Chapter 6: It’ll Be A Pity To Just Kill Such A Beautiful Skin.
Qi Ci was firmly pressed on the ground by several guards. His right arm was dislocated, his forehead was bruised, and blood was dripping from the corners of his mouth.
Qi Ci thought: ‘When I was six years old, a fortune teller said that I was too weak, and my life would be cut short. Who would’ve known that I’d die after having turned 19 just a few months ago?’
‘Sure enough, those charlatans are nothing more than a bunch of liars.’
‘If you can’t escape, then you can’t. There’s really no hope when you have to live like this.’
‘After my death, my bones should be buried here. With a dead willow branch on top of me, that year after year, will have the hope of growing roots and sprouts. Buried under the willows that’ll fall in March.’
‘It’s a pity that I won’t be able to sweep my mother’s grave again.’
‘She was the only one I owed in this life.’
Just now, the Southwest corner of the courtyard was brightly lit.
The customer was shouting and making trouble: “What the hell is wrong with this place? I’ll get someone to smash to pieces the plaque of this brothel tomorrow!”
The Madame replied with a kind voice: “Master, please calm down. It was my improper discipline, I’ll immediately find a soft and good-mannered boy to accompany you. Master, is that alright with you?”
The customer’s anger continued as he yelled loudly: “Find shit! Compensate me with money! Fuck, compensate me with money now!”
The Madame’s face changed when she heard the word ‘money’. However, she didn’t have any other choice than to settle things with money.
The customer cursed for a while before he left.
After settling this matter, the Madame returned to the Southwest corner of the courtyard. She calmly looked down at Qi Ci, who was pressed on the ground, pulled out a long sword from the waist of one of the guards around him, and stepped on Qi Ci’s wrist. Then she used the sword to cut open his palm.
Qi Ci groaned with pain as he pressed his head against the ground. His other hand was grasping the ground until his fingertips were covered by blood, provoked by the stones and sand.
The old Madame twisted the blood on the blade, put it under her nose, and smelled it. Then she coldly asked Qi Ci: “Who removed the Gu worm from your body?”
Seeing that Qi Ci was silent, the Madame stepped on his wound and ruthlessly crushed it with her toes.
Qi Ci screamed out miserably, almost saying the truth, but stopped himself in time. His body was shaking, feeling extremely embarrassed.
The Madame laughed coldly and said: “Indeed, you refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit1. I thought that I could earn money with your fair skin, but who would’ve known that you’ll make me lose money instead? Forget it, I don’t care anymore.”
With that, the long sword was placed on Qi Ci’s neck. Qi Ci felt a burst of bitterness and despair as he resigned to his fate and closed his eyes.
“Wait.”
Suddenly, there was a voice coming from the distance. When the Madame looked up, she saw a broad, fat, mean-looking man walking slowly towards them. He was followed by a group of ferocious looking men.
The Madame threw the long sword back to the guard and asked: “Oh my. I was wondering who would dare to make such a fuss, but it turned out to be Lord Qian. How are your injuries?”
Lord Qian waved his hand: “It’s no big deal. Yesterday, a man secretly sneaked in and stabbed me with a sword. I was careless! If I see that man again in the future, I’ll definitely tear him to pieces!”
The Madame and Lord Qian were very familiar with each other, so the Madame already knew that Lord Qian was a demon. The Madame’s cruel methods to control the male and female prostitutes were taught by Lord Qian himself. So when Lord Qian often came to the brothel to have fun and kill young male prostitutes one after the other, the Madame didn’t bat an eye.
They worked in collusion with each other, and they were extremely vicious while doing so.
The Madame said: “You’d better stay out of the limelight. What if the person who attacked you was a Secret Servant sent by the Imperial Court?”
Lord Qian sneered: “The Heaven is high, and the Emperor is far away2. So what if he was a Secret Servant sent by the Imperial Court? I will still kill him.”
The Madame felt that Lord Qian was a bit reckless, but she didn’t know how to persuade him, so she had to change the subject: “What are you doing here? If you’re hungry, go to the hall and pick someone, just don’t kill them. You can’t keep killing my boys.”
Lord Qian: “What are you afraid of? I’ll just double the land rent, and because those poor farmers won’t be able to afford to pay the rent, they’ll use their children to pay their debts. At that time, you can just go down and buy them.”
The old Madame smiled: “You still have a way for everything.”
Lord Qian’s eyes then fell on Qi Ci, who was still lying on the ground, and said: “I’ve smelled the scent of blood from afar, and since I’ve been recently injured, I’m feeling a bit bloodthirsty. Do you need this little prostitute? If not, then let me play with him.”
The old Madame waved her hand: “He’s all yours. It doesn’t even matter if you kill him or not.”
…
Qi Ci was dragged to a wing room and then thrown to the bed. Lord Qian then entered the room, reached out and closed the door behind him. As he walked to the bed, he stroked his small beard at the corners of his mouth: “Little doll, you have the qi of a Dragon in your blood. Who are your parents?”
As Qi Ci’s body ached everywhere, he thought that if he was going to die, why did he have to die like this? He simply rolled his eyes and didn’t want to answer.
Lord Qian wasn’t annoyed, instead, he said: “It’ll be a pity to just kill such a beautiful skin. Let me enjoy it first.”
As he said this, he pressed himself against Qi Ci’s body while taking off his clothes.
Qi Ci suddenly used all his strength to struggle, pushing Lord Qian away. Then, he got up and knocked down a round belly white porcelain vase3 on the shelf beside the bed, picked up a porcelain piece from the ground, and tried to cut Lord Qian’s throat.
However, even though the porcelain piece was against his throat, he couldn’t do it.
A foul-smelling black gas overflowed from Lord Qian’s hand as he wrapped it around Qi Ci’s wrist, making him unable to move.
Although Lord Qian was fat, he was very agile as he quickly kicked Qi Ci’s hand, making him throw away the porcelain piece in his hand. Then, the black gas went up along Qi Ci’s arm, tightly wrapping itself around his neck, and lifting him up mid-air. Qi Ci couldn’t breathe as he struggled with his legs.
Lord Qian: “You bitch, you’ve forced me to do this.”
Lord Qian waved his hand and Qi Ci was thrown back to the bed. With one hand, Lord Qian pressed Qi Ci’s head firmly in place, while with the other, he began to strip Qi Ci’s clothes.
All of a sudden, there was a loud, earth-shattering sound coming from the roof of the wing room. At the same time, the tiles and broken pieces of wood fell to the ground.
Firmly landing on the ground, a man had just fallen from the roof.