Chapter 1: The Miserable Transmigration

  It was around five o'clock in the afternoon when all the major brothels were about to receive guests. At this moment, Jiang Xia had just finished drinking and eating with Han Yu, and Han Yu was gathering all the servants, tea servers, and pimps of the Qunfang Pavilion to announce that Jiang Xia would be promoted to Shufang Master.

  The Bookkeeper is a transcendent figure in the Flower Pavilion, he doesn't manage anyone, nor is he managed by anyone, and directly reports to Madam Kang. If it were just that, it wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary, but what makes him transcendent is that the Bookkeeper is generally the only person who can read and write besides the two top courtesans in the shop and Madam Kang.

  Who would want to be bald if they had hair, the servants in the brothel, the tea server, the turtle official and the girls, if any of them could read, wouldn't come here to do this job that is despised by others. Can't they just set up a stall on the street to help people write letters and make a good living?

  It's really that saying, "All things are inferior, only reading is superior." Take those scholars on the street who help people write letters as an example. Writing a letter of 500 words or less costs 20 cents, and reading a letter of 500 words or less costs 10 cents. If there are more words, you have to pay extra, and when you go to find someone, you have to be polite, otherwise they'll give you a sentence "My treasure is not cheap, please leave" and then ignore you.

  It means "my words aren't that worthless, do what you want." But the bookkeeper in the store is different. After all, he's one of us, usually serving with good words and good manners, just need to pay a little bit of polishing fee for him to help write letters home, as for reading letters, most of the time it's just five or six cents.

  It is said that Jiang Xia was promoted to be the master of the study, and he shared a room with him. One night, Zhao Youguo, the servant who slept beside him, couldn't help but say: "Master Han, this doesn't follow the rules! I'm not unaware of Jiang Xia's abilities - he can't even recognize a single character, yet he's become the master of the study?"

  Han furrowed his brow and glared at Zhao Youguo, bellowing: "Do you have the nerve to interrupt me when I'm speaking? And who told you that my brother Jiang is illiterate?"

  Han Yu's sentence "My family, Jiang brothers" suddenly made everyone understand that Jiang Xia had climbed up to Han Yu's high branch. At this moment, everyone's gaze towards Jiang Xia changed instantly. Han Yu was originally going to scold Zhao Youguo a few more sentences, but Jiang Xia quickly pulled Han Yu's arm and said: "Han big brother, the younger generation just made a small mistake earlier, now suddenly becoming the master of the study room, it's normal for everyone to have some doubts, don't get angry."

  Jiang Xia said, looking at Zhao Youguang: "Youguang, let me prove to you that I'm literate. Do you have any letters or books that you can give me? I'll help you read them."

  "There is." Zhao Yougu immediately took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Jiang Xia, "I spent ten cents to get Mr. Lü on East Street to read this letter for me, don't think you can fool me."

  Jiang Xia smiled and shook his head, took the letter and pulled out the letter paper from the envelope, unfolded it and read: "Dear son, I hope this letter finds you well. The other day, your father received the letter you sent from Shuntian Prefecture, and learned that you are living a stable life there..."

  Jiang Xia read the letter word for word to Zhao Youguo, then he looked up and said: "Youguo, did I misread anything?"

  "My god, you can actually recognize characters?" Zhao Youguo said with wide eyes.

  Jiang Xiaonian's content, although he couldn't recite it from memory, but the sounds were all identical, so basically Jiang Xiaonian was about 80-90% correct. Zhao Youguo had just finished speaking when Han Yu couldn't help but scold again: "Your mother's words are useless, illiterate Jiang brother can be a teacher in the study?"

  Jiang Xia looked at Zhao Yougu and said: "Yougu, your father asked you to write back to him as soon as possible. If not, I can help you write a letter now?"

  "Now?" Zhao Yougu shook his head: "It's only seventeen, and there are still more than ten days before the monthly exam. I haven't given you a hint."

  "Just write a few words, what's the need for a brush?" Jiang Xia nodded at Huang Dayong behind the counter, and Huang Dayong quickly brought over the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone and placed them in front of Jiang Xia. Huang Dayong was the person in charge of collecting money at Qunfang Pavilion, but all he could do was count money and keep accounts; as soon as he encountered a slightly complex character, he would be stumped.

  After taking over the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, Jiang Xia said to Zhao Youguo: "Youguo, you recite and I'll write. Let's try to hurry up a bit, don't delay everyone from starting work."

  "Good! Good, good!" Zhao Youguo nodded vigorously and began to recite. As he recited, he wrote at the same time. As he recited, Zhao Youguo burst into tears. He had too many words to say, an old father, an old mother, two older brothers and sisters-in-law, as well as three younger sisters, all of whom he wanted to ask about one by one. But out of habit, when he got to "I heard that big brother fell off a mountain and broke his leg a few days ago, I don't know how he is now," Zhao Youguo estimated that it was already 500 words.

  Five hundred words was the threshold for charging a fee, Zhao Youguo didn't dare to read on, he feared that if he continued reading, Jiang Xia would ask him for money. Han Yu also lost his patience, originally he allowed Jiang Xia to write at this time just to prove to everyone that he could read and write.

  "Alright, alright, I've helped you write such a long letter without charging you a single penny, that's generous enough. Now take the letter and leave."

  "Ah...!" Zhao Youguo carefully blew dry the ink and was about to retreat when Han Yu suddenly called out: "Wait!"

  He took the letter written by Jiang Xia for him from Zhao Yougu's hand, swept it twice and praised: "Brother Jiang, your handwriting is really beautiful."

  Han Yu, although not very literate, had a lot of experience and could understand a little bit. The family letter written by Jiang Xia for Zhao Youguo used Dong Qichang's Dong script, which emphasizes the regular script, is a classic among regular scripts. At first glance, even illiterate people feel delighted.

  Jiang Xia smiled and said: "Let Brother Han see the joke, in the future if Brother Han has any family letters to write, just come find me as soon as possible, I guarantee not a single cent will be taken."

  "Is that so? Then brother will thank you first, hahaha......" Han Yu was very close to Jiang Xia in front of everyone, and from now on, everyone knew that Jiang Xia was Han Yu's brother. I believe that from now on, no one in the group would dare to bully Jiang Xia again.

  Jiang Xia took the letter from Han's hand and handed it over to Zhao Youguo. He patted his shoulder and said, "If there's anything else you want to say that hasn't been said yet, come find me later and I'll help you finish writing it. Absolutely no extra charge."

  Zhao Youguo looked at Jiang Xia, he didn't expect that he had just questioned him and yet he was still willing to help himself. Zhao Youguo immediately knelt down on the ground and kowtowed several times, saying: "Thank you, Mr. Jiang, thank you, Mr. Jiang."

  "Eh, Zhao Youguo, what's going on? Hurry up and get up. If you don't get up soon, I won't help you write the letter." Jiang Xia said as he helped Zhao Youguo up, and in just a short time, he had already changed from "Jiang Xia" to "Mr. Jiang".

  Han Yu looked at the time and it was getting late, the guests were almost here, so he pointed to a few servants and said: "You guys stay behind and help Brother Jiang move his family, the rest of you go do your own things."

  "Yes!" Everyone dispersed, and the few servants pointed by Han Yu stayed to help Jiang Xia move. Jiang Xia Sheng became a bookroom master, so his residence moved to the third floor of Qunfang Pavilion. In the past, only two people in the store were qualified to live on the third floor, one was Han Yu, and the other was He Chaoxi. Now that He Chaoxi had been beaten and expelled from Qunfang Pavilion, Jiang Xia moved into He Chaoxi's residence.

  Just after moving, Jiang Xia originally was going to give everyone some money as a labor fee, but before he could hand it out, he heard a loud female voice shouting: "Kang Qingyan you slut, get out here!"

  As soon as he heard this voice, Han Yu's face immediately fell and he couldn't help but shake his head, saying: "Good heavens, that shrew is here again."

  "Shrew? Who's that?" Jiang Xia couldn't help but ask.

  Han looked at Jiang Xia with some curiosity and said, "You don't know? The owner of Chunyilou on the street corner, Li Mama, her older brother is the magistrate of Shuntian Prefecture, a high-ranking official from the eighth rank. So we also dare not do anything to her. I don't know what happened this time, but it's likely that Kang Mama has offended this shrew again and dug up Li Mama's daughter."

  "Oh? Let's go take a look." Jiang Xia pulled Han Yu and headed towards the front hall.

  At the entrance of the corridor, Mrs. Kang was hiding behind the door. Hearing footsteps, Mrs. Kang was startled and turned her head to see Jiang Xia and Han Yu, and she finally let out a sigh of relief. Mrs. Kang said to Han Yu: "Han Ye, this matter is up to you now, go and get rid of that shrew."

  Han looked at Mrs. Kang with a difficult expression: "Mrs. Kang, this matter... you also know that her brother is Li, the official of Shuntian Prefecture. I don't dare to be rough on her. Last time I went to fetch her, she dug several holes in my face."

  Han Yu and his mother were talking, while Jiang Xia secretly glanced into the hall through the doorway. Fortunately, there were no guests yet, so the only person in the hall was Li's mother, who was loudly scolding someone. The intimidating Li's mother indeed looked like a shrew, being fat, ugly, and short. Her mouth was as big as a large bowl, while her eyes were small like soybeans. Her arms and legs were short and round, resembling a soccer ball.

  At this moment, what she scolded was also very unpleasant to hear, but roughly the same. For example, something like "Kang Qianyan you bitch, your personal husband's slut, a cheap goods that deserves to be hacked to death..." and so on.

  Kang's mother was a courtesan in her youth, skilled in the arts of music, chess, calligraphy and painting, so she didn't know how to scold people. At this moment, she couldn't do anything about Li's mother either. Her face turned iron-green as she said in a low voice: "Han Yu, pass down the order that anyone who dares to take away this shrew will be rewarded with ten taels of silver."

  Ten taels? Jiang Xia's eyes lit up as soon as he heard it, and after observing for a moment, he swallowed his saliva and asked, "Aunt Kang, it might be a bit difficult to get rid of her, but would scolding her work?"

  "Scold her away?" Kang Qingyan suddenly became excited, she happily grasped Jiang Xia's hands and said: "If you can scold her away, I'll reward you with twenty taels!"

  "Twenty taels?" Jiang Xia's breathing quickened slightly, and he nodded heavily: "Alright, I'll go try."

  When Jiang Xia was about to go out, Han Yu pulled him and looked at him with a solemn expression, as if entrusting a soldier going into battle: "Brother, be careful."

  Jiang Xia nodded heavily and said, "Don't worry, big brother."

  After finishing speaking, Jiang Xia was about to leave. Suddenly he saw that Kang Qingyan had a seal paste in her hand, and he guessed it should be for signing a contract with someone. It seemed that Kang Qingyan really did dig up the other person's girl. Jiang Xia's eyes rolled around and said: "Kang mom, lend me some of your seal paste."

  After finishing speaking, Jiang Xia didn't wait for Kang Qingyan's response and used her hand to wipe some onto her palm.

  As she walked out of the door, Jiang Xia happened to hear Li's mother scolding: "Kang Qingyan, you cheap woman, I'll screw your grandfather."

  "Hey!" Jiang Xia shouted: "You rascal, who are you scolding?"

  "You scoundrels! How dare you insult our Fragrant Chamber's Kang Qianyan!" Madam Li retorted without hesitation.

  Jiang Xia nodded and said: "So it was you who scolded our mother Kang, you finally have some self-awareness."

  "Hahaha..." Hearing Jiang Xia's response, the girls in the group and the workers who were just silent as cicadas suddenly burst out laughing.

  Mrs. Li suddenly understood that she had fallen into Jiang Xia's trap of words, and she was furious, pointing at Jiang Xia's nose and scolding loudly: "You bastard, I'll screw your grandfather."

  Jiang Xia bowed to Li's mother and said, "Then I'll thank you on behalf of my grandfather. Although you look like a pig, are fat and ugly, you're still younger than my grandfather, and being with him doesn't humiliate him."

  "Hahaha..." The people in the Fragrant Pavilion burst out laughing again.

  Kang Qingyan excitedly grabbed Han Yu's arm and said: "You said it too well, you really said it too well, this Jiang Xia is indeed a talented person!"

  Mrs. Li completely lost it, in this instant she activated her crazy mode, her combat power soared to 10,000 points...... Oh no, not that. In this moment she suddenly went mad and loudly cursed: "You dead bastard, triangular eyes, wind-catching ears, garlic nose, shoe-scratched face, having a son is useless, having a daughter is a prostitute. I curse your whole family to never live a good life."

  "You're a dead old hag, not even dogs or pigs would eat you, and cats would get nauseous just smelling you. At first glance, you look like a pig, but upon closer inspection, you're not even as good as that. I don't want to discriminate against you, after all, this is the arrangement of fate, it's the retribution for your past life's sin of peeking at Mr. Wang from next door taking a bath. But I have to say something to you, what are you doing going out in broad daylight? You're scaring people, that's okay, but what about ghosts? Do you want to scare them to death again?"

  "How dare you say I gave birth to a son without an anus, don't you know that your own anus is on your face? Do you know why I'm saying this?"

  Jiang Xia loudly asked the people in Qunfang Pavilion, and the people in Qunfang Pavilion curiously asked: "Why?"

  "Because she came in with a mouthful of crap, if it wasn't for the anus growing on her face, how would it smell so bad? Ah, never mind, I'm close to you and I feel like vomiting." Jiang Xia made a vomiting expression.

  Kang Qingyan was already excited to the extreme, and Jiang Xia's words suddenly reminded her of the few times in her life. She looked at Jiang Xia's scolding appearance and couldn't help but exclaim, how can he be so handsome? It's too unreasonable.

  Jiang Xia, as the leader of the Jiang family, not only can play elegantly but also master vulgarity. He once single-handedly impersonated seven people to cheat a wealthy businessman out of over 30 million, so being scolded by a shrew like this is just a minor matter for him. With Li's vocabulary, she is at most an apprentice-level player and cannot compare with Jiang Xia, who is a master-level expert.

  Insulting is an art. It requires a rich vocabulary, ingenious creativity, and the ability to articulate logical and progressive verbal blows while maintaining a calm demeanor, drawing in onlookers to follow one's rhythm, and only stopping when the opponent is left speechless and defeated.

  Mrs. Li kept panting heavily, for the first time in her life she felt what it was like to be suffocated by anger. She was furious and as soon as she caught her breath, she shouted loudly: "You damned bastard, you're asking for death!"

  After finishing speaking, Li's mother rushed towards Jiang Xia.

  "Be careful, Jiang Xia." At this moment, the girls and workers on the second and third floors of the Qunfang Pavilion all shouted out in unison, but unfortunately they were too late. Jiang Xia was pushed by Li Mama and flew out, crashing to the ground and spitting out a mouthful of blood. Then, with a bloody face, he stumbled and staggered as he got up.

  Jiang Xia walked towards Li Mama with a difficult gait, his mouth mumbling indistinctly: "Don't go... A life for a life..."

  "Ah!!!!!" Mrs. Li shrieked, instantly scared out of her wits and wetting her pants, loudly shouting: "Don't come any closer, don't come any closer, save me!!!!!"

  After finishing speaking, Li's mother turned around and ran towards the outside of the Guanfang Pavilion. Unnoticed, she tripped on the threshold and fell heavily, but she didn't think twice before scrambling up to continue running out the door.

  "Jiang Xia!" Kang Qingyan was startled by Jiang Xia's appearance and hurried over. She saw Jiang Xia stand up straight, wiping the "bloodstains" on his face with his sleeve while saying: "If you have the ability, don't leave! Let's have another 300 rounds of verbal sparring!"

  The people in the Fragrant Pavilion were all frightened by Jiang Xia's appearance, thinking that Jiang Xia was really seriously injured. But now seeing Jiang Xia wiping off the "bloodstains" on her face with her sleeve, they realized that Jiang Xia was pretending, and without guessing, they knew that the marks on her face were made of cinnabar ink.

  Seeing Kang Qingyan and Han Youran running over, Jiang Xia made a fist at Kang Qingyan and said: "Report to Mother Kang, Jiang Xia is lucky to return triumphantly... The enemy was killed without leaving any armor behind...... Hmm? What smell? So seductive......"

  Jiang Xia looked at the position where Li's mother had just stood and saw a mysterious puddle of water, he added seriously: "Hmmm, the enemy fled in disarray, leaving behind their last drops."

  Kang Qingyan smiled and patted Jiang Xia's chest, saying: "Well done, come to my room later to receive your reward."

  "Thanks, Mom," Jiang Xia said with a smile.

  "Alright, alright, stop staring and get ready, our guests will be arriving soon."

  At this moment, someone shouted: "Jiang Xia is great!" Then the whole Qunfang Pavilion erupted in thunderous applause that lasted for a long time.

  Jiang Xia also smiled and returned a bow with his fists clenched. Someone once said that flowers and applause should be the eternal pursuit of men.