Crack!
Both women turned to stare at the window. The window was enclosed by silken curtains that waved in the evening breeze, so that no one could see inside unless they pulled the curtains open. Not only that, but this bathing room was on the second floor.
What could make such a loud noise suddenly, like a fist cracking through wood?
Looking pale and irritated, Mei Xuan stood up from Yan Lan's side and squinted at the window. It seemed she was reluctant to actually go and look, which made sense—it was well known that Mei Xuan was a spoiled sadist, but also that she was a complete coward. After a minute, she cursed and grabbed Yan Lan's arm, pulling Yan Lan to her feet and throwing a towel at her.
"Go and see what's there," She snapped, nodding her chin towards the window.
Shivering, Yan Lan nodded and pulled the towel around herself. The floor was already very wet, but she still tiptoed across the dry parts of the wood to make less of a dripping mess and to make sure to not fall and humiliate herself even more. When she reached the window, she gritted her teeth against the cool summer wind entering and peered through the curtains.
There was the moon up above, glowing softly and fully. There were stars twinkling. There were blossoming cherry plum tree branches swaying in the wind. There were customers coming and going in groups and by themselves through the gates of Xiaoyue Pavilion. And down below the windowsill, there was…nothing. Just a few red lanterns swaying, and the front door to the pavilion down below.
Except, the windowsill was indeed cracked. Hmm.
"...Miss Mei, there's nothing here…" She said, touching the crack on the sill. "The wood just…broke? Maybe something fell…"
A hiss of annoyance came from Mei Xuan, who quickly shoved Yan Lan aside to stick her head out the window herself now that she knew it was safe. She squinted at the sill and then down below, seeming disgruntled. "Whatever. Whatever it is, you're taking credit for it. Don't you dare try pinning this broken wood on me."
Yan Lan looked down at her bare feet, swallowing and rubbing her dripping wet arms. "...But…" She closed her eyes, chest feeling heavy. "As you wish…I don't think Madame Mei will notice, though, since this is just the workers' bathing room—"
"WHATEVER!" Mei Xuan shrieked, shoving past Yan Lan roughly and sending Yan Lan stumbling into a bath screen with a grunt. "Just keep your mouth shut. You know my mother hates property damage. If she even asks me about it, I'll strangle you to death and hang your body out my window!"
With that unpleasant threat, Mei Xuan stormed out of the room and slammed the doors, leaving Yan Lan standing alone by the billowing window curtains.
Yan Lan stood there, clutching her hemp towel around herself and shivering at the window. For a moment, she simply gazed out at the night: a deep, azure blue twinkling with stars and lit with the lights of thousands of red lanterns and the sound of pleasure all across Yougu.
A tear blinked from her eye, trailing down her cheek and dripping off her chin and onto the windowsill.
Yan Lan sat there for some time—who knew how long?---kneeling by the window of the bathroom, eyes twinkling with tears and the reflection of the stars. She closed her eyes and held her cold hands close to her damp chest beneath the towel.
There were so many things she wanted to be.
So many people she could have been.
A rich young master. A peddler of moon cakes. A teahouse owner.
A cultivator.
Yan Lan's eyelashes fluttered.
When she was younger, she had had so many dreams of flying on a sword and wearing a flowing uniform, a god-like cultivator protected suffering people everywhere. Xue Shi had used to reluctantly play together with her in pretend games: they would sneak through the brothel, spinning and dodging and sliding, 'practicing cultivation' and sitting in giggling silence to practice 'forming golden cores'.
Yan Lan's hand slid down to her heart, pressing down and feeling the quiet beating.
Of course, she could never be any of those things. Not a rich young master. Not a peddler of moon cakes. Not a teahouse owner.
And especially not a cultivator.
No; fate had born her an orphaned slave girl, sold to Xiaoyue Pavilion, the lowest of the low among Yougu's courtesans. And worse…
Yan Lan's shoulders sagged, and her fist curled against her heart.
She didn't even have dantians to cultivate with.
Once, when she was younger, Madame Mei had dragged her to a doctor because some strange event had happened near her. The doctor had tried to check Yan Lan's dantian points to determine whether she had an abnormal flow of qi, but he'd only turned pale; Yan Lan's dantian points were all broken! Yes, that's right. She had been born with a broken spiritual system, and it was unfixable.
Born with shattered dantians…that was why Yan Lan was weaker and sicker than the other young women her age. That was why her feminine features were less prominent, and her bones broke more easily. It was why, too, Madame Mei marketed her as a rare specimen, a strange and delicate flower, dressing Yan Lan in male courtesan's clothing and assigning her to take on the most unspeakable and curious customers of all, who wouldn't hesitate to dig their claws into an uncommonly flavored experiene.
Yan Lan sighed, pulling her towel close around herself. How silly. It was years ago that she'd learned she had shattered dantians, and yet she still wished so hard that it was not true. If only she could cultivate, she could leave this place so easily…run away and become a rogue cultivator, even if she had to…just to fulfill that dream…
Yan Lan stood, wiping at her eyes and stumbling back towards the bathing screens. She should change before she caught a bad cold. If she did, Madame Mei would still put her to work, and she would really be in pain then.
Creeeeeaak.
Yan Lan's hair stood on end.
She froze, shoulders hunched and eyes wide.
A shadow had appeared in the moonlight streaming in from the window.
It was not her own.