After six dances in a row, Li Banfeng had gone through six dance partners.
Zhou Yujuan, the proprietress of Xianle Dance Hall, stood on the second-floor gallery dressed in a deep purple qipao, holding a round silk fan.
Fanning herself with her left hand and resting her right hand on the railing, she looked down at the dance floor in the ground-floor hall. After watching Li Banfeng for a moment, her brows knitted slightly.
This guest didn't seem to know the rules.
In a dance hall like this, dancing was never the point; the point was choosing a companion.
After two or three dances in the hall, once you had picked a suitable partner, the next step was to head upstairs or leave the venue, finding a proper place to do the proper things.
Li Banfeng only danced and never picked anyone, which wasn't quite right.
Zhou Yujuan summoned a woman and whispered, "Tell that man it's eighty dollars a dance, and have him settle the bill first."
A song lasted less than three minutes, yet she was charging eighty dollars—this was clearly a hint for Li Banfeng to get lost and stop freeloading.
The woman left and returned shortly, holding a thousand dollars in cash. "Big Sister, that guest said he's having a wonderful time dancing here and wants to keep going."
Zhou Yujuan's brow furrowed even deeper.
Xianle Dance Hall was considered top-notch in Yaowanggou, yet its rates were hardly that exorbitant. A thousand dollars was enough for Li Banfeng to take two dance hostesses upstairs for the night. What did he mean by just dancing here non-stop?
Years of experience told her this man was here to cause trouble.
Zhou Yujuan gave another order: "Tell Lao Gu to change the record. Play 'When Will You Return'!"
Lao Gu was the one operating the hand-cranked gramophone.
Hearing the boss's instructions, Lao Gu understood the message and promptly switched the record.
"Fine flowers do not often bloom, good times do not often stay; sorrow clears as smiling brows unfold, tearful eyes bear longing away..."
"When Will You Return" was a song played every night without fail at Xianle Dance Hall. It held a special significance, serving as the closing song. Upon hearing it, guests had to quickly pick their partners, for once the song ended, the dance hall would close its doors.
The gentlemen present had all chosen their partners. Li Banfeng's dance partner clasped both his hands tightly, pressing them over her bosom, and asked tenderly, "Sir, shall we head upstairs?"
Li Banfeng replied with a solemn face, "What would we go upstairs for? Isn't dancing down here just fine?"
The girl looked at him anxiously. "Sir, after this song finishes, we're closing up."
"Why close? I just paid!" Li Banfeng said, dissatisfied.
The dance hostess whispered, "If you take me upstairs, you won't have to pay anything extra."
"Who said he doesn't have to pay!" The proprietress, Zhou Yujuan, slowly walked down the stairs. The girl had spoken so softly, yet she had still overheard it.
Sharp ears.
She must be a Scrying Cultivator.
The music stopped abruptly. Zhou Yujuan arrived in front of Li Banfeng, smiling. "Sir, we're closing for the night. Please come back tomorrow."
Li Banfeng asked, "I just gave you a thousand dollars and now you're closing up. Does that seem right to you?"
Zhou Yujuan put on an expression of surprise. "Sir, you held our girl while dancing. Shouldn't you pay for that?"
Li Banfeng looked at her. "The money I gave was for dancing. At eighty dollars a dance, I've danced seven songs. I haven't even spent half of that thousand, and you're already driving me away?"
The surrounding patrons began backing away from the center of the dance floor.
They knew that at Xianle Dance Hall, dancing itself didn't cost a thing; what guests paid for was the hostesses' tips and the drinks.
They also knew that if the boss came asking for dance fees, it meant trouble was brewing.
Zhou Yujuan curled the corner of her mouth, looking at Li Banfeng. "Sir, eighty dollars is the fee for the dance, but for each song, there's an extra hundred dollars for the perks you enjoyed."
"What perks?"
"The perks are clutched right in your hands."
Li Banfeng's hands were clutching the girl's bosom.
It wasn't that he had wanted to hold them there; the girl had grabbed his hands and held them there earlier.
Now, the girl was no longer generous and welcoming as before. Her face flushed with shame and indignation, she ripped Li Banfeng's hands away and snapped, "Sir, what do you think you're doing?"
She acted as though she had suffered a terrible insult from him.
The fact that this girl had volunteered to dance the final song with him suggested she had come prepared.
Li Banfeng didn't argue. He nodded and said, "I'll pay the hundred dollars for the perks."
Zhou Yujuan arched a brow and shook her head with a laugh. "A hundred alone won't do. Seven of our girls accompanied you for seven dances. Which one didn't let you take advantage? A hundred per girl makes seven hundred dollars—with that added in, that thousand of yours isn't even enough."
Li Banfeng was thoroughly astonished. "All seven girls? I took advantage of all of them?"
Zhou Yujuan nodded solemnly. "They are respectable young women. Even letting you touch their hands is a loss on their part."
Li Banfeng found this absurd. "How can anyone dance without touching hands? Do all the guests here pay for that?"
Zhou Yujuan batted her wide eyes, gazing at Li Banfeng with mock pity. "Other guests don't have to pay because the girls are willing. If a girl is willing, you can touch whatever you like. But not you. Our girls find you repulsive. If a girl isn't willing, even touching her fingernail will cost you!"
Li Banfeng was about to keep reasoning with Zhou Yujuan when he suddenly sensed danger approaching.
He looked up toward the second-floor gallery.
Behind the railing stood a middle-aged man.
The man was around 1.6 meters tall, bald, with a full beard, wearing a grey cloth shirt with frog-button fastenings. In his hand, he constantly rolled and rubbed a pair of walnuts.
At this moment, his eyes were fixed on Li Banfeng.
Quite a few of the patrons present recognized him. Some took their dance partners out for the night, while others tossed down their drink money and promptly left.
Such a lean, wiry man possessed such formidable deterrence.
Although Li Banfeng had never seen him before, he recognized his identity.
Because in Li Banfeng's eyes, the man wasn't standing alone on the gallery; behind him stood over a dozen figures.
Fifteen, to be exact—Li Banfeng had counted.
These fifteen figures were male and female, dressed in all sorts of attire. Their only common trait was the green flames flickering around their bodies.
These were a Nightmare Cultivator's ghost servants. This lean man was the wind patrol of the Jiangxiang Gang's Medicine King Hall, Second Branch: Du Hongxi.
Now that Du Hongxi had arrived and the other guests had cleared out, Zhou Yujuan's smile lost any trace of gentleness. "I don't care to bicker over petty change. Sir, leave another thousand dollars, and you may be on your way."
"Another thousand?"
Zhou Yujuan nodded. "Think I'm asking for too much?"
"Why an extra thousand? What kind of logic is that?" Li Banfeng wanted to hear what kind of nonsense the proprietress would come up with next.
Zhou Yujuan laughed. "You want to reason with me? Are you worthy? Go piss and look at your own reflection to see what kind of nobody you are! While I'm still in a decent mood, pay up and get lost. Keep your eyes peeled in the future, and don't barge into places you don't belong."
Li Banfeng glanced back at Du Hongxi. Two ghost servants behind him passed right through the railing, descending slowly from the second floor.
Li Banfeng raised his brows, opened his wallet, took out a thousand dollars in cash, and handed it to Zhou Yujuan.
Taking the cash, Zhou Yujuan said with an affectionate smile, "Now scram!"
Li Banfeng turned and walked away. Du Hongxi directed his ghost servants to follow.
Li Banfeng strode quickly out of the hall. The two ghosts phased straight through the wall and chased him into the hallway, yet found no sign of him—only the open doors at the far end of the corridor.
He left?
So fast?
After searching for a while without finding Li Banfeng, the two ghost servants sniffed the air and detected no scent of a living person nearby.
It seemed Li Banfeng truly had departed.
The two ghost servants returned to Du Hongxi's side, and Zhou Yujuan walked back up to the second-floor gallery.
Du Hongxi put an arm around Zhou Yujuan's waist and kissed her cheek. "Next time you run into a punk like that, don't waste your breath on him. Just tell me, and I'll deal with him myself."
Zhou Yujuan chided playfully, "Master, for a trivial matter like this, how could I trouble you?"
Du Hongxi laughed. "Little sweetheart, for you, I'd gladly work myself to death."
Pouting, Zhou Yujuan said, "Master, you said it yourself—tonight you aren't allowed to complain about being tired."
The two retreated into the third-floor bedroom. The fifteen ghost servants divided into three squads, guarding every corner of the third floor.
With these ghost servants on guard, even if a tier-three Martial Cultivator stormed the third floor, they wouldn't be able to harm Du Hongxi in the slightest.
Du Hongxi did not need to exercise extra control over them; they watched over his safety at all times. When a fight arose, they knew no fear; when no battle was needed, they never slacked off in the least.
They feared no coercion and cared nothing for bribes; unless their souls were dispersed and destroyed, they would never abandon their posts.
Tonight, however, was an exception.
At three in the morning, the sound of singing suddenly drifted from the gramophone in the ground-floor hall:
"I have a tale of love, ah,
To whom shall I sing?
The one who knows my heart has walked out the door,
He went away, ah, with never a word to bring..."
One after another, the ghost servants poked their heads out and looked down toward the ground floor.
This was the most beautiful song they had ever heard.
They strained to listen, but the gramophone's volume was rather low.
Unable to resist any longer, two ghost servants phased through the railing, left the third floor, and floated down beside the gramophone.
After a moment of hesitation, the other ghost servants followed suit.
They all gathered around the gramophone, listening quietly to the singing.
Li Banfeng slowly cranked the gramophone, counting the number of ghost servants.
Fifteen. Every last one of them was here.
Chapter 78