Chapter 734: Fulfill the Contract
This was a town so small it was hard to even find on a map. It did not even qualify as a county seat and was only marked because it lay near a main road.
This small town near the Imperial Capital had absorbed a trace of the capital’s grandeur, but not enough to conceal its shabbiness. It gave off the impression of a once-prosperous household now fallen on hard times.
So, there were plenty of door-half-open establishments operating here.
Zhang Yuelu frowned as she followed behind Xuanji. She glanced around, noticing how quiet it was. There were no customers since it was daytime, but she still felt somewhat uneasy.
She had been to brothels before, but only top-tier or second-class ones, where it was not just about sexual transactions. Rather, the sex trade was dressed up so finely that one could barely recognize it. It was like a tavern that began selling snacks, then slowly added full-fledged meals and even provided lodging. Once it prospered, it hired storytellers. At that point, it was no longer considered a tavern but an inn. Since it was now an inn, it did not matter if one drank or not.
However, these door-half-open establishments were different. It was a bare-bones version of brothels, where you entered solely for sexual release. There was no tea-drinking, music, or flirtatious preludes. It was not elegant or clean. If the top-tier brothels were only morally unclean, then this place was dirty both in reality and in morals.
It was narrow, cramped, and dark, with wastewater, various trash, and fluids resembling urine or vomit filling the air with foul smells.
Women’s belongings lay scattered everywhere. Some were discarded, and some were washed and hung out to dry. Small undergarments, embroidered shoes, and intimate wear were frozen stiff from the snow, likely left unattended because their owners were still asleep at this hour.
As they walked, they often passed women who looked disheveled and newly woken. Their faces were sallow, needing heavy makeup to cover up. If seen through the Immortal Eye of Providence, Zhang Yuelu would resemble a flawless jade, but these women would be pockmarked and hollowed out, like rotting wood. Their futures were not bright.
Naturally, the customers here were not the wealthy or noble, but the lower-class commoners, many of them bachelor men.
It was strange how Jade Capital, Jinling Prefecture, the Imperial Capital, and this shantytown could coexist under the same rule. Zhang Yuelu had thought she understood the world’s hardships, but now, she was not so sure. Just like how Qi Xuansu once thought himself a self-reliant wild Daoist, only to waver when he learned about Madam Qi’s other identity.