As the sun set in the west, the gorgeous sunset dyed the entire capital red. A running boy delivered a note to the gatehouse of Linhuai Marquis's mansion, and then left happily with the heavy reward money. Not long after, Li Shu received the note.
"Why doesn't my son-in-law come to eat?" The little maid puffed up her cheeks and looked at the table full of food with regret.
"Love comes or not!"
Li Shu pouted her red lips and crumpled the note in her hand into a ball, threw it far away, then stood up and walked out. She was wearing an orange pleated long skirt, which made her look more elegant and noble under the setting sun. A peach wood hairpin was inserted diagonally in her soft long hair. Her beautiful face was made up with exquisite makeup, and she looked like a fairy.
Stinky toad, bad toad... Li Shu pouted as she walked, and when she came to the note she had thrown far away, she paused for a moment, then stepped on the note twice with her embroidered shoes, as if she had stepped on the stinky toad she was scolding. But after that, she lifted her skirt, bent down, stretched out her slender jade hand and picked up the note.
"Miss, what's wrong..." The chubby little maid opened her mouth in surprise at the door.
"I'm going to burn it!" Li Shu turned around and bared her fangs at the little maid Baozi, as if she was not satisfied with just stepping on the paper twice and would only feel relieved if she burned the paper into ashes.
The little maidservant was so frightened that she shrank her head back, fearing that the fire at the city gate would affect innocent people and implicate herself.
While Baozi was worrying about how to deal with the delicacies from land and sea, Zhu Ping'an and his friends' dinner had already begun. Although it was not delicacies from land and sea, there was chicken, duck, fish and meat, and the dishes were also very rich. Several jars of daughter's red wine were rippling with fragrance, and the atmosphere was unique.
"Master Zhu, I'd like to offer you a toast."
After drinking a few glasses together, everyone toasted to each other and got to know each other. At this time, Zhang Juzheng also raised a glass of wine and toasted Zhu Pingan who was eating happily next to him.
Zhu Ping'an was still biting a greasy skewer of meat in his mouth. He looked at Zhang Juzheng calling him "your subordinate" and raising the wine glass to him, and he didn't react for a moment.
Zhu Ping'an's impression of Zhang Juzheng was that of a great man who was the prime minister of the cabinet in history, second only to the emperor, holding great power and manipulating the entire Ming Dynasty. At this moment, Zhang Juzheng called him "your humble official" and toasted him. This image made Zhu Ping'an unable to react for a while.
"Master Zhu?" Zhang Juzheng held the wine glass for a second, and seeing that Zhu Ping'an did not respond, he could not help but smile and call out again, graceful, elegant and stylish.
When Zhang Juzheng called him "Master Zhu", Zhu Ping'an finally realized that Zhang Juzheng was toasting him. It was a real scene, the great man who would be the future helmsman of the Ming Dynasty was toasting him with a glass of wine.
"Ahem, what did you just say?" Zhu Ping'an suddenly became a little excited. He swallowed the skewer of meat in his mouth and quickly wiped his hands with a handkerchief.
"Lord Zhu?" Zhang Juzheng was a little surprised, but still repeated it.
"Not this one, but the previous one?" Zhu Ping'an looked at Zhang Juzheng, his eyes full of encouragement.
"Master Zhu, I'd like to offer you a toast." Zhang Juzheng felt that he could not keep up with Zhu Ping'an's train of thought, but he still repeated it.
Zhu Pingan heard this. It was as if he had drunk the Ten-fold Tonic Soup, his face was flushed, Zhang Juzheng was calling him "your subordinate"! I don't know why, it was as good as taking the Ten-fold Tonic Pill! This is the future prime minister Zhang Juzheng, a famous and powerful person in history, and now he is calling him "your subordinate"!
Whether it was Jiajing, Yan Song, or Yan Shifan before, these great men in history all needed me to look up to. This was probably the first time that a great man in history spoke to me in this tone.
Really, it feels like when you are still deciding whether to eat Laotan pickled cabbage instant noodles or Kangshifu beef instant noodles, Wang Sicong, the national husband, suddenly appears and bows to you: Hello, boss. I am Xiao Wang.
After being excited, Zhu Pingan started to laugh at himself, thinking that he was really useless! Zhang Juzheng's words "underlord" could make him so excited, and he was so short-sighted and useless. Haha.
Zhang Juzheng is currently lying in wait and accumulating strength, and will soar into the sky one day.
At this moment, Zhang Juzheng is under him. In the future, he, Zhang Juzheng, can become the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty. In the future, he, Zhang Juzheng, can take the helm of the Ming Dynasty!
Why can't I
What young people fear most is satisfaction, and what they fear least is greed!
If Zhang Juzheng was still 100,000 miles away from becoming the Prime Minister and steering the Ming Dynasty, then I was only 99,999 miles away at most, a little closer than him.
Haha, since I’m ahead of him now, why not think more about it.
The collision of thoughts in his mind seemed complicated, but in fact it was completed in just 0.01 seconds, and Zhu Ping'an's ambition took root and sprouted at this moment.
"Brother, you are really embarrassing me by saying this. I should be the one toasting you." Zhu Ping'an shook his head and smiled, then raised his glass to toast Zhang Juzheng.
There was a reason why Zhu Ping'an called Zhang Juzheng his senior brother. Zhang Juzheng passed the imperial examination earlier than Zhu Ping'an, and his teacher was also Xu Jie. Since they were from the same school, it was reasonable for Zhu Ping'an to call Zhang Juzheng his senior brother.
Listening to Zhu Ping'an's words, Zhang Juzheng was a little surprised. Just now, Zhu Ping'an asked him to repeat this sentence. Zhang Juzheng thought that Zhu Ping'an was a superficial and vain person, who enjoyed the feeling of being an old man who had been in officialdom for several years, calling him, a fledgling in officialdom, an official as an official. However, he was very shrewd and did not show it. Now he was a little surprised to hear what Zhu Ping'an said.
But he was only slightly surprised. In Zhang Juzheng's mind, the superficial impression Zhu Ping'an left on him when he visited his teacher Xu Jie last time had not changed much.
"Haha, look at the two of you, why are you pushing each other around? Just drink together." The person next to them couldn't stand it anymore and started talking with a smile.
Then, Zhu Ping'an and Zhang Juzheng looked at each other, smiled, and raised their glasses to drink together.
The atmosphere at the table was very good, and everyone was talking happily. In addition to eating, Zhu Pingan was watching and listening carefully when everyone was talking. When others were talking, he watched and listened. Everyone thought Zhu Pingan was respectful, but they didn't know that Zhu Pingan was watching their mouth shapes with his peripheral vision and practicing lip reading.
As he listened and watched, Zhu Ping'an put the lip reading theory he had seen in the Yongle Encyclopedia in the afternoon into practice. Gradually, Zhu Ping'an felt that his lip reading ability was improving, and he could really read the speech from the changes in their mouth shapes.
"Ah, do you feel that the smell of powder on uncle's body is too strong?"
"Yes, he smelled it as soon as he entered the door..."
The two people opposite raised their glasses and talked quietly. Zhu Pingan watched their lip movements from the corner of his eye and heard almost all of their conversation. He smiled silently with the corners of his lips curled up. His lip reading seemed to be quite good. (To be continued.)