In this area where most of the houses contained a single bedroom, the bathhouse business was one of the most popular and profitable businesses.After all, unlike men who cared less about hygiene due to their status and therefore only bathed once every few days and maybe even weeks, that too in the morning when they left for their work, women still cared about bathing a lot.
Due to this, bathhouses were filled with the women to the brim both during the morning before sunrise and the evening after sunset.
Knowing this, Yang Shen deliberately wasted some time walking around and finally entered the bathhouse.
"You"re here again?"
"If I don"t see Sister Xia at least once every day, I can"t even sleep properly during the nights."
"Humph! What a sweet tongue you have. Don"t expect a discount from me though."
"Definitely. I"m satisfied as long as I can see you smile, Sister Xia."
Flirting with the auburn-haired beauty who owned the place, Yang Shen placed the two copper coins it cost to use the public bath on the wooden counter.
"You"re quickly turning into one of my regulars, Yang Shen. The first male one ever."
Chuckling a little, Yang Shen didn"t say much and just looked towards the woman who was in her mid-20s and was getting ready for marriage.
"You know the rules. Males bath is on the left. So no going to the right. If you hara.s.s the women, or cause any trouble for them, I"ll have to ban you."
Nodding his head towards the rules Xia An said not just to him but all me when they entered this place, Yang Shen didn"t shrug off her words. After all, the woman might look like just another normal woman, but she was actually a cultivator in the Qi Gathering Realm!
If not for the fact that she took over the bathhouse which belonged to her now dead father, Yang Shen guessed that the number of women who visited this place would not be a lot.
Not speaking anymore since he usually didn"t, Yang Shen walked deeper inside the bathhouse after turning left.
Walking straight, Yang Shen unlike usual didn"t enjoy a long bath by soaking his body inside the hot water and rather washed himself quickly.
After finis.h.i.+ng though, Yang Shen didn"t leave right away and moved deeper inside the corridor and took a right turn entering.
Entering a corridor which was so narrow that only a single person could travel through it at once, Yang Shen made sure that no one had seen him before proceeding deeper inside it.
After all, this corridor wasn"t a normal one like the one which led to the bath, or the ma.s.sage room. It was actually a service corridor which led to the deepest part inside the bathhouse.
Ever wondered why most houses in the area didn"t have their own baths? The answer was that there was just no water.
With the absence of anything even remotely similar to a water supply for the city as a whole, there was just no way to supply water to any house, or even a set of houses. In that case, how did the bathhouse obtain enough water to run two separate baths for both the genders?
The very same way rich people could enjoy bathing inside their own houses.
Through the use of a costly array which created water out of thin air. In fact, it was not just the array which was costly. It cost a lot to use the array and create water as well due to which the poor people couldn"t afford to have them at their own homes.
Luckily, there was a huge stream close to the city where anyone was free to draw water and bring it back with themselves for any of their uses.
Well, enough about the boring stuff. Back to Yang Shen.
Having entered the room inside which was a huge empty tank and an array engraved on it to produce water, Yang Shen didn"t bother trying to find out how the water was heated and instead placed his foot more softly than before.
Looking towards the two pipes which moved in two different directions, most likely towards the male and female bath, Yang Shen walked on his toes without making even the slightest sound.
Gulping hard as he looked towards the thumb sized hole in the wall which would most likely let him look inside the women"s bath, Yang Shen felt that his work as a whole was reduced by a lot.
After all, his original plan was to slowly create a hole on his own and peep at the women to finish his quest. But now that a hole already existed, Yang Shen gulped hard and proceeded to move closer to the hole.
Until now, every time he visited the bathhouse, Yang Shen despite always wanting to do so never had enough courage to peek at them. Not just due to the fact that Xia An was very strong, but also because he himself didn"t have enough determination or courage to do so.
However, since now he had enough motivation to do so, there was nothing stopping Yang Shen from doing what he always wanted to do.
Having looked at all the women who were covered in a luscious red glow every time left, Yang Shen was finally going to find out what happened inside the forbidden area where no men were allowed entry.