Chapter 3: The Shallow Water Immortal of Penglai

  As soon as they saw her, those young masters and misses all cheered up, saying: "Great, the hostess has arrived! Now we can start the poetry club!"

  It seems that the middle-aged beauty is actually the leader of this group of talented poets.

  The sedan chair stopped, and the young master and miss came forward, surrounded by a crowd, and arrived under the peach tree, sitting on the couch.

  The fat girl who had previously spoken for Xiao Jiading sat down beside the beautiful woman and coquettishly said: "Godmother! Why did you come so late? You've kept us waiting with our eyes peeled!"

  Is this beauty the godmother of that fatty Du's wife? Xiao Jiading thought to himself, looking at her like this, this beauty shouldn't be from an ordinary family, but he didn't know what her background was.

  The beautiful woman said: "There's something at home that needs to be taken care of, didn't I say so? Let you all start first, no need to wait for me."

  "That's not going to work!" The Huang surname beauty said with a smile, "If you don't come, who will help us make judgments? You're good, I'm good, everyone's good, and no one can say for sure who's the best!"

  The handsome young master with the surname Tang shook his folding fan and smiled: "Yes, we've all been waiting for a long time. Let's start the gathering! Please ask Mrs. Ji to give us a topic."

  "Good!" The beautiful woman smiled, looked around and said: "I won't make it too difficult, so as not to disturb everyone's spring outing. Let's take the present spring scenery as the theme, each compose a poem of one line, limited to the time of burning an incense stick. The last person will be fined two cups of wine, the second last person will be fined one cup of wine. Those who cannot complete their poems by the time the incense is finished will be fined three cups!"

  Everyone cheered in unison.

  A nimble little maid beside her took out a large wine jug. Those few talented people were stunned for a moment, Du Er Niu clicked her tongue and said: "So big? Three seas? My old heaven, after drinking it all, nothing else needs to be done. Just lie down directly."

  Everyone burst out laughing.

  That little maid has already taken out a small incense burner, placed it in front of her, took out a refined incense stick, lit it and inserted it into the incense burner. Smiling, she said: "Gentlemen! Ladies! Time's up, hurry up and think! If you can't think of anything, you'll have to be penalized with wine!"

  Those talented men and women hurriedly became engrossed in deep thought.

  Several young maidservants were again at a low table, spreading out paper and brushes, one hand stroking the wide sleeves, the other holding a inkstone, slowly starting to grind the ink.

  Just half a sentence of fragrance, the beautiful Huang girl clapped her hands and smiled, saying: "I've got it!" She walked over and wrote with her brush:

  Green willows shade the painting bridge slanting

  Boats have bamboo flutes, shores have flowers.

  Meet at Mount Qi's colorful place

  Penglai's clear and shallow water is home to the immortal Xian.

  Everyone heard that she had arrived and came over to surround her, watching and reciting as they looked on. When she finished writing, they couldn't help but applaud and praise her.

  Xiao Jiading also heard, secretly thinking that this beauty, although rough, still has some talent in her belly. This poem is not bad, though it can't be considered a masterpiece, but it does have some artistic conception. It's just a pity that he himself had memorized countless classic Tang poems and Song lyrics, yet didn't take this poem seriously.

  Those geniuses and beauties were deeply impressed, especially the elegant-looking Tang Gongzi, who fanned himself with a folding fan, nodded his head, and recited the poem again as if he was chanting the sacred scriptures. He said: "Sister Xian's seven-character poem is refreshing to hear, it makes us feel like we've become immortals! Sister Xian indeed lives up to her reputation as the number one talented woman of Yizhou!"

  That handsome woman smiled faintly and said, "Mr. Tang is overpraising." She didn't speak again, seemingly not paying much attention to Mr. Tang's flattery.

  She called him Tang Gongzi, but he called her Xianmei. He seemed to be used to the beautiful woman's indifference and didn't mind, saying: "According to Xianmei's poem, I also thought of one, let's call it a dog tail continuation." At this time, he walked to the desk, sat up straight, picked up his pen and wrote a seven-character poem, reciting it as he wrote.

  February by the river, flowers full of branches

  A gentle breeze stirs the curtain, swallows fly in contention.

  Travelers cherish the night with candles lit.

  Willows' shade is dense, spring wants to return.

  He finished the poem, and those young masters and ladies all applauded, only the beautiful woman was calm. Tang Gongzi smiled and asked: "Xianmei, please comment on my brother's poem?"

  A beautiful woman said calmly: "Wait a moment and Mrs. Ji will comment on it. We'll listen carefully."

  At this time, the other few also started writing one after another. Only that chubby ** seemed to have a brain full of paste, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't come up with a single poem. He was so anxious that his forehead was covered in sweat, and he was running around like a headless fly.

  Xiao Jia Ding's brain is full of Tang poems and Song lyrics. When he was young, his parents, who had high hopes for him to become a dragon, forced him to recite Tang poems and Song lyrics. However, they pushed him too hard, which led to his rebelliousness, and as a result, when he grew up a bit, he stopped listening to his parents and became a troublemaker who got into fights. But now that he has found a use for the poems and lyrics his parents forced him to recite when he was young, it's truly a case of "a book is useful only when you need it".

  Just now they mentioned the method of winning or losing wine by poem, Xiao Jiading has already heard it, and also heard the poems of those two people. With a turn of his eyes, he had an idea and thought to himself: This time, if I don't make you two geniuses vomit on the ground, then I'm not someone who has crossed over from another world.

  He gazed at the chubby girl, and when she turned towards him, he smiled and beckoned her to come over.

  Fat Niu didn't know what Xiao Jia Ding wanted her to do, she glanced at those talented men and women who were surrounding and commenting on the well-written poems, no one noticed her, so she quickly walked up to Xiao Jia Ding: "What's going on?"

  "Since you just spoke up for me, I'll teach you a poem, remember it..."

  "You teach me? Get out of here! Stop messing around!" Chubby pouted and turned to leave.

  Xiao Jiading whispered Du Fu's famous poem about spring:

  The beauty of the rivers and mountains will be delayed

  The spring breeze is fragrant with flowers and grass.

  ……

  He immediately stopped, turned around and looked at him with a face of disbelief. He quickly turned back to take a look, saw that his companions were shaking their heads and analyzing the two poems, no one noticed them, he quickly walked back, whispered: "What about the last two sentences?"

  Xiao Jiading smiled slightly and said: "You tell me first, what kind of people are you? What do your parents do? You tell me first. I'll tell you then."

  "My name is Du Er Niu, my father is a businessman and often travels for work. My grandfather was originally a clerk in the county government's penal department, named Du Da Yin, but he retired last year due to old age."

  The county government's criminal and civil trial work is managed by the prison, and in the Tang Dynasty, ordinary clerks were called "historians", commonly known as book clerks, equivalent to a ordinary judge in a modern county court.

  Xiao Jiading hurriedly cupped his hands and said: "I have long admired you."

  Du Er Niu asked strangely: "Do you know my grandfather?"

  Xiao Jiading was taken aback, thinking that this chubby girl was really honest and couldn't tell that he was being polite. He couldn't deny it to her face, so he said vaguely: "I've heard of your grandfather's reputation. Heh heh. You go on, who is that handsome young man with the folding fan?"

  Du Erniao couldn't help but burst out laughing: "You're really sharp-tongued. But it's also quite vivid, I don't like him either. His name is Tang Rongxuan, his father is the county government's household department's assistant, named Tang Xian."

  Xiao Jiading is a researcher of legal history, and he is quite familiar with ancient official positions. This household department was in charge of household registration, accounting, post stations, land and other matters, its powers include the current agricultural bureau and civil affairs bureau including land administration bureau, while the assistant officer, is only the deputy position of the household department, can be understood as the deputy director, but in terms of level, it is not the same concept as the deputy director of a county government agency in modern society. The assistant officer is an outer flow official, commonly known as not entering the flow, without official rank, belonging to the "officer" level among officials, equivalent to the current administrative level, at most, it can be considered as a section-level cadre. What's so impressive? I've had dealings with provincial and ministerial-level cadres in modern society, and even if they're at the provincial or ministerial level, I've had interactions with them. You little section-level cadre are nothing in front of me!

  Du Erniu said: "The woman who had you chased away by her servant earlier, her name is Huang Shi Jun, and her father is the recorder of the county government."

  County government recorder, in terms of function, is equivalent to the director of the county government office today. However, the level is far from that of the current county government office director. The recorder of the county government was also not a mainstream official and belonged to the "officer" level. Nevertheless, they often worked with county leaders and could boast about their connections, relying on the prestige of others to act arrogantly and frequently beat people.

  Xiao Jiading asked the middle-aged beauty, Du Erniu said: "She is our poetry club's leader, she is the wife of the retired and returned home Hongwen Museum scholar, but that scholar has passed away a few years ago."

  That scholar of the Hongwen Academy is a real high-ranking official. In the Tang Dynasty, at least from the fifth rank and above can be called a scholar. The fifth-rank officials are equivalent to the current county-level cadres. It's just that he was an academic, a deputy professor at a university, and had already passed away. Look at his wife, a county-level cadre's wife, without any airs, unlike you two young whippersnappers, this is what we call elegance!

  Duniang continued to introduce the remaining two men and two women, who were also children of government officials. Duniang introduced all these people, who were all children of county government officials. It seems that this poetry club was formed by the children of government officials in the county yamen.

  She finished speaking, Xiao Jia Ding nodded and said: "Understood. The last two sentences of that poem I taught you are: Mud melts flying swallows, sand warms sleeping mandarin ducks!"

  "Great! Thank you!" Du Er Niu's eyebrows danced with joy as she turned to leave, but Xiao Jia Ding hastily said: "Wait a minute!"

  "What's wrong?"

  Xiao Jiading said, "I can see that you are a sincere person, I like it and am willing to help you. Let me tell you the flaws in those two poems by Huang Shiyun and Tang Rongxuan, do you want to hear?"

  "Think, think!" Du Er Niu exclaimed hastily. Although she had joined the poetry club, she didn't have a talent for poetry. Either she couldn't compose poems or they were just mediocre and laughable. She knew that these talented men and women wouldn't have let her stay in the club if it weren't for her father being an old clerk at the county government office. Even so, she still felt uneasy about it. Now that Xiao Jia Ding was teaching her this poem, which sounded great to her ears, and he also said he could point out the flaws in those two people's poems, she was overjoyed. Finally, she could hold her head high with pride! She nodded hastily, her chubby face full of expectation as she gazed at him.