Ming Feizhen rushed to Heavenly Fragrance Garden, with Princess Hongzhuang following behind. While Ming Feizhen sprinted there, Princess Hongzhuang, who followed behind, gradually slowed down due to being frozen silly. He knew that she was following him, but there was nothing he could do! He was now akin an ant on a hot pan.
"As if Shiyi being a courtesan wasn't bad enough. She wants to give away her virginity now, too? What in the flipping hell?!" exclaimed Ming Feizhen, to himself.
'Combing,' was a term used for girls giving away their first time to their patron.
Among courtesans, there are those who strictly perform their artistic talents, and do not offer their bodies. They are all epitomes of the word 'beauty,' who strictly work as artists.
Despite combing being a term associated with an elegant action, the meaning behind the word in that context was extremely shameless. After girls from brothels shared their body with their patron for their first night, their bodies were officially "ripened." As such, the price for a girl's first night, especially gorgeous ones, was quite expensive.
There were often patrons who said that they wanted to be a groom again, but that desire would only last a night, for they settled it with money after the night and neither would burden the other. In other words, it was paying for a one-night stand.
Seeing that there was nobody down below, Princess Hongzhuang jumped off the eave.
Her appearance frightened Ming Feizhen. Originally, her pure white skin had a healthy rosy tinge to it, but now it was corpse white. Clearly, she was cold.
It turned out that Princess Hongzhuang had been searching everywhere for Ming Feizhen the last few days to no avail. On top of that, she didn't want to share a room with Su Xiao. As they were male and female, not to mention the only ones in there, she perceived it to be inappropriate. As a result, she slept on the roof for several nights. The cold winter breeze nearly turned her into an iceberg. Consequently, Ming Feizhen had no choice but to remove his outer coat for her, wrapping the beauty up similarly to a zongzi. Only then did her quivering start to reduce.
Princess Hongzhuang regained her senses and instantly revealed a downhearted look at the same time, "Ming Feizhen, where were you? I searched for you for days. If I don't get an explanation, you know what's coming to you!"
Ming Feizhen was so anxious that he could jump off a roof from a suicidal height to rush to the brothel. He had no time or energy to spare on the Princess. Due to his urgency, he told princess Hongzhuang exactly what he had in mind without any modifications to the content.
However, the more she heard, the more puzzled she was. She widened her eyes, "You said that because of my… fake marriage with you and seeing us share a room, your shiyi is offering herself up as a courtesan at a brothel due to anger?"
"If it was not because of you, then it would be because of Su Xiao," answered Ming Feizhen. He dragged Su Xiao into the fray with impeccable timing to try and reduce the Princess' guilt. "I think that Shiyi saw Su Xiao, as well."
"Eh?! So Su Xiao is also part of your list of candidates?"
"What in th-?! Says who?!"
Ming Feizhen clumsily poked his tongue, and then explained it again. This time, he vaguely glossed over the romance between him and his Shiyi.
"And there you have it. I now must go to Heavenly Fragrance Garden. Your Highness, y-"
"I'm going, too, of course!" exclaimed Princess Hongzhuang. She tapped on her Glass Sabre at her waist, "And, I'll be going with you. If something happens, such as Heavenly Fragrance Garden bullying their customers, I'll put them in their place for you."
Touched, Princess Hongzhuang nodded and proudly declared, "While you and your shiyi have an odd seniority status, her devoted love for you is worthy of pity. We cannot allow her to make a decision that she will regret for life due to a moment of impulsiveness! I, Li Hongzhuang, am taking charge of this matter!"
Ming Feizhen couldn't decide if Princess Hongzhuang's remark was worth a smile or tears. After all, her hands and feet were still stiff, yet she had the energy to be sticking her nose in another's business.
"As that is the case, you have my gratitude, Your Highness!"
Without wasting any more words, Ming Feizhen spun around and continued on his way.
As he had just wasted more time, he was more anxious than ever. He knew his shiyi's character. Not only was she the owner of a stunning face that could knock people out, but also housed a gall that allowed her to do anything.
Her title as 'Demoness' didn't come about as a result of her pranks on Shaolin's abbot or Wudang's patriarch. These days, she was considered to be on better behaviour. Seven, eight years ago, when she first set foot in the pugilistic world, she was cold and harsh with her enemies. She wouldn't stop until they were utterly demolished. Very few escaped death when they faced her. Five years ago, Demoness Ming Suwen was practically considered the equivalent of a heretic.
Many people didn't know that one of the Four Great Lecherous Demons, The Billow Falls in One Wave, Mei Lang, died at the hands of Demoness Ming Suwen. That day, the lecherous Mei Lang violated a girl, who was around thirteen or fourteen, in Beiping, but then, bumped into Ming Suwen. They had a physical altercation; however, Mei Lang didn't stand a chance. But alas, most perverts in the pugilistic world invested an enormous amount of time and energy into their qinggong arts. Mei Lang was one who had mastered a plethora of tricks, not to mention his cunning and crafty nature. With time, he managed to slip away from Ming Suwen.
In one exchange, Mei Lang used the aphrodisiac Five Plucks Heart Enchantment Pill, which he had ground into powder, to subdue Ming Suwen. Logically speaking, Ming Suwen should've been able to instantly kill him. However, Mei Lang wasn't one of the Four Great Lecherous Demons for no reason. How could he not have been mesmerised by the girl who could set everyone's hearts aflutter? He immediately reached for those captivating curves with his grotesque hands.
Miss Juese was very young at the time. Her body couldn't withstand Mei Lang's flirtatious techniques. The girl let out an unbecoming moan. Her voice was clear and pleasing to the ear, yet sounded unbelievably sensual. Mei Lang's lust was ignited as a result. It was more than he could hold in. He tore off Ming Suwen's clothes and ogled her curvaceous peaks. With a blank look, he sighed "G-Gimme."
In that instant, he heard a clear and cold voice.
"I wondered how it felt to be violated by a pervert."
It was Ming Suwen, the girl who just moaned, who spoke. She looked at him with a cold expression. She brushed off his provocations. With a smile, she mocked, "It feels about the same as being bitten by a dog."
It turned out that Ming Suwen was just playing possum and deliberately moaned to stall for time. Being so occupied with his lust, Mei Lang forgot to seal her meridians, and it was too late to regret by the time he realised his error. In the motion of a spreading fan, a silver blade swung through the air in a circular trajectory, immediately slicing off Lang Mei's hideous rod from its root and taking his root of sin from him.
Mei Lang screamed as the bloody tip of Ming Suwen's sword sent his ugly nether region flying. As if she needed to fulfil her curiosity, Ming Suwen looked left and right due to being unable to look directly at the sun. Finally, she snickered, "I see why you always kept that diminutive thing of yours on you all the time. Aren't you afraid of losing it? No wonder why you loved going after virgins. If she was a mature woman, she wouldn't even feel that she was violated. Had it not been thanks to my splendid swordplay, it would've been a real challenge to slice it off. It wasn't even a test of swordplay proficiency, but a test of visual prowess."
Owing to his severe wound, Mei Lang fled as if he lost his mind. The lecherous villain who lost his powers swore that he would one day eventually torture the bitch until nobody could differentiate between her and a grotesque demon, and have her grovel at his feet as a horny sow would. Unfortunately for him, The Demoness didn't give him any chances.
Miss Juese hunted him for seven days and seven nights before finally decapitating him on the seventh night. Her strategy to catch me was quite simple: leave no survivors wherever she went. During her pursuit, any who dared to shelter Mei Lang was cut down regardless of reasons or who their backer was. By the seventh day, countless had been felled by her blade, and a terrifying trail of blood was left in her wake.
In the hunt, she killed dozens of people to kill one villain. She showed no concern for reasons, right or wrong. She acted according to her mood. Concepts such as justice or being upright didn't exist in her world. The three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues had even less value to her. She was called the The Demoness.
Ming Feizhen couldn't agree that her title as a demoness fitted her any more than he already did. Before he and Ming Suwen began to develop their ambiguous relationship, Ming Feizhen was certain that his Shiyi still didn't have any feelings for him or, at least, didn't realise his feelings for her, but she was already a troublemaker.
On one particular day, Ming Suwen found a daoist sect's secret manual from somewhere, which was an impressive style that required two people to train. Legend had it that following its instructions would allow one to boost one's strength by one thousand days' worth within a single day. After she read it, she felt she had a knack for it. She thought that it could help her take her strength to the next level. And so, she dragged Ming Feizhen into her room to ask him to help her master the two person cultivation style. Ming Feizhen didn't see a single word in the manual. What he saw was a naked, sexy beauty lying on her side and giggling while gently waving her hand. Subsequently, it provoked him into gradually losing control of his emotions.
Owing to his mastery of Yijin Jing and Tai Chi, Ming Feizhen had better control over his inner thoughts and emotions compared to those who hadn't mastered it. However, mastering Spring Wind Rainy Nights Divine Art had the opposite effect. As a consequence of three different types of styles pushing and pulling, his resistance to women was no different to the ordinary man in the end. The only difference was that he was no longer a teenage boy. As such, he was still able to resist the charm of beautiful women. On that day when he saw his shiyi's body, however, he discovered that his throat was dry and a certain body part was so hard that it ached. He was just one step away from firing from the cannon that had ballooned with an immense surge of blood.
That was the first time Ming Feizhen realised that it was borderline impossible for him to resist Ming Suwen. He wasn't as calm and indifferent toward his shiyi as he believed himself to be.
Had Ming Feizhen not made up fib after fib, claiming he got an erection owing to the style being filthy, not pure and definitely not some mysterious, authentic style, he wouldn't have been able to convince his shiyi. Who knows, she might've meted out punishment on him on the spot that day if she was enraged. She'd erase the lines of seniority, making it no longer clear if they were martial aunt, grandmother, senior or niece. Be it day or night, there'd be moaning, panting, drowning bliss and they'd even have two kids. Everything between them would become a blur. Their children would've been several years old by now and able to mess around.
Back then, Ming Feizhen asked, "Shiyi, you're too senseless… What would we have done if I couldn't control myself?"
"Nothing," replied a nonchalant Ming Suwen, with a laugh. "Everybody would be happy. We might not end up having a child. Plus, I don't need you to take responsibility, either, since you're not comfortable about it anyway. What's there to worry about, you c, h, i, c, k, e, n."
Ming Suwen whispered "chicken" in Ming Feizhen's ears with a gaze and tone that was essentially a challenge directed at him. She even bit his earlobe before backing off. Her voice was quiet as if she was whispering to her lover, yet also bore the resemblance of two people having a tryst in a room, thereby almost causing Ming Feizhen to lose control, pick her up and climb on top, where he would then want to strip her after she just got dressed.
Fortunately for Ming Feizhen, he knew his shiyi's temperament. Being young, she found it to be fun and meaningless. However, ever since then, Ming Feizhen always reminded himself to never anger her, for heaven knows what would happen if she got angry.
Ming Feizhen ran as fast as his legs could take him to Heavenly Fragrance Garden, only to find out that Miss Juese wasn't at that branch when he arrived, but on Ethereal Beauty Boat on Qinhuai River. Hence, he took off running towards Qinhuai River.
Princess Hongzhuang, who followed behind, was far behind, mainly because she was affected by the cold exposure prior, thereby impacting her qinggong prowess. Thus, the two passed by each other as Ming Feizhen turned back. Princess Hongzhuang's mind wasn't functioning at full capacity, consequently leading to her missing Ming Feizhen passing right by.
Ming Feizhen rushed to his destination, but stopped by Old Huang's medicine store on Vermillion Street to grab a bottle of something…
Glossary
*Combing - It should be obvious, but in case it wasn't, I've always been translating the phrase as 'giving away her virginity', which is why you're only seeing the phrase for the first time now. The reason the author inserted an explanation is due to the phrase not being known by even native speakers. Again, this series writing style follows what we call 古风（lit. ancient wind; should be ancient style）. Not everyone who knows Chinese can understand it. Going forward, I will translate it as "giving/losing virginity," unless the other term is absolutely necessary.
**Cultivation - The cultivation here is referring to mental cultivation, physical training, qi control training and mastery of specific moves and techniques and more. It's used as a very broad term here. Have a look into Jade Maiden Swordplay cultivation if you want an example.
Other note: I have made updates to some names and terms to improve the overall quality. For instance, Divine Moon Sect > Divine Moon Cult to capture the religious aspect of them worshipping Lord San Shen. In my opinion, cult embodies that essence better. I think about how to improve translations even when not translating – call me boring.
l