Logging into the Game World Early and Starting with a Royal Marriage to the Empress - Chapter 20

Lunch time!

Li Xi ran over again, still smiling brightly, his face wrinkled, quite comical.

Boss, after this evening’s official business, I’ll take you to a fun place!

Li Xi walked up to Xia Chen and said with a mysterious look on his face, a lewd smile on his face.

He was quite bold. Although he was only a petty officer, he was several ranks below Xia Chen’s position as Commander, but he addressed his superior directly as a sign of intimacy and to draw closer.

Xia Chen looked at him with a strange expression. This boy isn’t thinking of taking him to a brothel or a pleasure house to listen to music, is he?

Entertainment is scarce in this world, and there are even fewer activities at night. It’s nothing more than drinking, listening to music, and looking at girls, as well as those activities that deepen communication after looking at the girls.

Therefore, the ‘deep communication’ industry is very prosperous in this world.

However, brothels are considered high-end establishments in this industry, equivalent to high-end clubs, and the girls inside are really pretty.

But the cost is also high, and sleeping with a girl there will cost an ordinary family at least half a year’s income, and that is for the lowest class. If you want to sleep with a courtesan, money isn’t the only solution.

Under these circumstances, brothels naturally flourished. Although the quality was relatively lower than in the brothels, the prices were cheap and the value for money was high. An ordinary family could afford them if they gritted their teeth.

Therefore, they were naturally more in demand.

To be honest, Xia Chen really longed for these places. Although he was a gentleman, he also wanted to have fun with others.

With this in mind, Xia Chen readily agreed to Li Xi’s request.

I’m free tonight, and you seem to have plans. I’ll go with you tonight!

Xia Chen patted Li Xi’s shoulder. This young man has a future!

Li Xi left Xia Chen’s tent full of joy and began to arrange the evening’s activities.

It’s good to be a leader. Entertainment and relaxation are all arranged for you. You don’t have to count the money or worry about it. But is this an alternative to foot-washing or a business meeting? The scale should be bigger!

Xia Chen thought with a strong academic research mentality. He wanted to see how fierce the cultural clash between the two worlds would be tonight.

It was evening. Nothing much happened during the day. In the afternoon, Xia Chen followed the people below him on a street patrol. The capital was extremely busy.

Xia Qian, who was watching Xia Chen from behind, was dazzled.

On the way, Xia Chen passed by Princess Yaoguang’s mansion and glanced at the two imposing lions standing in front of the mansion that had seen the vicissitudes of time.

He glanced at them and then looked away, not looking at them again.

In addition, Xia Chen got to know the area a little, mainly finding out the locations of several brothels.

Xia Chen paid attention to them, but it wasn’t for his own pleasure. He was a gentleman, Cao Mengde, bah, a young master who didn’t go near women.

In the evening, the young master who did not approach women followed Li Xi and sneaked away from the Imperial Guards with Xia Qian, heading into an alley.

The further Xia Qian went, the more he felt that something was wrong. This route was the opposite of the brothels and entertainment venues he had studied during the day.

Hey, boss, this is fun, listening to music and watching dancing.

By this time, Li Xi was no longer hiding it, and his smile made the wrinkles on his face bloom.

‘I know that you come from the Marquis of Zhen Dong’s family, and that your family has always been very strict. Before you break through to the Eighth-Rank Realm, you cannot go out at will, and you must study hard in the family compound, let alone go out for the night.

I believe you have never been to these places before. Today, I will treat you and show you the way to experience the night culture of our capital.

Before Xia Chen could answer, Xia Qian blushed behind him. He said, ‘Why doesn’t the young master go back to the mansion tonight? It turns out that you want to go to such a place.

To be honest, he had never been there either, but he had heard some of the servants in the kitchen say that this kind of place was truly one of the best in the world, and once you went, you would never want to leave.

Isn’t that way to Suyu Street? Aren’t most of the brothels concentrated on that street?’

Xia Chen asked calmly, while inwardly warning himself, ‘This can’t be a trap, can it?

Could it be that the Zhao family wanted to take revenge on him and deliberately lured him into this dark alley tonight to prepare for their revenge?

Li Xi seemed to have read Xia Chen’s inner alertness and said hastily,

Gou Lan’s music is a bit low class and doesn’t match your status. Brothels are fine, but you have a special status and those places are full of people. It would be bad if your reputation was damaged.

So I found a special courtyard called Qingya Xiaozhu. This is a place where you can listen to music, watch dancing, and even spend the night. Everyone who goes in here wears a mask, so it’s very private!

Li Xi whispered with a sense of accomplishment, “The engagement between Xia Chen and the Second Princess has been known in the capital for a long time, and of course he knows about it.

Xia Chen looked at him strangely, “This boy is really thoughtful, is he really talented?

In the Dawu Dynasty, going to and from brothels is nothing unusual, and even in recent years, it has become fashionable among the literati. Among the literati, if you haven’t been to such a place by the age of thirty, it’s a disgrace.

Xia Chen was overcome with emotion when he heard this. However, the literati had thick skin and knew how to enjoy themselves. Prostitution was fine, but to be so proud of it was no wonder that later, during the Empress Dowager’s period of 【Great Unification】, there was an explicit ban on the ‘in-depth exchange’ industry.

As a result, when Xia Chen and other players later entered this world, they lamented that they had not experienced the good old days, and they disappeared without a trace.

Some players even wanted to rebel against the Empress Dowager and overthrow the rule of the Great Wu Dynasty to restore the glory of mankind because of this ban.

Of course, this person was immediately beaten to death by the Empress Dowager…

I thought you were taking me to the brothel.

You’re joking, boss. How can I afford the brothel? It costs five taels of silver just to get in, and you have to pay extra for drinks and entertainment. And you can’t even think of sleeping with the girls without paying ten taels.

Li Xi shook his head, his eyes full of longing for the brothel. He had heard that the girls there were so white they could be squeezed for water.

More importantly, most of the girls there are the daughters of officials and their relatives. It is possible that sleeping with one of these girls is like sleeping with the wife or daughter of one’s former superior or colleague. The sense of pleasure that comes from this kind of status bonus cannot be bought with money.

The Ministry of Education is the first place in the world for entertainment and leisure. Most of the women there are the wives and daughters of officials who have committed crimes. This kind of resource cannot be matched by brothels or other places.

Xia Chen was silent the whole way, listening more than speaking, listening to Li Xi’s introduction of some precautions, and in his mind he had a clear concept of this kind of pleasure place.

These pleasure places are not just about trading meat, that would be too vulgar, so they have derived cultural activities that scholars like, such as listening to music and even poetry and singing.

The more elegant the place, the more desirable it is.

And the elegant little building Li Xi is taking them to today is similar to such a place.

Of course, there is also the core business of accommodation. After all, do you really think that everyone just goes out in the evening to listen to music and recite poetry?

Soon the three of them walked down a hidden alley and came to a courtyard. The courtyard blended in perfectly with the surrounding residential buildings, except that there were just four characters written on the courtyard door: Qingya Xiaozhu!

If you didn’t know, you would think that this courtyard was just an ordinary house.

…

【“When the Founding Emperor was young, he was single-minded in his pursuit of the Dao and served in the Imperial Guard. A colleague invited the Founding Emperor to go to a brothel at night to drink and have fun, but the Founding Emperor said, ‘When you are young, you should devote yourself to martial arts, not waste your time with women. So he resolutely refused.’

 As a result, the Founder Emperor’s martial arts skills improved day by day, far surpassing those of his peers.”

 –《History of Xia》, Volume One, Chronicles of the Founding Emperor】.