I was led away, and had my finger pressed onto a piece of paper, making a red fingerprint. That aunty immediately took a some shiny and sparkly things, and gave it Granny Song. Granny Song could not contain her laughter and said, "This is fine stuff, she is good and she will listen, so you should actually give me a bit more."
The aunty gave her a few blank stares, and then gave me a few stares, "However, she is a retard, she does not know the arts nor poetry, all she has is her face."
"Doesn't this profession rely on the face?"
"Fine, fine, fine, I will give you a few more."
I curiously walked over, pointed at the things on the table, and asked, "What are those?"
"Mine!" Granny Song hurriedly brushed them into arms, and after thinking, she heartlessly took out one from her arms and handed it to me, smiling and saying, "There are a total of 52 silvers I have, giving one to you as an apology is already more than enough, you should know that I am a kind person on the inside."
I took the silver, suddenly thought of the white crow, and then felt sad in my heart, therefore I ruthlessly took a bite out of it. It was round and hard, not chewy at all, so I handed it back, "I don't want silver, I want money."
Granny Song rushed to retrieve the silver I had bitten, and from her clothes, she took out a few copper coins and placed it into my hands. I looked at it for a long time, it was definitely the copper coins that Teacher Huang had showed us. I finally let out a grin, my heart was full of gratitude. I wanted to show off my arithmetic skills, thus I cheerfully asked, "Do you want me to help you count the silver? Miao Miao is very good at calculating!"
"No need, I can count myself." Granny Song stood up, took out a bag and placed all of the silver inside and wrapped it up. She turned around and walked out of the door while telling me, "If you obediently stay here and listen to Tou Ya Mama's* words, you will make a fortune."
*[TN] : Mama is usually what you call the owner/boss of a brothel.
I also happily waved my paw to bid her farewell, I sensibly sat down in front of the aunty that was called Tou Ya Mama, and listened to her instructions.
Tou Ya Mama lifted up my chin, circled around me for a long time, touched all over my body, and then after a while, she asked, "Are you able to sing any songs?"
"Able," I hastily answered, and then began to sing the song I was best at, "Miao~ Miao woo~ Miao Miao Miao~ Miao woo~ Miao Miao~"
"Mmm, very good singing," Tou Ya Mama suddenly interrupted my singing, she expressionlessly said, "But I hope you do not sing in front of the guests."
I hurriedly nodded my head.
She waved her hand for a little maid servant, and told them to bring me to Miss Hua Rong to borrow a few pieces of garment to change into. They also brought me to a tailor to have some clothing made for me, saying that tonight I would be briefly showing my face, meet some guests and stir their appetite, and that in the coming ten days or so, the auction will officially begin.
I considered and counted the time, I was afraid that I would fall behind in the mortal world assessment, so I hastily suggested, "How about I receive guests a bit earlier, I can't wait that long."
Hearing this , Tou Ya Mama's expression froze for a very long time, and finally said, "Having done this line of work for so long, I have never seen anyone so dedicated for this…..then you can start the day after tomorrow, we need time to select suitable clothing too."
I was praised! I happily and proudly nodded my head once more to show that I would work hard to earn money and receive guests.
The little maid servant looked at me like I was some weird monster,she then took me to the backyard, made a few turns, and from the yard came bursts of crisp qin sound. The whole yard was accompanied with peach blossoms, sparsely scattering and floating in the air, it was a bit noisy…..still not as good as my singing.
The little maid servant walked forward and softly knocked on the door, politely asking, "Is Miss Hua Rong inside?"
"Come in." The person inside had a silky and soothing voice, and had an indescribable goodness to it.
Hence the door gently opened, I followed the little maid servant into the room. Inside the room was a lady wearing pale yellow clothing sitting in front of a table. She had a speckled golden jade hair pin in her head, her facial features seemed to appear quite tender and graceful, but there seemed to be a touch of sadness hidden on her face. This whole room was enveloped in peerless elegance.
When she saw me, she appeared stunned, she stopped playing the qin and asked, "This is?"
The little maid servant immediately replied, "This is the young lady that Tou Ya Mama has bought today, she needs to borrow some clothing and jewelry to dress up, as Tou Ya Mama wants to briefly show off her face tonight to the guests."
"You can go over by yourself and select what you want," The beauty that was called Hua Rong stood up and instructed the little maid servant, and detailedly sized me up and sighed, "What a pure and innocent child, to fall into this kind of place, you must've had a lot of difficulties?"
"Yes, yes." Seeing her gentleness, I quickly followed with, "I need to earn a lot of money, it is not easy!"
"If it wasn't a desperate situation where you had no other choices, who would choose this profession….." Hua Rong's face was full of sadness, she wanted to continue, but she suddenly paused, and her face collapsed some more, "A lot of money."
I seriously nodded my head.
"A need of money?" Hua Rong raised her tone again and asked, catching the little maid servant's attention. She immediately lead me to one side, lowered her voice, and consoled, "Silly girl, although Qi Feng Lou's Mama is quite kind-hearted, but to earn a lot of money it is definitely not easy, how about I give you some money, you can just secretly leave."
"This…..this isn't good….." I looked at Hua Rong's pained face in front of me, I became a little hesitant, but remembered what Bi Qingshen Jun had told not to rely on other people's help, so I firmly nodded my head, "Thank you Jiejie, but I must refuse! I must rely on myself to earn money!"
Hua Rong grabbed onto me and wanted to continue to say, but unexpectedly, a sound came from outside the door. It was Tou Ya Mama that ran inside, she said with a straight face to Hua Rong, "You should not have a heart too soft, did you forget about the results with the child named Feng'er, what good was running away? She was still caught and returned by her family to obediently receive guests, that child was stupid, if they run, where do you think they can go? Wouldn't they still be abducted by other people and sold? Isn't it better to be in the hands of Qi Feng Lou than in the hands of a robber?"
"Yes….." Hua Rong lowered her head and stood to one side, and did not dare to make another sound, only giving me a few glances with an extremely pained expression.
Tou Ya Mama ordered the little maid servant to take out a thin purple dress that was like a night-gown for me to put on. The material was very soft and the sleeves were transparent, the chest area was also very low. She then found some jewelry and flowers to put on me, then tied my hair into two long braids, and finally placed a red mark beside my brows. The rouge water dispersed everywhere and moved up into my nose, I expressed my dissatisfaction to this smell, but I remembered that Tou Ya Mama said that if I didn't listen, then I won't earn any money, so I could only bear with it and grit my teeth.
It was not easy, to dress up and do makeup, I felt as if my butt almost became numb from sitting, so I stood up with difficulty and walked a few laps in circles. I was once again dragged away to a full body bronze mirror so I could see my own appearance.
The woman in the mirror was somewhat different from the self I normally see, there was a pair of large eyes even more alluring than flowers, and on the face there was a smudge of blush and a hint of red on the lips. This appearance was very embarrassing. Also, my head was accompanied by a big Peony flower, this feeling…..was like the first time I met Jin Wen…..
"Beautiful! So beautiful!" Tou Ya Mama seemed to be fully satisfied, and very excited, and immediately walked out to publicize that there was a new stunning beauty at Qi Feng Lou that will debut tonight, and if you missed this chance you will forever regret it.
Seeing her cheerful and bubbly appearance, I took the opportunity to get her to make me some fish and roasted chicken to eat, and happily waited for the evening to come.
Really want to quickly receive a guest and earn money ah…..