The next morning—
Early the next day, Adrian Night had already left the room. His movements were so slight, but Ivy Shen still noticed—after years of being a light sleeper, even the tiniest sound woke her up.
Not long after, Ivy shuffled lazily down the stairs.
Seeing this, Clara Night immediately jumped up and called out, "Jared Nan, how's your leg?"
Seeing Clara heading her way, Ivy quickly raised a hand. "Miss Clara, I'm really fine now, but thanks for worrying about me."
The moment she descended the stairs in her white outfit, the entire hall fell silent. But that quiet only lasted a minute—soon, everyone was chattering nonstop.
"Oh my god, did you see that? There are two hotties at the same table!"
"Right? I thought that guy was already drop-dead gorgeous, but who knew the other one would be even prettier!"
"Tch, what's so pretty about that? Total pretty boy vibes." The women’s discussion finally got on the men’s nerves—seriously, complimenting someone else right in front of them? What an insult!
"But still, even if he's a bit delicate-looking, that guy really is good-looking," another man blurted out. Honestly, he was kind of crushing—wait, he was straight! What was happening? Ahhh!!!
Even if the sun came up in the west, nothing could surprise Madam Yun today. On all of Rouge Street, Tender Haven was the shabbiest, most rundown brothel around.
As Ruiland City grew richer over the years, the brothels multiplied and got fancier. After the last Flower Queen got bought out three years ago, Tender Haven was practically ready to close up shop. The only reason they held on was for the handful of older, faded women who’d worked with Madam Yun since day one. If the place shut down, where could they possibly go?
Now that everyone was getting on in years and their looks had faded, Tender Haven’s clientele was mostly coachmen, rough country guys, and the odd runner—men who couldn’t afford the fancy places and just wanted a quick fix for a few coins. None of them cared if the girl was young or old, pretty or not.
Other than that, most days you wouldn’t even see a cat in here—let alone a drop-dead gorgeous young man walking through the door.
"Sir..." Madam Yun gasped in disbelief, and the ten older women sitting inside all jumped to their feet, stunned. What was a handsome gentleman like this doing in a place like theirs?!
"Are you the madam here?" Ivy opened her fan and strolled in with style. Honestly, she could’ve bought a slightly nicer place with her silver, but she had her eye on this one. The scenery wasn’t the best, but the location was perfect—tucked away at the very end, easy to overlook amid all the competition.
But most importantly, the plot of land was huge—which was vital for future plans. Plus, the older and more rundown a brothel was, the more attention a flashy renovation would attract.
"Yes, sir, I’m the madam here. Everyone calls me Madam Yun," said the roughly fifty-year-old woman with a big smile. She hurriedly waved for the others to make tea. With years of experience, she was sure this dashing gentleman must be here on important business.
Ivy sat down at her leisure and glanced around. Nice—simple structure, easy to renovate. The interior layout was just what she wanted. She got straight to the point: "Madam Yun, are you willing to sell this place?"
"Uh? Sell—sell!" Madam Yun only froze for a second before blurting out her answer. But as soon as she spoke, the ten older women behind her cried out, "Madam Yun, if you sell the brothel, where will we go?" They’d spent half their lives here, and now, with no looks and no savings, selling the place would leave them homeless and hungry.
The women’s sighs made Madam Yun hesitate. She’d worked with them for years. Business was worse every year—sometimes they’d go ten days or half a month without a single customer. But whenever they did make a sale, even if it was just five copper coins, they’d hand it over without complaint. If she really sold the place, what would happen to them?
"Don’t worry. If I buy the place, anyone who wants to stay can keep working for me. If you’d rather leave, I won’t stop you. But I promise—if you stay, you won’t lose out!" Ivy said, absolutely certain.
"You’d really keep us on, sir? But what could we possibly do? The customers don’t want us anymore..." The women all wanted to stay, but this was a real problem.
Ivy flashed a grin. "No need to worry! You’ve hosted guests for years, so you must have tons of experience. I want you to stay on as trainers for the new girls. From now on, whenever a girl earns money from a client, you’ll get a ten percent cut, she’ll get twenty percent, and the house keeps seventy percent. Plus, every month we’ll pick a ‘Flower of the Month’—if someone you trained wins, your bonus doubles!"
"Ah!" Ivy’s words stunned all ten women. They couldn’t believe such a good deal was real. Instantly, they crowded around—these terms were almost too good to be true!
"Madam Yun, I want to hire you to keep managing the place, of course with a salary—yearly, not monthly. Out of all the profits, I’ll take eighty percent, you get twenty. If we lose money, it’s all my problem."
After Ivy finished, everyone was fired up. They’d never dreamed of splitting profits this way. Young girls could earn a lot—a single girl could make ten taels a month, and they’d get one tael each. That was more than they’d make in several months before! If business boomed, the numbers would skyrocket.
"Sir, why give the girls such a big cut? If they have money, they’ll just want to buy their freedom faster," Madam Yun said, worried.
Ivy chuckled. "I want them to work hard and buy their freedom! Who really wants to do this kind of work forever? Instead of keeping them trapped and miserable, I’ll give them a reason to hustle and earn their way out. That way, we’ll always have new girls coming in, and honestly, I’m not worried about them leaving—what I’d worry about is if they never wanted to leave!" Her confidence and cleverness left everyone speechless. Wow, what a brilliant idea—why hadn’t they thought of it before?
"Sir, your ideas are fantastic! In all my years, I’ve never thought of anything so smart," Madam Yun praised without hesitation.
"I've got plenty more tricks up my sleeve—what you’ve heard so far is just the tip of the iceberg. Stick with me, and you’ll be buying mansions, hiring servants, feasting on delicacies. But if anyone isn’t loyal, they can get lost!" Ivy made sure to lay down the law up front.
"Sir, we’ll work our hardest—we swear!" everyone said, their blood boiling with excitement.
"Sir, is Madam Yun dreaming? Is this for real?!"
"Enough talk—just name your price! How much for the place?" Ivy asked bluntly.
Madam Yun replied quickly, "Sir, you’ve given me so many benefits and found a way to revive the brothel—I’ll just give you the place! I’m happy to work for you for life." Honestly, she’d had a feeling the moment Ivy asked to buy it that the brothel was about to be reborn.
"Great! I won’t be shy then—trust me, you’ll be making so much money your hands will cramp from counting it." With that, Ivy pulled out five hundred taels of silver. The crowd gasped—whoa, that was a ton of money!
"Madam Yun, here’s five hundred taels. I need you to do a few things for me. First, find some carpenters to renovate the inside, and fix up the outside too. Here are the blueprints." She handed the plans to Madam Yun.
"Sir, uh..." Madam Yun stared at the blueprints—what kind of weird layout was this? It looked nothing like a brothel!
"Don’t worry about it—just do exactly as I say. Second, go buy me twenty of the prettiest girls you can find. Price isn’t an issue. Each of you ten will take two to train. Third, hire some maids—their wages won’t be much. Fourth, find me five men with really deep voices. Fifth, buy out a fabric shop for me. Got all that?" Ivy spelled it out, clear and precise.