Chapter 2

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Author: WingYing

Translator: Delia

Proofreader: Dalgona

After a few days of panic, I finally remembered to return the book to its original owner.

I originally wanted to put things away and return early, but instead I could hear the sound of laughter

right when I stepped into the courtyard. My Eldest Brother liked to pose as a refined person, calling his small courtyard “Xie Yi Ju”(1)and liked to write poems on the side. My Eldest Brother was here today. I secretly cried in my heart at my misfortune and wanted to turn my head to slip away. Who would’ve thought I’d be caught by my Eldest Brother, who waved his hand at me, “San Xi, come here.”

Besides Eldest Brother in the pavilion were also his poetry friends. Well, to call them poetry friends was a bit of a stretch. They were local hedonistic sons of the wealthy, and had not a drop of ink close to their hearts(2). As such, they probably couldn’t even write some decent essays but instead spent their time spending money and visiting prostitutes, living loose lives. They were each hugging an individual, each supposedly a kept performer(3). Looking at them acting like this, the young masters seemed as if they were from bad families. I never thought Eldest Brother would be so bold, to bring back prostitutes from the pleasure boats into our house.

I summoned the courage to walk forward, and called out, “Eldest Brother.”

The man before the wine case had a long face, looking like my Father. With his deep-set eyes and thin body he could reluctantly be considered handsome if it weren’t for the fact that he look hollowed out.

Eldest Brother was the sole child of Madam Wife, and was my Father’s eldest son. Supposedly Madam hurt her body after having him but he was neither “xie” nor “kao”, which is why she was able to put up with Father accepting concubines.

Only for Eldest Brother to reply lazily from within the soft embrace, “Un.” Seeing the book in my hand, he asked, “What have you been reading these few days?”

I felt a bit guilty, but fortunately he did not come and investigate what I had in my hand, so I arbitrarily listed some things I’d read lately. Eldest Brother was thinking of unimportant things, so I was unsure if he was even listening to what I was saying.

At this time, the Young Master wearing a green shirt to the left of my Eldest Brother asked, “Ay, Shen Xiong(4), this person is…”

“This is our family’s youngest Fourth Brother, who is honest and obedient. I’m warning you lot now-” my brother eyed each of them and pointed, “Don’t teach him the wrong things.”

A few of them laughed, then Eldest Brother ignored me after. I stood by his side, afraid to make a sound, standing like a servant. I was just a concubine-born son, and although Eldest Brother treated me with some affection, the affection he gave was like the kind you would give a sparrow you raised in your golden cage. When you remember its existence, you’d take it out to amuse yourself. After you were amused, you’d toss it to the side. (t/n T_T poor baby)

Third Concubine often gave me sincere advice, saying that I had to diligently stay within my role’s bounds and that I should never fight with my brothers. If I had good luck and Eldest Brother inherits the family business in the future, then he may remember to share a piece of it with me. This way my Concubine Mother and I would not have to live on the streets. The people living in the back courtyard were precisely aware of this fact. Although we wanted there to be a chance of a way to leave this cage, it felt as if our roots were deeply rotted into this soil and we could never leave in our lifetime.

Half drunk, one person said, “I heard Sheng Xiong recently brought back a pair of jades: no wonder he’s been hard to find these past few days and making Miss Jinyue sad.”

“I was wondering your intentions for coming today. Turns out, the wine-lovers aren’t really here to drink.” Eldest brother stood up and called over a servant, saying, “Go bring Qingyu and Ziyu(5) here.”

A few moments later, a young man and a young woman walked in.

It was a pair of twin brother and sister, one in green and one in purple. Not only did these two look the same, even their movements and voices sounded the same. They knelt down and said, “Qingyu (Ziyu) greets Young Masters.”

After these young masters saw the pair, their expressions cleared up in understanding. “Turns out it’s a pair of beautiful flowers.”

As the pair of siblings were prostitutes, not only were they beautiful, but they could also sing and dance. One person would chime out, while the other danced alone, sounding out like a warbler, “A single pillow will not extinguish the light, both arms light dancing to soothe the jade peach.” Hearing the lyrics, it was evident this was a lewd song, turning my ears completely red. The other young masters were quite interested, and my Eldest Brother seemed to become even more intoxicated and recited a poem on the spot. The others praised him, “Shen Xiong has such talent, a pity, a pity that he doesn’t know how to use his talents properly—”

Eldest Brother went to the capital twice for imperial examinations and failed both times. His actions became more and more preposterous due to his depression from failing. The Madam spoiled him, telling him to do whatever he wanted, and my Father was unable to manage him.

“Ay!” Eldest Brother waved his sleeves, “Zixian’s idle interests lies not in the Imperial Court, but in this house living the life of idle clouds and wild cranes. Why should I go to the capital and see my uncles’ complexions towards me!” Zixian was my Eldest Brother’s name. Speaking of which, our Shen Clan was one of the Seven Clans. As such, it would not be difficult for Eldest Brother to obtain a position but rather he was now used to being the local tyrant standing over the rest. To tell him to lower his head to the main branch, even if Father insisted, Elder Brother probably would be unwilling.

While I was in a daze, unexpectedly my Eldest Brother thought about me. Dragging me abruptly, the book in my hand fell onto the floor and the lovemaking manual that was sandwiched between other books naturally could no longer be hidden. As I frantically tried to pick up the manual, Eldest Brother grabbed that obscene book and flipped through it, then looked at me with a playful expression on his face, saying “Little Shi(6), didn’t think that with your honest personality that you would have this kind of taste”. He teasingly patted my face.

“Eldest Brother, I…” Knowing I could not protest back, my face blushed as red as blood. Eldest Brother did not blame me, but treated it as a joke, and said charitably, “Yes, you have reached this age, this courtyard only has temporary or married women. Wait a bit, Eldest Brother will find affable women to come and teach you well.”

I was embarrassed and could not say yes or no. Eldest Brother then thought of something, and called for a servant saying, “Bring over the hu ren.”

“Hu ren?” the Young Master in the green shirt asked with interest and looked at Eldest Brother. “Shen Xiong is so capable to be able to keep a hu ren.” The others looked at Eldest Brother, but I was surprised. I had read about these supposed hu ren. They were born with disabilities, such as a female born without nipples on her breast, or someone born with two heads. In short, these were people different from others and were considered bad omens, often drowned at birth. For Eldest Brother to hide someone in the house, he had a lot of ambition and guts.

Soon after, that hu ren was brought over, a male. Looking at him, his four limbs were intact, nothing seemed different, no wonder no one noticed. His slightly darker skin and appearance was decent but his looks were still inferior to the flock of people gathered in my brother’s courtyard.

Eldest Brother commanded, “Take off your clothes.”

The young man seemed to have been trained before, as he untied his clothes in front of this group of people without changing expression. His upper limbs seemed to be filled with strong vitality, covered with some old scarring, and looked as if he’s toiled hard before.

“Zixian, this- Where’s the novelty with this one?” asked the other green shirt wearing young master, with a hint of disappointment.

Eldest Brother waved his fan without an ounce of impatience and lazily said, “Turn around, show these young masters.”

At this time the hu ren had not a single thread on him, listened to Eldest Brother and turned around. He bent down and used both hands to pull apart his buttocks, surprising everyone, even the prostitutes.

It wasn’t until he turned around that I could see his buttocks clearly- his pubic hair was removed, and below the usual hole, there was yet another one- what looked like to be what a male “kao” had.

Eldest Brother motioned the hu ren towards him. The hu ren was very obedient and stepped forward. Eldest Brother rested his hand on the hu ren’s buttocks, then slowly moved his hand below.

I was very close to my brother, so naturally I was also close to the hu ren. Although I knew I shouldn’t peek, I couldn’t look away and followed Elder Brother’s delicate touching with my eyes, his finger going lower until it reached the “kao” entrance. The finger did not immediately rush in, but instead circled outside the entrance a few times. When his finger flicked the entrance lips, you could faintly see the tender looking flesh. At this time, Eldest Brother reached for a hairpin on a singer’s head and removed a pearl. He rubbed the pearl a few times on his palms, then separated the two lips of the entrance and slid the pearl in.

When Eldest Brother pulled out his finger, he brought out with him some lewd liquid but the pearl remained inside and couldn’t come out. Everyone watched the process breathlessly, until one person broke the atmosphere, sighing softly, “What a rare treasure this person is.”

Male kao are born without genitalia, and instead were more similar to females, growing an yin entrance though the yin entrances of male and females had differences. For women it provided urinary functions, while the male kaos entrance was connected with the posterior birth canal. Compared to the female yin entrance, it was more narrow, but also provided more ecstasy. Both ordinary people and kao were easily attracted to kao but this world was occupied by xie. As such, ordinary people could only desire, but could not act indecently towards them.

Eldest Brother was keeping this hu ren, and even trained him like a male kao. Though he was not really a kao, it was still enjoyable enough. Just then, the rich Young Master wearing green said, “Recently I got my hands on a pair of bracelets, valued at a thousand gold. It was originally for me to present to grandmother on her birthday as a way to create good feelings with her. I’m willing to give up this bracelet to Zixian, if Zixian is willing to give up this hu ren?”

“A pair of bracelets, what use does Zixian have for them? Instead, I have two beauties from the Western Region, both blonde hair blue-eyed who know a lot of tricks. Zixian, I won’t be greedy, just lend me your hu ren for two days. After two days, I will return him to his rightful owner.”

After several people took turns saying these kinds of things, from start to finish the hu ren’s face had no change in expression, while the emotion in his eyes was like a deep yet dead pool of water.

I felt a bit dizzy, and rubbed my palms together only to realize that I’d been subconsciously sweating from my hands. I swallowed but felt even more thirsty. Through the haze, I heard Eldest Brother ask, “Do you smell that? Something is a bit fragrant…”

At this moment, a servant broke through the door and shouted the whole way, “It’s not good, Master!”

Eldest Brother’s excitement fell and he was about to scold the servant when the servant knelt down and said in a trembling voice, “Young Master! News just came from the capital, Young Miss…. Is gone!”

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1. 寫意居- Xie Yi can mean a freehand style of Chinese painting, characterized by accurate details. It could also mean relaxed, enjoyable, comfortable. But it most likely refers to the first definition because of the second footnote.

2. Drop of ink close to their hearts- It was common to use calligraphy pens with ink to write or draw. This meant they didn’t hold any of those actions (of writing or drawing) close to their hearts. It wasn’t important to them.

3. Kept performer- Really referred to singers in theater, often sponsored or kept (like a sugar baby). In this instance, it can also refer to the performing singers on the pleasure boats (floating brothels).

4. Xiong- Meaning brother, something you would call your close friends. I didn’t want to translate it to brother though because they weren’t actually related.

5. Qingyu & Ziyu- literally translates to Green Jade and Purple Jade.

6. Shi- meaning four. This refers to MC as being the Fourth Brother normally.

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