On the first day of March in the seventy-first year of the Great Qiankang Dynasty, at noon, Chang'an City Star Picking Tower]

In the capital of Qianguo, almost everyone knows that there are two restaurants in the city that are well-known in the world, one of which is called "picking up stars" and the other is called "getting the moon". Nadeyue Tower is located in the northeast of Chang'an City, although the building is only two floors, but the entrance hall is spacious, the middle hall is wide, the furnishings inside are exquisite and luxurious, the delicacies cooked are comparable to the imperial food in the palace, it has always been the favorite gathering place of rich businessmen and magnates. The other star-picking tower is located in Taipingfang, which is located directly north of Chang'an City, only two streets away from the imperial city.

The most talked about by the people of the Great Cadres is not the pride of its interior furnishings, nor the beauty of its dishes, but the wonder of its floors is extremely majestic and towering, and the whole restaurant is as high as seven floors! In Chang'an City, in addition to the Daming Palace, it belongs to this Star Picking Tower is the most majestic and precipitous, if you stand on the top floor of the Star Picking Tower and look down, you can almost take in the prosperous scene of the entire Chang'an City. There is a poem at the time that said: "The dangerous building is 100 feet high, and you can pick the stars with your hands; As the saying goes, if someone can stand on the top of the restaurant, when the wind blows, spread their eyes and look out, they will immediately rise like a flying fairy from the sky.

However, everyone in Chang'an also knows that these two restaurants are not so easy for ordinary people. If you want to enter the Moon Tower, you have to have a lot of silver, and if you want to enter the Star Picking Tower, in addition to bringing enough silver, you must also have a different identity from ordinary people.

At this moment, a man and a woman are stepping through the gate of Taipingfang, and they have walked to the gate of the Star Picking Building.

"Two guest officers, where are they from, and what do you do in the capital for a living?"

The young man wondered, "Huh...... If I come to eat with you, I have to be interrogated by you first?"

The shopkeeper's face did not change, and he responded indifferently: "Back to this guest officer, you must be the first time to come to our store, I don't know the rules of our store, all guests who come to our store for dinner, you need to report your home first, otherwise, please forgive our store will not entertain!"

The young man smiled bitterly twice, then looked at the white-clothed girl next to him, and said helplessly: "We are all southerners, contemptible people from the south of the Yangtze River, and now we are in this capital, but ...... But it's to walk around and see the scenery......"

The shopkeeper glanced at the young man a few times, he saw that the young man was just dressed as a scholar in cloth, and he was not even wearing a nine-grade green robe, and he was already a little impatient in his heart, and at this time, he pouted at the man and snorted coldly:

"You're coming to Beijing to take the exam, right? Speaking of which, this year's spring scientific examination is still early! You rushed to the capital so early, just to take the opportunity to find a way to find yourself a way to enter the body, I have seen a lot of scholars like you, why hide it......

The white-clothed girl who followed behind the young man didn't want to talk to Xiao Er, but when she heard this, she couldn't help but be angry, and immediately shouted to Xiao Er: "What nonsense are you talking about! We are just here to have a meal, and you still have to ask questions about the east and west! You talk nonsense again, see if Aunt Ben doesn't break your teeth!"

"Why, where did you come from, a wild girl! How dare you come here to spread wild! I can tell you, this star-picking building is not a place for you to go wild......" The shopkeeper saw that the girl in white was disrespectful, and he did not show weakness in his heart, so he immediately stepped forward, rolled up his sleeves, and threatened the other party.

The girl in white raised her willow eyebrows, her apricot eyes widened, and she immediately wanted to pull out the long sword on her back, but the young man next to her hurriedly stepped forward to stop the girl, and persuaded her:

"Sister Qing, we're just here for a meal today, why bother with these runaways?"

The girl in white turned her head and said angrily: "Hmph! Just your sick wood has a good temper, according to Aunt Ben's temper, you have already beaten him with a dog's mouth and vomited blood......

The young man smiled and said, "When we get to the ground of other people's houses, we have to abide by some people's rules, and besides, people don't say anything!"

......

The shopkeeper saw the two men and women talking to themselves in front of him, completely as if he didn't exist, and his expression and words were still so intimate, and he was even more angry in his heart. He thought to himself that you are just a mere lifter, relying on your own handsomeness, and you have deceived such a stunning beauty out of nowhere...... How unfair God is to people like me!

It turned out that what really made the shopkeeper unhappy was the beautiful girl in white behind the young man.

The girl in white was Yiqing, the youngest disciple of the Emei faction "Yi", and the man in cloth who accompanied Yiqing to eat in Xinglou was naturally Xu Ke.

At this time, Xu Ke saw that the shopkeeper's conversation was also quite good, so he immediately hugged his fist slightly towards Xiao'er, and said gently:

"We came all the way to have a meal in your star-picking building. Dare to ask this junior, is there any vacancy in your store today?"

The shopkeeper saw that Xu Ke was so polite, but he didn't want to be angry again, after all, he was just a runner, and he was polite at the moment:

"Of course, there are vacant seats in our restaurant, but as the two of you, you can only stay on the first floor to eat. ”

"Why is that?" Xu Ke wondered.

The shopkeeper said: "It seems that this guest officer is really a newcomer and doesn't understand the rules here." In our Star Picking Building, if you want to go upstairs to eat, you must rely on your official position and reputation, if you have neither official position nor reputation, then you can only stay on the ground floor to eat. ”

"It's the first time I've heard of it...... What kind of official function does it take to go upstairs for dinner?" Xu Ke asked.

The shopkeeper sneered: "If you want to enter the second floor, you must at least be a fifth-grade official!"

Seeing that Xu Ke seemed to have some disbelief on his face, the shopkeeper said again: "I really don't hide it, even if you eat on the ground floor of this store, you can't enter without a nine-grade official." Today, if I hadn't seen that the guest officer had come all the way from Jiangnan, and he was a man, I wouldn't have allowed you to enter this ground floor......"

"I'm a five-grade official, but I can only enter your second floor? I have been studying poetry and books for years, and I don't want to have to mix a low-level ...... in your restaurant today," Xu Ke couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"The words have been made very clear to you, do you still want to come in?" The shopkeeper saw that Xu Ke was procrastinating, which cost him a lot of time, and he refused to enter the building, and he became a little impatient.

"You ......!" Yiqing pointed at the shopkeeper, and was about to have another attack on the spot, Xu Ke hurriedly stopped her, and said to the shopkeeper and Yan:

"The ground floor is the ground floor, bother Xiao Er to lead the way, let's go in!"

"No! Aunt Ben must go upstairs today! Besides, I have to go to your top floor!" Yiqing said angrily.

"Hahaha!" When the shopkeeper heard Yi Qing's words, as if he had seen something incredible, he actually looked up to the sky and laughed: "A third-grade master, in our star-picking building, at most you can only go up to the fifth floor, you two have no official positions, and you want to go up to the seventh floor, it really makes people laugh off their big teeth!"

"How can this be reasonable!" Yi Qing said angrily: "A third-grade official can only go up to your fifth floor, should you be here as the calyx floor in Xingqing Palace?

In the face of Yiqing's questioning, the shopkeeper said unhurriedly, neither humbly nor arrogantly: "This young lady, although our Star Picking Tower is not as good as the Calyx Building in the palace, but the Star Picking Building also has the rules of the Star Picking Building. In our place, the third-grade officials can go up to the fifth floor to eat, and if it is the fourth-grade function, they can only sit on the fourth floor to watch the view. If you two want to eat in our Star Picking Building, you need to follow the rules here!"

The shopkeeper squinted at Xu Ke and Yiqing's dresses again, and said with disdain: "According to the identities of the two of you, being able to eat on the ground floor of our Star Picking Building is already lifting you......"

"You!" Although Yiqing was angry in his heart, he was in the middle of the city at this time, and it was not easy to do anything in the face of diners coming in and out. However, she was angry in her heart after all, so she turned her head to Xu Ke and said:

"Sick wood, what kind of broken star building, Aunt Ben doesn't want to go today! Let's go eat somewhere else!"

At this time, Xu Ke couldn't help scratching his forehead, and couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. According to Yiqing's temperament, if she can't sit upstairs and enjoy the scenery, she is afraid that she will not be happy, but if she wants to go upstairs according to the rules of the Star Picking Tower, she must at least start with a five-rank official position, and she has been demoted to a commoner by the emperor's decree at this time, how can this be good?

He had already made an appointment with Yiqing on the first day of the third month to come over to share lunch in the Star Picking Building. Today, after days of rain in Chang'an City, it is rare to have a beautiful wind and sunshine, and the spring is harmonious, the two of them walked along the Meixuezhai in the south of the city, laughing and laughing together, talking and talking very happily, the original mood of the two of them was quite happy, how could they sweep away Yiqing's interest because of a few words from the shopkeeper at this moment?

However, after all, this is the Star Picking Building, it is someone's territory, the rules are set by others, no one forces you to come over to drink, since they are willing to come here to eat, it is not good to break other people's rules at will......

Xu Ke suddenly had an idea, he smiled at Yiqing first: "Sister Qing, don't worry, since I promised you a treat, I will take you upstairs to sit on this star-picking tower no matter what!"

At that moment, Xu Ke took out an iron plate from his waist, only to see a lion's head engraved on the back of the iron card, the lion's huge mouth was wide open and lifelike, and it was the black iron lion card worn by hundreds of households in Tsing Yi Wei. Although he was demoted at that time, he went out in a hurry, and he has not returned the Black Iron Lion card to Tsing Yiwei.

At that moment, Xu Ke shook this black iron lion card in front of the shopkeeper, changed his majestic and cold tone, and said in a deep voice:

"Little Er, do you recognize this brand?"

As soon as the shopkeeper saw this black iron lion card, he immediately changed his face. Although he is just a running hall, the diners who usually come in and out of the Star Picking Building are either princes and nobles, or high-ranking officials, and there are many hundreds and thousands of households in Tsing Yi Wei. He has seen a lot, so he naturally recognizes this iron plate.

"The guest officer is from Tsing Yi Wei?" asked the shopkeeper cautiously.

Xu Ke said coldly: "Xiao Er, so that you can know that my real identity is a hundred households of the Anping Division of Tsing Yi Weibei, and I came to your star building today, not only to drink and eat, but also to have something to do!"

The shopkeeper looked at the lion's mouth on the back of the iron card, and knew that this black iron lion card would never be fake. In the entire Chang'an City, if the word "Tsing Yi Wei" is mentioned, no one will not be moved. Everyone knows that if you offend the people in the Tsing Yi Guard, they will arrest you for a random reason, and once you are caught in the Tsing Yi Guard, there is basically no return......

The identity represented by the Black Iron Lion is Tsing Yi Wei Baihu, although Baihu is only a five-grade official, but after all, he is in a confidential position and his position is different. The shopkeeper didn't dare to slack off at this time, and said with a smile:

"It turns out that the hundred households of Tsing Yi Wei have arrived, if the hundred households come to us, they can go to the third floor and take a seat!"

"Didn't you say that the Wupin official can only go to the second floor, let's go to the second floor!" Xu Ke still said gently.

"Where is the Lord of the Hundred Households!Or the third floor, please!, the third floor, please!" The shopkeeper took the lead and walked quickly, introducing Xu Ke and Yiqing into the Star Picking Building.

Xu Ke and Yiqing looked at each other and smiled, and then walked into the magnificent world's strange building.

......