Chapter 21: Night Banquet 2

  The sound of the guqin was like flowing water, and Gong Sun Yulan closed her eyes and took a deep breath. As the clear and crisp sound of the bell rang out, Gong Sun Yulan's slightly closed eyes suddenly opened wide, and a fierce light shot out from within them. Her body quickly spun around, and two colored ribbons flew out from her sleeves like a spirit snake, with two short swords attached to the ends of the ribbons, each sword having a small silver bell that rang softly as the ribbons danced around Gong Sun Yulan in a blur of color. As she moved to the music, Gong Sun Yulan was like a swallow flying and dancing through the air, and in an instant, the entire room was filled with a kaleidoscope of colors from her two ribbons, and her whole body was radiating light.

  My two eyes widened, the world suddenly became quiet, my mind was a complete blank, everything disappeared except for her dance, that rapidly spinning figure and absolutely beautiful face made me look up to her like a god, my mouth just kept murmuring one sentence: "With light body and wings, wanting to fly but not yet soaring".

  Just as I was still dazed and thinking about the dance just now, Gong Sun Yulan walked over with a cup of wine. The servant, Xu Yu Chan, pinched my lower back, and I hurriedly stood up and stuttered: "Gong Sun's dance skills are...I, Xiao Wang, have learned from them, and now I really don't know how to praise them, so I can only use Cao Zijian's Ode to the Goddess of Luo as a metaphor."

  Gongsun Yulan smiled slightly and said to me: "Your Highness is overpraising me. To thank Your Highness for the gift of the sword, I, Yulan, dare not give it my all in this dance." As she spoke, she held out the wine cup in her hand towards me and said: "Please drink this cup, Your Highness. This dance has not yet been named, please bestow a name upon it."

  I drained the wine in one gulp and sighed: "The name of this dance is really hard to come up with. Let me go back and think about it carefully, and then I'll tell you."

  Gongsun Yulan bowed and said: "Thank you, Your Highness."

  I watched her leave and thought to myself: "This errand is really not easy to do, it's even worse than killing enemies on the battlefield. I'm just a soldier, how did I end up doing this kind of elegant work? It's more tiring than fighting with knives."

  After Gong Sun Yulan left, I said to Si Xi Wanzi: "Thank you so much for letting me witness this tonight. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have thought that such a wonderful dance existed in this world."

  Si Xi Wan Zi saw me praising him and busied himself to accompany me, smiling and saying: "Your Highness's joy is the good fortune of this old slave; actually, this old slave also basked in Your Highness's glory. If it weren't for Your Highness, this old slave wouldn't have been able to see Gong Sun Dajia's new dance."

  Just then, Nan Yun Zhong Er said: "The Great Tang is indeed a prosperous era. A dance like today's would not be seen in our Fusang. I have come here several times before, and each time I wanted to spend a lot of money to ask Miss Gongsun to dance for me, but it never worked out. Today, thanks to the prince, I got to see this extraordinary dance, and it was worth coming to China just once. I brought some famous clear wine from Fusang, and I'd like to give it to the prince as a thank you." As he spoke, he beckoned to someone behind him, and a beautiful woman dressed in Fusang attire came forward with a beautifully crafted jade bottle in her hands.

  I took the jade bottle and handed it over to Xu Yuqian behind me, saying: "Thank you for the gift from the noble guest. Little Wang didn't bring anything today, I will definitely return it another day."

  Nan Yun Zhong Er hastily said: "Your Highness is too polite, this is what I should offer to you, how can I accept something from Your Highness?"

  His words had just fallen when Nan Yun Zhong San behind him said in a loud and clear voice: "A humble commoner like me can sit at the same table as the second prince of the great Tang Dynasty today, it is my lifelong honor, I toast to Your Highness."

  He took another bottle of wine from the beautiful woman's hand behind him, opened it and poured two small cups full. He held one cup with both hands and handed it over to me. I looked at these two brothers, only to see Nansei Chūji nodding and smiling, but his eyes were a bit tense as he stared at the two cups of wine. Nansei Chūsan held the wine cup with both hands, his eyes occasionally scanning towards me, then staring at Xu Yuexian behind me with a dazed expression. As for Yorokobi Maruko, although she was smiling, her lips were slightly pale.

  I secretly thought it was not good, this wine is probably problematic, and seeing that Zhong San's disgusting expression, I quietly made up my mind. Thinking of this, I took the wine cup from his hand, glanced at it, and casually threw it onto the table beside me, saying: "Although I am a prince, I am also a dignified seven-foot-tall man, can you drink to your heart's content with this tiny wine cup that's only as big as a fingernail? Someone, bring two jars of wine over!"

  A young maid in a green dress hurried over with two jars. I took one and handed it to Nan Yun's third son, then took the other and said: "As the saying goes, 'a child must make a name for himself, and wine must get you drunk.' Let's have a drink and call it quits."

  Zhong San's face turned green as he stared at me in a daze, holding the urn. I sank my face and gritted my teeth, saying: "Don't drink? Is this looking down on me, Li? If you look down on me, then don't drink either."

  Zhong Er bumped into Zhong San and then smiled wryly, saying: "How could I, your brother, possibly look down on Your Highness?"

  Zhong San hastily held the jar and poured it into his mouth. I watched him pour the whole jar down and laughed: "Good fellow, I like this kind of person." After finishing speaking, he stuffed the wine jar in his arms into Zhong Er's arms and said: "This is yours."

  Chu Zong'er looked at me and then at his brother, whose eyes were already wide with fear, and said: "Isn't this the prince's wine? How can I drink it?"

  I burst out laughing and said to Xu Yuqian beside me: "Go get another jar."

  Xu Yu Chan hurriedly went outside to fetch the wine and returned with a jar in no time, placing it in my hands. As soon as I held it, I felt that something was off about this jar of wine. I hastily said: "Let me toast first!" After speaking, I tilted my head back and poured the wine into my mouth.

  After I took a sip, I secretly thought that this girl really understood things. A jar of wine had more than half a jar of white water poured into it. It still smelled like wine, but after drinking it, it was a different story. After I finished the jar, I looked at Zhong Er again and saw him looking at the jar in my hand with despair, then he started swallowing it down his throat like medicine, one mouthful at a time.

  Under my flattering words, the old man finally swallowed all the wine. After drinking, he was a bit unsteady on his feet, and his two legs were like losing their heels. His speech was unclear, and with great effort, he opened his drunken eyes to smile foolishly at me before being helped back into his seat by the beautiful woman behind him. I glanced at Four Joy Balls and saw that he was smiling innocently as if nothing had happened, but in my heart, I cursed: "Old thing, you wait, when I get a chance, I'll peel off your skin".

  Looking at the Nan Cloud brothers who were getting more and more restless, I picked up my cup of wine and started to persuade them again. Nan Cloud Zhong Er could no longer speak Chinese, with his two small eyes half-closed, muttering in Japanese. Meanwhile, Zhong San's two small eyes were staring brazenly at Xu Yu Cui behind me.

  I cursed in my heart: "You damn rabbit, I'll give you some more, and soon you'll be comfortable to the point of collapse."

  At that time, I also made a silly face with a drunken expression, with a bad smile on my face and staring at the beautiful Japanese woman behind Chūzō without blinking. When Chūzō saw this expression of mine, he was overjoyed, struggled to get up, pulled the beauty from behind him and pushed her into my arms, then said with a big tongue: "If Your Highness likes this woman, I'll give her to you." As he spoke, he walked behind Chūji and pulled out another woman, saying: "I'll also give this one to Your Highness. In our Japan, we have the tradition of sharing good things with everyone, women are no exception."

  I ignored the vicious hand that Hsu Yueh-chien had clamped on my shoulder and pretended to be so grateful that I was almost drooling, nodding repeatedly: "Thank you, thank you, your magnanimity really makes me happy." As I spoke, I turned around and kissed these two Japanese women, then said: "I'm truly unworthy, do you want some reward? Tell me and I'll listen."

  Zhong San smiled slyly at Xu Yuqian and said: "Your Highness, if you really want to grant me a reward, then... hehe"

  I deliberately pretended to be stupid and asked: "Don't be ambiguous, just say what you want to say."

  Zhong San accompanied a smiling face and pointed at me behind Xu Yuecui without saying a word. A heavy punch from behind hit my back like a sledgehammer, I gently patted Xu Yuecui's hand a few times, enduring the pain and asked Zhong San: "Don't beat him dumb, speak quickly!"

  Zhong San took a deep breath and then spoke with a sincere tone: "I only ask that Your Highness grant me the woman behind you for just one night."

  I burst out laughing and said: "Is she the one you want?" Pointing at Xu Yuqian.

  Zhong Sanfeng nodded quickly and said: "Yes, I'm talking about her."

  As soon as the words fell, I felt Xue Yue's body trembling with anger behind me. I took a look and it was time, so I pushed the two Japanese women to the side and shouted: "How dare you! You're just a barbarian, how can you flirt with my concubine in front of me? I am a noble of the Great Tang Dynasty, how can I tolerate your insolence as an outsider? The Great Tang values etiquette and morality above all else, how can your barbaric land compare to that? Guards, take these two Japanese beasts away and give each of them 100 heavy blows!

  Si Ximeng listened and hurriedly stood up to speak. I waved my hand and said: "Give me a good beating without mercy. If anyone dares to bully them", I looked at Si Ximeng's chubby face up and down, then continued to say fiercely: "I will kill the bully right outside the door".