Volume 1: Mission in Danger Chapter 2 Oiran
In fact, Wu Chengjian was not mistaken. There was indeed someone named Zhou Yijin.
He was a visitor from the north dressed as a Confucian scholar. His name was Cai Qinghua. If Zhou Yijin saw him, he would definitely scream "Master".
Cai Qinghua is the trusted advisor of Zhu Gui, a senior official of the day. Zhu Gui is the teacher of the fifteenth prince Yongyan (Emperor Jiaqing), and is about to take up the post of Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi. Cai Qinghua goes ahead to pave the way for his host, as he remembers that his favorite disciple is in Guangzhou, so he comes to find him first. Unexpectedly, he happens to witness all this.
He was a step too late. He tried to catch up, but before he could go up the stairs, he was stopped. A eunuch asked, "Which floor do you want to go to, my dear guest?"
Shenxianzhou built three floors above the deck: in addition to the hall, the first floor also has dozens of flower cabins of varying sizes; the second floor has a patio in the middle, surrounded by sixteen elegant seats and sixteen cabins; the third floor is the simplest, with only four small buildings: Chunyuanzhi, Xialujun, Qiubinju, and Dongwangmei.
Cai Qinghua saw that the last of Wu Chengjian's hangers-on had disappeared around the corner of the third floor, so he said, "The third floor."
The turtle slave smiled flatteringly: "According to the rules of the Fairy Island, new guests must go directly to the second floor and hang ten lanterns, and go directly to the third floor and hang a hundred lanterns. Dear guest, do you want to hang the lanterns now?"
Cai Qinghua was well-informed after all, so he paid attention and asked, "What are the rules for hanging lanterns?"
The eunuch said with a smile: "From the looks of the guest, you seem to be from the north? In Guangdong, we don't have so many rules. A lantern costs ten taels of silver."
Although Cai Qinghua remained calm, he was shocked in his heart. One lantern cost ten taels of silver, and one hundred lanterns would cost a thousand taels of silver. Although he was the trusted advisor of the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, Zhu Gui was an honest official, and this was the amount he gave to Cai Qinghua every year. A thousand taels of silver for just one visit to the tower? Even the capital city didn't have such a way of spending money!
The eunuchs were all shrewd. No matter how well Cai Qinghua concealed his true intentions, they were discovered. He did not want to offend anyone, so he just pointed to the lobby on the first floor and said with a smile, "You are a new guest and don't know the market. Why don't you go to the first floor to have a look? When you like a silver hairpin on the second floor or a gold hairpin on the third floor, it won't be too late to hang up the lantern and go upstairs."
Cai Qinghua had no choice but to enter the hall first. There was a stage in the middle of the first-floor hall of Shenxianzhou. There was no deck above the stage, but a patio that went straight through the three floors. There were sixty-four eight-immortal tables surrounding the stage on the first floor, sixteen private seats surrounding the patio on the second floor, and four windows facing inward on the third floor, with four kinds of curtains hanging down: agate, giant clam, amber, and pearl. There were vaguely people behind the curtains.
There were too many guests in Shenxian Island today, so even on the first floor they had to share tables. After Cai Qinghua sat down, he looked upwards. After a while, he saw figures swaying behind the pearl curtain. He could vaguely make out the figures of Wu Chengjian and Zhou Yijin, accompanied by another woman, who must be the most beautiful girl in that room.
The two people sitting at the same table with Cai Qinghua both looked like merchants, one fat and one thin. The thin merchant said, "I heard that the four most beautiful women in the upper fourth room are the first four of the Twelve Golden Hairpins of Guangdong this year. They are all extremely beautiful, but it's a pity that we can't even see them. If we could get close to them and have a good night's sleep, it would be worth it even if we had to shorten our lives by three years!"
The fat merchant started to sneer, "You want to sleep with the courtesan when you have only three years left to live? How dare you think that! Even if you can get into the building, you will have to pay a thousand taels of silver, but that's just enough to see her through the pearl curtain. If you want to get into the room, you have to pour out silver like a bucket of rain!"
Cai Qinghua interrupted and asked, "Excuse me, brothers, what are the Twelve Golden Hairpins of Yuehai?"
The two merchants looked at Cai Qinghua, and the thin merchant said, "It seems that this is not only your first time to Shenxian Island, but also your first time to Guangzhou? Otherwise, how could you not even know about the Twelve Golden Hairpins of Yuehai?"
Cai Qinghua was used to being a legal advisor, so he was very flexible. He smiled and said, "Excuse me, I was just about to ask you two for advice."
Seeing his modesty, the thin merchant felt better and said, "I heard that the Twelve Golden Hairpins were invented by Young Master Wu of Yihe. It is said that the name was borrowed from a new book called The Story of the Stone. Three years ago, the flower shops in Guangzhou were going to hold a big competition. The madams of the flower shops were kind enough to ask Young Master Yihe to set the rules for them. Young Master Yihe then divided the flower shops into three grades, namely, upper, middle and lower grades, based on the three-level imperial examinations at the county, township and association levels. The lower grade was like a scholar, the middle grade was like a juren, and the upper grade was like a jinshi..."
An old student who looked like a scholar at the next table could not help but curse when he heard this: "How dare such a lowly whore be compared with the fame of the imperial examination? It is a disgrace to civility, a disgrace to civility!"
The fat merchant turned around and mocked: "You are a pervert who wants to visit prostitutes and build a chastity archway at the same time. Since it is disrespectful to society, why are you still sitting here?" This sentence made the old student blush.
The fat merchant turned back and listened to the thin merchant continue to say: "...There are twelve top-grade people, called the Twelve Golden Hairpins. There are thirty-six middle-grade people, each of whom gets a silver hairpin. There is an indefinite number of lower-grade people, but each of them gets a gilded copper hairpin. In this Fairy Island, you need at least a copper hairpin to come up to do business, and a silver hairpin to go to the second floor. As for the four small buildings on the first floor, you can only enter with a gold hairpin. I dare not even think about sleeping with a gold hairpin today, and I probably can't sleep with a silver hairpin either. I can sleep with a flower-traveling scholar in Fairy Island for a night, and I can brag about it when I go back home."
Cai Qinghua asked again: "What are the four most beautiful women in the upper four rooms?"
The thin merchant pointed to the four windows on the third floor and said, "The Flower Shop Competition is a competition among the patrons of the ladies of each family to see who can spend the most money on their ladies. The winner is usually determined by the number of flower lanterns they get, or other valuables can be used to convert them at a discount. The ones who get the most lanterns among the twelve golden hairpins are the four top courtesans of the upper four rooms. Just like the imperial examinations, there are palace examinations after the joint examinations, and the Flower Shop Competition in Guangdong is the same. After the four top courtesans are selected, there is another top one to be selected. Tonight is the day to select the top one. You are lucky, brother, you caught up with such a grand event on your first visit to Guangzhou."
Cai Qinghua looked around and saw all kinds of lanterns hung in layers outside the hall and on the doors of the first floor. Some doors had more than a dozen lanterns, and some had dozens of lanterns. He secretly calculated and thought that if one lantern cost ten taels of silver, even these third-rate ladies, the best of them, had patrons who spent hundreds of taels of silver on them.
Looking up at the second floor, the railings outside the sixteen private rooms were also hung with lanterns. There were quite a few lanterns on each railing, but the least number of lanterns on the railings was only about twenty, which was obviously less than some of the hatches on the first floor. How could it be on the second floor? I asked the thin merchant why.
The thin merchant smiled and said, "Brother, the lanterns are not only about quantity, but also about style. Take a closer look."
Cai Qinghua took a closer look and discovered that although there were lanterns hanging on the first and second floors, the styles were different. The first floor had copper wire filigree lanterns, while the second floor had silver wire filigree lanterns. Looking up, there were a dozen or so lanterns sparsely hung on the outer railings of the four windows on the third floor, all of which were gold wire filigree lanterns.
Then the thin merchant said, "A copper lamp costs ten taels, a silver lamp costs a hundred taels, and a gold lamp costs a thousand taels of silver."
Cai Qinghua was slightly surprised again. Then he looked up at the third floor and saw that the dozens of lanterns were worth tens of thousands of taels of silver!
He couldn't help but mutter, "The Qing Dynasty's annual tax revenue is only 70 to 80 million taels , and the average annual tax revenue of a county is only 20,000 taels. The things hanging on the three-story railings are not lanterns, but the tax revenue of a middle-sized county for one or two years! Such extravagance is really too much. Don't the Guangzhou government care about it?"
"How can we manage it? Guangzhou is a paradise, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. As long as there is no rebellion, which official would be willing to interfere?" The thin merchant laughed: "Besides, these lights are just appetizers. The real luxury has not even begun yet."
"Oh?" Cai Qinghua asked, "What do you mean?"
The thin merchant laughed and said, "For those who can go up to the third floor, there is a great benefactor behind each bead curtain. Today is the selection of the top prize, and the great benefactors of the four courtesans have not yet made their moves. Last year, the top four rooms combined were hung with hundreds of golden lanterns. As the saying goes, 'Three years as a clean prefect, 100,000 silver coins', but ordinary prefects can't compare to the courtesans in Guangdong. These four courtesans only have the qualifications for one year of the competition, which is equivalent to the prefect's three-year income."
Just then, they heard the sound of gongs and drums outside the door, and the thin merchant said, "Here they come! Here they come! The show is about to begin."
Cai Qinghua looked back and saw two Foshan gold and silver lions stepping to the rhythm, shaking their heads all the way, heading straight for the stage. Guangdong's "Southern Lion" is famous all over the world. After the lions came on the stage, the colorful stripes on their bodies fluttered, and they saluted the four guests on the first floor, jumping, falling, flipping, and rolling, and won the cheers of the guests on the first floor. Then they saluted the 16 seats on the second floor. The gold lion suddenly jumped, and the one holding the lion's head stepped on the shoulders of the one holding the lion's tail and jumped up almost ten feet high, which attracted cheers from the crowd. The silver lion suddenly scratched, which looked very funny and attracted everyone to laugh.
On the second-floor elegant seats, gold beans, silver ingots, ring faces, and necklaces fell like raindrops. The two lions opened their mouths wide, scrambling to "swallow" these gold and silver ornaments - this was the rule, and what the lions swallowed would be considered a reward, and the lion dance master could take it back and share.
After the golden rain and silver hail had stopped, the silver lion crouched slightly and stood firmly with the man holding the lion's tail. The man holding the lion's head jumped up and stepped on his shoulder, and the silver lion stood up. Before Cai Qinghua could cheer, he saw the golden lion also leaped up, stepped on the knees and shoulders of the man holding the silver lion's tail, and jumped onto the silver lion's head. Then, he used a similar method to make the golden lion stand up on the silver lion's head. The two lions stood in a straight line together without any trembling. This kind of unique skill caused the entire three-story ship building of Shenxianzhou to cheer loudly.
Cai Qinghua couldn't help but shout, "Great Kung Fu, Great Kung Fu!"
Something came out of the golden lion's mouth. It was ten large characters embroidered with gold thread on the finest silk: "Foshan Chen lights a lamp for Miss Qiu Ling"!
A servant hung ten golden lamps on the railing outside the clam window. This way, the number of golden lamps outside this window surpassed the other windows and became the most among the four upper rooms. The clam curtain was opened, and a charming young lady approached the window and bowed to the golden and silver lions. Next to her, a young and handsome young man was smiling.
The fat and thin merchants couldn't help but stand up and look forward, of course not to the rich boy, but to Miss Qiu Ling. But the curtain was soon lowered, and although it was only a glimpse of her, Cai Qinghua was amazed in his heart: "She is really stunning! No wonder there are patrons who spend a fortune on her."
The fat and thin merchants sat down, their eyes still scanning the giant clam curtains, still not satisfied. The fat merchant said, "That Miss Qiu Ling is so beautiful, and that Foshan Chen is so generous that he just spent 10,000 taels of silver. It seems that the most popular lady this year must be Miss Qiu Ling."
The thin merchant sneered, "I'm afraid not."
Then eight strong servants, each holding a golden lantern, entered the stage one after another, lined up in a row, and shouted loudly in the direction of the agate bead curtain: "Master Qiao, Master Cao, and Master Fan from Shanxi, light the lanterns for Miss Ginkgo."
The agate bead curtain was opened, and a beautiful lady looked down to express her gratitude, and people could also see clearly that there were three people sitting at the same table with her.
The thin merchant sneered, "Eight thousand silver taels are not a small amount, but the previous person has already offered ten thousand. He still has the nerve to offer another eight thousand, and three families are joining forces. These Shanxi people are too jealous. They are so sour and petty."
Before he could finish his words, he was slapped in the face. Eight young men came in holding lanterns, walked onto the stage, and stood in a row in front of the eight servants. These young men were only thirteen or fourteen years old, with red lips and white teeth. They sang in an androgynous voice towards the agate bead curtain: "Master Qiao, Master Cao, and Master Fan are lighting lanterns for Miss Ginkgo."
Another eight golden lanterns were hung up, and the thin merchant was speechless for a moment.
The fat merchant laughed and said, "Although it is a joint effort of three families, with sixteen golden lanterns hung up, it is still considered to be one step ahead of others."
However, eight girls aged twelve or thirteen walked in, still carrying one lantern each. As they walked towards the stage, they happened to pass by Cai Qinghua. Cai Qinghua took a closer look and thought, "These are not ordinary slaves. They are all underage skinny girls from Yangzhou."
The eight girls went on stage and continued to speak in unison, all eight of them speaking in delicate voices: "Master Qiao, Master Cao, and Master Fan from Shanxi, light the lamp for Miss Ginkgo."
Twenty-four golden lamps were hung up, and the ginkgo tree in the agate bead window was still smiling from ear to ear. Unexpectedly, the eight young men and eight young women knelt down at the same time and said in unison: "Your servants are ordered to serve you, and I hope you will not abandon me." This not only lit the lamps, but also sent people out.
Anyone who could enter this Fairyland tonight had some wealth, but the generosity of the three merchants from Shanxi still astounded everyone.
Cai Qinghua suddenly had an idea: "Qiao, Cao, and Fan are big Shanxi merchants. Are they showing off their wealth here suddenly? Is it just a coincidence? Or do they have some ulterior motive?" Think about this "fairyland" of Guangzhou. Not only is there a mixture of Chinese and foreigners, and there is a secret fight between the Han and the Hu people, but there is also the Thirteen Hongs, the fattest piece of meat in the world, which has attracted the coveted attention of all forces from the north and the south. The Dongzhu's tenure as the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi will probably be difficult.
As everyone was talking, the amber bead curtain on the third floor was lifted, and a fat young man half exposed his body outside the railing, his fat fingers brushing and flicking open a folding fan. The window was just above Cai Qinghua's table. Even if he looked up, he couldn't see the young man's face clearly. Because the height between the floors was not high, he could clearly see the fat fingers and the fan hanging with a piece of transparent jade. He thought to himself, "It seems to be Wen Zhengming's calligraphy. But holding it in this greasy hand, it really insults Wen's talent!"
Then the fat young man said to the pearl curtain opposite: "Wu Sanshao, those Shanxi guys are riding on our heads and shitting and pissing. If you don't do anything, not only will Sanniang lose the top spot this year, but we, the young masters of Guangdong, will also lose all our reputation."
A corner of the pearl curtain was also pulled open, and the two people sitting behind the curtain were indeed Wu Chengjian and Zhou Yijin. When Cai Qinghua saw Zhou Yijin, he couldn't help but straighten his body.
Wu Chengjian also waved a folding fan and said with a smile: "Don't count on me to save the reputation of the Guangdong people this year. My sister-in-law is holding back my monthly allowance, and I can't even get a golden lamp together today. It's better for you, Mr. Cai, to do it. Today, the reputation of the Guangdong people depends on you."
The second young master Cai paused while waving his folding fan: "Third young master Wu, are you telling the truth or not?"
Wu Chengjian said with a smile: "At the end of every month, I am always penniless. When have you ever seen me save any money? Although it is the beginning of the month, my monthly allowance has been withheld, so I am a pauper."
Young Master Cai laughed and said, "If that's the case, then I, the brother, really won unfairly. There's no point in crushing those outsiders. I was expecting a fierce battle with Young Master San, but I didn't expect it to become a one-man show for me, Cai."
He waved his hand and shouted, "Open all the big windows for me!"
Shenxianzhou is a floating fortress connected by dozens of ships. The first floor is made up of cabins on all four sides, but for the sake of lighting and ventilation, four large windows are opened on the east and west sides. The second floor is less than half the area of the first floor, and there are two large windows on each side. At this time, Cai Ershao gave an order, and twelve windows were opened at the same time. The river breeze blew in, and everyone looked out against the wind, but saw a dark haze outside the window.
Young Master Cai turned around, looking at the courtesan in the room, and said with a smile: "Xiaoying, we won't hang the golden lanterns for you today. Let's change them to some copper lanterns for fun." He waved his hand again, and the hangers-on had spread the word, and people on the deck shouted in unison: "Young Master Cai has given the order, light the lanterns!"
They saw dozens of lights on the windows on both sides of the east and west, gradually illuminating the originally pitch-black river surface and revealing the outlines of dozens of pleasure boats. Everyone could see clearly that at some point both sides of Shenxianzhou were filled with pleasure boats, 24 on the east side and 24 on the west side. Each pleasure boat was hung with copper wire lanterns. Each boat had five rows of lanterns, each row had 20 lanterns, and one boat was hung with 100 lanterns. Forty-eight boats meant 4,800 lanterns. One lantern was worth 10 taels of silver, which was 48,000 taels of silver. Not to mention the cost of making thousands of lanterns and the cost of deploying dozens of pleasure boats!
He spent tens of thousands of pieces of silver without even frowning, just to make the beautiful woman smile.
"That's a beautiful move!" the fat and thin merchants exclaimed at the same time.
Cai Qinghua boasted that he had seen many big scenes since he was from the capital, but he couldn't help but be stunned at this moment. He couldn't see the situation of the girl Shen Xiaoying on the three floors above his head, but he believed that she must be very happy and smiling at this moment.
Then I heard Second Young Master Cai smiled and said to Pearl Curtain, "Third Sister, I'm sorry, but I have to ask you to give up your position this year. How should I sit on the position of the leader of the Immortal Continent? I'll need you to pass on some experience to my Xiaoying later."
A cheerful female voice came from behind the pearl curtain: "Okay, okay, I was just about to close the curtain, and it's just perfect that Xiaoying is here to take over my position as the top courtesan."
The flower lady in Shenxianzhou retired from the business, which is called "closing the curtain". The Tanka lady behind the pearl curtain is a well-known flower champion in Guangdong and has both talent and beauty. She has been the champion of Shenxianzhou for two consecutive years. Countless people are willing to spend a fortune to make her smile, and many sisters in Guangzhou Flower Shop follow her lead. Suddenly, when they heard that she was going to close the curtain, the whole Shenxianzhou was shocked.
Wu Chengjian seemed a little surprised: "Have you really decided to close the curtain?"
Behind the pearl curtain, Tan Sanniang laughed and said, "Can I do this for the rest of my life?"
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "That makes sense. In that case, today is your good day. My monthly salary has not come yet, so I don't have the golden lamp anymore. You can pick one of the things in my hand."
Tan Sanniang did not show up either, but said from behind the pearl curtain: "I will be happy with whatever you give me."
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "If you say that, I can't be so careless... I have it! Just give it to her." He waved his hand and called Short-legged Charlie over. He whispered a few words to him. Short-legged Charlie cried out, "Oh my God! Third Master, are you serious? You actually want to give her that... Although you Chinese have a saying that you prefer beauty to power, giving her that thing is too..."
Wu Chengjian said, "Go, go! You are an Englishman, why are you learning Beijing's barking skills?"
Short-legged Charlie slipped out. Although everyone was a little curious about what "things" the third young master of the Wu family was going to give, after waiting for a long time without any news, they all gave up. The madam and the eunuchs were already shuttling around and doing business. The beautiful women and the handsome men came forward one by one, some looking for old customers, some looking for new customers. Going up and down the three floors, no matter they were rich or poor, everyone had a beauty in their arms and a full cup of wine.
Cai Qinghua also asked a young man to pour wine for him.
Just as everyone was singing and dancing, suddenly the entire three-story boat began to shake, from the hall to the four small buildings.
"Hey, where did the big waves come from? Isn't it said that the Fairy Island cannot be blown away by the wind or the waves?"
"Isn't it a typhoon?"
"Nonsense, how can there be a typhoon at this time of year?"
Not long after, I heard someone outside yelling, "Stop, stop! You can't drive this thing too close!"
Everyone felt that the rippling feeling was more obvious, and many people ran to the window. In the light, they saw a dark thing coming from the southeast. It was very high and big, like a whale but on the water, and like a mountain but it could move. No one knew what it was.
When the thing came closer with the waves, it pressed down like a black mass. The boats could not stop in time and there were continuous crashing sounds. Seven or eight pleasure boats were crushed on the spot. The boatmen on the pleasure boats all jumped into the water in a hurry to escape.
Only then did everyone see clearly that it was a giant Western ship capable of sailing on the oceans. The ship's planks were as thick as city walls, and its masts stood tall into the sky. It did not stabilize until it got very close to Shenxian Island. The waves caused by its stop caused Shenxian Island to sway slightly.
Looking out of the window at this time, the entire picture of the giant ship could no longer be seen. Only a huge wooden wall blocked the outside.
Everyone was watching with trepidation. Fortunately, although the ship was a warship, it had no cannons. Then Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "Sanniang, how about this 'Hua Cha' that I commissioned the English to build? You are from a floating family, and it is inconvenient for you to go ashore. Since you want to seal the curtain, you can stop living in Shenxianzhou and move to Hua Cha in the future. It's just a small gift, please accept it."
Everyone then realized that the "thing" that Young Master Wu had just mentioned as a gift to Dan Sanniang was this huge ocean-going ship!
Such a huge ship, not to mention the things inside the ship, the ship itself alone would cost tens of thousands of taels of silver, perhaps even hundreds of thousands of taels!
Wu Chengjian smiled and said to the amber curtain, "This thing is too heavy. It accidentally crushed several of Young Master Cai's painted boat lanterns. When my sister-in-law sends my monthly salary, Wu San will have a banquet on the Wanghai Tower to apologize to Young Master. When the time comes, we can decide how many lion dances to invite and how many days to perform the running water show. Young Master has the final say."
The amber curtain was swung down with a snap. On the second-floor private room, many of the wealthy and wealthy second-generation rich men who patronized Wu Chengjian burst into laughter.
