Chapter 7 - Butterfly Garden 2

Proofreader: Nanoni

Butterfly Garden is a brothel but the place is not small at all.

It took them a long time to walk from the servant’s room to the main gate of Qimeng Pavillion. The one currently in front of them was the most unspeakable house in Butterfly Garden.

Lang Yue Pavillion. 1

Inside this Pavillion is another beautiful scenery in the Butterfly Garden, the male pets.

It has been more than ten years since the end of the war in Dayue, but the people still haven’t gotten rid of the tension from the war and the uncertain future of when it will spark again. This undercurrent was felt as the whole country was set on ridding the kingdom of the shackles of various doctrines.

Master Yuan Zhi, one of the Masters of the Butterfly Garden, was once the most favored male pet of the reigning Emperor of Dayue Kingdom. Everyone was aware that the monarch was a man known for his good taste, which the world followed after.

Since male pets became more popular than female beauties, then why not put the female prostitute and male pets in one place to make a living? It’s men who would come to spend money anyway.

Ducks will still live in different cages, so male and female prostitutes still have to live separately. 2

The female prostitutes all lived in Qimeng Pavillion while male pets lived in Lang Yue Pavilion.

Feng’er peered at the sun. It was past Wushi 3 and nearing Weishi, 4 which quickly brought her a sense of urgency as her mother instructed her to go back to her by Weishi.

Yumei did not rush, and said to Feng’er, “Run Niang didn’t have a rest last night. She was busy working until this morning. I am afraid she is asleep right now. You still have to go back and take a rest. Miss will still need to live at Chun Hui House for a few days. This slave suddenly remembered that you have to wait for your body to be clean before you go to Guanju Hall to see the Young Master.

Feng’er pouted her mouth, wondering, could it be possible that Young Master Ice Jade [Bing Ji] 5 was as clear as ice and as clean as jade that she was not even fit to be seen by him when she had menarche? That he will get dirty if he just glanced at her? It seems that I can’t see my mother again today. 6

Suddenly, a clear and bright sound coming from a flute flew into her ears. It was a clear and refreshing melody, like the clear spring at the back of the mountain. 7 In this midsummer afternoon, it made people who could hear it feel a burst of coolness.

Feng’er couldn’t help but stop and look around for the source of the sound. She saw Yumei stop and raised her head towards the highest floor of Lang Yue Pavillion, and then bowed her head.

“Yumei, maidservant of Qimeng Pavilion, has met Young Master.” 8

Seeing Yu Mei so polite, Feng’er followed in a daze. She stood up from her bow and looked up at the location that Yumei gazed at just now, then her heartbeat sped up abruptly.

“Perched on the railing of the tower, the man looked out,

As if the first appearance of the moon after daybreak,

Brows as sharp like sword and a high crown of silk,

A beautiful gentleman in white with starlit eyes.”

She was once mocked by her Teacher for her “straight, shallow, and shameless” poem assignment. But at this very moment, all she wanted to do was write it, frame it, then climb upstairs to give it to the beautiful man sitting by the railing.

“This is Young Master Bing Ji. It happened that Miss met him like this.”

Feng’er really admires Yumei. No matter who she saw, her face is as expressionless and her voice as unemotional. There was such a beautiful Young Master sitting on the top floor of the Pavillion but her facial expression remains unchanged.

Her female instincts, on the other hand, were telling her to please the beautiful gentleman. It was urging her to come up and say her greetings to the exalted immortal of this world. Moreover, she will be under his tutelage in a few days, so it’s not wrong to get acquainted in advance.

“Young Master, I, that… I am…” I’ve clearly thought about it already, but how come I cannot say it?

“Feng’er.”

Young Master Bing Ji’s thin lips faintly called out her name with his cool and deep voice, it was more beautiful than the sound of the flute. Feng’er never thought that her name could be pronounced so well!

“You’ve grown up so fast.”

The voice was void of emotion but it possessed the allure to seize the human soul. Feng’er thought that perhaps such a voice might not be so good after all. But for a man to possess such beauty, even if he was to be given a ripped sack to dance, it would still feel like a blessing coming down from heaven.

Feng’er had met the Young Master once before, but she had never seen his face. When she was twelve years old, Feng’er secretly went to Guanju Hall to look for her little friend so they could watch the Heavenly Dog Swallows The Moon. 9 As a result, her eyes were blinded by the sun, although it was later cured by the Divine Doctor acquainted with her mother, she became blind for several days before that. On that day, the Young Master visited her and though she tried hard to see the person in front of her, she could only make out a blurred cyan figure.

Even to this day she remembered what that figure said, “Those glazed phoenix eyes are the most beautiful pair, unparalleled in this world. Keep them healthy and your eyes will be your signature in the future.”

Is that a compliment to her eyes? At the thought of forever being half-blind, Feng’er couldn’t help crying on the spot.

Now, the cyan figure, who praised her eyes as beautiful, had clearly and abnormally appeared in front of her sight. Feng’er had an indescribable feeling in her heart as if she was nervous but even more, she felt shy. It welled up even fiercer when he said she had ‘grown so fast’. It made her want to hide behind Yumei to leave his sight.

It was Young Master Bing Ji who turned away from Feng’er’s sight first. Yumei also signaled her to leave. She saw the doors and windows of the Lang Yue Pavillion opening one after another, revealing beautiful faces that casted her inquisitive looks. Then she hurriedly caught up to Yumei’s footsteps towards Chun Hui House.

As Feng’er walked towards Chun Hui House, Young Master Bing Ji went to the top of Qimeng Pavillion and pushed open the door opposite Run Niang’s. He walked to the woman sitting in front of the dressing table while painting her eyebrows, and gently caressed those thin shoulders.

He whispered to the woman’s ear, “I just saw Feng’er. She’s Run Niang’s daughter indeed. I don’t know how much more enchanting she’ll be in two years.”

The woman, in mock anger, coyly said, “When did Ao Bing 10 become so anxious? She will be sent to you for training sooner or later, but you’re playing the flute to attract the bees and butterflies.” 11

The Young Master was suddenly nervous. He took out his bamboo flute and shook it in front of the woman. “Lang Yue Pavillion’s new male pet received a wealthy patron so he gave this gift to his Teacher today. I was just trying the timbre. If you’re angry then I’ll just throw it.“

After saying that, he raised his hand to throw the green jade flute in his hand. When he was about to throw it off, a fair, slender, and jade-like hand suddenly grasped his wrist and a coquettish voice said, “I’m just joking and you’re so angry. If the boy at the door hears it, they’ll gossip that Madam Yugu, 12 the dignified head of the Butterfly Garden was actually such a petty person that she can’t even tolerate her partner 13 being given some gifts.”

The Young Master stroked the hand on his wrist. The woman’s fingers were slender, fair, and is as pointy as a leek , while his own hand was as lustrous and transparent as jade, like that of the woman’s.

Bing Ji and Yugu, the two masters of this Butterfly Garden’s generation, really live up to their names. 14

Join the discord to report typos and grammar mistakes and @easterNwitch for the corrections.

If you’re still feeling thirsty, how about checking out another comedy showbiz smut novel, Overturn The Entertainment Circle with its world on crack? Or if you feel like you want a tame good old romance comedy BL, take a peek at our resident law abiding vampire, In The Name Of Fang . But if you want to boggle your mind in schemes and conspiracies, check out my historical project, Scheme of the Official Descendant .

Eastern W. [Translator]

A witch with a broken broom who’s struggling to fill her empty cauldron. I love reading and sour food too much for my own good.

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Lang Yue Pavillion (朗月堂): Bright Moon Pavillion. Duck (鴨): (slang) male prostitute. Past afternoon (午時): (Wushi) 11 AM-1 PM. Mid-afternoon (未時): (Weishi) 1 PM-3 PM. Ice Jade (冰肌): (Bing Ji) Coined from the words ice as crystal clear; and muscle bones like jade. It describes (women’s) skin that is clean and smooth. This is used both as an adj. and his title/nickname. Lol, she’s basically calling him, ‘Young Master Flawless.’ Clear as ice and clean as jade (冰清玉潔): (idiom) spotless / irreproachable / incorruptible.

T/N: That was a nice play in words, so I let it be. But basically, she’s saying, was Young Master ‘Flawless’ indeed as ‘spotless/incorruptible’ that she can’t even approach him when she has her monthly, fearing that with just a look, she’ll dirt him? (Menstruation was seen as dirty before.) Clear spring at the back of the mountain: This indicates his voice being hypnotic. Young Master (公子): They actually call him “Gongzi” to be specific, son of an official or son of nobility. His appellation shows his background. Heavenly Dog Swallows The Moon (天狗吃月): Lunar Eclipse. The ancient chinese didn’t understand this before, so they said that the moon was eaten by dogs when they witnessed the phenomena. Ao Bing (傲冰): “Ao” corresponds to proud or arrogant, and “Bing” is his nickname, which means cold person. (The “Bing” → “Ice” from Ice Jade.)

T/N: She’s making a pun on his nickname, where did our ‘proud cold person’ go? To attract the bees and butterflies (招蜂引蝶): to attract the opposite sex / to flirt. Yugu (玉骨): Jade Bone. Partner (搭檔): In a cooperative manner. T/N: If you don’t get this part, read again the sentence above to understand. Yugu means the girl has scallion fingers or porcelain hands with clear skin. Bing Ji means it has fine and flawless skin. Their names literally mean that. Actually, that was more of a title than a nickname. Later, you’ll find out why.