When Concubine Lu came out of the bath, the thank-you banquet for teachers jointly hosted by Prince Yu and Prince Jing also kicked off.
In the "One Pond and Two Mountains" garden, there are melodious sounds of piano and stringed instruments, and singing girls singing chapters from the "Book of Songs" in a light and graceful voice.
In the middle of the lotus pond, there is a group of graceful girls, dressed in white gauze, dancing gracefully to the "Dance of Picking Wild Vetch" from the Book of Songs. Their lotus feet are dancing, rising and falling, moving forward and backward, bending their waists, spinning and flying, and their rings and pendants are jingling...
This is the scene of the teacher appreciation banquet.
The "One Pond and Two Mountains" Garden is a famous garden in the capital. It was King Jing's idea to choose this place to hold the teacher appreciation banquet.
Actually, the Teacher Appreciation Banquet was jointly hosted by Prince Yu and Prince Jing, but in fact, everyone knew that Prince Yu was just a figurehead, and the Teacher Appreciation Banquet was actually hosted solely by Prince Jing.
From the selection of the venue for the teacher appreciation banquet to the dishes, decoration and arrangement, and finally the souvenirs, everything was handled by King Jing himself.
The "One Pond and Two Mountains" garden has long been famous in Beijing and is the last work of the great garden master Dongfang Liang.
A spoon represents water, a fist represents a mountain. You can enjoy the beauty of mountains and forests without leaving the city, and enjoy the pleasure of forests and springs while living in a busy city.
This is the concept of a garden with one pond and two hills.
A lively lotus pond, two uniquely shaped rockery, winding paths and pavilions that seem to float on the water, form this world-unique "one pond and two mountains" garden.
The flowers and plants in spring, the shade of trees in summer, the red leaves in autumn, and the snowy scenery in winter can all be seen without leaving the garden.
The "One Pond and Two Mountains" garden is the property of Zuixianlou. This morning, Zuixianlou announced that the "One Pond and Two Mountains" garden would not be open to the public, in order to fully entertain King Jing for his teacher appreciation banquet. The top-notch chefs who usually live a life of luxury in the kitchen also came out today and personally prepared the food.
Even a master chef who was good at cooking chicken in Tongzhou was quickly invited back by Zuixianlou to cook chicken for King Jing and his entourage.
The singing girls, dancers and musicians who played various musical instruments in the garden were all famous prostitutes in the capital. They were virgins with both beauty and talent, and their reputation spread far and wide. Even the daughters of ordinary wealthy families who were carefully cultivated were not more talented than these prostitutes.
After the morning lecture, King Jing invited Zhu Ping'an and others to the "One Pond and Two Mountains" garden and held a thank-you banquet for the teachers.
The arrangement of the teacher appreciation banquet also imitates the style of the pre-Qin period. Each person has a separate table and kneels at the table to eat.
Prince Jing and Prince Yu took the main seats, and the rest of the people took their seats according to their seniority.
Zhu Ping'an had the least experience and knelt at the last seat. The seat in front of him was Yang Guoliang, who had been defeated by Zhu Ping'an in the morning.
During the morning lecture, Yang Guoliang gave another lecture on "Gathering Wild Wheat", which won applause from the whole audience and saved a lot of face.
Now there is one seat higher than Zhu Ping'an.
Yang Guoliang felt that he was superior to Zhu Ping'an. He glanced at Zhu Ping'an and raised his chin again.
"SB!"
Zhu Ping'an took Yang Guoliang's behavior into consideration and curled his lips silently. There are such delicious dishes on the table, but you don't lower your head to eat the food, but raise your head to eat the air.
King Jing was a good man. He encouraged people to drink and add more dishes. He took good care of everyone at the banquet, and soon the party became very popular.
The wine was drunk and the literary spirit was high.
Drinking games were played at the banquet, with poetry accompanying the wine and couplets adding to the fun, pushing the banquet to one climax after another.
Old man Liu Boqing was elected by everyone as the commander of the banquet to thank teachers. The commander gave orders, and the others followed the orders and took turns to recite poems or write couplets. Those who violated the orders or lost would be punished by drinking one or more cups of wine.
Mr. Liu is very experienced, and under his hosting, the atmosphere of the banquet was brought to a higher level.
At the beginning, the players were asked to answer couplets. Those who could not answer the couplets could drink. However, all the players present were experts and few of them could not answer the couplets.
In view of this, Mr. Liu changed the rules so that only those who answered correctly could drink.
"Please put down your cups and listen to my command. The wine for this banquet is aged for a hundred years, and we must not let it go to waste. I will give you a couplet, and only those who can match it with the second couplet can drink. Those who match the second couplet will give you a couplet, and only those who can match it with the first couplet can drink, and so on... Do you understand?"
Mr. Liu asked everyone at the banquet to put down their glasses and announced this new rule with a smile.
"We will follow your orders." Everyone replied with a smile.
"The sun is in the east, the moon is in the west, and the word 'bright' is formed in the sky." Old Master Liu pondered for a moment and came up with the first line of the couplet.
This couplet is a couplet that is made up of broken characters, and contains the direction words of east, west, heaven and earth, making it a relatively difficult couplet.
After Mr. Liu came up with this couplet, everyone began to ponder.
"The son is on the right, the daughter is on the left, the world is destined to have good people." While everyone was still thinking, Yang Guoliang was the first to come up with the second line.
"Good, Dr. Yang, please drink this cup." Old Master Liu praised and personally held the wine jug to pour a glass of wine for Yang Guoliang.
"color."
Everyone praised in unison.
"Thank you, Mr. Liu, and thank you all for letting us go."
Yang Guoliang took the wine glass with both hands, drank it all in one gulp, then turned the empty glass upside down to show everyone that he had finished drinking it. When he turned to Zhu Ping'an, he found that Zhu Ping'an was busy with the half roast chicken on the plate and didn't even look at him.
"Good glutton..."
Seeing this, Yang Guoliang curled his lips in disdain and moved his lips silently, mocking Zhu Ping'an for being naive.
"Dr. Yang, please give a couplet. Only those who can answer it can drink." Old Master Liu reminded.
"I will obey the law. Everyone, listen carefully. My first couplet is 'Conquer two rivers, arrange eight formations, go out six times and capture seven, and light forty-nine lanterns on Wuzhangyuan, all for the sake of fulfilling three wishes.'" Yang Guoliang bowed to Old Master Liu and then said his first couplet.
The long couplet written by Yang Guoliang is more difficult than the one just written by Liu Boqing. The couplet contains one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, and it describes the life of the famous person Zhuge Liang. It is even more difficult to write a couplet in antithesis with it.
So, after Yang Guoliang came up with this couplet, everyone fell into deep thought.
Only Zhu Ping'an was still concentrating on the delicious food on the plate, as if he couldn't answer and had simply given up.
This made Yang Guoliang look down on Zhu Pingan even more.
"Hiccup..."
While everyone was still thinking, a hiccup sound was heard.
As soon as he heard the voice, Yang Guoliang knew it must be Zhu Ping'an who was beside him. He turned around and saw that it was indeed Zhu Ping'an.
I ate too much and choked.
Zhu Ping'an smiled at everyone somewhat awkwardly, then reached out and picked up the cup beside him, preparing to drink some tea to soothe his throat.
"Zihou, stop it. You have to answer Dr. Yang's couplet before you can drink." Old Master Liu, who was sitting at his seat, stopped Zhu Ping'an with a smile.
"Ping'an wants to drink tea, not wine." Zhu Ping'an explained embarrassedly.
"It's the same with wine and tea." Old Master Liu smiled and shook his head. "I am the commander here, and I have the final say."