Y
Ythania
Guest
(@Superpiggeh)Ming's response to his request caused his eyebrows to furrow not expecting an expression like that to come from her, he was heading to what he believed was a tea-house that wasn't exactly a rare activity.
Her words only seem to confused him more, aside from being called a kid, she was talking about the fruit and brought up some woman named Minx who was...'really good with her hands'.
He supposed she was able to mix the tea well with the right ingredients, he did find if two people used chamomile in tea depending on who makes it the taste could differ greatly, this Minx must be skilled in the process which only made him want to see this place even more.
All these thoughts faded however as Ming grabbed his hand, which Yun had to use every ounce of willpower in his body not to quickly snatch his hand away at the rough touch, his eyes twitching as the distance he put between them was destroyed in a moment.
He wanted to scream, lash out, and ask her to let go...however his mouth remained shut as he soon realized he wasn't paying attention to where she was pulling him...which meant he was even more lost and judging by the looks of some of the people in a place he didn't want to be lost in.
He hated this but this girl knew how to reach the Red Orchid, he just had to endure this until they got there, he tried to focus his thoughts on other things, but with the firm grasp she had of his hand it was extremely hard to ignore which only made the growing uncomfortable feeling worse.
When they finally reached the place Yun held his wrist staring at his hand for a moment, he wondered if she'd be offended if he put it in the dirty puddle that was nearby to try and wash the feeling away.
Shaking his head he looked back at it lowering his arms to his side as he looked at the building as she mentioned they were there.
Yun blinked a few times tilting his head slightly as he stared at the Red Orchid, it seemed normal enough at least so he saw no harm in going inside.
His gaze landed on an older man once he entered sitting at one of the tables and a small relieved sigh came from him, at the very least he wouldn't be in here alone and the guy looked normal enough, muscular but nothing like the guys he ran into earlier.
He took a seat at one of the far tables at the edge of the Red Orchid away from everything, shifting in the chair a little as he rested his hands on the table, he wasn't sure what the song was playing but he tapped his finger too it finding it catchy his head moving back and forth slightly.
This place had a nice atmosphere about it, different then other tea-houses he visited but still welcoming...maybe a bit too welcoming.
His gaze moved over to the garment of the women in the establishment, his eyebrows twitched seeing how short their skirts were and how much skin was showing on each of them, he figured it was a way to bring customers in and seemed to be working at least.
He still found this was starting to become torture with how many were dressed this way but as long as he didn't look he'd be fine.
He told himself this especially when a child messed with the woman's skirt causing him to quickly avert his eyes to avoid seeing what was underneath.
Yun admitted he wasn't sure what to really think about this place, it didn't seem bad the older woman even said the girls were clean and healthy which was a good thing since they handled food and drink, cleanliness was an important quality when serving.
Deciding he may as well get what he came for Yun raised his hand and politely asked for a cup of ginseng tea from one of the girls, reaching into his sleeve the only safe place he could keep his money, he pulled out a gold coin before handing it to her as a tip rested his hands back on the table.
Once he received his tea he offered a small nod to her before taking a small sip, his eyes widening as he lowered the cup from his mouth.
"This is delicious, is this the work of Minx?" Yun said before taking another sip. "She really is good at this."
Yun took his time with the tea in his hand wanting to savor this moment, he had come to a new city, found a wonderful tea-house and aside from getting chased his day was actually going extremely well. Moments like this made traveling worth it, even with all the hardships that came with the territory.
His gaze moved over to the older man as he went to talk the older woman, whose name appeared to be Big Bo.
He wasn't too interested in their conversation up until he commented on Ming's chest and made a very provocative statement, the girl whose name was Ming seemed about ready to tear into the guy...until a brick came flying out of the wall and slammed into her.
Seeing that Yun promptly turned his attention fully back to his cup, his hand started shaking slightly and he gripped it to steady his shivering.
That was Earthbending right...Earthbending hurt since it was the earth flying at someone...he needed to make sure not to get on the bad side of this Big Bo he didn't like the idea of bricks flying at his head.
What she said next however destroyed his fear of being on the wrong end of her bending, when the word 'sale' came from her the little alarm bells going off in his head grew extremely loud.
He closed his eyes and brought the tea to his mouth deciding to just ignore it, finish his tea and leave here as soon as possible not wanting to know what she meant by that.
However Ming herself answered the very question he wanted to ignore, she said the word 'sex' and Yun hunched forward choking on his tea as he pat his chest trying to recover.
Everything in Yun's mind clicked at once and he realized where exactly he was at, and he was not pleased at this development especially with all the warning signs that he now understood.
"No..no no no.....a brothel...I'm in a brothel of all things! Okay stay calm...stay calm...I'll just finish this tea...and leave...no big deal..."
Painful as it was to sit in a place of ill respite surrounded by the very thing he was trying to avoid this tea...was delicious and he was torn at finishing it and running away, that and he feared the pain that might follow if he made himself look suspicious.
The longer he sat there however the longer he realized this place really as a brothel, not that he doubted it after what he heard but seeing the evidence first hand was...more than enough.
He finished his tea, which had grown cold by now, just as Ming was hurling the drunken man out of the Red Orchid and looked up at her as she approached.
"Huh...oh yeah I'm great. I-I love brothels!"
Yun stared at Ming a small 'ah' escaping from him as he realized what had just come out of his mouth.
He cleared his throat and lowered his gaze to the table gripping the tea cup with both hands as slight tint of red flowed into his cheeks.
"Okay...I'm willing to admit I misunderstood where exactly i was going," Yun said looking back up at her keeping his voice low. "The guy told me it was a 'tea-house' I didn't know it was some weird hint at a brothel. He could have just said it was and kept this situation from happening."
He made sure to enunciate it the same way the man had before continuing.
"Look I really thought it was a tea-house and your tea is quite delicious, if not for me realizing where I was definitely would have enjoyed more of it. I didn't mean to walk into your brothel...I mean I've passed a few in my travels, heard of them too never went in though. There's...there's not some custom where If I walk in I have to buy...uh...time with one of the girls right?"
He pointed over in the direction of one at this his face clearly showing he didn't like the idea, his eyebrows arched and a bit of worry and fear in his eyes at the idea of going near one much less any kind of intimacy.
"I would have run away earlier but I didn't want that Big Bo lady to think I was skipping out and have a brick hurled at my skull. That and those people who looked at us on the way here, I'm tired of being chased by people. I just want to order some more tea, because it is pretty delicious and I did enjoy it, then leave and find a place to sleep even if it's in an alley. I don't want any women or anything...or men if those are here not sure how this place works."
Yun let out a long sigh and released the tea cup having calm down just a little.
"I still need directions too...I'm stuck until I figure that out."
She knew it! She knew he wasn't the type. Ming had seen enough tourists to figure this one out, and she had a particular liking to the way Yun was a complete opposite of herself. She was going to say something, but the other man sat himself down - did he have to be such an insufferable customer? - And asked Yun where he was headed, after complimenting the tea. Ming's eyes narrowed bitterly. If she couldn't rip a hole in his stomach, she'd rip a hole in his wallet...Ming called out, in pseudo-cheeriness, "Oh, you like the tea? I'll get you some more, sir."
She disappeared past the linen curtain and into the kitchens. They were a steamy, cramped affair of a room and full of murky shapes bustling in and out, brewing tea and making food. Sure, the work-surfaces were a touch grimy, but at least they were getting cleaned regularly by some of the grimy pre-teens weaving in and out of the masses of women. For a Downtown establishment, it was certainly on the top ten cleanest places. Ming swung her arm, a section of the wall jutting out (with a little yelp of surprise from one of the staff) to push down a glass jar of dried red orchid leaves.
Red Orchid Tea: The most expensive and iconic tea in the Red Orchid teahouse, it has a sweet, fruity flavour which is usually balanced off with a spicy kick of ginger. The tea-leaves, when chewed from the bottom of the cup, are said to give the consumer extra vitality and energy.
Minx Xiang has tried this trick many times before. She brewed the tea in a larger tea-pot and used some of the fancy cups too, in the hopes Shen will drop one of them at some point and have to pay for that as well. Whilst the tea was brewing, a young woman, no older than she, grabbed Ming's wrist and dragged her outside - past the customers, and past an uninterested Big Bo - into the alleyway.There were raised voices. There was a crash, and then for a few moments a silence. The younger woman went back in and turned to Big Bo angrily. "Why didn't you tell me she wanted to leave the City?! God damn, she has a duty here looking after the kids!"
Big Bo leaned forward, but already the customers and the working girls and the children held their breath, all of them clearly very curious. Her voice almost echoed in the tense silence. "You don't think Ming knows that? Listen, between you and me, she'll never make it out. She just doesn't have the coin or the supplies to do it. Just let her dream - she'll run off for a couple weeks and come back, starving, cold and sick."
The young woman slammed her fist on the reception desk angrily. "You're just going to let her throw her life away like that then, huh? You and I both know if she gets ill we can't pay for medicine. There's a lot of kids out there who need her help and you know it!"
Big Bo chuckled. "Really?" she replied, ruffling the younger woman's hair. "I think they might look up to you just as much as they look up to her these days, Sian. You've certainly got quite a lot of Ming's...Ming-ness in you from her lessons. I have no doubt you can run your little 'gang' easily enough."
Ming chose that moment to enter again, with a black eye. She rubs her hands together from the cold, grinning mischievously. "Shut up, Sian, I can hear your screeching from miles away. You know I want to bolt it from here, everyone in the whole gang knew I was going to make a runner sooner or later, but you're the only idiot who tried to stop me. In case you haven't noticed, I'm nowhere near being able to rush off and when I do, I'll say goodbye to you lot. But Bo's right, you can probably manage it." replied Ming dismissively as she disappeared behind the linen curtain. Muttering angrily to herself, Sian followed. Big Bo called out to her not to fight in the kitchen, and then sunk down a little, rubbing her temples.
"Ugh, -children-..." she groaned theatrically, rolling her eyes and shooting a smile to the assembled customers. "Back to business, eh?"
Ming returned a few minutes later, setting down an expensive tea-pot of Red Orchid tea for Shen and Yun. "There you go, sir, more tea for you." she addressed to Shen specifically, peering down at Yun anxiously. "I'm sorry kid, but I don't think someone like you should be going outside at this time of night. Not out here, anyway...tell you what, you pay for a room with the girls, and I'll explain to her that you don't want any, uh, services. Trust me, quite a lot of them don't even want to do what they're doing. They'll leave you alone for the most part."
She kept looking over at the door wistfully, propped up against the wall beside the table. Most of the customers were drifting away upstairs, so business in the tea-house part was slowing down. Ming herself seemed somewhat restless, she regularly removed herself from her spot in the wall to clean the tables repeatedly, dust off the ornaments, fix paintings, only to return to the same spot to snatch some conversation.