Li Yun had been stuck in his bed for two weeks, the minimum amount of time it took for one to get from the border between Hua and Li. In other words, the Hua ambassadors were extremely timely in their arrival into Li as Li's Crown Prince had perfectly recovered by that time.
Due to his position, he was also in charge of the preparations to greet and welcome them into the capital, but as he was bedridden for the majority of the two-week period, he could only do the paperwork while accepting Li Hao's help with directly contacting the entertainers and suppliers, as well as setting up their temporary housing during their stay.
Because of Li Hao's direct involvement, his concubine mother had attempted to scheme but her efforts were thwarted by himself before she could progress too far with them. This resulted in their relationship turning sour, but on the bright side the Emperor was finally able to treat all of his children equally as he'd always wanted.
As for Li Feifei, throughout the entire two-week period she had been trying to pass the time by running wild with the female lead. The female lead was similarly bored because Li Hao was always busy trying to accommodate the incoming ambassadors.
Li Feifei had already decided. If her devil wasn't a member of the incoming group from Hua, then she would run away from home to travel the continent.
That way, she would be able to find her devil eventually. It was better than waiting lethargically as the days passed, then weeks, and then eventually even months and probably years ah.
The day that the ambassadors arrived had come, and Li Feifei and Bai Ping were currently messing around in the capital's most famous brothel.
They were not only known for their matchless flowers, but also for the male prostitutes that didn't lose out in terms of skill, beauty, talent, or personality.
This brothel only accepted VIPS--the top classes of officialdom. In other words, unless one was of rank 4 or higher. In all of Li, this consisted of no more than one hundred officials. This number included their legitimate sons. Daughters were also allowed to visit this particular brothel, but it was highly looked down upon as it put a stain on their reputation.
Actually, the original Li Feifei prized her reputation above all so it was technically out of character for her to even step within a ten meter radius from the building.
Fortunately, she had spent a good hour arguing with the system that as long as she wasn't caught by anyone else or confronted about it then that meant it wasn't out of character at all.
After all, the main reason hosts couldn't OOC was to maintain the balance in the world, and the way to maintain balance was for the surrounding characters to continue their normal interactions with the host's character. At least, that was the short version with many more underlying reasons.
But anyway, Li Feifei maintained her relationship with her brothers and parents just as she had done in the original timeline. And it wasn't even the first time she'd snuck to the brothel with Bai Ping, either.
It was a given that the Emperor and her brothers already knew of their escapades, but they hadn't done nor said anything thus far, so it was obviously okay.
Besides, it's not like they were doing anything with the prostitutes anyway. They simply admired the countless beauties within the three-story building.
Of course, they always disguised themselves as young and single sons of officials rather than daughters. They used the excuse that their reputations must be preserved, but in truth they felt that they both could be very cute and pretty boys. In fact, Li Feifei and Bai Ping were the two most desired customers within the brothel for the past week.
More accurately, the three of them were the most desired customers. This was because Long Zheng had been dragged along with them for the past week. Even more concisely, he'd forcefully tagged along.
The short version of the story went as such:
Long Zheng was on his way to pester Li Feifei as always in his attempt to court her, but he had reached her palace at the precise timing as the two girls' departure to the brothel.
It would have been fine if that was all.
However, he had overheard them saying they were going to play at the brothel and it didn't help that they were in their male attire looking even more charming than the other males in their generation. They could even compete with the three peerless jades of Li--Li Yun, Li Hao, and Long Zheng!
Long Zheng immediately knew that Li Feifei would be extremely favored the moment she stepped foot into the brothel, and he knew that if she was able to leave for such a place then she had the tacit consent of the Emperor and her older brother, so it would be pointless for himself to try persuading her otherwise.
Thus, as a man who couldn't allow another man to take his future bride away, he didn't hesitate to accompany them in hopes of trying to gain all of the attention so that his fiancé wouldn't.
Unfortunately, he didn't consider the large number of people who visited the brothel each day as he'd never frequented such a place prior to that first time with Li Feifei, and could not keep everyone from admiring his woman.
And so, back to the day of the Hua ambassadors' arrival.
Actually, they had arrived a whole two days earlier than the minimum amount of days normally required for the trip.
Li Feifei, Long Zheng, and Bai Ping were at the brothel once again for the sixth day in a row. They always reserved the best room, and often bought time for many of the prostitutes within the parlor. Today, they had ten beautiful women and five men attending to them.
By attending, they received massages and allowed the women to play with their hair and rub their soft bodies against their own while the men disrobed the top halves of their bodies for Bai Ping and Li Feifei to ogle.
The two girls, of course, never took off a single sheet of their own clothing, to the prostitutes' immense dismay and Long Zheng's relief.
Long Zheng had never felt so humiliated!
He was also indignant that the girls were taking the whole situation much better than he was--and he was a man!
After finding out that they did no more than play around with the women and the men stripped no more than down to their waist, he felt that the trip was not as threatening as he'd first thought.
But, he couldn't stop accompanying them because he was afraid that they'd immediately turn radical the moment he wasn't around.
He found the touches of the prostitutes to be especially disturbing, but he didn't want his future bride to indulge in such pleasures any more than she already was, or he was afraid she would no longer like men.
Li Feifei sat leisurely with one knee raised and the other leg poised so that her legs were split apart and her foot was tucked between her ankle and thigh. Her red outer robe draped over her flawlessly white legs so that not even a sliver of her skin was exposed to the outside world. Even if her outer robe couldn't cover her legs, her multiple layers of white inner robes would have done the job.
Her right elbow rested atop her raised knee and in that hand was a half-filled cup of wine while her free left hand frivolously toyed with a woman's long and loose hair. One woman pressed her ample chest up against her back and slowly bobbed back and forth in her attempt to seduce her, while another had sandwiched Li Feifei's relatively thin arms between her breasts.
To Li Feifei's right a few feet away was Bai Ping, who chose to wear a dark royal purple robe with gold trims and embellishments on the cuffs and hems as she leaned with her back against the short table with a soft woman on her lap with the woman's chest rubbing up flirtatiously against her own. It was a wonder how the other couldn't feel Bai Ping's own restrained chest, but maybe it didn't matter.
Bai Ping initially rejected Li Feifei's offer of playing at the brothel but now she seemed to be enjoying herself the most! Her hands were the least reserved from the group of three, as she didn't hesitate to grope the prostitutes' breasts, squeezing them every which way. She also occasionally slapped their butts whenever she felt like it, making the women giggle in gratification.
Even Li Feifei had just chosen to play at the brothel on a whim at first. After all, she had always preferred manly men over women. However, either she was just so bored that a flip had been switched or what, but she felt that these women were truly beautiful and worth the money. Even more importantly was that they were more accommodating than the three "men" around her.
One must remember that they were in actuality just teenagers in the prime of their youth.
Strangely enough, the real man in the room only had two women and he refused to allow them to rub themselves against his body. He also stole frequent glances towards Li Feifei every once in a while, as if afraid she would accuse him of being a cheater and not worthy of her hand in marriage.
But reality hurts, as it was his future fiancé that seemed to be the type to cheat while he as the husband would suffer and grieve silently with no place to throw complaints.
Aren't the roles reversed? How did this happen? He wept inwardly.
Was it because he was inexperienced with women, while the gongzhu and her little friend were women themselves, so they knew how to deal with them most?
That had to be it...
Even 001 had had enough of his host's womanizing, [Host, your hubby won't forgive you for this.]
'001, ah. These are women. What could go on between a woman and another woman? I am simply admiring beauties. And look, I kept all of the men at a distance.' In fact, she paid more attention to the three flowers near her than the extra men across the table from her who were responsible for playing the qin and dancing seductively.
Even more commendable was that it had been almost an entire month since she had first arrived in this world and there was still no sign of her devil. Yet, she was in a brothel but she hadn't even bedded another despite the temptations. Of course, the main reason was because she was much too young--she was only fifteen! That, and her devil would definitely kill her in bed, and she couldn't have that as she had to win the competition ah!
While fifteen was of marriageable age in this world, to Li Feifei who came from a modern world, fifteen was still too young and she wasn't foolish enough to garner her devil's wrath and jealousy by cheating on him.
[But, host. It's enough that you aren't keeping your body chaste--]
'Ai, 001, my body is chaste. I will still bleed on my wedding night,' she interrupted him.
[Aren't you afraid he would be a part of the Hua ambassador group that's arriving today? They're even two days early. It sounds like a pretty obvious flag to me. Especially with your luc--]
'But he has to be the emperor since he's always one of the most powerful people in each world. And we all know emperors can't just leave their thrones to embark towards another kingdom. That's absurd, even if it's him we're talking about.'
[It's still a possibility, though.] 001 sighed, resigned to his host's measly and inevitable fate of dying on her wedding night.
She's obviously courting death, ah!
'Well, even if he shows up it's not like I did anything wrong. They're just women. Hell, if anyone's cheating on someone else, it's Bai Ping. Look, she's fondling that woman as if she was a pervert ready to strip the poor prostitute and take her right here and now! And she's only thirteen!' Well, technically the female lead was 24.
But her relationship issues were none of her concern, so Li Feifei didn't bother trying to stop the female lead from going too far. She probably wouldn't anyway.
Who told their husbands to neglect them so?
Li Hao had been busy with the accommodations for the ambassadors, while Li Feifei didn't even know where her hubby was. She was basing everything on her own speculations.
As she was conversing with 001 inside her mind, Li Feifei didn't notice that one of the prostitutes had brought her palm into her clothes to directly touch her bare chest and unfortunately for her there was a sudden commotion out in the hall before the door was abruptly slammed open and a tall and imposing slightly dark and tanned young man was standing at the entrance with a handsome face darker than the bottom of a pot.
He had on understated clothing, but it did nothing to hide the majestic air that consciously or unconsciously leaked from his body. Long and layered black hair flowed freely and wildly as he refused to tie it up but it only made his angered figure seem even more frightening in Li Feifei's eyes. His red phoenix eyes narrowed dangerously once they landed on the sight of her hand brazenly fondling with the prostitute's large breast directly--even Bai Ping hadn't gone this far!
When she followed his gaze to her hand, the only thing in Li Feifei's mind was,
"Fuck."