I said, "The current emperor is no longer Li Longji..."
The most beautiful girl in the department chuckled and said, "It's my fault. You 'cannot bow and scrape before the powerful and wealthy, making me unhappy,' so naturally you wouldn't talk to me over a bowl of wine." She gestured for the waiter to bring the wine, and I pointed to the stack of bowls and said, "These are all yours."
I don't care about the money; I'm doing this to fulfill the young girl's wish—how wonderful it would be to treat her idol to drinks! Anita Mui, Leslie Cheung, when are you coming to visit me?
After the wine was served, Li Bai kept moving the bottom of his bowl. The most beautiful girl in the department pushed the freshly served wine towards Li Bai and said with a grin, "Great poet, why aren't you drinking?"
I reminded her, "Don't you think you're not being sincere enough?" Although Li Bai had many official careers throughout his life, he had a huge following and was still very ambitious.
The most beautiful girl in the department stopped laughing, picked up her wine bowl and offered it to him, saying, "Uncle, whether you are Li Bai or not, I'd like to have a chat with you, is that alright?"
Li Bai then took the wine, took a sip, and said, "What did you ask me just now?"
Which of Li Bai's poems do you like best?
You mean the ones I wrote myself?
"..." The most beautiful girl in the department was speechless.
What do you think?
The most beautiful girl in the department said helplessly, "I bet your favorite poem is 'Bring in the Wine,' didn't you just recite it?"
"Yes, I wrote this poem very smoothly without even having a draft, but it's not my favorite."
"That is 'The Road to Shu is Hard.' Professor Zhang said that this poem is basically a summary and reflection of your life."
"He's right, is he a scholar? But this isn't my favorite poem either."
"...That's the 'Song of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup.' 'The emperor calls, but I won't board the boat; I call myself an immortal of wine.' Anyway, there was a boy in my class who loved this line the most. Once, he was drinking in the dorm and skipping class, and when our counselor went to call him, that's what he said."
Li Bai said, "Don't mention that line, it's just bad luck." He took a big gulp of wine and said, "Even if I had to choose again, I would still say the same thing, but not this one."
The little girl's eyes darted around, and she suddenly said, "There's a poem you wrote called 'Midnight Song of Wu,' what's the first line again...?"
Li Bai murmured, “The first line of the ‘Midnight Song of Wu’ is: ‘A single moon shines over Chang’an, the sound of ten thousand households pounding clothes.’”
The most beautiful girl in the department immediately said, "There's another one, called 'Ancient Style'..."
Li Bai gulped down his wine and said with a wry smile, "This poem is quite long. Which line can't you remember?"
The most beautiful girl in the department said, "I can't remember a single word. Can you recite it from memory?"
Li Bai casually recited: "The grand odes have long ceased to be composed; in my decline, who will speak for me? The royal winds are overgrown with weeds; the Warring States period was filled with thorns and brambles… What was the next line again?"
"Dragons and tigers devour each other, and weapons of war bring down the mad Qin dynasty."
"Yes, yes, give me another bowl of wine so I can sort out my thoughts and redo it for you."
As soon as the wine was served, Li Bai took two sips and continued, "The righteous voice is so faint and distant, yet the lamentations of the poets arise..."
By the time he finished reading the last sentence, I was almost asleep when I heard Li Bai say, "This is too long, and there might be a few words that are different from the original, but the effect seems pretty good."
The most beautiful girl in the department said with admiration, "Wow, that's really impressive. It took me several days to memorize this song."
Li Bai then realized what was happening and said, "You can recite it, yet you make me do it again? Don't you believe I'm really Li Bai?"
The most beautiful girl in the department chuckled and said, "I'll assume you are. Tell me, which song do you like the most?"
Li Bai lowered his voice and said, "The Ballad of Liangyuan."
"Huh? The poem 'I float on the Yellow River to the capital, setting sail to advance across the mountains'?"
Li Bai nodded.
"That song is just average, why is that?"
Li Bai tidied his sparse white hair: "Do you know the story behind this poem?"
"Liangyuan Yin...is it a poem that costs a fortune? Madam Zong fell in love with Li Bai and married him because of this poem."
Li Bai said somewhat embarrassedly, "In this life, oh, in my past life, I wrote countless poems, but only this one has brought me real benefits." He chuckled a few times as he said this.
The most beautiful girl in the department couldn't help but ask, "Is Madam Zong pretty?"
Li Bai shook his head slightly and said, "You know, a woman cannot be judged solely by her looks. You can only say that she is very graceful, very graceful."
The most beautiful girl in the department concluded, "She's not pretty, but she's beautiful nonetheless?"
Li Bai paused for a moment, then drank a bowl of wine and said, "Young friend, you also write poetry?"
The most beautiful girl in the department blushed: "I just wrote it for fun."
Li Bai lamented, "It's a pity you're a woman, otherwise you would surely have achieved fame and success."
I finally had a chance to interject: "She has academic qualifications and a bachelor's degree. Besides, what's wrong with being a woman? Here, you can choose your own gender."
"Let me read your poem to you," Li Bai said to the most beautiful girl in his department.
Just then, the girls' teammates called her to go dancing. I told her, "Go study hard. Why are you hanging out with these crazy guys?"
The most beautiful girl in the department said with dissatisfaction, "We need to relax too. Who said they were crazy boys? They are all scholarship recipients."
I said, "No wonder your dancing is so stiff."
The most beautiful girl in the department glared at me before turning to Li Bai and saying, "You really want to hear it?" Li Bai nodded. "Then you can't laugh at me, okay—" The most beautiful girl composed herself and began to recite with deep emotion: "Memory—the last pain, the last wound, after the very last, I can only silently recite it one last time, the last time memory opens, only remembering the first time, forgetting very quickly, very quickly..."
Li Bai sipped his wine and, seeing that she had been muttering to herself for a while without making a sound, said, "Read it."