A condemned prisoner arrived at the Xiyan Brothel. The madam paired him with a half-mad woman with consumption and earned two taels in silver. After sitting and drinking together for a long while, they suddenly realized that the prisoner was the top scholar who had ridden through the streets with flowers in his hair that year.
“You seem like someone I’d get along with. How about staying the night? I won’t charge you.”
The prisoner looked at her with disdain and turned to leave in a huff. He was about to die, not so desperate that he’d take just anyone.
The consumptive woman was even more scornful. “It’s just a poem, isn’t it?”
How had she known about the poem he wrote at the banquet celebrating his success?
That was all in the past.
Now there was only a condemned prisoner and a madwoman with consumption, making waves in a place where people sold their bodies.
Theme: Finding release amid boundless mountains and rivers
