Song Xingzhi lived during the reign of Emperor Huizong

Chapter 58

Yi Qianxian laughed and said, "Let me tell you, among women, you are the first to love drinking as much as Tinglin. I wonder how many times Madam Liu taught you to think about that stuff less often."

“Tasting wine is tasting wine, not drinking it!” Liu Tinglin argued earnestly. As soon as he finished speaking, he couldn’t help but run to the jars of wine to break the seals and remove the dried mud on top.

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Wine

Tinglin went over and tore off the seal, hugged the wine jar, gently fanned the mouth with his palm, and sniffed it, immediately displaying an expression of complete ecstasy. Everyone present found it amusing, and Yi Qianxian covered her mouth and laughed, "Tinglin, aren't you ashamed? Looking like this, where is your dignified and elegant demeanor?"

The round-faced girl chimed in, "Elegant and refined? I've known Tinglin for so long, and I've never noticed when she's associated with those two words." Then, she turned to Su Chen and said, "I won't stand on ceremony with you anymore. I'll call you by your name directly. Is it Su Chen?"

Seeing that she spoke and acted with a straightforwardness that made him appreciate her a little, Su Chen replied happily, "It's Su Chen. Please don't be so polite with me. Although I'm new here, I'll be staying for a long time, so I hope everyone won't be so formal with me. Although I'm not good at pleasing people, I still hope to get to know everyone."

The girl smiled and said, "I won't stand on ceremony with you. I know you're only eleven or twelve years old, but I'm two or three years older than you. You can call me Sister Peng." She made a few imaginary gestures in the air with her right hand. "My name is Peizeng, the Zeng with the reversed eight characters. My courtesy name is Xiaoyu. You can also call me Sister Xiaoyu."

Liu Tinglin, carrying a small jug filled with wine, returned to the table and interjected, "Su Chen, don't pay her any attention. Look at her face, where is she behaving like an older sister? She looked the same five years ago, and she still looks the same now. If you're just looking at appearances, everyone here is older than her." As soon as she finished speaking, she couldn't help but take a small wine glass, pour herself a cup, and savor the clear, pale amber liquid, ignoring the others who were waiting for her to continue.

Yi Qianxian laughed so hard she bent over, "You silly girl, why are you always like this? Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you?" Zhenzhu Shang, who was standing next to her, moved her mouth as if to speak, but then stopped.

Liu Tinglin, however, continued drinking her wine, and after a long while, she said, "What do you all know? Warriors love swords, scholars love books, and women love poetry. I'm bad at all three, so I can only enjoy wine. People with hobbies are happy people, unlike you, who always have to put on a dignified and virtuous facade. You're not nearly as comfortable and carefree as I am." The others exchanged glances, and finally burst into laughter. "According to you, we're the ones who are in a bad mood?"

Liu Tinglin poured himself another glass of wine and was about to drink when a woman beside him snatched it away, saying, "Drink some more, drink some more, or you'll go crazy! What will we use to play drinking games after you finish this? No more!"

With a pained expression, Liu Tinglin pleaded, "Sister Xue, please, just give me another cup!" After being firmly refused, she said even more pitifully, "I won't do this again. I'll secretly fill a big pot and take it to the side, let's see who knows." She then adopted a more formal posture, "I'll deliberately mismatch the drinking games to get more wine!"

Everyone burst into laughter at her words. Su Chen also found it amusing and added, "I said this won't do. If we can't keep up, we can't just be punished with drinking. We have to perform some kind of act, otherwise Tinglin will definitely take advantage of the situation." So everyone agreed and ignored Liu Tinglin's protests, and the matter was settled.

Su Chen couldn't help but feel a surge of joy. It seemed that socializing in Kyoto wasn't so boring after all. But Liu Tinglin… appearances can be deceiving. His first impression at the grand banquet was completely off-putting. Although he still liked her, she was definitely not the docile, well-behaved girl he had imagined.

She cleared her throat and said, "Our drinking games shouldn't be the same as usual. We need something special. Each drink must contain a line from a Tang poem, a line from a Song poem, and a classical allusion. The allusion must include the source of the Tang or Song poem, forming a couplet. The bottom of each drink must contain the name of a fruit and the name of a flower. If you can't do it, you'll be punished with a drink and a performance!"

Yi Qianxian interrupted her hastily as soon as she finished speaking, saying, "I was just about to say that Su Chen is so kind, and then you come up with such a challenge. Do you want us all to rack our brains? Whatever. Let's find another one!" The others chimed in, "Isn't this just deliberately making things difficult for people? Such a difficult drinking game. We should have known better than to let Lord He's daughter come up with it!"

Su Chen laughed, "I'm the one in charge now. What you say won't make a difference. Save your energy for thinking of drinking games. I'm about to begin." Yi Qianxian was about to speak when she saw that Su Chen was really about to instruct the maid to start drumming, so she quickly lowered her head and began to think carefully. For a moment, everyone present quieted down and thought of their own drinking games.

The rules for this drinking game were actually cobbled together by Su Chen. The key was to make everyone feel it was incredibly difficult. That way, everyone's attention would be focused on how to play the game, and they wouldn't have time to worry about him, the newcomer. Now it seems that this step was indeed the right one.

She waited a few minutes. Seeing that some of the people present already had confident expressions, she gestured to the little maid beside her. After bringing in a newly opened chrysanthemum, she had the little maid outside begin to beat the drum.

As soon as the drum sounded, she handed the chrysanthemum in her hand to Yi Qianxian, who was next in line. Yi Qianxian hurriedly tossed it to Zhenzhu Shang, who held it for a while before slowly handing it to a girl with very red lips. The girl had been waiting impatiently, fearing that the drumbeat would stop while she was holding the flower. If she hadn't known who was next to her, she would have almost shouted at Zhenzhu Shang. Now that she had received the chrysanthemum, she hurriedly tossed it to the next in line like a fire. This quickly went around once, but the drumbeat outside still hadn't stopped, so they had to continue passing the baton.

The maid beside Su Chen, having received instructions, went out and spoke to the drummer. After a while, the drumming gradually subsided, finally stopping at the hands of the ordinary-looking woman. Su Chen smiled and said, "This lady, please, it's your turn now. May I ask who you are?" The woman put down the chrysanthemum in her hand and said, "My name is Xie Fengyan, I'm a little older than you, you can call me Fengyan." She then paused for a moment, "A Tang poem, a ci poem, an allusion, plus a..."

Su Chen nodded: "Yes, the base of the wine should contain the names of fruits and flowers."

Xie Fengyan lowered her head and thought for a while, then said, "It really is difficult. Wait a moment, it seems like it will be ready soon." Everyone around held their breath and waited. After a while, she slowly recited a wine syllable.

The couplet reads: "Phoenixes roam on Phoenix Terrace, Xiao Shi plays the flute to attract them; let us enjoy this moment together, though we have never met, this tale will be told for eternity." He then smiled and explained, "The Tang poem is Li Bai's 'Ascending Phoenix Terrace in Jinling,' and the lyric is Ouyang Xiu's. The allusion comes from the story of Nongyu during the reign of Duke Mu of Qin, with an extra 'one.' However, for the sake of speed, it's only slightly more fluent, like a jingle. The literary merit is lacking."

"

== (The following word count is not included in the charge)

Stomach ache, headache. What a tragedy... I hope I won't turn into a coffee table no matter how much time passes...

These drinking games are all cobbled together by me; I only tried to make the content coherent, but they're really poorly written. Please ignore them...

P.S.: Updates will likely be very inconsistent this month. I'll try my best to keep updating, and I'll try to make up for it next month. Sorry.

Chapter Twenty-Four, Surprisingly

"The jade pond is cold with dew, the lotus blossoms are pale; the jade trees are high in the wind, the ivy is sparse." Xie Fengyan pondered for a moment. After speaking, she lowered her brows and took a sip of tea. Others were full of praise. Liu Tinglin sighed in admiration, "Only Sister Xie could be so eloquent and quick-witted. Although the request is strange, it's not difficult to complete it in such a short time. The difficulty lies in doing it in such a short interval. If it were me, I definitely couldn't do it."

Yi Qianxian laughed, "If it were you, even if you could do it, you wouldn't. Didn't you want to drink?" She then laughed along with everyone else. After they had laughed enough, Su Chen had the maids outside beat the drum. After several rounds, those who received the chrysanthemum recited drinking games. Although they were just clever tricks, as long as they managed to recite them, they were allowed to pass. Unexpectedly, the drumming stopped precisely when Liu Tinglin received the chrysanthemum in the next round. Everyone who had been watching found this outcome amusing and eagerly awaited the spectacle.

Sure enough, Liu Tinglin hesitated for a moment, saying she couldn't do it, and was about to grab the cup to pour herself a drink when two or three people nearby quickly stopped her. Su Chen also found it amusing, and halfway through, he intercepted the wine from her hand, saying, "We already agreed that if you can't come up with the drinking game, you'll be punished." Yi Qianxian also chimed in, saying that they would be punished and have to put on some kind of show.

Liu Tinglin made an excuse, saying that he couldn't do it, but the people next to him saw through it and said, "Tinglin has been practicing martial arts since he was young, and his sword dance is the most beautiful thing to do. Don't refuse, you should perform."

Learning martial arts at a young age? Can women also learn martial arts?

As if sensing her confusion, another petite and charming woman sitting next to Su Chen said, "Sister He, don't be suspicious. This is a long-standing custom in the capital. Many daughters of noble families practice martial arts from a young age to hone their bodies. In that case, their husband's family will like it." Su Chen smiled and agreed, saying, "Tinglin, don't refuse anymore. Can't you see that everyone already knows? Why don't you quickly perform a sword dance for us to see? After you've finished, you can drink your wine."

Liu Tinglin didn't believe it and tried to push it away, but seeing that she couldn't, she could only take the long sword handed to her by the maid, saying to herself, "You're all just waiting to see me make a fool of myself. None of you are any good, and none of you have a soft heart." Everyone ignored her and just urged her to hurry up and practice her swordplay.

Su Chen was just sitting to the side waiting to watch the show when she suddenly remembered a TV series she had watched before, so she interjected, "Sword dancing alone is a bit monotonous. I wonder if any of you ladies are skilled in playing musical instruments? If it were accompanied by music, it would surely be even more captivating." As soon as she finished speaking, someone said to Yi Qianxian, "Speaking of musical instruments, Qianxian, didn't you study for quite some time? I heard that last time, the old nanny from Jiyuefang was invited to your residence to be your teacher, but she returned not long after, saying that your skills had already reached a certain level and you no longer needed her instruction."

Yi Qianxian quickly retorted, "That's not true at all. You must have misheard. You're making baseless accusations that I'm frivolous and arrogant. Please stop saying such things."

Liu Tinglin held his longsword upside down and said, "This matter has spread throughout the capital. It's no use for you to say this now, Qianxian. It's the right thing to do to admit it." Many people around her tried to persuade her for a long time, and finally pushed Yi Qianxian onto the zither stand that was set up to the side. The cloth covering the thirteen-stringed zither was lifted, and everyone urged her to practice.

Yi Qianxian half-jokingly pushed for a while. She skillfully took over and tested the notes. Then she put on finger cots and gently played a very steady tune. Sure enough, her fingers were skillful, and the melody suited her perfectly. She had tried it. She nodded to Liu Tinglin and asked, "Tinglin, what would you like to accompany this?" Liu Tinglin tilted his head and thought for a moment. He said, "Something softer, whatever."

So he struck a pose and began the preparatory movements.

Yi Qianxian then began to play. Her fingertips plucked and stroked, and a soft, gentle melody flowed from the strings. The music complemented her gentle face, creating a truly beautiful scene. Liu Tinglin, accompanied by the zither music, danced with her sword. Every movement possessed its own rhythm. Su Chen sat to the side watching, feeling that her waist was truly like a coiled snake, her hands like supple silk, and her movements seemingly delicate yet subtly powerful. For a moment, he was completely mesmerized.

When the music ended, most people were still somewhat stunned. It took them a while to finally express their admiration. The maid stepped forward and took...

The sword in his hand. He brought her a basin of water. She quickly washed herself, leaving Su Chen both amused and exasperated. He could only pour her a cup. Liu Tinglin smiled and hurriedly drank it, holding it in her mouth and slowly swallowing, even letting out a sigh. Everyone wore expressions of "just as I thought." A cheerful atmosphere filled the room.

But just then, a "humph" was heard. Su Chen looked in the direction from which the sound came—and it was indeed Zhenzhu Shang.

She impatiently pushed aside the pastries in front of her, making a clattering sound as if she had broken several plates, whether intentionally or not. Seeing everyone watching, she shrugged and stood up abruptly, bracing herself against the back of the chair, saying, "Playing with this stupid stuff, and people actually praise you? I don't know what's wrong with your head."

After saying that, he pulled the chair away and rushed out.

The people inside looked at each other awkwardly. Yi Qianxian hurriedly had a maid bring up some fresh fruit and said some words to ease the tension. Finally, the atmosphere eased a bit. Liu Tinglin, who had been slowly sipping his wine, suddenly said indifferently, "Qianqian, you should go and see the princess. She ran out alone. If you meet her again, it won't be easy for you to comfort her." Yi Qianxian wanted to say something more, but in the end, she said goodbye to everyone and went out.

As soon as she left, Xie Fengyan said with dissatisfaction, "It's always like this. I don't know why they always have to invite her. I really don't know what these people are thinking."