Su Xiao was in a room; he covered himself with his blanket in similar fashion to an ill child, leaving just his head exposed, "Big Brother Ming? He loves to eat; he never cleans, though. I have to often clean his room for him, because I share a room with him now."
Miss Juese, also known as Ming Suwen with a face veil, chuckled, "So you two live together, do you?"
Whether deliberate or not, her pretty eyes looked up to the roof. Princess Hongzhuang, who just climbed to the roof, immediately evaded Ming Suwen's line of sight similarly to a cat. She didn't dare to take another look. At the same time, her heart palpitated.
'That girl is amazing. She seems to know that I'm here.'
Ming Suwen peered at the roof for a short while. Finally, she giggled as she turned her attention back down and said to Su Xiao, "It's nothing. Take your time telling me about your Big Brother Ming. I'm listening, especially the parts that concern women… Take. Your. Time."
========
Entrance of Liu Shan Men's courtyard.
Tang Ye mumbled and fumbled a few sentences, and then needed to leave again.
Ming Feizhen blinked, "You're going out again? Don't tell me you're meeting up with Miss Huo. Please tell me you're not."
"Big Bro, Qing'er, she, I meant, Miss Huo is actually a nice girl. Please don't be prejudice against her, all right?"
Ming Feizhen nearly jumped up. He thought to himself, "What the hell did you just change your way of addressing her for?! You called her Qing'er, didn't you?! You just omitted 'Miss' and called her Qing'er, didn't you?! She's going to be calling you, "Brother Ye," soon enough, isn't she?! You bastard! I told you to work; I never told you to seduce the man's fiancée! Additionally, for your information, I'm not prejudice against her. I'm prejudice against you! Why did you go through your virginity graduation at Heavenly Fragrance Garden of all places, moron?!"
The current dynasty practices the three letters and six etiquettes. Marriages are protected by the law.
Even if Jin Wangsun was to become a Fuma, it's not rare for a Fuma to have concubines. As long as the Princess permits it, Huo Qing'er will be Jin Wangsun's concubine.
While females are in a variety of industries across the lands nowadays, when it comes to marriage, a female's purity is always a very important factor. Even ordinary families share the same view, let alone a sect as prominent and powerful as Gold and Silver Sect. If they don't make a deal out of it, so be it, but if they do, Tang Ye and Huo Qing'er would be considered nothing more than a cheating couple. Not even His Majesty would be able to stay out of the matter; he'll be forced to stick up for Jin Wangsun and harshly punish the two.
Tang Ye said, "Heavenly Fragrance Garden isn't far from here. I have to meet Miss Huo in a short while; I can't be late."
He then immediately gave Ming Feizhen a cupped-fist salute and wobbled off.
Seeing as it was getting late and there was still work to do, Ming Feizhen could only express his bemoan for his hopelessness with a sigh.
"It was only one night, yet they're all lovey dovey now. *Sigh*, One night of love is eternal devotion, they say. The two of them are glued to each other. How come I lack such good luck? It's virtually impossible to marry a girl. Everyone has a different fate, after all, I see… My grandmaster said that I had to be careful of women and men; what exactly did he mean by that?"
As Ming Feizhen babbled to himself, he suddenly heard a tender and lovely voice, "What one night of love is eternal devotion?"
Ming Feizhen absentmindedly blurted, "What else? A husband and wife on the bed for a night…"
Ming Feizhen suddenly heard movement indicating that the visitor's internal strength was impressive. The visitor practiced the Qilin Guard's style. Upon detecting her presence, he turned his head to see the Qilin Guard's Miss Situo. She looked frail; she stood in the courtyard with a grumpy look.
She was dressed in green clothes today, thereby making her look several years younger. She as a girl with a charming face; hence, with her dress up today, her skin looked very moisturised and healthy. There was a tinge of pink on her cheeks, giving her the vibe of a young girl who confessed, yet was unfortunately rejected.
A group of people instantly poked their heads into the courtyard for a look. They took turns making remarks.
"Oh, ho, Ming Feizhen has gotten himself in trouble again. This time, he's angered even the Qilin Guard's Miss Situo."
"Look carefully. If she cries, that bastard will be a serious philanderer."
Ming Feizhen immediately thundered at them, "What are you looking at? What's there to look at? Scram!"
He then glanced at Situo through the corner of his eyes. He remarked to himself, "Why is she here again?! Does she think this place is her house?!"
Nevertheless, Miss Situo didn't spare Ming Feizhen a single glance. Instead, she blankly looked toward the door, which was where Tang Ye left from, as though she didn't ask the question that she blurted before and that she was in the middle of a conversation with Ming Feizhen.
"Where… has he gone?"
"To see a buddy."
Situo's face went pale after hearing Ming Feizhen's response.
Ming Feizhen looked at Situo's face. A light immediately lit up for him.
'Damn Tang Ye, you've given me a load of trouble. Watch this…'
"Miss Situo, didn't you know that our Tang Ye went to Heavenly Fragrance Garden last night…"
"Heavenly Fragrance Garden?" Situo's irate frown was clearly noticeable as soon as she turned to look at Ming Feizhen, "You took him there?"
Ming Feizhen didn't expect Situo to try and find who was responsible. He stuttered, "Huh? Umm, I, uhh… no."
Situo responded with disdain, "Are you really going to try that?! We Qilin Guards learnt your group's habits long ago, and you're the most improper among everyone. You go to Heavenly Fragrance Garden several times per month. If you weren't the one who took him there, then who was it?"
Ming Feizhen touched his nose and guiltily answered, "I just went there for a stroll to reminisce. The biggest issue is that the kid, Tang Ye, doesn't listen. I kicked and shoved him, but he wouldn't leave. He insisted on coming. See, he met a beautiful girl last night and became a patron on his first visit. He's going there a second time right now."
Situo only heard the most key points in his response. She shuddered, and then slowly asked, "Beautiful girl… What's her name? What does she do?"
Ming Feizhen clapped his hands together in similar fashion to storytellers at tea houses, "Her name is Qing'er; she is the boss of Heavenly Fragrance Garden!"
"Boss?!"
Situo couldn't believe her ears.
'What sort of girl would be the boss of a brothel?'
Situo was in charge of cases involving sexual offences for the Qilin Guard's office. Countless perverts and sexual offenders in the pugilistic world have been captured by her. She was very well-informed of secret information on brothels. Upon learning that Tang Ye was so thirsty that he'd even go for the boss, she trembled with anger.
"I'm… going to look for him!"
Just as Situo went to take off, Ming Feizhen immediately called out, "Wait!"
Situo spun around and raised her pretty hand and in an aggressive manner, asked, "What do you want?"
Ming Feizhen removed the sword at his waist in a dignified manner; he calmly and solemnly placed it in Situo's hands. He gave her a thumbs up and the two exchanged words through their gazes.
"It is at your command."
Situo froze for a second before nodding, "Thank you. You're a good guy!"
She apparently moulded fifty percent of her energy into her grip on the scabbard, consequently almost crushing it in her hands. Thankfully, Vice-captain Shen Yiren did well to look after Liu Shan Men. Their weapons were tough and made from high quality metals. Even their scabbards were meticulously made and robust. Otherwise, the scabbard would've been crushed before Tang Ye would be.
Ming Feizhen clicked his tongue as he watched Situo leave while gusting up a murderous aura in the process. He muttered under his breath, "Tang Ye, Tang Ye, don't blame me… Okay, I wronged you. Hmph, what can you do about it? Fufufu, your fault for seducing a man's wife. *Sigh*, I need to pay Old Huang a visit, though. Only he can do my hair. Man, my money…"
A headache plagued Ming Feizhen when he thought about what he'd have to deal with in a bit. He walked onto the street while fiddling with his hair.
Miss Situo made haste for Heavenly Fragrance Garden with her murderous aura blasting from her. Ming Feizhen also took his time sorting his hair out. However, he had no idea that his shiyi, whom he cared for most, was secretly stalking him after finishing her conversation with Su Xiao.
Glossary
*Brother Ye - This is just a very informal and intimate way for Huo Qing'er to address Tang Ye. Usually in Chinese, you address people by their full name. When you're closer, you can address them by just their first name as done here. Adding the "Brother" part to it just adds the cute girl vibe; it sounds more coquettish.
"What happens when a guy uses it, then?"
Good question. There are multiple scenarios. First, let's establish that we're using 哥哥 here , not the other ways of addressing someone as an elder brother.
1) You have a guy calling a guy 'Brother', but it's much more in the sense of, 'bro', or as Su Xiao uses, which is a more man to man version. In English, you just have 'brother'. In Chinese, however, you have 大哥，哥哥，哥，大佬, which would all be translated as 'brother'. However, they're masculine ways of using it - relatively speaking.
2) A kid is using it with another guy.
3) You like men, sexually. If you don't want to be misunderstood as being gay, don't use 哥哥 with a Chinese guy as that's the connotation you will give. Try it or call a Korean older male 오빠 and see what happens (Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the consequences). If you want to address an older male that's not decades older, you can use 大哥，哥，大佬 (if you're mafia or just want to sound thug).