120. Red Flower Pavilion (3)
Red Flower Pavilion (3)
120. Red Flower Pavilion (3)
Fortunately, the Pavilion Mistress calmly gave the children their instructions. She told them to show off their songs and dances, to take the boat out on the rear courtyard pond and play, and to enjoy whatever food they wanted from the kitchen, and the children happily gathered around Cho-ryeong and chattered.
"Elder! Elder, are you going to become a courtesan too? Elder, you're as pretty as the Pavilion Mistress, so you could be the best courtesan ever."
"I'm not an elder..."
Being weak when something unexpected happened was a tradition of our Yeongsan Sect. When Cho-ryeong trailed off, slightly daunted, the Pavilion Mistress spoke to the children.
"Children. Where under heaven would you find an elder this adorable? Address her as young lady and don't say anything discourteous."
"Yes! Pavilion Mistress!"
"Young lady. Shall I sing for you?"
"I dance well."
"I can play the geomungo too."
Chattering away, the children took Cho-ryeong by the hands and led her to where the instruments were. Before Cho-ryeong could collect herself, she was pulled along by them and followed dazedly. So that's how everyone, man or woman, ends up looking the first time they enter a pleasure house. The children had received courtesan training, but they had not yet learned how to please a customer. They simply genuinely enjoyed the songs and dances themselves, so they invited Cho-ryeong to join in, and a play-like reception began. Cho-ryeong, who found the children fascinating, took some child's hands and awkwardly started dancing too.
"Now. Let us go upstairs, shall we? Including myself, there is no one in the Red Flower Pavilion who could harm Young Lady Cho-ryeong. Moreover, with the Reverend's qi sense, you would sense Young Lady Cho-ryeong at any time, so please set your worries aside and come up."
Seeing that we were a little worried about leaving Cho-ryeong behind, the Pavilion Mistress gently reassured us. I was not worried about danger to Cho-ryeong, but about her picking up strange influences. Still, Cho-ryeong was clever and kind, so she was unlikely to be led astray. And judging by Son Yeong's case, perhaps it was more natural for an interest in sex to begin among friends of the same age. If she remained too innocent, some random bastard might carry her off.
The Pavilion Mistress next took us to the courtesans' waiting room. She stopped before the waiting room door and spoke.
"This is where the courtesans prepare to receive guests. You can see the courtesans' methods of applying makeup and how they put on their clothes."
"May I learn as well? I've never learned how to apply makeup, so I haven't even used the face powder the Branch Head sent me."
When Master asked the Pavilion Mistress in an unconfident voice, the Pavilion Mistress answered cheerfully.
"Sect Leader, you are already beautiful and have such lovely skin, so with the addition of makeup, you will certainly become far more beautiful."
"I want to try wearing the courtesans' clothes once. The people I saw coming and going earlier looked very stylish and pretty."
This time it was Son Yeong. In the past, she had flatly told Cheon Myeong-hwa that she was not a courtesan. But things were different now. As the saying went, a ruler knew no shame; the powerful felt no disgrace. Even if whispers spread about Murong Rin's promiscuous history with men, who could stand before her and insult her? Humiliation always belonged to the weak.
"Of course, Daoist Son! You have excellent proportions, so you will look extraordinarily beautiful."
"Pavilion Mistress. I am not a Daoist."
"Oh my. Pardon my rudeness."
Master and Son Yeong. Until now they had neither the leisure to dress up, nor, stuck away in a mountain valley, any reason to dress up, but after a man they wanted to show a pretty side to appeared, they had been secretly anxious about their rival Jeong-hyang's beauty.
"I want to try both too."
When Jeong-hyang stepped forward and spoke, the Pavilion Mistress looked very troubled.
"Daoist Jeong. I can dress you, but applying makeup to Daoist Jeong would be excessive."
"Why?"
"Makeup is a cosmetic art that supplements shortcomings to elevate beauty. But on Daoist Jeong's face, there is no shortcoming at all."
"All I get these days is subtle discrimination. Then Pavilion Mistress, please make this junior sister of ours pretty, too."
Jeong-hyang playfully hugged Lee Eun-ha and spoke to the Pavilion Mistress.
"Probably, the Medicine Immortal would be the one who could draw out the charms of makeup and clothing most effectively."
"That's because my face has many shortcomings?"
"Makeup conceals shortcomings, but it cannot create a charm that isn't there. On the Medicine Immortal's face lies a tremendous charm that makeup cannot produce."
Wow. What smooth talk. Because this was a female organization that made its living dealing with men, they could handle a woman's complaint just as easily. She might have been the star employee at a customer-service center.
"I apologize, but the Reverend, I hope you will refrain from entering here. While a woman wishes to show her beautifully adorned self to a man, she considers showing herself in the midst of adorning to be intensely embarrassing. I have already arranged a table of wine on the third floor, so please, Reverend, enjoy yourself first."
Even for a pleasure house, the powder room had to be off-limits to men, I supposed. Led by a young courtesan, I went up to the largest, most splendid room on the third floor and took my seat. The young courtesan politely poured my wine but did not yet open her lips. Probably she didn't have the experience for VIP service and was simply there to serve the pre-banquet drinks. In a pleasure house, even speaking to another courtesan's patron could lead to dragging each other around by the hair, so assigning the patron one was to serve was an extremely sensitive matter.
Through the large window, the pleasure house's garden was visible. A small boat floated on the wide, luxuriously made pond. A woman acting as the boatman sang as she carried Cho-ryeong and the seven other girls aboard. It was kind of like a Venetian gondola.
Cho-ryeong looked happy. I probably would have been very happy in that position too. The one thing we could not do for Cho-ryeong despite our newfound wealth. Mixing with children her own age. Seeing Cho-ryeong's expression, this trip to Henan really was a good decision after all.
"Elder. We are entering."
The door opened, and nine women entered. Red Flower Pavilion's high-class courtesans might not have compared to those of Snowflower Pavilion, but even though they had adorned themselves as beautifully as possible to welcome a VIP, my gaze went not to them but to Master and my senior sisters. Their makeup was so light that I could barely tell they wore any, yet their faces had become strikingly more beautiful. Their dizzying clothes were the sort one could see only in a pleasure house. Each woman's natural beauty gave her overwhelming allure, but Jeong-hyang and Lee Eun-ha stood above the rest.
Jeong-hyang was now wearing a short skirt that came up to her knees and a half-sleeved top that revealed her snow-white arms. Short sleeves and short skirts had evidently existed somewhere in this era too.
"Had the Red Flower Pavilion not been closed today, thanks to Daoist Jeong, it would have had to close its business altogether. Because no matter how finely we dress our girls, they cannot hold a candle to Daoist Jeong."
The Pavilion Mistress herself, who said this, showed none of the scholarly air she had possessed earlier. With heavy makeup and a thin, deeply cut garment, she now displayed the captivating allure of a true courtesan. Had the Yeongsan women not been present, my gaze would certainly have gone to her. And then there was Lee Eun-ha, a woman who became more beautiful the more she was adorned. Men were miserable creatures. No matter how prettily a woman dressed, a man's gaze was ultimately drawn to large breasts. I had never seen her chest resting naturally in clothing instead of tightly bound. The enormous size I had seen until now must have been only a portion, suppressed beneath unbleached cotton cloth.
"Now. The seat of honor begins by the window. Sect Leader, please take your place this way."
The Pavilion Mistress seated Master at the window-most seat, and seated Jeong-hyang beside her. Next was naturally Son Yeong, but Son Yeong yielded her place to me.
"The Pavilion Mistress said she would attend to Junior Brother. If Junior Brother sat in the corner, the Pavilion Mistress would have to go to the corner as well, so please sit in the center, Junior Brother."
The center seat was a good seat. First of all, the view was wide, the food was close, and if I sat in the corner, only Lee Eun-ha would be beside me, but in the center I could enjoy the pleasure house seated between Jeong-hyang and Son Yeong. Once our seating was arranged, the Pavilion Mistress continued her explanation.
"Now, originally, the courtesans and the guests never make their entrance together. After the guests are all seated, led by a young courtesan, and have lightly enjoyed a cup of wine, then the courtesans enter."
At those words, the five courtesans, including the Pavilion Mistress, made a full bow to us.
"Thank you for patronizing the Red Flower Pavilion. The Red Flower Pavilion shall do its utmost to serve you, Elders.
"Now, at this moment, the courtesans must never be the first to rise. They may raise their heads only when the representatives of the honored guests tell them to rise. Mischievous guests sometimes grope the courtesans' buttocks at this time and tease them, but ultimately, wasting the allotted time wastes a great deal of money, so it ends as a moment's mischief."
"Please rise. Pavilion Mistress."
"Sect Leader, you are a kind person who does not even speak down to a courtesan. Please call me Pavilion Mistress, at least."
"Then rise, Pavilion Mistress."
When the courtesans rose at Master's words, Jeong-hyang spoke to Master.
"Ah! You didn't get to touch her butt!"
"You go ahead and touch your own butt."
At those words, Jeong-hyang coquettishly touched Master's butt. Her habit of affectionate physical contact was nothing new, so everyone took it in stride and waited for the Pavilion Mistress's next explanation.
"Now it is time to select a courtesan. Beginning from the person seated at the highest seat of honor, please select the courtesan you desire. However, I have decided that today I shall attend the Reverend as though I were a reserved courtesan, so please lightly select among the other courtesans, excepting myself."
"I will choose the lady in red, who helped me with my makeup earlier."
When Master, who was not even a man and had simply come to experience a pleasure house, chose a courtesan without a moment's hesitation, that woman seated herself opposite Master.
"Senior Sister Jeong. I may choose first, yes? I will take that lady over there. I want to observe closely how she handles the instruments."
Under normal circumstances, Lee Eun-ha at the lowest seat would have had no choice, but Jeong-hyang laughed lightly and yielded, seating a suitable courtesan opposite herself, and so the last remaining courtesan sat down before Son Yeong.
"It's a little different from what I imagined? I thought the courtesan would sit at the patron's side."
Master tilted her head at the seating arrangement that differed from her expectations. I had been the same way at first.
"To enjoy a pleasure house, both patron and courtesan must enjoy themselves while making the other yearn. This drinking session itself is very expensive, but a courtesan's fee is even more expensive. To seat her at your side and touch her body signifies the intent to pay the courtesan's fee. If one rashly seats her at one's side from the start, and the courtesan proves displeasing, the patron suffers a great financial loss. Moreover, a courtesan easily seated at one's side will no longer coquette desperately for the patron. The patrons must make the courtesans yearn, as if they will seat them at their side but not quite, until the very moment before their desires explode, and the courtesans must make the patrons yearn without revealing everything, as if they will show something amazing if only they are seated at his side.
"That is the way to enjoy a pleasure house."
"Why does one enjoy a pleasure house through such complicated procedures?"
"It is, admittedly, a sort of game. But it is also a tug-of-war of the hearts between man and woman. It is because a man perceives a woman won through difficulty as far better than a woman who came rolling to him of her own accord."
At those words, my three wives were visibly startled. They themselves were women who had made the first move, so they grew anxious and looked at me.
No. You guys did make the first move, but you weren't women easily won. The psychological torment was severe enough to change the course of my life.
"Now we present the first cup. Drinking the wine is at the patron's discretion, but if a poured cup is left unfinished, the courtesan drinks it. There are some who attempt to easily toy with the courtesan by getting her drunk, but I do not recommend it. Courtesans are women trained to hold their liquor, and even if one truly gets them drunk, all that remains is an unsightly courtesan, too intoxicated to provide the finest service."
The courtesans knelt respectfully on the floor and poured our wine. Because there was a distance between the tables, it naturally created a scene of kneeling.
"There are a few taboos. First. You must not get drunk and create a disturbance with the courtesans. All the pleasure houses under heaven are connected little by little, so causing a disturbance here in the Red Flower Pavilion will lead to being refused entry at other pleasure houses. For the greatest asset of a pleasure house is none other than its courtesans.
"Second. This is a place where one is honest about desire. Whatever transpires here must be kept strictly confidential. Men understand this well and never tell women what happens in a pleasure house. Although our establishment also deals in information, we gather information about the martial world; our patrons' physical characteristics and sexual preferences are kept absolutely secret. This is information we could not provide even to the Sect Leader if we entered under Yeongsan's wing. If such private information spread, the man would take revenge on the pleasure house even at the cost of his life. That is a matter of male pride. Even if the Reverend and I were to have intercourse here, all of you must afterward treat him as though it had never happened. A pleasure house is, by nature, a place like a fleeting dream."
That was what she said, but before truly great power, none of that held. After all, Murong Rin had thoroughly investigated me, from the length of my cock to my duration, from the Snowflower Pavilion courtesans.
Still, strict protection of personal information is a necessary professional ethic for a pleasure house. It would be nice if Do-hwa, who once aspired to the Red Flower Pavilion, had at least learned such things.