Yan Lan shook her head, choking. "U-Uh…No, Madame Mei…This one is sorry…Sorry…"
"YOU BETTER BE!" Madame Mei shrieked even louder, shaking Yan Lan against the bars viciously. Even the guards nearby looked fearful of her rage, stepping back and watching the beatdown. It was a well-known saying in Yougu: If you cross Xiaoyue's Madame Mei, you won't live to see another day. "Every time you end up here, I think of letting you stay in civil prison, or selling you off to some old beggar, or throwing you out on the damn streets! But then you have to draw in so many customers, all the customers who pay the most, and you make it so hard for me to throw you out! You little bitch! Aiya!" Madame Mei let go of Yan Lan suddenly and whirled around, glaring at the nearest guard. She threw a silver tael at him, fuming. Then, seeming to debate this decision, she tossed three more silver taels at the guard, who clumsily caught them. "Let her out! I'll punish her at the Pavilion. It won't happen again unless she wants to starve to death."
Intimidated, the guard rushed to unlock Yan Lan's cell. Yan Lan stood, brushing dust off and closing her eyes while drawing in deep breaths. She knew that Madame Mei was a cruel woman who cared only about her property and wealth (and maybe her daughter), but Madame Mei would never punish one of her courtesans in a way that would hurt them permanently; their bodies were too valuable.
Madame Mei's daughter, on the other hand…Yan Lan shivered. Madame Mei's daughter was another story.
"Ah!" Yan Lan was pulled out of her thoughts by Madame Mei, who had snatched her wrist and was now dragging her through the civil offices and out into the bustling streets of Yougu.
"Devious girl…" Madame Mei hissed under her breath as she towed Yan Lan through the crowd. "Disobedient…Ungrateful…"
Yan Lan said nothing, keeping her head down. Anyone who had worked for Madame Mei as long as she had knew that opening your mouth would only get your ass more bruised than saying nothing at all.
Soon enough, they reached the Xiaoyue Pavilion. It was extravagant, to sum it up in one word. A classic, indulgent red-and-gold brothel, three stories high with bright red lanterns hanging from every eave. Music floated from windows all over—singing, the pipa, even the xiao was playing from somewhere. And from some of the windows that customers had left open, came the sounds of gasps and moans. Yan Lan flinched, but not much. She worked here, after all. She'd worked here her whole life. As a little girl helping in the kitchens, and now, as a grown woman working as a courtesan. She'd grown used to the sights and sounds of the pavilion.
As Yan Lan expected, as soon as they were inside, Madame Mei threw her into a wall, lit a pipe, and smoked while berating her for thirty minutes and ranting about how hard her life was. Then, rubbing her temples, Madame Mei stomped away upstairs, where she would probably smoke until her head started spinning and then yell at some other servants.
Once the Madame was out of sight, Yan Lan got up, brushed herself off, and then started tiptoeing upstairs towards her room.
Everytime she came to a corner in the wall, she peeked around first with bated breath, then slipped down the hall, trying to make as little noise as possible. She passed rooms with singing and guqins playing and yelps of pleasure. She looked like a bandit, with the way she was avoiding all the creaking floorboards and covering her mouth to hold in the sounds of her breathing.
Finally, she made it to her room. Yan Lan opened the door silently, then slipped inside and collapsed on her bedroll, sighing in relief.
Yan Lan lay on the bed, eyes closed, breathing in and out to regulate herself. Her golden necklaces and bracelets chafed against the straw mattress, so she winced and slid them off quietly, letting them clink onto the blanket. Then she rubbed her neck where there was still a red mark from earlier, and turned on her side.
Two pairs of eyes stared back at her, blinking..
"AIYA!" Yan Lan cried out, rolling away and covering her mouth. She pushed to a crouch and whirled around, looking worry-stricken. She whisper-shouted: "A SHI! I told you not to do that! Aiya…Aish…my heart…"
On the other side of the mattress, another young woman sat up and shrugged, flipping her long, shining black hair behind her shoulder. She was quite the image of goddess-like beauty standards: shining eyes dark as the night, glassy pale skin so white it was like a ghost's, lips naturally tinged red like cherries, and a slender form with long, long legs. This woman was also wearing a courtesan's outfit, though she was wearing the outfit of a female courtesan, not a male one, unlike Yan Lan. This mysterious young woman raised a finger to her lips in a shushing motion—a finger with a nail as long as a jade hairpin, and shining gold.
This was Long Night Nails, the terror of Xiaoyue Pavilion.