Jiang Yue rubbed his nose in irritation as soon as he woke up, but the very action caused his nose to itch even more.
He recognised the smell of face powder, but someone must have overturned an entire container to make the smell so overbearing.
Unable to ignore the smell, Jiang Yue opened his eyes and immediately closed them before opening them again; as if hoping to see a different scene upon reopening them.
However, nothing had changed.
He was still in the same canopy bed surrounded by garish red curtains and red beddings that made the space look like a bridal chamber.
Jiang Yue frowned as he looked around, but no matter how much he looked; he didn't recognise the room and he began to wonder whether he had been involved in a mishap.
One possibility was that he had been involved in an accident and then saved by a person of very poor taste.
Another was that he had been kidnapped and placed in the room.
As the heir of the Jiang family, there wasn't a shortage of people who wanted to kidnap him. Some would kidnap him for money, others would kidnap him as revenge against his family, there was also the possibility of a woman who wanted to take advantage of his body to become the young lady of the Jiang family, and worst of all, there was his extreme fans.
Jiang Yue shuddered when he thought of some of his extreme fans.
It came with the territory for celebrities to have a few crazy fans, but he had quite a number of very possessive and extreme fans. Fortunately, he had a very impressive team of bodyguards which made it doubly confusing that he had appeared in this unfamiliar room.
Jiang Yue was about to get out of bed when he heard the opening and closing of a door and moments later, a slender hand pushed back the bed's curtains to reveal a young lady.
The girl was beautiful in a kind of ordinary way, but her lilac robes made her look like a flower in full bloom. She looked to be in her early twenties which was younger than his thirty years, but otherwise, unfamiliar to Jiang Yue.
'Why is she wearing a costume?' Jiang Yue wondered as he looked at the girl.
He was currently shooting a modern drama and wasn't scheduled to shoot a costume drama for the rest of the year so it was very weird to suddenly encounter a young lady in costume.
"Yeying sister, it's good that you are up." The girl said as she looked at Jiang Yue.
Jiang Yue was confused by the address and he turned his head to each side of him, expecting to find another person, but there was no one else which meant that the 'Yeying sister' in the girl's mouth was himself!
Jiang Yue had always been a very beautiful person, but this was the first time that someone was referring to him as 'sister'.
His initial good impression of the girl disappeared like so much smoke and his temper sparked right away.
He was about to angrily admonish the girl when he noticed what else the girl had said.
Yeying?
That was clearly not his name!
The anger that had just risen dampened into confusion and Jiang Yue turned inquisitive doe eyes at the girl.
'Too beautiful.' The girl thought and her cheeks turned red as she looked at Jiang Yue.
"Sister Yeying, it's time to start getting ready." The girl said as she began to busy herself with something beside the bed.
In a dazed confusion, Jiang Yue watched as she opened a small wooden box and a strong smell of powder emanated from it causing him to sneeze in irritation.
"Close it." He said as he tried to grab the box, wanting to reinforce his wish even faster.
It was at that moment that Jiang Yue noticed several things and his mind went blank.
Why was his arm so small and what was up with that tiny hand?
Also, why did his voice sound like it had when he was a young boy?
Jiang Yue jumped from the bed in panic and now that he was firmly standing on the ground, he realised that he was shorter than the girl.
This made no sense since he had been more than one hundred and eighty-five centimetres tall for several years now.
Jiang Yue looked at the girl in horror and stupidly thought of detective Conan.
Had he been fed apoptoxin?
Who did it?
Why couldn't he remember anything?
Even if that was the case, why was he wearing female clothes?
Jiang Yue panicked when that thought came to him and he rudely grabbed between his legs, worried sick that the protrusion that proved his gender would not be there but it seemed he had thought too much.
He may be wearing a female robe, but he was still a man!
However, Jiang Yue was still very confused and he pinched his arm, hoping to wake himself from this strange dream.
"Sister Yeying, you can't do that." The girl said anxiously when she noticed what Jiang Yue was doing.
She couldn't take responsibility if sister Yeying appeared at the auction with a wound on her arm. Lady Chu would surely punish her if something like that happened.
The girl shuddered when she thought about that and she immediately grabbed Jiang Yue's arm, preventing him from continuing to abuse his body.
"A lot of girls are nervous before their first time, but it's going to be okay." She said and Jiang Yue was very unsettled when he saw the blush on her face.
What first time?
Jiang Yue had always been a very intuitive person and alarm bells began to sound in his mind as soon as he heard what the girl said.
He had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen to him and his flight instinct reared its head, causing him to almost bolt for the door in panic. However, he managed to restrict himself just as his foot lifted from the ground.
It was the height of folly to run away without the slightest inkling of what was going on.
If he was stupid enough to do that, he was sure to get into trouble sooner rather than later.
"Sit down first, I will make you even more beautiful."
Jiang Yue had to sit down even though he didn't want to.
The seat was in front of a mirror and he was shocked to see that his face was covered in a thick layer of makeup, which explained the strong smell that had irritated him when he first woke up.
The lady attendant dipped a sponge in loose powder and added another layer on Jiang Yue's face, she then blushed his cheeks with rouge and painted his lips a provocative red.
As this happened, Jiang Yue tried not to look at himself and instead focused on subtly questioning the girl.
Luckily, the young lady was a gossip and in a matter of minutes, Jiang Yue had a rough idea of what was happening.
According to the girl, Jiang Yue was a war orphan who had been sold to the Pleasure Palace brothel that was run by a madam called Lady Chu.
What war, the girl didn't know; but Jiang Yue didn't care too much because he was more shocked by the news that he had been sold to a brothel.
The worst news was yet to come though, because Jiang Yue soon found out that he had just turned thirteen and Lady Chu was no longer willing to let him be a pure entertainer in the brothel.
Jiang Yue was an excellent pipa player and combined with his looks, he had become very popular among the brothel's patrons.
Everyone called him 'Yeying' because he sang like a nightingale and as time passed, the patrons were no longer satisfied to watch him sing; they all wanted to possess the songbird.
After three years, Lady Chu was finally willing to sell the bird to a new owner and the patrons were all fighting to be his first.
According to the girl attendant, the selling price for Jiang Yue's first time was expected to earn enough gold coins to allow the brothel to run without any patrons for five years.
Jiang Yue felt his blood chill when he heard that.
He was really tempted to lose his temper and break something, but he didn't dare.
If what the girl said was true, there were many martial artists in the brothel and if Jiang Yue really tried to do something, he would be subdued in a matter of seconds.
This time around, he could only swallow his anger because the alternative was unimaginably scary.
Jiang Yue didn't care whether everything was a dream or a transmigration like those popular cultivation novels, all he knew was that he couldn't allow himself to be traded to a pervert.
He couldn't allow anybody to sully his body.
As he thought of that, a cold face appeared in his mind, but he immediately shook his head, as if wanting to physically shake out the unsettling image.
This wasn't the time to think about that person!
Jiang Yue calmed himself and analysed everything that he had learned.
Although he still believed that he was having a terrible nightmare, he didn't dare to stick around and await his fate.
Luckily, no one seemed to know that he was a boy and this fact became the focal point of Jiang Yue's escape plan.
He patiently waited for the lady attendant to finish styling his hair into an intricate bun and when she walked out to give him space to change into another dress, Jiang Yue immediately implemented his plan.
He first pushed a wooden chest of drawers and several pieces of furniture against the door and then began to search the room for valuables.
In less than five minutes, he had fashioned one of the bedsheets into a cloth bag and stuffed it with accessories, his pipa, several clothes, and shoes. Jiang Yue didn't dare to take more because he was afraid that the weight would slow him down thus causing him to be caught.
After wearing a dark robe over his clothes, he made sure that no one was around and climbed out the window
Luckily, his room was at the back end of the brothel and the window opened to a rather secluded area, otherwise, Jiang Yue could forget about escaping without any witnesses.
It wasn't difficult for Jiang Yue to jump out of the first-floor window and as soon as he touched the ground, he stealthily walked across the street into a dark alley that overlooked the brothel.
After that, he couldn't be bothered to appear calm and he began to run crazily.
His plan was to leave Han city as quickly as possible and hope that his absence wouldn't be discovered until it was too late to search.
He had made sure that his attendant wouldn't enter his room for at least an hour and Jiang Yue hoped that that would be enough time to leave the city.
If his escape wasn't discovered before the city gates closed, he would have a whole night to run before pursuers started their search when the city gates opened in the morning.
There was also the fact that the brothel's people would first search the city before deciding to look for him beyond the city.
As he made his way out of the city gates, Jiang Yue was under no illusions that the brothel would not search for him.
According to his attendant, the brothel had bought him for fifty gold coins and his selling price at the virginity auction would not be less than fifty thousand gold.
There was no way for the brothel to give him up so Jiang Yue only had this one chance to protect himself.
Jiang Yue didn't relax when he finally walked out of the city gates. Instead, he became a little anxious as he tried to find the Han River that his attendant had mentioned.
He eventually found it after walking for several minutes and followed along its bank to eventually discover a hidden cove at the foot of a cliff.
He placed his makeshift bag within the cove and then bathed in the river to remove all the makeup on his face. He hoped that his naked face would be different enough from his made-up face to help him elude the pursuers that were sure to come after him.
Unfortunately, Jiang Yue didn't have any male clothes and had to make do with what he had taken from the brothel which made him feel very uncomfortable, especially when he noticed that the chest area had been a bit padded to simulate breasts.
He had no idea whether it was this world's self or the brothel that had done it, but he was very uncomfortable either way.
Still, Jiang Yue wore the dress and it was just in time because he heard a sudden commotion outside the cave causing him to curse in worry.
Jiang Yue wasn't resigned to his fate, and since there was nowhere to hide in the cove, he grabbed a smooth rock that he had previously taken from the river and anxiously waited for the pursuer to enter.
"You…" A familiar voice called as soon as they entered the cove.
Jiang Yue could forget anybody but Yu Nianzhen was an indelible existence in his life.
In a moment that lasted a lifetime, Jiang Yue felt shock, confusion, happiness, bitterness, and eventually, an overwhelming anger that made him hurl his self-defence rock at the other's head.