CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Three weeks before Li Feng and Lam Bai arrived at Quanchang, four men became fed up with their results from mining. They found iron and some coal, but they hadn’t stuck a valuable ore or gem in weeks. Disgruntled, they carried their iron-rich haul to the third floor for evaluation.

At the third floor of the mine, a station collects rocks from miners and evaluates them for their iron content. Almost all the mined stone in Quanchang contains iron, so every bit of material can at least earn a miner some money. However, one of the miners had their brother injure his arm, making him unable to effectively mine. In order to afford the necessary medical care, it would take more coins than the group had earned in over two months.

To blow off steam, the four men and the injured brother head to a whorehouse on the second level of the mine. For a few dozen coins, each of them can pay to relieve a little stress, but this method doesn’t always work. Some days, the hard working miners have more stress than they can blow off into a whore.

When the five men returned to their shared apartment, the injured one hatched an idea. “We should take a girl back here,” He said to his brother and friends.

“What do you mean?” A member of the group asked him.

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“I mean, like, we find a whore we all like, then we grab her and bring her here,” The injured man said.

“It’d be cheaper than buying a whore for each of us every night,” The biggest man in the group, Ruan Zan, said.

“But would we do it?” Another member of the group asked.

“Just take a cheap brothel girl from the first level,” Said the injured man. “You bring her here, and I can make sure she doesn’t get out.”

The men continued to discuss their plan, but the basics were already set. They go to the first level of the mine, pay for the group of them to enter a whore’s room, then sneak away with her unconscious. The plan worked flawlessly at a brothel named Hua Harem, where the five men stole the whore Ya right out of her room.

The men toyed and played with Ya for four days, then let her go on in the dark hallways of their floor. Disoriented, the woman crawled back to the stairway where she was found by a passing miner. The miner helped Ya back to her own level, but that was the end of the help she got.

Quanchang is not a city for those who cannot defend themselves. Women typically work in the surface city of Quanchang, else they face the same risks that Ya did. Only a few women working in the mines are important enough to be guarded by a strong cultivator, but that is not the case for the countless whores working there.

Ya, unfortunately, wasn’t important enough to be guarded. Lam Bai, unfortunately, was too unlucky to be protected from the men’s passing fancy.