Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace
Chapter 162: Caterwauling Courtesan

Libin seemed to be interested too, so Yui Mei scooted to give him space. The courtesan was ranting in the other room, her spit flying everywhere in her rage.

“Why do I have to be taken to this place!? I’m the most favored lute musician, you know!?”

“Is that true?”

Yui Mei asked Libin while he peered into the hole when they heard what the courtesan yelled. He nodded.

“Well, that’s true.. Xu doesn’t show her face at the banquets anymore, so that woman currently sits at the pinnacle of the courtesan. But then, was she like that before? I can barely see the resemblance, but it’s like she’s a totally different person from my memory.”

Libin muttered while looking dubious. He then turned over the spot before the peephole.

“Wait, can she play even if she’s skin and bones?”

Yui Mei was also perplexed as she asked her question.

The interview had begun while she was thinking about it, so she just set that aside for now.

“It seems that you’re pushing the use of a strange tobacco to the people around you, is that right?”

“So what about tobacco, huh? Everybody’s smoking it! Don’t tell me you took me here for that reason?!”

The person from the Ministry of Justice inquired. The woman was probably tired from kicking up a fuss. She sat heavily on the chair beside the table, and started tapping and shuffling her feet while talking.

“Where did you get it?”

The woman didn’t answer the first question, but when she heard the second query, she banged her fist on the table.

“It was sent by a person who loved the sound of my lute! Oh, I see now, so you’re jealous of me, so you hatched this plan, huh!?”

The woman snapped and screamed at every single question the man asked her.

The trio alternately watched through the peephole all throughout the interview.

“So they receive gifts from other people?”

Yui Mei asked in hushed tones, and Libin hummed in agreement as he stroked his chin.

“Those palace courtesans would sometimes attend the banquets held in the hall located at the border of the Inner Palace and the Inner City, and that’s where they are seen by outsiders. There are times when those outsiders would send gifts to the courtesan that they saw.”

“However, the contents are obviously examined first. There are clans who would send strange things from time to time. That being said, this time was different, because we weren’t able to identify the tobacco as dangerous, but it will probably be confiscated from now on, I guess.” 

Libin whispered while explaining, and the man supplemented his words.

‘Heh, so popular courtesans have fans?’

Receiving gifts from fans — it was just like the idols of her previous world.

No, maybe it would not be strange to say that the courtesans were just like them.

They would soothe the emperor with their music, but they also played the part of giving a good impression to the outsiders. 

Still, this court courtesan was extremely arrogant, acting like she was a high-ranking concubine.

It was a far cry from Xu’s self-deprecation when she referred to herself as a prostitute.

Her current appearance no longer had any trace of her former self, but perhaps she had a lovely appearance before, and it was one of the things that made her popular.

Yui Mei nodded in understanding.

“It must be Xu, she became so shabby so she’s probably trying to vent her anger on me, what a horrible woman…!”

The wailing woman abruptly dropped Xu’s name, then started a barrage of verbal abuse towards her.

She started spewing vitriol, like “I hated her from the first time we met”, “She’s so annoying for always saying unpleasant things”, and she continued saying whatever insult she could come up with and hurled it out.

“Always, always, always getting in my way just because I’m so famous and she’s so jealous of me. Even if she had been the former favorite of His Majesty the Emperor, I’m still his favorite now!!”

The woman fidgeted, tapped her feet and banged the table while animatedly saying those things. She was very lively, indeed.

“Whoa, what a great mouth, dissing somebody else with that gusto.”

The man looked on in admiration while watching the woman.

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