Under One Person: Starting from the Inheritance of Gods

Chapter 380 You Can't Imagine the Happiness of Ancient People [Begging for subscriptions, monthly tickets, and recommendation votes]

Drunken Immortal Abode on the banks of the Crystal River.

Meng Fan arrived in the capital before Fan Xian. As for Fan Xian at this time, he was probably still dealing with Teng Zijing's assassination attempt, so he naturally had no interest in getting involved.

After all, watching two grown men fight is nowhere near as enjoyable as listening to music in a brothel.
It's true that Meng Fan possesses the entire Juntian Realm; he can have any woman he wants with a wave of his hand. But as the saying goes, "Homegrown flowers are never as fragrant as wild flowers, and a wife is not as good as a concubine, and a concubine is not as good as a stolen one."

Men, after all, only have two hobbies.

They drag good people down with them, and try to persuade prostitutes to reform themselves.

Don't rush to refute this; it was said by a certain literary giant named Zhou Shuren, and it has nothing to do with Lu Dada.

Women have two great interests: talking about money with poor people and talking about feelings with rich people.

Our customers have two main interests: negotiating prices with high-end products and negotiating quality with low-end products.

This is human nature. Although Meng Fan represents the Way of Heaven, he is ultimately just a human being.

Meng Fan pulled over a servant boy and pointed to the signs of the courtesans, looking like a regular at the brothel, and asked, "Any good ones lately?"

These plaques are called "flower plaques." They list which courtesan is in charge of which brothel, what color she is, what style she has, what she is good at, and what she likes. This is to show off the strength of the brothel.

The waiter smiled broadly: "Since you look unfamiliar, is this your first time in Kyoto? You probably don't know anyone here. Would you like me to make an introduction?"

"Just pick the best color; I'm not short of money!"

After saying that, Meng Fan directly pulled out a bag of pearls from his waist. The bag was slightly loosened, causing the pearls to scatter onto the table with a clatter, which made the servant's eyes light up.

The waiter's eyes darted around, and he put on an extremely ingratiating smile, bowing as he said, "Honorable guest, you've come to the right place. Our four newly arrived courtesans at Zuixianju are all celestial beings."

"Let's start with Su Xiaotan, whose arms are as white as snow and fragrant as ice. She was originally a young lady from a scholarly family in Jiangnan. She was proficient in all the arts, including music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. What was most wonderful was her fair skin and delicate bones. When she played the pipa, her wide sleeves slipped down, revealing her arms that were as white as lotus roots..."

He gestured with his hands, and his sleeves actually slid down halfway down in the same way. "Yesterday, the son of the Imperial Censor saw it and immediately wrote the five characters 'Fair wrists like frost and snow'!"

Seeing Meng Fan tap the second flower card with his fingertip, the servant quickly moved closer and introduced, "This one with crimson lips, pearl sleeves, and golden cherry blossoms is even more remarkable!"

"She was originally a dancer from the Northern Qi Dynasty. When she danced the Tuozhi Dance, the golden bells wrapped around her arms jingled, and when she spun around, she looked like a fiery cloud. Her figure was so enchanting that it could steal people's souls."

"What's even more wonderful is that she is well-versed in exotic customs, has an excellent alcohol tolerance, and is charming and alluring when entertaining guests, never making the conversation dull. Many wealthy merchants in the capital spend a fortune just to win a smile from her."

He suddenly lowered his voice and whispered to Meng Fan, "The most amazing thing is when she feeds guests wine with her cherry-like lips, her eyes are so captivating! Last month, the Prince of Jing drank eighteen cups of wine in a row!"

The third black jade flower plaque was suddenly turned over, and the servant immediately slurred, "Oh my! Distinguished guest, you have a good eye. Li Yu'er, the Jade Pot Radiance, is from the Imperial Music Bureau."

"The pipa playing technique is known as 'Iron-Plectrum Kun-String,' and playing the 'Butterfly Dance' piece can actually attract a whole courtyard of butterflies. Yet, it is cold and aloof, but the more aloof it is, the more those princes and nobles..."

He suddenly fell silent at this point, only rubbing his hands and chuckling.

He wasn't in a hurry to introduce the last gilded flower plaque, but first poured a cup of Qionghua Dew and offered it to her: "As for this Moon Soul Flower Spirit Chen Mengyun, please allow me to keep you in suspense for now."

The servant called over a man and gave him a few instructions. Suddenly, he clapped his hands three times, and the beaded curtain on the second floor rolled up halfway. In the slanting moonlight, a haughty woman looked down reluctantly.

"Look at his whole demeanor, does he look like someone who would serve others?"

The servant suddenly leaned close to Meng Fan's ear and said, "The other day, the young master of the Guo family tried to see me with a calligraphy piece written by Zhuang Mohan himself, but he was turned away!"

"I wonder if our esteemed guest has anything in mind?" To everyone's surprise, after listening to the servant's introduction, Meng Fan took a sip of tea and said unhurriedly, "It's rather lacking!"

"What? This is still not good enough?"

The servant exclaimed in surprise, speechless. If he found even such a popular courtesan unworthy, what kind of stunning beauty would he be interested in?
Meng Fan's eyes darted around, and he asked, "I heard you have a woman named Si Lili with black plum blossoms here, why don't you mention her?"

The servant chuckled awkwardly and advised, "It's not that I'm unwilling to tell you, but this courtesan's conditions are just too demanding."

"Only an exceptionally good essay can impress this Wujin Plum Blossom. Countless talented scholars have longed to win her favor, but their poems and essays have been rejected without a trace, and they have had to leave in disgrace."

Meng Fan, on the contrary, seemed to take it in stride, downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, then tossed the cup aside and ordered, "Bring me pen and ink!"

Seeing that the other party had already adopted this attitude, the servant stopped trying to persuade them, but secretly thought to himself, "Once this poem is rejected, you'll know what it means to lose face completely."

Meng Fan spread out the finest paper, dipped his purple-tipped brush in thick ink, and with a single stroke, finished the work in his signature slender gold script.

"Linjiangxian - A Poem by a Banished Immortal Presented to the Courtesan"

Beyond the twelve balustrades of the jade tower, the banished immortal leans alone against the celestial sky.

The dance in colorful robes has ended, and the moon is hazy.

The sound of footsteps faded into the distance, and the sound of jade pendants jingled in the cold autumn wind.

Once a young man, I rode a white phoenix, spending a fortune to buy laughter in the spring.

Now, the mirror reflects my sorrowful face.

If the courtesan could understand words, she would surely lament the passing of her beloved.

"it is good!"

"Beautiful characters, beautiful words!"

When Meng Fan picked up his pen to write the lyrics, many people gathered around him, and at the last moment of writing, many people cheered.

Meng Fan gently blew on the paper to dry it and handed it to the servant: "Take this. If Si Lili's flower boat still doesn't move, then I should start to doubt whether she understands poetry at all!"

Since the servant worked at the Drunken Immortal Pavilion, he had heard many poems and lyrics from literati and had some appreciation skills. He immediately took the poem "Linjiang Xian" and hurriedly sent someone to deliver it to the pleasure boat.

Si Lili took the words and frowned repeatedly. Although she was a spy from Qi Kingdom who had been forced into prostitution, she did not want to lose her chastity, which is why she set her requirements very high.

Now, this beautiful poem has fallen into my hands, and it was written in front of a large audience. If I don't agree with it, I'm afraid it will attract criticism.

People would say that if such words were not enough to move her, what kind of amazing writing would be able to touch her heart?
Si Lili breathed a sigh of relief, then nodded to the maid beside her and instructed her to prepare a sleeping potion.

What good are good words?
Arriving on this pleasure boat is nothing more than giving him a sweet dream.

"It moved! Si Lili's flower boat moved!"

There was a lot of noise on the shore.

A moment later, the pleasure boat arrived at the shore, and a maid stepped out, bowed, and asked, "May I ask which one of you is Young Master Meng?"

(End of this chapter)