In the early days, the teahouse was originally a place for passing merchants to rest and recuperate, and later with the prevalence of tea culture, the teahouse and tea house gradually evolved into a place for everyone's leisure and entertainment.

Although Mingxianglou is not the most luxuriously decorated teahouse in Kyoto, it is a century-old shop.

The biggest difference between Mingxianglou and Mingrenju teahouse is that one is a traditional teahouse and the other is an opera teahouse.

The opera teahouse, to put it bluntly, is supplemented by tea tasting, and opera appreciation is the mainstay. The guests who go there do not pay much attention to tea and tea art, but use tea as a guide, relax their bodies and minds, communicate and socialize, and enjoy the art of opera in the sound of opera and music.

In addition to the fact that there is no popular opera troupe Hua Dan in Mingxiang Building, there are also many people who play and sing in it. Especially those young women who are still holding the pipa and half-covering their faces, they are not much worse than the women in the serious song and dance studio.

It's just that there is something abnormal today, and there is no trace of pipa music in the Mingxiang Building.

The guests in the building were all excited, and even the best West Lake Longjing tea that had just been brewed did not have time to taste a cup, and they all gathered downstairs to listen to the spitting speech of a storyteller.

Of course, the storyteller is talking about new and interesting things that have happened in Kyoto City recently.

However, today's content is fresh, but it doesn't seem to be fun.

He was talking about Yufangyuan's fire yesterday.

"The fire literally lit up the entire city of Kyoto. The girls in Yufang Garden were all disheveled and running out. ”

"The most pitiful thing is the nine girls who have just run for the Oiran Lady, and it is said that they were burned alive by the fire last night."

"Since ancient times, I thought she would become a legend in the Qinglou Chu Pavilion, but I didn't expect it to be just a moment."

"She is like a fireworks, soaring into the sky, blooming and dazzling, but it is just a moment of time to disappear."

The storyteller couldn't help but sigh, and the people below were also sighing.

"Yufangyuan also has a hundred and ten young and beautiful girls, I heard that a lot of them were burned to death."

Someone is talking about it below.

According to insiders, there are only dozens of women who escaped from the fire this morning. Don't know where the rest has gone? ”

"I must have taken advantage of the chaos to run away and burned some of them, and the rest of the frightened ones probably couldn't run."

"It's just that you don't know. The women in Yufangyuan were all abducted by kidnappers, and some were sold to that place by their parents, brothers and sisters-in-law. What a good girl's house, who went to that kind of place voluntarily. ”

"Also, the women in there will be sold to the Qinglou in the future. If an innocent girl goes in, she will be ruined for the rest of her life. ”

"Their last place is not all Qinglou Chu Pavilion. Aren't there still high-ranking families who go inside to buy concubines and maids? ”

It's not a big deal for people who really look at the excitement, they don't care how many people were burned to death in Yufangyuan last night. This conversation alone is enough for several days of verbal pastime.

"And where did the rest of the dozens of women go?" Someone asked.

"Why do you still want to pick up a beautiful concubine from it?" Someone snickered.

"What's wrong with the women in there, they are all un**** yellow flower girls, not to mention concubines. Even if it is to give us ordinary people as wives, it also makes it. The man was not convinced.

"Zhang Mazi, don't be whimsical about you toad. If such a woman really wants to marry a family, I guarantee that you will have a green glow on her head in a few days. ”

The crowd laughed.

"But then again, the benefits have long been taken by others, and it is said that there are only a few old women left when the official family brings people over at dawn."

"It's a shame. Don't talk about other women in Yufangyuan. Just the eight girls who performed on stage yesterday, which one is worth more than 100 taels of silver. ”

"I don't know who picked it up."

A few people said it was a pity.

In their eyes, those women were not just people, but white silver, yellow and clear gold.

Those are all ownerless people, and whoever picks it up is theirs.

If you want to talk about the deed of sale, maybe it will have been burned out in the fire.

Aren't they ownerless?

They often hear intermittently from storytellers that a new Qinglou woman was sold for five hundred taels for the first night. Which Qingqi person was forced to give up his art and sell himself, and the value was auctioned to 1,000 taels.

Originally, many people were still waiting to see how much this newly promoted Oiran lady was worth. Some people even made a bet on it. The stakes are not small.

It seems that they can't see this.

"Hey, the storyteller, how do you know that the ninth girl was burned to death." Some people who don't believe ask.

"That's what the old man eats, and he says something that he is not afraid of offending people. I'm afraid that the fire in Yufangyuan has something else going on. ”

"The person who is holding the nine girls in the back this time is the same person who is holding the red peony girl three years ago."

"And on the night of the fire, Peony threatened her own life to prevent the ninth girl from being with the son." Mr. Storyteller said.

"How did you find out about such a secret thing?"

This is the question on everyone's mind.

"The old man just said this, believe it or not, it's up to the guest officers. I advise everyone to just listen to it as a story. Have fun, why take it so seriously. ”

When the storyteller said this, he took away the bounty money thrown at him by the officials and was about to leave.

"Hey, don't go, old man, this story is not finished yet."

But everyone couldn't keep it, so they had to let him go.

He walked to a place where there were few people, and from around the corner came a weak scholar and bumped into the storyteller.

Just scattered all his guys on the ground.

"Why don't young people walk with eyes, and they will break my old bones."

The storyteller half-crouched on the ground, picking up the copper plates he had earned.

The scholar apologized again and again, and also squatted down to help him clean up his things.

He picked up a fan and held it in his hand, and looked left and right, looking back and forth, and no one was paying attention to them.

He took out a purse of things from his bosom and handed it to the storyteller along with the fan.

The storyteller weighed the purse with his hand, and felt heavy, and it was gold, not silver, and there was a lot of it.

"Take these, and leave Kyoto City quickly. If I ever see you again, you won't want to have your head around your neck. ”

The scholar lowered his voice and said to the storyteller.

The storyteller nodded knowingly, and didn't say much.

Although he got a lot of gold, he carefully picked up all the copper plates scattered on the ground.

It's not that he is thrifty, but he has always been careful and good at reading people's hearts.

If passers-by see them leaving in a hurry regardless of the copper coin, the matter will be exposed, and it will be themselves who will suffer.

The things were cleaned up, and the scholar helped the storyteller up, and apologized again and again.

Then, the two left in different directions, one east and one west. (To be continued.) )