General, you should rest now; the lady is even more ruthless.

"You can go now," Jiang Qiqi said to Lin'er.

"But Ninth Master, you..."

"I am fine."

Jiang Qiqi gave her a reassuring look: "You can just wait outside."

"Yes." Lin'er left.

The young woman played her zither without stopping.

Seeing this, Jiang Qiqi sat down, poured herself a cup of tea, and listened to the music silently without saying a word.

When the piece ended, the music stopped.

Miss Yi slowly emerged from behind the screen.

She was dressed in a light pink gauze dress, and her face was covered with a semi-transparent white veil.

She has a mysterious air about her, like a woman playing the pipa while half-concealing her face; she truly deserves to be the top performer.

"This servant greets you, sir." She bowed slightly, and the light veil that was half-draped over her body fell off, revealing Miaoman's figure in its entirety.

Seeing this, Jiang Qiqi curled into a lewd smile and slowly approached.

"This lady truly lives up to her reputation."

……

Lin'er had been standing outside for less than half an hour when she saw her mistress open the door and come out.

"Let's go." Jiang Qiqi waved her fan, her expression unchanged from when she entered the room, as if she had never been inside.

"Yes."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

No sooner had Jiang Qiqi left than Wu Ming arrived.

A large and impressive group of people.

"Oh, sir, you've arrived. Miss Yiren has been waiting for you for a long time."

The madam greeted him with a smile: "It's been a while since you've been here."

Wu Ming waved his hand and tossed her a silver ingot: "It's all because people from the imperial court have come. I've been busy with them these past few days."

They were mainly busy hiding the shameful things they had done before.

The madam, having received the money, considered her task complete and led her "god of wealth" upstairs: "Sir, please go upstairs."

Wu Ming left his men outside and went in alone.

As soon as he opened the door, he saw the beauty he had been longing for sitting at the table making tea.

He chuckled lewdly, "Miss Yi, you seem to be in a good mood today."

The woman replied, her voice full of coquettishness: "Isn't this because I knew you were coming, my lord? I've missed you so much. It's been so long."

"Haha, okay." Wu Ming sat down, his hands restlessly groping her body.

She poured him a cup of tea, then went behind him and started massaging his shoulders.

Wu Ming enjoyed her service and comfortably closed his eyes, relaxing his mood.

"Sir, please try some tea. It's specially brewed for you." Seeing that he didn't react, she urged him.

"I know you too well, you're just good at pretending to be cultured." Even as he said this, Wu Ming still picked up his teacup and took a sip.

"hiss."

He took another sip.

He turned to look at the smug-looking person behind him.

"My dear, this tea is excellent, truly excellent!" It's far superior to the tea in his own household.

Her voice, tinged with laughter, came through: "I'm glad you like it, sir."

"Come, Yiren, please sit down." Wu Ming pulled her down to sit, stopped rubbing her shoulders, and asked her with a serious expression.

"Tell me, where did you get this tea? Do you have any more?"

The woman was startled by this display: "This was just given to me by someone. There's only a little bit, but I've brewed it all for you."

Wu Ming asked, "Who gave it to the girl?"

Although he was Cui Zhi's confidant, he still had to bribe his superiors and subordinates regularly.

This tea is clearly not ordinary; it would be wonderful if he could get some and send it to Cui Zhi.

When the young lady heard him ask this question, she told the truth: "This tea was just given to me by a young master. He was very pleased when I played a tune, so he gave me some tea leaves."

He had just come downstairs before you arrived.

"I see." Wu Ming thought for a moment, "Someone come here."

The guard outside came in upon hearing the noise: "Sir, what are your orders?"

Wu Ming asked Yi Ren to describe the characteristics of the person who gave her the tea, and then said to his men, "Go find this person. He shouldn't have gone far. Bring him to me."

"Yes," the person below responded.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Jiang Qiqi and the others left the Yihong Courtyard but did not go back. Instead, they wandered aimlessly in the streets.

"Miss, what are you looking at?" Lin'er asked, puzzled.

Her young lady has been squatting by the river for a long time.

I also pulled up a few blades of grass.

"Waiting for someone." Jiang Qiqi casually pulled off another one.

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw several figures hurrying around and looking around in the distance...

Jiang Qiqi subtly smiled.

He whispered to Lin'er, "Don't resist."

……

Jiang Qiqi and Zheng Lin'er were taken back to the Yihong Courtyard.

To be precise, he was taken to the room of the beautiful young lady in the brothel.

"Sir, we have brought the person."

When Wu Ming saw the people being escorted in, he immediately feigned anger: "A bunch of bastards! I told you to go and invite them over, but what do you do? You brought my honored guests here under guard."

After saying that, he smiled at Jiang Qiqi and asked, "What is your name, sir?"

"I dare not address you as a brother, sir, Mu Sijiu."

Jiang Qiqi seemed very angry at those people's rudeness. She moved her arm and sat down in the chair by herself, her tone not exactly friendly.

"Brother Mu, my name is Wu Ming. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Jiang Qiqi did not respond to him.

She glanced at Wu Ming and said, "I wonder what crime I have committed that you have sent men to bring me here in the middle of the night?"

Wu Ming originally just wanted to give him a warning and let him know that he had some influence in Longcheng, but he didn't expect the other party to not take it seriously at all.

He immediately formed some judgments about the other party.

He smiled and poured Jiang Qiqi a cup of tea.

"Brother Mu, it's all a misunderstanding. It's all the fault of my servants," he said.

Jiang Qiqi picked up the tea and snacks, took a sip, her expression softened slightly but she didn't speak, clearly waiting for him to say something next.

“That’s right,” Wu Ming said. “I happened to have a sip of the tea that Brother Mu gave to Miss Yiren just now, and I knew from the first sip that it was no ordinary tea.”

He paused for a moment, then took out a silver ingot from his sleeve: "I wonder if Brother Mu has any more? I'd like to buy some."

Jiang Qiqi was waiting for him to say those words.

But she didn't reveal anything, only frowning as she looked at the silver on the table.

“That tea? No, I won’t sell it,” she said.

Although he verbally refused, Wu Ming understood from the other party's expression.

"Is the price too high? Brother Mu, don't worry. Although I am just a minor official, I have some assets at home and can afford the money."

Wu Ming was prepared for this; he knew the tea must be valuable. He then took out another silver ingot.

Jiang Qiqi lowered her head and pretended to be in a difficult position: "Price is one thing, Brother Wu, but I don't have much tea here."

Indeed, it wasn't much; it was only a few taels that the Nineteenth Prince brought from the capital.

"It's alright, Brother Mu." Seeing that the other party's attitude had softened, Wu Ming pressed his advantage, "Name your price, and I'll buy as many as you have."

Since that's the case, Jiang Qiqi said, "Five taels of tea. One thousand taels of silver."