Chapter 797
Xiyan
The little girl turned and shouted into the house, "Mommy, someone's here—"
A young woman in simple clothes and a simple hairpin came out. She was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with a slender figure and a light step. Soon, she pulled the little girl behind her before looking up at the visitor.
She first saw Pan Yun, who was a little girl in a Taoist robe. She found her approachable and smiled at her. Just as she was about to greet her, her eyes swept over Pan Yun's back and looked past her shoulder to the woman in red standing behind her.
Xiyan's mouth gaped open, staring at her in shock: "Asagao..."
Xiao Hong stared at her blankly for a moment, then became excited: "I remember, I remember! As soon as I saw you, memories came rushing back like a spring. I remembered everything about you all at once."
Xiao Hong was only focused on her excitement, but Xi Yan was in tears. She rushed up and hugged her tightly, saying, "You're alive! You're actually alive..."
Xiao Hong stood there stiffly, somewhat at a loss. Although she remembered, she couldn't understand Xi Yan's excitement.
The person in her arms was ice-cold, especially noticeable in winter. After the initial excitement, Xi Yan felt as if she were holding a block of ice, devoid of any warmth or heat.
She let go of Xiao Hong in a daze and looked at her.
Upon closer inspection, she noticed that the person in front of her was pale, and her breathing... no, it seemed she wasn't breathing at all.
She then remembered that the county magistrate had come to her door saying that he had found Asagao's remains...
Xi Yan reached out and touched her face, her fingertips trembling as she tentatively touched the tip of her nose...
Xiao Hong grabbed her hand and laughed, "Don't be afraid of me. Even though I'm not human anymore, I won't hurt you."
Xi Yan burst into tears, hugging her and sobbing uncontrollably: "How could I be afraid of you? How could I be afraid of you... You died because of me."
Xi Yan cried for a long time.
Pan Jun and the others stood aside and waited. The two children huddled together and watched them quietly. Perhaps sensing that they were not bad people, they did not make a fuss at all.
Pan Jun and the others surrounded them, taking out all sorts of candies and snacks to amuse them.
After Xi Yan finished crying, they gathered around her.
Xiao Hong remembered, but not much; her mind was filled with memories of her good relationship with Xi Yan.
Seeing that she couldn't remember, Xi Yan wiped away her tears and told her, "We were sold to Wan Chun Lou by our families one after the other. I arrived half a year earlier than you."
“When you first came here, you were so stubborn. You always wanted to escape and go home. Later, Chuncao, who came with you, escaped and went home. The next day, her father and brother personally brought her back. Since then, you have never mentioned going home again. You were beaten badly in the building, and you only called for your mother in your dreams.”
Xiao Hong had no recollection of her mother, but when Xi Yan mentioned her, her heart still ached.
She remembered the family at the foot of Sanqing Mountain who celebrated the New Year around the stove; deep in her memory, her family seemed to celebrate the New Year in the same way.
Xi Yan said, "I have a good voice and you have a good figure, so we eat, live, and perform together. I teach you to sing and you teach me to dance, so we have the best relationship."
“In the spring of the third year of the Zhengtong reign, Master Fang from the county took me to the Sanjing Villa,” Xi Yan shuddered, her face pale, her lips trembling as she said, “I have received quite a few guests, some with special interests, even two or three together. If the money is right, the sisters can tolerate it. But the VIPs at the Sanjing Villa are too… too perverse. The sisters who went with me were from various brothels. If they stayed there for a day, they would need two months to recover. And some… never came out.”
“There are no secrets that stay hidden forever. After that incident, even if they offered more money, the madams in each brothel were unwilling to let their girls go. They only chose the top courtesans. It's so difficult to keep a top courtesan in a brothel. After that, fewer people went to the Mitsui Villa,” Xi Yan wiped her eyes and said, “In April, a merchant surnamed Zhao came to the brothel. He took a fancy to both you and me and wanted to buy us as concubines to go with him on his business trip.” “We both realized he wasn’t a good person and didn’t want to go. But he asked someone from the prefectural government to intercede on our behalf, and the madams couldn’t afford to offend him. So they made us decide that one of us had to go with him. In the end, you took the initiative and went with him.”
Xiyan: "I thought that no matter how bad he was, at most he would make you entertain other merchants and officials. Although it was frustrating, it was always our job. I never expected that he would take you to the Mitsui Villa."
Pan Yun interjected, "How do you know she was taken to the Mitsui Villa?"
Xi Yan glanced at Pan Yun, then looked at Xiao Hong.
Xiao Hong nodded: "She can be trusted."
Xi Yan got up and went back into the house. After a while, she took out a purse, opened it, and took out a piece of paper to give to them: "This is a letter that Chao Yan asked someone to secretly send to me."
Pan Yun opened it immediately.
The letter said that Master Zhao was going to entertain some business partners who had come from afar and was going to take her to the Mitsui Villa. She was a little flustered and asked Xiyan to send someone to Master Zhao's inn to find her the next day.
"I went to the inn to look for you the next day, but you weren't there. When I went out, I ran into that guy surnamed Zhao, who said you went out to play. I spit on him. If you made an appointment with me, how could you go out to play?"
But I had no choice but to go back first, planning to come find you later. When I went back, that Mr. Zhao had already checked out and left.
“I had a bad feeling right away. I asked around for a long time and I felt that something had happened to you. Since then, I have also had a lot of bad luck. It seems that someone is targeting me in secret. The guests that my mother arranged for me are all violent. Several times, I almost didn’t survive.”
Xi Yan wiped away her tears and said, "The last time, I was injured in the face and was thrown into a mass grave. Then a rain came down and I miraculously came back to life. My husband was hunting and happened to pass by, so he took me back."
Xiao Hong touched her face: "Your injury..."
Xi Yan smiled and said, "One scar was inflicted by a guest, and the other was inflicted by myself. My husband doesn't mind that I have scars on my face. It's fine this way. With these two scars, my life has become much smoother."
Pan Yun: "The madam of Tianxian Tower said that you were redeemed by your cousin at home because your face was injured."
Xi Yan twitched the corner of her mouth and said, "That's just what the building says to outsiders, so that Mom doesn't seem so heartless."
Xiao Hong knew this too. If she died, the whole street would probably talk about how she was redeemed by a merchant and became his concubine, living a life of luxury. The sisters who came after would be envious when they talked about it.
How many people would know that she had long since turned into bones?
Xiao Hong looked at the two children not far away.
Xi Yan said, "They were picked up from a beggar's den by me and the master. As you know, most of the girls in our building are unable to have children."
Pan Yun: "What else do you know about Xiao Hong's case?"
Xi Yan said, "Over the years, I have been inquiring about this openly and secretly. In the third year of the Zhengtong era, it seems that two distinguished guests came to the county. Even Yang Ji personally came out to entertain them. But no matter how I inquired, I could not find out who they were. I only heard that one of them came from the north and the other from the south."
Pan Yun sighed, "It's amazing that two places, one from Yanzhou and the other from Quanzhou, have met in Ji'an."
Pan Yun thought of Yang Shiqi and sighed deeply: "Grand Secretary Yang's illustrious reputation was ruined by Yang Ji. It's truly a shame he wasn't born at all." (End of Chapter)