Chapter 2866: Lingao-Guangzhou Exchange Conference (1)

Xia Zhongde returned to his lodging and turned the matter over in his mind, examining every cause and consequence in meticulous detail. Then he retrieved from his bookshelf the Senate Imperially Designated Legal Series—specifically, the Compilation of Laws Applicable to Criminal Cases, the Compilation of Arbitration Tribunal Judicial Interpretations on Various Historical Issues in Criminal Cases, and the Compilation of Arbitration Tribunal Judicial Interpretations and Guidance on Cases Involving the Ming—and pored over the bookmarked sections again and again.

After several readings, he felt a measure of confidence returning. It seemed the "expert's" guidance had been sound after all. Yet one concern still nagged at him: laws were merely laws; what truly mattered were the people who enforced them. He had dealt with government offices for nearly twenty years in the Great Ming and knew all too well that the King of Hell might be easy to see, but the little demons were hard to deal with. Whether legal provisions would actually be applied in practice still depended entirely on the officials handling the case.

This time, processing the bail had gone surprisingly smoothly. He had initially wondered whether to "grease some palms" beforehand—he was familiar with the Australians' reputation for integrity, but this was a case involving human life, after all. To be cautious, he had specifically consulted the "expert," but the man had merely looked at him with disdain and told him to "just go handle it."

Xia Zhongde couldn't tell whether his contact had already made arrangements behind the scenes or whether the Australians truly "handled things according to law." His heart remained unsettled.

After much deliberation, he concluded that his only option was to seek out this connection again for another conversation. With that decided, he gathered his spirits and began composing an invitation card.

News of the Qu family's bail soon appeared as a "development" in the Weekly Developments bulletin of the Lingao Police Bureau. Though the procedures were entirely legal, granting bail to persons involved in major criminal cases still under investigation was unprecedented. Lai Youwei feared the document he had received couldn't bear this responsibility, so he reported the matter to his direct superior. As it happened, the team leader also found the situation somewhat delicate, so he simply filed it as a "development"—after all, the current official director of the Lingao Special Municipality Police Bureau was still Ran Yao himself.

Ran Yao naturally saw the report. These days he was overwhelmed with administrative duties and rarely involved himself in individual cases. Only the truly difficult problems ever reached his desk. A murder case with clear circumstances and complete witness and physical evidence—already so transparent—appearing in the developments told him at once what the Criminal Division was thinking.

Though he wasn't as well-versed in legal provisions as the Senators in the legal sector, based on general legal principles, whether Madam Qu had committed murder in the past constituted a "separate case" entirely unrelated to the current one.

Since bail had been granted, there was no need to complicate matters further. Arresting Madam Qu in connection with this case had itself been of questionable legality. Detectives who had been born as naturalized citizens, no matter how much modern police theory and law they absorbed, always unconsciously applied certain old notions to their casework. This was inevitable; Ran Yao generally didn't demand too much of them.

Qingruo walked along the corridor carrying a tray. Her light green dress, tailored to embrace her figure, paired with a vest adorned with glazed colored threads, set off her dark hair beautifully. Anyone who saw her would think: What a lovely young lady!

Qingruo moved with unhurried grace, though her eyes occasionally stole glances at the courtyard below.

This inner courtyard featured a pond with rocks piled artfully along its banks and miniature bonsai mountains. Several dozen koi swam within—multicolored creatures gliding through the clear blue water as if suspended in air. Such an exquisite scene—even Qingruo, who hailed from a city as refined as Hangzhou, had never witnessed its like. The fish were the rarest "Australian Koi," the most precious variety. A single mature fish of merely middling quality would fetch fifty taels of silver in Hangzhou. Qingruo herself hadn't sold for fifty taels.

In the waterside pavilion by the pond, guests were banqueting. The faint strains of string and bamboo instruments drifted over, mingled with a woman's low singing—Kunqu opera.

She knew the waterside pavilion likely hosted a Senator, for this Kunqu style was rarely appreciated locally in Lingao. On the contrary, certain Senators who liked to affect cultural refinement were quite fond of it.

Senators rarely came here. No more than a dozen visited regularly. After all, Heyuan Street was the red-light district, and coming to Ziming Tower still carried some measure of impropriety.

Qingruo wasn't like some of her sisters, who eagerly hoped to catch a Senator's favor and contrived endless schemes to attend upon one. She harbored no such ambitions and had no desire to continue eating from the bowl of "serving through beauty."

Qingruo had originally been a girl from a musician household in Guangzhou—which is to say, she had been born destined to eat from the bowl of "entertainers and courtesans." Trained by her mother from childhood in playing, singing, and performing, at fifteen her mother had arranged for a wealthy merchant to "comb" her.

This transaction was excellent income for her family, but for the young girl herself, it was hardly a blessing. Yet being born into an entertainer household, she had no choice. After a few years, as the merchant's favor waned and he no longer visited, she could only sell smiles in a pleasure house. After drifting along for nearly ten years, watching her looks gradually fade and gifts diminish, neither the madam of the pleasure house nor her own parents had kind words for her anymore.

What became of courtesans whose "business" declined—Qingruo, from an entertainer household, knew all too well. Though she technically "worked independently," merely "renting a room" in the pleasure house, her own birth parents were not necessarily more kind-hearted than the madam. If she could no longer stay in a high-class establishment, they would naturally send her to a low-class brothel to "make money."

Fortunately, heaven took pity on her. With one cannon shot, the Australians entered Guangzhou. The pleasure houses were shuttered, and Qingruo regained her freedom. But though her body was free, she had nowhere to go. Her parents were like tigers and wolves—not people to rely on. As for marriage, having spent so long in the pleasure houses, her reputation was ruined. She couldn't marry into any decent family. Yet she wasn't willing to "lower herself" and marry an ordinary commoner. Just as she was hesitating over her future, she heard that Ziming Tower was recruiting "female attendants." The announcement clearly stated that whether to take a yellow ticket and conduct business was entirely up to her. She thought that although she had no intention of doing business anymore, she was familiar with the trade, so she decided to join.

Upon entering Ziming Tower, she realized pleasure houses could operate like this! Ziming Tower was not only luxurious and dazzling, but the assignment and arrangement of the girls also followed an entirely different set of rules: based on different services, the house was divided into two groups—the Bathing Group and the Dining Group. Within each group, based on the nature of the work, there were further specializations, each with different pay. What Qingruo did was called "attendant." The work involved serving tea and water, arranging dishes, welcoming and seeing off guests, and guiding them through the establishment—in a traditional pleasure house, this would be the role of maids and amahs. But in Ziming Tower, it was called "service staff."

To be service staff, the most critical qualities were quick eyes and nimble hands, along with an understanding of human feelings and the ability to read expressions. Qingruo came from a musician household and had been an "established name" herself. Over a dozen years of cultivated skills in reading people's expressions and catering to their desires, combined with her good looks, quickly earned her a promotion to "deputy head," in charge of serving food and wine in several private rooms. Before long, she was selected as a "business backbone" and transferred to Ziming Tower's branch in Lingao.

Ziming Tower's main establishment was in Guangzhou; Lingao was merely a branch. However, due to its location, this branch held great importance within the Ziming Tower system. Therefore, those selected for transfer to the Lingao branch were all "backbones" with strong potential for business development.

Besides excelling at her work, Qingruo had been transferred largely because of her language abilities. Girls from musician households made their living in welcoming and seeing off guests, interacting daily with people from all over. She could speak not only Mandarin but also the major dialects of the province. She could even manage Hokkien. With such a foundation, after arriving at Ziming Tower, she had picked up "New Speech" very quickly.

Lingao had become a commercial city, bustling with merchants and travelers. Those responsible for reception and service naturally had to be fluent in various tongues.

Unexpectedly, not long after arriving at Lingao's Ziming Tower, she encountered a "big assignment."

This big assignment was that Ziming Tower had undertaken the reception work for the "First Lingao-Guangzhou Progressive Gentry Experience Exchange Conference." Ever since entering Guangzhou without bloodshed, the question of how to further unite the gentry of Guangzhou's urban and rural areas and put them to good use—thereby reducing resistance to reform and assimilation—had been a matter of constant concern in Lingao. To win the gentry's hearts, mere intimidation would not suffice. The esteemed District Chief Wen had pointed out: "If we only use whips and bayonets to suppress them, we will inevitably push them to the opposing side. Once circumstances change, they will become the most dangerous enemies at our bedside." The truly fundamental approach was to make the gentry realize the enormous benefits that submitting to the Great Song, this powerful ruler, would bring them—to make them genuinely support the Great Song from the bottom of their hearts. To achieve this goal, the most effective means was to have those who had already benefited from the Great Song speak from personal experience. Against this backdrop, the convening of the "First Lingao-Guangzhou Progressive Gentry Experience Exchange Conference" was only natural.

The main purpose of the conference was to facilitate meetings and communication between the gentry of Lingao and Guangzhou, boosting confidence in the Senate on both sides. As Xiong Buyou put it: "Don't they really envy Lingao for making big money? Then let's proactively send them to see for themselves!"

And so Xiong Buyou organized a "Guangzhou Gentry Visiting Delegation," selecting more than twenty each of "gentry actively striving for progress" and "progressive gentry" from Guangzhou, packaging them together and dispatching them to Lingao for a "visit and study."

The Lingao side attached great importance to this exchange conference. After two days of intensive meetings, exchanges, and tours, a grand banquet was arranged that evening at Ziming Tower to host the gentry of both Lingao and Guangzhou. This evening banquet had required considerable thought from the Lingao organizers. There were quite a few high-end venues in Lingao now, but some were too "formal," while others lacked "class"—and this class wasn't merely about luxurious decoration; the "Australian content" had to be substantial enough to demonstrate the importance placed on the visiting delegation. Additionally, tonight's banquet wasn't an official "reception"; it was more recreational and leisurely in nature. Considering all these factors, along with Ziming Tower's high reception standards and quality service staff, it naturally emerged as the leading choice.

Originally, the first-floor main hall had seemed the most suitable option—spacious and bright, convenient for both hosts and guests to mingle and converse. However, the main hall wasn't quite "private" enough. After much discussion, Mayor Qian finally decided to hold the banquet in the second-floor private rooms. The gentry of Lingao and Guangzhou would be seated alternately to facilitate communication and foster connections. The hosts would simply have to bear the inconvenience of carrying wine glasses and moving from room to room to make their rounds.

(End of Chapter)