Chapter 1195: Chapter 686: The Grand Performance Begins
Konoe Maki brought her younger sister, Konoe Marin, to the Yoshiwara Flower District.
This was the young policewoman’s first ti visiting the Flower Street. She looked around curiously, but when she saw the courtesans in rags in the surrounding shops, she imdiately frowned with so disdain.
“How can they act so shalessly in broad daylight?”
Righteous Konoe Marin said this.
“Don’t they have any sense of self-respect or self-love?”
But the director of the Guard Bureau, walking ahead, shook his head helplessly.
“Self-respect and self-love? Marin, you are born into the Konoe Family, so you have the privilege to speak about these things, but not everyone is as lucky as you to be born with a good background. Self-respect and self-love are luxuries not just in Japan, but for the majority around the world.”
“Do you think these courtesans willingly entertain people with their beauty?”
Konoe Maki looked at her younger sister, who was sheltered by the family and naive about the harsh realities of the world, and smiled while asking.
“Uh…..”
The young policewoman was stunned but still sowhat unconvinced.
“The sages once said, ‘Wealth and honor cannot corrupt, poverty cannot change, might cannot subdue….'”
“Alright, alright, according to you, these people should just die for the sake of your so-called dignity and integrity?”
Konoe Marin interrupted her bookish and naive sister directly, her eyes carrying a trace of sorrow.
Honestly, if this wasn’t her own sister, she would have kicked anyone else who said such nonsense long ago, but, unfortunately, it was indeed her own sister.
Moreover, she couldn’t really bla her sister for anything because, after all, her sister wasn’t truly foolish, nor was she a bad child. On the contrary, she was a good child filled with a sense of justice; she was just blinded by the family’s longstanding education, unable to see the world’s reality.
The fault was not with the sister, but with the family, with the so-called education of the Chinese Clan practiced by the mother and the clan elders.
The Chinese Clan patriarchs enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle in their high-walled mansions, completely blind to the suffering of commoners outside.
Even if they occasionally went out, upon seeing those hard-pressed individuals struggling for survival, these patriarchs would rely pinch their noses in disdain for the sweaty and slly commoners, thinking how unrefined they are and, no wonder, they remain lower-class.
The Japan seen through the eyes of the Chinese Clan and that seen through the eyes of commoners are completely different worlds. However, these elevated Chinese Clansn have long forgotten that, once upon a ti, their ancestors were also amongst those so-called ‘lower classes.’
They have forgotten why the Chinese Clan initially beca the Chinese Clan, forgotten the initial glory and responsibility of the Chinese Clan, seeing only power and desire in their eyes.
One must know that any tall building requires a foundation. The differentiation between upper and lower classes is defined comparatively, exactingly cherished as ‘upper class’ because of the existence of these ‘lower classes’ allowing the Chinese Clan to enjoy their warped sense of superiority.
Only, as the building grows taller and prioritizes height so much it nearly discards the foundation, this skyscraper, could it remain stable?
Konoe Maki sighed as she looked around at those assud “upper class” having forced rrint in Yang Houses with the courtesans. This prosperous scene of singing and dancing, in her eyes, was but a lant of imminent collapse.
Alas, watching it raise high towers, watching it entertain guests, watching it topple…
And although the young policewoman Konoe Marin initially wanted to argue further—she didn’t want to be lectured by this rebellious, family-frustrating elder sister—when she saw the profound sorrow in her sister’s eyes, she remained silent.
“But this really isn’t right, it’s just not right,”
Konoe Marin could only mutter softly. Since she left ho for her internship, she discovered that everything seed inconsistent with what she learned from her books, which were all Book of Sages. The sages could never be wrong.
If the sages aren’t wrong, then is it this world that’s wrong?
“Alright, I’m not saying you’re wrong. It’s just, naïve , this world is far more complicated than you imagine. So things you can’t understand from a high vantage point; you’ve got to co down to see.”
Konoe Maki patted her younger sister’s head, feeling sowhat wronged, without giving her a hard ti, as she is still a child. Once she experiences more, she will eventually understand.
“So how do I co down?”
The young policewoman beca even more puzzled.
“Emmmm…then let’s do this: after the eting, co with to work in the field. Although the family’s land has been reclaid, I’ve been assigned a piece personally. I plan to fill it with Fish Grass.”
The director of the Guard Bureau touched his chin and said this with a smile.
“Farming? That will dirty my clothes; mother will scold us. Plus, why do you have land? Have you joined that Witch’s Ho? If the mothers and clan elders find out, they’ll be furious.”
The young policewoman looked at her older sister in shock, thinking that maybe her sister had gone mad.
That Witch’s Ho was the “evil organization” that took almost all of their Konoe Family’s land. Instead of finding a solution to deal with it, the future Family Head elder sister actually joined them?
“Relax, our land is pretty far from ho. I chose it especially, and as long as you don’t say anything, the family won’t find out. Besides, weren’t you always asking why I’m so popular at the bureau? Co help with the farming, and I’ll tell you the trick.”
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