Chapter 333: a.s.sa.s.sination
Li Hong Yuan’s gaze landed on the water below for the majority of the time, yet don’t know whether or not the other party brought along enough people, whether or not it was enough to have this water dyed red. Thinking to here, he hooked a shallow smile, carrying a bit of an unruly sinister air, also having that unseen blood-thirst in the depths of his eyes. His wife hoped for him to not easily create killing sins unless absolutely avoidable. With people coming on their own to kill him, as such, no matter how many are killed, his wife will definitely still stand on his side, and definitely won’t say ‘no’.
Jing Wan just happened to turn around, wis.h.i.+ng to take a piece of pre-cut fresh fruit from the table, when she inadvertently saw his smile. No matter when one saw, it all would make one’s heart uncontrollably speed up. As expected, a calamity, an out of the ordinary demon.
She immediately averted her line of sight, looking towards where his gaze was directed. Seemingly, it was just the water surface. This was worth him smiling this enticingly? Thinking of the past, every time seeing this kind of smile of his, eight times out of ten were all for the sake of ‘seducing’ her. And the remaining two times seemingly was just evil water leaking from the stomach.
“w.a.n.gye, this is having thought of something?” Jing Wan asked with a smile.
Li Hong Yuan turned his head to look at her, “This husband just feels today’s scenery is exceptionally good.” Unhesitantly giving Jing Wan another bewitching smile that overturned all living things.
Jing Wan silently averted her line of sight. As expected, it was still admiring the performance in front that was more interesting. Speaking of which, when will she finally be able to resist against this disaster.
Li Hong Yuan, seeing this little appearance of Jing Wan’s, seemingly just understood what she was thinking, and couldn’t help laughing out loud.
Jing Wan shot him a glare. Laugh, laugh, laugh, what are you laughing for, what’s so funny, b.a.s.t.a.r.d!
Li Hong Yuan gradually stopped his laughter. If he really were to have his wife angered, the one to suffer would still be him, completely just the ‘gains not making up the losses’.
The beginning of the hundred boat parade at most can only be considered small-scale, but even so, the onlookers still watched with great pleasure.
The music in front gradually ceased, and a flat roof pleasure boat slowly floated over. Underneath, a group of musicians performed, while above, sat a giant half-bloomed flower bud. When the boat reached a certain position, the flower bud slowly opened and two strips of white silk flew out, subsequently revealing a beauty covering the face with one hand. Orchid fingers[1] slowly moved downward, revealing that stunningly beautiful face………..
In an instant, Jing Wan just heard quite a few people simultaneously call out the words ‘Fu Xiao’. This popularity was quite high.
Jing Wan can also be considered to have learned the other party’s name.
Such a girl, if the same on the inside as on the outside, then staying in a brothel truly was unfortunate.
In this tiny piece of heaven and earth, over thirty feet long silk, in Fu Xiao’s hands, flowed extraordinarily smoothly, and even the figure graceful, the bearing beautiful. It was absolutely one dance astonis.h.i.+ng all.
In Jing Wan’s eyes, this more or less can be considered the ‘Raiment of Rainbows and Feathers Dance[2]‘. Although not knowing how graceful and elegant that dance was in the history of her past life, but the interpretations the later generation came up with were also extremely brilliant. This dance of Fu Xiao’s wasn’t inferior in any aspect. If placed in her past life, this kind of person, even if unable to become an expert dancer, just based on that face, and that body of talent, she can still become a celebrity chased after by countless people. Becoming countless people’s G.o.ddess, or ideal lover, all wasn’t anything difficult. But at present, she was just someone that can be casually trampled on.
Jing Wan suppressed the unwell feeling inside. The era was just as such, she was unable to change anything. Furthermore, in her past life, that kind of establishments, were there any less of?
Because Jing Wan and them were the main guest, the majority of Fu Xiao’s performance was naturally performed directly in front of their pleasure boat.
And Fu Xiao was just the start. The following eleven head courtesans appeared one after another, either dancing, or playing an instrument, or singing, a mult.i.tude of variety, marvelous and brilliant.
And once this wave ended, the curtain of the night also more or less began to descend. When appearing again, the pleasure boats and flower boats all emerged with the starry glow of lanterns. That kind of dim yet not dark, and the illumination at the same time also not considered bright feeling had a kind of a hazy sense of beauty.
At the same time, inside the Thousand Flower Stage, it was also lit with lanterns like the starry night sky. Because it was ‘indoors’, the light penetrating in from the outside was weaker, thus the lanterns inside naturally were just much brighter.
The hundred boat parade may have begun, but inside the Thousand Flower Stage, it also was never once forgotten about. Of course, there was the distinction between primary and secondary. When it was more brilliant inside, the performance outside would just weaken, and when the outside was the main, the inside would just weaken. And once the curtain of the night thoroughly descended, it was another wave of climax arriving.
Reflecting upon the waters, the brightly lit lanterns grew increasingly bright, and in contrast, below the water surface, it nevertheless appeared increasingly serene and dark. In the past, perhaps can’t avoid hiding some swimming fish, but now, don’t know how many dangers it hid.
When Jing Wan was very engrossed in watching, Li Hong Yuan leaned his body backwards, slightly lifting his hand. An Yi immediately approached with his ear, and Li Hong Yuan quietly whispered a few words, following which, An Yi quickly left.
As time pa.s.sed, the performance changed again, and the main stage switched back to the Thousand Flower Stage. From the top, floated down countless flower petals, and shortly after, a square shaped ‘giant flower basket’ was slowly lowered from above. Fu Xiao, who has changed into another attire, was currently holding the pipa dancing, the flower petals still raining down. That scene was like reaching the immortal realms.
Without a doubt, after today, Fu Xiao’s reputation will ascend another level once again.
This originally was what Mei Yi wanted, and also what she arranged, but her inherent goal was hoping that she can attract Jin Qinw.a.n.g’s gaze, able to make Jin Qinw.a.n.g have her taken into the canopy and onto the bed. However, seeing Jin Qinw.a.n.g’s feelings towards Jin w.a.n.gfei, one just knew, this was impossible. As such, she actually somewhat regretted letting Fu Xiao stand out this much. But, some things were already arranged, so it was already too late to want to change. One can’t just, because of not wanting to let Fu Xiao stand out, disrupt the whole plan. If the entire process isn’t perfect, then one just might anger Jin Qinw.a.n.g, and that aftermath absolutely wasn’t something they, these people, can withstand.
Being popular perhaps wasn’t a bad thing, but when placed on girls of the brothels, that can’t be considered anything good. Perhaps because of one’s worth, one can pick one’s customers, but people with money and power weren’t in the minority. And these people, one usually can’t afford to offend either. One mishap, and one will just fall into the abyss.
Mei Yi’s gaze landed on Jin w.a.n.gfei several times, wanting to open her mouth to let Jin w.a.n.gfei have the person taken away, but thinking again, she just knew this possibility really wasn’t big. First setting aside the problem of reputation, reckon no daughter of a respectable family would redeem the slave contract for a girl of the brothels. After all, who would foolishly do something stupid like ‘inviting a wolf into the house’. Even if the ‘wolf’ really wasn’t a ‘wolf’, it was still difficult to let others believe, no? In the end, she still could only give up.
Because they’d previously eaten during the ‘flowing banquet’ already, and although not much entered the mouth, the stomach never once felt hungry this whole time. However, the evening meal still needed to be taken. After all, right now, compared with the usual evening meal time, it was already very late. As such, when Mei Yi said the evening meal was ready, Li Hong Yuan just directly let them bring it in.
It wasn’t a flowing banquet as before, but rather setting the table all at once.
Dish after dish were sent up, and different from before, this time, it was all servant girls in the same attire. Mei Yi, also because of having gotten exploited previously when ordering from the restaurants, this time, directly prepared from Louxie Fang. From making the dishes to delivering the dishes, all her Louxie Fang’s people that she trusted. However, she still relaxed too early……………….
When the second to last dish approached the tableside, the servant girl suddenly had the tray in hand violently smashed towards Li Hong Yuan along with the dish…………….
However, Li Hong Yuan seemingly grew eyes, his foot slightly sliding as his body leaned backwards, and just completely evaded.
………..Having failed, the girl subsequently waved out the dagger in hand that was originally hidden under the tray. Seeing that it was about to stab into Li Hong Yuan, her eyes flashed with pride, but when the tip of the dagger was still several inches away from Li Hong Yuan, it was just unable to advance any further, and at the same time, even accompanied by a ‘pfft’ sound. That was the sound of a sharp blade deeply penetrating the body. The girl’s pupil abruptly magnified, the inside containing astonishment. She slowly lowered her head. The brightly s.h.i.+nning blade had penetrated through the body, and the blood dripped down along the tip of the blade drop by drop.
In an instant, the blade was pulled out, and afterwards, the girl was ruthlessly flung onto the ground. And when she fell, the girl that was right behind her also fell to the ground at the same time. Despite falling towards two different directions, they were nevertheless directly facing one another, having the other party’s expression before death all taken in.
This all happened too quickly. By the time Jing Wan turned to look, Hei Mei and Bai Shao had completely blocked her line of sight already.
“Wan Wan don’t look.” Li Hong Yuan’s voice still didn’t have any fluctuations, even carrying the exclusive gentleness only when facing Jing Wan.
Jing Wan furrowed her brows, roughly guessing what the situation was. She didn’t insist on questioning, turning her head and continuing to watch the performance. Just, this heart of hers was no longer able to completely calm down.
Without needing Li Hong Yuan to issue an order, regardless whether it was the ground or the table, everything was very quickly cleaned up.
Li Hong Yuan turned and sat by Jing Wan’s side, no longer having any misgivings as he had her taken into his arms.
In comparison, the one that was frightened the most severely was precisely Mei Yi, not just because of this b.l.o.o.d.y scene…………….
[1] This is a hand gesture in traditional dances where the thumb and middle finger are joined. Below are various variations of it used in dance with different symbolic meaning.
[2] 霓裳羽衣舞 – Also known as 霓裳羽衣曲 (Raiment of Rainbows and Feather Song), a Tang Dynasty song and dance originally for court entertainment. It’s been praised as a bright pearl in the history of ancient chinese music and dance. The piece depicts the myth of Tang Emperor Xuanzong (he’s actually Wu Zhetian’s grandson, the one involved with Yang Guifei, and also the Emperor during An Lushan’s Rebellion) yearning for immortal deities, going to the Moon Palace and meeting immortal fairies in a dream, witnessing this dance. ‘霓裳’ just refers to the rainbow garments of immortals. Because there’s no actual record of what the dance was like left, there are many modern interpretations of it.
Here’s a video of a performance with a dance that’s somewhat similar to what’s mentioned in this chapter.