Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 69: The Bathhouse

Chapter 69: The Bathhouse

Meili and Sofya stood outside the women’s bathhouse. Meili looked nervously up at the sign which read Zǎotáng.

Sofya giggled and nudged her in the ribs.

"Come on Meili. It’s not a torture chamber, it’s a bathhouse! This is meant to be fun!"

"But it could be a torture chamber Sofya," she whispered, still staring at the hated sign. "It could be a place of public humiliation."

Sofya pealed with laughter. "What are you talking about girl? This is a public bathhouse filled with women who’ve seen every body type imaginable. There won’t be any humiliation, except in your imagination."

Meili remained incredibly suspicious that her face and figure were far from ’normal’ for a young girl, and that she would therefore be the subject of public derision. Her experience at the palace flower viewing when her veil blew off was still very fresh in her mind...

"This is a safe space for women, you’ll see. Here, take off your veil now," Sofya wrenched off her friend’s veil, tucking it in her sleeve, then grabbed Meili by the hand, towing her in through the entrance doors.

Meili was still dragging her feet and looking fearfully at her surroundings, as though she was truly being dragged into some house of horrors.

"Sofya!" Meili cried, as they passed through the doors and stood in the foyer.

Sofya looked at her in surprise. "What is it?"

"There are men coming in!" Meili tried to whisper, but her voice came out louder than she’d intended, and she pointed rudely at a raucous bunch of middle-aged merchants who had pushed through the doors behind them.

"What are you pointing at girl?" asked one. "Never seen a handsome man before?"

His friends all laughed.

"No we haven’t," flashed Sofya, "maybe one time at the palace, but never here at the bathhouse, and most particularly not today," she said witheringly.

By now the men had clocked the girls’ faces, and they all stood slack-jawed, rendered temporarily speechless by their beauty.

"Beauty, beauty," implored one to Meili, "tell me you’re a geji and we shall hear you perform in the Zǎotángtoday?"

It was Meili’s turn for her mouth to drop open. "I... I’m definitely not a geiji!" she said with outrage, to be mistaken for a courtesan. "Don’t you see my hair? I’m a young unmarried woman!"

"He was just being hopeful Beauty, don’t be offended," said another man, trying to placate her. "I will marry you seeing as you are still unmarried. Tell me who your parents are, and I’ll send the betrothal gifts immediately!" he said sincerely.

She looked at the slightly pudgy unattractive man who looked to be at least forty, and she couldn’t help shuddering, her face screwing up with such obvious distaste, like she’d been surprised by a nasty smell, that the men all roared with laughter.

"She doesn’t like the look of you Zhao Furen," said another man. "Young miss, young miss, which of us do you like the best? Tell us who you like and he will definitely make you his wife!"

"Hmmph," sniffed Sofya, "as if the lot of you aren’t already married. My friend has no interest in any of you. Please stop being so rude!"

"The same goes for you Little Beauty," cried one of the men, "we don’t discriminate. A grasslands girl will also make for a very good wife."

"This grasslands girl will gut you like a fish if you don’t back off," she warned them.

The men roared with laughter and cries of mock fear.

"Come on Mei Meili," she said, grabbing her friend and turning her around so they had their backs to the men, "forget about them, let’s go inside".

"Can we join you in there?" cried one of the fellows. "No amount of money is too much! We’ll hire out the whole women’s side of the bathhouse!"

"Get lost!" flung Sofya.

"Did you hear her say ’Mei Meili’? Isn’t that Lord Mei’s only daughter," one of the men whispered to the others.

"Is it? Lord Mei? The girl with the five brothers? What? No!"

"Of course it’s her," said another. "Haven’t you heard the rumours of her beauty. They call her Wang Zhaojun."

"What’s she doing unchaperoned at the public bathhouse? Why didn’t any of you think of that earlier? Miss Mei, Miss Mei, please forgive us. Don’t take what we said to heart?" one of the men now pleaded.

"Why did you say my name in her hearing, Li Wentao? Now she knows who I am, and she can tell her brothers to pay me a call!"

"You just said my name, you arsehole!" the two men started to scuffle.

"Don’t mind us. All we said was in jest," another man cried out to their retreating backs.

"Just ignore them, Meili," said Sofya patting her little hand comfortingly, "just a bunch of lustful pigs snorting and farting at the trough".

Meili couldn’t help laughing, "but why are they coming into the women’s bathhouse?" she asked, turning back to look at them fearfully.

"They’re not, they’re going into the men’s side, see?"

Sofya turned to point at the bunch of men who practically ran into the entrance on the right-hand side of the foyer which Meili now saw had a sign saying ’Men’. Meili nodded uncertainly, letting Sofya lead her into the women’s entrance on the left.

"Are we sure they can’t see us? What if they’ve drilled holes from their side to ours?"

"Now you’re just being paranoid. Such a thing has never happened in the history of bathhouses."

"These are things that seem to happen to me pretty regularly," said Meili despondently.

Sofya giggled and rubbed her head, "silly billy. I admit that wasn’t a smooth start to your virgin bathhouse experience, but now you’ll see how fun and relaxing the women’s bathhouse is."

Once the door to the foyer had closed behind them, an attendant stepped forward and gave them each a small towel and a number for a hutch to store their clothing.

Sofya showed Meili where to undress, and she put her shoes and clothing into her numbered cubicle.

She stood, completely naked, and took a deep breath, ’you can do this Meili, you can do it!’ she gave herself a little pep talk, before straightening her shoulders and walking over to join Sofya.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.