Chapter 507: Chapter 182: The Great Fire
In Fengle Building, the silken bamboo music boiled with life.
On Qinghe Street in South City, land was worth its weight in gold, with the best storefronts renting out for over a thousand pieces of gold a year, yet Rouge Lane at this end was much cheaper.
The shopkeeper of Fengle Building saved on rent but poured all the saved silver into this wooden pavilion.
The entire pavilion was made of wood, with its beams intricately carved with images of the twenty-four solar terms, and they had invited twenty-four girls of stunning beauty, each named after the solar terms. Especially at night, and in the summer, when the river breeze was cool, with the wooden windows slightly open, the pavilion was filled with laughter, and the sound of orioles and dancing swallows, while down by the river were tea pavilions and painting boats, with bustling night markets and brilliant lights, a truly glittering and prosperous sight.
It might not be as rich and enchanting as Qinghe Street, but it had more of the worldly hustle and bustle of the common prosperous folk.
In the smallest loft on the top floor of Fengle Building, precious incense burned from a censer, ancient paintings hung, two singers knelt to one side, heads bowed as they gently stroked the zither, next to the pearl lamp beside a bed draped in ornate fabric, with a moon-blue carpet embroidered with peonies spread on the floor.
The colored silk fluttered with a fragrant breeze, and the lines were soft and flowers delicate, not overshadowing the beauty. Beauties stepped onto the stage to sing and dance, their embroidered socks and silk dresses disappearing with their steps.
But there were no beauties dancing on the carpet in the room, only a disheveled man lying askew on the floor, his head and neck propped against the foot of the couch. Silver plates, a jade pot, and cups were scattered across the floor, emitting a fragrant and exotic smell. The man’s expression was dazed, he slumped on the ground, licking his lips.
This man was none other than Qi Yutai, the young master of the Grand Preceptor’s Mansion.
Qi Yutai had come to Fengle Building to "have a good time."
Cold Food Powder was a forbidden substance, rare and hard to come by. Qi Qing had people watching him, and the shopkeepers of the winehouses on Qinghe Street always communicated with the mansion as soon as they saw him. If he went elsewhere to enjoy himself, without any silver, having been cut off financially by Qi Qing, he would not be able to get far.
Fortunately, he had a generous sister, Qi Huaying had given him a silver note some days ago, enough for him to indulge himself several times over at Fengle Building.
Today, taking advantage of the fact that Qi Qing had not returned from entering the palace, Qi Yutai came to Fengle Building at dusk. He confidently made his way to the innermost "Jingzhe" warm chamber.
There were twenty-four such chambers on the top floor of the building, reserved especially for the distinguished guests, where the furnishings and decorations were even more exquisite than downstairs. The "Jingzhe" chamber was where he stayed every time he visited.
Originally, there was a Jingzhe Spring Painting on the wall, which depicted damsels watching the light rain by the window against the backdrop of a lush willow in a breeze, and Qi Yutai quite liked it. However, he didn’t know when a new painting had taken its place, one with clouds and thunder about to burst, hinting at an imminent spring rain, with dragons and serpents tumbling through the dark clouds, a drastic shift from the previous painting’s delicate and soft sentiment.
Qi Yutai, drowsy and heavy, noticed this and pointed at the painting, "When was this painting changed?"
In the room, the zither strings suddenly halted, and the singers pulled back their hands, replying respectfully, "Replying to the Young Master, two months ago, a guest who was dining in this room accidentally spilled drink on the painting, so we replaced it with a new one."
Two months ago...
Qi Yutai suddenly realized that he hadn’t been to Fengle Building in two months, which explained why he was not quite familiar with the change of paintings.
Actually, it had been quite a while since he had last visited Fengle Building.
Ever since his involvement in the tribute case, somehow it led to the entanglement with Fan Zhenglian, the Trial Court’s judicious official. Once his father learned about Qi Yutai’s previously unintentional molestation of a respectable married woman at Fengle Building, he confined him at home for a long stretch of time, denying him access to silver, and except for a proper birthday celebration at Yuxian Tower, he rarely had the chance to "enjoy himself" outside again.
Qi Yutai couldn’t understand why his father was so fixated on a mere merchant’s wife, he even had people go to the woman’s hometown to inquire, but in the end, they came up empty—the woman’s family was already deceased.
Qi Yutai had no particular memory of Fan Zhenglian, but due to this incident, he thought Fan Zhenglian handled things properly; otherwise, it would have brought about many more groundless troubles.
Unfortunately, Fan Zhenglian was already dead, and gradually, as gossip sought fresher scandals, the judicial official was slowly forgotten, and as for the prematurely dead merchant’s wife, she was soon discarded from people’s memories.
Qi Yutai originally couldn’t recall the face of the merchant’s wife, but seeing the newly replaced silk painting before him made the blurry image a bit clearer.
He remembered it was in this same room, under the same pearl lamp, on the same carpet, when he had hazily seen the woman’s face. It was a very delicate and fair face, strikingly lovely, her beautiful autumn-water eyes looked at him in terror. She kicked and hit him, but her feeble strength was nothing compared to that of an adult man as he pressed her down on the couch, forcing her to gaze at the painting of the beauty enjoying spring...
The beauty in the painting silently shed tears, her brows tightly furrowed.
The beauty beneath him cried and wailed with tears falling like broken pearls.