauty with perfect figure and face, plus a strong Wushu, could go anywhere she like than in a brothel. Maybe she had some secrets. However, she was real extraordinary that didn’t care about her reputation much. I recalled the memory of those famous brothel beauties in the history of my preexistence: Xue Tao, Su Xiaoxiao, Liu Rushi, Chu Yuanyuan, Dong Xiaowan, etc. – each of them was supreme gorgeous, gentle and serene, knowing everything of poems and prosody … Now looking at beauty Yue. I couldn’t help sighing on the verses written by Bai Juyi – Their skills of playing zither convinced gifted scholars; their make-ups made every gorgeous lady jealous; knocking jewelries to go with music meters till they were smashed; letting wines spoil their scarlet silk skirts while entertaining.
  ‘What did he want me to do?’ I asked indifferently. Chu Yang ‘threw me away’ in brothel and there could be only one reason – to humiliate me to death. I just wanted to make sure of it – was that man truly psycho like that? ‘To please guests?’
  Beauty Yue stopped a second, then nodded softly with a trace of apology coming into her eyes. I smiled, why did you apologize? You were just following his commands. I lowered my eyelashes and quickly valued in mind what I should do if I had to be confined in brothel and forced to sell my body.
  Didn’t want to sell body? Then sell skills. Nearly each ancient brothel girl know well of singing, dancing, playing instruments, drawing, go chess and calligraphy, but what did I know of? I gave a deep sigh in heart. My meal ticket was plane design which needed me working with computers all the time. Though the work I did related with painting, it poled apart with the traditional painting skills of ancient women. Even though I could play with computers, it wouldn’t help a bit here. Chess? I know only go bang. Instrument? I played guitar since 15, but did people here know what guitar was? As to singing and dancing … I frowned. Suddenly, I got an idea. I remembered reading those time-jumped novels at Jinjiang.net. Which one of those divas had the trouble as I did? No one. No matter in deep palace or in folk area, they could live their life well with high proficiency. If I couldn’t make use of the numerous pop songs, I would be shame of being called as ‘Queen of Mic’ each time playing Karaoke with friends in preexistence. Thank God! I must not lose face of modern people.
  ‘Can I sell skills only?’ Once felt assured, I got counters in negotiation.
  ‘Miss Wei, Since you were grown in secluded boudoir and may seldom know that our Yihong House is the No. l brothel in the capital city.’ Beauty Yue seemed a good negotiator. ‘Our girls are all masters of their accomplishments.’ She implicated that the so-called talent of those ladies from reputable families might not be compared with girls’ of Yihong House.
  ‘What if I assure u the talent of mine is absolute different?’ I could see she was not bluffing. I got to provide firm evidence to prove my word and to persuade her. ‘Would you allow me to sing a song?’
  Beauty Yue raised her eyebrows, nodded.
  I gave a short think, then chose the ‘Flower on Water’ by Cai Qin which was much suitable for the bleak mood of brothel girls:
  I’m a flower floating on the water,
  Running to the sea of crowd,
  Can’t find my existence in the world,
  Love is the thing I missed most.
  I’m a flower floating on the water,
  Running to the sea of crowd,
  Searching for a love in the world,
  But the truth is doubtful as I have heard.
  My mind is wandering day and night,
  Wandering in the vast sea of crowd,
  I’ve been through misery, I’ve been through suffering          ,
  But where is my beloved?
  I’m a flower floating on the water,
  Running to the sea of crowd,
  Can’t find my existence in the world,
  Love is the thing I missed most.
  I kept an eye on Yue Niang’s reaction while singing. As I expected, her eyes shimmering brightened, and an expression of surprise was written on her face. I was quite assured and tried to make my singing more euphonious and lingering on sad color. Thank God, the voice of Wei Lanxue was not bad and worthy of my effort of performance. The voice of preexistence was nice, too, which had won applause each time I sang in KTV. To my surprise, Wei’s quality was even better than mine!
  ‘What do you think?’ I tried to sound beauty Yue’s reaction. In fact, I knew I was much impressive to her already. If she still refused to be reconciled, I would be ready for another song and show her my ability after working for the work union of Telecom Company for 3 years as general secretary and arrange some modern dancing programs she must had never even thought about. She would be totally convinced.
  ‘Marvelous!’ Beauty Yue praised with her heart, ‘Is it written by you?’
  ‘Thanks, yes.’ I was saving myself, so I had no choice but neglecting the moral questions of stealing other people’s work.
  ‘People all say Miss Wei is well-educated, gentle and refined, but she’s also talented as well!’ There was light flashing in her eyes as if she had found a new continent.
  I stopped her flattering immediately, afraid that one more word, I would find nowhere to hide myself for shame. ‘So if I can sell skills only and …’
  ‘No way.’ Unexpectedly, she turned hostile suddenly in a blink. She was profuse in praise a second ago and then refused me!
‘Eh?’ I didn’t thought she could refuse, dumb founded completely.