Qingyuan Building, despite being a brothel, was elegantly furnished in its private rooms.
Light drapes hung from the carvings of the window lattices, with the antique furnishings and walls filled with calligraphies and paintings, exuding delicate tea fragrance from a table.
One side faced the street, where winter's snowflakes covered Chang'an.
On the opposite side, looking out, below was a pond with vapor ripples, a snow-covered rockery, and a play pavilion in the middle of the water with a green-tiled roof and corners soaring upward.
Inside the pavilion, the sounds of fish drums, cloud-filled wooden boards, and the Banhu intertwined as an old man vigorously played the erhu, singing, "From Mystical Sect of Zhongnan Mountain I came, each day I lift my hands to partake the Dao, the meals of thousands sustain me, the boundless Dharma I chant..."
