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Gu Jiao wasn’t a real man after all, so she didn’t have to mind the proper distance between men and women or whatnot, it was just that Gu Jiao wasn’t used to being so close to people. When Mo Qianxue finished wiping her forehead and moved her hands to wipe her neck, Gu Jiao grabbed her wrist.
Mo Qianxue looked disapprovingly at Gu Jiao with a frown, and tried to lift her other hand to remove Gu Jiao's mask, but Gu Jiao grabbed her wrist again.
Mo Qianxue had martial arts skills, but not as good as Gu Jiao's. With her movement being restrained like this, she said angrily, "Fine, I won't touch you! You do it yourself!"
Gu Jiao let go of her wrists.
Mo Qianxue rolled her eyes, snorted, and threw the cloth at Gu Jiao.
The weather was really hot, especially after wearing a chest binder and a mask. Fortunately, Mo Qianxue's room was well-positioned, making it warm in winter and cool in summer. She even had an ice basin here, or else Gu Jiao might have suffered from heat stroke.
Gu Jiao put the cloth back into the copper basin and a servant girl came in to take it away.
"Little Wu, are there any lychees that arrived this morning?" Mo Qianxue asked.
The servant girl called Little Wu replied, "Yes, there are. This servant will bring them to you right away, miss!"
Soon, Little Wu brought in a plate of chilled lychees. The lychees were large, full, and had a bright red color, as if they had just been picked from the tree.
The capital didn’t produce lychees. They were all sent from the south on fast horses. Not only must the horses be fast enough, but the ice also needed to be changed along the way; even the slightest mistake would spoil them before they could arrive in the capital.
This was a very luxurious fruit that Gu Jiao had only eaten at the Renshou Palace. Yao Shi had said that even the Marquis Ding’an Estate had a hard time getting this kind of fruit in previous years.
Who would have thought that a small brothel could enjoy such a luxurious fruit?
Gu Jiao was lost in thought as she looked at the lychees motionless.
"If you're not going to eat it yourself, are you waiting for me to peel it for you?" Mo Qianxue snorted, but picked up the biggest and reddest lychee and peeled it for Gu Jiao, then fed it to her.
The peeled lychee was large and round, white and juicy, it looked particularly fresh and tender.
‘You eat it yourself’, Gu Jiao said with her eyes.
"Humph!" Mo Qianxue rolled her eyes. "I don't take back things that I've given away!"
Alas, it was just a fruit, did she really have to make a fuss?
Gu Jiao reluctantly took it and ate it. Lately, she had been suffering a bit from excessive internal heat and couldn’t eat too much lychee.
Seeing her eating it, Mo Qianxue's eyes regained her smile. She leaned her right elbow on the table, and the knuckle of her index finger was against her delicate chin as she smiled at Gu Jiao. "Why did the young master suddenly come to find me? Do you miss me?"
Gu Jiao took out a small notebook and wrote: ‘I didn't come to find you.’
Mo Qianxue's face sank when she saw the words she wrote. She snatched Gu Jiao's notebook and crossed out the word "didn’t," wrote the word "did" on top of it, and added a sentence at the end—— "I especially miss you."
Then she threw the notebook back to Gu Jiao.
Gu Jiao: ...Are you really fine with this?
Mo Qianxue raised her eyebrows. "Did the tassel I gave you last time help? Did you find the culprit?"
Gu Jiao nodded, then shook her head.
Mo Qianxue frowned. "What does that mean? Did you find out or not?"
Gu Jiao wrote quickly: ‘Just half.’
Yuan Tang was the one behind the assassination, but he couldn't have accomplished this alone. Gu Jiao increasingly felt that he had an accomplice.
"In that case, I'm powerless." Mo Qianxue said, throwing up her hands. "I just happened to overhear their conversation and found the tassel of one of them."
So the place where Yuan Tang communicated with the other person was in the Heavenly Music House. But not just anyone could enter the Heavenly Music House, which meant that the other person must either be a guest of the Heavenly Music House or an insider.
It was even possible that the other person was the owner of the Heavenly Music House.
Gu Jiao swiftly moved her charcoal pen: ‘Who is the owner of the Heavenly Music House?’
"You’re asking about the Owner?" Mo Qianxue leaned in close to Gu Jiao, looking at her with a teasing smile and a hint of caution in her eyes. "What are you asking about this for?"
Gu Jiao wrote in reply: ‘Just curious. If it's not convenient to say, forget it.’
What did ‘retreat in order to advance’ mean? This was it.
Mo Qianxue curled her lips and said disinterestedly, "Actually, I don't know much. I've only seen the Owner twice, and both times were from behind a screen. I don't even know what the Owner looks like."
To think that even the most prestigious courtesan didn't know the true identity of the Owner. This was a testament to how deep the Owner hid themselves.
Gu Jiao remembered what Mo Qianxue had said earlier when she had reprimanded the young lady in yellow—— for the Owner’s sake, I'll spare you this time!
She wrote down: ‘What is the relationship between Hua Xiyao and the owner?’
"You remember that little bitch's name very well!" Mo Qianxue suddenly exploded with anger.
Gu Jiao: … Seriously, how should I respond to this?
Mo Qianxue asked accusingly, "Have you taken a fancy to that little bitch?"
Gu Jiao wrote back: ‘She's so ugly that it’s hard to forget her.’
When Mo Qianxue saw Gu Jiao calling her ugly, she couldn't help but laugh, her furious appearance vanishing. She then explained, “Hua Xiyao was only a servant who had spent a few days serving the Owner. The Owner had let me train her because she was somewhat attractive. Don’t worry, I assure you that Hua Xiyao won’t bother you again.”
Gu Jiao nodded, then asked her final question: ‘Is the Owner a man or a woman?’
Mo Qianxue answered, "The Owner of the Heavenly Music House is definitely a woman. It's not like we would work ourselves to the bone for some stinky man! I would never!"
A woman, the willingness to work themselves to the bone.
Gu Jiao remembered these two important clues.
Mo Qianxue couldn't give Gu Jiao any more information, so Gu Jiao left, citing the late hour as her excuse.
Mo Qianxue pursed her lips, her eyes still full of meaning of wanting her to stay, but perhaps she had other plans for the evening, she did not stop Gu Jiao.
She sent Gu Jiao downstairs.
When they reached the corner of the stairs, she suddenly grabbed Gu Jiao's sleeve and asked, "Can you at least tell me your surname?"
Gu Jiao wrote: ‘Gu.’
"Young Master Gu." Mo Qianxue murmured and smiled, "Not bad."
As they walked down the stairs, they unexpectedly ran into Hua Xiyao on the second floor.
Hua Xiyao seemed wary of Mo Qianxue as she bowed her head in salute and stepped aside to give them space.
Mo Qianxue snorted coldly and didn't even spare her a glance as she escorted Gu Jiao downstairs.
Hua Xiyao touched her still slightly painful cheek, resentment flowing in her eyes as she whispered, "Mo Qianxue, just wait and see, you won't always have such good luck!"
The little servant girl stepped forward and said to Hua Xiyao, "Miss Hua, the shadow guards just brought news that the Owner has returned."
Hua Xiyao's eyes brightened, "I'll go meet the Owner!"
The little servant girl hesitated and said, "No need, the shadow guards said to let Miss Qianxue go."
Hua Xiyao clenched her fists as she watched Mo Qianxue bid farewell to Gu Jiao at the entrance of Heavenly Music House. She stomped her foot in anger!
Mo Qianxue, Mo Qianxue, everything good always falls on Mo Qianxue!
Gu Jiao left Heavenly Music House and headed straight back to Bishui Alley.
It was already late in the day, and every household in the alley had closed their doors. Lanterns were hung up in the corridor, and the faint candlelight illuminated the long, narrow path with a dim yellow light.
When Gu Jiao arrived at the doorstep, she found a small figure sitting pitifully on the threshold. Even without speaking, she could feel that small body enveloped in a great sense of grievance.
Gu Jiao walked up and whispered, "Jing Kong?"
Hearing the familiar voice, Little Jing Kong suddenly looked up and ran towards Gu Jiao, "JiaoJiao!"
Gu Jiao bent down, allowing the little one to jump into her arms.
As soon as Little Jing Kong jumped into her arms, he grabbed onto her clothes and pouted, "JiaoJiao... Grandaunt doesn't like me."
Gu Jiao asked with a smile, "Why doesn't Grandaunt like you? Who told you that?"
Little Jing Kong snorted, "Brother-in-law."
Gu Jiao asked, "He said Grandaunt doesn't like you?"
Little Jing Kong shook his head.
Gu Jiao asked again, "Then how do you know Grandaunt doesn't like you?"
Raz P.'s Thoughts
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