Savage Wolf, Lotus Heart [Never Let You Go, Again: Book 4]

17: The One Who Stayed Away

The second-oldest Elder of the Jin sect was arrested.

The fifty-year-old Jin Elder was thrown into the dungeons until he relented to tell where the brothel was. When that was done, Sect Leader Jin personally went with Jin Chan and a few Jins to seal the place. The number of prostitutes in it neared twenty. Fifteen beautiful and dainty young women, and six elegant, slim and stunning young men. The place was exquisite, not at all one meant for commoners. Just for the extreme elites. The twenty-one workers were given compensation for a good three years of living to each of them, by when they should have found better, more respectable jobs. The Madam of the brothel, on the other hand, was put behind bars, ordered to stay in there for a good ten years. When the sentence was over, she was to serve as a meagre servant at Koi Tower's training grounds.

The messiest place on the grounds of the Jin sect.

Jin Chan found the twenty-second name in the bordello's record of sex workers and decided to point it out to Jin Ling.

"Another name? They said only twenty-one are working... Ah, might be the Madam?" Jin Ling asked.

"No, the bordello-owner's name was some Xing Yi thing. This one's Cai Qing," Jin Chan pointed to the last name in the record. "See?"

They had come on a second trip to the place hidden in the form of an inn, to secure the place shut and send the workers out of it. Jin Ling stood on the garden outside, forbidding himself from entering such a terrible place. Jin Guangyao's story had been enough for him to detest setting foot on such a place. He kept his hands on his hips and looked around. "Hey, you!"

One of the young men who had worked there came over. "Sect Leader Jin?" His voice was like a tiny silver bell chiming in the wind. Clearly, every last worker here was touched up with utmost grace. Definitely only fit for the aristocracy.

Not that someone as bored as Jin Chan, nor someone as stiff as Jin Ling, were fazed by him at all.

Somehow, the man's gentle voice triggered the memory of Sizhui in Jin Ling's mind. He gulped guiltily. I've avoided him so much, Sizhui must have thought I'm done with him... How am I to face him now?

"Ahem," Jin Chan nudged him.

Jin Ling realised he had zoned out and cleared his throat. "This Cai Qing," he asked the young fellow. "Who was she?"

"Oh, scandal, that's what she was. The Elder who was arrested was her customer. The fellow was old but clearly potent," the man smirked. "Obviously didn't take responsibility for her, said it was her job. He was at least decent enough to leave extra payment as a tip when paying to Madam, but that's it. Next thing we know, a month later, Cai Qing's pregnant. Madam threw her out. We tracked her whereabouts because she was our friend, she did send letters to a few of us. Apparently, Cai Qing went to her hometown, in the suburbs of Lanling, and her elderly mother took care of her for a while. One month after she gave birth to the girl, her mother died of some terrible cough. Turned out the old lady had transmitted the cough to her daughter, too. Cai Qing had always been weak in physique, that's how we're raised here. So she got the tacking cough, and two months into it, she decided to send the girl away to be found by someone. None of us could help her, and she had no relatives. If she did, they forgot her, discarded her because of the illegitimate child."

"I bet they'd do that," Jin Chan shook his head.

"The child's safe," Jin Ling said. "She'll be adopted into the Jin sect. Thank you for caring for her mother. But... if the mother's still..."

"No," the man shook his head. "Cai Qing. She died just a day before the girl was sent away."

"Then who sent the girl into the woods in a box?"