Under the Bamboo Parasol

*Warning*

This chapter gets a tad bit gory

I suppose this where the dark aspects come in.

~

Far away, in the heart of the capital, in the red light district, where it was at the peak of business. Although the sun had already gone down, the streets had sprung to life, with bright lights that lit up every building, and could be seen from miles away.

In front of the Hundred Flower brothel, which was lit with countless candles and torches, making it bright enough to be seen from afar. The brightness served to attract more guests to the establishment.

A young man was swaying as he walked out from the Hundred Flower brothel, a drunkard with the potent smell of liquor, he was dressed in orange brocade robes, an extremely vulgar choice. Even so, everyone showed him the utmost respect, as he was from a noble family. The young man needed help from the head lady of the brothel, who was in her 40's but still retained her womanly elegance. The woman helped him into his extravagant sedan chair, buttering him up with flowery words of praise. "Please come again next time, young master Yan." She said sweetly.

"Don't worry, this young master would be sure to *burp* to come back and see *hic* be sure to make sure that no one touches Chun'er." The young man said incoherently. He manages to fish out a bag of silver and hands it to the head lady.

"Of course, of course, we wouldn't dream of letting her serve someone else, she is only reserved for young master." The head lady's eyes light up as she receives the silver, the weight was at least 30 tales and replies with a smile to please the esteemed guest.

"Good, good, this young master will go now *hic*. Return to the manor." The young master Yan orders his sedan bearers.

The sedan is lifted by four men, all dressed in the sedan bearing uniform. The sedan disappears into the cold winter night. The head madam puts away her false smile and heads back into the brothel with the warmth of the light.

The sedan was carried for a long period of time in the streets of Qing Cheng that were deserted from the bitter cold. The sedan was swaying back and forth and the young master was feeling nauseous from the constant swaying, especially after eating the finest foods and drinking countless cups of liquor. He felt that all his organs had melded into a pile of mush that was splashing around in his stomach.

The young master could not handle the swaying any longer, as all the delicacies and drinks he had earlier threatened to escape from his stomach. He could not hold it any longer.

"Stop!" A shout came from inside the sedan. The four sedan bearers halted and placed the sedan on the ground with care. They were quite used to this, as the young master would most likely go to throw up in some alleyway after indulging himself in luxurious delicacies.

[What a waste.] They all silently thought, no one dared to express this out loud.

The young master bolted from his sedan and ran to the nearest alleyway where he threw up. The four sedan bearers stood, waiting for the young master. There was soon an unbearable stench that got to them, they knew that the young master was throwing up every single thing from the earlier meal. The continued waiting, standing like ice sculptures in the cold weather.

Meanwhile, young master Yan had already puked up everything in his stomach, but he now entered a coughing fit. He now coughed so violently that his orange brocade robes now had specks of blooming red flowers that grew larger and larger with every cough, beautiful yet bloody. Young master Yan soon felt as if his stomach had been turned inside out, there was a burning sensation all over his body, particularly his abdomen which felt like there were burning coals placed on it. Soon he was no longer able to endure it and his body gave out beneath him.

The sedan bearers had waited for quite a while now and the young master still had yet to return. The weather had become a lot colder now, as it became the dead of night. To the four people waiting, it had become a game of endurance.

Who would be the one to check on the young master. They all knew that the young master would lash out at the person that bothered him and they did not want to be that person.

They all waited longer until a finely built sedan bearer said "Fine, I'll go, I can't take this any longer." And walked off towards the direction that the young master had run. Already accepting that he would suffer from the wrath of the young master.

With that, the other three sedan bearers heaved a sigh of relief as they would not be the ones to disturb the young master.

The finely built sedan bearer walked towards the alleyway that he had seen the young master dash towards. He walked with slow steps full of caution, towards the young master, but when he got there, he could only let out a shriek of horror "Ahhhhhh!" The lone voice echoed through the empty streets, causing the three other sedan bearers to rush towards the alleyway.

When they got towards the source of the shriek, they couldn't stop themselves from trembling uncontrollably. What they saw was hard to describe, the young master was in a crouching position, his fine clothes were covered in blood, his still open mouth had traces of blood, the eyes were still wide open and bloodshot as if he had been in unbearable torment within the last moments of his life. The last was his skin color, which had changed from being a peach pale complexion to one that had bluish, blackish veins popping out from the skin, he was obviously dead. The four sedan bearers wanted to throw up after witnessing the scene before them, after all, they were ordinary servants, not soldiers.

"What…what do we do?" A sedan bearer asked.

"We...we should report this incident." another responded.

"I'll go." The one farthest away from the body ran quickly, to find the constables to report the death of young master Yan.