13 Ch. 13: Temple

It was as if the clouds had cleared away from the sky, revealing the brilliant sun beneath. Wan Xiaomei took in the entire view with an open mouth: from the peerlessly smooth skin, to the clever, fox-like eyes, to the delicate rosebud lips quirked in a half-grin.

"Benefactor, why didn't you tell me you were this beautiful, ah?" Wan Xiaomei breathed out in shock.

She had always been considered on the lovelier side when she moved to the rural village with her mother a few years prior. Her own face was without blemish and while not the most pleasing, it wasn't an eyesore in the slightest. But now, looking at her benefactor, she felt the difference between them was that between the mud and the sky.

Although Meifeng was amused by her subordinate's reaction, her response was as carefree as ever.

"Beauty..." she replied, her eyes trailing off as she picked up a piece of fabric to dry herself with, "is not as consequential as intelligence."

"That's true, of course," Wan Xiaomei proudly agreed as he did not care for the occasional stares she had received from unmarried bachelors. "If I weren't smart, I would still be stuck in a slaver's cage."

Meifeng nodded slightly in agreement.

"Get dressed," she calmly ordered, beginning to tie on the colorful skirt of a singing girl's ensemble.

Wan Xiaomei was visibly confused. "Why must I wear these vulgar clothes?"

System was similarly perplexed. "Master, I can see no benefit in dressing as a prostitute. Have you given up on your mission and decided to make an easy living from your face?"

"Too loud," Meifeng lightly snapped at both. The two young girls finished dressing in silence. Wan Xiaomei looked ill at ease in her turquoise ensemble, the open shoulder making her shiver despite the steamy bath she had just had. She sulked slightly as Meifeng began to do her hair, nimble fingers like slender pieces of white jade weaving hair into the same hairdo as the napping woman from earlier.

Meifeng lightly dabbed powder on both their faces, slowly teaching Wan Xiaomei how to properly apply rouge upon her cheeks and lip. Wan Xiaomei watched with wide eyes, briefly forgetting her current location of a brothel as Meifeng worked her magic. The young daughter had previously been poor and rather active, preferring to run around her home as opposed to learning womanly matters from her mother. To see herself wear makeup she had only witnessed in paintings on the rare noblewoman she had seen from a distance in her youth, it left her speechless.

She wordlessly pressed her lips onto the sheet of rouge Meifeng had handed to her, watching the center of her lips obtain a bright magenta color.

"I like it!" she yelped with enthusiasm as she regarded herself in a bronze mirror.

"Quiet," Meifeng warned again as Wan Xiaomei's voice carried ug the stairs they had descended. But it was too late.

A clomping could be heard from above along with a harsh, matronly voice.

"Who is still down here when you should be out interacting with our guests?" the woman asked in a tone that brokered no nonsense. First, swinging pink skirts could be seen, before a woman in her late thirties walked down the stairs with an imposing aura. Chunky rubies sat around her thickening neck, an old gift from a previous wealthy client. She was the matron of this particularly successful brothel in Jiangnan, long famed for having the most beautiful women in the west of the Empire.

Like any wise businesswoman, she ran a tight ship and did not tolerate any mistakes from the girls who worked there. However, like many others in business, the matron suffered from a disease called greed. If any of her girls didn't meet a certain quota for the night, they would be denied food until they successfully met the quota or quit and became a lowly maid for the brothel. And to be a maid in a brothel, able to be touched and played with by clients as you clean but not paid for your services, was the nightmare of any poor soul who found herself sold to that particular brothel.

The matron looked angrily at the corner of the room where two young saplings stood dressed as songstresses, her gaudy fan flapping lazily on her face. But her eyes were quick and she had a knack for remembering any face, the lazy expression morphing into suspicion.

"Who are you two?" she asked warily, certain she had never seen these two girls in the last batch of fresh girls she had received. They both looked lovely, especially the one standing further away that didn't have the perpetual fear and nervousness most of the new recruits had.

"Using my clothes and my makeup, you will have to pay the price. Otherwise," she said casting a greedy look at how pretty and virginal they looked, "you can work for me and pay it off! The cost starts at 30 taels!"

Wan Xiaomei quite literally gasped at the obscene price the woman had given. It had been long since she properly lived in the western city with her mother and brother, before her older brother moved to school and they could no longer afford the high city rates. However, she knew with great certainty that the items they had used were by no means worth 30 taels.

"You're a white-eyed wolf," she snapped and cocked her head to the side in a condescending way, her smart tongue on display. "Just a cheap fabric that almost tore with one touch and powder that feels greasy on my face. 30 taels? I wouldn't even pay 1 tael!"

The matron had expected to receive a feisty response from the prettier girl, so it surprised her when the plainer thief opened her newly rouged lips and tore her face in regards to the cheap products she always bought to save money. In truth, Wan Xiaomei did not know the products were bad quality but had somehow managed to voice the truth.

"You... you..." the matron sputtered angrily, the skin of her neck and wobbly chin that wasn't covered in powder slowly turning red, "Wait until you see what I do with you. Security! There are thieves!"

Her last words came with a scream and from a distance, Meifeng could hear thick boots approach their location. She looked at Wan Xiaomei and the girl similarly understood. Although nothing could've prepared Wan Xiaomei for Meifeng to violently tug apart the elaborate hairdo she had just finished and dunk her hands in the bathwater. Meifeng dragged her hands under Wan Xiaomei's eyes, making false tear tracks through the powder, and smugged her rouge before doing the same to herself.

The matron did not make any sense of the thieves' nonsensical actions, but she was far too focused on calling security over to focus on them.

"Run," Meifeng ordered sharply, already breaking into a sprint towards the stairs. They would be trapped if the guards arrived before them. As they pushed past the blustering woman hollering obscenities, Wan Xiaomei's sticky fingers could not resist themselves, tugging the ruby necklace free from the matron's neck.

"Aaah! My necklace! You filthy thieves will pay for this!" the matron cried, huffing up the stairs after them. The two girls were younger and nimbler, maintaining a good distance between themselves and the matron. They bust through the back exit as if the entire building was on fire, startling the napping girl back to life.

"Cha Luyan, why are you napping back here? You dirty girl, when I am through with these thieves you are next. Men, after them!" the matron bellowed from inside. Wan Xiaomei geared up to run even faster but was immediately startled by Meifeng settling down to a slow jog and putting a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Benefactor, if we are caught that woman will skin us alive!" Wan Xiaomei warned in between heaving breaths, worried Meifeng did not understand the gravity of the situation.

"I know," Meifeng said resolutely, her quiet confidence dragging Wan Xiaomei out of her panic. "Now listen closely to my instructions. From this moment for, in front of others address me as Miss. We have been kidnapped into a brothel against our will after my parents died. Somehow, we managed to escape and ran to a temple to seek refuge."

"Temple?" Wan Xiaomei asked with visible confusion. "The only temple within walking distance is Yonghe Temple."

Meifeng naturally knew this, as she had heard one of the poachers muttering about the places his batty old mother liked to visit.

"Yes. Guide us there. And one more thing," Meifeng said calmly with her hand outstretched. "Give me the necklace."

The clammer of gathered guards was getting louder, Wan Xiaomei nervously looked back but the ruby necklace was still firmly in her grasp.

"Why?" she asked petulantly. Meifeng fixed her with the same look one would regard a disobedient child with until Wan Xiaomei unwillingly handed it over.

"That could have fed us for weeks and weeks, Benefactor," Wan Xiaomei whined as they began to pick up speed again.

"Who says I'm throwing it away?" Meifeng said with a dangerous twinkle in her eye.

System nervously swallowed. The last time it saw such a glint in its Master's eye, Xiao Peng had been skewered like a kebab.

Wan Xiaomei led the escape path towards Yonghe Temple, her long legs and thieving mannerisms having afforded her great haste. However, Meifeng deliberately hung back a little. It was a tantalizing gap between her and the pursuing guards, followed by the shrieking matron.

She was almost close enough for them to reach, strands of hair dancing just out of reach. It kept the primal thrill of the hunt alive, burning hot enough for them to fail to notice that they were exiting the wilder section of the city they would normally stay within.

The matron had somehow managed to climb into a small covered palanquin, her shrill voice still audible as two burly men carried her behind the herd of pursuing guards.

"Catch them! Whoever catches them will have their slave contract burnt and won't owe me any more money!" she cried from the palanquin.

It was indeed a good offer, for men whose life almost entirely hung on the whim of a greedy, hateful woman. Their hearts pumped faster with adrenaline as they doggedly followed the girls through various alleyways and pushing past bewildered night going civilians.

"What is this?"

"I have never seen such madness. All these men just to chase two prostitutes? How shameful," someone chuckled obnoxiously. It was indeed a spectacle for the otherwise silent evening and would be mocked amongst citizens for months to come.

The emptying streets transitioned to nature and snow slick paths, the path slowly arching upwards. Wan Xiaomei in the lead slightly stumbled in the decorative but slippery shoes she had taken from the brothel. Her heart leapt in her throat when she looked back and noticed her benefactor almost within arm's length of their pursuers. The faint lights ahead guarding the front of the serene temple became a beacon of hope.

It had been an uphill battle trying to reach the temple. Shrieking could still be heard in the distance, but the dense pack that had followed them through the edge of town and up towards Yonghe Temple had barely thinned out since. By the time Wan Xiaomei stumbled up the worn, stone path onto the smooth platform the Temple was constructed upon, her distress was not fake.

Yonghe Temple was not particularly far from Jiangnan, but the ambiance of the two could not be more opposite. Even if one did not deem themselves a believer in religion, there was an undeniable holy aura surrounding the temple., even the air felt especially fresh The stone wall weathered from years of exposure and carved with small buddhist symbols. A peaceful retreat for the wealthy who could afford to worship their dead and buy sesame oil, it was distinctly different from the overflowing metropolis below.

Sprigs of green poked through packed snow, a few winding up the sides of the gate and twining around the curved points on the roof. It was as if the temple had always been there, simply being brought into being on this quiet hill at the edge of Jiangnan. A lone bell rang with each breeze as it hung from the corner of a gate, until the madness approaching the peaceful temple overpowered the gentle ringing that carried in the wind.

"Somebody," Wan Xiaomei cried weakly, letting out a thin cough and grabbing onto the gate with both hands. "Please help us!" She shook the gate her hardest, but it was sturdily constructed decades ago and would not budge. A sharp sting ran through her recently broken hand from all the tugging, only fueling her panicked calls.

She looked back desperately to see her benefactor come up the curve of the hill with the chasing brothel guards in tow, a distinct shrieking growing clearer with each second.

Meifeng reached the summit and too regarded the famed Yonghe Temple that was revered as the most famous temple west of the imperial capital. But unlike perhaps anyone who had ever visited the esteemed location, her delicate lips curved into a gentle frown of pure disgust for a heartbeat before the look melted away. She could feel them, after all. The hidden eyes from inside that watched the scene without interfering.

Wan Xiaomei was frantic, her eyes wide enough to see the whites surrounding her pupils as she backed away from the unanswered gate and looked towards the approaching throng. There was a hopelessness in her eyes, for she had not been sheltered in her youth and had long been aware of the atrocities that could be committed against women.

"Benefactor," she said in a voice that was holding back tears. There was no blame in her eyes, just fear for what was to come.

Meifeng had slowed to a walk once she had reached the level ground the entry to the temple had been constructed upon. She walked past her cowering subordinate and gave the young daughter a gentle pat to the shoulder.

"You've done well," she remarked in an even tone, one that did not belie the gravity of the situation.

Wan Xiaomei stood frozen, startled at her benefactor's lack of reaction. The world seemed to hang still as she watched the approaching throng for a moment as the matron stepped out of her palanquin with a victorious grin. Her eyes slowly slid to her side, Wan Xiaomei's survival instincts coming out to play.

She could spy a winding path to her left that crawled down into the darkness, a crude pathway most likely used by laborers and servants that was thoroughly hidden under the white snow and thick brush. There was a chance to run. Wan Xiaomei had run from the slaver, she could certainly escape from the brothel. Her errant foot idling towards the dark, winding path for a moment.

But her heart strummed as she recalled how close those rough hands had been to Meifeng, unknowing that Meifeng had deliberately been taunting the chasing guards. If she left, she realized as she set her jaw in determination, the girl who had spared her for attempting to rob her would most likely never see the rising sun.

Wan Xiaomei's foot moved again, but this time to turn around and defend Meifeng. Whatever it took, she would try her best to shield the younger Meifeng from the inevitable onslaught.

Her newfound resolve calmed her shaking frame, although Wan Xiaomei's heart instantly shook as she watched Meifeng crumple before the gate pitifully, her colorful skirt pooling around her.

Meifeng pulled a slender knife from the waistband of the skirt and brandished it to her neck, startling all the men who had been baring down upon them. In their hearts, they were not bad people, eager to drive young maidens to their death. With the perfect stage set, a tear wobbled in the corner of Meifeng's round, dazzling eyes, the very picture of sorrow.

"I'm not willing!" Meifeng wailed loudly, a trembling hand clutching the knife close to her neck. Gone was the taunting minx from earlier, the sheer emotion in her cry bringing the entire area to a standstill. "I would rather die with my reputation in tact than join your brothel!"