Chapter 116 Thunder!
A row of willows are planted in front of Hua'e Building.
These willows swayed in the moonlight, light and soft, hazy and dancing like smoke, as if a graceful woman draped in a transparent gauze was dancing.
The soft and lingering sounds of stringed instruments could be heard faintly from the building.
The wind is blowing.
The drooping branches of the willows swayed in the wind, changing the amplitude and frequency of their swaying in tune with the different rhythms of the stringed instruments, like a dancer in a building, dancing one dance after another.
Following the eldest princess, Tao Tie, who was warmly welcomed into Hua'e Tower by the madam, felt some different emotions in his heart.
Tao Tie didn’t know if there were any brothels in other prefectures and counties in Cangyun Prefecture, but there were no brothels in Liuxian County!
Before coming to the capital, Tao Tie had heard of the names of the four major brothels, but he didn't care much about them.
At that time, he was devoted to spiritual practice and was determined to measure the world on foot. He had no extra energy to think about things that had nothing to do with him.
On the way to the capital, they first took the small paths that were spontaneously trampled out by the people, mostly passing through the countryside and rarely entering the city.
After passing Pingyuan County, Tao Tie felt some inexplicable emotions in his heart, which made him avoid the city even more.
Strictly speaking, the county seat of Cangqing County was the only city that Tao Tie visited after he passed Pingyuan County and before entering Beijing. The provincial seat of Dianzhou was not counted.
After strolling around the capital for a whole day yesterday, Tao Tie, whether intentionally or unintentionally, did not go near Pingkangfang, which is also in the inner city.
Before entering Hua'e Tower, Tao Tie didn't know why this happened.
After entering Hua'e Tower, Tao Tie understood that it was just because he didn't want to see these things.
However, whether you like it or not, you still see it and come here.
It's hard to describe this feeling.
Tao Tie simply said nothing and did not think deeply. He just followed the eldest princess and walked forward with the old brothel owner leading the way.
There is no need to use the [Clairvoyance] in reverse, because under the command of the Yin God "Taiyi Great Emperor", the eyes can no longer see, and the ears can no longer hear.
Hua'e Building is a complex of buildings, not just one building.
The overall appearance is like a flower and its sepals.
The main building is a three-story I-shaped building with a corridor outside in the shape of a "sun".
The building is built in the upper opening, and the lower opening is a courtyard with a two-story corridor.
Although the main building of Hua'e Tower has only three floors, each floor is ten feet high. Including the base and the roof, the three floors are more than a hundred feet high.
With such high ceilings, one can’t help wondering what kind of performances can be performed in the lofted halls on each floor.
The interior of the first floor is arranged in the shape of a "U", with long corridors on all four sides connected. In the middle of the large and small entrances are tables and chairs with wide intervals. The small entrance is a specially reserved venue for music, dance and acrobatics performances.
At this time, the lights were just coming on, and the tables and chairs in the area between the two entrances were already filled with guests.
The whole room was filled with people in embroidered clothes. They did not touch the delicacies on the table, but only looked up and focused on watching the graceful dance of the flying goddesses.
The goddesses wore as thin and transparent silk clothes as possible inside, and covered themselves with light shirts that were like smoke and mist. They wanted a hazy beauty that could be admired from a distance but not desecrated.
Using the teahouse that Tao Tie stayed in yesterday as an analogy, the first floor of Hua'e Building is just a bit more luxurious, but it is essentially still a place for scattered seats.
However, if one wants to come into Hua'e Tower and sit in a private seat, one must first give the doorman three hundred taels of silver.
After sitting down, the tea fee was another three hundred taels of silver, and then the wine and food cost at least six hundred taels of silver.
With this calculation, just to watch the music and dance performance on the first floor of Hua'e Tower, without even being able to touch the dancers' hands, would cost 1,200 taels of silver.
If you are not satisfied, please go to the second floor.
There are stairs, but they are for emergency use. Normally, there are eight elevators from the first floor to the second and third floors.
Taking the elevator to the second floor, it is still arranged in the shape of a "U", with private rooms in the middle of the large and small entrances.
Guests can open the windows and watch the performance in the small area.
You can also close the doors and windows and enjoy the musicians and dancers you ordered.
Each private room has excellent sound insulation and anti-peeping effects.
Once the doors and windows are closed and the formation is activated, no one can eavesdrop or peek, and there is no need to worry about privacy leaks.
This has been personally confirmed by a person with great supernatural powers.
The eldest princess walked around the second floor for a while and saw that it was not much different from the first floor, except that the dancers were taller, more beautiful, and had more graceful figures. She lost interest in the Flying Goddess Dance.
The madam then led the eldest princess and Tao Tie to the third floor.
While leading the way, the madam showed no strange expression on her face. She treated the princess as she had received other princes and nobles in the past, but in her heart she was secretly complaining about her employer's decision.
It had already spread yesterday that the eldest princess was coming to visit Hua'e Tower.
The boss refused to cover up anything and told her to go shopping if she wanted and that there was no need for special treatment and that business should be done as it should be.
No matter what the madam said, she refused to cover up anything.
Ugh!
The boss is confident and not afraid of the eldest princess, so she will be in big trouble.
Being the madam of Hua'e Tower, she has to welcome and see off guests, and comes into contact with countless people every day.
Some are just pretending to be rich, some are truly wealthy, some look low-key but are actually incredibly powerful, some have a respected position, and some hold real power...
In order to deal with all these different types of people, the madam had already developed a pair of good eyes and the ability to read people's expressions.
The eldest princess appeared curious and enthusiastic, and indeed she was, but the madam sensed a hint of unpleasant emotions.
There seemed to be a fire burning in the eldest princess' heart.
Moreover, this fire started because of Hua'e Tower and was about to hit Hua'e Tower.
Tao Tie, the talented genius from the southwest who followed behind the princess, made no secret of his disgust for Hua'e Tower, a place surrounded by willows and mist, and even blocked its vision and hearing.
He was afraid that he would see or hear something unclean and become dirty.
The madam instinctively felt that something might happen in a moment, but apart from being on guard secretly and signaling with her eyes to several of her men to take precautions, there was not much else she could do.
What is meant to come will eventually come.
Since the boss is not afraid, as long as the Hua'e Building is not demolished, she will not be held responsible.
After all, she had advised beforehand and tried to save the situation...
If there is any punishment, it would only be severe pain for a few days and being unable to get out of bed.
It's not like it hasn't happened before. I'm used to it.
Soon, a group of people took the elevator to the third floor.
The third floor is also in the shape of a Chinese character “U”, but the opening is very small and is made into a patio rather than a stage.
The main interior buildings are large and exquisite suites.
Each large suite has its own distinctive theme.
Misty rain in the south of the Yangtze River, grasslands on the frontier, overseas archipelagos, jungles in the southwest, deserts in the northwest, snowfields in the northeast...
This is the characteristic of the terrain.
School, arena, dojo, meditation room, Nuo society...
This is the characteristic of the path of spiritual practice.
There are even more unique features, such as alien races, beasts, demons, monsters...
And ghosts.
"Get me a suite, and let's choose ghost as the theme."
The eldest princess spoke, and uttered the first words after entering Hua'e Tower.
The madam did as she was told.
The suite was quickly prepared, and the eldest princess waved her hand to signal the madam to go and do her own thing, and there was no need for her to wait around to serve her.
The madam couldn't go against the princess's wishes, so she had to order her servants to serve the princess carefully, and then she retreated reluctantly.
"How does it feel?"
In the eerie, cold and dark ghost-themed suite, the eldest princess lazily sat on the chair for judging criminal ghosts and asked expressionlessly.
Tao Tie unlocked the blockade of vision and hearing and replied truthfully: "I didn't see or hear anything, and I didn't feel anything."
"Ah……"
The princess sneered, "If I don't look at it, if I don't listen to it, does it mean it doesn't exist?"
Tao Tie replied naturally, "It exists objectively and always exists. It will not disappear just because I don't see or hear it. I don't like it, and I don't have the ability to make it disappear. I don't want to sink with it, so I can only not see or hear it, and not pollute my heart."
The princess reached out and picked up a token, playing with it in her hand, as if asking Tao Tie, or asking herself: "If you have the ability, but doing so will offend many people, lose a lot of interests, and cut off very important possibilities for your future, will you let it disappear?"
After thinking for a moment, Tao Tie shook his head: "I don't know."
"do not know?"
The princess threw the order stick back into the stick box with a click and said, "Judging from your behavior in Liuxian County and along the way, you should have known this."
Tao Tie emphasized seriously: "I really don't know."
"Okay, I won't embarrass you."
The eldest princess clapped her hands, let Tao Tie go, and then pressed a button on the desk.
The door to the suite opened.
The dancer Yingying, who had been waiting outside the door for a while, floated in.
All ghosts, no people.
Different from the cold, dark and gloomy atmosphere of the suite, these ghost musicians and ghost dancers do not look evil at all.
Each one of them looked like a living person, with a real body. Apart from the coldness around their bodies, there was no sign that they were ghosts.
The powder, makeup, and clothes are all different.
There are ladies from wealthy families, beautiful girls from humble families, and chivalrous women...
After entering, the ghost musicians and dancers bowed to the princess and Tao Tie, and then began to perform the song and dance drama corresponding to the order that the princess had picked up earlier. The sound of stringed instruments rang out, and the graceful dance moves twisted.
As soon as he dared to take the initiative, he was stopped by the eldest princess.
She took out a stick from her Hutian magic weapon that matched the one in the stick tube and threw it in: "Let's get started."
The oracle stick is a ritual instrument, and the oracle tube is also a ritual instrument.
The two combined together form the controllers of these ghost musicians and ghost dancers.
He can control their life and death, and can drive them to do whatever he wants them to do.
The lot that the princess threw into the fortune stick contained a piece of music and a musical.
The ghost musicians and ghost dancers immediately received the music scores and began to sing and dance.
Accompanied by exciting and optimistic music, the ghost dancers performed a human tragedy with equally optimistic and exciting dances and lines.
A girl named Xue'e had a beautiful appearance since childhood, and when she grew up she became a famous beauty far and wide.
Unfortunately, he was not born into a good family. His father was a gambler and he ruined the family business.
The father, who was addicted to gambling, put everything on the line, including his wife and daughter, in his last gamble to make a comeback.
There is no doubt that the gambler lost.
The gambler's wife hanged herself before the casino people arrived, and wanted to take Xue'e with her to the underworld.
Unfortunately, Xue'e failed to die and was captured by the people in the casino.
Even the wife's own soul was captured.
A dead soul was sold by the casino to a place that specializes in training musicians and dancers for brothels.
Here, Xue'e was separated from her mother's soul and began to receive all-round training.
Posture, body shape, speech, piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, dance, every frown and smile, ventriloquism, body skills, and even magical skills.
Xue'e was very intelligent. No matter what she learned, she could learn it quickly and become an expert in it in a short time.
Therefore, they received better training and higher treatment.
She eats, dresses and spends as if she were a born noble lady.
Then, when she turned eighteen and had learned a lot of talents, Xue'e was sent to the capital city, to Hua'e Tower, from afar.
As soon as she entered Hua'e Tower, Xue'e became the most beautiful courtesan among all the other courtesans.
It’s not that Hua’e Tower deliberately packages and promotes Xue’e, but the guests who have heard Xue’e play music and watched Xue’e dance are all fascinated and deeply obsessed with her.
Qu Pai once taught good talents to dress, makeup is always jealous of Qiuniang.
Wuling was young and struggling with his head, and there was an unknown number of red ribbons.
The silver grate on the head is broken, and the blood-colored Luo skirt is turned over and the wine is dirty.
Admiration and wealth like water poured towards Xue'e, making her deeply intoxicated.
Then the laughter of this year will continue next year, and the autumn moon and spring breeze will pass by leisurely.
Day after day, year after year, Xue'e turned twenty-four in a flash, and it was the most delicious time.
Not tender or astringent, not restrained, juicy and delicious without being overly juicy, sweet and tasty without being greasy.
Hua'e Tower is busy arranging the bidding for Xue'e's early spring.
It was truly a spectacular sight.
Standing in front of the stage or hiding behind the scenes, there are countless people of high status and wealth who want to take a picture of Xue'e's virginity to have a taste of it.
After Xue'e performed a solo and a solo dance, and after several rounds of fierce competition, the final transaction price reached an astronomical figure.
That night, the entire capital city was shocked.
Amidst the noisy discussions and gasps of astonishment, Xue'e was secretly sent to an inconspicuous mansion.
The white hair contrasts with the red makeup, and the pear blossoms overshadow the crabapple tree.
During the night of spring breeze, Xue'e displayed all she had learned, including ventriloquism, body skills, and divine skills.
The white hair is renewed, and the red makeup sheds tears under the candlelight.
At dawn, Xue'e was sent back to Hua'e Tower before she had recovered.
The status is completely different from before.
The guests looked at her with eyes no longer filled with admiration but with amusement.
Within a few days, a new courtesan was born. She was more beautiful than everyone else and attracted countless wealthy men to fall in love with her.
And Xue'e began to appear on stage, endlessly.
If you are lucky, only one machine will be sold out in one night. If you are unlucky, several machines will be sold out in one night.
But these are nothing.
What Xue'e couldn't accept was that she often had to perform on the same stage with others, and the roles she played became increasingly lowly.
If it were just that, I could still bear it.
My heart is numb, I am just a walking corpse, nothing more than alive.
One day, a poor scholar who was going to Beijing to take an imperial examination sat weakly on the side of the road, looking like he was about to faint from hunger.
For some reason, Xue'e felt kind-hearted and asked her maid to buy a bowl of steaming hot noodles for the poor scholar.
After thanking him again and again, the poor scholar ate the noodles in big mouthfuls, drank the soup, and then exclaimed that this was the most delicious food he had ever eaten in his life.
Another round of thanks.
What impressed Xue'e the most was that the poor scholar recognized her, but the look he gave her was clear and contained no contempt or lust.
Xue'e's heart came alive.
There is nothing new under the sun. The poor scholar and the rich courtesan begin dating.
Under the moon and flowers, they made vows to each other and made love.
Xue'e spent her own money to redeem herself and followed the poor scholar without any status.
Accompany poor scholars to prepare for the imperial examinations.
Then, the poor scholar was admitted to the imperial examination and ranked third in the first class, known as the Tanhua.
Xue'e was very happy, even happier than the poor scholar. In her happiness, she was sold to Hua'e Tower again.
Xue'e was puzzled and didn't know why this happened.
She wanted to ask the scholar in person, were all those vows they made to each other just bullshit?
Even if you don't want to continue with her, just separate. Why sink her into the abyss again?
Wait and wait.
Xue'e waited numbly, and finally got a chance. She met the high-spirited scholar who had already become a Hanlin scholar, and asked him about her puzzlements.
The scholar was surprised. Before the exam, he had been staying at home studying hard. How could he have had such a past with Xue'e?
Faced with Xue'e's request for confrontation, the scholar did not take it lightly. Instead, he suggested in a fair and cheerful manner that the Ministry of Rites and the Dali Temple could be asked to intervene in the matter and conduct an investigation.
In the end, Xue'e did not force herself to persist, and did not really let the Ministry of Rites and the Dali Temple intervene. She returned to Hua'e Tower in a daze and died by drinking poison.
But she didn't expect that even after death, she still couldn't escape from Hua'e Tower.
Day after day, year after year, they played music and danced in the Hua'e Tower, and even performed on stage!
The musical ends here.
Among the ghost musicians and ghost dancers, the ghost shed tears.
Xue'e is a concrete individual and also an abstract group.
Everyone, living or dead, in Hua'e Tower has a sad past.
"How does it feel?"
The eldest princess tilted her head and asked.
Tao Tie remained silent, his heart was filled with emotions, but he really didn't know how to express them.
There are some things he doesn't like, and if he gets involved it will bring him countless troubles. Even if he is not afraid of trouble, he is powerless to do so.
Seeing this, the princess said, "Go ahead, go now, and wait for me in the carriage outside. No matter what happens later, don't get off the carriage, understand?"
Facing the eldest princess's gaze, Tao Tie nodded calmly, stood up and walked out of the suite.
Passing by a female ghost with a tear in the corner of her eye and a numb face, Tao Tie stopped and asked softly, "Your name is Xue'e, right?"
Without waiting for the female ghost to answer, Tao Tie turned around, bowed with both hands, and bowed deeply, solemnly saluting the eldest princess who was sitting on the chair where the criminal ghosts were judged.
Standing up, Tao Tie left in silence without any delay.
After leaving Hua'e Tower, he went straight to the eldest princess's carriage and sat quietly waiting.
In the suite on the third floor, the eldest princess took out an old and somewhat worn token from the Hu Tian magic weapon.
It is made of iron, with a simple design and no patterns. Four words "As if I were here in person" are hammered on the front, and three words "Li Desheng" are hammered on the back.
The princess raised the token in her right hand and said in a deep voice, "Where is the City God of Dayong, the Minister of State Chengtianjian, Shengfu Mingling King?"
This shout was not loud.
It is echoing everywhere, both above the nine heavens and beneath the nine earths.
Throughout the entire capital city, whether humans, gods, ghosts, or demons, whether asleep or awake, everyone heard the rumbling thunder.
The thunder was extremely majestic; it was the unification of heavenly thunder, earthly thunder, divine thunder, sea thunder, and demonic thunder.
It is also the thunder that roars when one has a righteous heart and feels injustice.
The eldest princess has no ambition for the throne.
Aiming to eliminate all injustice.
(End of this chapter)
