Chapter 116: A Woman’s Fate

Miss Yanhong spoke, her eyes reddened and tears silently fell. By her appearance, she seemed to be about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. He couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of sadness for her situation. Many other crying girls around her also appeared to have reached that age.

Liu Liwa was speechless. People often said that women in the pleasure houses had no feelings, but that was because the pleasure houses themselves were even more heartless, forcing them into such a situation. No wonder Yanhong was willing to risk tearing her skirt and exposing her beautiful legs, enduring the shameful insults just to keep going. She was preparing for this day early on, making plans for her later life.

At twenty-eight, whether male or female, it’s considered the prime of life in later times. Men begin to mature and their careers stabilize; women may have families or even children, entering the charming stage of young womanhood. But here, twenty-eight was seen as the beginning of aging and decline. Of course, the main reason was the lack of medicine and the harsh living conditions of the era, leading to short average lifespans. Women matured too early, marrying and having children at twelve or thirteen, already locked into a fixed mindset: a woman’s prime is at sixteen; by twenty-eight, she’s like spoiled tofu; at thirty-eight, she becomes a wet nurse; at forty-eight, she’s digging her own grave…

As Miss Yanhong had said, girls like those on the first floor, even if they were sent to the pleasure house at thirteen or fourteen, due to limitations in their looks and other qualities, spent over a decade stuck on the first floor, living a life where they couldn’t refuse anyone. And in these times, there wasn’t even the concept of “quick service”—just a fixed price, night after night, as their youth slipped away. They had to exert all their effort every night, never daring to slack off, just to earn a meager bit of extra money. Normally, their standard income per night was five silver taels, but Intoxication Pavilion took three, leaving the girl with only two. Two silver taels might seem a lot—equivalent to the annual salary of someone like Yang Xiaosi—but for the girls, it was insignificant. The redemption fee at Intoxication Pavilion could be as high as a thousand silver taels, and even the retirement fee was a hefty hundred taels.

This was why the girls felt close to Liu Liwa. Some of his recent actions, though seemingly playful, successfully sparked the customers’ interest. Through activities like listening to stories and competing for the celestial maiden, even regulars who had favorites on the second or third floor began spending in the first-floor rooms. Their generous spending gave the first-floor girls hope and a glimpse of a brighter future.

But for the girls nearing retirement age, it was frustrating—their newfound hope was about to be crushed. Besides, it was really hard for the girls to save money. Whether in this life or another, since they relied on their bodies to please customers, self-packaging was essential. For the girls here, it was simple: pretty dresses and rouge and face powder. But in later times, ladies needed various cosmetics, beautiful and sexy clothes, some required frequent beauty treatments, and others even underwent surgeries… Occasionally, seeing those glamorous women on the streets, dressed in brand names and visiting beauty salons, not all were rich girls or mistresses; a large portion were likely working girls!

As for the girls of Intoxication Pavilion, after daily expenses and their own packaging costs, the silver left in their hands was truly little. Being able to pay the retirement fee was already quite an achievement. Of course, the most crucial point was that at twenty-eight, they were being cleared out by the pleasure house—it was retirement, not redemption. They still belonged to the Lowly Status Register. In other words, they were still considered slaves—working without salaries, and if they married, they wouldn’t have any proper status, no different from mules or horses. This was the most miserable part, completely cut off from society, a life worse than death.

Liu Liwa shook his head helplessly. This pleasure house was a classic example of kicking someone out after they were no longer useful. Once a girl lost her value, she was discarded like rubbish. Of course, this was largely due to the fickle nature of men who always sought fresh, young faces. But this only showed that men of this era didn’t understand a woman’s true charm. Women in their late twenties were just entering maturity, aware of their own traits and skilled at pleasing men. Compared to the fresh youth of younger girls, they offered a richer, juicier experience…

Liu Liwa had no power to change the deep-rooted mindset of an entire era. He could only watch as the girls around him cried bitterly, their despair filling the room. At the front, the three leaders, headed by Wu Liniang, looked cold and indifferent—not only because they were used to it, but also because they were heartless.

Wu Liniang gently set down the roster in her hand, signaling that the girls could step forward and volunteer. This simple action dropped the atmosphere to freezing point. Sadness weighed on everyone—each girl knew this was her ultimate fate, a shared sorrow. Only a few girls on the third floor had slight advantages: they were exceptionally beautiful, young, and had numerous patrons waiting to favor them. If not for Intoxication Pavilion holding onto them, they would have been taken as mistresses by wealthy men long ago. So only they weren’t too worried, but as fellow pleasure house girls sharing the same fate, no one took pleasure in others’ misfortune.

Just then, a girl from the first floor, her face wet with tears, suddenly rushed out and knelt before the table where Wu Liniang and the others sat. She kowtowed repeatedly like pounding garlic, wailing miserably, “Madam, I beg for your mercy! Please give me a few more days—I’m only short by a hundred and thirty silver taels for my redemption. I’ve been at Intoxication Pavilion for twelve years and have earned plenty for the house. Please remember our past ties and grant me a little more time, I beg you…”

The girl’s cries were heart-wrenching, breaking everyone’s hearts. Liu Liwa also knew this woman—her stage name at the first floor was Cuiping. She could probably leave Intoxication Pavilion and become a secret agent. Her looks were average; over a decade in the pleasure house had left her face marked with a worldly weariness. But being only a hundred-some taels short of the redemption fee showed she still had her selling point—her fair, crystal-like skin. As the saying goes, fair skin covers three flaws, and she was a perfect example.

But a hundred and thirty silver taels—for anyone present, that was a huge sum. Taking one customer for five silver taels, only to have Intoxication Pavilion take half… The redemption fee was five hundred taels. What hard-earned money this was! On one hand, they earned silver for Intoxication Pavilion; on the other, they had to save up to buy their own freedom. Damn, this two-way charging system must have evolved from the pleasure houses!

Miss Cuiping had been frugal enough—saving over three hundred silver taels in more than ten years was truly not easy. But Shen Zuijin’s icy words felt like a death sentence: “Still short by a hundred and thirty taels? Even if we extend the original deadline to the New Year, that’s less than two months away. How could you possibly earn a hundred and thirty taels in that time?”

Although Shen Zuijin’s words were cruel, they were the truth. First-floor girls didn’t have customers every day. Besides, at her age and after over a decade at Intoxication Pavilion, she had no novelty left. She had no steady patrons, nor any big-spending benefactors. Even if she had a customer every day, after Intoxication Pavilion’s cut, she’d only have two and a half silver taels per day. If she didn’t eat, drink, or spend on appearance in these less than two months, she might have a slim chance. But the closer she got to the finish line, the more she needed to invest in making herself attractive and competitive. So, that hundred and thirty taels had almost become a death warrant for her.