Nightfall Chapter 41

Right now, Ning Que was entirely seduced by the pretty ladies in the brothel. It seemed like he was a stupid duck that couldn’t move his feet. After seeing the scene, the young maid got unhappier by the minute. She stared at the full grown woman and said, “Shui Zhu Er, you dare to not listen to your Grandmother?!”

Shui Zhu Er was a popular girl in the Red Sleeve Club. Although she didn’t enter the competition for the flower girls, her pretty little face and white skin were enough to attract a lot of business. Even so, she couldn’t disobey the command of Madam Jian. With this, she walked up to Ning Que with and smile on her face. She held his hands and said, “If it was the rule set by Grandmother, then I dare not disobey. But just looking at this boy makes me happy. I like the shininess of this kid the best. Come, come play with me in the yard.”

Obviously Ning Que didn’t object such an invitation. He let her hold his hands and got dragged to a small house in the garden. The ladies behind them were jokingly mocking them, but they didn’t try to stop them. Except a young maid yelled out, “Grandmother said, no one could do business with him!”

“What? Did she actually say that?”

Ning Que was surprised and he turned around and thought to himself, with Madam Jian’s status in the brothel business, if her word spreads in the business, then none of the brothels in Chang An will do business with him. How could this be?

Maid Xiao Cao looked at him with pleasure, “So she didn’t mean that?”

Ning Que was left speechless. No wonder the history books say that emperors may not be necessarily scary, but the servants who lied about the Emperor’s Orders were the most annoying people. Just thinking about his future, tear drops formed a raging river – but even then, he had to follow that lady named Shui Zhu Er.

After entering the small house, nothing erotic happened. Lady Shui Zhu Er sat on her sheets and told her maid to bring all kinds of fruits to welcome Ning Que. She, herself, was eating some seeds and asked him about his talk with Madam Jian. Afterwards, she asked about the situation at the borderline.

Ning Que was familiar with this kind of talk. He trained his ways with words in the tavern of Wei City and the gambling places in the military camp. Tonight, he first battled Madam Jian then he comforted the young maid. Now, he was against a popular prostitute in Chang An and he was not afraid. He ate the fruits naturally and chatted carefreely with her as if he was still at home.

His purpose for chatting was to obtain information. Shui Zhu Er didn’t notice it but after she ate half plate of seed, their topic changed from Wei City to Chang An. They started chatting about topics from the barbarian girls to the guests of Red Sleeve Club. They conversed about who was the most jealous and whose wife was the most jealous.

Talking about the guests behind their back may seem professionally inappropriate, but to see the truth, it was actually something that the ladies in the brothels enjoyed when they were not working. Shui Zhu Er didn’t feel anything wrong with it. In fact, she started to enjoy the chatting more and more.

Ning Que lowered his head to pick out the fruits on his plate. Although it seemed that he wasn’t paying much attention and was just asking about random things, his ears were actually focused and his mind was filtering the different names that went into his ears. Suddenly his fingers stopped.

“I never saw a person who was that scared of his wife. He is just an official ranked about fourth of fifth, but every time he visits the brothel, he need to change his attire and hide his identity. Plus, he wasn’t even that able either though his mouth skills were nice. It’s no wonder he was a talkative censor……”

The talkative characteristic of the censor was used so negatively by the ladies in the brothels. Suddenly, Ning Que remembered the satisfied expressions of the wives of Zhang Yi Qi. With an image of the old censor lying between his wives’ legs and working hard in his mind, he nearly coughed the fruits in his mouth out. He choked a little from holding back his laughter.

Just after saying her words, Shui Zhu Er realized that her comment was inappropriate. She thought the young boy wouldn’t understand what she meant and she didn’t expect his reaction to be this strong. She now knew that Ning Que understood everything and felt a little embarrassed. She acted as if she was angry and she punched him in the shoulder. She blushed and said, “What are you guys doing all day in the borderline? I didn’t know a young kid like you would understand such things.”

After laughing and chatting a little, a servant maid walked to Shui Zhu Er and whispered something into her ears. Ning Que looked out of the window and noticed it was night, it was time to go. He stood up and greeted sincerely.

Shui Zhu Er closed her lips and thought for a moment. She took out a silver piece from a box around her pillow and smiled, “It’s not a big red envelop, but I can’t waste your time chatting with me. Don’t think little of me, but I don’t know why, I feel easy when I talk with you.”

Ning Que thought it was only natural. When she talk with the guests, she needs to be intellectual and smooth. She couldn’t just lie on her sheet and curse every three sentences like she was talking with Ning Que. But he also liked Shui Zhu Er’s lively characteristic and ……her pretty face and nice body. Ning Que didn’t reject her gift and accepted the silver piece and said, “I’ll treat this as a gift from a sister.”

After hearing this, Shui Zhu Er’s eyes brightened. She went up and hugged him and rubbed his head. She smiled happily and said, “I don’t know why Grandmother wanted to look at you, but if you aren’t busy, come visit me.”

She worked in the brothel business and Ning Que was a student. Although they could talk side by side in the small house of the brothel, in the outside world they are two different kinds of people. She was happy that Ning Que called her sister, but she couldn’t accept his status as a brother – a woman of Chang An, even a prostitute of Chang An has her own pride and limit.

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After returning to the shop of Forty Seventh Street, he was told casually by Sang Sang that two people had came in the afternoon and asked if the boss was there. Ning Que didn’t care much and asked Sang Sang to boil a pot of hot water to warm up his legs.

The lamp in the house was extinguished and darkness filled the room. Just like usual, Ning Que hugged her small feet in his chest, but his head was thinking about the things he saw and heard in the Red Sleeve Club. First he thought about censorer Zhang Yi Qi, but afterwards he mostly thought about Shui Zhu Er’s pretty, white face and her soft and young skin. Especially when she hugged him, Ning Que could still feel the soft sensation and fragrance.

Just thinking about this, Ning Que got hotter. His hands that held Sang Sang’s small feet also got hotter. After his knees touched the flat place where it would be round in the future, Ning Que thought the temperature in the blanket was way too hot.

People will grow eventually and they couldn’t continue sleeping together in the same bed. Ning Que flipped over the blanket and sat up, he looked at the girl who was woken up by him and laughed, “Chang An is hotter than the borderline. It seems like we should split bed soon.”

Sang Sang rubbed her eyes and said confused, “But there is no warm stove here, I feel even colder than back home.”