How to become a Taoist priest starting from a brothel

Three days had passed and Xu's mother still hadn't taken any action. Xu Yueling was getting anxious. After Xu Yinling was injured, she regarded Qingyintang as her own property. Naturally, she hoped to extract more and better lyrics and music from Liu Yin so that she could remain invincible in the red-light district.

But now, seeing that her proud mother was unwilling to back down, she was naturally very anxious. That day, she hesitated downstairs for a long time before finally deciding to go up and persuade her again. But before she could even reach the door, she saw Aunt Zhao leading this man in a hurry from the back door straight to this side. Not wanting to be seen, she had to temporarily avoid him.

Aunt Zhao left with her people in no time, and then she saw Xu Mama follow her out. Seeing that she couldn't see anyone today, Xu Yueling had no choice but to go back to her room. No one knew how anxious she was when she got back.

Meanwhile, Xu's mother hurriedly led her people to the Liu residence by car. It turned out that Aunt Zhao had brought her eldest son. She came to report that after keeping a close watch on the Liu residence for several days, they discovered that apart from a cook who did daily shopping, there was only a martial arts-practicing maid who occasionally went to Master Wu's house to practice martial arts. There was no contact with outsiders, and they had also inquired about the women in this family, who did not like to socialize with others.

After hearing this, she naturally realized that she had guessed wrong. It was probably just as Xu Yueling said that everything was due to Liu Yin's own abilities, which is why she hurriedly went over to negotiate.

When she arrived at the Liu residence and saw the mother and daughter, she didn't continue to argue with them as she used to. In the past few days, because the two leading courtesans of Qingyin Hall were injured, many customers had turned to other places. In particular, they had all learned three songs and lyrics, and she didn't have any capable courtesans to replace them, so she was getting worse day by day. Otherwise, she wouldn't have rushed over as soon as she heard the news today.

Now that she had met Liu Yin, she was about to speak, but then she remembered Xu Yueling's idea. After thinking for a moment, she changed her tone and said, "My niece has been angry with me for several days. She should calm down. You are someone I have watched grow up since you were a child. Why make things unpleasant over a little money?"

"Auntie, you're joking. My niece has just been feeling unwell these past few days and doesn't have money to buy new clothes and jewelry. She's not angry at all." Seeing that she was being considerate, Liu Yin decided to reciprocate.

"Yes, yes, yes, Auntie will give you the best jewelry from Treasure Pavilion and the most beautiful dresses from Lanyi Pavilion later. Are you feeling much better now? The brothel really can't live without you." Madam Xu said with a smile, holding Liu Yin's hand.

“It’s not that my daughter doesn’t want to go, it’s just that the illness from back then has left a lingering problem. She’s been sick three times in five days, which has delayed Auntie’s business. Why don’t you find another priest and let your niece redeem her contract?” Liu Yin said, pulling on Xu’s mother’s hand with the same smiling face.

"This..." Mrs. Xu hesitated for a moment, not expecting this to come with an additional clause, and then immediately said, "Business in the brothel is really tough these days. I'm suffering. Please do me a favor and let's change the contract to two years, so you can get some rest."

"Of course I want to thank Auntie for her kindness, but cough cough... cough cough..." Liu Yin coughed as she spoke, as if she was about to cough up her heart and lungs.

Mrs. Xu knew she was faking it, and her face changed, about to turn hostile. But thinking of the sudden drop in business, she held back and gritted her teeth before asking, "But what?"

"How about... a year?" Liu Yin stopped pretending when she saw her expression change and directly stated her purpose.

"No!" Madam Xu could no longer hold back and stood up abruptly. "If I hadn't given you a way out, Liu Jianniang, you would have died in the mass grave long ago. Now, for a piece of trash and a hundred or so taels of silver, you repay kindness with enmity?"

"Treating kindness with enmity? What kindness? You bought me and gave the money to my father. Even if you raised me for ten years, you could support ten or eight more people and still not spend it all. If I weren't still useful to you, would you have made me a teacher? I didn't charge you a single penny for being your teacher, and I was responsible for training courtesans and writing lyrics and music. Yet you wish I were still the ant you used to manipulate, and you'd love to scrape my skin off at any opportunity. You said you'd teach me every three days, but when have you ever failed to come running whenever I called?"

"You! Fine, fine, fine, you've really grown wings. You really think I can't handle you anymore? Look what this is!" Enraged by Liu Yin, Xu's mother pulled a piece of paper from her bosom.

Liu Yin looked at the paper, which was her original contract, and hesitated, wondering where she had been careless and left a loophole in the contract. Before she could take the contract to check it, Xu Mama quickly hid it away, and then said triumphantly, "Back then, you signed Zhang Qiao'er, not Liu Jianniang. Zhang Qiao'er and Liu Jianniang are so interesting. One is a past married woman, and the other is the newly emerging Liu Jianniang."

Hearing her pointed words, Liu Yin was filled with regret. How could she have forgotten about this? She thought that apart from the fact that the people in the building were familiar with Qing Yin and could not hide it, so they either kept quiet or were bribed. Even if someone pried them open, there was no concrete evidence, and she could simply refuse to admit it. But she never expected that she would have this trick up her sleeve.

Even if she could deny it to the death, if this thing were sent to the government, all her efforts would be in vain. She would probably be sent to a government-run brothel where she couldn't redeem herself. Liu Yin only had memories of Qing Yin growing up in Qingyin Hall and didn't know that not only was she afraid of being exposed, but Xu Mama was also afraid. She was just betting that Liu Yin didn't know and that Liu Shi hadn't stopped Liu Yin back then.

Liu Yin also remembered that she had signed the document in front of Madam Liu. She couldn't help but look up at her. Seeing that Madam Liu avoided her gaze, her heart sank. She knew that they had only just met, and Madam Liu had a reason to try to control her. However, they had been spending a lot of time together, and she didn't expect that the other party had never reminded her. However, she didn't have time to communicate with Madam Liu for the time being, and just looked at Xu Mama: "What does Mama want?"

Seeing that she had changed her form of address, Xu's mother naturally knew that she had relented, and she breathed a sigh of relief because she had won her gamble: "The contract is still for two years, and I require you to produce a set of lyrics and music every month, and train a capable flower maid every six months."

“A contract is fine.” Liu Yin naturally had no objection to this, as that was her original plan. “I can’t train someone in six months, but I can train one who is outstanding, at least someone that your Qingyin Hall can be proud of. As for lyrics and music, I can only do one set every three months at most. I don’t have the ability to do one set every month.”

Liu Yin could directly plagiarize the songs from her previous life and make one set a month, but she didn't want the other party to get that advantage, nor did she want to keep relying on plagiarism.

"No, at least one set every two months. A presentable courtesan every six months is fine, but I want a top courtesan every year." Xu's mother didn't want to argue with Liu Yin anymore, so she directly stated her bottom line and made a move to leave.

After a moment's hesitation, Liu Yin agreed. The two destroyed the original contract and signed a new one in Liu Jianniang's name. This time, Liu Yin gave the contract to Liu Shi: "Mother, please find someone to help me handle this at the government office."

Madam Liu was quite surprised, not expecting that Liu Yin would trust her even so. The thought that had been lingering in her mind was finally settled at this moment. She smiled and nodded in agreement: "Of course, I'll take care of everything."

After discussing it, Xu's mother said, "Don't blame me for urging you. If possible, why don't we go to Qingyintang tomorrow and pick a decent place to spend the next few months?"

Liu Yin naturally had no objections and saw the person off, but she didn't expect that Madam Liu would want to see her. She went into the other person's room, and Madam Liu asked Aunt Qian to stand guard at the door before pulling Liu Yin aside to tell her story.