Chapter 44: The Four Talents Of Yanggu

“Brother Zhu, what does this ‘tea gathering’ mean?”

Li Chaosheng, although a lover of the pleasure house, was, to be honest, a first-timer, inexperienced, and asked with five parts nervousness, three parts expectation, and two parts hesitation.

“Brother Li, you’re a novice, huh. Haven’t been here before?”

The old temple keeper looked at Li Chaosheng with slight surprise, and Li Chaosheng, his face a little embarrassed, said, “No.”

“You keep yourself clean, that’s good. But in our line of work you risk everything, so enjoy while you can and spare yourself future regrets.”

The old temple keeper continued, “This ‘tea gathering’ is everyone sitting together, eating pastries, drinking a little wine, cracking sunflower seeds, listening to songs, and having the girls accompany you and chat. That is what a tea gathering is.”

“It sounds a bit like a chill bar,” Li Chaosheng muttered to himself.

“What?”

The old temple keeper opened his mouth to ask, and Li Chaosheng smiled and said, “Nothing.”

At that moment Zhou Bo beside them asked, “Two taels of silver just to chat? No, isn’t there more to it?”

“Oh, Zhou Bo, seriously you’re like your uncle, a hypocrite, hahahaha… But I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll tell you. For two taels you get the tea gathering, inside it’s basically talking. Of course we won’t let you just chat. Among the third-rank maids in Summer Lotus’ Courtyard you can pick any one to spend the night with.”

“But for the second-rank maids you’ll have to pay extra. As for Miss Summer Lotus herself, besides money you’ll need talent or status to have a taste, otherwise you can only admire her from afar and not desecrate her…”

Zhou Bo asked again, “By the way, what dishes did you just call for?”

The old temple keeper then laughed and said, “The tea gathering only provides pastries and drinks, it does not provide full meals. We’re all famished. Just eating pastries won’t do. There will be physical activities tonight, so we must eat some proper dishes to hold up.”

As the old temple keeper spoke, the three were already led by the head waitress into Summer Lotus’ Courtyard. The Changchun Court was a large and prosperous establishment. Summer Lotus’ Courtyard was a three-compound compound with a total of twenty-eight rooms.

There was a pond in the courtyard, full of lotus flowers, with goldfish and a rockery in the lotus pool, like a Suzhou garden.

The head waitress led the three into the main hall, which was very large. She found them an extra table. Once seated, they saw many people already gathered inside, old and young, enjoying themselves.

Each group surrounded a table with maids accompanying them, drinking and enjoying themselves. In the center of the hall, women played the zither and sang. It was a scene of young larks and swallows, songs and dances in peace.

There were ten tables in the room. On some tables were only fruits like melons, pears, and peaches, pastries, and sunflower seeds. Other tables had ordered dishes, with people eating and laughing as they talked. The chefs at Changchun Court could be considered the best in Yanggu County. The reasons were simple: first, they paid the chefs well; second, some of the girls wanted to eat finer food and inevitably let the chefs take liberties, which was a perk and a very good one.

Therefore many good cooks liked to work here. The dishes arrived quickly. Li Chaosheng and the others, ate and drank, and it was, needless to say, more entertaining than drinking stupidly at the old tavern.

So this was what it meant to listen to songs at the pleasure house. It was indeed very interesting.

“Hey, Zhou Bo, bring that steamed carp over here.”

Li Chaosheng was truly hungry and started eating without regard for appearances. The old temple keeper, however, struck an air of Daoist ease, stroking his beard with one hand and holding a cup with the other. Soon he beckoned and the girl who had been playing the zither earlier came over and naturally sat on the old temple keeper’s lap, smiling like a flower as she said, “Oh, Master Zhu is here.”

“Here, here, Miss Doukou, let me introduce you: these two are my younger brothers, Zhou Bo and Li Chaosheng.”

Miss Doukou bowed gracefully, “I pay my respects to the two young gentlemen.”

Zhou Bo, thin-skinned, immediately lowered his head, blushing and not knowing what to say. Li Chaosheng, a bit too free-and-easy, was holding a pork knuckle and biting into it in big mouthfuls. With his oily little hand he waved and said, “No need for formalities, no need for formalities.”

Not to mention, the pork knuckle at Changchun Court was really delicious. Miss Doukou looked a bit surprised at Li Chaosheng’s manner of eating, but still smiled like a flower and chatted with the old temple keeper.

After chatting for a while, suddenly a clapper sounded upstairs in the courtyard. Everyone chatting fell silent and looked up toward the upper floor. Li Chaosheng was also stunned, licked the grease from his hand, and looked up.

At that moment a senior maid stepped out onto the second-floor corridor and said, “Tonight Miss Summer Lotus issues a prompt: compose a poem using objects found within the courtyard. Those with fine literary talent may ascend to the upper floor to converse with the miss.”

“Heh heh, this is somewhat interesting.”

Li Chaosheng wiped his hands and drank a cup of wine. He had assumed it was a chill bar focused on chatting and listening to tunes, but he did not expect it to be a themed party, meeting through literature, poetry as the etiquette. Interesting.

Li Chaosheng grew interested. After a brief hush in the room, someone suddenly stood up. The man was well-fed, wearing a flashy pink silk young gentleman’s outfit with a jade pendant at his waist, and ostentatiously holding a fan.

Someone recognized him. Wasn’t this Tang Zishu, one of the Four Talents of Yanggu?

Tang Zishu opened his fan, glanced at the courtyard, and saw an artificial hill, dimly visible under the night. He slapped his forehead and recited, “From afar the hill looks dark and black, narrow above and broad below; one day when reversed, narrow below and broad above.”

“Pfft~”

Hearing that poem, Li Chaosheng sprayed his drink out in one mouthful and nearly choked to death.

“Cough cough cough, sorry, sorry.”

Li Chaosheng waved his hand and said, and the old temple keeper rolled his eyes at Li Chaosheng and said, “Mind your manners, we’re among cultured people here. No matter how funny, you must not laugh, unless you really cannot help it, hahahaha…”

The old temple keeper suddenly could not contain his laughter and burst out laughing wildly. Everyone else followed. Tang Zishu cupped his fist and said, “Gentlemen, you honor me.”

The senior maid turned with a look of exasperation and went back into the room. On the bed inside sat a girl of about eighteen. She had icy-white skin and delicate bones, was pretty and charming, barefoot, her neat feet swinging back and forth, very cute.

“Miss, someone has composed a poem.”

“Recite it.”

“From afar the rockery looks dark and black, narrow above and broad below; one day when reversed, narrow below and broad above.”

“Pfft, hahahaha… what kind of sappy poem is this? No good.”

The girl let out a bell-like laugh. The senior maid then returned and said, “Apologies, Lord Tang. My miss says that although your poem is bold and majestic, it lacks a bit of nimbleness. Please refine it and next time she will judge it.”

Tang Zishu stamped his foot and said, “Ah… the poem was done hastily. After refining it another day, I will ask the miss to appraise it.”

Tang Zishu conceded. Then the man next to Tang Zishu, with a narrow mouth and sallow cheeks, wearing a green silk robe, stood up and twirled the greasy whiskers at his mouth, saying, “If Brother Zishu cannot, then I, Mr. Zhu, will recite a poem.”

Sure enough, when this man stood up, people below recognized him again.

“Ah, it’s actually Zhu Caisheng, one of the Four Talents of Yanggu!”