Bian Que said, "It would be best to make a list. To gather them all together, we need to find them one by one from each dynasty."
I waved and called out, "Shishi!"
Li Shishi laughed and said, "I'll go to the list." She's truly a local beauty, so self-aware.
As they were talking, Mulan arrived with Cao Xiaoxiang. Mulan leaped off her horse, caught Xiaoxiang, tossed the reins to a servant, and hurried along, asking, "Has Baozi been born yet?" Seeing us all smiling, she was overjoyed and rushed inside with Xiaoxiang. Mulan immediately spotted the crib next to Baozi, rushed over, and carefully picked him up. Looking at the baby's wrinkled little face, she was instantly overcome with maternal instinct and couldn't bear to leave him. She pressed her face against the baby's swaddling clothes and whispered, "The little one is so adorable."
The little elephant raised his hands and said, "I want to see too!" Mulan was afraid he wasn't strong enough, so she held him and let him watch for a while.
Seeing Mulan's tender expression, Baozi said, "Sister Mulan, let this child recognize you as his godmother."
Hua Mulan said, "Is that even a question?"
Baozi scratched his head and said, "But Little Elephant calls us 'older sister,' so how do we determine our generation?"
Everyone inside and outside the house laughed. I said loudly, "Little Elephant, you have to teach your little brother math well in the future, so he doesn't end up like his father and be looked down upon." It's not so bad if others look down on him, the main problem is that he might end up with a father-in-law who is an accountant—oh right, Zhang Liang wasn't an accountant, so he was pretty much the same.
Mulan gently put down the elephant and said, "Come on, let your sister Baozi rest well. We'll come back later." She then reluctantly turned back to look at it again and again.
Baozi said, "Sis, haven't you ever thought about having one yourself?"
Hua Mulan blushed and spat, saying, "Baozi is becoming more and more unreliable, just like Xiaoqiang."
She came out of the room and asked us, "By the way, what's the baby's name?"
Everyone shouted in unison, "Xiao shouldn't have done that—"
Hua Mulan frowned and said, "I'm not trying to be mean, but this is going a bit too far. A child's name is a lifelong matter, and joking around without considering the occasion is unacceptable. How could you give such a name like that? Who came up with this nickname anyway?" Frustrated, how did my son's name become a nickname?
Everyone pointed at me and said, "Xiao Qiang!"
I jumped up and shouted, "Isn't it all because of you guys who bullied me!"
Hua Mulan chuckled and said, "Alright, alright, we'll just register a new one when we register the household later. Let our great literary figures name it for us."
I instructed Li Shishi, "Don't let those great literary figures be left out."
At this time, friends and clients from various countries and dynasties all knew about the birth of my son and began to call to congratulate me. Li Shimin was the first. After expressing his congratulations, Li Shimin said, "Xiaoqiang, come over to my place for a gathering when your son is a month old."
I laughed and said, "I had the same idea, but we'll decide on the location later."
Li Shimin said, "Alright then."
Li Shishi suddenly tugged at my clothes: "Tell him to find Yan Liben and wait for us to come over and give him his medicine. That way, we'll save ourselves the trouble."
I quickly asked Li Shimin, "Brother Li, is Yan Liben from your side?"
Li Shimin said, "Yes, they've been painting my portrait these past few days."
I said, "Then don't let him leave after you finish your work. I want to bring all the people from Yucai back."
Li Shimin said with difficulty, "I understand what you mean. But what's the point of not letting people leave after they've finished their work? Even if I were the emperor, I couldn't be unreasonable. Our Tang Dynasty is a country that values equality and openness."
I said, "Oh, you can just make up any excuse. After you finish drawing the front view, you can draw the side view, and after you finish this side, you can draw that side. If all else fails, Your Majesty, you can sacrifice your looks and do some body art."
Li Shimin laughed and scolded, "You suicidal little cockroach, you're the only one in the whole world who dares to talk to me like that."
I chuckled, hung up the phone, and asked Li Shishi, "Which of those emperors still have people from Yucai under their command?"
Li Shishi said, "That's all. Wang Xizhi was in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. There were many during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, including Wu Daozi, Li Bai, Yan Zhenqing, and Lu Yu. Liu Gongquan came a little later. After that, there was Zhang Zeduan in the Northern Song Dynasty."
I said, "I'll look for Zhang Zeduan. Who among you will go?"
Li Shishi glanced at me and said, "You just want to make things easy for yourself—you can find someone while you're drinking on Liangshan, right?"
Xiang Yu said, "Don't just focus on finding literary giants, Su Wu was still herding sheep, wasn't he?"
I smacked my lips and said, "No, there are too many people. We need to clear a path and then everyone has to work separately."
Liu Bang quickly said, "I'll take care of Su Wu." This time, Bangzi didn't try to cheat. The place where Su Wu stayed was cold and poor, and the old man Su was also quite ashamed. However, the old man had saved his life in the accident with Gu Debai, and Bangzi was still very kind in this regard.
Xiang Yu said, "Ayu and I will go to find Wang Xizhi, just as a stroll—by the way, how should I approach him?"
Li Shishi said, "Wang Xizhi liked geese, so take one with you."
Xiang Yu casually picked up a goose from the pond, put his arm around Yu Ji's waist, and asked Li Shishi, "Does he prefer a live goose or a cooked one?"
Li Shishi spat and said, "Bah, what a spoilsport! Burning the zither and boiling the crane."
Just then, Jin Shaoyan drove my car into the courtyard. There were people in the car, probably having brought Yu Boya and the others. Li Shishi said, "Oh, we were just talking about the zither, and here comes the zither player."
Cao Xiaoxiang said, "Speak of the devil and he appears."
We all burst into laughter. Only Mao Sui got out of the car, muttering to himself as he walked, "Damn it, I quit, I quit, okay..."
I laughed and said, "Brother Mao, who are you angry with?"
Mao Sui retorted irritably, "Follow my own example!"
Jin Shaoyan got out of the car, handed me the keys, and said with a smile, "When I found Brother Mao, he had just joined Lord Pingyuan's staff. It would be at least three years before he went to Chu to be an envoy."
Mao Sui then said angrily, "Three years in my past life and three years in this life, tell me, I've been a blue-collar worker for six years just to go on these two business trips, what am I supposed to do?"
We burst into laughter again, saying, "It seems even Mao Sui couldn't wait to recommend himself."
I asked Jin Shaoyan, "Where is Yu Boya?"
Jin Shaoyan said, "He has already taken the medicine, but he is with Zhong Ziqi right now. He said he will let us know when the gathering is."