After transmigrating into the body of a widow, I became the richest man in the capital.

Chapter 242 Redeeming Miss Jiu'er

"Who are you? Mind your own business!"

The middle-aged man shouted angrily at Su Xiaoxiao. As soon as Jiu'er saw it was Su Xiaoxiao, she immediately hid behind her.

"Who I am is none of your business. This girl clearly doesn't want to go with you, yet you keep forcing her. What kind of man are you?"

"Hey, I paid a lot of money for this, she's mine for the whole day."

"is it?"

The girl next to her, Jiu'er, looked terrified. She was clearly trying to back away and was shaking her head frantically.

"How much silver did you spend?"

The middle-aged man was taken aback, then gestured with his hands, "Five taels of silver."

"Here's five taels of silver. I'm redeeming this young lady from her servitude today."

"Who cares about your five taels of silver? Who do you think you are..."

At the middle-aged man's signal, the thugs around him surged toward Su Xiaoxiao, completely surrounding her.

Pei Yuan saw this and knew it wouldn't do, so he quickly came over to Su Xiaoxiao, afraid that she would be bullied.

How could Su Xiaoxiao be afraid of these thugs? They were nothing in her eyes. In just a few rounds, she knocked down the two men in front of her. The rest of the thugs didn't dare to rush over anymore.

The middle-aged man held five taels of silver, pointed at Su Xiaoxiao, and said, "You're something else. Just you wait and see."

Su Xiaoxiao pretended to beat him up, which scared the middle-aged man so much that he immediately slunk away with his thugs.

Su Xiaoxiao rescued Jiu'er, and only after inquiring did she learn that Jiu'er had been snatched away from her role as the top courtesan. Now she was just an ordinary dancer in the Lichun Courtyard, so customers could hire her to do things she didn't want to do.

Su Xiaoxiao was furious after hearing this and wanted to help Jiu'er redeem herself.

A hint of helplessness appeared on Jiu'er's face. "I have a contract with this brothel, and I can't redeem myself."

As she spoke, Jiu'er smiled with a hint of bitterness on her face, bowed to Su Xiaoxiao, and then left.

As she was leaving, Su Xiaoxiao noticed that there seemed to be scars on her face, and her expression seemed to indicate that even if Jiu'er was rescued this time, she would probably not escape misfortune in the future.

Su Xiaoxiao stood there blankly, staring at Pei Yuan's face.

"Did i do something wrong?"

Pei Yuan quickly came over to comfort her, "You did nothing wrong. You looked incredibly cool when you came out to meddle in other people's business."

Watching Jiu'er's hurried departure, Su Xiaoxiao felt a pang of pity.

After all, back in the capital, Miss Jiu'er had helped Su Xiaoxiao once, and together they cleared Liu Zi'an's name.

"No, I absolutely have to help with this, and I'll help you to the very end."

The next day, Su Xiaoxiao didn't go to her shop. Instead, she stayed at home researching something. Around dusk, Pei Yuan saw Su Xiaoxiao come out of her room, dressed in men's clothing.

Su Xiaoxiao waved to Pei Yuan, "Come on, I'll take you to a good place."

This was the first time Pei Yuan had seen Su Xiaoxiao dressed as a man, and his eyes lit up.

"Handsome, right?"

"Hmm! Where are you taking me?"

"Hey, stop talking nonsense. Hurry up, you big man." Pei Yuan was dragged by Su Xiaoxiao all the way to the entrance of the brothel before he finally reacted.

"The brothel, are you going in again? I heard you came here to solve a case last time, and that was understandable. Why are you coming again today?"

Su Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes at him. "Don't make it sound like I'm a lecher. I'm here on important business. Let's go inside."

Su Xiaoxiao pulled Pei Yuan into the brothel, where the girls at the entrance were excessively enthusiastic towards the two of them.

However, Pei Yuan was hesitant and didn't even dare to look at the girls. He felt a little shy, after all, this was his first time here.

The brothel was as lively as ever, with a large number of guests coming and going, making it feel quite crowded inside.

Several drunkards inside nearly bumped into Pei Yuan. Pei Yuan was about to lash out, but Su Xiaoxiao held him back.

Su Xiaoxiao sat down in the private room as if she knew it all too well, and casually called out to the waiter inside, "Go and call over your top courtesan, Jiu'er?"

The servant quickly bowed to Su Xiaoxiao and said, "To answer your question, young master, Miss Jiu'er is no longer the top courtesan here. The current top courtesan is Hua Niang. However, Hua Niang has been invited to sing, so how about I arrange another girl for you?"

Su Xiaoxiao shook her head. "I want Miss Jiu'er to sing, and in my heart, Miss Jiu'er is still the most beautiful courtesan."

"Okay, then I'll go see if she can come out and sing for you?"

Upon hearing this, Su Xiaoxiao wondered what it meant.
The servant replied vaguely, "Actually, Miss Jiu'er is unwell, so I'm just seeing if she'd be willing to come over."

After a short while, when Jiu'er appeared before Su Xiaoxiao and Pei Yuan, Su Xiaoxiao finally saw clearly that Jiu'er had obvious scars on her face and body, and more than one at that.

These are fresh wounds; they weren't even noticed when they met yesterday.

"Miss Jiu'er, are you alright?"

Jiu'er simply shook her head and began to play a piece of music for Su Xiaoxiao.

After playing for a while, Jiu'er found Su Xiaoxiao to be very familiar and then recognized her.

She was about to call for help when Su Xiaoxiao stopped her.

"Shhh."

Su Xiaoxiao leaned closer to her, "Don't call me by my name yet, it might give away my identity."

Jiu'er glanced warily at the servants around her, no longer daring to reveal Su Xiaoxiao's identity.

Su Xiaoxiao noticed that someone was around, and Jiu'er's face showed a very nervous expression.

After the servant who had come to serve them left, Su Xiaoxiao went to Jiu'er's side.

"Were you beaten when you came back yesterday?"

Tears streamed down Jiu'er's face; she had indeed been beaten by the madam when she returned.

"I said I would buy your freedom, but you said no. What is the reason for that?"

This place is hell for Jiu'er; she suffers here. Su Xiaoxiao offered to redeem her, but Jiu'er refused.

"It's simply impossible. To redeem someone would require five thousand taels of silver, and we simply can't raise that much money."

"How much? Five thousand taels of silver. Is the madam here crazy for money?"

"Her opinion doesn't count here; it's the people at the main branch of the Lichun Brothel in Beijing who have the final say. The reason I was transferred here is actually because of the incident where I helped Liu Zi'an clear his name. After that, I was transferred back here."

(End of this chapter)