Chapter 118: The Foremost Songstress of the Dongguan Kingdom

After what happened at the Moonlit Pavilion in Dongguan, Lian continued living under Luoyue’s identity for another two months. On the one hand, she wanted to cultivate her relationship with Chongli; on the other, she wanted to see snow in the Kingdom of Dongguan.

Well... more precisely, she wanted to see the snow in Dongguan with Chongli.

Later, she relinquished her title as the foremost courtesan of the Shadowless Tower and let Chongli take her into the mountains, where they lived in seclusion. Each day, she admired the flowers, played the zither, and occasionally descended the mountain to visit Ayue. Life could hardly have been more pleasant.

According to Jinling and Lianwu, Nanyan eventually married a wealthy man as his concubine. Although she was constantly bullied by his principal wife, she was well dressed and well fed. The rich man’s wife was dissatisfied with her husband, yet had no choice but to endure him.

Within barely a month, Nanyan became pregnant. The rich man was delighted, the principal wife furious, and Nanyan worried sick, spending every day trembling with fear that the woman would beat the child out of her.

As for Moon Lady, both her parents had died, yet she still worked for their enemy. That wretched little thing even claimed that, in Moon Lady’s heart, there was more love than hatred.

Lian had been confused for a long time. It was only after the master of the Moonlit Pavilion was arrested by the authorities, and Moon Lady secretly went to see Mu Liao one last time, sobbing so hard that she could barely breathe, that Lian finally understood.

So it was possible to hate someone because one loved them.

So hatred could cut even deeper than love, leaving a person hopelessly torn.

...

My name is Full Moon, and I am a dancing girl from a pleasure house.

I have met countless people: charming scholars, gentlemen in white, nobles from powerful families, princes of the imperial house, and wealthy merchants. Yet not one of them has ever managed to claim my heart.

The Moonlit Pavilion of old was no different from the Shadowless Tower. Both were places where women sold their art, not their bodies. They were nowhere near as filthy as the world claimed.

As the foremost courtesan of the Moonlit Pavilion, I too longed for a love that was different from all others.

I was only twenty-two, yet every day the men who came to ask for my hand formed a line stretching from the southern gate to the northern gate. Without exception, I disliked every one of them.

That day, the sky was clear, without wind or cloud, when a special guest arrived at the pavilion. I thought perhaps my love had finally come.

He was only eighteen or nineteen, three or four years younger than I. Cold and aloof, dressed entirely in black, he had only to stand there to make my heart race.

I approached him with a bright smile.

“Sir, would you like to hear a song? I play the pipa and the konghou! Dancing is my specialty. What would you like to see?”

Sadly, he did not spare me a glance. He walked straight past me and into the back rooms.

I was a little disappointed, but only for a moment. A man like that, I decided, was worthy of my affection.

I would conquer him.

That was the vow Full Moon made to herself.

Two days later, I saw him again. This time, however, he had become my master. I was his leading courtesan, someone who worked for him.

He changed the rules of the pavilion. Every girl was required to sell her body and use it to bring profit to the establishment. Whether she possessed any artistic talent no longer mattered.

I told myself that he simply wanted to make money. Perhaps everything would be fine as long as I earned enough for him.

Yet in the end, I still could not give my innocence to someone I did not love. I voluntarily surrendered my title as leading courtesan and became the Moon Lady known throughout the Moonlit Pavilion.

I longed for him to look at me properly, even if only once. That alone would have been enough.

Unfortunately, that day never came.

Time passed swiftly. Little by little, I discovered that the person before me had become a stranger. I no longer wanted to love him. I wanted to escape from him.

But before I could leave the Moonlit Pavilion, I was captured and dragged back. My aged parents were seized as well, and I became his tool.

Through the endless torment, my love for him seemed to grow stronger than before, though it was now tangled with hatred.

I remained at his side and learned many things about him. It turned out that he and the master of the Shadowless Tower were half-brothers. The Shadowless Tower’s mistress had indirectly caused the death of his mother.

He had come to the Moonlit Pavilion solely for revenge, intending to bring down the Shadowless Tower.

Moon Lady tried to warn him, but he threatened her instead. For the sake of her parents’ safety, she turned herself into a puppet, concealing her love and becoming the seductive, vulgar Moon Lady spoken of by everyone.

That day, his final move failed. She also learned that her parents had already passed away. She was devastated, but no matter what, the hatred in her heart still stemmed from the fact that he did not love her.

She went to see him one last time.

In the damp, gloomy prison, he had grown much thinner. His face was pale, and even his lips had lost their moonlit color.

Trembling, she caressed his cheek and called out the name she had once whispered in her dreams night after night.

“Mu... Liao...”

He slowly lifted his head, then lowered it again. The confidence and brilliance he had once possessed were gone from his eyes. There was hardly any expression left on his face.

She called him again.

“Mu Liao...”

He kept his head bowed.

Moon Lady smiled, just as she had when they first met.

“Mu Liao, I brought you food. It is what you like. Have some.”

This time, he did not lower his head. He merely glanced at her, took the bowl and chopsticks, and began to devour the meal. He was desperately hungry.

Moon Lady watched him eat. Her eyes reddened, and tears fell uncontrollably into the bowl and onto the food.

He kept eating.

At last, he collapsed onto the ground, and his breathing slowly ceased.

Moon Lady sank to her knees and broke down in tears, drawing the attention of the prison guards.

From the food box, she took out a cup of wine, the wine he loved most—the kind that eased sorrow and made him forget that his mother was gone.

She swallowed it in one gulp.

A moment later, her stomach felt as though it were burning with fire. With a trace of yearning still in her eyes, she lay down beside him.

She succeeded in resting in his arms.

“Mu, my beloved, I know my father and mother were old and passed away from illness. I do not blame you. In our next life, you and I, your mother and my parents—we must all become one family...”

...

“He is guilty of the most heinous crimes!”

“Execute him!”

“Do not spare such a villain!”

“...”

Everywhere the procession passed through the streets, rotten vegetables and eggs were hurled at the cage. Inside sat Hu Hai.

After the incident at the Moonlit Pavilion, the emperor ordered a thorough investigation into Hu Hai. Once all the large and small crimes were gathered together, he was sentenced to immediate execution. Today was the day he was paraded through the streets as a public warning.

Hu Hai looked as though he feared neither boiling water nor death. In truth, he had already gone mad, babbling about anything that entered his mind.

“I am telling you! My aunt is the current Imperial Consort! My uncle is a magistrate! Every one of you is going to die!”

“Hey, that young lady is beautiful! Come here and let your master kiss you!”

The crowd began throwing even more rubbish. The people cursed him furiously.

“You piece of human garbage!”

“I will beat you to death, you scum!”

“Shameless!”

Someone even threw a wooden bench. It struck Hu Hai squarely, making his vision swim as blood poured down his face. No one felt the slightest pity for him.

The families he had harmed cheered loudly. Each of them wished they had been the one to throw that bench.

The emperor was a wise ruler. Because the Imperial Consort had sheltered Hu Hai, she was immediately banished to the Cold Palace. Her child was entrusted to the empress, and mother and son were forbidden to see each other for the rest of their lives.

The child was still young and understood only that whoever provided milk was his mother. He spent his days reciting scholarly phrases, firmly believing that he had been born from the empress’s womb.

The empress never mistreated him. His mother was guilty, but the child was innocent.

The magistrate, Hu Hai’s uncle, was stripped of his office and exiled to the countryside, where he became a common farmer. The fall in status was too great for him to bear, and he went completely mad, wandering aimlessly from place to place each day.

The Shadowless Tower grew ever more prosperous. It continued to uphold the principle of selling art, not bodies, and became the foremost pleasure house in the Kingdom of Dongguan.