Chapter 41

Parsed with an automated reader. The content accuracy is not guranteed.

Under the coral tree, on top of the snowy waves, stood a reclining couch covered in ferret, on which leaned a beautiful woman who had just finished her make-up, a beautiful girl who was only nineteen-twenty years old, wearing a white dress embroidered with a light-colored ruyi pattern, her long aquamarine hair curling down, seemingly framing her whole body in a sea of emerald blue.

Ruyi, the most beautiful Flower Girl of the Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion, was sitting alone under the coral tree, with four beautiful maids sitting in the four corners of the courtyard, playing the zither, tuning the music, making tea or burning incense. However, once these four beauties reached in front of the Flower Chief, they were all instantly overshadowed, like pearls of silver against the sun and moon.

As if hearing the sound of the window opening on the other side, the beautiful woman beneath the tree turned her neck slightly, and with a horizontal glance, raised her head and looked towards the elegant room with a smile.

When she looked at her from afar, Zhu Yan’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. What kind of eyes are those… eyes that can hook and seduce one’s soul? Although she was a woman, her heart actually missed a beat when she caught the glance, and she was almost being hauled around and couldn’t move her eyes from hers. The legendary Flower Girl, could she be some kind of enchantress?

“What do you think, Gongzi?” The tortoise slave looked carefully at the expression on her face and couldn’t help but smile a little, “Is it worth a thousand baht?”

“…” Zhu Yan took a breath and settled her mind, “A thousand gold be then!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, the housekeeper took out a thousand-baht silver cheque of the highest value and handed it to the turtle slave: “Go ahead and tell Ruyi to accept the guest!”

However, after receiving the money, the tortoise slave only turned around and fetched a lamp from the elegant room, stretching from the window diagonally and hanging it on the eaves, saying with a smile, “There is no need to go downstairs, when the Flower Chief sees that the gentleman here has ordered a lamp to be placed out, she will naturally come up to meet the visitor.”

As expected, upon seeing the veiled lantern being set out, the Flower Girl under the coral tree smiled sweetly, her beautiful eyes gazing longingly towards the window, then supported by the maid’s arm, she stood up in a graceful manner.

But just as she stood up, another window on the opposite side of the courtyard suddenly opened a crack, and a string of lanterns also reached out silently and hung under the eaves on the other side as well.

Ruyi then stood still and looking across the room, a gleaming smile deepened at the corners of her mouth, suddenly bending slightly in a bow and saying in a gentle voice to the man over there, “Thank you for your kindness, Master.”

“What’s going on?” Zhu Yan stood behind the window and couldn’t help but be puzzled.

The turtle slave blushed a little embarrassed and said with a smile, “Hey, Gongzi… seems to be unlucky today, another gentleman across the hall also wants to request Ruyi.”

“What?” Zhu Yan couldn’t help but become impatient, “Then it was me who hung the lamp first after all!”

“Yes, yes. It was Your Excellency who hung the lamp first.” The tortoise slave was afraid that she would start another tantrum and hastened to make amends, “But that gentleman across the hall offered two thousand baht.”

“What?” She looked out of the window in dismay, “Where’s the offer?”

“Please look at the lanterns over there, Your Excellency.” The tortoise slave whispered and stretched out two fingers, pointing them towards her, “You see, the other side has hung out a string of two lanterns, meaning that they want to pay double the price. Your Excellency, this is a very unfortunate day, why don’t you come back tomorrow?”

“What’s the big deal about doubling?” Zhu Yan’s anger instantly rose as she fished out a large thumb-sized object from her bosom and threw it to the turtle slave at the side, “This is enough for me to wrap her up for three days and nights, right?”

It was a small jade stone, about an inch in diameter, with a brilliant shine and a faint sense of coldness as soon as it fell into the palm of his hand. The turtle slave had been in the Star Ocean Cloud for many years and had seen a lot of things, so he could not help but exclaim, “The Shining Night Jewel?”

This treasure was worth at least three thousand gold baht.

“Ayia, Gongzi is really generous with his money!” With a smile stretched across his face, the tortoise slave hurriedly took the heirloom bead and walked downstairs to have it appraised, then hurried back, pushed open the window and hung a string of two lamps below the lantern he had just hung a moment before.

Ruyi was just about to leave the courtyard when she heard the window rattling over her side and couldn’t help but stand and stare across again. For a moment, the Flower Chief’s face was slightly confused, obviously not expecting two visitors to outbid each other at the same time today.

The housekeeper was beaming with surprise and couldn’t help but whisper, “Prin… Gongzi, where did you get the Shining Night Pearl?”

“I have many such things,” Zhu Yan laughed, proud of herself, “I followed my Master’s cultivation back then, traveling up to the mountains and down to the sea, what strange and exotic treasures have I not seen? What’s so strange about getting a Shining Night Bead?”

The steward smiled bitterly, “It’s hard to believe that my subordinates have prepared special silver tickets. It seems that I won’t be able to use them.”

However, just as he said this, there was a sound coming from across the hall, as the window was pushed open again with another crack.

“It can’t be?” Zhu Yan and the housekeeper both turned pale and blurted out in unison.

There were indeed more lanterns being lit from the window over there, a whole bunch of them, no idea how many of them there actually were, but they were dropping heavily down straight to the floor!

A gasp of astonishment came from the courtyard. The tortoise slave also froze and blurted out, “The Lord of Ten Thousand Gold!”

Although the Star Ocean Cloud is the most luxurious teahouse in Yecheng, there are very few customers who can afford to spend thousands of golden baht on a single visit, hence it is rare to see such a long string of red lanterns hanging down to the ground; the turtle slave actually forgot that Zhu Yan was still beside him and couldn’t help but burst out in a cheerful laugh: “Oh my! I can’t believe we have a Lord of Ten Thousand Gold here today!”

“What’s going on?” Zhu Yan couldn’t comprehend what was happening and grabbed the turtle slave by an arm with impatience, “How much did he put out?”

“I will go to inquire…” The turtle slave walked out and questioned around but returned short after with an expression of incredulity on his face, saying, “I heard that the other person took out a whole bag of water-cleansing pearls, at least a dozen of them! Hey, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a generous customer… Ruyi can definitely expect to make a big profit today, haha…”

However, as soon as he finished laughing, he knew he did something wrong and hastened to apologize with a bow and a smile, “Gongzi, it really seems that today is not a good time for you… Why don’t you come back tomorrow?”

“Who wants to come back tomorrow?!” As soon as Zhu Yan released the wrath from her heart, she turned her head and seized the housekeeper, saying in a sharp voice, “Quickly, bring me all the gold!”

When the steward saw that the Princess was truly enraged, he hastily pulled out all the silver tickets in his bosom and handed them to her. Without even looking at him, Zhu Yan grabbed them and slammed them into the turtle slave’s chest, “Go, light up all the lamps you got!”

The tortoise slave froze as soon as he cupped the heavy stack of silver tickets.

“Is that not enough?” Zhu Yan shouted angrily.

“Yes… is enough, is enough!” The turtle slave repeated hastily, bowing his head to the ground, but his face expression revealed embarrassment, “But according to the rules, when the offer reaches ten thousand gold, that is the capped price – it is useless for Gongzi to then offer more, the offer will not be accepted.”

“What?” Zhu Yan couldn’t help but burst into a rage and gritted her teeth, “What’s the point of capping the price? I’ve paid more than him, so the Flower Chief should be mine! Go and light the lamps for me! If you don’t go quickly, I’ll have you lit up to the sky as a lantern!”

“Rules are rules, they can’t be broken.” The tortoise slave held the pile of silver tickets in his hand, in a state of dismay.

The more Zhu Yan thought about it, the angrier she got, she slapped the table and stood up: “Who is that person across the hall? What’s wrong with him? How could happen such a coincidence that he offered 10,000 when I offered 3,000? Could it be that you’ve tampered secretly with the offer and hired a trustee to raise the price, so you can find someone to cheat?”

“My Lord, you’re really wrong to say that!” The turtle slave pushed open the window, pointed carefully at the opposite window and lowered his voice, “I just sent someone to inquire, it is said that sitting in the front room is a noble guest from the Imperial Capital, young and handsome, with a great deal of influence, who also said that he had to meet the Flower Mistress today!”

“A valued guest from the Imperial Capital?” Zhu Yan froze for a moment.

The guest from the Imperial Capital is young and handsome, and has a great deal of influence – it is said that the Imperial Crown Prince Shi Yu is naughty and often sneaks out of the Jialan Imperial Capital to come and play in Yecheng, drinking and gambling in all sorts of places, could it be that today…

“Yes, it should be a very important person, his elegance is quite extraordinary.” The turtle slave saw her faltering and hastily lowered his voice to add fuel to the fire, “In case we offended him, we are afraid that there will be consequences. Besides, the Flower Chief is here every day, so why don’t you go back and come… another day?”

“Who wants to change the day?!” Zhu Yan was furious, not bothering to guess who the other person was, she suddenly stomped her foot, pulled open the door and walked towards the opposite side.

“Gongzi… Gongzi!” The turtle slave was shocked and rushed to catch up with her, “Where are you going? You are not allowed!”

“What’s wrong with it?” She walked forward without looking back, sneering, “I’m curious to see who has the guts to steal from me?”

The housekeeper knew that no one could stop her when her temper was flaring up, so he let out a shout of bitterness, fished a small arrow out of his sleeve and threw it out of the window with a swipe, summoning the undercover guards from the Red King’s Palace to come to the rescue, then hurriedly turned his attention and chased after her.

This is really frightening… something has gone wrong, this maiden will not stop until she makes a huge mess today!

In the meantime, Zhu Yan had already barged straight through and the turtle slave couldn’t stop her, chasing after her all the way, watching her barge to the opposite side of the private elegant room that was only a door away; he couldn’t help but become desperate and out of breath, uttered: “Gongzi, you really can’t go further! There are… people up ahead!”

“What’s up ahead?” Zhu Yan sneered, her footsteps not stopping in the slightest.

The echo of her voice had not yet subsided when a black shadow moved in front of her, and from nowhere, two large, powerfully armored men suddenly leapt down and stopped Zhu Yan in front of them, one to the left and one to the right, with a flick of the wrist, revealing two short blades.

“Star Ocean Cloud Pavilion’s bodyguards?” Zhu Yan froze a second and grinned coldly, still barging straight ahead, actually not paying any attention to those snowy sharp blades at all.

“Stop right there!” The two fighters seeing that the person still wanted to barge in without regard for his life, their eyes revealed a fierce light, and immediately brandished their swords and slashed down without further ceremony.”

“Gongzi!” The turtle slave and the housekeeper exclaimed in unison.

However, when the two swords were about to slash at Zhu Yan’s upper arms, Zhu Yan lifted up a finger and crossed it flatly in the void, making the simplest of movements, and the two fighter’s actions suddenly froze, remaining perfectly still in place, with only their eyes rolling freely into their heads.

“Humph.” She snorted coldly and stretched out her finger to poke the stiff people in front of her, only to hear two “flops”, and the two strong men fell down in the same time, watching as Zhu Yan passed through their barrier and marched away.

The elegant room across the hall was right in front of her, and she rushed in furiously, kicking open the final door with a single kick, shouting, “Which ungrateful scoundrel dares to steal the Flower Girl from me? Get out of…”

But as soon as the words left her mouth, the next moment, the intensity in her voice suddenly weakened and she uttered an “Ah!”, as if she just had witnessed something extremely incredible. After that, everything went silent.

“What’s happening?” The housekeeper was so startled that he couldn’t think of anything else, he shook off the turtle slave’s hand, ran frantically forward and dashed into the opposite room, “What’s wrong? Did anything happen?”

However, when the door opened, he was only able to see Zhu Yan standing there in a proper manner, only with a very strange expression on her face, as if she had just seen a ghost alive, staring straight ahead.

Loved my translation? Buy me a coffee! Scan on Click the image.

Thank you for your generosity!💖

NOTE: This translation belongs to me. It is prohibited to copy / Re-translate / Re-distribute my translations without my prior permission. Thank you.

Like this:Like Loading...

Related