Although the food was not tasty today, Jiang Miao still tried to finish everything on the table. After the meal, Jiang Miao called the waiter to pay the bill, but the waiter said that a man dressed as a guard had already paid for them. Jiang Miao was unhappy when he heard this, and after the waiter left, he took out the silver and stuffed it into Pei Che's hand.
This small piece of silver still carried the warmth from Jiang Miao's palm, which made Pei Che a little dazed, and he subconsciously clenched the thing in his hand.
"That's right. A real man's word is his bond. If he says he will treat you, he must do it." Jiang Miao was satisfied. He could still treat you to a meal.
Seeing this, Pei Che stuffed the silver in his hand into the purse hanging on his waist. Ever since he couldn't afford to buy lanterns last time, Pei Che asked Wen Jing to put some money on him to avoid this situation again.
"I'll treat you next time."
"Okay, you treat me next time." Jiang Miao liked his straightforwardness. He hated things that were pushed around.
After dinner, it was still early. Jiang Miao had been busy for a while, and he was a little confused when he was free. He could still do business in the morning, but after what he had experienced yesterday, he was not willing to move for the time being.
"Do you want to go out for a walk?" Pei Che suggested. Anyway, there was nothing else he could do today.
"Where are we going? Are there any fun places nearby?" Jiang Miao was a little tempted. He had been here for so long, and had to wander around these streets every day to make a living. He had never been to many places to play.
Pei Che was stumped by his question. In fact, he was not very familiar with the outer city. Suddenly, he remembered the place the princess wanted to go a few days ago, and said, "I know a good place, but it's in the inner city. Do you want to go with me?"
Jiang Miao thought it was still early, and he would have enough time to go out and play and come back to pick up Little Stone, so he said, "Okay, to be honest, apart from the time I went to sell lanterns for a while last time, I haven't been to other places in the inner city!"
The two got on the carriage and chatted all the way, and time passed quickly. Pei Che once again discovered that Jiang Miao was different from the others. They discussed many topics on the way, but Jiang Miao could always connect with them. When talking about certain things, he even made people feel that he was very far-sighted.
The car stopped outside a garden. The gate of the garden was very large, and one could see inside at a glance. There was a plaque above the gate with the words "Plum Garden" written on it.
As soon as Jiang Miao stepped into the garden, he attracted many looks. These people did not mean to offend him, but were just a little curious. After all, ordinary people generally did not dare to step into the garden, even if no one would drive them away. Jiang Miao did not feel uncomfortable. In his opinion, this place was probably a park. It was just that it was difficult to see such a beautiful scenery in the outer city. Various kinds of plum blossoms were planted on both sides of the path. Occasionally, when a gust of wind blew, the petals would shake from the branches and fall to the ground, forming a flower carpet.
There is a tall building not far away, only six or seven stories high, which was very rare in ancient times. The building faces the artificial lake below, on which there are several pleasure boats floating. Occasionally, tourists can be seen standing on the bows with their hands behind their backs, wondering if they are appreciating the beautiful scenery or lamenting about life.
"Do you want to take a boat?" Pei Che asked after they walked for a while.
"No, I can't swim. What if I fall in?" Jiang Miao is a landlubber. In fact, he had the opportunity to learn to swim when he was a child, but his grandmother was particularly afraid that he would drown. Every time Jiang Miao and his friends went to the river to take a bath, she would always stand on the shore and watch. After a few times, those friends stopped calling Jiang Miao. Who would like an adult to keep watching them
Pei Che had already forgotten what he had said before about the water being cold in winter, and said, "I can swim, and there are guardrails on this pleasure boat, so generally speaking, you won't fall off."
Jiang Miao carefully observed the pleasure boats moored on the shore and found that it was indeed as Pei Che said, so he agreed.
The guards beside Pei Che went forward to negotiate with an old man on the shore, and soon came back to say that everything was ready. Jiang Miao and Pei Che walked over and found that the pleasure boat had been set up with tea and snacks, even fruits that were rarely seen in winter. In addition, there was a table inside, on which were placed ancient zithers, chessboards, pens, inkstones, and other items.
"This is so thoughtful. It must have cost a lot of money, right?" It's obvious that this is something that scholars would play with.
"This is the garden of a good friend of mine. His father is a generous man with no prejudice against family background. Anyone who wants to go can come and go, and this garden has become a scenic spot in Liangjing." However, this painting boat is charged, and the wine, food and snacks in the high-rise building over there are also charged. If someone else came here, it would cost a lot of money, but Han Qin had already instructed that all expenses for his friends who came here would be waived.
Jiang Miao nodded. The private garden was turned into a park. The owner was really generous.
As the boatman untied the rope tied to the shore and pushed hard, the pleasure boat began to move slowly and drifted to other places.
Jiang Miao sat at the bow and watched with great interest for a while. After a while, he felt a little dizzy and hurried into the cabin. He had never been on a boat before and didn't know that he would feel dizzy just by looking at the water below.
In the cabin, Pei Che was holding a chess book and placing the endgame on the chessboard to see if there was a way to break the game. After Jiang Miao came in, he leaned over to look at it for a while, and found that he couldn't understand it. He could play chess, Gobang, and flying chess, but he couldn't play Go.
"Would you like to play a game of chess?" Pei Che raised his eyes and saw him looking at the chessboard, so he invited him.
Ask him to play chess? Jiang Miao shook his head: "I don't know how to play Go."
Pei Che realized what he meant. Most people would just say they couldn't play chess, but he said he couldn't play Go.
"Then what kind of chess do you know?" Pei Che became interested.
"Shall we play Gobang? I'll teach you. There's just one black and one white." Jiang Miao happily sat down opposite him and picked up the jar of black pieces in front of him. Ordinary people in ancient times had too few ways of entertainment.
Pei Che took back all the white pieces on the chessboard and, imitating Jiang Miao, placed the jar of white pieces in front of him.
"We'll play rock-paper-scissors later to see who goes first. Whoever connects five pieces first wins. It doesn't matter if they go horizontally, vertically or diagonally."
The game of Go is decided by guessing the pieces. Pei Che had never used rock-paper-scissors to decide the winner, so he stretched out his hand and awkwardly made a paper.
"Haha, I'll go first." Jiang Miao retracted the scissors, happily picked up a black piece, and dropped it in the center of the chessboard with a snap.
In Go, placing the first character at Tianyuan is actually a rude move, but Pei Che knew that Jiang Miao didn't know how to play chess and didn't mean to offend him, so he picked up a white piece and placed it next to the black piece.
The two of them fought back and forth. Seeing that Pei Che's third chess piece did not land at the head or tail of the black piece, Jiang Miao laughed triumphantly and said, "You lose."
Pei Che had never lost so quickly in chess before. He frowned when he heard this: "I haven't even made five moves yet, how can I lose?"
"Do I need to place five more pieces? If you hadn't stopped me, I would have only one more piece and I would have four. Then no matter which side you stopped me, I could have made five pieces in a row."
After his explanation, Pei Che realized that he had unknowingly followed the rules of Go. It seemed that the most important thing about Gobang was to block other people's escape routes first, and then make plans.
"I admit defeat." He admitted defeat happily, then picked up the chess piece, "Can we play another game?"
"No more rock-paper-scissors this time. I'll let you go first."
Is this... Being underestimated? Pei Che was slightly startled, then raised his lips slightly, said "Thank you" with a smile, and placed a piece next to Tianyuan. Jiang Miao still placed a piece on Tianyuan, which was his habit.
As time went by, the chessboard was gradually filled with chess pieces. Jiang Miao went from playing as he pleased to being indecisive. Every move he made was solemn and he would consider for a long time before making a move.
This period of time was enough for Pei Che to find out Jiang Miao's background. He stopped letting him win and put down a piece neatly, ending the battle.
Jiang Miao was a little unconvinced: "Let's play another round!"
"One more round, hey, I still don't believe it!"
“Come again!”
"… "
Several rounds in a row ended very neatly. Jiang Miao never won another round in a row except for the first one he won.
"Is this really your first time?" Jiang Miao looked at Pei Che angrily and began to doubt his integrity.
"Before you, I've never heard of such an interesting chess game. A Miao, thank you for letting me win." Pei Che smiled gently, but the teasing in his eyes was about to overflow.
Of course it's fun to win all the time! Jiang Miao snorted and put the jar of black pieces back to its original place.
"Not playing anymore?" Pei Che saw him pursing his lips with an unhappy look on his face. He knew that he had gone too far just now. He thought that he must create a tit-for-tat chess game next time so that he could see more interesting expressions on his face.
"No more! To tell you the truth, I'm actually best at chess. If you were playing chess with me today, you would have lost and cried a long time ago." Jiang Miao was just bragging because there was no chess here. It's okay to lose in chess, you just have to keep a straight face.
"Chess?" Pei Che thought for a while, "But elephant play?"
Jiang Miao likes chess, so he naturally knows that it was called this name in ancient times. He said, "It's a bit similar, but different. The shape and rules are different."
"Oh? How is it different?"
Seeing Pei Che's interest, Jiang Miao sat down at the desk, picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and drew on the paper while explaining to him. Although his drawings were ugly, Pei Che still understood most of it with the help of his words.
"It's indeed different. This way of playing seems to be more interesting than the elephant game." Pei Che seemed to be thinking about something. He had indeed never heard of playing chess this way.
"Of course." In the past, the old men in the park would stay there for most of the day. Jiang Miao would sometimes go over to watch, and a game of chess could last for a long time.
The two floated on the lake for a long time. When Pei Che started to practice painting, Jiang Miao had nothing to do, so he ate something nearby. When he ate an apple, he asked Pei Che, "Can you paint an apple?"
Pei Che didn't say anything, but he quickly drew an apple on the paper.
"It's quite similar. But I can draw one that's more similar than yours, do you believe it?" When Jiang Miao was in elementary school, he learned sketching for two months. The teacher asked him to draw apples all day long, and he wanted to vomit when he saw apples. Later, he stopped learning, and until now, he can only draw apples.
Pei Che thought of the peach he pinched, and suddenly felt that the apple was also quite credible, so he asked: "I wonder if I have the honor to appreciate A Miao's masterpiece?"
"What a pity, there are no charcoal sticks here, otherwise you would be able to see it." Jiang Miao looked around and expressed regretfully that Pei Che would not be able to see it today.
Pei Che was just about to say that he would ask someone to fetch it when he got ashore, but Jiang Miao suddenly seemed to remember something, stood up, and shouted to the boatman outside: "Brother, please dock the boat!"
"What's wrong?"
"I still have to pick up Xiao Shitou. This place is quite far from his private school, so I have to go back early." Jiang Miao explained.
Pei Che felt a little regretful, but he still ordered the boatman to dock, and then let the carriage take him back first, and then send Jiang Miao to pick up his brother. This place is not far from the Duke's Mansion.
As soon as the two got off the boat and walked out, three people came down from the tall building.
"Did you see that just now? Was that Pei Che?" A man dressed as a rich young man asked, staring at their backs as they got farther and farther away.
"It's him. Who doesn't recognize his face?" The person who spoke had a very contemptuous tone, and it was obvious that he was a little jealous of Pei Che's appearance.
"I do know him, but who's the guy next to him? He's wearing clothes like that, could he be Pei Che's servant?" said a short and fat man.
"The servants of Duke Zhong's mansion can only wear clothes like this? Could it be that their mansion is so short of money?" The young man didn't think it was possible, but he couldn't explain why Pei Che stayed on the boat with him for so long.
The young man returned home with doubts, only to find his father and uncle chatting. He wanted to sneak around them, but he didn't expect to hear the name Pei Che from them.
He listened carefully and found out that they said that the Duke Zhongguo's Mansion received two imperial edicts today. One was to make Pei Che the crown prince, and the other was to grant marriage, but the person to be married was a man, and it was said that he was a peddler. The two diametrically opposed imperial edicts confused everyone's thoughts. They couldn't figure out whether the emperor valued Pei Che or disliked him.
The two parallel figures he saw in the Plum Garden today emerged in his mind. The young man swallowed hard. Could that be Pei Che's fiancé
Is it really that difficult for the children of their noble families to get married? Even Pei Che can only marry a man, so how can he marry someone
(End of this chapter)