Qi Xuansu was startled by these honest answers. This industry involved such deep waters that might not be enough to drown Qi Xuansu, but it was enough to trouble him and make him tread with caution.0

Although the Imperial Court prohibited forcing women into prostitution and human trafficking, brothels still had their ways. The first method was to tempt women with profit. An average person working in a manufacturing plant all year barely earned a few measly coins. But in a brothel, a woman only had to part her legs for one night to earn as much as a plant worker in a month. More importantly, it was not a tiring job. Everyone knew how the manufacturing plants exploited their workers, leaving them half-dead after a day’s work and full of injuries over time.0

There were also more illicit methods, like coercion through debt, forcing women who could not repay insurmountable debt to “voluntarily” sign binding contracts.0

These were not novel tactics. They had been passed down for centuries ever since brothels first existed. However, compared to the past, the schemes that existed now were more covert—less brute force and more deceit. The loans involved were not legitimate...0