Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 59 Guests of Zhaixing Tower

The restaurant's main building is a three-story Tang-style tower known as the "Star Picking Tower." The first and second floors are the main hall, with no private rooms, separated by flexible screens. The third floor, however, offers no public areas; it is entirely dedicated to upscale private rooms, each with a unique decor.

"Zhuxuan" is an elegant room with jade white as the main color and emerald green as the secondary color, and decorated with calligraphy and paintings by famous artists.

The "Bamboo Pavilion" is not small but is overly cluttered with decorations. The only dining table is a square one by the window. The view here is great. Without having to look up, you can see the narrow canal that runs from the moat and connects the southern wall of the inner city to the southern wall of the imperial city.

"Girl, there's a question I've always wanted to ask." The sound of horse hooves from the direction of the entrance suddenly became more frequent.

"Miss Ding, you may ask as much as you want." Zhang Shirui also noticed it and tilted her head slightly out of the window, but when she looked sideways through the window of "Zhuxuan", she could only see the stone path between the entrance of the restaurant and the entrance of the tower.

"Does the Tianshi Mansion hire someone to clean it regularly?" Ding Baiying recalled that Zhang Shirui had inadvertently said that the house might need cleaning, but the Tianshi Mansion was spotlessly clean.

There were a few leafless deciduous trees in the garden, but the yard was leafless, the soil showed signs of being turned over, and the weeds had been pulled out. The fish pond, covered with a thin layer of ice, was not turbid at all and even had several live fish in it.

The bedroom had been cleaned and there were new bedding in the cupboard, but there was no one in the Tianshi Mansion.

"I don't know. My father never told me." Zhang Shirui shook her head. "But I remember my grandfather once said that the last Heavenly Master who came to the capital was my great-grandfather."

In the 30th year of the Jiajing reign, Zhang Yongxu went to Beijing and discussed Taoism with Emperor Shizong, for which he was granted the sacrificial robes of an earl. In the spring of the following year, Zhang Yongxu bid farewell to the emperor.

Zhang Shirui thought for a moment and said, "Since then, no one has lived in the Tianshi Mansion. It has been vacant for at least sixty years."

"How about we move to another place?" Ding Baiying suggested. "I'm afraid it might be dangerous."

"What danger could there be? Would thieves come to an empty house to weed and raise fish?" Zhang Shirui judged, "I think this must be a royal favor."

"And even if we run into danger, you're still here, aren't you?" Zhang Shirui had a foundation in martial arts, but when she sparred with Ding Baiying, she couldn't even last more than ten moves.

"Miss, you are too kind." Ding Baiying raised the corner of her mouth slightly, bowed and declined modestly, and then looked proudly at the knife on her right hand.

"Are those people Portuguese?" Ding Baiying and Zhang Shirui sat opposite each other and could see the stone path without turning their heads.

"Portuguese?" Zhang Shirui stood up and leaned halfway out the window. "This is the Jesuit delegation we met this morning in Tianjin. Their ancestral home is also in Nanxunfang?"

"I don't think that's likely." Ding Baiying looked away. To her, these Westerners, though rare, weren't worth paying too much attention to.

"Let's wait until they are seated before going down to say hello." Zhang Shirui did not exclude the entire delegation because of Long Huamin's hostility.

Xu Guangqi requested two square tables and four round tables on the second floor of the Sun Moon Star Picking Tower. After they were seated, a servant approached and asked, "Sir, what would you like to see?"

"We'll just eat today and not watch a play." Xu Guangqi waved his hand.

This was a tactic; if he ordered a show, it was like booking the second floor, which was incredibly expensive. He still owed the usurer money, and since Westerners didn't like this, he might as well save money.

"Okay. What would you like to eat?" The servant still had a smiling face.

"That depends on what you can do." Xu Guangqi glanced at the menu hanging on the wall, but still asked back.

"Frog legs, bamboo shoot chicken breast, cooked puffer fish, clams with fermented rice wine, roasted venison," the waiter reeled off a long list of dishes. "Frogs, puffer fish? Shipped from the south?" Long Huamin asked, puzzled.

The servant was a little surprised to hear the Portuguese man speak fluent northern dialect, but he still replied respectfully, "Your opinion is profound."

Just as Xu Guangqi was ordering food, another servant led six muscular men armed with swords and knives to the second floor of the Sun and Moon Star-Picking Tower.

"Sir, please come this way." The servant pointed to the seat and waved for someone to bring over the screen piled against the wall.

Sure enough, he came! Xu Guangqi thought to himself.

The sun and the moon are both bright, so the restaurant named itself "Sun Moon Picking Stars Tower" for more than just a nice sound. It could be said that all shops in Beijing that used the words "sun" and "moon" together were under the control of the imperial court. Xu Guangqi, knowing this, brought the Jesuits to dine at Sun Moon Picking Stars Tower.

"Excuse me, sir, what would you like to eat?" the servant asked the leading man with a smile.

The man didn't say anything, but just pointed at a few dishes on the menu hanging on the wall.

"Brother, don't you want to drink a pot?" Jinyiwei Captain Yin Cheng swallowed his saliva.

"Drink your shit! You're going to get ruined by this sooner or later!" The leader of the team, a sixth-rank trial captain, reached out and patted Yin Cheng on the head.

"The wine here is pretty good." Yin Cheng still wanted to drink, but he lowered his voice when he said the second half of the sentence: "It can be written off anyway, and we don't have to spend our own money."

"Brother, aren't we here to drink?" The seventh-rank flag officer sitting next to the trial centurion said with a smile.

"I didn't say I didn't want to drink, it's just that this kid started talking nonsense when he got drunk." The captain slapped Yin Cheng again. "If you want to get anything done, control your stinky mouth."

The "success" that the trial captain was referring to was Yin Cheng's succession to the general flag. The trial captain had always kept Yin Cheng under the rank of captain without rank and had not reported Yin Cheng's application to inherit the hereditary general flag rank to his superiors, fearing that he would one day bring disaster upon himself through his words.

"Brother, I know." Yin Cheng sighed. He also knew that he lost his composure after drinking, but quitting drinking was not that easy.

After a while, the trial centurion heard a noise coming from the stairwell connecting the second and third floors. Because they were sitting not far from the stairs, they didn't need to look up deliberately, just glanced out of the corner of their eyes to see people coming and going.

woman?

Seeing the hem of the woman's dress, the trial captain suddenly lost interest. He retracted his gaze, picked up the wine jug just brought by the servant, poured himself a glass, and looked up at Yin Cheng again.

Ding Baiying followed Zhang Shirui a step behind. From the moment Ding Baiying took the 100 taels of silver, she changed her job from escorting the guests to accompanying bodyguards. As a bodyguard, she had to follow Miss Zhang wherever she went.

I also pulled up the screen.

The first thing Ding Baiying saw was a wooden-framed, silk-covered screen that was half a head taller than her. Just as she began to calculate the screen's price, she saw a familiar figure.

"Senior brother!?"

(End of this chapter)