CH 72

Life Motto: Helping Others (Resolving Conflicts)

“Strange, how did I suddenly dream of the past…”

Rubbing her eyes, Song Shu Qing woke up in a familiar yet unfamiliar room. She turned her head and remembered that she came to listen to Zi Yan play the piano.

It seems that she fell asleep unconsciously…

The tea house was crowded with customers, and Qin Qin was preparing to go on a honeymoon trip. It was indeed a bit tiring to rely only on herself and Ah Yun to manage things. It seemed that she needed to hire more staff to help…

The shadow guard’s robe on her body was stained with a hint of the unique fragrance of a courtesan. Song Shu Qing sat up, looked around, but did not see the room owner’s figure.

Zi Yan may have gone downstairs…

After all, she was the best headliner in the Chunfeng Building, and being busy was normal.

Approaching sunset, Song Shu Qing stretched lazily, leaned out of the window, grabbed a few tiles, and was about to leave when she heard a commotion at the entrance of the alley.

As a lazy and indifferent woman, she did not want to pay attention, but when she heard a familiar voice mixed in, Song Shu Qing couldn’t help but stop.

“Hong’er, don’t make a scene…”

“I thought my sister was working as a maid in a wealthy household, but I never expected her to be shameless enough to become a prostitute?”

“Hong’er… let’s not block the entrance here. Let’s go inside and talk slowly, okay?”

“Hmph! I’m a scholar. How could you ask me to step into this filthy place?”

As more and more people gathered around them, Zi Yan’s originally beautiful face turned slightly red with shame and helplessness.

“Well, at least not here. Be good, Hong’er…” She reached out to grab her brother’s sleeve, but the man avoided her touch as if she was a contagious disease and pushed her away.

『Snap』

Just as the man’s hand was about to touch the courtesan, he was suddenly slapped away by a woman who appeared out of nowhere.

“So, a scholar likes to hit women?” Song Shu Qing shielded Zi Yan behind her and covered her mouth, pretending to be surprised. “The world is truly full of wonders. I’ve learned something new today.”

The man whose hand had been slapped endured the pain and looked at the person in front of him with a rough voice, “Who are you? This is our family matter. Mind your own business!”

“Oh dear, you don’t understand. As long as it’s happening in front of me, it becomes my business!” The eyes of the shadow guard narrowed to a slit, but there was no humor in them. “After all, I am so kind-hearted. My life motto is to help others.”

Randomly spouting nonsense and acting foolishly, Song Shu Qing tilted her head and unconsciously revealed four or five simple black long needles on her hair bun.

“You…” The man in green clothes had never seen such a sharp-tongued woman before and was about to retort in anger.

“Hong’er!”

“Hong’er, please don’t behave like this in front of this esteemed guest…” Zi Yan, who was tightly grabbing Song Shu Qing’s sleeve, trembled slightly as she took out a bag of silver coins from her sleeve. “That’s enough, Hong’er. Take this and calm down, and we’ll talk again later, okay?”

“I…” The man swallowed his saliva as he looked at the heavy bag of money in front of him. Suddenly, he took a deep breath, waved his hand and slapped away the woman’s hand. “I don’t need dirty money obtained by selling your body!” He turned around and left in a huff.

Glancing at the onlookers, Song Shu Qing took off her cloak and covered Zi Yan’s shoulders, thoughtfully putting on the hood to conceal the woman’s pale face.

“Okay, okay! Why are you all watching the show? Don’t you have anything better to do? Are you all so idle?”

Waving her hand in frustration at the people around her, she picked up the bag of money that had fallen to the ground and dusted off the dirt. “What’s wrong? Why doesn’t that scumbag want this money? If he doesn’t want it, I’ll take it. Money is always good, how could I let it go to waste on the ground?”

Making a face at the passersby who were staring at her, she put the bag of money into her sleeve.

Standing in front of Zi Yan, who was half a head shorter than herself, as if blocking the view of others, Song Shu Qing gently supported the woman’s shoulder and said in a warm voice, “Hey, Zi Yan…”

“I think I left my stuff in your room. Can you accompany me to get it?”

The woman under the hood did not immediately agree, only remaining silent. But Song Shu Qing patiently waited nonetheless.

After a while, perhaps after sorting out her emotions, Zi Yan stopped trembling and nodded slightly.

“Let’s go.” Song Shu Qing’s palm hovered around the woman’s slender waist, leading Zi Yan back up the stairs step by step.

Until they arrived at the courtesan’s room, where Song Shu Qing lit a lamp and helped Zi Yan sit down. She lightly brushed her cheek with her fingers, as if comforting her, and whispered, “Don’t mind too much.”

Then she stepped back, smiling at Zi Yan with a tilt of her head, like a confirmation, and took one last deep look at her before disappearing into the night through the window.

Staring at the money pouch on the table, which had been quietly placed there at some point and belonged to her, Zi Yan felt her nose starting to sting.

Clutching the cloak that Song Shu Qing had left behind, she caught a whiff of the faint scent of tea mixed with her own aroma.

It was always like this…

She never minded her status, always comforting her when she didn’t know what to do…

That strange woman was always like this.

Feeling the warmth on her cheek, Zi Yan recalled her first encounter with Song Shu Qing two years ago.

It was in the spring when she went alone to buy traditional painting materials on the street and was threatened by four or five gangsters in broad daylight.

“Hey! Miss, you’re so beautiful. Why don’t you come home with me and be my wife?” A man blocked Zi Yan’s path and bent down to try to see her face hidden under her hood.

“Bro, this woman looks familiar to me,” another man with his hands in his pockets squinted and said, “I think I saw her playing the qin at Chunfeng Building?”

“Ah, so you’re a prostitute. What a shame. Your body is too cheap. I can’t marry you,” the man said with a regretful tone, sizing up Zi Yan who was draped in a cloak, seemingly evaluating her figure beneath her clothes. “But if you beg me, maybe I’ll consider letting you be my concubine and give you a position.”

Having grown accustomed to such filthy language, Zi Yan didn’t want to cause trouble and just silently held her newly purchased paint and lowered her head, trying to bypass the men standing in front of her.

“What, not going to answer me?!” the man got angry when she didn’t respond, grabbed the woman who wanted to leave tightly by her wrist and tried to drag her into the alley. “I’m giving you face here!”

The just-bought paint shattered on the ground and was trampled into pieces by the men’s messy steps, becoming dirty and messy. Zi Yan looked at everything in front of her and felt numb.

No one will come to help her.

No one would be willing to offend a group of fierce gangsters for a dusty woman…

She had long been aware of it…

Just endure, just endure…

“Hey! You guys.”

“A few people bullying a girl, are you still human?”

Suddenly, a lazy voice sounded, extremely clear among the rough male voices. Without waiting for a response, it was a self-questioning and self-answering, “Also, they are just scum of society, maybe they are really not human.”

Several men turned around, but did not see any figure at the entrance of the alley.

The mocking voice continued, “I’m laughing to death. She didn’t even ask you to marry her, making it seem like she’s sacrificing herself. What, do you think you’re as beautiful as Xi Shi? Everyone wants to marry you?”

“Who is it? Come out!” The leader of the men shouted angrily, his neck turning red.

“A girl who earns money to support herself without stealing or robbing, and you guys want to force her. Who’s really despicable here?”

The woman speaking couldn’t help but chuckle and turned to her companion. “Qin Qin, do you think their brains have degenerated from disuse and they only think with their lower body?”

The men finally realized that the mocking voice was coming from above. They looked up and saw two women wearing black cloaks on the roof, looking down at them with disdain.

“Senior Sister, you’ve said so much. Shouldn’t we take action now?” The woman crouching on the eaves, with her hair tied up high and covered in faint white scars, asked innocently.

The standing woman, her hands behind her back and her hair held up with too many silver hairpins, smiled and answered, “Sure. I’ve already used magic to attack and shattered their pitiful self-esteem. Now it’s Qin Qin’s turn to use physical attacks and break all their bones, so they’ll remember this moment when they think about harassing others in the future.”

Hearing this kind of crazy talk, the men were about to shout, but the woman with her hair tied up suddenly leaped down. She didn’t have any weapons, just using her hand to chop and move through the alley, knocking out several burly thugs.

Smiling, Song Shu Qing also followed suit and jumped down, landing right under the leader’s crotch. Hearing the man’s pig-like howl from underneath her, she pretended to cover her mouth and said, “Oops, sorry, I didn’t see you.”

Then she twisted her foot twice before stepping away.

“Senior Sister, I’ll go see if there’s any hemp rope next door to tie them up and send them to the authorities,” Ming Qin said, looking at her unscrupulous senior sister. She didn’t have any special reaction, just tilting her head and asking.

“Okay. This gang of hooligans has been causing headaches for a long time. Let’s give the government’s little children some business,” Song Shu Qing said, crossing the crowd with her hands behind her back. She looked at the still trembling Zi Yan and asked softly, “Are you okay?”

“Mm… I… am fine.” She clasped her reddened wrist to calm her panic and bowed to the two of them. “Thank you for saving my life. I have no way to repay you…”

“You’re welcome. Those people were annoying to look at, and it was no trouble for us to help you out, but…”

Before Ming Qin, who hadn’t even had a chance to speak up and help, could say anything, Song Shu Qing had already answered first. She took the woman’s trembling hand and patted her shoulder. “We heard that you can play the qin. Are you good at it?”

Feeling the warmth from her palm, Zi Yan seemed to calm down a bit and adjusted her breathing to reply, “My qin skills are passable.”

“That’s great!”

Tucking the woman’s somewhat disheveled hair behind her ear, Song Shu Qing sounded elated. “Then we don’t need any reward, just let us listen to you play the qin when you have time.” She ignored Ming Qin, who had worked hard to rescue Zi Yan, and casually made an appointment.

Thinking of the chaotic first meeting, Zi Yan couldn’t help but purse her lips.

To this day, Song Shu Qing still felt like she had picked up a big bargain, being able to listen to the beautiful music of a top-ranked courtesan for free.

Little did she know, in Zi Yan’s heart, she was the one who had profited from this transaction.

Whenever she saw Song Shu Qing lost in the music or looking tired and dozing off during her visits, or even when she couldn’t help but beg for forgiveness with her glib tongue, Zi Yan would recall the imposing figure of the black-robed woman standing on the rooftop during their first encounter.

The way she spoke to defend her, as if she had not only saved her own life but also rescued her self-esteem that had constantly been belittled, was a sight to behold.

As the courtesan, who had never before locked her window for the past two years, tightened her cloak around her body while alone in her room, it was as if she was convincing herself that she was being held in a warm embrace.