Chapter 104: Gisaeng
The young man did not remain silent for long this time. He exchanged glances with the young woman beside him, and as if he had made a great decision, he looked at Song Qingci again and said, "If you help us escape from here, we are willing to serve you as our master and be your slaves."
"I don't lack servants. However, you can exchange what you know for me." She already has a silver star, so she doesn't need anyone else for the time being.
The boy was obviously relieved when he heard this. "What do you want to know?"
Song Qingci pointed at him and asked, "Who are you? And who is she? Where are you from?"
Talking while standing made people nervous. After Song Qingci finished asking, he found a place to sit down away from the blood and corpses, and also motioned to the boy and the young woman to find a place to sit down and talk.
After all, looking up at people is quite tiring.
The young man did not refute Song Qingci's idea. He pulled the girl to the other corner and considerately found a piece of clothing for her to put on.
She didn't know whether she was cold or scared, she was shivering the whole time.
Song Qingci did not urge him. Anyway, it was useless to go out for a while now, so it would be better to learn more about it. Maybe it would be more effective.
After the young man settled the young woman down, he sat down next to her again, held her hand, looked at Song Qingci and said, "My name is Jisheng, and this is my sister. Her name is now Mudan."
''We are not from outside, we are originally here.''
"You mean you've always lived here?" She probably understood correctly.
The gisaeng nodded, "Yes, my sister and I were both born here."
''How old are you? ''
"I am fifteen years old. My sister and I have twins, a boy and a girl."
Song Qingci's eyes widened. No wonder they looked similar. However, Mudan looked a little mature because of her clothes and makeup. She looked two or three years older than the gisaeng.
However, she also found it somewhat unbelievable.
If both of them were born here, then this place has existed for at least fifteen or sixteen years.
"Your mother?"
"Dead." The gisaeng answered calmly, "He has been dead for five years."
"This is a den of money. It is a place for those masked men to have fun. Each cave here is a girl's bedroom. The number of rooms is fixed, but new people come every two years. Therefore, those women who are old, ugly, sick, or accidentally pregnant will be taken away from here. The room will be vacated for the new girl to live in."
"Pregnant women will be taken away from here, what about your mother?"
Song Qingci didn't finish his words, but Jisheng understood.
"She was also taken away from here, and was almost executed. But before that, she was saved by a small steward here."
"I heard from others that my mother was the most beautiful woman in the gold-consuming cave, and her talent was also very impressive. Half of the money in the gold-consuming cave was earned by my mother alone. The small manager persuaded the biggest manager here to let my mother continue to earn money for the gold-consuming cave after giving birth to the child. As for the child, whether she was killed or thrown away, the result would be the same."
"In the gold-consuming cave back then, there was no one who could replace my mother for a while, so the steward agreed. After my mother gave birth to us, she was forced to return here again."
"Mother knows the people here very well, so she negotiated with the manager here. She agreed to help the gold-consuming cave earn enough silver, but they needed to ensure that my sister and I could survive. Otherwise, she would die with us."
"Even though my mother didn't live with us, she saved my sister and I's lives. We could even see each other every two months."
"When we were ten years old, our mother could no longer earn money like before. She also had health problems. The manager here saw that he could no longer squeeze more money out of her, so he gave up on her."
"Then how did you survive?" Song Qingci was curious. Since their mothers who could save their lives were dead, they were only ten years old at the time. According to modern calculations, they were still elementary school students. How did they survive in such an environment?
"Although we have not lived with our mother for many years, we have not left the area of the gold-consuming cave. We have been helping in the kitchen here since we were very young. Although our mother has passed away, we were still able to work, so we were kept here. However, without our mother's help from time to time, our life has become more difficult."
Song Qingci observed that when the gisaeng mentioned these things, his emotions were very calm, without much ups and downs. It seemed that the experiences over the years had already smoothed out the anger in the gisaeng's heart.
"What about today?" Song Qingci pointed at the body lying on the ground.
Finally, when the calm gisaeng looked at the corpse, his emotions were aroused. He secretly took several deep breaths and suppressed his emotions. But the feeling he exuded made people feel cold.
At this time, the sister who had been silent all the time hugged the emotional gisaeng and said softly, "I will tell you what happened next."
She turned to look at Song Qingci, pursed her lips, and then slowly said, "When I was helping in the kitchen, everyone called me a slut, just like a gisaeng, which was a name given to us by the manager here."
No wonder, when the gisaeng introduced his sister just now, he only said that her name is now Mudan.
They are all extremely insulting names, but "splash girl" is even more unbearable to call out.
"A month ago, I was working in the kitchen. I was so tired that I fell asleep by the stove. Then my hair got burned by the fire. My younger brother found me and woke me up in time. Otherwise, I should have gone to see my mother that day. My younger brother and I hurriedly washed our faces with water, and we put down the hair that was burned by the fire and cut it off with a knife. Who knew we would meet the steward who came to the kitchen to look for food?"
"Since I was five years old, my younger brother wouldn't let me clean myself up. I had to be unkempt every day. At first, I didn't understand why. But later, I understood. The older I get, the more my face looks like my mother's. I usually put ashes on my face, but that day I washed my face because it was burned by the fire. Unexpectedly, the steward saw it. The next day, I was taken away from the kitchen."