Hua Yan glared at the greasy stall owner who was staring at her like she was a snack to eat. She glanced down at her clothes, which were sticking to her figure, and wrapped her arms even tighter around her torso, refusing to wince when her hand brushed her wound. It was beyond her how the stall owner could still send her a lustful gaze when she currently resembled a drowned rat and had covered her scarlet hair with mud.
Surprisingly, Daiyu stepped in front of her, subtly blocking her from the stall owner's view. Before she could comment on his chivalry, he turned, walking backwards so he could speak to her. "Where exactly is this....eccentric contact of yours? You still haven't told me."
Hua Yan sidestepped a rickshaw carrying some sort of official, then scrutinized her surroundings. The town of Hongse was quite a quaint place, with many market stalls selling all sorts of goods. She nearly drooled at the meat skewers cooking on a grill, but remembered in time that she currently could not access her money since it was all in her spacial storage bag, which could only be opened using qi. Still staring at the meat skewers, she replied, "You'll know when we get there. Just follow my lead, please, unless you want to die before we even get to see my friend. Her guards are a little overzealous, and I also don't trust them."
Daiyu rolled his eyes. "Great. Why am I not surprised that a friend of yours is so batty?"
Hua Yan jabbed him in the side with her elbow again, then ignored him no matter what he said as she continued to lead them through Hongse. The night sky stretched overhead, becoming less clear the further they went into the richer parts of the town, since there were more lights to wash it out. Finally, they reached their destination.
Daiyu stared up at the building incredulously. "*This*?! *This* is your friend's home?"
"Mmhm."
He stared at her. "But this is a brothel!"
Hua Yan was enjoying seeing the overconfident man taken down a peg, and took her time replying. "It's a courtesan house, and it's also an information guild. You would be surprised at how well courtesans and prostitutes can gather information."
Daiyu rubbed his chin. "That...does seem as if it would work well. But how did you get to know a prostitute?"
Hua Yan felt her face go stiff. "It's not important. All you need to know is that I met her quite a few years ago, and she eventually was forced to become a prostitute. I couldn't help her at the time, but she did well with what she had and eventually became the madam of one of the most famous and well-to-do courtesan houses in the empire. Then she offered to sell me information, and I couldn't refuse."
"You mean this place is the infamous Hong Hua courtesan house?"
Hua Yan nodded. "Yes. Now come on, my side hurts and I'm running a fever. I need to borrow some of Youmei's supplies to treat myself."
Daiyu's face turned panicked, and he snatched her sleeve. "You can't go in there! Your reputation would be ruined!"
Grinding to a halt, she gave him a flat look. "This is why I said you were dumb. This may be my true appearance, but no one has seen it since I was just a child, and I'll be back to disguising myself as soon as I cure the qi-sealing poison. As such, I don't have to worry about that since no one will ever see me again. I've already covered my hair with mud so no one will see the truth, and there are quite a few martial artists with unusual eye colors."
Daiyu still looked reluctant to go in. She grabbed his arm and dragged him with her, ignoring the stares and whispers of the courtesans and customers that filled the building. It was probably a strange sight, seeing a man and a woman coming to a courtesan house together covered in mud, blood, and lake water, their clothes torn and stiff after drying.
Hua Yan stopped as a pretty young lady came forward. "I'm sorry, miss, young master, but I'll have to ask you to leave. We don't accept beggars here at Hong Hua."
Hua Yan gave a crooked, dangerous grin, making the young lady step back a bit. "We're not beggars, and I'm here to see Youmei. Tell her that her old friend has come to look at the gardens with her." She took out a wooden token and revealed it with a flourish.
The young lady frowned, hesitating, as she looked at the token. "Yes....miss. I will tell her. But I must ask that you come with the guards for now, and if you're lying and you've stolen that precious token, you'll be thrown out immediately, and I wouldn't count out a whipping too!"
Hua Yan rolled her eyes discreetly, but she had to admit that she and Daiyu did resemble beggars at the moment. It was to be expected, though, since they had fallen from a cliff the day before and gone without food, rest, or treatment. The guards the young woman had beckoned forward stomped towards them, their faces twisted in suspicious scowls as they examined the two.
Hua Yan leaned back carefully against a pillar, completely unbothered by their hostility, and waited patiently for the young woman to return. Daiyu shifted slightly beside her, but he seemed to have taken her warning to heart and was allowing her to do the talking, though he seemed to be struggling to keep from interjecting in the conversation.
They endured several minutes of awkwardness while the customers in the courtesan house stared at them, glaring and muttering. A beautiful young woman sat on a stage, playing the guqin, and Hua Yan closed her eyes to listen.
The young lady returned, and this time her manner was much more respectful. "My lady, please come this way. Madam will see you now."
"En."
Daiyu followed behind Hua Yan as they climbed the steps to a private room, and the young woman bowed and left after knocking lightly on the door. "Come in," said a languid, attractively raspy female voice.
Hua Yan entered the room, closing the door behind herself and Daiyu, and only then did she turn to look at the room's occupant. Youmei was reclining on a pile of pillows, smoking a pipe delicately as she stared at them with dark eyes. Her tea-colored hair and clear jade skin combined to make the very picture of a refined and beautiful courtesan, which was unusual for a madam of a large courtesan house. Typically they were older women who had lost their beauty and could no longer serve customers.
She raised an eyebrow at Hua Yan. "Sweetheart, I haven't seen you looking this bad since we were children. What happened that you'd show up like this with your hair dyed with mud and your eyes exposed?"
Coughing, Hua Yan sent Daiyu an uncomfortable look and replied, "It seems the hand of the emperor has reached further than we thought. I'm sure your network has let you know that the Fox and I were meeting yesterday. Min Ling, Lan Mei, and several others have betrayed me. They were conspiring with some of Huli's subordinates to kill the both of us. We barely escaped with our lives because they poisoned us with the qi-sealing poison. Otherwise they would have long been facing King Yama right now."
Youmei puffed out a breath of smoke. Raising an eyebrow, she looked troubled as she spoke. "That isn't good. If he can persuade subordinates who have served us for years....wait, why would they betray you in the first place? And why did my network not catch wind of this?"
Groaning, Hua Yan lowered herself to a seat. "Because the emperor taught them to be blood cultivators. They are no longer the people we used to know."
Youmei nearly dropped her pipe. "Blood cultivators?! No, no, this isn't right. How could my network not have seen them meeting with the emperor to learn their atrocities? How could we not have caught wind of the babies going missing from households?"
Hua Yan looked at her steadily, staying silent, and Youmei finally seemed to realize. Her face darkened viciously, and she growled, "It seems I have some cleaning to do. Time to thin the ranks a little."
Daiyu could finally stay silent no longer. "That's all well and good," he said dryly, "but the more urgent matter is treatment. Hua Yan, I thought we were coming here to get a bit of help."
Youmei stared at him as if just noticing he was there. "Little Yan, you told him your name?"
"En. We agreed to tell each other our names so we could both have dirt on each other. The Fox and I are cooperating for now, at least until we get our poison taken care of."
Youmei gave Daiyu another look, her eyes traveling over his body and face seductively. "Hmm, the Fox is certainly much more handsome than I expected. I'll have my personal maids prepare you baths and new clothes, and there's ointment and bandages for your wounds over there. Little Yan, I have to go take care of a few things, but there's a set of silver needles that I'll have brought to you, and if you need any more assistance that I can provide, I'll do my best to help you." She smiled tenderly at Hua Yan and continued gently, "I owe you more than I can repay, but I will do my best."
Hua Yan could tell that Daiyu was curious about her past, but she merely nodded and thanked the only person alive who knew everything about her.