Aoyama

Chapter 356: Four Dreams of Bianliang
During the Ning Dynasty, the Jiaofangsi was divided into north and south.

The Northern Jiaofangsi was in the capital, and the Southern Jiaofangsi was in Jinling. The Northern Jiaofangsi had a grand music hall with red steps, and employed some actors to sing operas and play music, which was considered to have retained some respectability; the Southern Jiaofangsi had completely become a government brothel.

The Northern Jiaofangsi was divided into the North Courtyard and the South Courtyard. The North Courtyard was the Danbi Grand Music Hall, a place for rituals and music; the South Courtyard was the Brocade Curtain Corridor, a place for romance.

Chen Ji walked into the north courtyard alone. The clerk from the Jiaofangsi in front of the porch asked politely, "May I ask what official position this gentleman holds?"

Chen Ji answered casually, "Hundred Household Members of the Yulin Army."

The clerk bowed and said, "Sir, our Jiaofangsi has rules. Only civil officials above the fifth rank who wear red robes can enter."

Chen Ji took out Qi Zhenwu's invitation from his sleeve and handed it to the clerk.

The clerk untied the tassel, unfolded it and took a look before bowing hastily: "So you are Mr. Qi's guest, please come in."

He handed the invitation back to Chen Ji, but Chen Ji did not take it and walked straight into the Jiaofangsi.

Chen Ruins slowly passed through the dark porch, and the view in front of him suddenly opened up. The red felt paved road extended inward, and the house was brightly lit with candles hanging high.

Chime bells and a chime stand are placed on the white marble base. Behind the gold-bronze chime with peacock pattern, musicians wearing scarlet round-collared robes are playing Taiping songs, which are solemn and elegant.

Under the stage, there were octagonal tables filled with candied fruits and melons, and seated around them were officials, men and women, dressed in silk and satin.

The so-called romance and the lights of a prosperous age.

Chen Ji didn't know the guests in the Jiaofangsi either, so he could only walk silently along the edge of the Danbi Grand Music Hall. He was like a bystander in this prosperous era, quietly passing through the splendor and lights.

He scanned the crowd, looking for Huang Que.

Just now.

"Brother Chen Ji!" Shen Ye from Huqiu Poetry Society waved and shouted.

This voice suddenly quieted the Danbi Grand Music Hall, which was originally bustling with noise. The musician from the Jiaofangsi on the stage thought there was something wrong with his ears.

Everyone turned their eyes to the edge and stared at Chen Ji.

The boy, about eighteen or nineteen years old, was not wearing any fancy clothes, and his hair was tied up on top of his head with just a wooden hairpin.

He has a thin figure and a pretty face, which is far from being as handsome as Chen Yu and Li Xuan. He is like a rough knife.

"He is Li Changge?"

"What Li Changge? His name is Chen Ji, from the Chen family in Fuyou Street."

"He was the one who defeated the Buddhist monk Wuzhai? It doesn't look like that."

"Nonsense, whether you can defeat a Buddhist disciple or not has anything to do with your appearance."

Chen Ji smiled and waved to Shen Ye, then walked towards him: "Brother Shen."

As he walked along the red carpet, people would stand up and bow from time to time: "Young Master Chen, I am Yuan Liyu from the Yuan family of Runan."

"I am Yang Yuzhan from the Hongnong Yang family."

Along the way, countless people left their seats and came to the red carpet to meet Chen Ji. Chen Ji responded to each one of them and was overwhelmed.

At the table closest to the white jade platform, Qi Zhaoning looked at Chen Ji in the crowd with his eyes sparkling, and said to Qi Zhaoyun beside him: "Sister, I'm afraid many people are not here to see the Four Dreams of Bianliang tonight, but to see him."

Qi Zhaoyun glanced at Qi Zhaoning and said, "This is just your imagination. Most of the guests tonight are here for the daughters of the Wang family. The Wang family was confiscated and exterminated. Today, two daughters of the Wang family who are of marriageable age were sent to the Jiaofang Division. Someone spread the word that one can be bought for 60,000 strings of cash, so the two new nobles, the Yuan family of Runan and the Yang family of Hongnong, are here."

Qi Zhaoning muttered, "A family that suddenly became rich rarely observes etiquette. It's all Zhang Zhuo's fault. He became the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel and dared to accept money from anyone and sell any official position, allowing these vulgar people to enter the house!"

Qi Zhaoyun felt sympathetic: "Yes, coming to the Jiaofangsi to buy Wang's daughter is no different from kicking someone when he is down. The crime is committed by Lord Wang. Even if his children are guilty, they should not be sold in public. If the Qi family falls one day, won't you and I also be put on this white jade platform?"

Qi Zhaoning didn't care at all: "Don't worry, our Qi family won't fall...Zhenzhu, go make another pot of tea, the tea on the table is cold, Chen Ji will come later, let's not lose our manners."

Qi Zhenzhu, who was standing beside the two girls from the Qi family, was still wearing her veil. When she heard Qi Zhaoning's order, she immediately responded in a low voice and turned to ask the clerk from the Music Bureau for tea.

After Qi Zhenzhu left, Qi Zhaoyun turned to look at Qi Zhaoning: "Didn't you say that he was extremely reckless last time he left without saying goodbye, and you planned to ignore him for a month?"

Qi Zhaoning stiffened his neck and said in defense, "This time it was my brother who sent him the invitation, but he was tied up in official duties and couldn't come. You and I are here to represent my brother, so we can't be disrespectful."

Qi Zhaoyun smiled and stopped ridiculing, turning around to look for Huang Que in the crowd.

At this moment, Chen Ji walked away from the crowd and headed to the front row. Qi Zhaoning subconsciously smoothed the wrinkles on his clothes and straightened his back to make his neck look longer and slimmer.

She pretended to look away casually, but her eyes drifted towards the traces.

When Chen Ji's gaze swept over her, she quickly looked away completely.

Qi Zhaoning noticed that Chen Ji was approaching, getting closer and closer.

The next moment, Chen Ji asked softly, "Excuse me, is there anyone sitting here?"

Qi Zhaoyun said gently, "Mr. Chen, no."

"Thank you," Chen Ji moved his chair towards Shen Ye and Huang Que, squeezing in the already full Eight Immortals Table. In the Danbi Grand Music Hall, only three people usually sat at the Eight Immortals Table, and the seats facing the White Jade Stage were not reserved because they could not watch the show.

But Chen Ji sat down with his back to the white jade platform, and saluted Shen Ye and Huang Que with a smile.

Qi Zhaoning stood there in a daze.

Qi Zhaoyun looked at her worriedly and said, "Perhaps Master Chen is a timid person and is a little embarrassed to sit next to us. I will go and ask him if he wants to change seats with me."

Qi Zhaoning didn't answer.

Qi Zhaoyun slowly stood up, lifted up her skirt, stepped across the red carpet and came to Chen Ji's side: "Mr. Chen, can you and I change seats?"

Chen Ji replied politely: "Second Miss Qi, I'm fine sitting here."

As they were talking, Qi Zhenzhu came back with a pot of tea and poured it for Qi Zhaoning.

Qi Zhaoning suddenly flew into a rage: "Why did you take so long? The tea is cold again, go change it!"

Qi Zhenzhu was at a loss as to what to do.

Qi Zhaoning turned around and glared at her: "What are you standing there for?"

Qi Zhaoyun saw someone looking at him, so he hurried back to the table and said in a serious tone: "Zhaoning, don't be willful here, you're making fun of yourself!"

Qi Zhaoning threw his handkerchief on the table, stood up and left: "Look, I've read the Four Dreams of Bianliang three times, I'm tired of it! Li Changge is just a bastard, how can he enter the palace? The person who wrote this story has no brains at all, he and the princess will never be together!"

Qi Zhaoyun said slowly: "Then go, I want to watch it again."

After Qi Zhaoning took a few steps, he turned around and looked at Qi Zhenzhu: "Why are you staying here? Come home with me!"

Qi Zhenzhu responded in a low voice: "Yes."

……

...Chen Ji sat at the table and bowed, saying, "Brother Huang Que, Brother Shen Ye, long time no see."

Huang Que did not answer, his eyes were looking elsewhere.

Chen Ji followed the direction of Qi Zhaoyun's gaze and said, "I have disturbed your reunion."

Huang Que leaned back involuntarily, his face slightly reddened, "No, no, brother Chen Ji, please don't make fun of me."

Chen Ji got straight to the point: "I have something to ask you, Brother Huang Que, does your family have any dealings with salt merchants? I think there should be a lot of exchanges between salt merchants."

Huang Que was stunned at first, then gradually calmed down: "Brother, why do you always ask me about the salt merchants? I am already a juren, what does my family do have to do with me? If you want to remind me that I am a salt merchant and should not appear in this elegant place, just say it. Huang has been in the capital for a long time, and I have heard a lot of ridicule and sarcasm, I can bear it."

Chen Ji suddenly realized that the other party had suffered too many misunderstandings since coming to the capital.

But today, he came here specifically for Huang Que.

Seeing that the two were in a stalemate, Shen Ye hurriedly smiled and tried to smooth things over: "Brother Chen Ji, do you know that I have become famous recently because of you?"

"Oh?" Chen Ji was puzzled: "What do you mean?"

Shen Ye laughed, holding his sleeves with his left hand, and picked up the kettle with his right hand to pour half a cup of tea for Chen Ji: "On the day you debated with Buddhist Wuzhai, I recorded everything. After you left, I went to Wenyuan Bookstore and sat in the bookstore to revise the speech until midnight before I finally finished the manuscript and handed it to the bookstore for printing overnight. Now all major bookstores have Shen's pamphlets, and storytellers will mention Shen when they talk about this second debate. I think, with the promotion of the Dao Court, this debate will spread all over the country within three months, and Shen can be said to have become famous all over the world through you."

Chen Ji said modestly: "Brother Shen, you are too polite. The title of the top writer of Huqiu Poetry Society has long been famous throughout the world."

Shen Ye quickly waved his hands: "Huqiu Poetry Society is a thing of the past, don't mention it again. After the news of your debate spread, everyone held fewer literary gatherings, and even if they did, they stopped writing poetry. Haha, they were afraid of being accused of covering up the truth with vulgarity."

As they were speaking, the chime bells on the white jade platform suddenly started to sound, and the voices in the Danbi Grand Music Hall stopped abruptly.

Chen Ji turned around and saw a young Taoist priest stumbling onto the stage with a huge brush in his hand. He wrote a few crazy words on the fake door panel:
Yesterday was the Deer Singing Feast, but tonight the iron chains are cold.

What is the difference between dragon and phoenix? What is the difference between grass roots?
Do you remember for whom I debated with the Buddhists? Do you remember for whom I held the reins?
I think about it so much, but it’s not a good match.

At this point, the Taoist suddenly threw away his brush and laughed loudly: "Who can wake up from this big dream? It is nothing but a mistake of a lifetime, which will be played out for generations to see!"

After saying this, the young Taoist staggered out.

Chen Ji stared blankly at the few lines of seemingly plausible poetry on the broken door panel, unable to recover for a moment.

The show had just begun when a noblewoman covered her face with a handkerchief and wept. She stood up and cried in the direction of the young Taoist priest's exit: "Li Changge!"

It turns out that this Taoist priest is Li Changge.

Chen Ji was brought back to his senses by the woman's crying, and immediately cursed the Taoist priest in his heart for his despicable means and for doing private work, allowing Li Changge in the play to eventually enter the Taoist priesthood and become a Taoist priest!
This thing must have been written by Zhang Li. Only this old guy would be so rude.

At the beginning of the main play, the Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo and Chou actors appeared on stage one after another, telling the story of the love, hatred and vengeance between two boys from a poor family and one from a rich family, and how they could not be in love.

Chen Ji was not into the play, because apart from the debate at Luhun Mountain Villa, the other plots had nothing to do with him. The plots of this era were far less bloody and tortuous than those in later generations.

The most important thing is that the person on the stage is not the person he remembers.

Instead, Huang Que was mumbling to himself, reciting the lines from the play: "Twenty years of chewing through an iron inkstone is not worth half a letter of recommendation from the Qi family... I am just stupid and stubborn, and the rich family's grace is a sword."

In the play, Li Changge wandered for more than twenty years, but ultimately failed to be with the princess.

At the end of the play, Li Changge dressed as a Taoist priest and staggered onto the stage again. Li Changge took off the copper hairpin on his head, carved the word "缘" on the broken wall of the City God Temple, and stood there dejectedly.

Outside the stage, a woman sighed, "This stroke of the pen carves through thirty years of human history."

In an instant, cheers rang out in the Danbi Grand Music Hall, and the cheers and crying mixed together, as if in a dream.

Someone threw silver on the stage, and a woman took off her hairpin and threw it on the stage, making the white jade stage jingle. All the actors and actresses came on stage and bent down to pick up the silver.

This is a reward for them.

Shen Ye also threw out a silver ingot to join in the fun, and then asked Chen Ji with a smile: "Brother, everyone says that Li Changge in the play is you, what do you think?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "It's just a plot borrowed from the scripture debate. The rest has nothing to do with me. This Bianliang Four Dreams is ultimately just for the scripture debate scene in the play. Taoist Zhang Li made these dumplings for this dish of vinegar."

As he was speaking, a ninth-rank official in a green robe from the Jiaofang Department stepped onto the white jade stage and said in a loud voice, "Please ask all the ladies of the officials to step aside. The adults who want to watch the Persian Golden Gauze and Silk Demon Dance can go to the South Courtyard on their own."

The women in the music hall left one after another, and all the men stayed.

Chen Ji asked curiously: "What is this for?"

Shen Ye explained: "We are going to sell off the Wang family's daughter."

Chen Ji asked again: "What if it is not sold?"

Shen Ye shook his head: "Of course she was sent to the South Courtyard to be trained by a ninth-rank clerk and become an official prostitute."

On the white jade platform, the clerk pushed up two women in white and said loudly, "The daughters of the Wang family, Wang Enzhuan and Wang Enxian, are good at calligraphy and painting. They were taught by the famous teacher Zhang Zhixian..."

It's like introducing two pieces of porcelain.

Chen Ji looked up and saw that the two women had red and swollen eyes.

He stood up slowly: "Brother Shen, Brother Huang, I am too lazy to read these. Go wait outside."

Shen Ye watched Chen Ji walk out and sneered, "Forget it, forget it. It's better not to watch this tragic thing. Brother Huang Que, let's go too."

Chen Ji walked out of the lights of the Jiaofangsi, stood in front of the door, took a deep breath of the cool air in the spring night, and became a little more sober.

Si Caogui, who was far away, saw him coming out, drove his carriage to the gate of the Jiaofang Department, and said respectfully, "Sir, are you going back home?"

Chen Ji said calmly: "Don't go back yet, wait for someone."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard footsteps behind him.

Chen Ji turned around and saw Shen Ye and Huang Que walking towards him: "You two don't want to watch anymore?"

Shen Ye shook his head: "I'm tired of seeing the tragic things in the world. There's nothing strange about what's happening in the Jiaofang Bureau."

Huang Que didn't want to talk to Chen Ji any more, so he bowed to the two of them and said, "You two, I still have to go back to review my lessons. Goodbye."

After that, he turned around and left.

Just as he took two steps, he heard Chen Ji suddenly say, "Brother Huang, I have 300,000 salt permits in my hand, and I can let you pay for salt from the salt field first."

Huang Que paused and turned around suddenly: "Are you serious?"

"Really?" Chen Ji said sincerely again, "If Brother Huang is interested in the salt permit issue, you and I can go to Meihua Ferry in Baishun Hutong to discuss it in detail."

Before Huang Que could answer, Shen Ye pulled him onto the Chen family carriage and said, "Come on, let's go and see what Brother Chen Ji is up to."

Chen Ji was puzzled: "Brother Shen is going too?"

Shen Ye smiled mysteriously: "My dear brother, I know as many salt merchants as Brother Huang."

(End of this chapter)