“Do you know what a drink in the company of sing-song girls means?” Ning Changjiu replied with a question.
Ning Xiaoling was rolling a copper coin among her fingers and said with a smile, “Of course I do. It means drinking in the brothel, paying the women to sing and dance, and then having a beauty to spend the night. Ouch...”
Ning Xiaoling covered her head and Ning Changjiu withdrew his hand that knocked her head, saying with a smile, “You’ve learned so much!”
Ning Xiaoling said in grief, “I heard it from several fellow disciples of the peak. They claimed to go to the brothel for a drink, saying that immortal cultivators would be treated well in the brothels. They won’t need to pay a lot.”
Ning Changjiu said meaningfully, “Don’t listen to those fellow disciples chat anymore. They will contaminate your mind. You must learn more from me or Master Jiajia.”
“Oh,” Ning Xiaoling intoned, elongating the word.
Shubai sat on a stool and ate two bowls of rice.Thin as he was, he had a good appetite. Yet, he only gained strength rather than fat.After eating the meal, Shubai knocked on the edge of the bowl with the chopsticks, sitting absent-mindedly and staring at the compass. He remembered that the young man in white took money from the compass before. His eyes got gloomy. He was wondering whether the man would be afraid of him taking away all the money and then burning the house.Or... He was staring at me somewhere.Shubai looked around with vigilance. There seemed to be a sharp knife shivering in his heart. With his ears slightly twitching, he sniffed and wanted to search for some clues. Meanwhile, he moved towards the direction of the compass, put his fingers on it and twisted it. Surprisingly, he found it was loose.He twisted in a reverse direction. With a click, the mechanism buckle was unlocked.Sh
“Changjiu... We lost one pouch of money today but it was because you trusted the wrong person. Just take it as a lesson. But now... why do you buy so many ‘lessons’? This porcelain jar is still fine. The painting of the figure setting the firecrackers is quite cute but this porcelain figurine... The green clothes and the cheek color... Maybe it has been on the shelf for even ten years. And you bought it?”Ning Xiaoling pointed at the things on the table angrily. She stared at her fellow disciple with an air of fury mixed with confusion and pity.Just now, Ning Changjiu suddenly asked her for a considerable sum of money to buy some curiosities and antiques. Ning Xiaoling figured he must be able to buy some profitable things with his keen eye so she approved his request without thinking much.However...Ning Xiaoling was checking the things on the table. When she saw the porcelain figurine of a dancing girl in green with red c
In the early morning, the Sha Water of Linhe City was enshrouded with faint cold mist.From the direction of the long street, it could be found that the widest and longest street in the middle of the city formed a line with the bridge. The red lanterns hung on both sides of the streets were not lit up, which were asleep with the ancient city in the early morning.Ning Xiaoling still lived two doors away from Ning Changjiu as before. When Ning Xiaoling got up, she saw him sitting outside on a chair with his eyes closed. He looked as if asleep.Ning Xiaoling brought a quilt and threw it to him, saying grumpily, “Cover yourself with the quilt. We’ve spent so much money. If you get a cold, we cannot afford to let you see a doctor.”Ning Changjiu wanted to nap for another while and seek a shimmer of lucky chance in light of the traces of the past life. Now that he was woken up by Ning Xiaoling, a hint of hard-to-get inspiration w
At night, Ning Xiaoling leaned over the table, counting the copper coins one by one. With his head rested on her arm, she stared at Ning Changjiu and asked, “Changjiu, aren’t you really going to meet Xiang’er?”Ning Changjiu said, “Why would I meet Zhao Xiang’er? After ascending the throne, she may be supercilious now. Probably, she has forgotten her poor friends like us.”Ning Xiaoling chuckled and didn’t believe him at all.Ning Changjiu stayed silent for a while and then made a concession, “Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. If nothing happens tonight, we will go then.”Ning Xiaoling asked, “What can happen?”Ning Changjiu bantered, “I’m concerned about my country and people. What do you know?”Ning Xiaoling grinned perfunctorily, “Okay. Okay. Okay. You are the best.”Ning Changjiu ignored the girl’s perfunctory reply and then asked, “Today is the Preliminary Eve. Would you like to go out f
Just now, under the tall building, among the riot of sound, Ning Changjiu heard the mechanism unbolted and the dagger popping out within the zither. He also smelt the sudden blood smell. Yet, before he thought of something, the tragedy just happened.Ning Xiaoling saw the sudden accident and called Changjiu in a low voice. Among the chaos, she suddenly recalled her weakness a few days ago and flushed with shame. Then, she forced herself to stay calm and sensible.This prostitute was a born beauty, who had got through hardships for more than ten years. Now, it was a time of peace. And a well-off life was around the corner. However, on the eve of New Year, she jumped off the building and killed herself all of a sudden.The colorfully dressed fat woman cursed and cried in the tall building. She wiped her face with the handkerchief and smashed over the instruments, shelves and tables angrily.Under the brothel, the crowd formed
Lantern.Now, the city was full of lanterns.The burning lanterns looked like red and heavy persimmons.After the old man died, the light and heat of the lanterns in the city seemed to be snatched. All the light appeared somber and cold.On the bridge, the dancing girl looked at him with a wry smile, who seemed to be elated, dancing barefoot. The sing-song girl also fiddled with her hands behind the dancing girl, as if flicking an intangible zither.Those who went and came couldn’t see them at all.Ning Changjiu suddenly moved. Instead of responding to their provocation, he dashed to the direction where the black figure disappeared.The girl stopped dancing and gazed in the direction where he disappeared, saying restlessly, “This young man looked quite competent. Will he be a hindrance of Hades?”The sing-song girl still flicked the strings silently, who seemed to be fascin
Shubai was not timid but when he watched the red lanterns turned white and the pale light was reflected in his eyes, he couldn’t help screaming.Shubai rubbed his eyes and made sure he didn’t see it wrong. He was so frightened that he immediately rose and ran away. However, he was even more horrified to find that as he raced past the houses, the red lanterns became white. The faster he ran, the faster the lanterns changed.Shubai stopped and didn’t move at all.The bridge was not far away. Many passers-by were still going across the bridge, including the soldiers. They were not heading to investigate the death of the sing-song girl but rushing toward the other bank of Sha Water. A big potato seemed to have just died over there.Then, Shubai gazed somewhere. He saw on one end of the bridge, a young girl in plain clothes was dancing. Because she was too thin, she looked like a piece of ragged cloth swirling in the cold wind fr
This was the porcelain figurine of a dancing girl placed in an antique store in the street for more than ten years, which was as tall as half a person. There were some cracks on it, which reduced its value. It was said to be an antique from the state of Jin that had been kept for two centuries but no one believed the saying.Recently, the antique was bought by an easy mark and placed at home to exorcise evil spirits.The woman had sensed that the target was a human figure before possessing it, so she got inside. She thought even if that young man was vigilant and put the pendant on a corpse, it would be okay too. She could manipulate the corpse to find and kill him.It was not until now that she realized that the human figure she felt turned out to be an extremely ugly porcelain figurine!Rage consumed her immediately. She wanted to get out of the porcelain figurine but she couldn’t make it for the moment. A more shocking sc