The carriage walked on the dimly lit and secluded streets under Fanshan Mountain in the inner city, surrounded by the scent of bay wood and Tuya flower (jasmine), and the white and frosty flower branches that popped up from the continuous walls.
And Zhou Huaian, who was still in the state of a sage, had an extremely clear and calm mind, and his eyes sparkled when he watched the outside companion of the carriage, but he didn't know what he was thinking.
Zhou Huai'an's carriage arrived at its destination after being greeted and saluted by the soldiers on the night patrol during the curfew several times. Although it is called a separate house, it is also a large-scale garden that seems to be quite old; whether it is a moss-scarred roadbed under the moonlight or a creeping wall, it is full of antiques.
Only the scarlet barriers erected in front of the door and the curtains full of lanterns, as well as the "Lin" engraved on the archway, are new, and in the context of the surrounding environment, they are full of a certain incompatibility. .
Standing at the door, bowing to greet the slaves and maids who wore clothes in layers and colors, which made this kind of uncoordinated nouveau feel more and more obvious; it is hard to imagine the master here more than a year ago The simple and awkward appearance. This is just to take over the entire family of the former owner.
In contrast, Zhou Huai’an’s house, although there are more than a dozen people around the daily life of the two or three kittens, they are all three or five thick and strong servants selected from the relatively loyal and reliable women’s camp. And some part-time staff who have some specialties and come here occasionally. After all, as the soul and insight of a modern man, he has already passed the stage of showing off his wealth and setting off his identity by relying on a large number of people who like to rely on it.
After walking through the two entrances of the vestibule and the attached courtyard, what appeared before his eyes was a pool of about half an acre in size, and the pond surrounded by winding corridors and swaying blooming lotuses looked a little bit later. "Yuanfenghe" means; and at the end of the corridor, the lotus, as a dense place, is the Banyuetang where the night banquet is held.
It is surrounded by large areas of weeping willows and osmanthus, directly on the water with dozens of thick vermilion lacquered wooden pillars, stacking ladder beams, rising and nesting bucket arches to form a spacious wooden banquet hall, which is also accompanied by two levels of spiral ladders. And the small pavilion with light crimson lacquer; reflecting the silver and silver waves of the lotus pond, it has a profound and profound sense of tranquility.
And on the front of the wide-open banquet hall, among the expensive silk curtains fluttering, the carved inner walls that were printed and dyed into gold by the bright lights were accidentally exposed; among the intermittent and faint sounds of silk and bamboo, there were still holdings from time to time. The maid of things in colorful clothes floats like a butterfly in the shuttle.
"Brother Xu, you can be regarded as coming..."
Lin Yan, who seemed to be full of enthusiasm, stepped down from the hall, and as always, he held Zhou Huaian's arm tightly.
"You can tell us to wait..."
"Everyone is just waiting to hear what you did in Annan Pingman..."
It's just that a gorgeous brocade robe with a hundred birds weave pattern is worn on his thin and faintly rickety torso, against the shiny blue and white face, the heavy eye bags under the whitewash, and the silver hoop wrapped around the silk scarf on his head. Muhou and the crown of the trio come.
"Brother Lin is so kind... Tell me what..."
Zhou Huaian couldn't help but follow the trend.
"This is just to find a few familiar old ones, and then ask some tricks to help.. It's really not a decent scene."
Lin Yan quickly explained as if he had misunderstood something.
"Brother Xu doesn't feel shabby.. Don't hurry up and play vocal music,"
He turned around to clap his hands and shouted at the servants who were waiting in the hall
"Give me everything that I entertain as soon as possible..."
The gang in his mouth is the only a dozen guests present. Except for the few left-behind acquaintances who were nodding or had a fate, and the rebel generals in the same brocade clothes, the others were all a pair of faces;
Zhou Huai'an can be divided into purely pursuing guests from their dignity and manners, ordinary accompany guests with quite some wealth, and individuals with quite a history and temperament. They saw Zhou Huaian, who was in a toga and lightly clothed in the hall, and even more solemnly or busy getting up to greet and salute.
"Master Xu... well."
"I have seen the virtual leader..."
"Meet the virtual envoy..."
"Xiao Ke Luzhou Fan Gui has been known for a long time as a leader..."
Amidst a bunch of warm and deliberate greetings, Zhou Huaian finally sat down and put on a variety of delicious dishes in gilt and silver utensils; first there were eighteen dishes of four o'clock tea fruits and dried honey, and then again. The eight pieces of water and eight pieces of mountain treasures and seafood, and the so-called seven colors of swimming scales and seven colors of walking land;
The dishes that were constantly rotated, in a blink of an eye filled Zhou Huai'an's magnanimous food table; and many of them were just because Zhou Huai'an only took a symbolic clip and never moved again. The reorganization of the lamp is replaced and new tricks are presented. The extravagance and waste only made Zhou Huaian sigh and frown secretly.
Perhaps this dish can be used as a food and clothing for the poor for a few days, but here it is just one of the insignificant temporary decorations as the host’s showcasing and identity;
He still remembers when he had a small banquet with this guy, but he smiled honestly and said that he was really hungry on the road, and he didn't want to waste food. He poured all the vegetables and soup into the meal and ate it. The situation is exceptionally clean. But I didn't expect to have transformed and degenerated so quickly to become the kind of person I hated most at the beginning.
As the host, Lin Yan was unaware of it, and he was very affectionate to talk and persuade; while trying to maintain and contrast the atmosphere with many accompanying guests appropriately talking and booing, while recalling the past of coexisting and working together All kinds of things can be said to be sincere and quite touching; that is, there is no hint of slowing down and inquiring about what happened in the day.
On the contrary, those accompany guests who claim to be big businessmen, in a tone full of admiration and respect, polite and courteous, from time to time inquired about the details of the Annan battle, and then issued all kinds of exclamations. The sound and praise; it is as if sitting in front of them is the living contemporary Ma Fubo or Zhuge Wuhou again.
Especially among the guests, the boat merchants Hu Liena and Hu Jingshui, who claim to have a small business in Annan, are even more eager to cross the face of the host Lin Yan, and kneel and lick their thighs on the spot; maybe as long as Zhou With a look or a sigh of breath, Huai'an kept suggesting that he could do his best to vote for his partner, and he would put all the women in the family out for nothing, and let him choose the ordinary one.
However, Zhou Huaian became more and more puzzled in his heart. As the saying goes, it is the truth that nothing to do with love or rape is to steal; he definitely will not easily believe that Lin Yan invited himself to come here just to pass this family banquet. To bridge the relationship in the past, or to bring back the somewhat distant relationship between the two parties, or even introduce a few related households.
At this time, a Rebel general present who seemed to be drunk a little overwhelmed, his face flushed without warning, suddenly stood up and his mouth changed, and complained vaguely about the chaos and happenings in Canton during the coming period Some things
Then the slaves who wanted to support him were pushed aside and grumbled louder and louder. It turned out that it was the faint Maitai who stayed behind and made Meng Yi. He was a little harsh and incomprehensible in daily life, so that these old brothers They are all a little hard to deal with or are bound to act. . Fortunately, the rebels are back, otherwise the situation in this city is still unknown.
"Zhong Da Neck, what nonsense are you talking about... Lao Meng has his own reasons, but we failed to understand the meaning."
Then he was immediately reprimanded by Lin Yan violently.
"This is me taking the wind banquet for Brother Xu... but not your partner who chewed your tongue..."
"What the deputy envoy said is that you're too bad for a big neck..."
"Go back quickly, don't continue to be ashamed in front of Xu Tou'er..."
Then another fellow rushed forward to persuade and ease his cheeks, and then he gave the drunk-crazy guy back again. Then he pulled it out, and there was a faint persuasion.
"Now that Xu Tou'er has come back, I definitely won't let things go laissez-faire..."
But watching this scene with cold eyes, Zhou Huaian felt the sense of inconsistency, and then there was some sense of the electric light and flint in his heart;
Lin Yan’s verbal reprimands and the generals’ words of dissuasion are clearly justifying and rectifying Meng Hui, who is out of the army; but the implicit words are also making some sort of clear cut, or Deliberately set a distance from it in terms of position.
And this is also "Isn't the drunkard's intent to be with the wine?" By using this reprimanding attitude, he can cryptically show and convey something to himself, or win him to stand in line again. Or to say that I have only been away for such a period of time, and after losing my three-legged corner, the remaining two have inevitably experienced daily contradictions and frictions, and have developed to such a stage.
Suddenly, Zhou Huai'an had something in his heart, and suddenly he understood why Meng Wei wanted to use the old volunteer soldiers in the patrol squad, and why Lin Yan would eat the ugly or hungry patrol squad. I have made up again; this may be the truth hidden under those daily chaos that I have never touched.
And now that I am back, the unbalanced power structure in Guangzhou has undoubtedly added a huge external variable; no wonder Lin Yanru deliberately wants to invite himself over here;
Although the farce has calmed down, it is clear that those accompanying guests have no intention of staying anymore, and began to confess their crimes and leave.
"Brother Xu laughed..."
Then Lin Yan, who led Zhou Huai'an to the upper floor of the banquet hall alone, apologized to him and laughed at Lin Yan, who was speaking in the carved and overhead building.
"Calling them these old acquaintances to come over was originally intended to be a fun, but they don't want to have a good life and lose their interest..."
"It's rare to be pure at this moment, but there are some heart-wrenching words, I want to confide in the Xu brother..."
"Why Brother Lin should be so extravagant..."
Zhou Huai'an answered, but secretly sighed in his heart that under the name of today's banquet, the real meat is still coming. (End of this chapter)