SEC Chapter 181 A Dream of Yellow Millet
Chapter 181 A Dream of Yellow Millet
I never realized how valuable I was.
Ironically, my father sold me to an official's concubine, who was older than him, for ten taels of silver.
"Five hundred taels of gold, and I'll take the person with me. What do you think, Madam Liu?"
A young man stood at the door of a second-floor room, looking down at the crowd below. His arrogant demeanor and tone were completely out of place with everything around him.
"Oh, young master, have you thought this through? Five hundred taels of gold to redeem her... is certainly enough. But Yunzhi is someone I, your mother, have put a lot of effort into training. If she leaves, my Changqing Pavilion will be missing another beauty..."
After saying all that, they still think they haven't paid enough.
The young man seemed to be silent for a while before answering, "Five hundred and fifty taels, not a penny more."
Mother Liu immediately beamed with joy: "Oh my, look at you saying that, Yunzhi, why don't you go and thank that young man? You'll be his woman from now on!"
After hearing what Liu Mama said, I bowed respectfully in the direction of the young man.
So, he was my target tonight?
If not, Mother Liu wouldn't have let me be redeemed by someone else so easily.
He wasn't ugly or old, but before I could get a good look at his face, he went back into his room. But that's alright, there will be plenty of opportunities to see him later.
I am the last courtesan to appear tonight. The bidding has ended, which means that tonight's Feast of Beauty is coming to a close. This final round is to select one of the seven girls who appeared today as the queen of Changqing Pavilion this year.
The result was obvious: it wasn't me.
In terms of beauty, the six older sisters ahead of me are far superior to me. My only purpose at tonight's glamorous banquet is to get to that person's side.
I may be a fool, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand anything. The fact that my master only gives me medicine to alleviate the poison in my body once every three months is not that simple.
With the courtesan chosen, the guests departed, leaving only those who stayed overnight and the building filled with laughter and merriment. After I changed out of my dance costume and into my everyday clothes, Mother Liu personally led me to meet the guest in the private room, and had even prepared my slave registration documents in advance to send over.
The pipa is one of my usual instruments, so I brought it with me.
"Young master, I've brought Yunzhi to you, and her documents are here too. Would you like to stay the night? We have everything you need; I guarantee you won't want to leave once you stay, haha!"
Liu's mother looked down at the handsome young man with an ambiguous expression, never expecting that someone like him would come here to seek pleasure.
Standing next to Liu's mother, I couldn't help but scrutinize the somewhat tense young man. Anyone could tell that it seemed like this was his first time in a place like this.
"No need. If you don't have anything to pack, then come with me."
The young man snatched the document from Liu Mama's hand, stuffed a stack of silver notes and several gold ingots into Liu Mama's hand, and pulled me to leave.
After all, Liu Mama had been running this brothel for over twenty years, and she could easily spot the silver notes and gold at a glance.
The young man gave her a genuine coin, so she immediately went to give it to him with a smile on her face.
"Young man, slow down! Why are you in such a hurry? Come again sometime!"
The young man seemed to want to walk faster and faster, as if there were wolves and tigers behind him.
But he forgot that I was still being pulled along by him. In order not to show my true colors, I had to jog to keep up with his pace and pretend to be very tired.
The young master's carriage was parked not far from the entrance of Changqing Tower.
After he put me in the carriage, he drove the horse away quickly without saying a word. I was the only one who left Fu'an City, where I had lived for three years, without knowing why.
The night was long, and the carriage was only focused on getting on its way, not knowing where it was going.
"My lord...where are we going?"
Even after all this time, I still can't get used to riding in a horse-drawn carriage. The bumpy ride makes me really uncomfortable. It's not that I'm trying to appear delicate.
"Go to Beijing."
This was one of the few times he spoke, and I was unable to get any more information out of him.
Do we have to go to such a far place?
It takes a long time to travel from Fu'an City to Shangjing, as one is located on the border and the other in Sichuan, a distance of thousands of miles.
I have never been to such a far place before, and it will be a place I would do anything to escape.
I have lived in a giant cage all my life, never having been free, nor have I ever longed for freedom like this.
If I could go back to those ten-odd days on the way to the capital, I would definitely jump off the carriage and desperately escape all of this, instead of foolishly having any expectations for the future.
I am a person who is afraid of death but also craves boundless wealth. Because I have seen it all, and I am seeing more and more of it, I cannot let go of it, nor can I detach myself from it.
The wealth of the capital made me forget who I was, and it also made me see more clearly what kind of person I really am.
When I first came to the capital, I was captivated by its prosperity. Ten taels of silver could not even buy a beautiful hairpin here, but it could buy a peasant girl's entire life.
……
The one who redeemed me was not the young man I had spent more than ten days with, but his master, the Empress's younger brother who was rumored to be crippled and dying—Minister Wei.
Why did he come to redeem me, and why did my master want me to approach him?
The moment the carriage stopped in front of the Imperial Brother-in-Law's Mansion, the young master immediately took me to see that person.
Passing through the courtyard, walking along the corridor, and then along a stone-paved tree-lined path, when I first saw him, the daylight was just right, and he was sitting in a specially made wheelchair, quietly watching the fish playing in the lotus pond.
He was very handsome, especially his eyes, which were particularly beautiful, but there was no life in them, making him look like a dying man.
With just one glance, I knew I couldn't escape. I wanted to be the light in his eyes, I wanted to bring him to life.
Such a person shouldn't be like this.
"My lord, I have brought the man."
Because of those words, a glimmer of life seemed to appear in his eyes, and he looked in my direction. But I seemed to have forgotten to bow, and just stared straight at him.
"It looks just like it, so much like it... cough, cough cough cough..."
Wei Qing gazed at the blank face and sighed softly, followed by several coughs, which made his already fair face even paler and sickly.
"What's your name?"
His voice was cold and somewhat weak, which made me lose my focus.
“I… my name is Yunzhi, Yun as in cloud, Zhi as in lingzhi mushroom.”
"Don't you have a surname?"
"...No, none of the ladies in Changqing Tower have surnames, and neither do I."
He seemed to be silent for a moment, then turned his gaze to the man who had brought me back.
"Thirteen, you speak."
So his name is Thirteen. I had no idea what his name was even after spending more than ten days with him.
"When I went to pick up the girl, it was at... a brothel... a banquet to select the most beautiful courtesan."
Thirteen lowered his head unconsciously, whether out of shame or something else, then realizing something was wrong, he knelt down and said, "This subordinate deserves to die!"
Wei Qing simply sighed and looked at me again: "You've suffered. It wasn't easy for you to come all the way to the capital. Go and rest well for a day. I will explain everything to you tomorrow."
Although I still had many questions, I followed his suggestion.
We're already under someone else's roof, so a little longer won't make a difference.
The Imperial Brother-in-Law's Mansion is very large. I never thought I would live in such a large mansion, let alone live here in the future.
The people here treat me very well, serving me like a daughter of an official. No one forces me to practice this or that; this is the life I've always dreamed of.
In just half a day, I put everything in Changqing Tower out of my mind, only thinking about having a comfortable day, and that's exactly what happened.
I enjoyed a delicious meal, took a half-hour petal bath to relax, and then had a long, undisturbed sleep. This was the happiest day I've had in years, and the only happy day of all.
As dawn breaks, even the most beautiful dreams should come to an end, but my nightmare has only just begun.