Reign of the Phoenix

Chapter 3 – The Emperor’s Curiosity
Yan Feng noticed that Cai Qin and Cai Sang all were sneaking glances at the desserts on the table in front of him. Secretly amused, his lips slightly quirked up. He suddenly came up with the evil idea to punish the ignorant and audacious Murong Zhining.

Yan Feng spoke with Cai Qin and Cai Sang while wearing an amiable expression, “I like servants who know to not shoot their mouths off, but I don’t want to leave you two idle either. You can eat the deserts here. Stand up, just let that lowly smart mouth keep cursing me.”

This was Yan Feng’s speculation of Murong Zhining’s current thought process: Nursing a hungry stomach, she watched as her friends enjoyed the delicious pastries, while she could only endure the torment of starvation by herself, feeling as if a sharp claw was repeatedly scratching at her heart. She would finally realize how stupid it was to oppose the emperor. She would then kneel on the ground while bawling her eyes out to ask Yan Feng for forgiveness. She’d beg him to tolerate her senseless resistance, that a person of great moral stature like him shouldn’t stoop to dealing with a petty person like her; and beg him to bestow upon her a bite of pastry.

When his imagination reached this point, Yan Feng revealed a hint of sinister smile that was extremely unbefitting of his kingly identity.

Cai Qin went wild with joy. She stared fixedly at the desserts on the table with visible greed and desire. Upon receiving Yan Feng’s approval, she hurriedly grabbed the chestnut cake that a palace maid had brought over and gorged herself on it. Cai Qin swallowed too fast and nearly choked. The sight was so funny that the surrounding palace maids and eunuchs all covered their mouths while hiding their chuckles.

Cai Sang was starving as well. However, she and Murong Zhining were as close as blood sisters. They had once promised each other to share happiness and endure misfortune together. No matter how hungry she was, she still cared more about Murong Zhining’s feelings.

Cai Sang wanted to refuse, but she feared that Yan Feng would condemn her for it（In ancient China, rejecting Imperial favor is a crime. ）She awkwardly broke off a piece of pastry and slowly lifted it to her mouth. When everyone laughed at Cai Qin, Cai Sang took that chance to sneak a pastry into her outfit’s lapel. She knew full well that Murong Zhining was very hungry as well and wanted to save the pastry for her.

Murong Zhining wiped the sweat off her forehead. She hadn’t had a proper meal or sleep in the past several days in prison. Moreover, kneeling for such a long time made her feel even weaker and more worn out. Still, she stubbornly persisted and started narrating to Yan Feng from the beginning: She vaguely remembered that day when she was ten years old, after she had already been sold many times…

A young woman led a little girl to a bustling courtyard in the middle of crowded balconies and pavilions. There, a group of beautiful, colorfully dressed girls, wearing either seductive or innocent makeup, were making their way through a bunch of men with smiles on their faces. At first glance, one could tell from the men’s luxurious outfits that they were from wealthy and noble families. They leisurely sat in small groups drinking wine and enjoying music, and occasionally flirting with the beautiful girls as they passed by.

The woman brought the little girl to another woman who was well-dressed and seemed to be in her forties, saying, “From now on, you can follow this madam and live in comfort.” The young woman pushed the little girl to the madam and received the weighty sack that the madam handed over. After fervently expressing her gratitude, the young woman left, leaving behind the little girl.

The madam brought the little girl to the backyard and called for her people. She ordered them to help the girl wash up, change her into new clothes, and let her eat a proper meal.

When the madam saw the little girl again, her eyes instantly sparkled. After she had changed into clean clothes, the girl looked tall, slender and attractive despite being very thin. The madam realized that she had picked up a treasure. In the future, this little girl would definitely become her trump card, the pillar of her shop that would bring her an endless stream of money.

The little girl had later learned that this place was called Myriad Blooms House, a place where men enjoyed drinking wine and having fun, commonly known as a brothel.

The madam’s name was Qin Meixue, the mistress of this brothel. When she was young, Qin Meixue could be considered quite a beauty and was once the best pick（the most popular/important person.）of another brothel, several of her frequent visitors being high-ranked officials in the court. Later, a mysterious supporter helped her buy back her freedom and also opened the Myriad Blooms House for her. With such a powerful backer, Qin Meixue’s business had flourished. All of her guests were people of noble families or those of very high social status.

Qin Meixue carefully observed the little girl’s white fingers. “From now on, your name is Qin Qiuyue. You will call me ‘mother.’ I will provide you with good food and good clothes, but you have to listen to me.”

The little girl guilelessly tilted her head. “I will call you ‘mother’ and listen to you. But, my name is Murong Zhining. Before my nanny died, she told me that my mother would come find me someday, so I can’t change my name as I please.”

Qin Meixue tried to suppress her anger upon hearing that. She felt that this child was too strong-willed and feared she would be a hard one to shape up into something worthwhile. However, Qin Meixue changed her mind after mulling it over. Since this name was actually quite beautiful, she might as well satisfy the child’s wish and consider it as doing her a favor. Besides, who would dare to come to her territory and take her people when she, Qin Meixue, had such a powerful backer?

Just like that, Murong Zhining settled down in the Myriad Blooms House. She stayed there for five years, during which Qin Meixue had treated her exceptionally well. She even invited an expert to teach Murong Zhining how to read and write, as well as other skills like the zither, Go, calligraphy, painting, music, dancing, and the art of tea, etc.

Murong Zhining couldn’t understand why Mother Qin made her learn all of this. The naïve her back then wasn’t even aware of the kind of fate that women of a brothel had to face. She only knew that the past many years of constant moving without a stable home had been too difficult, too tiring. Murong Zhining never had the right to make her own choices, and she didn’t want to be sold to other people again either. If it was impossible to go against the fate that Heaven had decided for her, then she might as well go with the flow. In order to please Qin Meixue, she poured every effort into learning all sorts of skills.

Gradually, Murong Zhining’s skills had considerably improved. Especially, her natural talent for qin amazed even her master, who was a renowned qin expert in the capital. Not only did the master teach her many things, he even let her sort through many old qin sheet music that had failed to be spread down from past generations, which allowed Murong Zhining to gain a lot of knowledge.

Murong Zhining’s exceptional growth made Qin Meixue very happy. She secretly admired her own foresight for being so accurate. Qin Meixue looked forward to the day in the near future when Murong Zhining became her golden goose.

However, things didn’t pan out as Qin Meixue had hoped. One day, a very wealthy merchant invited Zhuang Cheng to have a drink at the Myriad Blooms House, where Zhuang Cheng by chance saw Murong Zhining playing the qin in the backyard. The young girl that had just matured had yet to be stained by the mundane world, still demure and beautiful.

Zhuang Cheng pestered to buy the young girl. Qin Meixue had waited so long for Murong Zhining to mature. Now that the girl had grown up to be so beautiful and almost ready to make money, how could Qin Meixue let her go? However, her mysterious backer, a high-ranking official in the imperial court, just happened to want to draw Zhuang Cheng to his side. Therefore, this person tried in every way he could to persuade, and in the end, forced Qin Meixue to give Murong Zhining to Zhuang Cheng.

Zhuang Cheng’s wife wasn’t a simple woman. Even though Zhuang Cheng knew full well the consequences of bringing a new woman to the house, he didn’t dare to raise her outside either. Thus, he came up with a stupid idea.

When Zhuang Cheng’s son was little, he caught an illness that damaged his brain and caused him to be a mentally disabled fool ever since. Even wealthy families didn’t want to marry their daughters to such a fool. In ancient time, nobles were much higher in status than rich merchant.. Using this as an excuse to raise a daughter-in-law in their home, Zhuang Cheng brought Murong Zhining to the Zhuang Estate. Madam Zhuang saw that Murong Zhining was very beautiful, so she happily agreed.

At first, Madam Zhuang treated Murong Zhining quite reasonably and only ordered her around like a normal maid. Zhuang Cheng was a coward with evil intentions but without the guts to carry them out; he could only try to get his hands on her in secret. Unfortunately for Zhuang Cheng, Murong Zhining was too smart and vigilant, he never once successfully took advantage of her. However, after this went on for long enough, Madam Zhuang finally became conscious of it.

One time, when Murong Zhining served tea, Zhuang Cheng sneakily caressed her slender arm and was caught red-handed by Madam Zhuang. In the madam’s perception, Zhuang Cheng was a coward who simply didn’t have the guts to initiate this, so she concluded that Murong Zhining had to have seduced him first.

Madam Zhuang was known far and wide to be a vinegar jar (a very jealous person). She gave Murong Zhining a heavy beating, then transferred the girl to her side as a personal maid and made her do all the dirty and heavy work.

The madam always either hit Murong Zhining or severely scolded her. Often times, Madam Zhuang humiliated her in front of other people, deeming her a frivolous and despicable person. The servants in the household were all opportunists. Seeing that Murong Zhining had offended the madam, everyone followed suit and humiliated her, then they isolated her. Cai Qin was one of them.

Cai Qin had a lover who was an errand boy. To please Cai Qin, he went around making up false stories that he once witnessed Master Zhuang have a secret meeting with Murong Zhining behind the mini mountain in the back garden.

Cai Qin had always been jealous of Murong Zhining. Moreover, she wanted to fawn over Madam Zhuang as well, so she took this baseless rumor, added some salt and reported it to the madam. Cai Qin only wanted to borrow Madam Zhuang’s hand to teach Murong Zhining a hard lesson.

Her jealous nature acting up, Madam Zhuang was furious. She violently beat up Murong Zhining and also scratched up Zhuang Cheng’s face.

The ruthless madam wouldn’t let Murong Zhining off so easily, though. She locked up her mentally disabled son and Murong Zhining in a room, wanting the fool to ruin her. Like that, the madam would have a perfect reason to make Murong Zhining her son’s concubine.

Madam Zhuang’s scheme was very ideal. By doing this, she could completely cut off Zhuang Cheng’s evil intent and get her son a beautiful concubine at the same time. In the madam’s heart, her son was still a born noble despite being a fool, while Murong Zhining was but a lowly maid of unknown origin, far from being worthy to be his official wife. Murong Zhining only had one future, and that was to be a concubine.

Fortunately, the Heavens had mercy on Murong Zhining. The fool didn’t understand anything aside from eating, sleeping and playing, so nothing happened between them.

Seeing as her plan didn’t pan out, Madam Zhuang flew into a rage out of humiliation and threw Murong Zhining to the kitchens, making her do the dirtiest and heaviest work.

Right up until the Zhuang Estate was confiscated, Murong Zhining was still a low-ranked maid. She wasn’t the family’s home raised daughter-in-law, and Zhuang Cheng had never had the chance to force himself on her.

As Yan Feng heard the complete story, the contempt on his face grew even deeper. He simply couldn’t believe that this little woman who dared to call him a fatuous ruler was still of a pure body. He had no intention of letting her off either, because he still needed to get back at her for insulting him. Yan Feng wanted not only to debunk this hypocritical woman on the spot, but also to prove that she was full of lies and filth.

Scornfully, Yan Feng shook that noble head of his. “How can you prove yourself to be innocent based on your words alone? I myself don’t believe that you are any sort of pure and noble girl.”

Cai Qin also chimed in and praised, “Your Majesty is extremely wise!”

Cai Qin’s shamelessness and her act of adding fire to the fuel made Cai Sang gnash her teeth with hatred. However, Cai Sang was too timid and wasn’t good with using words. Not knowing how to explain things for Murong Zhining, she grew anxious and felt helpless.

Aside from a vindictive heart, Yan Feng also possessed a curious heart. He wanted to verify his speculation and also humiliate Murong Zhining while he was at it. In order to quickly put an end to this meaningless lawsuit, he came up with an idea: he wanted to call people and carry out a body check on Murong Zhining (In ancient time, body check is to verify whether a girl is still a virgin or not.).

Murong Zhining felt a mix of embarrassment and anger, but she still agreed without hesitation. She knew that the Emperor wouldn’t take the insult lying down and definitely would try all he could to humiliate her. While she disdained to prove anything to him, she had to do it, because there was no other choice left for her.

The eunuch-in-waiting quickly called for an experienced senior palace maid and brought Murong Zhining to a room. Murong Zhining had never undergone a body check before, so she was quite curious about it.

The senior palace maid drove away all the unneeded personnel and told Murong Zhining to take off all her clothes and lie down. When Murong Zhining knew that not only the clothes needed to be taken off, but also that a unique body part must be examined, her small face flushed beet red. She couldn’t bring herself to cooperate as the feeling of embarrassment was too overwhelming. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

The senior maid didn’t make things hard for Murong Zhining. She turned her eyes on the girl’s stomach and used her hands to press on it here and there. Murong Zhining shyly covered her face. From the gap between her fingers, she quietly peeked at the maid.

The senior maid’s expression slowly sank. She looked as if she wanted to say something but then decided against it in the end. After hesitating for a very long time, the maid remained silent. She left the room to report her findings.

Yan Feng waited for a very long time. In his belief, this kind of thing shouldn’t take this long. He guessed that the girl was definitely scared of being exposed and would refuse to cooperate. Yan Feng strolled to and fro with his hands behind his back, this thought lessened his fury somewhat. The eunuch-in-waiting fluttered the fan nonstop, wanting to cool down the Emperor’s anger.

Finally, a low-ranked eunuch ran back and whispered something into Yan Feng’s ear.