Chapter 97 - House Of Pleasures

The Capital City of the Wang Empire...

The Red Blooms Inn was buzzing with life as once again it was fully packed with customers. A group of musicians was playing a melodious song that lightened the environment and filled it with a soothing feel.

On the fourth floor of that inn, the silhouette of a man in black and red robes was sitting at the small table, he was reading a scroll, and his eyes had a little twinkle in them as he read through the content of the scroll.

He was the same man who had followed Li Ming because of her scent and currently he was staying at the most expensive and famous Inn of the Wang Empire. 

The door of his room opened and one of the shadow guards entered the room. The door closed behind him as he quickly came to kneel in front of the table where his Lord was sitting, bowing in greetings.

But of course, he didn't receive any response from his Lord. The man on the other side of the table didn't even look up from his scroll and completely ignored the presence of the guard.

This only made the guard to quiver in fear on the inside. He made sure to not show any reaction on the outside because it would only worsen his punishment.

He cursed his luck for losing to his other two partners in the bet. If not for that he would not be the one forced to face the wrath of their Lord for failing the task poorly.

He still couldn't believe that they were unable to find the location of that young girl. It was like she had suddenly disappeared from the Wang Empire.

If back then he would have known that the girl was going to become the reason for his misery, he would never have prayed for her safety. 

The silence inside the room stretched on as the time passed. It was probably after hours or maybe it only had been a few minutes, but the man in black & red brocade robes finally put the scroll aside that he was reading.

"Since you all have failed to complete your mission, report to the House of Pleasure for your punishments." The man said in a smooth cold voice that it sent shivers running down the spine of the guard.

The guard wasn't sure if he should be happy to know that he wasn't the only one getting punished but his other companions were also going to accompany him or should he cry on his horrible fate that he had to face the worst nightmares of his life as a punishment.

But he silently bowed and left the room, without uttering a single protest. To be honest, the House of Pleasure wasn't the worst punishment imaginable when it comes to the methods of punishments used by their Lord. But akin to its name the House of Pleasures was anything but a place for finding pleasure.

The man in brocade clothes looked at the door which had closed behind the guard as he had left the room. A slight twitch on his lips was the only expression visible on his face which was covered with the mask.

His long eyelashes and the darkness of the room covered his eyes hiding them behind a cover.

The door of his room opened once again and this time it was his head shadow guard who entered into the room.

He bowed in greetings and placed a small and thin wooden tube on the table.

The man in brocade clothes picked up the wooden tube and opened its cap with a slight push of his spiritual energy on it.

He took out a small piece of paper from inside the tube which was glowing in purple light. He read the content of the letter and sighed as he burnt the paper.

"I'm called to the Yueliang Manor. Station some of your most trustworthy people here to keep an eye on that girl and to confirm if she's really not in the Wang Empire anymore." He ordered his guard who bowed and left to execute his orders.

A portal filled with red and black flames opened in the room and the man disappeared into it. Leaving a quiet and cold room behind.

*********

"So, do any of you have thought of an idea." Li Ming asked the four candidates for her PA's positions.

She had spent her entire morning learning a little more about spiritual herbs and alchemy. By the time she finished making her first badge of low-grade healing pills, her entire spell room looked like a survivor of a disaster.

That scene of her spell room reminded her of two past memories of hers. The first one was when the spell room had faced its last disaster thanks to Ruoshan and the second one was when she had first started learning potion back in her previous life.

She was barely eight or nine years old when her mother decided to teach her how to make a sleeping potion.

The ending result was of course far from perfect or even anywhere near good. The room in which she was making the potion had caught fire somehow, and rather than a sleeping potion, she ended up inventing something that smelt worse than decaying dead bodies.

She didn't remember anymore exactly what she had added in the potion to create that tragedy but it sure ended up with furious neighbors banging on their door late at night.

She ended up grounded for three entire months even though she was actually pretty much innocent in that accident.

Whew!

Well, her past life was full of such kinds of incidents. Learning magic was sure not an easy task but performing it was even a few steps higher when it comes to creating disasters just with a single mistake.

But again everyone learned from their mistakes, right?

So, she had learned her lesson after failing three times continuously in making a simple low-grade healing pill, something that she could now make in a few minutes in potion form with closed eyes. She cleaned up her spell room and decided to take a break. 

Therefore, after having her lunch she called the four of her PA positions candidates to find out if they had worked on their homework or not.

The four of them were - Sue Mei, Lei Xiao Ting, Lei Yong, and Zhou Han. 

Lei Xiao Ting was the elder sister of Lei Yong and was already 21 years old. Normally at this age, almost all of the girls get married in this world, except those who were focusing on cultivating their spiritual energy. The later were mostly those from the Imperial or high-class noble families.

But since Lei Xiao Ting was working in the Iron mines for the past several years, she didn't get married yet. 

Li Ming found out from Old Madam, who loved to gossip a lot, that Xiao Tang's parents were looking for a suitable groom for their one and only daughter.

Lei Yong and Zhou Han, both males were about twenty years old. Their working experience in the Iron mines had gifted them with a well-built body that looked even more intimidating since they were no longer suffering from malnourishment.

On the other hand, Sue Mei was the youngest out of all of them. She was only eighteen and had a cute face. But Li Ming could see the sharpness behind her little round eyes.

According to Old Madam's gossips, Sue Mei often stole food from the kitchen to feed the little children back when they were working in the iron mines. And the most surprising fact was that in her three years of work in the iron mines, she never got caught even once for stealing food.

Though she could barely do that once in every one or two weeks because of the tight security but whenever she got her chance she grabbed it.

As to how did Old Madam knew about all this? It's thanks to her hand of sneakily listening to the children talking among themselves about their hard days back at the Iron mines. 

Li Ming had noticed the sadness and guilt in Old Madam's eyes whenever she told her about the things that the children talked about. That's the only reason why Li Ming never stopped her from spying on the children because she had realized that in the name of spying the Old Madam was actually trying to learn more about the children.

She could tell that the Old Couple harbor no ill intent towards her or anyone else anymore and listening to the hardships of these children was making their resolve of taking care of them even stronger.

"Miss Li, we actually have some ideas about how can we dig out all these data and information from the people who are either working in these businesses or are their customers." Lei Yong said with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Oh! Do tell then!"