Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

However, no matter how strange the courtesans found them, they were still customers, and customers coming in meant business. Who would push away an opportunity to do business?

With the courtesan leading the way, the two of them went into a private room on the second floor in the back.

The decorations along the way were extremely elegant. Every inch of the place seemed to have been polished with the utmost care.

The livestream viewers expressed that this place was quite high-class. If it had not been explicitly stated that the business operating here was a sexual one, with the beautiful women coming and going in thin, light clothing across their screens, the audience might have misunderstood and thought that this was the residence of some high-ranking official.

Fell in love with the night: Actually, I don’t quite understand why it is necessary to come to this kind of unruly place to rope in a talent.

Due to the relatively conservative social atmosphere of the livestream viewers’ dimension, sex education for all genders was very obscure and ambiguous. Therefore, this resulted in many people having a great interest in the pleasure quarters. No matter what it was, if it involved unspeakable or censored content, there would always be people who revealed an expression of mutual understanding. However, Jiang Pengji’s style was too wild. The number of visits she had made to the pleasure quarters in these past few years could hardly be described as small.

After having seen so much, they no longer had the initial thirst and curiosity about prostitution in ancient times.

Mushrooms don’t drive: For men in ancient times, the pleasure quarters probably weren’t considered an indecent place, right? By coming here to talk business, they could order food when they got hungry, and when they got bored, they could call for the musical actresses to perform music. The female singers could show off their vocal talents and the dancers could display their elegant postures. The pleasure quarters attended to functions of entertainment and meals at the same time. If the discussion went on until it was too late in the evening, they could even treat this place as an inn and conveniently order a night with a nice-looking young lady.

One shouldn’t just look at the pleasure quarter as a place for pimping. Its functions were very holistic.

It was a tavern, tea house, restaurant, inn, and musical theatre all rolled into one. It was definitely a multi-functional entertainment venue.

However, Jiang Pengji had a question that she just had to ask.

“The person that you want to poach has the same sort of morality and conduct as you? He comes here when he wants to talk business?”

Feng Zhen did not take the sharpness of Jiang Pengji’s tone to heart. He smiled and said, “We’re just barely regarded as like-minded friends.”

Jiang Pengji understood clearly.

Even if this person was not as dissolute as Feng Zhen, he was probably still as licentious and loose as him. Otherwise, how could these two get along?

Feng Zhen had booked a private room. Someone was already in the room when they arrived.

The double door opened, and several maids wearing light-colored garments exited. The trays in their hands were completely empty.

The person saluted them, and they turned sideways to allow Jiang Pengji and others to pass first.

“Feng Zi Shi, aren’t you a good one! Have you changed your temperament? You got here so late!”

The clear and bright voice of a man came from inside the room. The timbre of his voice was full of vitality and favor, far more energetic than the voice of a physically weak and depleted person like Feng Zhen.

“I’ve brought someone along which caused a delay on the way. I hope you’ll forgive me, Chong Ming.”

They had not entered the room yet, but Feng Zhen was already smiling as he bowed in apology.

Jiang Pengji deliberately lagged by a few steps. She waited until Feng Zhen had entered and struck up a conversation with the man before entering the private room herself.

The appearance of a person could be hidden, and his mannerisms and aura could be curbed, but the quality of his personality and character would not be easy to hide.

The man in dark brown clothes saw Jiang Pengji and was stunned for a while before he bowed with hands held in front of him and said, “I offer my humble greetings, Commander of the Palace Guards.”

Beside Feng Zhen was a woman with youthful looks and a powerful aura. No one except Liu Xi, who was always in the limelight these days, fit this description.

Jiang Pengji also sized him up.

This man, who was called “Chong Ming” by Fengzhen, was about thirty years old. He kept a beautifully trimmed goatee and he looked young, but his eyes held a steadiness that wasn’t present in the eyes of young people. No matter how she looked at him, this person was much more reserved and cautious than Feng Zhen.

Jiang Pengji said casually, “No need to be too polite, I just hope that you’ll not blame me for being an uninvited, hateful guest.”

“No, no, it’s a very pleasant surprise that you could come, Governor of Liuzhou.”

Jiang Pengji was unfamiliar with men, so she did not deliberately intervene in the dialogue between the two. She only curbed her imposing manners and tried to fade into the background.

From across the room, the man squinted at Feng Zhen secretly, his eyes asking, “What’s happening now?”

Hadn’t they agreed that it would only be him and Feng Zhen? The two of them were supposed to have a harmonious talk in private. Why had Feng Zhen’s current lord come along too?

Feng Zhen smiled bitterly and pointed to the shriveled purse hanging at his waist.

The man understood instantly.

He understood, but still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

To give an inappropriate example, if a man and a woman were chatting on a blind date, but there were more than a dozen relatives and friends in the group with them, how could they feel at ease?

Jiang Pengji also realized that it was inappropriate, so she simply found an excuse to go out for a walk. It could be considered as giving them personal space.

“Your lord’s imposing manner is not something that an ordinary person would possess. It’s no wonder that Zixiao thinks so highly of her,” the man said.

Feng Zhen was astonished. “Zixiao wrote to you?”

“Yes, Zixiao praised her a lot in the letter. It was as if he was boasting about his son. I’ve known him for so many years but I’ve never seen him work so hard to praise someone. But at that time, I was about to go over to the brothers of the Xu family to try things out, so I politely turned down his invitation.”

The man’s surname was Shao, his first name was one character, Guang, and his courtesy name was Chong Ming.

Feng Zhen grunted out an “oh.” He was not surprised at Shao Guang’s choice.

Shao Guang’s hometown was in Zhe County, which was the Xu family’s base camp. He would certainly be biased towards the local power.

“The aristocratic Xu family.” These four words were like a signboard with gold lettering.

Even without blooming intentionally, it was still like a flower attracting countless bees and butterflies.

“I see that life didn’t go according to your wishes for the Xu family.”

He smiled helplessly. “I wouldn’t have come here if that was the case. The Xu brothers are good people, but they place too much emphasis on the concept of family status, which doesn’t really suit me. As the saying goes, ‘people who walk different paths cannot make plans together.’ It just so happened that I received news from you, so I came here to give it a try…”

Shao Guang had wanted to take up an official post with the Xu brothers. But what could he do when their outlooks were rather high-born and they were both picky about one’s birth and family status? Shao Guang was fortunate to have been selected, but because of his low birth, he had never been to put in an important position. It was like shopping for an elaborate toy that looked nice but was useless. He always felt like a forgotten decoration.

It was purely a coincidence that he and Feng Zhen were ganging up on the sly.

A real man would aspire to travel far and make his mark on the world. Shao Guang had an optimistic and generous temperament. If one house didn’t work out, he would jump ship and go to another one. He would never commit career suicide by hanging around an “old locust tree.”

To say something narcissistic, the brothers of the Xu family were blind to have missed his value. That was their loss.

With Wei Ci’s flattery of Jiang Pengji, Shao Guang already had a certain impression of her. When he heard the news, he decided he would also pay some attention to Liu Xi. He had a very good first impression of her. She’d also scored very well on her initial impression. And now, here was Feng Zhen promoting her again. Shao Guang was wondering if he should really take the bait.

As for Jiang Pengji’s identity as a female, it didn’t matter much to him.

As a peasant of low birth, no matter how capable he was, he still didn’t have the “capital” to select his master.

Moreover, with the recommendation of two friends, if he joined the administrative group of Wanzhou, he would never have to fight alone.

As long as he could stand out among his peers and fully express his ambitions, he didn’t care whether his lord was male or female, human or canine.

This idea was very bold, but it also showed that Shao Guang was very hardworking and pragmatic. He belonged with a group of people that could get things done.

In other words, it could be roughly rephrased in this way… Put down that work and don’t move, let me do it!

“Look at my lord, isn’t she satisfactory?” Feng Zhen made a face and winked.

Shao Guang’s expression was strange. “A woman who can go in and out of a brothel with you is really… hard to explain in just a few words.”

Although the way that Wei Ci and Feng Zhen had recommended her was very tempting, he wondered if she might have a dissolute personality just like Feng Zhen since she could play together with him.

Thinking about the grief he had suffered at Feng Zhen and Wei Ci’s hands, he kept feeling an urge to break into a run.

Feng Zhen said, “How could my lord be an ordinary woman? What’s the big deal about visiting the pleasure quarters? If she hadn’t come here, wouldn’t you be picking up the tab later?”

He thought about the days when Jiang Pengji had poached him. She had promised him that entertainment was part of their public expenses.

Shao Guang was silent.