coobybook Chapter 150 Banquet
Chapter 150 Banquet
Jingye and I looked at each other. I wanted to persuade him, but I was afraid that it would offend Li Rongchang, so I swallowed my words and didn't say anything.
Li Rongchang happily called the servants and asked them to bring some wine.
Tu Shanjing glanced at the two of us and said, "Jingye, you've been busy since this morning and you've been tired for most of the day. Go and put away your clothes and take a rest. Liu Lanxiang will take over for you here."
Jingye carried the small rattan box, said "yes", passed the handle of the rattan box through her slender wrist, took the clothes box from my hand with her other hand, looked at Li Rongchang and said, "Please ask a maid to lead Jingye on the way."
Li Rongchang waved his hand outside, and a plump maid immediately came forward.
Li Rongchang ordered: "Take Miss Jingye to the courtyard where Master Jing will stay at night to rest. It is Chongjing Garden where he used to stay."
The maid bowed and led Jingye away.
At this time, the young masters of each family and their servants and maids gradually walked into the room, and it suddenly became much more lively.
Li Rongchang clapped his hands three times, and maids came in like flowing water, carrying wine, food and snacks.
Tu Shanjing sat at the table, and I followed the example of other servants and stood behind him.
After three rounds of drinking, some who couldn't hold their liquor left the table, slumped on a chair nearby, and drank a bowl of hangover soup from a maid. Some who drank happily went to play cards at a small table nearby without paying attention. They seemed to be very drunk, and the cards were played in a mess.
Tu Shan Jing didn't drink any more, only taking a sip when someone toasted him.
I didn't know how much he had drunk before, and I was afraid that he might harm his health by drinking too much, so I gently pulled his sleeve from behind when no one was paying attention.
He adjusted his hair crown and then bowed: "Chang, excuse me for now. I'll go to the side to sober up."
Li Rongchang laughed: "I didn't expect you to be the first to get drunk today! Okay, go ahead. If the hangover soup doesn't work, go outside and get some cool air. We'll drink again when you come back!"
Tu Shanjing bowed to the rest of the people at the table, stood up and walked to a small table with a chessboard in the corner and sat down.
I hurriedly took the sobering soup handed to me by the maid from Li Rong's family and followed him.
He didn't move, just looked up at me, his eyes slightly drunken, and raised his chin towards me.
I bent over, holding the sobering soup, scooped a spoonful and fed it to his mouth.
He had rosy lips, and he held the spoon in his mouth to drink, then opened his mouth slightly, revealing his white teeth and bright red tongue tip.
I fed him another spoonful, my hands were shaking a little and some liquid spilled onto his mouth. I put the spoon back into the bowl and took out a handkerchief from my bosom and pressed the corners of his mouth.
He then asked in a low voice: "What do you want to see me for?"
Just as I was about to speak, a drunken young man walked by and laughed loudly, "Wow! Young Master Qingqiu really knows how to enjoy himself. The maid of the Tushan family was so gentle when she fed him the hangover soup. She almost fed him mouth to mouth!"
I turned around and saw that it was the young man who had teased Li Rongchang for sharing a carriage with us.
Tu Shanjing's eyes darkened, and he glanced at him with a cold and scorching gaze, half-raising his eyelids.
Immediately, another young man came over and grabbed the drunk young man's shoulder, saying with a smile: "Don't blame me, young master. Zheng Er has drunk too much and is talking nonsense." Then he patted Zheng Er's red face and whispered: "You have drunk too much. Come with me to sober up." Then he dragged Zheng Er away regardless of his struggle.
The two of them naturally attracted the attention of everyone in the room. I cursed Mr. Zheng for his bad deeds in my heart, so I pointed at the chessboard and said, "Mr., let's play chess for a while!"
Tu Shanjing couldn't let me feed him anymore, so he took the hangover soup from me and said, "Okay."
He has been working non-stop these past few days, sleeping less and drinking more. I couldn't bear to let him use his brain any more, so I said, "I'm not very good at Go, so I don't dare to play with you. Let's play something simpler: Gobang. The rules for black and white moves and first moves are the same as Go, but you win if you connect five pieces of the same color horizontally, vertically, or diagonally."
Tu Shanjing took the hangover soup and drank it slowly, spoonful by spoonful, and said, "Good. It's quite fresh."
I walked over and sat down opposite him, so that both seats were occupied by us, and we didn't have to worry about other people sitting down and disturbing us.
When he saw me sitting down, he stretched out his white hand towards the center of the chessboard and said, "I'll let you, black piece goes first."
So I took the black piece and placed it in the middle.
He held the white pieces and played next to me.
After repeating this several times, I saw that people were no longer paying attention to us, so I placed another black piece and whispered, "Sir, I came here to tell you two things. The first thing is not urgent but important. It's the news I got from Guanglin, that..."
I rolled my eyes and saw someone sitting next to the desk in front of me. I changed the way I said, "That 'landscape painting' was created by a great artist. It has a great background and is very valuable." I winked at him.
He glanced at me, lowered his head, smiled slightly, and said, "I understand. We'll talk about it later." Then he took a white piece, pinched it between his index and middle fingers, and placed it lightly on the chessboard.
I added: "The second one, which is less important but more urgent, is about—"
At this time, the young master at the table next to him stretched his head to look and asked curiously, "Huh?! Young Master Qingqiu, your chess pieces have already surrounded her, right? Why don't you take away the black pieces?"
I clenched my fists in my sleeves, wishing I could just go up and punch him to tell him to shut up and not interrupt us.
It’s a pity that I’m just a little maid. If I did this, I’m afraid the news would spread throughout the wilderness the next day: “An unexpected incident occurred at the Lirong Banquet, and the little maid punched the distinguished guest.”
So I endured it, I took a deep breath, raised my face and smiled, "This young master doesn't know, I don't dare to play Go with the young master, so I played a simple Gobang."
The young man asked in surprise, "Gobang? It's really new! Jiang Saner, haven't you always been a chess fanatic? Come and see something new!"
After hearing this, I exhaled heavily and tried hard to control my fists.
A young man stood up during the banquet. He was dressed in white, tall and handsome. He staggered over and said, "Let me see what's going on. Also, don't call me Jiang San'er anymore!"
Tu Shanjing made another move and explained to him, "If you can connect five pieces in any direction, you win." Then he turned to me and said, "Is there any sequel to the story of Yu Sulan that you read before?"
When I heard this, I thought he was hinting that I should turn the story into a storybook and tell it to him. I couldn't help but secretly praise his cleverness for allowing us to openly discuss the secrets of the mansion in front of everyone.
So I nodded and said, "Sir, last time I mentioned that Yu Sulan had a personal maid during the journey - the older one, named... Ying'er."
He nodded and replied, "I remember her. What happened to her?"