Ning Chen put the saber away without a word.
He looked at the old madam. “A thousand taels of silver. It will be here tomorrow at the latest.”
“Ning the Silver Coat. Do you really care for Yudie?”
Ning Chen was blank for a moment. That was a question he truly had never considered.
The first time he came to the courtesans’ quarter it had been out of curiosity about that whole side of the city, and he had simply gone along with Feng Qizheng and the rest.
Later he came often enough that it became a habit.
Yudie’s face was one to move a man. She was biddable and knew how to behave, she was gentle and thoughtful, she was one of the girls of the twelve houses and had no shortage of admirers… and to have slept with Yudie, and for nothing at that, had satisfied his vanity enormously.
He could not tell whether what he felt for Yudie was caring for her, or only that she satisfied his vanity.
Seeing Ning Chen silent, the old madam’s brows drew together slightly, and she said:
“To great men like you, the women of the courtesans’ quarter are nothing but toys for your amusement. Of no weight at all.”
“This girl does not say it out of self-pity, or to lay the blame on heaven and other people… because this is our fate, and we all accept it.”
“Yudie’s nature is a simple one, and you are her first man. If you mean to treat her as a plaything, I don’t blame you for it… but I ask Ning the Silver Coat to raise his noble hand and not give her too much hope.”
“If Ning the Silver Coat comes only for pleasure and amusement, this girl welcomes you… but if you trade on your own brilliance to cheat a woman of her money and her body, then this girl thinks the less of you.”
Ning Chen’s forehead was one long black line.
The old madam went on. “Yudie’s nature is a simple one and she is easily taken in by sweet words, and Ning the Silver Coat is her first man besides, so it is hardly to be helped that other notions should grow in her.”
“Our lives are cheap to begin with… I ask Ning the Silver Coat to have some pity on Yudie, and not let her sink so deep in a lovely dream that she cannot pull herself out of it, and come at the last to losing the man and the money both, and being broken to pieces.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.
For the first time, getting something for nothing felt shameful.
Ning Chen coughed, embarrassed. The old madam had taken him for a scumbag who cheated women out of their money and their bodies.
“First. I did not know about Yudie paying out of her own pocket.”
The old madam’s face was all contempt. She plainly did not believe it.
You pay when you go out to eat and drink, and you don’t pay to sleep with a woman? And one of the twelve houses of the courtesans’ quarter at that. What kind of nonsense are you talking to this old woman? the old madam said inwardly.
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. “Believe it or not as you please, what I have said is the truth… because the night I met Yudie was the first time I had ever been to that side of the city at all.”
The old madam made a face and said, with a certain mockery in it, “Ning the Silver Coat put a blade into the Empress’s brother for the people of Chongzhou… And here I had thought you a man of iron bones, a man who hated wickedness the way a man hates an enemy, and would not lie.”
“It never occurred to me that you wouldn’t so much as blink while you did it… This girl is full of admiration.”
A slight change went over Ning Chen’s face. “What have I lied about?”
“Ning the Silver Coat says it was his first time?”
Ning Chen nodded. “Is there some difficulty with that?”
The old madam said mockingly, “The first time you ever went to bed with a woman, and you could get through that many positions… then all I can say is that Ning the Silver Coat is gifted by nature.”
Ning Chen went numb. He was so embarrassed he could have dug out a whole new courtesans’ quarter with his toes.
“Yudie told you?”
The old madam said, “Yudie felt guilty about it. She thought she had not served you well… She came to me specially to ask for a few methods of pleasing you properly.”
Christ!!!
That foolish girl.
Ning Chen put on a serious face and said, “It truly was my first time. I had no practical experience, but I had read a few books.”
“I had no idea Ning the Silver Coat looked at spring pictures too.”
Ning Chen: “……”
Never mind. No more explaining… The more you paint over a thing like this the blacker it gets.
Ning Chen said mildly, “Within a year, I will have Yudie restored to free standing.”
“And another thing. I am taking Yudie out. She will be back before dark.”
Once he came home from this campaign in triumph, with military merit enough behind him, he would certainly be able to buy Yudie her free standing.
The old madam’s eyes lit up, and she asked quickly, “Does the young master mean what he says?”
“A gentleman’s one promise weighs a thousand in gold.”
Ning Chen did not break his stride. He left that one line behind him and was gone.
Seeing Ning Chen come back, Yudie’s eyes were full of hope. “Did the mistress of the house agree?”
Ning Chen nodded with a smile and gave a grunt of assent!
“Yes! Wonderful!”
Yudie was delighted and jumped where she stood, her small face bright as morning.
“Wait a moment, Ning, dear!”
Yudie ran into her room, and came out again very soon with a piece of light white gauze veiling her face.
Ning Chen took her by the hand. “We’ll go to the Heavenly Blessing Tower first and fill our stomachs. Then we’ll have the strength to walk about the streets.”
Yudie made an obedient sound of assent. “Whatever Ning, dear says!”
Ning Chen drove the carriage to the Heavenly Blessing Tower and asked for a private room.
As they were going up the stairs, several young gentlemen, thoroughly drunk, happened to be coming down.
Ning Chen put Yudie behind him, afraid she would be knocked into.
But just as they were passing each other, one of the young gentlemen looked at Yudie a moment too long, and all at once put out his hand and tore the gauze off her face.
Yudie gave a cry of alarm and covered her face quickly.
Ning Chen’s face darkened. He brought his leg up, and the kick caught the man square in the face.
Bang!!!
There was a scream, and the young gentlemen went down the stairs one into another, and rolled the whole way to the bottom.
For a moment there was nothing but screaming and confusion.
Every diner on the ground floor looked round at them, struck dumb.
Ning Chen turned and looked at them coldly.
The young gentlemen picked themselves up in a sorry state.
“Blood— I’m bleeding, I’m bleeding—”
One of them must have hit his head as he rolled down the stairs. He had cut it open and it was running blood, and he began screaming in terror.
The one whose hand had been busy tearing off Yudie’s veil had taken Ning Chen’s boot in the face. Two of his teeth had snapped off and his mouth was full of blood.
“My teeth, my teeth—”
Ning Chen watched him with his face showing nothing.
The thing he hated most in the world was this sort — men who drink too much and then get their hands busy and make trouble. No manners with a cup at all.
“You— you dare to hit us?”
One of the young gentlemen pointed at Ning Chen and roared, “Do you know who we are?”
“You are one small silver coat, and you dare to beat us… You are a dead man. You’ll die very badly—”
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “And who are you? Say it and give me a fright.”
“I am Luo Youkang, son of Luo Gaofeng, Vice Minister of War.”
A stir went through the whole room.
The Vice Minister of War. That was Third Rank, Senior Grade.
Ning Chen smiled coldly inside. Third Rank, Senior Grade was worth nothing at all. Only yesterday he had eaten a meal with the Minister of War himself, Second Rank, Senior Grade.
“One small silver coat, and he dares do violence in public. You’re a dead man.”
“That behind him — that’s Miss Yudie of the courtesans’ quarter, isn’t it?”
“That’s her… A woman of the wind and dust. How can she come to a place like this? It’s an insult to decency. An insult to decency.”
“A woman of the wind and dust, eating in the same place as ourselves. It drags our own good name in the dust. What sort of behavior is this?”
“This silver coat has no regard for appearances at all, parading a woman of the wind and dust about in public. It corrupts every decent custom there is.”
Yudie was sought after in the courtesans’ quarter, but not out of respect — only out of a greed for her beauty.
A woman of the wind and dust, in everybody’s heart, was base and low… and the fact that Yudie sold her art and not her body, and had still been a maiden before she knew Ning Chen, changed nothing about that.
Ning Chen looked back at Yudie, and understood all at once why she had wanted her face veiled in gauze.
She was afraid she would shame him.
“Ning— Ning, dear… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry—”
The color had gone out of Yudie’s small face and she was in a panic, like a startled fawn, clutching at the corner of Ning Chen’s coat and apologizing to him over and over.
(End of Chapter 117)