Xiaoxiao hadn’t slept well all night, and with no one coming to rescue her, how could she possibly escape? Why was she so unlucky?
Finally, Xiaoxiao managed to close her eyes in a daze, and when she woke up the next day, it was already very late. Xiaoxiao arched her back and opened her eyes, only to be startled by the scene in the room—why were a group of girls staring at her from beside her bed?
"Little sister, are you awake?"
Xiaoxiao was very confused. What did these girls from Yixiang Courtyard want with her? Looking around, she even noticed the madam sitting beside the table in the room.
She looked at the madam as if pleading for an explanation.
Seeing the bewildered Xiaoxiao, the madam seemed somewhat uneasy and she slowly said, "It’s them, they insisted on seeing you."
"..." Insisted on seeing her? Xiaoxiao then turned to the others, "You..."
"Little sister, we are the girls of Yixiang Courtyard, and we came to ask you for a favor today."
Xiaoxiao stared at them uncomprehendingly. What could they possibly want from her? She pointed at herself, "You have something to ask of me?"
"Yes, little sister, we hope that you could teach us some of the performances you perform."
"..." Could it be that they felt threatened by her potential to become the leading performer?
"These past few days, we have seen how, thanks to you, Yixiang Courtyard’s business has picked up. We are really grateful to you."
"But relying solely on you isn’t a sustainable plan, so we were wondering if we could also contribute. Please don’t get us wrong; we don’t intend to take your place as the leading performer."
Hearing these girls’ words, Xiaoxiao felt as if she had entered a false brothel. These girls seemed different from what she had initially thought.
During the subsequent conversation, Xiaoxiao learned more about their situation. It turned out that these girls didn’t want to leave because they felt that their bodies were no longer ’clean’ and that living outside would invite contempt and hardship, looking down upon them.
They preferred to stay here where everyone supported each other warmly. The madam treated them like family, provided medical care when they were sick, stood up for them if a client mistreated them, and even selected more amenable clients for them. Here, they felt more at ease.
So when the madam brought out her entire fortune to buy the brothel, everyone pitched in with their savings. Unfortunately, the brothel still nearly went bankrupt. Now, seeing Xiaoxiao revive the brothel’s business, everyone was thrilled and hoped to learn from her so they could help the brothel.
After hearing this, Xiaoxiao was moved to tears, realizing these were individuals with hearts and feelings. Perhaps they didn’t need to sell themselves; maybe they could survive well without doing so.
But faced with their sincere gazes, she found she couldn’t refuse them, "I can teach you."
Once everyone heard Xiaoxiao had agreed, smiles of excitement appeared on their faces.
Thinking it better to be upfront, Xiaoxiao realized Yang Ming might not come to save her tonight. She had to rely on negotiating for her own rescue, "Actually, I’ve been performing so diligently because I wanted to use this opportunity to escape. That spicy oil message was me trying to tell my husband where I am."
"We know, we all know. We were just afraid that if you left tonight, we wouldn’t be able to find you, so we were eager to ask for your help."