They were not afraid of the summer noon heat. They stared at her with sharp eyes, arms akimbo, as if they were about to tear her apart at any time.

Ji Wujin, tired and severely injured, would like a good rest first. She yelled at them with an unfriendly voice,

“What? You didn’t have enough for breakfast?”

Gu Qingqing saw the purple bruise on Ji Wujin’s neck. It looked so terrible and intimidating. She stood out with arms akimbo and aggressive tone,

“Mama Jiao, tell us. Why did you get yourself hurt only after having the most expensive meat buns in the city? Is it because you didn’t pay? It is true that you pay whatever you do. It is really fast that you get your punishment.”

Ji Wujin realized the importance of what she said. But how did they know that she had meat buns for breakfast? So that was why they were trying to tear her apart.

“Now what? You don’t know what to explain?”

Since Ji Wujin didn’t talk, Gu Qingqing took the high road,

“We can let it go that you only take Xiao Panpan with you for a nice breakfast. But what about the competition? Why did you tell her alone?”

“…” Ji Wujin felt like she was about to vomit blood. She asked with a hoarse voice, “who, who told you this? Panpan?”

“Hum! How could she be so kind? It is the shop owner of the Wang’s. Right after you had breakfast, she told everyone about the competition. The news travelled very fast. Now not only us, all brothels in the city know about it!”

Ji Wujin was shocked. Was it a joke? She learned the internal information from the rich man yesterday. In less than one whole day, she let out the secret by accident just like that?

Ji Wujin regret what she did. Her plan was to take the chance to her advantage so that Xiao Panpan could prepare for it before others. But now, since the entire city already knew it, she didn’t have a head start at all.

“Do they really know?” Ji Wujin confirmed as she refused to believe it. Gu Qingqing sneered,

“You can ask any beggars on the street. They already know it!”

Ji Wujin laid her eyes on Xiaohua next to her. She was a literally beggar.

Xiaohua shook her head as she saw Ji Wujin. How could she know? She was busy with running for life with Ji Wujin.

Ji Wujin turned around and felt her head was about to explode when she looked at those women who had the intention to beat her.

Other women started to pick on her too,

“Mama Jiao, you are being unfair. Since you have money, you can afford the Wang’s buns and you had too many buns to move.”

She stared at Ji Wujin,

“It never occurred to you to take us into account. You also take Xiao Panpan with you. It’s true that you favor the new comer.”

Ji Wujin was furious. If she was outnumbered, she would have punched that buckteeth girl. She was too injured to move, not because of she was too full.

“She is right. Mama Jiao favors the new comer because she is beautiful. But that girl is obviously different from us. It is hard to say she can stay. Maybe someday in the future she will run away. Mama Jiao, aren’t you worried about that she will betray you someday?”

“You are totally right. We have been in this brothel since we were still virgin. We spend our youth here. Even so, we are not incomparable with a little girl who only came three days ago? Excuse me, Mama Jiao, have you ever considered our feelings?”

Ji Wujin glanced the whiny ugly girl with the corner of her eyes. Can you stop humiliating yourselves, you ugly people? Now you are talking about your feeling, your youth. You don’t earn a penny for the brothel, instead you fight over food with me. Have you ever considered my feeling? Have you ever?!

Gu Qinqing was always honest. She couldn’t agree with the ugly women,

“Come on. Drop it. You are putting her in a hard place. There are so many ugly women in the world. If she needs to take care of every one of you, she must be exhausted.”

Ji Wujin grinned because of Gu Qingqing’s words. Gu Qingqing was an arrogant and mean girl but she told the truth.

Gu Qingqing frowned as she saw Ji Wujin’s smile,

“Mama Jiao, happy? Allow me to remind you. Who is making money for you these years? Is it me or who else? But now? Good for you. You abandoned me for a new comer. You even invite that little bitch for breakfast. And you didn’t tell me about the competition. But you told her. Do you call an innocent virgin a courtesan? You think too highly of her!”

Gu Qingqing got much angrier as she kept complaining, which amused those ugly women. Adding insult to injury was one of their strengths.

“Qingqing, accept it. She is more beautiful than you.”

“And she is still a virgin, which makes her valuable. We are not valuable at all since we had slept with many men.”

“You!” Gu Qingqing was angry with red eyes,

“What’s wrong with us? You think you are different just because you have a beautiful face? You are beautiful indeed. You are a queen here. True. But what’s the difference on bed without light?”

They kept attacking her with mean words. Gu Qingqing was outnumbered. As they got louder, Gu Qingqing’s eyes turned red and Ji Wujin was worried.

It was true that Gu Qingqing offended a lot of people because she always said mean but true words, which was the real her. And she was right. The brothel depended on her alone. She stayed at Xiaoxiang Lou even that she complained about the food here. She deserved to be a queen here.

“Enough!”

Ji Wujin suddenly shouted with her hoarse voice. Everyone was quiet, looking at her.

Instant told them that Ji Wujin was about to announce something big.

“Ouch…”

Ji Wujin was inhaling in pain while she took out a thin but familiar piece of paper from the pocket, a banknote worth a thousand taels of silver.

In the past, Ji Wujin thought it would be the best to use every penny of the banknote on herself. But now or just a minute ago, she changed her mind.

If Xiao Panpan can win the competition, it would be a great chance that Xiaoxiang Lou got famous again. Holding that banknote high up in the air, letting the sun shin on it,

“I announced that Xiaoxiang Lou is closed from today on. If anyone can help Xiao Panpan to win the competition, I will buy meat buns for her every day!”