The Magnolia Beauty

Suyin casually walked, trying to fix her voice so it would appear "deeper" than usual. In one of Suyin"s sleeves, she tightly clutched onto a little white porcelain bottle that she had stolen from one of the herbal shops before she came to the red light district as a male customer.

Suyin promised to herself that she would pay them back later, but it was necessary for her to have it with her to keep her "safe."

"Come in, handsome man!" A woman with delicate jewelry called Suyin. Suyin proceeded to walk down the pathway, standing right in front of the brothel.

"XINYI HOST INN"

"Welcome! Come in and we will give you a great time!" A young lady ushered Suyin to come in. She endeavored to give a low, but deep laugh, walking in. Inside of the place crowded with men drinking wine and shouting with women around their arms, savoring their moments.

"Welcome, young man! You seem new here, how would you like to start off with a lady? Would you like someone who is soft and kind? Or are you looking for a more expensive, beauty?" An older lady approached Suyin.

Thankfully, because of all the savings that Suyin had and Areum"s money, they had a decent amount that could be spent. For this chance, Suyin agreed that she would save the other innocent ladies fallen in the hands of an evil person.

"Ah yes. I"m looking for any type of lady of your choice." Suyin remarked in a low tone, smiling tensely. She glanced upstairs, noticing the familiar man (Huang Liwei) who walked downstairs. "It"s that guy!" She noted in her head, shifting back to the old lady who brought in a woman in her early twenties.

"Enjoy your stay here, young sir!" The old lady beamed with Suyin returning a decent amount of money in her hand. The woman escorted Suyin ahead, but Suyin halted her tracks as soon as she got close to the staircase.

Huang Liwei slowly strolled down the staircase, pa.s.sing by Suyin before he stood right next to her. Suyin froze, not moving an inch before she watched him walk back upstairs.

"Ah.." Suyin put her hands on her stomach, acting as if she was having problems with her stomach. She would best the best actress for having stomach pains since she would always lie to her parents back in the present day, so she wouldn"t have to go to school.

"My stomach hurts.."

Suyin"s escort marched up to Suyin, seductively touching her abdominal. "Are you okay?" She spoke with a concerned expression.

Suyin"s eyes got bigger, worried that the woman would accidentally (and casually) touch her chest. "I-I"m okay!" Suyin immediately responded, "I just need to use the restroom, that"s all... haha." Suyin chuckled out of nervousness, pushing the woman"s hands on her body. "I"ll go to the restroom and I"ll be back."

The escort nodded, "Did you need me to go with you-"

"No!" Suyin rejected aloud. She then smiled, "Ah. I can go on my own. Why don"t you wait for me upstairs? I"ll be back soon." Suyin led her escort to go upstairs. Dumbfounded, she nodded and walked upstairs while Suyin held onto her stomach.

"There has to be something here." She reasoned to herself, searching around the place. There were still a lot of people and Suyin needed to do something fast.

She walked into the kitchen doors with people running in and out of the place, too busy to notice her presence there.

"Hurry! We have a table upstairs asking for a feast and one downstairs at the table!" A lady came in, holding a paper in her hands as she handed the paper to the chef. The chef continued to cook, paying no attention to the lady who entered as she ran out of the kitchen. Suyin got a chance to hide behind the table and took this opportunity to use the powder that she had stolen from the medical shop before coming here! She quickly took off the tip and began pouring it in the raw meat and jars of the wine that was set out. The chef never turned his head back to Suyin, engrossed in his cooking and his own world which gave Suyin the opportunity to hurry back to the lobby area of the brothel.

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The room that Suyin and the escort was the calmest room in the whole inn. The escort could be seen pouting and sulking in the corner while Suyin sat down on the table alone, expecting for something good to happen. Suyin pulled her sleeves and secretly sprinkled some powder in the tea, swirling the tea so it could dissolve.

"Young miss, come have a drink with me to have a toast as a celebration to our encounter," Suyin said. Although Suyin was a woman, dressing up as a male made her more charming than ever under the lamp that lit next to her.

The lady was mesmerized by her toast, happy that the male (Suyin) was finally giving her attention.

"I will, your lordship." She took the teacup out of Suyin"s hands and toasted with her, drinking the whole teacup in one gulp. "Shall I accompany you tonight at the bed tonight, my lord?" She flirted with Suyin.

Suyin calmly nodded, "You may go ahead on the bed first and get ready. I will be sitting here for a while." The escort happily jumped up to Suyin"s words, heading straight to the bed as she slowly began taking off the first layer of her clothes.

"59...60!" Suyin counted the seconds in her head, nodding down the count time of the powder that should kick in.

She turned around to look at the escort who was unconscious on the bed. Suyin stood up and swung her fist to the air. "Oh yeah! It worked!"

She smiled, walking up to the escort. "Young miss? Are you awake?" Suyin whispered. There was no response and she was sleeping soundly. Suyin pulled the covers over the escort, tucking her in. "I apologize for what I have done," Suyin remarked, sitting by the bed.

From the loud noises from earlier, the place was finally dying down. She stuck out her head from the door and looked outside down the hallway. No one made a single move anywhere. It was so quiet that Suyin"s creaks on the wooden floor were the only audible sound that could be heard in the brothel.

Suyin then smirked after poking her head in one of the rooms. Everyone was asleep now thanks to the sleeping powder. It was finally time for Suyin to find the missing ladies and let them free! She stuck out her head from the second floor to look downstairs and saw that the bodies of men and women collapsed due to their unconsciousness.

A couple of the men were snoring and some of the bodies of the women laid down on the ground, resting soundly. Suyin began to investigate the brothel. The clock was ticking each minute pa.s.s by as Suyin scavaged through the second floor, then the first.

"What am I missing?" She pondered, standing on with her back to the bookshelf. All of a sudden, a minor push from her behind caused the bookshelf to rotate, making her fall down to her b.u.t.t as she hit the ground.

"O-Ouch!" She rubbed her b.u.t.t. Behind the bookshelf on the first floor at the end of the hallway was actually a secret pa.s.sageway! Suyin scurried ahead, the walls narrow and dark with a small candle lighting the pathway.

"Someone, please help!" A cry could be heard as Suyin got closer to a dungeon.

"Really? This is something out of a movie!" Suyin said to herself, concentrating ahead. There was only one way in and one way out in the same area, so Suyin had to be careful and smart! She hurried down to the cell, where a couple of ladies were resting on the ground.

"H-Help!" The lady saw Suyin, who hushed her to quiet down. "No one has been here since a couple of days ago. We are starving." One of the ladies begged. Most of the women"s faces were dirtied and their hair was in tangles as if they had been stuck here for days.

"The leader had planned on taking us tomorrow to the Long territory to this old man"s home, please help us, hero!" She begged, clinging onto the bars.

"Okay. Well... here. Let me think."

Two of the guards were soundly sleeping with an empty jug of wine next to them. Suyin smirked, looking at the two b.u.ms that were snoozing off their heads. "That"s what you get," Suyin stated, simply taking their keys that were placed on their waist and ran to the cell door, unlocking it as she turned the key.

"There. Now hurry and leave! They should be getting up soon." She ushered.

The ladies ran out, hustling down the narrow, dark hallway and out from the secret pa.s.sageway. About two of the women were still sitting down, too tired because they didn"t have the energy to stand up. Inside the cell, the ground was murky smelled like a wet dog.

There was no plate of food or water for the ladies. Suyin decided to help the two ladies up, one on both sides of her as she tried to carry them out of the cell and out of the brothel. "Come on, you guys have to survive and live!" Suyin spoke, gently walking down the narrow hallway and out of the bas.e.m.e.nt to the lobby area as the two ladies weakly moved beside Suyin.

"Thank you, Mr. Hero. I shall never forget this." The lady on Suyin"s right side announced.

"As long as you guys are okay, that"s all I"m asking for." Suyin smiled.

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Right after Suyin carried the two girls out of the brothel, chatters could be heard from inside the inn, causing a loud commotion.

"Was there something that happened?!" Suyin could hear people talking from the inn. She tried to use all of her strength to carry the girls, hiding behind an alleyway. A couple of the girls that ran off earlier came to help hold the two girls, holding them as Suyin stood in front of them.

"You guys can hurry and go now." Clashes of weapon and swords could be heard from the inn. "Hurry, before they come out!"

"Thank you, Hero." One of the girls said, her eyes welling up with tears as Suyin bid them farewell.

Suyin had to absorb the thought of "hero," almost correcting them because she forgot that she was dressed up as a man.

"No problem. You guys have to make it back home safe and sound and never come back near here." Suyin a.s.sured them. They dashed off, with Suyin turning around to hear the sound of endless footsteps gather up nearby.

"Find them!!" A powerful command could be heard nearby. Suyin was about to turn around until she b.u.mped into someone"s chest. Suyin was about to use the rest of the sleeping powder on the person for defense but stopped after she recognized his face.

"You--" She froze. The man"s face was full of hostility and the aura of piercing coldness blew straight across her. The only person that was distinctive enough for Suyin to recognize who it was-Tienzheng!

"Y-You!" Suyin was ready to burst out his name when he covered her mouth, pulling her into his chest and squeezed onto her waist. She could feel her feet become lighter when Qin Fuhua flew up to the rooftop with her. The group of men began running through the alleyway with their spears and swords.

"They shouldn"t be far!" one of the men in the group cried out, running down. Suyin"s face was buried deep into the chest of the man.

"murflahgahing?!" Suyin attempted to speak but Qin Fuhua would squeeze her tighter if she proceeded to talk, m.u.f.fling her words.

"Stapheitoricantbreathe" She tried to utter. The more she spoke, the tighter he held onto her, nearly suffocating her close to his chest. Finally comprehending that if she kept talking, he would pull her tighter to his chest, so she didn"t utter a single word anymore, her face still buried in his clothes.

There were more footsteps coming and going from the group of men that came out from the brothel, yelling out words that Suyin couldn"t catch or hear thanks to Qin Fuhua who calmly antic.i.p.ated for the chattering to die down from the brothel.

"Someone had poisoned all of us!" Suyin could clearly hear the chaos in the inn below and grinned. Poisoning them with the sleeping powder? She could laugh if she could, but Qin Fuhua"s grip wouldn"t allow it.

"You did this?" Qin Fuhua questioned. She could feel his head lower to hers as if he was impressed by her plan. She could only nod twice.

Qin Fuhua finally let go of Suyin, who took a couple of breaths to show Qin Fuhua how tight he was holding onto her.

"You held me so tight, I couldn"t even breathe!" She whispered, complaining about the strength of his grip. Qin Fuhua didn"t bother or flinch to give a reaction to her, totally ignoring her.

Everything then fell down to Suyin as she furrowed her brows. Wait. How did Qin Fuhua know that she"s Suyin when she"s clearly dressed up as a man?

"How did you know it was me?" Suyin asked, unsure how he came here and how randomly kind enough for him to help her.

"There was a commotion about this beautiful lady with plain clothes, walking down to every medical shop and getting kicked out." He answered with no emotion, "I was forced to follow you since you have something that I still need back."

Suyin had to think for a second. Right. The jade of the dragon was still in Suyin"s possession back at the room.

Qin Fuhua"s words were actually, a lie.

The lady had something special that no one else had that Qin Fuhua could recognize that was something unique about her. The woman"s medical skills and one other thing that he had been trying to figure out: the scent of magnolia flowers that emitted around her.

Qin Fuhua"s master revealed that the flowers of magnolia would help guide the way for a better future, but Qin Fuhua couldn"t comprehend his words. It was very rare for magnolia flowers to flourish in the territory of the Qin clan because of the soil and dry air, which were not fit for any flowers to bloom.

Suyin could only grin at him, "Sorry. Um... it"s back at the inn..." She apologized. She wouldn"t have questioned about him following her since she was too engrossed in saving the ladies in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

"Did you see anything unusual down there?" Qin Fuhua questioned Suyin, who perked up her head.

"Anything?" Confused, Fuhua"s eyes pierced through Suyin"s soul, a serious tone not to be messed with.

"Did you find any scrolls or key. Anything that you find unusual in a bas.e.m.e.nt." Suyin now understood why Fuhua was there now. He was planning on going down the bas.e.m.e.nt, but because of the commotion, he was unable to thanks to her. She shook her head, a.s.suring the male that she didn"t see anything out of the ordinary.

"I don"t think there"s anything in there that was unusual... besides the fact that they were kidnapping girls!" Suyin explained, still angered by the fact that those men were kidnapping girls. Qin Fuhua had a distressed expression.

"Well then, I"ll take you back to the inn where you are staying. Give me back my jade of the dragon and that"ll be it."

Suyin agreed. She didn"t want to hold onto that jade any longer after those guards were like a dog on a leash after she dropped it. It was better for him to not know that she dropped it on the ground too if it was that valuable. Qin Fuhua carried her off at the top of the rooftops with her guidance to where she was staying at.

On the ground in the kitchen as the chef stopped cooking was Weizhe, who turned around to smile at the plates of food that was poisoned.

"Guess it"s my turn now, Prince."

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