A life of two souls traveling through time

Li Yunye stood in front of the moat, which was more than ten feet wide and surrounded by towering city walls, with his arms open, cheering for joy. After half a month of hard travel, he finally arrived at the place he had longed for, Liangdu, the capital of Jingsong State.

Seeing that his brother's selfless cheering attracted the curious attention of passers-by, Mu Liang embarrassedly dragged Li Yunye towards the city.

Willows grow on both sides of the moat, the city walls are tall and majestic, and there are military defense sheds every hundred steps, and soldiers guard them. Mu Liang took Li Yunye all the way to the Dongdu Gate and introduced him to this huge Liangdu City: the city is divided into inner and outer cities. The outer city is where the people live and entertain. The inner city is also surrounded by walls on all four sides, mostly where the royal family, nobles, ministers live and work. There is also a palace city inside the inner city, and naturally the current emperor lives inside. The south gate of the inner and outer city is the imperial road, which is only for the emperor to travel. Pedestrians and horses are strictly prohibited on ordinary days, and the two south gates are rarely opened......

While listening to Mu Liang's introduction, Li Yunye marveled at the bustling scene in front of him with the noise and traffic. The streets were lined with teahouses, markets, restaurants, inns, brothels, and theaters. Merchants gathered there and there was a dazzling array of goods. The delicious aroma that filled the streets made Li Yunye hungry.

The three of them walked through the streets and came to Mu Liang's house. After Mu Liang put the luggage carriage in place, he took Li Yunye and An Yun to the restaurant. As soon as they approached a restaurant with very good business, two young men suddenly appeared in front of them and bowed repeatedly to greet them, and asked if they wanted the girls to sing songs with them, but Mu Liang smiled and sent them away. Li Yunye later learned that these two young men were commonly known as idlers, who specially waited outside some restaurants and inns to solicit business for brothels. When they saw guests who were dressed decently and looked rich, they would go up to greet them.

At this time, the first floor of the hotel was crowded with people. Some were drinking and chatting, some were listening to music, some were flirting with the girls from the brothel, some were playing finger-guessing games... Mu Liang was an old customer of this restaurant, so as soon as he entered the store, he was warmly welcomed by the owner to the private room on the second floor. After entering the private room, Li Yunye's buzzing head finally calmed down. He thought that Qile City was prosperous enough, but he didn't expect that this capital Liangdu was the real prosperous place.

Not long after they sat down, the waiter brought the dishes one after another. Since it was a welcoming lunch for Li Yunye who had come from afar, the lunch was naturally rich. Mu Liang once again introduced the dishes on the table to Li Yunye one by one: hundred-flavor soup, perilla fish, cassia seed, roasted deer, pan-fried rabbit, fried quail, milk-cooked lamb, crystal bream, and crispy abalone and snails.

Jiang Siyao was full of praise for the delicacies on the table, especially the crispy abalone snails that melted in the mouth, which were similar to modern cream desserts.

After eating and drinking, Li Yunye opened the window next to him to get some fresh air. The noisy sound from downstairs instantly came into his ears. He lay on the windowsill and looked at the people coming and going downstairs, feeling so comfortable.

"Dingling..." Suddenly, there was a crisp sound of wind chimes, and the air was filled with the pleasant smell of perfumed powder. Li Yunye, who was standing by the window on the second floor, curiously looked in the direction of the sound, and saw a carriage with a pink curtain and wind chimes slowly passing by. An old man with a long beard was driving the carriage, and four maids in pink and green jackets followed on both sides. The pink curtain on the carriage was looming, but it could be seen that there was a beautiful woman in red sitting inside. The noisy voices on both sides of the street became quiet because of the carriage passing by. Everyone stopped to look at the mysterious beauty in the pink curtain carriage. Some were envious, some were infatuated, and some fanatical people followed all the way.

"Brother Mu Liang, who is she?" Jiang Siyao looked at the scene which was like the appearance of a modern star, turned to look at Mu Liang and asked curiously.

Mu Liang was also standing by the window at this time, looking thoughtfully at the pink-canopied carriage that was gradually going away, as if he did not hear Li Yunye's question.

The taciturn An Yun had no interest in the carriage downstairs. In this crowded place, he was only concerned about the safety of the young master.

"Young Master Mu Liang." Seeing that there was no response to the young master's question, An Yun stepped forward and called out to Mu Liang who was in a trance.

"What's wrong?" Mu Liang came back to his senses, smiled, looked at An Yun and asked.

"Brother Mu Liang, something's wrong with you." Li Yunye had naturally noticed Mu Liang's abnormality. He suddenly stood up and put one hand on Mu Liang's shoulder with a gossipy smile.

"I was just thinking about the cloth shop and was distracted." Mu Liang coughed twice awkwardly, then smiled at Li Yunye.

Words can be disguised, but the evasion in the eyes can be seen clearly by Li Yunye and An Yun.

"What did you ask me just now?" Mu Liang felt a little guilty when being stared at by these two people, so he turned around and sat back in his seat, holding up a cup of tea and asked calmly.

"Who was the person in the carriage just now? It seems she is very popular." With the gossip in front of him, Li Yunye was no longer interested in what was happening outside the window. He quickly closed the window and sat back next to Mu Liang and asked curiously again.

"She is a famous prostitute in the capital, the top performer in Fengqifang, Miss Hongqing." Mu Liang said lightly and drank the warm tea in his hand. At the same time, the sadness in his eyes was hidden in the teacup.

"A famous prostitute in the capital? Then she must have some special qualities to be so famous, right?" Li Yunye became more interested after hearing this and continued to ask curiously.

"Miss Hongqing is an excellent dancer, especially good at sword dance and gun dance. She is also cheerful and cheerful, so she is quite popular among literati and chivalrous men." Mu Liang put down the teacup and said slowly.

When Jiang Siyao heard about the sword dance, she thought of Huan Yu again. After a moment of emotion, she also wanted to see the sword dance of Miss Hong Qing. On the one hand, she wanted to see if this famous prostitute in the capital could dance with a sword as heroically as Huan Yu. On the other hand, out of a dancer's instinct, she was interested in appreciating any dance performance, and by the way, she could also learn about the ancients' attainments in dance.

"Brother Muliang, is Miss Hongqing performing tonight? I also want to go and watch her dance."

When Li Yunye said this, Mu Liang stood there in embarrassment. Before leaving Qile City, his adoptive father had warned him privately to be careful of his brother Li Yunye from becoming addicted to brothels again. How could he dare to let Li Yunye go to brothels!

"Brother Muliang, don't worry. I went to the brothel just to watch Miss Hongqing's performance. I didn't have any other thoughts." Perhaps seeing Mu Liang's worry, Jiang Siyao was once again tired of Li Yunye's previous reputation. She grabbed Mu Liang's hand and pleaded, "Just this once, we will come back after the performance."

"Okay." With Li Yunye's repeated assurances, Mu Liang couldn't bear to refuse. Besides, Fengqifang has always been elegant and is different from some other messy brothels.

Li Yunye was so happy when Mu Liang agreed that he looked forward to the nightfall when he returned to his residence.