The Red Fades, the Fragrance Disappears; Who Will Pity It? (9)
Tang You, Chen Yuyan, and the others were seated at the very front and still hadn"t noticed the commotion at the doors. They were huddled in a circle, each person looking like a model of goodness, but the content of their conversation was not quite decent—
"This many beauties came to today"s banquet. Tang-xiong1, which one do you like?" Chen Yuyan raised his eyebrow, laughing.
Tang You snickered. "All of them."
"Tang-xiong, a person with integrity can"t be too greedy," another boy wearing a blue robe said.Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com.
"This is called being fickle2, not greedy," Tang You said sternly. "I just like pretty beauties. They"re all pretty, so I like all of them. What can I do?"
These words sent Chen Yuyan and the others into laughter. One after another, they grabbed the things at their sides to smack him. Tang You evaded and was chased by them, running around the seats several times.
"Tang You, stand still, if you have the guts then stand still for me!"
"Don"t even think of our brotherly affection a bit. If we eat meat and drink soup with you, should we lick the pot?"
In the midst of the noise, Xie Fei brought Xi Wen slowly towards them. Tang You"s eyes glimmered as he was chased until he was panting for breath. With a virtuous face, he came to Xie Fei"s side. The thief cried thief first: "Fei-ge, look, they went so far as to act together and bully me."
When they heard him, the people who came chasing after glared fiercely at Tang You: "Serves you right, who told you to act so cheap."
Tang You still wanted to retort, but Xie Fei shot a glance at him. He differently said, "Alright, the festival is about to start, I"ll take Xi Wen to our seats first."
"Aiyo, Fei-ge, you even brought your family?" As he spoke, Tang You stretched out his head to look at Xi Wen hidden behind Xie Fei.
Hearing the word "family", Xi Wen"s face was already flushing. Now, as the pairs of eyes flicked over, she directly covered her face in embarra.s.sment.
Xie Fei slightly leaned over to block their line of sight and used his hands to push Tang You"s head away. He said, looking at Tang You, "Xi Wen"s temper is delicate, don"t scare her."
Tang You looked at Chen Yuyan and the others unhappily. He asked, "Do I look that scary?"
They nodded in tacit agreement. Soon after, they started a new round of you-run-I-chase.
When Tang You and the others had enough and returned to their seats, the sound of a male voice came from the hosts" seats: "Eldest Prince, Second Prince, Fifth Prince, and Ninth Prince have arrived—"Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com.
One after another, all the people stood up and bowed. The four princes took their seats successively. The eldest prince smiled slightly and indicated for everyone to sit.
The festival began. The servants came out carrying pot after pot of colorful chrysanthemums of all different shapes and set them over the courtyard. In a moment, the chrysanthemums" beautiful and subtle fragrance saturated the entire courtyard.
At the front were generally common bonsai chrysanthemums, Aztec marigolds, common marigolds, and three-colored chrysanthemums, those kinds of normal chrysanthemums. And walking at the very back, a few servants carefully placed the chrysanthemums at the center of the room. Everyone stretched out their necks curiously. In the next moment, their eyes widened, shocked. Unexpectedly, it was the exceptionally precious green tree peony, ink lotus, phoenix flapping wings and West Lake willow moon! These were all hard to buy even with a thousand pounds of gold!
Pictures of the flowers mentioned Bonsai chrysanthemums Aztec marigolds
Common marigolds
Three-colored marigolds
Green tree peonies
Ink lotus (I think this is made up)
Phoenix flap feathers (鳳凰振羽)
West Lake willow moon (西湖柳月)
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"Many thanks to everyone for coming to attend the Chrysanthemum Viewing Festival. To show our thanks, bengong has specially sent people to search for these pots of unique chrysanthemums. Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy it," the eldest prince said with a smile, raising his cup.
Everyone copied him and drank their wine. The second prince lifted the corner of his lips, laughing: "Dage, just looking at the chrysanthemums is really too boring. The young ladies sitting here are proficient in the Four Arts, how about we hold a contest?"
"That is really a good idea. But what is good to bet?" The fifth prince clapped his hands together in agreement.
The second prince"s eyes flashed. "Just use these four pots of precious chrysanthemums as a reward. Dage, can you bear to part with them?"
"What is there to bear?" The eldest prince said calmly, then asking everyone, "Ladies, what do you think?"Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com.
The n.o.ble ladies who had come to attend the festival had originally wanted to become famous throughout the capital. Moreover, out of the attendees of today"s festival, if they weren"t young masters of a n.o.ble household, then they were talented scholars from humble families. There were even the four princes who had yet to take a bride. Each and every one of these young men had unlimited prospects. If they wanted to catch their attention, wasn"t this an opportunity that came only once in a blue moon!
All of the young ladies had a tacit understanding and agreement, except Xi Wen. At the moment, she was focused on the four pots of chrysanthemums in the middle of the courtyard, especially the pot of green tree peonies. The outer petals were light green, the deep green heart petals curled upwards, dark green like jade, glistening and dazzling the eyes.
At the same time, the far away Chen Bing"er frowned tightly towards the young ladies rubbing their fists and wiping their palms to prepare for their performances.
Since she was born, she lived in the countryside. Her expertise was in drawing water and cooking rice, washing clothes and cutting firewood, this type of manual work. As for the Four Arts and the skills of a well-bred young lady, she didn"t even understand a word of it. Although she also started to learn when she got to the capital, she had only learned for a short half month. How could she compete with these n.o.ble ladies who had studied hard from childhood? She was just afraid that she couldn"t avoid being laughed at by people, just wanting not to implicate Liang-dage…
A simple stage was quickly put up at the center of the festival. The Minister of Rites"s daughter Miss Li courageously volunteered to be the first to perform on stage. She played a melodious, mellow song on the flute, enchanting the crowd. Following after was the young miss from the Minister of Revenue"s Jiang family, who leisurely danced with beautiful and graceful light steps. The n.o.ble Miss Lu played an extremely beautiful song on the pipa. The well-bred Miss Liu from the Left Prime Minister"s family even painted a beautiful b.u.t.terfly with her miraculous hands!
For this kind of rare opportunity, these young ladies all took out their hidden specialties. Everyone was dazzled, clapping their hands and applauding one after another. For a while, they really couldn"t tell who was better or worse.
Just as everyone was hesitating and indecisive, Tang You"s eyes fell on Xie Fei and Xi Wen. He smiled. "Eldest Prince, Princess Anping hasn"t performed yet!"
As he spoke, he looked at Xie Fei with an appearance of currying favor. "Fei-ge, let your family"s princess play a piece! This young master has long heard Princess Anping"s qin skill is excellent. Too bad I missed it last time at the emperor"s birthday banquet. This time, satisfy me for a bit, let me listen to its beauty to my heart"s content something beautiful."
Xie Fei put down the wine cup in his hand. He said calmly, "I don"t mind. If Xi Wen agrees then it"s fine." He turned his head to look at Xi Wen.
Xi Wen raised her little face, clear eyes full of longing. She bit her lip and said hesitantly, "I—I like that pot of green tree peonies…"
"Then go. I"m here, don"t be scared." Xie Fei nodded, smiling slightly.
Xi Wen nodded, pleased beyond her expectations, and smiled unconsciously. She said quickly, "Then please excuse my disgraceful presentation."
She went on stage, brushed her robe lightly, and sat in front of the qin stand. Her jadelike fingers, whiter the snow, rested on the strings and lightly began to move.
The sound of the qin flowed clearly like spring water, the sound mellow and touching, just like the sound of the high mountains and flowing rivers; on the other hand, it was also like the call of a black-naped oriole. Following her fingers and slowly becoming faster, the sound of the qin became even more clear and free. Then it changed to a poignant and sentimental sound. As she played, Xi Wen suddenly lifted her eyes to look at Xie Fei. The two people"s eyes met in the air. Xie Fei"s eyes were focused and loving. For a split second, Xi Wen felt that the surroundings had ceased to exist; only the two of them remained.
Everyone saw the two people looking deep in love, only thinking that this qin sound let people fall into intoxication, becoming a graceful and beautiful fairy tangled up between the two of them. Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com.
When the song finished, everyone was still drunk in the song. They didn"t wake up from their daze until Xi Wen returned to her seat. They looked towards Xi Wen with envious but praising eyes: "Princess Anping"s qin skill is really too excellent, it will be hard for me to forget this person"s back."
"This song is only in the heavens, how many times can people hear it on earth? I have only truly understood today!"
Everyone became to discuss, spirits high. Xi Wen shyly lowered her head, her white hands fidgeting with her handkerchief under the table. Her pale cheeks had long been hot enough to burn someone; even her neck and ears were dyed with a red halo.
Xie Fei slanted his gaze to look at the delicate girl at his side, cold eyes dyed with a few points of a smile. Calmly, he said, "You played well."
His voice was low. Xi Wen almost thought she imagined it. Blankly, she raised her head, looking straight as his lowered head and smiling eyes. In a second, her heart became limp and numb. With a red face, she stammered, "M-many thanks for your praise…"
The young ladies in the audience had used all of their strength to perform, but in the end they had made a wedding dress for Xi Wen. Although they also recognized Princess Anping"s qin skill was unmatched, it forced them to give up this once in a blue moon opportunity. They were really unwilling.
Just as the young ladies were frowning and thinking of countermeasures, the daughter of the Minister of Revenue, Miss Li, happened to see Chen Bing"er smiling bitterly. Her temper fired up, and she coldly said, "Seeing Miss Chen with this appearance of having a card up her sleeve, could it be that she has some even better talent? How about performing it for everyone to appreciate?"
The hall that had been lively a moment ago became quiet. In a deadlock, Chen Bing"er frowned. "Miss Li, Bing"er was born in the countryside, and I am not at all proficient in these Four Arts. I fear you will be disappointed."
Miss Li"s eyes flashed. For no reason, her heart became happy. It"s best if you have no skill. Since Princess Anping"s song was beautiful enough to crush all talents, we"ll let you to serve as a foil for us. Immediately, she laughed: "Miss Chen doesn"t need to be modest. Since you could catch Liang-daren"s eye, of course you have some aspect out of the ordinary. We"ll ask you to be generous and bestow us with your teachings, and give everyone a performance."
As the two people spoke, the rest of the n.o.ble ladies also realized the solution to this problem and began to invite Chen Bing"er one after another. Before, when Liang Shao saw Xi Wen and Xie Fei"s loving gazes during the qin performance, his heart was already unhappy. Now, he also didn"t see Chen Bing"er"s difficulty. He fired up: "Bing"er, just go up and perform something."
Liang Shao"s thinking was really good. He thought that as long as it was a girl, there would be two kinds of talents they could pull out. But he didn"t know that as long as Chen Bing"er could eat her fill and dress warmly it was already pretty good. Where could she spare money come to go learn those Four Arts? It was even more unnecessary to ask where there was a talented person in the countryside, so even if they had money, they still couldn"t learn the skills of these ladies from the capital.
Chen Bing"er had no way out, and could only rise and walk onto the stage. The n.o.ble ladies looked at her from all four sides with jeering and malicious gazes. Under the crowd"s urging, she hesitated for a second. Her lips in a flat line, she sang a mountain song from her country home.Please read at yanyantls dot wordpress dot com.
Honestly speaking, she sang pretty well, especially because Chen Bing"er"s voice itself was originally good. But among these n.o.ble ladies, which one"s skill hadn"t undergone a thousand hammers and a hundred smeltings? It was obvious that this kind of colorless, bland soup that Chen Bing"er sang was completely unsuited for going on stage.
As she sang the first few phrases, those young masters and young misses were even more unable to hold back their laughter. Slowly the sound of their laughter became louder and louder. Chen Bing"ers face became red, her throat unable to make any noise as if it had been blocked up. Her shaking lips slowly closed firmly, the hands hidden in her sleeves tightly balling up into fists, the veins on the back of her hands clearly bulging.
The tears she had been strongly holding back fell. When she finished singing, Chen Bing"er stumbled step by step back to her seat. Liang Shao stared at her with the eyes of a tiger, face ashen. Seeing Chen Bing"er"s pale white face, he didn"t comfort her, and even turned away in anger.
1↩: 兄 means the same thing as ge, but it also shows more respect compared to ge (which would be more friendly). So xiong is friendly but also reverent. Typically used by male speakers.
2↩: Wordplay in Chinese. Greedy is 貪心, tanxin, while fickle is 花心, huaxin.