Konoha Aogen

It was almost evening when we left the teahouse. The two of them randomly bought some camel meat pot helmets on the street. Afterimage held two candied haws in one hand and vomited the hawthorn kernels all the way along the street.

"Tomorrow is the beginning of the month, let's go to a brothel." Afterimage obviously didn't just make it up on the spur of the moment, she had already planned it.

"This is not Kurong City. There are no male actors in the brothel. You have to pretend to be a man." Ye Xuandao.

Afterimage is very regretful. She went out in a hurry this time and didn't bring any men's clothes with her. Now she can only go to the clothing store to buy new ones. "Let's go now while the clothing store is still open. Die early and live early." Afterimage gritted his teeth and said. She was most afraid of being measured and fitted, taking off and putting on clothes, which made people very irritated. The set of light blue clothes I am wearing was custom-made twelve years ago, and twenty pieces were made in one batch. Just wear them interchangeably, and now every piece has been washed and turned white.

The next day, the two stayed in bed until noon and went straight to the gambling house. Gambling houses can provide gamblers with "sweet cakes and strong tea", and the taste is hard to compliment. Afterimage gave the waiter a silver coin and sent him to the restaurant next door to bring wine and food. The two of them ate and gambled, which was quite comfortable.

Today's gambling house is much more lively than yesterday. "Dominos" opened three tables, and every week there were six people. One of the people at the table was the man who criticized the afterimage yesterday. This time, Afterimage has more fighting spirit. Her poker skills are poor, but her observation of words is first-rate. In addition, her luck is better today, and she actually won a lot of money in three hours. It's just that the man won more money, which made Biying feel less happy.

"Wearing men's clothes means you are lucky." After Ying exchanged the money he won with the gambling house for two gold coins, he tossed them up and down like a juggling act.

"What a mess. Don't play with gold coins on the street." A woman disguised herself as a man and showed off her money in the street. Ye Xuan always felt that she was deliberately trying to cause trouble.

Today, the afterimage is pretending to be a scholar, wearing a light green gown with mink velvet embedded in it, a pair of plain short boots, and a square scarf for her hair. She is still pretending to be shaking her folding fan in the middle of winter. She really looks like a person with shoulder problems. A sickly young man who cannot pick or lift with his hands. With this appearance, she herself refused to hold Ye Xuan's hand.

The two of them walked into the brothel. Turtle Gong could tell at a glance that there was something different about the afterimage, but when he saw that she was coming with a man, he didn't stop her. Ye Xuan also came here for the first time, but to the west of Beidi, the layout of the brothels was more or less the same. Find the hanging flower door, walk along the corridor twice, and then enter the inner hall. At this time, the guests were not full, so the two of them found a square table with a better view and sat down.

It was more than three hours ago that we had lunch at the gambling house. Ye Xuan felt a little hungry, but the brothel only provided tea and no food. So he ordered a table full of sweet-scented osmanthus cakes, jujube paste cakes and poria cocos cakes, along with the bitter usnea tea, and chewed them leisurely. This way of eating to relieve satiety is extremely inappropriate in a brothel. After having eaten and drank enough, Afterimage moved his seat further away with a look of disgust.

Not long after, the square tables under the stage on the first floor were full, and actors took the stage one after another to perform, playing the piano, talking and singing, or dancing. Ye Xuan looked at it with no interest, but the afterimage seemed to be enjoying it. After each actor finished their performance, she filled out a "pink sheet" and placed it in the right corner of the square table.

Back in the Imperial Era, visiting a brothel was a hundred times more complicated than it is now. In this era of relying on personal force, many things have become simple and crude. The most obvious one is etiquette. In ancient times, people often kowtowed to their elders for both important and trivial matters. Today, most people only do kowtow to their elders in extremely solemn situations such as worshiping ancestors, paying homage to teachers, asking for sins, and paying funerals.

The reason is simple to say. When the army "grows" on the body, people no longer need to repeatedly confirm their position through "etiquette". Along with the simplification of worldly etiquette, there are also the rules of the brothel. After each actor performs his performance, if the benefactor wants to give a reward, he will take a "pale pink incense slip" marked with the table number from the left corner of the square table and write the amount of the reward on the slip. The person with the highest silver reward can enter the Nuan Pavilion for a private meeting. The remaining pink sheets will be void. Guests who are not yet green can only pay "camellia".

Rewards are not limited to gold and silver. It is also good for guests to write poems and paintings as gifts to the actors. Only poems and paintings are worthless. If the benefactor the actor likes is not the one with the highest reward in the room, the actor himself has to make up the difference. There are many sweet-tempered people in this dusty place. From time to time, one of the actors' hearts would change, and he would pass on the money he had worked so hard to earn.

Fortunately, those "pink singles" are secretly attracted by Turtle Gong, and those who are not yet young will only feel that the reward is not enough. As for the saying of "selling one's art but not one's body", nowadays only a very small number of brothels that shock the public can tolerate such hypocrisy.

Ye Xuan had already eaten all the refreshments on the table, and the oiran finally came on stage amidst a burst of not-so-courteous cheers. The blood-red skirt dances gracefully with the silver light of the long sword. Ye Xuan's body was a little hot from the excitement, but his expression was still dull.

"None of them are as good as our 'Qingchen'." Afterimage turned his head to look at Ye Xuan and couldn't help but sneered.

"It is indeed not as good as 'Chen'er'." Ye Xuan's eyes were attracted by the "poisonous red" and he did not turn around to look at the afterimage.

"How much do you like Mu Qing'er? You can't hold her in your arms every night. When you go out for prostitution, you have to find someone who looks like her." Biying thought to himself, but did not dare to say this sentence.

After the dance, the oiran bowed deeply, and her skirt bloomed on the ground like "warm blood dripping on the gauze". There was a lot of praise, but not many people rewarded it. Everyone knows that if the reward is small, not to mention not being able to enter the Nuan Pavilion, it is difficult for her to take a look, and there is no need to be a foil for this green leaf. There were only a few high rollers in the field who "used to compete for the best" filled out the pink sheet, and the afterimages also wrote down another one as a matter of routine.

After the oiran exited, all the guests who did not give gifts left on their own, while those who filled out the pink slips stayed at the table, hoping to be favored. Can and Ye were about to leave when a turtle man came nearby, bowed and saluted, and then said to Can Ying with a strange look on his face: "This young master, the oiran invites you to enter the pavilion to enjoy the moon."

"I got it, go ahead." Ye Xuan sent Mr. Turtle away and looked at the afterimage with a surprised look on his face: "How much money did you give me?"

"Just two taels, written for fun." The afterimage also felt strange. After a moment of daze, he showed his face and said smugly: "You must be too handsome, which made the fairy fall in love with you. You walk along the street, I I’ll come out to look for you after I’m sent away.”

Ye Xuan frowned, looking like he had gained a lot of experience today: "You mean, you go up to whore, and the young master is waiting on the street?"

After thinking about it carefully, I felt that something was wrong. He smiled and said, "How about... you go back to the inn to rest first."

"You're not allowed to go! There are so many people here, why do you focus on your little bitch? I'm afraid I don't recognize your identity. You can't stay in Tairan City for a long time. We will leave tomorrow." Ye Xuan saw her unexpectedly. There was no fear at all, and I was really annoyed.

"They were so far apart that they didn't notice that I was a woman! What's so strange about me? How many men are prettier than me? It's a common thing that the oiran likes a fair-skinned scholar. How could it be someone's plan? What about me?" Afterimage retorted disdainfully.

"It's better to be careful in other people's territory." Ye Xuan felt that his tone was a little harsh just now, and he turned to persuade him gently.

"The oiran chose me, and I don't know how much money I have to spend. If I don't go, she will make fun of her sisters." After the shadow saw that Ye Xuan's tone softened, he was no longer mean. Wearing men's clothes, she couldn't shake Ye Xuan, so she had to gently swing her body to act coquettishly. It is indeed a great humiliation for the oiran to be rewarded with money and youth but not go upstairs. Because of this, Ye Xuan was angered by Ye Xuan's gentle words and coaxing. He hated it most when his family thought about irrelevant outsiders, especially when their own safety was at stake.

"It's none of my business that she makes people laugh! Follow me, order." After Ye Xuan said that, he quickly walked out of the hall without looking back.

Afterimage was so angry that tears welled up in his eyes, but he had no choice but to follow him bitterly. In her heart, she was resentful that he would throw out the word "order" when her lover was quarreling. It was really shameless. However, to argue at this time was not as simple as a lover's quarrel.

Afterimage quickly realized what had angered Ye Xuan, but she didn't think she was at fault. What she dislikes the most about Ye Xuan is his timidity. That is a kind of cowardice that often ignores the facts and makes mistakes. She still didn't understand how such a person could think of starting a "mercenary group" business.

Back at the inn, Can Ying asked the waiter for another quilt, wrapped himself up tightly, and didn't speak to Ye Xuan all night. The next morning, when she woke up, she saw that Ye Xuan was already packing their luggage. She deliberately ignored it and stayed in bed until noon like the previous two days. Ye Xuan didn't push him. When it was almost noon, he asked the waiter for food and ordered him to buy two candied haws. Afterimage was lying on his back, but he listened secretly in his ears, and most of the energy from yesterday was gone.

When sharing lunch, Ye Xuan did not deliberately talk to each other, and only conveyed the message of reconciliation with various indifferent actions such as "passing chopsticks, picking up vegetables, and serving soup". The residual image didn’t even bother me, I just accepted it. If Sister Qing'er saw such a scene... Thinking of this, Biying couldn't help but feel a little scared, but also found it quite exciting.

After settling the bill, we headed back. The horse "Xuehuacong" that Ye Xuan rode when he came was already dead, but the "Black Wind" that the afterimage rode was still tied up in the stable of the inn. The two rode together, sliding slowly along the dirt road. At this time, the afterimage's hips and back were pressed tightly against Ye Xuan's, and the grudge in her heart was gone. She leaned against him lazily and asked softly: "Young master, what do you earn so much money for? Just tell me. chant."

"You will understand when I spend the money." Ye Xuan leisurely repeated this sentence... He didn't know how many times he had said it to her before.

"You say this every time. If you don't tell me something in advance, how can you show that I am different from others?" Afterimage raised his voice dissatisfied, but his voice was still coquettish.

"What's different about you?" Ye Xuan said, his left hand that was not holding the reins stretched out his fingers and poked her waist lightly.

Afterimage felt a tingling sensation and laughed involuntarily. Then he pushed away Ye Xuan's left hand and Nuonuo said: "Anyway, I will be sad if I find out about it together with them in the future."

"They, including Xiao Mo?"

"Including." The shadow of the black horse responded softly as he walked behind two big dry poplar trees beside the aisle.

Exile Diary - Excerpt (5)

The sea breeze last night was very cool. I have seen many executions, but I have never killed anyone with my own hands, and I am still a little scared to this day.

Killing those seven bastards didn't go well. The two who kept vigil on the deck were still very energetic until the second half of the night. At this time, I was hoping that they would doze off. Anese and I peeked anxiously in the main cabin until the sky turned pale, and the two slave girls didn't sleep either. I didn’t plan to wait until tomorrow. After giving Anese a look, we rushed out of the main cabin with our swords in hand, ran to the two female slaves as fast as we could, and stabbed each of them through their stomachs with the sword. The long thorn feels very smooth when inserted, but it is a bit laborious to pull it out. The screams were so loud that he didn't die immediately after pulling out the steel sword, he kept screaming. Should it be stabbed in the throat? Should we stab it with our sword skills?

The screams alerted the other five female slaves sleeping in the storage cabin, and they were not given time to react! I kicked open the door of the storage room and rushed in, followed closely by Anese. Anese and I chopped down the two who were getting up from the ground. The remaining three were completely awake. One was lying on the ground, crying hoarsely for mercy, while the other was rolling and rushing to the bulkhead, grabbing the fishing rod and waving it around in his hand. The bloody gourd with its skin and flesh torn apart had barely lifted half of its body when it began to scream heart-rendingly.

The fishing rod was long and soft, so it couldn't kill anyone, but it was extremely painful when swung on the arm. Anese held the sword with both hands and slashed hard at the fishing rod. The fishing rod broke off at hand, now it was broken. The fishing rod was sharpened to a point. Although it was shorter, it was still much longer than our steel swords. Anese is such a fool, she gave the enemy a spear!

The slave girl was also smart. After cutting the fishing rod, she no longer swung it around, but held the spear tightly in both hands and stabbed us again and again. We hid backwards and swung our swords to cut off the spears. We tried to cut off another section but couldn't. In this way, we were forced to the edge of the hatch. Just when I was hesitating whether to exit first, the bloody gourd suddenly climbed up from the carpet with a roar, lifted the lid of a bamboo jar, and rushed towards me with the bamboo jar in his arms. I was concentrating on dealing with the spear, but I saw it from the corner of my eye but had no time to take care of it. Then a large "brown-red snake" thicker than my thumb splashed on my head. I threw down the sword, huddled on the ground and screamed miserably, all the bones in my body became weak.

Then, I heard Anese scream in pain, she was stabbed. "It's over" I thought to myself.

Then I was kicked hard in the face, "The snake is not poisonous, get up!". This voice was actually more majestic than his father's roar.

My bones seem to be able to support my body again. At that moment, I didn't realize what kind of disobedience this was. I stood up, only pushing aside the snake bodies that blocked my view, and let them hang on my neck and shoulders. The bloody gourd was squatting on the ground picking up my sword.

There was no time to think, I stepped forward with my right foot to step on the sword, and kicked her forehead hard with my left foot. She fell to the ground, and immediately got up and rushed towards me. I didn't have time to pick up the sword and struggled with her. After getting together, she was knocked to the ground within a few moments. This bitch was covered in injuries, but he was so strong. She sat on top of me and strangled my neck tightly. I felt that all the blood in my body was pooling on my face, and the sound of fighting in my ears seemed to be stretched out and became low and slow.

I know that my body is still twisting, and I know that my hands are still tightly clasped on the other person's wrist, but it seems that I am no longer in control of this. The only thing in my whole body that still obeyed my orders was my eyes filled with tears. I moved my eyes with difficulty and looked at Anese pleadingly. She was my only hope.

Through the blurred tears, it was still possible to see clearly that Anese's left leg was soaked in blood under her white clothes, but she was still standing. The spear pierced her body one after another. Anese awkwardly blocked it with her sword and slanted to dodge. There was the hatch behind her, but she did not exit.

The spear advanced and retracted, and hit Anese's left arm again. Anese let out a soft cry and took half a step back. The sword in his right hand was hanging down to the ground, and it seemed that he couldn't lift his left arm. This long sword is very heavy. If you hold it in front of you with just one right hand, your arm will become weak in a moment. However, the female slave did not pursue the victory. She held the spear in both hands and stopped on the spot, breathing heavily. It seemed that she was exhausted.

After taking a moment to breathe, Anese suddenly picked up the long snake on the ground with her sword and pulled it towards the slave girl holding the spear. Seeing the snake pounce on her face, the slave girl retracted her hands to cover her cheeks, but did not let go of the spear. The spike of the spear pointed towards the cabin roof as she retracted her hand.

With only a moment of opportunity, Anese dragged her injured leg and stabbed out with the sword with one arm, the blade barely piercing into her heart. Anese withdrew the sword and immediately turned around to stab the slave girl who was riding on me. The sword penetrated under the ribs, and I heard the sound of steel rubbing against bones. The naked bloody gourd screamed "Ah" and rolled to the ground. Anese couldn't hold on, and the sword was taken away from her body.

The bloody gourd rolled a few times on the ground and stopped moving. Anese's left leg went weak and she fell to the ground. It took me a while to breathe frantically before I stood up with difficulty and picked up the sword. The slave girl holding the spear curled up and twitched on the ground, but she was not completely dead. I quickly rushed over, kicked away the spear that fell on the ground, raised my sword, aimed at her neck, and penetrated her.

I pulled out the steel sword and started to clean up the long snakes hanging on my body. They were like moving ropes and not so scary. I don't know how many bites it had. The snake's teeth were sharp and there should be no scars on its face. I leaned against the wooden box and continued to adjust my breathing, but I couldn't adjust it evenly. Until I heard her sobbing, there was a "buzzing" sound in my head. One more to go!

A corner "that the morning light cannot cover through the hatch" is where the sobs come from. Looking carefully, there is indeed a person shrinking. I stepped forward quickly and used the last strength of my body to pin the looming figure to the deck of her back.

"Don't!" Anese's voice caught my ear, followed by a sigh.

Before I went to sea, I told my father that I shouldn't take these female slaves with me. They hated me more than they hated the divine guards. The same Lorama people, they are slaves and I am the princess. In this world, they are willing to serve anyone, but I am different. My father disagreed and insisted that Anese and I were not enough.

In recent days, those female slaves began to look at me secretly. When I glanced away, they actually looked directly into my eyes! Although he will soon become humble again, there is no doubt that he is going to rebel. Such dangerous thoughts were actually on their faces. Fortunately, they had not read books and would make such stupid mistakes.

When I taught Anese how to fish, sail, and even swordsmanship, my father just smiled. But when I started teaching her how to read, my father got furious. Now I understand somewhat.

But having said that, Anese was the only literate slave girl on the ship, but she was also the only one who was loyal. How would my father feel if he knew what happened today?