Chapter 20: Spring (2)
Dishes are good dishes, and wine is good wine.
Zheng Yan seemed to have something on her mind.
Hagi Niang saw that she was uncomfortable, and quietly asked her "what's wrong".
Zheng Yan said embarrassedly: "We had a good time, but my brother was weird and cold." β
Hagi Niang was entangled for a while, called Cai Tang, and asked her to secretly go to see "Brother Zheng is free".
Zheng Yan looked at Hagi Niang with gratitude, and glanced at the garden gate from time to time.
Sure enough, Zheng Yu was flattered and came, and he was busy for a while, vacating the seat next to Zheng Yan.
Zheng Yu raised his glass, toasted Zheng Yan happily, and said the auspicious words of "Hua Canjin Xuan, Fang Ling will continue forever", and then sat down with a confession.
The atmosphere suddenly stiffened a little.
Hagi Niang stood up with a smile and introduced her maids one by one, and the maids stood up one after another to salute Zheng Yu.
Zheng Yulian said that he didn't dare, and said with a self-deprecating smile: "Under the name of Ah Yi, if the younger sisters are not surprised, they can also call me Ah Yu." β
The crowd fell.
Hagi Niang smiled: "If we are so sincere, then we will trespass." Can you play a game with us? β
Zheng Yu naturally said yes.
So Hagi Niang told the rules of the game "who is undercover", and after speaking, her eyes were full of confusion.
Hagi Niang took the paper and tore it into several strips, one of which was written "Spring Flower", and the other ones were written "Autumn Moon", and reversed it for everyone to draw lots, and the words drawn could not be shown to others.
As usual, starting with the youngest Caitang, Caitang didn't know what to say, so Hagi Niang encouraged her: "It's to use a sentence or a word to describe what you wrote on the note." β
Cai Tang thought for a while, and tried to say: "Beautiful."
This is a very good answer.
Hagi Niang praised her with a smile: "Cai Tang said it very well, the gameplay of this game is like this, you have to judge whether other people's notes are the same as your own from what others say, so you can neither talk nonsense nor speak too bluntly." β
Everyone nodded to show that they understood, so Cai Ling continued: "It's a season." β
In fact, this answer is a bit explicit, but this topic happens to have spring and autumn, so everyone doesn't think it's unusual.
Since it was the first time to play, Hagi Niang deliberately wrote a topic that was easy to see.
Sure enough, when it was her turn to pick the gourd, she said that she had leaked her mouth: "Fold it down and stick it on your head, it looks tight." β
Everyone was stunned, and coaxed "It's you", urged her to "go and fold the moon for the girl", and clamored to see the note in her hand.
Cai Hu was shy, and hurriedly punished herself, and everyone laughed and let her go.
Zheng Yu was very surprised, and asked Hagi Niang again and again how she could play such a strange game.
Hagi Niang only said that it was seen in the book, and it was a way to play "shooting", and Zheng Yu was so ashamed that she sighed lonely and unheard, and she was greatly convinced.
Everyone thought it was interesting and fun, Cai Tang clamored and said "I'll write, I'll write", Hagi Niang smiled and gave her the pen.
Cai Tang wrote "Magnolia" and "Narcissus", which is indeed very in line with the title of this game.
However, Hagi Niang looked at the paper in her hand, and couldn't help but be a little stunned, for a little girl, this character is too well-written, it must have been practiced with heart.
Spring is the best time to feast and drink. In the mansion of Sima Daozi, the king of Langya, the first spring banquet of the new year is being held. Because it was borrowed from the name of Princess Langya's birthday, many female dependents came, and the low-ranking ones were busy congratulating the princess on her birthday, and took the opportunity to give a heavy gift, so that she could be familiar with her face; And the high-ranking ones can't get in the way of face, so they have no choice but to go through the motions.
This King Langya is the same brother of the current Jin Emperor Sima Yao, and he is deeply loved by Li Lingrong, the concubine of the current mother, and he is treated very well, and no one can match. However, Jinshang is not afraid of his identity at all, let alone Zheng Boke Duan Yuyan, these brothers are extremely close, and others have no way to gap at all.
Maybe it's because of his rough personality, from his preferences, it can be seen that he has no ambitions, and everyone knows that King Langya has nothing else to ask for in his life, but he loves to drink and love beauty. Everyone who has been to the Langya Palace's banquet knows that in the Langya Palace, there may be no chicken, duck and fish, but there will never be no wine and beauty.
However, the officials who went to the banquet today were surprised to find that there were bowls and plates, cups and chopsticks on the table, and a few hors d'oeuvres, but no wine.
After everyone was seated, the well-behaved and handsome attendant struck the bell on the side.
"Ding~Ding~Ding"
All the guests were silent, and King Langya stood up, raised his glass and prayed: "This king will drink a full cup first, thank you for appreciating the light." β
It stands to reason that at this time, the guests should have raised their glasses and drank together while answering "don't dare, don't dare", but there was no wine on the table, and when everyone was in trouble, a few low-level officials who loved to pat on the back had already raised empty glasses and were about to drink.
King Langya laughed.
The steward of the palace proudly announced: "There is good wine in the Qushui in front of you, and you are invited to take care of yourself." β
"Meandering water" is a game activity in which participants sit on both sides of a curved stream of water, and their glasses are placed on a boat-shaped carrier, drifting along the water. The ear cup with the syrup floats down the winding stream like a boat, and whoever floats in front of him must take the cup and drink and write a poem.
And King Langya ingeniously served the wine directly in the qushui, which was quite a bit of a wine pond and meat forest. What's even more peculiar is that there seems to be a heating mechanism under the sink, and the wine in the pool is still warm.
Only then did the guests understand that they were pleasantly surprised and praised King Langya for his ingenuity, open-mindedness, and spending.
At that time, people enjoyed it very much, and spending money like dirt was not a derogatory term, and the more wasteful, the more noble the identity could be demonstrated. In the previous dynasty, there was a very rich man named Shi Chong, he and the emperor's uncle Wang Kai fought for wealth, Wang Kai washed the pot with sugar water after dinner, and Shi Chong used candles as firewood; Wang Kai made a forty-mile purple silk cloth step barrier, and Shi Chong made a fifty-mile brocade step barrier; Wang Kai painted the walls with red stone grease, and Shi Chong used peppercorns. Even the toilets in his house have very elaborate furnishings such as crimson mosquito nets, mats, and mattresses, and there are maidservants holding sachets and waiting. However, if you don't die, you won't die, and Shi Chong was the first to be killed in the coup d'Γ©tat, and his family property was also taken away.
And now the king of Langya is relying on himself to be the emperor's brother, and he is also luxurious, he drank the glass of wine in one gulp, and proudly enjoyed the praise of everyone. It's no wonder that he got a little carried away, mainly because today he is so face-saving! Not only did he invite the secretary of the Langya Wang family, Cheng Wang Mi, the Nanjun Wang Huanxuan of the Qian Guohuan family, and other nobles, but even the head of the Xie family of Chen County, and Xie An, the prime minister of the dynasty, came with his family.
Now the situation in the Eastern Jin Dynasty is different from a few decades ago, and the Langya Wang clan, which was once "the king and the horse share the world" when the Jin court crossed to the south, gradually declined. Ten years ago, after Xie An successfully prevented Huan Wen from usurping the throne, the Chen Jun Xie clan led by Xie An replaced him as the most powerful voice in the court.
The husband is not guilty, but he is guilty.