Chapter 15 — Jasmine Port

The Phoenix pulled into the harbor at Jasmine Port just as the sun was setting. What had seemed like a smattering of random lights from a distance had transformed into a thick village, buildings piled one on top of the other in what resembled a castle made of slums. The crew disembarked after dropping anchor at a dock where several other, smaller junks had made berth and were being used as floating homes. 

Having spent most of the years of her life in The Blue Parrot, Xiaohe had forgotten that the good majority of brothels were not as tastefully decorated nor efficiently run as the one she used to wait tables at. As Lau led their group through the anarchy that was the streets of Jasmine Port, Xiaohe dodged no less than six drunk men and hopped over the discarded carcass of a mule. She realized that the crude existence she led as a street-rat in Ash Town was nothing compared to what life for a beggar in Jasmine Port must be like. Her senses were besieged by roaring laughter, drunken outrages, the screeches of night-shift women, windows breaking, bodies crashing into one another, and the uncensored and groaning of es and their clients upstairs. If anyone in the city was charged with keeping order, they had evidently given up long ago. 

Jasmine Port and its sinful debauchery stretched across the entire 85 acres of island, its own little floating red light district, allowed to exist only because local government believed that forcibly suppressing evil would only strengthen it. The island averaged one liquor-soaked murder every twelve hours and several more manslaughters in the same time. The alley where they walked was narrow and crowded. The lanterns that hung on wires across the width of the street cast an eerie red glow over the passersby below. It smelled of body odor, alcohol, and smoke.

Unconsciously, Xiaohe slowed her pace and walked closer to Yixing. If she, a girl who’d lived all her life among the lecherous and corrupt, could feel afraid in a place like this, Heaven knew how the sheltered prince felt.

Lau stopped their company in front of a brothel that was ironically named the Hall of Purity. There used to be doors, but apparently, management had stopped trying to prevent thieves and murderers from entering the establishment. Drink was now served to anyone with a mind to get mindlessly drunk. A hooker would cost you extra, though. Without the boards up front to filter who came and went, the brothel looked to be overflowing with sweaty, dirty bodies. Xiaohe turned her nose up at the sight.

“Are we going in there?” she asked the pirate captain. Lau smirked.

“Don’t tell me our little lion cub is afraid,” he said. Xiaohe frowned. 

“I’m not scared,” she said. “It looks crowded. Not safe at all, we’d lose people in the mob. Someone could snatch any one of us without anybody noticing. I would remind the captain that the prince is in our company.”

“I’ll be fine,” Yixing said firmly, walking forward so that he stood next to Lau. At the captain’s behest, Yixing had shed the guard’s uniform he wore and now donned a brown and red shirt that made him blend in with the company. The prince leaned into the captain’s ear. 

“You’re sure she’ll be here?” Yixing asked.

Lau laughed. “I expected the lion cub to doubt me,” he said. “But after all we’ve been through, Your Highness, you still don’t think I know what I am doing?”

Lau walked up the steps toward the building, and the rest of them had no choice but to follow. 

Beyond the red curtains that functioned as doors, the smell of incense mixed with the humidity and the musk of . Xiaohe tried to walk by Yixing’s side, by the determined prince found his place at the captain’s side instead. Yixing trust in the pirate lord still irritated Xiaohe. She narrowed her eyes at their backs as the their group moved further into the Hall of Purity. Though one-by-one their company dwindled down, some of the pirates being more inclined to find a girl and a place to lie down rather than stick to the plan. 

She watched as Captain Lau grabbed a girl and made her face him.

“We’re looking for Kim Hana!” Lau shouted above the din. 

“Who?” the girl said, ripping her arm from the captain and moving along. 

Lau looked over the ribaldry and scowled. The Hall of Purity had evidently gone through a few changes in employment and management since he was last there. If he was to find anyone with a clue of where the good fortune teller was, he’d have to be thorough in his search.

“Captain?” Yixing asked and Lau looked at the young prince. Yixing’s eyes looked slightly worried. For some reason, this irked Lau. He tightened his jaw. He turned to his men, noticed that many were eyeing the girls around them. He suppressed a low growl.

“Wait here,” Lau said, shoving Yixing down onto a stool. Without another word, the captain stalked off in search of a familiar face. Xiaohe watched him walk away and couldn’t help but feel annoyed. The captain’s head could be seen just above all the other bodies in the very large hall. Xiaohe and Yixing watched as he moved from one table to the next until he ended up at a bar and started talking to the servant boy there.

Yixing sat on one of the only free stools in the entire establishment while they waited for Lau to finish his conversation with the boy. Xiaohe stood alongside Luhan, Quarter Master Zhou, and the rest of their group while Yixing sat on her right. 

This place was an attack on the senses. The lighting was too dim and yellow, it strained her eyes. The smell was a mixture of cheap perfume, alcohol, sea water, and an array of bodily fluids. The courtesans all wore brightly-colored qipao dresses that hardly covered them up. Slits ran up the side of their legs and swayed with every step. She clenched her fists tightly as she kept a weather eye out for trouble. Her focus was broken when she was suddenly shoved aside, and a common in a red qipao slunk herself down onto Yixing’s lap. 

“Is this seat taken?” the e asked, smiling with her yellowed teeth and kohl-lined eyes. Yix