Qiu Yizi also smiled and said, "I saw you drinking here, and I felt greedy, so I came upstairs to ask you for a few drinks. What? Are you reluctant to give it to me? It doesn't matter, I have silver with me, at most I can split it 50-50..."
Liu Qing also knew that Qiu Yizi was just joking, so he quickly stood up and pulled out a chair for him, asking him to sit down, and then called out loudly, "Waiter, come here quickly, I want more wine and food!"
The waiter who had just stopped Qiu Yizhi heard the call and hurried upstairs. Seeing Qiu Yizhi sitting in the upper position of the governor of Jiangnan Road, he suddenly remembered what the shopkeeper had said: Now that the emperor is staying in Jinling City when he goes south, there are countless nobles around the emperor, and he must not offend them...
So the waiter immediately put on a smiling face and said, "Oh, so you and General Liu are old acquaintances! My eyes were on my buttocks and I was busy looking at shit. You are such a big mountain blocking my way, but I didn't recognize you. Please don't blame me..."
Qiu Yizhi had just been wronged in front of the emperor, and he felt relieved to hear the waiter apologize in such vulgar slang. He smiled and said, "Okay, General Liu wants to treat me to a meal. He will order and pay for all the dishes. You can go and flatter him."
After hearing this, the waiter quickly turned his smiling face to Liu Qing.
Liu Qing casually ordered four or five side dishes, then sent the waiter away. Suddenly, he sighed again, "Alas! Your Highness Yi, we are sitting together drinking today, but I don't know if there will be such an opportunity again in the future..."
Qiu Yizhi saw that Liu Qing had been depressed since he met her, and he didn't even say a hundred words. Knowing that he was worried, she asked, "General Liu, why do you have to be like this? The mountains are high and the seas are vast, and time will pass. Naturally, we will have a chance to meet again. It is only natural to have a few drinks after meeting. What do you mean by whether there is such a chance?"
Liu Qing sighed again: "I am the governor of Jiangnan Province. Not only did I hand over almost the entire Jiangnan Province to the King of Lingnan, I couldn't even defend the city of Nanjing. The emperor is such a wise ruler. He is always clear about rewards and punishments. I am afraid that he will punish me immediately..." As he said this, he drank the half glass of white wine in front of him.
Qiu Yizi smiled and said, "So that's what you're worried about? It's been so many days. Aren't you still wearing the name tag of Jiedushi General? Hasn't the emperor made any decision on you yet?"
Liu Qing replied dimly: "Perhaps the Emperor is busy with military affairs and has no time to deal with me? Perhaps he will come back to settle the score with me." As he spoke, he filled his glass of wine again.
Qiu Yizi laughed again and said, "Do you think you are the King of Lingnan? You think too highly of yourself. If he wants to punish you, why does he need the Emperor to issue an imperial decree? Can Prime Minister Zhongli just raise his eyes or move his mouth and he won't punish you?"
Liu Qing was stunned for a moment, then he figured it out - he was a governor of Jiangnan Road who came from Youyan Road. In the eyes of others, he was a second-rank military officer, but in the eyes of the emperor, he was just a servant. It was just a matter of inspiration to deal with him, and there was no need to make any special preparations.
Then Qiu Yizhi said, "Don't worry, I was just meeting the emperor, and he mentioned you."
Liu Qing's eyes lit up, and he asked hurriedly, "What did the emperor say about me? Your Highness Yi, tell me quickly!"
Qiu Yizi deliberately kept the secret and said, "The emperor didn't ask me to pass on the order. If I leak it out privately, it will be a serious crime of disobeying the order and deceiving the emperor. I can't afford to be punished!"
Liu Qing was so anxious that he asked hurriedly, "Can I ask His Majesty Yi for help? Tell me what the emperor said, and I will not tell anyone else. If His Majesty Yi does not tell me today, I will worry myself to death..."
Qiu Yizi was originally in a bad mood, but after joking with Liu Qing, she felt much better. She said, "The emperor said that you are ordinary in talent and cannot handle any important tasks."
Liu Qing was horrified when he heard this and shouted, "I'm done for now. The emperor said I'm useless. I'm afraid he wants to get rid of me. I'm done for now!"
Liu Qing was talking when the waiter came up with a dish and two jugs of wine. He also happened to hear him say "finished", so he quickly replied, "Not finished yet! General Liu, only half of the dishes you ordered have been served, and the other half are still being prepared in the kitchen! You are our distinguished guest, and we dare not fool you with ready-made cold dishes. They are all prepared and delivered immediately by the chef."
Liu Qing didn't feel any benefit from his incoherent flattery. He just felt that he was talking too much, so he cursed, "You know shit. It's not the food that's finished, it's me that's finished! Get out!" At the end, he didn't forget to give the waiter a fierce look.
The waiter was so shocked by Liu Qing's look that he immediately shrank back. He quickly turned around to leave, but then turned back halfway and asked timidly, "Then... do you still want to serve the remaining dishes?"
"Go! Of course I have to! I haven't even started eating yet!" Qiu Yizi continued, "Go down and urge them to do it now."
After hearing Qiu Yizi's words, the waiter ran away as if he had been pardoned.
Qiu Yizi watched the waiter leave, then turned to Liu Qing and said, "Why are you panicking? What does the emperor mean when he said that your talent is mediocre? Think about it carefully."
Liu Qing was a straightforward person who came from a military background. After working in the officialdom for so many years, he still hadn't figured out many twists and turns. He really couldn't figure it out, so he had to say, "Your Highness Yi, please don't give me difficult questions. The emperor's intentions are profound. How can a rough man like me guess them?"
Qiu Yizi then said, "Let me ask you what the word 'ordinary' means? It means neither clumsy nor outstanding. You are now serving as a governor of a prefecture. A governor with 'ordinary' talents may be competent in other places or in peaceful times, but you are serving as an official in a place like Jiangnan Road, and it happens that the Lingnan prince is rebelling. In this case, your 'ordinary' talents are not enough. Don't you think this is the truth?"
Although Liu Qing did not fully understand what Qiu Yizi meant by all these confusing words, he knew that the logic behind them was extremely correct, leaving him with no reason to deny it.
Qiu Yizhi then said, "Therefore, I'm afraid you can no longer serve as the Jiedushi of Jiangnan. You may be transferred to another place to serve as a Jiedushi, or you may be transferred to Beijing to serve in the Ministry of War..."
Liu Qing's heart tightened when he heard this, and he hurriedly asked, "The emperor wants to transfer me away from Jiangnan Road? Has the emperor made clear his intention?"
"No." Qiu Yizi replied, "I am just guessing. If my guess is wrong, don't blame me."
Liu Qing sighed, his tone full of disappointment: "It's a pity that I have only been an official in Jiangnan for less than five years, and most of that time I was fighting in wars... It's unfortunate for me to be the governor of Jiangnan. I think the governors before me all left after eating and drinking to their heart's content... Alas! I wonder if there is any way to let me stay for another year or two and enjoy a few days of peace..."
Qiu Yizi said coldly: "You are too high an official. You are a senior military officer. You can only be mobilized with the order of the emperor or Prime Minister Zhongli. If you think you can get through these two people, you can go and try."
Hearing this, Liu Qing couldn't help but stick out his tongue: "Your Highness Yi is making fun of me again. Everyone in this world has easy connections, but these two are the ones with golden doors and jade fences... If I can get through their connections, why would I be a military governor? Wouldn't I be a prince or something?"
When Qiu Yizhi heard Liu Qing mention the word "Prince", he immediately thought of Lingnan King Zheng Gui who was in prison, and then thought of the decision of the emperor and the prime minister to send him to Lingnan to lead the army. The sorrow that he had temporarily put aside surged into his heart again, and his face suddenly became gloomy. He said: "Can you talk nonsense about such things? Be careful, there are ears on the other side of the wall. I will punish you for disrespect and teach you a lesson if you keep talking nonsense!"
Qiu Yizi's words were so powerful that Liu Qing was immediately speechless.
Just when Liu Qing was feeling extremely embarrassed, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the waiter peeking at the second floor stairs, and immediately shouted at him: "Hey, you are too slow in serving the dishes. These two or three dishes are cold. Why haven't the other dishes been served yet?"
The waiter thought: Out of respect for you, the governor, our restaurant has specially arranged a master chef to cook. If the serving speed is still slow, there will be no faster speed.
But although he thought so in his heart, he couldn't say it out loud. He stammered a few words timidly and went downstairs to urge the food to be served.
Seeing this, Qiu Yizhi was filled with emotion: if she had suffered from the emperor, she could get back at Liu Qing. If Liu Qing had suffered from her, he could just find a waiter to vent his anger. After the waiter was scolded for no reason, he didn't know which new employee he would find to take his bad luck on...
People live in this world to bully others and occasionally be bullied by others. If you want to avoid being bullied, you have to be an emperor. But the position of emperor is like burning charcoal, not to mention ordinary people, even Zheng Rong, the wise and powerful King of Youyan, feels uncomfortable when he sits on it...
The more Qiu Yizi thought about it, the more he felt that this officialdom was not fun at all. He couldn't get out of it. He felt depressed. He felt that the exquisite dishes in front of him were so ugly, smelly and unpalatable. He couldn't pick out any of them with his chopsticks in his hand.
At this moment, Qiu Yizi suddenly saw two people walking downstairs one after the other. One of them was over sixty years old and the other was in his forties or fifties. Their faces were very familiar. Looking closely, he saw that the old man was He Jiugong, a subordinate of the Great Emperor Zhou Cijing, and the other was actually Qiu Yizi's biological uncle Zhao Fuyi.
"How did these two get together?" Qiu Yizi felt a little suspicious, so she simply called out loudly: "Jiu Gong, why are you here?" Although Zhao Fuyi was Qiu Yizi's uncle, there was always some grudge between them, so Qiu Yizi was unwilling to shout the word "uncle" in public.
He Jiugong heard someone calling him and looked up. Seeing that it was Qiu Yizi calling him, he stopped and bowed to the upstairs, saying, "It's Master Qiu! I haven't had time to visit you since you entered the city. It's a shame."
Qiu Yizi had something to ask He Jiugong, so he said, "Jiugong is too polite. Could you please come up and have a chat? I have an acquaintance here!" He added, "Also, uncle, please come up as well."
He Jiugong also seemed quite interested. He returned the greeting and led Zhao Fuyi into the house and upstairs.