Luo Cheng spotted Zhao Yun immediately and walked straight up to him, saying, "You must be Zhao Yun? I'd like to spar with you on spear techniques!" Qin Qiong, Yang Lin, and the others knew he was being arrogant again and stepped in to smooth things over. Before Zhao Yun could speak, an old man with a white beard jumped up next to Wu Sangui and shouted, "If you want to fight him, you'll have to get past me first!"
Luo Cheng glanced at him and asked, "Who are you?"
The old man said proudly, "Speaking of me, I bet you little brat haven't heard of me. But if I were to talk about my ancestor, I'm not afraid to scare you, he was a spear king who was as famous as General Zhao Yun! General Zhao Yun learned many of his spear techniques from him, so I'm actually Zhao Yun's junior brother."
I'm sweating bullets! This old scoundrel Zhao, under Wu Sangui, has risen in rank so quickly!
Upon hearing this, Luo Cheng perked up and asked, "What were your ancestors called?"
Old Zhao said smugly, "The one with the upper Zhao and lower taboo name Tongfu is correct!"
Luo Cheng asked in confusion, "Zhao Tongfu? I've never heard of him!"
Old Zhao looked at Zhao Yun and said, "General Zhao, do you think my ancestor was a great general?"
Seeing his advanced age, Zhao Yun could only stammer, "Yes...yes."
Old Zhao dared to boast so boldly because he knew Zhao Yun was honest and would probably help him cover up his lie. At this moment, he couldn't help but laugh and say to the sky, "So I am from a prestigious family."
A young man covered in grass clippings popped out from behind Zhao Yun and said, "Zhao Tongfu? Are you calling me?"...
Erpang waved to Guan Yu repeatedly, saying, "Second Brother, sit here!"
Liu Bei came over and met with me, then nodded to Cao Cao: "Old Cao has come too?"
I tentatively asked, "Can you two sit together?"
Cao Cao said, "It's alright, we can use Xiao Qiang's place to have another round of discussing heroes over wine."
I whispered, "Another discussion? This time it's not like before. Among the people here, you two would be lucky to rank in the top ten."
Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan and said, "Xiao Qiang, how have you been?"
I quickly replied, "I'm fine, I'm fine. Didn't your wife come along?" To be honest, I'm quite impressed with how Zhuge Liang managed to deal with Wu Sangui, but I'd rather meet his wife. It's said that Zhuge Liang's wife was incredibly ugly, and I wanted to see if she was just overrated or if we were kindred spirits compared to Baozi. I pointed at Baozi and said, "This is my wife."
Zhuge Liang gently waved his feather fan and nodded slightly, saying, "Hmm, indeed a beauty of unparalleled grace."
I frowned and said, "Brother Liang, we can be polite, but we can't lie through our teeth."
Zhuge Liang said seriously, "Compared to my wife, she is the most beautiful woman in the world."
I was speechless for a moment, and finally could only say, "Please take a seat, otherwise Zhou Yu won't be able to outwit you!" Think about it, a man who can see even a steamed bun as a beauty of unparalleled grace and a man who has already married one of the top three beauties of the time are going to have a battle of wits. Their perspectives are definitely different, and their tolerance levels are different too. Besides, Zhou Yu probably didn't spend much of his free time enriching himself…
The table where Zhuge Liang sat was mostly filled with strategists and advisors, including Zhang Liang, Wu Yong, and Fang Xuanling. Wu Yong took off his glasses and offered them to Zhuge Liang, saying, "Mr. Kongming, please try these." I noticed that Li Si seemed to be missing from the group. After asking, I learned that Qin Shi Huang had gone to see his former wife. I exclaimed in horror, "Is he going to have a ghost romance?"
Li Si stood behind me with his hands behind his back and said quietly, "You're the one who's a ghost. I just wanted to sneak a peek at them, mother and daughter. I'll be at ease if they're doing well."
"You don't want to rekindle the relationship?"
Li Si thought for a moment and said seriously, "That would be unfair to my current wife and to her."
I couldn't help but give a thumbs up and say, "Great! With a prime minister like you in the Qin Dynasty, monogamy would probably have been implemented soon."
Just then, several city leaders arrived. Mayor Liang, who had been promoted to work in the provincial capital, walked in with his secretary, Liu, and heads of relevant departments. I quickly went to greet them, my heart pounding. I wondered how these politically savvy individuals would react to this scene. To my surprise, the leaders were all smiles, especially towards Li Shishi—leaders are human after all, and they were delighted to see a celebrity. Mayor Liang pointed to the words "Yucai First Arts Festival" on the dining room wall and laughed, "Not bad, not bad at all. The calligraphy is good, and the concept is good too. If it weren't for these words, we really wouldn't have been able to come, haha."
I said apologetically, "I'll take this calligraphy with me when I leave. I know you like this kind of thing."
Mayor Liang said, "We won't eat. We're just here to show the government our support. If you encounter any difficulties in the future, feel free to ask. Yucai is a local specialty, after all. I've called a few reporters over to record some cultural performances or something, and I'll put it on the evening news."
While winking at Yan Jingsheng, I said dismissively, "No need to trouble yourself, we have plenty of photographers. They're the ones who filmed 'Total Mobilization'." My wink at Yan Jingsheng meant that he should see if there was anything new he could bring back for the leaders. But the guy got carried away and just sat there dumbly next to Hua Mulan. In the end, he was quick-witted and took a packet of tea that Lu Yu had prepared from him and brought it over.
Mayor Liang took a sniff and laughed, "Oh, this tea is no ordinary stuff. If it costs more than 50 yuan per tael, I'll consider it a bribe."
Lu Yu said, "It's not that expensive." Then he muttered to himself, "It's only 48 taels of gold for a small bag."
Mayor Liang took the tea, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Remember to send the video. That 'With Me, Yucai is Strong' video from last time was pretty good."
I smiled and said, "With you by my side, Yucai is truly strong."
Seeing my obsequious manner, the emperors secretly shook their heads and said, "It's true that a local official is more powerful than a distant one; he's never been this polite to us!"
The newly arrived Liangshan heroes whispered among themselves, "Who is this guy? Is he someone who has been granted amnesty?"
After seeing the leaders off, I glanced at Yan Jingsheng with a gloomy face and sighed, "People can fall so quickly. A conscientious educator, and he's already succumbed to Sister Mulan's charms so soon."
I walked over and sat down next to Yan Jingsheng, nudging him and asking, "What's the situation? Can you handle it?"
Although Mulan had changed into women's clothing, she still maintained her forthright manner, laughing and talking loudly with the people at the table. Yan Jingsheng was interested in her, and Mulan was not indifferent either, but she simply didn't notice him at all—this bookworm couldn't get a word in edgewise.
Yan Jingsheng stammered to me, "Brother Qiang, do you think Mulan would be interested in an ordinary person like me?"
I said unhappily, "What do you mean by 'ordinary person'? Aren't you the vice principal of Yucai School? If you think that's not enough, I'll take off my robe and step aside right now, and tomorrow we'll put your statue up next to Old Zhang's..."
Yan Jingsheng shook his head and said, "That's not what I meant. I think Mulan has seen countless heroes and great men, so she might not care about these empty titles."
"So what do you want? How about you go to Liangshan for further training first?"
At this moment, Li Shishi announced in a clear voice, "Sun Quan of Jiangdong has arrived!"
I stood up, puzzled, and asked, "Sun Quan is here too? Do we have any foreign trade relations with him?"
A burly man with blond hair and blue eyes walked in and, as pointed out by the crowd, stood in front of me. He said heartily, "Sorry Xiao Qiang, I'm late. It's hard to get a taxi these days, otherwise I would have come earlier. In the end, I had to share a ride with these two to get here."
I quickly said politely, "Not at all, Brother Sun, please take a seat." Sure enough, behind Sun Quan were two other people, one was Yu Boya, and the other was a handsome young man, whom I had never seen before. Yu Boya introduced him, "This is my little brother Zhong Ziqi."
I shook Zhong Ziqi's hand and said, "Another music master! Your brother Lao Yu used to talk about you a lot when he was with me."
Zhong Ziqi politely replied, "I can only listen; my skills are far from adequate." He then coughed a few times. Yu Boya said anxiously, "Brother Zhong, you're not in good health; you've caught a cold."