Chapter 71: Drinking at Home with Guo and Ma, Getting Drunk

  Xun Shuang was very satisfied with Ma Chao. If Ma Chao had not already taken Yan Zhong as his master, he would have liked to take Ma Chao as his disciple.

  "Alright, this conference has come to an end. Everyone can disperse now!" Xun Shuang announced, and the hundred people on the scene left in an orderly manner.

  "Ma Chao, you and I are coming." Xun Xu called out to Ma Chao who was about to go find Guo Jia.

  "Agreed!" Ma Chao did not dare disobey.

  Then he followed Xun Shuang, and on the way, many people were greeting Xun Shuang. There were also a few people who greeted Ma Chao, and this time Ma Chao was considered famous in Yingchuan Academy. As for how far this fame would spread, it's hard to say.

  Xun Shuang led Ma Chao to his reception hall and said, "Mengqi, take a seat!"

  "Thank you, sir!" Ma Chao sat down.

  After he sat down, Xun Shuang asked: "I don't know if Minxue has been well recently?"

  He and Yan Zhong weren't very familiar with each other, but they had met a few times. Yan Zhong's words were also heard from Zheng Xuan.

  Ma Chao thought to himself with a sense of guilt, he had left his teacher Yan Zhong in Hanyang and hadn't returned to visit him for over two years now. In the future, when there's an opportunity, he must go back and see his teacher again.

  "This is a student's shame." Ma Chao would never dare to lie in front of Xun Yu.

  Xun Shuang understood as soon as he heard it, "Meng Qi, I think you're too busy!"

  "Thank you, sir!"

  Xun Shuang nodded, "How did Meng Qi get acquainted with Jia Xiaozhi?"

  Ma Chao then told him how he got to know Guo Jia.

  "You guys also have some fate, don't look at how Jia Xiaozi is usually, at least in critical moments he's really not bad, it didn't disappoint my expectations of him!"

  It's clear that Xun Yu holds Guo Jia in high esteem. Next, he chatted with Ma Chao for a while, and as a renowned scholar, Xun Yu naturally couldn't avoid discussing academic matters. Ma Chao was afraid of this, his learning wasn't bad, but in front of Xun Yu, it was ultimately not enough to impress, so in the end, he had no choice but to claim that his body didn't feel well and used that as an excuse to leave first. As for Xun Yu, he didn't suspect anything, after all, people eat a variety of grains, having an unwell body or being ill is normal, it's just a pity that he couldn't chat with Ma Chao to his heart's content.

  Ma Chao made an excuse that he was not feeling well and slipped away. As soon as he left the living room, he saw Guo Jia waiting for him not far away. Ma Chao approached him, "Brother Guo has been waiting for me?"

  "No, it's mine! Brother Mengqi, if you're leaving, who will drink with me?"

  Guo Jia shook his head repeatedly. Ma Chao was already used to this, it seemed that this ghost had been a good drinker since he was a young man.

  "Come on, I'll treat you to a drink, and you can foot the bill!" Ma Chao teased him.

  Guo Jia heard this and naturally didn't intervene. "Brother Mengqi, you also saw the residence of Brother Yue a few days ago, what do you think of that place?"

  Ma Chao didn't know why Guo Jia asked this, he just shook his head.

  "Alas, to be honest with you, Brother Tie still has a place to live no matter what, but I don't even have a single tile!"

  Guo Jia made a rather pitiful expression, to say that nowadays Guo Jia's tricks might be able to deceive others, but deceiving Ma Chao was still a bit off.

  "So you don't have any money either, right?" Ma Chao asked, and Guo Jia nodded.

  "Alright, you don't have to cry in front of me anymore. I'll treat you to a drink and I won't let you spend a single penny!"

  After hearing Ma Chao's guarantee, Guo Jia also stopped talking and only said one sentence, "Brother Mengqi, you look like a wealthy family..."

  "Alright, don't say any more. If you little brat keeps talking, who knows what else will come out!" Guo Jia just smiled when he heard this.

  "Shall we go to the tavern for a drink or..."

  Nature is going home...

  Ma Chao's words were interrupted by Guo Jia before he could finish speaking, but he realized that he might have misspoken.

  "Guo Jia, you little brat, don't you even have a single tile?"

  "This is it, Brother Mengqi said so, this house can't be said to be mine, it can only be said that a relative left it behind."

  "What relative?"

  "My father."

  Guo Jia's buttocks suffered again, and he rubbed his buttocks while saying to Ma Chao: "Brother Mengqi, this is bullying the weak with the strong, I don't have a deep blood feud with you, do you need to kick so hard?"

  "You want to have a deep-seated grudge against me, and I'll still let you speak out?"

  "Alright, Mengqi brother, let's hurry up and buy some wine. The main event is urgent!"

  Then the two of them went to buy wine and then went to Guo Jia's home. Although Guo Jia was also from a humble background, his family circumstances were not comparable to those of Xi Zhi Cai. Despite having only one person in the household, the place where he lived was vastly different from where Xi Zhi Cai resided.

  Ma Chao was carrying a large jar of wine, while Guo Jia held the dishes to go with it. This was their division of labor, and they called it "the capable one works harder". Ma Chao thought to himself, "This kid Guo Jia bought the largest jar of wine, is he planning on drinking all day?" But then he thought again, "With Guo Jia's current physique, it's impossible for him to drink all day."

  Guo Jia invited Ma Chao into the house, the dishes were arranged on the table, and the wine was also opened. "Good wine, Du Kang!" He couldn't help but indulge after smelling the wine with his nose.

  "Hey kid, stop being so infatuated, let's get back to drinking!" Ma Chao said to Guo Jia.

  "Extreme, extreme, this is a great virtue! Brother Mengqi, we won't leave today until we're drunk!"

  After finishing speaking, they started pouring wine and after filling up their cups, the two of them began drinking. Guo Jia and Ma Chao originally both had a good capacity for liquor, but today, who knows why, they drank too much, and in the end, both of them got drunk, extremely drunk.

  Ma Chao said, "I'm telling you, Fengxiao..."

  Ma Chao had not finished speaking when Guo Jia interrupted him: "Filial piety, filial piety?"

  "Guo Jia looked around in all directions, 'Feng Xiao, where are you? Brother Meng Qi, I'm calling you, can you hear me?!'"

  Ma Chao couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Haha, haha, you're looking for something? What are you looking for?"

  He said, pointing to Guo Jia with his hand. Guo Jia saw Ma Chao pointing at himself and also pointed at himself, "Me, Filial Piety? No, no, I'm Guo Jia! Brother Mengqi, you've had too much to drink!"

  "No, not the name, but the style name!" Ma Chao continued.

  Guo Jia looked at Ma Chao with a puzzled expression, "Courtesy name? No, no, I... what was it again, forgot."

  Ma Chao burst out laughing, "I say, Feng Xiao. You're so old now. Can't even remember your own courtesy name! And you say I'm drunk? I'm not drunk, it's you who's drunk! Haha, haha, hahaha!"

  "Yes, it's me, I'm drunk, I'm filial, all are me!"

  Ma Chao said to him: "Fengxiao, how did you grow three heads?"

  Guo Jia listened and touched his head with his hand: "No, Meng Qi brother, you said you're drunk, but you don't believe it. How is it possible... This, Meng Qi brother, how are you?"

  "What's wrong with me?"

  "One, two, three, four, Brother Mengqi, how did you grow four heads?"

  After finishing speaking, the two of them laughed and fell asleep.

  The next morning, Ma Chao finally woke up. After waking up, his head hurt especially badly. He blamed himself for being too careless the day before. He never got drunk, but he actually did yesterday. It seemed like he also said something about filial piety, and fortunately, it wasn't anything that couldn't be seen by others, or else it would have been really troublesome.

  Also, after getting drunk, he was remiss in his defense and had no safety at all. He was careless. Although Guo Jia would not suspect anything, he must guard against others. Fortunately, nothing happened. Ma Chao blamed himself and reminded himself that there should be no next time, this is the lesson of experience.

  After a long time, Guo Jia also woke up. Ma Chao had already finished his martial arts practice and returned, "Brother Guo, you're awake?"

  "Mengqi brother woke up early, his head hurts a lot! Mengqi brother, are you okay?" Guo Jia asked Ma Chao another question.

  "It's nothing, I'm fine. But you've had more to drink than me, are you okay?"

  "It's nothing serious, just a splitting headache, it should be fine soon."

  "Doesn't Guo brothers often get drunk?"

  "That's for sure, I've gotten drunk only a handful of times, and being this drunk is still a first!"

  "Guo brothers, you're drunk, just get drunk, don't drag me down with you!"

  "This is called sharing good fortune and adversity together! It seems that Brother Mengqi also rarely gets drunk!"

  Ma Chao just smiled and didn't say anything, but suddenly he slapped his forehead, "Oh no, I forgot something!"

  "What's wrong, Brother Mengqi?"

  "No time to say more, Brother Guo, I have something urgent to attend to, I'll take my leave first, and come back to visit your mansion another day!"

  After finishing speaking, Ma Chao rushed out of the Guo Mansion. It turned out that after leaving Yingchuan Academy with Guo Jia, Ma Chao had been together with him all along, buying wine and dishes until he got drunk to this point, but he actually forgot about Cui An, his own master, which was really not like a master at all.

  It's okay, I told Cui An before that if I'm missing for a day and a night, don't look for me because something might have come up. But if it's two days and two nights, then go find me. With the previous agreement, Ma Chao thought Cui An should still be waiting for him to return.

  As expected, Ma Chao saw Cui An and said, "Master, you're back! If you had disappeared for two days and two nights, I would have gone to look for you!"

  "This Ford, I was delayed because of something urgent."

  Ma Chao was too embarrassed to say that I went drinking with someone and got drunk, so he could only say so. Cui An was clearly uninterested in what Ma Chao had done.

  "Master, this... I've already... recently..."

  Ma Chao immediately understood, "Fuda, you've been doing well lately, today you can go drink wherever you want, just don't get drunk!"

  "No! Thank you, Master! You can rest assured about me!" Cui An guaranteed.

  "Right, aren't you going together, Your Excellency?"

  Ma Chao heard that his head started hurting again, "Forget it for today, let's do it another day, we'll have plenty of chances to drink together!"

  "Alright, thank you, sir!" Cui An hastily went out for a drink.

  Ma Chao arrived at Yingchuan Academy again, he didn't come to find Guo Jia, but to see Cai Yong. Since they parted ways in Pingzhou last time, he hadn't seen Cai Yong again, this time he finally met him, naturally he had to go and pay his respects, can't wait for others to invite you, right?

  "Come on, Mengqi, come and sit down!"

  "More Mr. Baiji, students have seen Mr. Baiji!"

  "Meng Qi, we don't have to be so formal with each other!"

  Cai Yong paused for a moment and continued: "Seeing you now, I am very relieved and delighted that Brother Min has such an excellent disciple as you!"

  "Sir, your praise is misplaced, students still have a lot, a lot more to learn!"

  "This is indeed the case, but at your age, like Meng Qi, I have rarely seen anyone like you in my life. I also hope that you can continue to work hard and live up to the high expectations that Xianxue has for you!"

  "Thank you, teacher!"

  Cai Yong nodded, "Today I saw you and then I will return to Wu County."

  "Are you leaving now, sir?"

  "Not bad, speaking of returning to Wu County, I haven't properly thanked you for letting Fu Da send us off last time!"

  "Sir is being polite, those are things students should do, but I wonder if Shifu's sister is doing well?"

  Cai Yong smiled, "She's very good. Occasionally she'll ask me when she can see Meng Qi again, he said he'd come visit me if there's a chance."

  Ma Chao thought to himself, "This little girl remembers things so clearly! This opportunity didn't specify when it would happen," and he could only smile helplessly.

  "What's become of Fu Da?" asked Cai Yong.

  "He's also doing well, why don't we go have a drink?"

  Cai Yong understood at once, "Last time we were lucky to have Fu Da escort us all the way, so my daughter and I arrived safely in Wu County."

  "This is our duty, no need for you to worry about it, sir."

  "But there's something else I need to talk to you about, Meng."

  "Teacher, please go ahead and speak, students are all ears!"

  "Fuda is good at martial arts and is a simple person. But he has one flaw: when doing things, he doesn't think twice and acts too rashly..."

  Cai Yong's words stopped there, but Ma Chao understood.

  "The teacher's intention is clear to the students, and I also know Fuda's temperament, so he will definitely be well restrained. Now that he is almost always by my side, with other students nearby, it has improved a lot."

  "It's fine just like this, it's fine just like this."

  Cai Yong knew that no matter what he and Cui An said, it would be useless, but if Ma Chao went to speak, it would be different.

  The two men talked about some other things, although they were both famous scholars, Cai Yong and Ma Chao chatted more about the anecdotes of famous people in the Han Dynasty. There were those from the Western Han Dynasty, as well as contemporary ones, which made Ma Chao know a lot of people and things he didn't know before. He was also wondering how Cai Yong knew so many anecdotes of famous people, but this was just what Ma Chao thought in his mind, he didn't ask, however, the knowledge he gained was real.

  The two of them had chatted for a while and Ma Chao stood up to bid farewell to Cai Yong, "I won't disturb you any longer, sir. I'll take my leave!"

  "When you see Brother Minxue again, greet him on my behalf and tell him that I hope we can continue to drink together under the moon in the future!"

  It seems that the two of them were like this before too, their relationship is indeed unusual, Ma Chao thought.

  "The student must bring back the words, don't worry, sir!"

  "Alright, Meng Qi, you can go now. We'll talk again when we have another chance!"

  "Yes! The students also hope to have more opportunities to listen to your teachings in the future. The students bid farewell!"

  Ma Chao turned around and left Cai Yong's house after finishing speaking.