“It is said that on that day, all the flowers at the Xuanwei City Flower Drunkenness Festival withered in an instant.
It is said that on that day, the sky was filled with unknown birds hovering.
It is said that on that day, even the most cruel executioner secretly wiped away tears.
However, for those who experienced the Flower Drunk Conference, no matter how good their memory was, the memories of other things in that legend were as vague as a piece of paper soaked in water, so the authenticity of these legends was difficult to verify. But they all clearly remembered that a woman with white hair and flowery clothes jumped down from the most famous music pavilion "Qingge Tower" in Xuanwei City and plunged into the calm Canglan River, causing layers of ripples.
Before the woman jumped, those people also vaguely heard a piece of piano music and singing. The piano music and singing were extremely sad:
If you have a sword, you can travel the world with it, dressed in fine clothes and riding a fast horse, you can travel thousands of miles and kill all the heroes.
Don’t you see, the red clothes are fluttering, the music is lingering, and I am looking out from the high building at the end of the autumn water.
Although it was only a passage, the sadness contained in the song lasted for a long time. So even six months later, court musicians who came from thousands of miles away were still in the building carefully trying to figure out the vague meaning of the song.
The woman who played and sang was named Jiang Lixin, a famous talented woman in Qingge Tower. It was said that she was abandoned by her unfaithful lover that day, and she threw herself into the river out of shame and anger. The song she sang before her death was said to be the words she wrote to her unfaithful lover in her last desperate situation. Originally, she just wanted her unfaithful lover to never forget her, but by some strange coincidence, everyone in the world remembered her.
The woman playing the pipa told this story with the sound of the pipa. She was no longer young, and the frown on her eyes was clearly visible. Under the veil, she could still vaguely see her beauty when she was young. She must have been a popular woman in the Qingge Tower, but now she can only sing some songs and talk about old stories for the guests. However, her voice was still gentle and charming. She put down the pipa and drank a sip of tea.
Today, it was drizzling in Xuanwei City. The soil was a little muddy, and the fragrance of grass was everywhere. The bright red flag of Qingge Tower was fluttering gently in the wind. An old man in a gray robe sat by the window, looking at the flag fluttering outside the window, took a sip of tea, and then put a piece of silver on the table.
"Is this the end of the story?" A young man in white clothes sitting next to the old man suddenly asked, his tone sounding as if he was still wanting more.
The female musician smiled and said, "Isn't it good to end the story here? The talented man and beautiful woman in the story are all there. Although the ending of the story is sad, the leap and the lingering music are still beautiful after all."
The young man in white said quietly, "I want to know more about the woman named Jiang Lixin."
The female musician plucked the pipa with her fingernails a few times. Although it was just a few casual tunings, every sound seemed to strike the listener's heart. The old man still held the teacup and looked out the window, but his fingers gently tapped the rim of the cup along with the sound of the pipa.
The female musician pondered, and the atmosphere suddenly became very subtle.
Finally, it was the young man in white who broke the silence. He said gently, "Perhaps in the hearts of the people in Xuanwei City, Jiang Lixin is a very familiar name. But I am a traveler passing through here, and I am unfamiliar with this name, so I don't feel much when I hear this story."
The female musician shook her head and said, "Some stories are more moving when you don't understand them deeply. Because stories always contain something that people want to hear."
The young man in white knocked on the table and signaled to the old man next to him: "It's time to pay more."
The old man casually threw another piece of silver on the table.
The female musician sighed softly, but she continued, "Jiang Li came to Qingge Tower when she was eight years old. At that time, she couldn't even tell the difference between a pipa and a guzheng, and her face, which would later become extremely beautiful, had not been polished at all. However, after seeing her hands and hearing her voice, the proprietress took in this orphan without hesitation and began to train her patiently."
The old man put down his teacup and glanced at the young man in white.
The young man in white kept looking at the female musician.
"Six years later, Jiang Lixin played the song "Die Lian Hua" at the annual Hundred Flowers Festival in Qingge Tower. All those who had participated in that Hundred Flowers Festival could no longer remember the rest of the songs played that night, because that song "Die Lian Hua" was too dazzling. Even the "Nian Nu Jiao" sung by Lu Yue'er, the most popular lady in Qingge Tower at that time, could not attract others.
From then on, the three names Jiang Lixin began to spread in Xuanwei City and even in the whole world.
The next year, Yun Wanjin, who was one year younger than Jiang Li, challenged Yu Zheng in the pavilion with her pipa under the moon, and used the song "Yu Meiren" to compete with "Dielianhua", which also amazed the audience and made her famous.
From then on, Xuanwei and Wei were born. The talented scholar Zhang Siya wrote a couplet for them.
The first couplet is, Yuzheng Pavilion is separated from Neijiang.
The second line is, the pipa plays under the moon and the clouds are graceful.
Their fame also attracted more guests to Xuanwei City, and more princes and nobles were willing to spend a fortune for a piece of "Dielianhua" or "Yu Meiren".
The hero in the story I just told, the man who was known as the Unfaithful Man, also came to Xuanwei City when Jiang Lixin was 19 and Yun Wanjin was 18. The Unfaithful Man was of a prominent status. It was said that he was the son of a big family in the north. He walked around Xuanwei under the name of Zhao Guanmeng, but there were always rumors that this was not his real name. Zhao Guanmeng was different from other princes and nobles. He understood music very well. He could play the flute better than many musicians. At that time, people also knew that Zhao Guanmeng was not his real name, so they all called him, "Jade Flute Master."
The young man in white nodded when he heard this and said, "I can play the flute too. Can you?" He asked the old man who had remained silent.
The old man raised his teacup again: "No."
The female musician looked into the distance, as if she was lost in a memory: "Although nineteen years have passed, the people of Xuanwei City still remember clearly how he looked when he came. It was a light rain that day, and a pleasure boat passed by the Chunshui River outside Qingge Tower. A man stood on the bow, with white clothes as white as snow, sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, like a god.
When the boat passed Qingge Tower, it stopped. The man stood still with a frown on his face. The wind blew up his white robe and the rain wet his clothes. At that time, there were faint sounds of piano and singing on the Chunshui River, which were light and a little ethereal, but the Jade Flute Master could no longer be ethereal. The boat stopped there, and the story officially began here. "