How to become a Taoist priest starting from a brothel

Speaking of Zhang Yueniang, Liu Yin was somewhat taken aback. She had thought that after Zhang Yueniang had come to her senses, she would be able to stay in the red-light district for a while longer. However, she did not expect that during the time she went to the capital, Zhang Yueniang used her own abilities to find a merchant to redeem her from prostitution. She even married him and became his second wife. Now she has settled down in Huaicheng.

When she came to her senses, she heard Xu Yueling say bluntly to the girl: "Although the brothels in the red-light district never ask about the women's origins, the rules at Qingyin Hall are different now. At least we will ask where they come from and why. We will never use deception or coercion. So, young lady, you should explain your origins clearly."

While Liu Yin was lost in thought, Xu Yueling had already asked the girl her name and age, but refused to say a word about her family background.

Xu Yueling was initially tempted to keep her by noticing that although she was not particularly beautiful, she had a pair of extremely clear eyes. However, she was also angered by her silent demeanor.

Seeing Xu Yueling's reaction, Liu Yin didn't speak. After all, she had already handed over all the affairs of Qingyin Hall to Xu Yueling and didn't want to interfere.

The girl was frightened by Xu Yueling's look of wanting to chase her away. She hurriedly took two steps forward and said tremblingly, "I...I...I'll talk...I'll talk."

Seeing that she was willing to speak, Xu Yueling waved away the helpers and nodded to them.

“My name is Fang Tianqiao. I am fifteen years old this year. I am the daughter of the former magistrate of Ping'an County under the jurisdiction of Qincheng. My father was convicted of a crime in his early years and has passed away. My mother could not bear the blow and also followed my father. My brother and I moved to Huaicheng and live here. Now there are only my brother and me and three old servants in the house.”

Hearing about Fang Tianqiao's background, Liu Yin and Xu Yueling were both surprised. They knew that in this era, a county magistrate was not someone that ordinary people from poor families could hold the position of. After all, they were from an official family. If the women of such families were not abducted and deceived, they would never end up selling themselves in brothels.

Thinking of this, Liu Yin asked directly before Xu Yueling could speak, "Since you come from an official family, even if your family has suffered misfortune, you still have your elder brother by your side. How did you end up in prostitution?"

Fang Tianqiao paused for a moment before replying tremblingly with a sorrowful expression, "I was originally a daughter of a good family, how could I have wanted to do something that would tarnish our family's reputation, but... but..."

Amidst the mournful cries, Liu Yin and Xu Yueling finally learned the gist of the matter.

To be precise, this matter is also somewhat related to Liu Yin.

Ever since she published her book under the name of the Hermit, she has been under the attention of the imperial court. In particular, uprisings in various places were said to have been influenced by the Hermit's new book, which led to large-scale searches across the country.

Especially after rumors spread that the recluse was hiding in brothels, brothels in various places were affected, particularly those in the Qin and Huai prefectures that were famous for their brothels. Furthermore, the fact that Liu Jianniang came from a brothel in Huaicheng made Huaicheng an even more crucial area.

Therefore, quite a few students have been arrested in Huaicheng. As for whether there are any recluses among them, the officials do not know, but they believe that it is better to arrest the wrong people than to let them go.

Fang Tianqiao's brother was such an unlucky fellow. In order to support his family, he wrote a lot of books following the current trends. Because of his decent writing skills, he was able to barely raise his sister as before.

Unexpectedly, he was caught in this massive search. Because he came from a family of disgraced officials, and someone secretly testified that he had complained about the world and the court while drunk, plus the fact that he wrote a book, several factors combined, and he was thrown into prison.

Fang Tianqiao, pampered all her life, had no survival skills. Her brother was imprisoned and his fate was unknown. Several old servants, seeing that there was only an ignorant girl left in the house, seized the family property and drove her out. With nowhere else to go, she had no choice but to remember a few unintentional words from her neighbor and decided to sell herself in the red-light district.

She chose Qingyintang because it was the only brothel she had heard about in the red-light district where the madam was a young woman. It was also the only place in the red-light district that was not only closed during the Mid-Autumn Festival, but also had faint sounds of singing and laughter coming from inside. This showed that it was a relatively better brothel.

After listening to her story, Liu Yin sighed softly, feeling a pang of sadness. Although she had considered that the books written by hermits might be shocking and that the court might ban them, she never expected that they would cause so many innocent people to suffer.

She saw that Xu Yueling accepted Fang Tianqiao's gift with a grateful expression, and even lent her some money so that she could buy some necessities. She also arranged for the maids to book rooms and flower names for her.

Liu Yin, however, seemed rather disheartened. She gave Xu Yueling a few instructions and then went upstairs.

Xu Yueling didn't know why she suddenly felt down, but assumed that she was kind-hearted and felt sorry for Fang Tianqiao, so she didn't say anything more.

Liu Yin returned to her room upstairs, sat at her desk, took out her completed work, "Qingming Le," from a box, looked at it for a long time, sighed deeply, put the manuscript on the table, and leaned back in her chair.

It was a very long time before the area downstairs quieted down, the moon climbed to the treetops, and stars filled the night sky.

Liu Yin picked up the manuscript again, her eyes hardening. She took out a large night cloak from the cabinet and draped it over herself.

She quietly opened the door of Qingyin Hall, carefully walked through the narrow, winding alleys, and avoided the patrolling soldiers before arriving at Shengyuan Trading Company.

"Why are you here, young lady?" Cui Heng asked, noticing her surprise.

Liu Yin didn't chat with him much and handed him the manuscript: "Arrange for people to print it starting from the capital and distribute it outside the capital. Use the mimeograph machine I taught you."

"Okay, when do we start?" Although Cui Heng was a little confused, he quickly nodded in agreement.

"The sooner the better," Liu Yin instructed, then turned to leave without saying anything more.

"Miss." Cui Heng called out to her, and when she turned around, he continued, "Mei Wu left with the Second Miss, and Zhu Mei and the others are all weak and helpless. Why don't I find someone here to protect you and help you run errands?"

Liu Yin thought for a moment before nodding in agreement: "Okay."

Seeing that she agreed, Cui Heng smiled. After arranging for someone he trusted to carefully escort Liu Yin away, he hurried to arrange the book.

Liu Yin returned to Qingyin Hall and finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking about her arrangements.

The next morning, she saw that Xu Yueling had already arranged for Fang Tianqiao to begin learning her craft, so she thought for a moment and went downstairs.

"What? You're here to teach today?" Xu Yueling looked at her with some surprise.

"I have something to discuss with you." Liu Yin didn't reply to her, but instead pulled her aside.

"Go ahead," Xu Yueling said, somewhat puzzled, and followed her to a place a little further away.

"Don't arrange for Fang Tianqiao to learn any skills for now, and don't rush to give her a stage name either," Liu Yin said after thinking for a moment.

Xu Yueling asked, somewhat puzzled, "What do you mean?"

Liu Yin replied, "After all, she comes from an official family and has an older brother by her side. What if her brother comes back? Wouldn't we be ruining her life? Anyway, she can't learn it in a short time and can't register her nameplate. Let's just let her rest for a couple of days."

Xu Yueling looked at Liu Yin with hesitation, wondering why the other party would suddenly make such a plan. But as Liu Yin said, it wouldn't matter whether Fang Tianqiao learned the craft or not now, so she nodded in agreement.