The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 360: The son writes the lyrics and the lady composes the music

Ganquanfang, Shouanfang, and Shixifang are distributed in the shape of a character, among which is the largest tile in Jiangning City—Wangfu Street Wazi.

During the Tang Dynasty, this area was once the royal residence of Li Qi, the 12th son of Zhaozong Li Ye and King Pu.

Wazi on Wangfu Street is considered the busiest place in Jiangning City, where the most famous restaurants such as Fengle Tower, Ziyun Tower, and Wufeng Tower are located.

The restaurants in Jiangning City can be divided into main stores and taverns. The main restaurants are equivalent to having a special liquor selling certificate issued by the imperial court. They can make distiller's yeast, buy and sell liquor freely, and are subject to official franchise.

Foot shops are strictly prohibited from making and selling distilled yeast. You must go to an authentic store to buy distilled yeast, and you will also have to pay tax on the liquor you sell.

This was also influenced by the Southern Tang court’s policy of “monopoly on tea, wine, salt and iron”.

Behind several major stores, there are backgrounds of Jiangnan nobles, important ministers, and nobles. With the benefits of selling distilled yeast, it has become a magic weapon for the powerful to make money.

Zhu Xiu and his party entered Jiangning City, went straight to Wazi on Wangfu Street, and stayed in a main store called Hongfulou.

There are six upper rooms on the third floor, and Hu Guangyue has booked them all. Zhu Xiu is in the middle with two dolls, Pan Mei and Hu Guangyue are on the left and right, and Zhou Xian and Dongmei live in the same room.

Of course, during the day, Zhou Xian was also served by Zhu Xiu's room, ready to bring tea and water and make the bed and quilt.

Although Hongfulou is only the second-grade Wazi store on Wangfu Street, the cost is not cheap at all. The price of a room for one night is four yuan, including breakfast and dinner. There is an additional charge for individual dishes.

Zhou Xian and Dongmei were originally muttering that these villains couldn't afford the price. When they saw Hu Guangyue slap a bright yellow gold in front of the shopkeeper, the master and servant looked at each other, stuck out their tongues and stopped talking.

This group of villains is much richer than they imagined.

Hu Guangyue told the shopkeeper in a slightly arrogant tone that he would book the entire upper room on the third floor for a long time to be determined. He would pay the bill together when he left.

The shopkeeper naturally smiled from ear to ear, and personally led them upstairs, inspecting the rooms one by one, until Zhu Xiu nodded to express his satisfaction, and then left respectfully.

There are quite a few high-rollers in Jiangning City, but not many pay directly with gold.

Judging from the accents of this group of people, they must be the sons of big merchants who went north to do business, and they went out with their children, slaves, and servants for fun.

However, the young man holding the folding fan had a son of seven or eight years old and a daughter of four or five years old. He was enviable, and the shopkeeper couldn't help but take a closer look.

Based on this calculation, the young master would have been at most thirteen or fourteen when he got married.
Wow~ It’s really early, and your body and bones are growing well. You can be a father before you’re even a teenager.
It's just that the two maids beside the young master are a little strange.

He was a quiet man with a dignified appearance, but his face was full of sadness, as if his family had just experienced a funeral, and he looked a little unlucky. He was silent and silent, and he was afraid that he was mute.

The other one has a slender figure, with hair hanging down around her waist. Looking at Liu Fufeng from the back, she must be a beautiful woman with great appearance.

But who would have thought that when this woman turned around, half of her face was completely black and had spider web-like cracks, giving her a terrifying look.

The shopkeeper's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately closed his eyes and didn't dare to look any further, thinking that he would have a nightmare tonight.

No wonder the woman had been wearing a veil when she first arrived. It turned out that she was afraid that the mark on her face would scare people.

The boy who was shaking the fan called the shopkeeper aside, sighed, and said that the black-faced woman was his cousin, who had a serious illness when she was young, but her life was saved. It can't be cured either.

The young master told the shopkeeper that his poor cousin was timid and thin-skinned, and asked him not to spread the news around, and the shopkeeper naturally agreed.

It’s a pity that a young lady with a beautiful figure has a grimace~
In the room on the third floor, Zhu Xiu sat leisurely drinking tea while Zhou Xian was busy making the bed for him.

"Tsk tsk~ This pot of scented tea recommended by the shopkeeper is really good. It's like a flower. Do you want to try it?"

Zhu Xiu picked up the tea cup and said with a smile.

Zhou Xian turned his head and glared at him angrily. The dark mark on his left cheek was really scary.

Zhou Xian bit his lip, pinched the corners of the quilt, and shook it vigorously.

She had never even made her own bed since she was a child, so she could only make it according to the memory of Dongmei.

The bedding was a little heavy, and Zhou Xian's slender arms couldn't lift it up, so it was quite difficult to make the bed.

"I have smoothed all the wrinkles. If there is one left, you can keep it to warm my bed tonight."

Zhu Xiu smiled maliciously.

Zhou Xian blushed, a bit of panic flashed in his bright eyes, he gave the villain a wronged and sad look, and spread out his small hands to smooth the wrinkles on the quilt, for fear of leaving a trace, so that the villain would find an excuse to bully her .

Seeing her frightened and cautious look, Zhu Xiu was really amused, shook her folding fan and laughed.

"My jade-faced little dragon is pretty decent after all. If I spend the night with you, Madam Zhou, I won't be at a disadvantage, right?" Zhu Xiu teased her.

Zhou Xian bit his lip and said angrily, "If you touch me, I will jump out of here!"

She pointed to the propped up windows.

Zhu Xiu looked out the window. The third floor was not very short. If he jumped down, he would have to break his leg.

Zhu Xiu shrugged and said with a strange smile: "Forget it, Madam Zhou is so beautiful. I would like to admire her for a while, but I don't want her beauty to die early."

Zhou Xian was embarrassed and annoyed when he heard him praise his beauty so frankly, and his face turned red and white.

Suddenly, the black mark on her left cheek fell off in one piece.

Zhou Xian held up the fake birthmark made of plaster and lambskin, wiped his cheeks that had some red pimples, and said angrily: "I don't want to put this smelly plaster skin on my face, it will fall off all day long. , it sticks to the face and feels itchy and hot.”

Zhu Xiu curled her lips and said: "You promised me not to reveal your true face until the matter is settled, so as not to arouse suspicion and reveal your whereabouts."

"If you want to apply it yourself!" Zhou Xian threw the black leather plaster on the table angrily and sat aside angrily.

Zhu Xiu said slowly: "If you don't abide by the agreement, the peace and friendship agreement between us will be invalidated automatically. Don't leave tonight. Stay here to warm my son's bed."

Zhou Xian's watery bright eyes were flushed, and he was aggrieved with tears: "You bully!"

Zhu Xiu sneered: "I'm the knife and you are the fish, how can you say that you are bullying? Miss Zhou, don't forget your own situation!"

Zhou Xian burst into tears, the crystal clear teardrops were like beads with a broken thread.

Zhu Xiu ignored her, picked up the tea cup, and drank happily, leaving her sitting in the corner of the room and sobbing softly.

After a while, the little lady stopped choking, her eyes were slightly red and swollen, and she looked indescribably pitiful.

Zhu Xiu smiled and said: "I heard that Wangfu Street Wazi is the busiest place in Jiangning City. Mrs. Zhou has come here often, right? I wonder which quyuan's singers are the best at ditties?"

Zhou Xian didn't want to pay attention to him, but he was afraid that he would find excuses to bully him, so he pursed his lips and said, "What are you going to do?"

"Of course I need to find a musician with a melodious singing voice to listen to the music." Zhou Xian couldn't help but sneered: "You also know music?"

Zhu Xiu glanced at her, and the young lady quickly lowered her head, twisting the corners of her clothes with her green-white fingers.

Zhu Xiu unfolded the folding fan with a swish, and said with a smile: "I don't know much about music, but I do have some research on poetry."

Zhou Xian curled his lips, obviously not believing what he said.

How could a ruthless bandit leader know how to write poems, lyrics, and songs?
Zhou Xian said with a cold face: "Go south from here and walk a street away. There are Huiyingya Garden, Xiancuifang, and Miaoyin Music Garden. They are the leading music gardens in Jiangning City. If you want to listen to music, just go there. ”

Zhu Xiu nodded and said with a smile: "Thank you, Madam Zhou, for informing me."

Zhu Xiu cleared her throat and shouted outside the house: "Old Pan!"

After a while, there was a knock on the door of the house, Pan Mei pushed the door open and poked her head in, and said with a smile, "Master, are you calling me?"

"Walk one street south from here, and there are several large music courts. Go there and invite a geisha to come over. I want to listen to the music here." Zhu Xiu ordered.

Pan Mei glanced at Zhou Xian, who was sitting sideways in the corner, and said, "Okay! Sir, please wait a moment!"

Zhou Xian pouted and whispered: "Extremely extravagant~ Be careful if you don't have money to pay the bill, someone will beat Jiang Ning!"

Zhu Xiu said with a smile: "Ms. Zhou doesn't need to worry about money. Although my net worth is not as good as that of Zhou, I still have enough money to hire a few Quyuan musicians to come and sing."

"Yeah~"

Zhou Xian was startled, but he didn't expect that he heard his muttering.

"The ears of a dog are very clever~" the little lady muttered again.

Zhu Xiu was a little amused, but she didn't expect that this beautiful girl with so many charms would be quite disadvantaged by her small cherry mouth.

Zhu Xiu glanced at her for a few times and suddenly said: "Mrs. Zhou, when she was in her hairpin years, should she be given the title 'Ehuang'?"

Zhou Xian was shocked and stood up, feeling ashamed and annoyed: "How did you know?"

Zhu Xiu smiled, shook his folding fan and said leisurely: "Emperor E, the grandson of Emperor Ku, the daughter of Tang Yao, the wife of Yu Shun, the concubine of the ancient emperor! Qu Ping wrote in "Nine Songs", "The emperor's son descended to Beizhu, his eyes were blind. I am so melancholy and sad; the autumn wind is blowing in the wind, and the waves in the Dongting are under the leaves of the trees. How melancholy and regretful it is! Emperor E's daughter-in-law and her two female servants shed tears on Jiuyi Mountain, which is very touching~~
The old lady Zhou chose the name Ehuang for you, which shows how much she expects of you! "

Zhou Xian's cheeks were red, his beautiful eyes were glaring, and he asked in surprise and suspicion: "You, you have also read a book?"

Zhu Xiu smiled slightly: "Besides looting houses, I read some, which made Ehuang laugh!"

Zhou Xian bit his thin lips and said angrily: "You are not allowed to call me that! Only my father and family members can call me that!"

Zhu Xiu pretended not to hear and said to herself: "Ehuang does sound better like a flower. In this way, from now on outside, I will still call you Ruhua. When you come back to the room, in private, when you and I are alone, I will call you Ruhua." Call you Ehuang!"

"You~" Zhou Xian's face turned red, he gave him a fierce look, and angrily opened the door and ran away.

Zhu Xiu drank tea leisurely and didn't stop her. The young lady couldn't run away anyway.

Zhou Xian went to the room where Dong Mei lived at the end of the corridor. As soon as he entered the room, tears fell down.

Dongmei was startled: "Miss, what's wrong with you? Could it be that the evil man bullied you?"

Zhou Xian wiped away his tears and felt aggrieved: "That evil man knew my little words from somewhere, and he didn't say anything in his frivolous words. He also teased me in every possible way. I, I hate him so much!"

Zhou Xian was extremely ashamed and angry. He had never been humiliated like this since he was a child.

Dongmei exhaled. She was only verbally taken advantage of. Fortunately, nothing substantial happened.

But Dongmei knows that her young lady has been taught very strictly since she was a child, and she takes the defense of men and women very seriously. When she gets along with her brothers at home, she never forgets to abide by the etiquette system.

For her, being in the same room with a strange man like this was an outrageous act that violated her moral cognition, but in order to survive, she had to temporarily tolerate it.

Dongmei held her hand and comforted her with kind words: "Miss, just pretend not to hear what he said. The maid felt that the evil man only dared to say a few frivolous words to the lady, and did not dare to do anything truly disrespectful. Maybe, maybe he was worried about our master and didn't dare to really bully the young lady, lest our master settle the score with him!"

Zhou Xian said aggrievedly: "But, but I always feel that the evil man doesn't take the Zhou family seriously at all! He seems to be emboldened. I even heard several times that he talked to the evil man with a big beard and a red face, and kept the name of the official family. They all talk about it casually.”

"Ah?~" Dongmei was taken aback, "This group of people are too lawless~"

Zhou Xian wiped away his tears, frowned, and said with worry on his pretty face: "Think about it, they are robbers. When they entered Jiangning City, they did not find a hiding place to hide. Instead, they stayed openly in this downtown. There must be someone behind them." Rely on!

Are there such arrogant gangsters in this world? "

Dongmei felt scared when she thought about it. The villains from the north became more and more mysterious in their eyes.

Just as he was talking, a melodious voice came from the corridor.

Zhou Xian listened carefully and found that the sound of tunes was coming from Zhu Xiu's house.

"The person who entered the city yesterday and came back with tears streaming down his face and clothes all over his body is not a silkworm breeder.
The earth in front of the door is covered with pottery. There is no tile on the house. No fingers are stained with mud. The scales live in the building."

A few short sentences were sung in a plaintive tone, with the melody rising and falling. It sounded good to ordinary people, but to the ears of a pipa master like Zhou Xian who was proficient in rhythm, the melody was much inferior.

Sure enough, the melodious singing voice was stopped, and Zhu Xiu's annoyed voice came from the corridor: "What the hell are you singing! Who composed this music?"

Zhou Xian chuckled, "These new words are well written, they are concise and powerful, and in just a few lines, they describe all the hardships of the world and the sufferings of the common people.

It’s a pity that the score of the music is a bit poor, the artistic conception is not enough, and it is not worthy of these new lyrics.”

Listening to the faint curses in the corridor, Zhou Xian smiled and said: "I didn't expect that evil man really knew some music and could hear good and bad music."

Thinking of how just now in Zhu Xiu's room, he was holding a folding fan, shaking his head, quoting scriptures and commenting on her boudoir, Zhou Xian couldn't help but be stunned.

From the tone of the villain, he sounded like someone who had read a book.

But how could a dignified scholar become a gangster?

This made Zhou Xian even more confused. Who is Chu Xun?

Dongmei said with a casual smile: "That villain is really stupid. With Miss, the number one pipa master in Jiangning, why do you go to Quyuan to invite a kabuki? I want to listen to a tune, and Miss will play a piece casually, and keep his jaw dropping. "

The door of the room was pushed open with a clang. Pan Mei stood by the door, clasping her fists and saying, "My young master wants to listen to music. Please ask Mrs. Zhou to come over and play a song!"

Dongmei stuck out her tongue and secretly cursed herself for being a crow.

Pan Mei had a rough appearance, Zhou Xian was afraid of him, and worried that the villain would use an excuse to bully her, so he had to stand up, hesitate for a while, then pick up his pipa and follow Pan Mei away.

(End of this chapter)