Chapter Thirteen: Drunkenness from Now On (Part 2)

  Song Jiuyi looked again and found the figure quite familiar.

  That girl seemed to be unaware that she was born with a beautiful appearance, wherever she went, it was inevitable that someone would take a second look, and as usual, continued to stare at the crane. The river wind blew her hair into disarray, and she turned her head to tidy it up with her slender hand.

  Song Jiu finally saw the woman's face, a standard classical oval face with a fair and delicate complexion, like a peach blossom, her eyes were large and spirited, with a hint of autumn waves in her pupils, a straight and sharp nose bridge, with endless elegance, thin and soft cherry lips, showing a nearly transparent gemstone red, as if shining with luster. A head of black hair flowed down from the back of her double buns like a flowing silk tassel. She was so beautiful that she seemed not to be from this world, but rather walked out of a classical painting of a beauty...

  It was the girl standing on the bridge under the sky that day.

  One hundred people have one hundred Hamlets, and one hundred people have one hundred aesthetic standards. However, in real life, it's difficult to meet someone who completely meets each person's 100% standard. If there is such a person, no matter the appearance, soul, way of handling things, or thoughts, as long as they're not too bad, they'll make your heart move. But just because she makes your heart move, doesn't mean you can make hers move. Even if you do make her heart move, people are prone to change: appearances will age, ways of handling things will become smoother with age, souls will be influenced by the environment and change, thoughts will mature, and people may become better or worse. Therefore, mutual love, tolerance, and understanding are the key to a harmonious relationship between husband and wife.

  The first impression in this case, the most direct influence is appearance. If a young man with an outgoing personality encounters a girl who almost 100% matches his ideal appearance, he may become infatuated with her and go crazy for her.

  The Song Dynasty's atmosphere became elegant and refined, but not rigid or conservative. On the Lantern Festival, under the willow trees on the banks of the Bian River near the Zhou Bridge, countless young men and women would secretly meet and flirt with each other.

  The crane was a novelty, and during this time many beautiful ladies and charming young women came to watch, including some girls who made Song Jiu's heart skip a beat, but he only felt a flutter, not infatuation.

  It was this girl who made Song Jiu feel dry-mouthed and tongue-tied.

  The girl didn't notice him and continued staring at the crane.

  Song Jiufei is not that Song Jiu, if it were this Song Jiu now, Liu's little daughter might have been won over long ago. As long as the kung fu is learned and the iron rod is ground into a needle, family background is one factor, but the way of effort is also wrong. The young lady doesn't understand you at all, directly sending someone to propose, so the family background is also put out there, neglecting personal charm.

  But as Song Jiu's mind cleared up, he looked at her clothes and demeanor, and this little girl's family background was probably much better than the Liu family.

  Although it's difficult, I still want to give it a try.

  Song Dynasty people liked to sing, some scholars wrote a good small order, midnight three more still want to sing, among them Su Dongpo is the representative figure. Song nine then sang: "After the dream, the building is high and locked, the wine wakes up and the curtain hangs low. The bridge of spring sorrow comes again, the fallen flowers stand alone, the fine rain."

  "Remember when we first met, wearing a dress with double hearts embroidered on it. The pipa strings spoke of longing, under the bright moonlight, and now I'm back, shining like colorful clouds."

  It's a modified version of Yan Jidao's "Linjiang Xian", with three characters changed, which slightly affects the overall atmosphere. Moreover, Song Jiu wanted to express that he saw you on the earthen bridge and often dreamed about you, thinking he would never see you again, but unexpectedly you returned. However, due to time constraints, the revision was rushed and unsuccessful, at least unable to explain the sentence "pipa strings speak of longing", so listeners may think in other directions.

  The girl didn't understand either, thinking that the young man in front of her was just singing casually and glancing at her figure with disdain, turning her head away to continue watching the crane.

  All these thoughts were in vain.

  It's useless, Song Jiu thickened his skin and stepped forward to ask: "May I ask the young lady's surname?"

  The little girl finally understood that Song Jiu had intentionally sung to her earlier, but because the alteration was unsuccessful, she also thought of Song Jiu's meaning in other ways, which couldn't be twisted. For example, "Spring breeze does not pass through Jade Gate Pass" is written about the hardships of life outside the Great Wall, but when placed in certain situations, it can make people feel very sad and low... So this little song made the little girl think: In the depths of night, I dreamt of the tightly locked vermilion gates and towers. After waking from wine, the heavy curtains hung low again. The spring sorrow of parting at the small bridge of the brothel surged up in my heart. A person stood alone amidst the falling flowers, while swallows flew in pairs in the gentle breeze and light rain. I remember when I first met Xiao Ping, she wore a double-heart-patterned robe fragrant with incense. The pipa was played lightly, pouring out longing thoughts of love. At that time, the bright moon is still there today, shining again on her colorful cloud-like figure as it returns.

  This change made Song Jiu think of her as a prostitute...

  The girl's face turned red with anger and she shouted: "Scoundrel!"

  Lost interest in watching, angrily got on the fragrance car and left, leaving Song Jiu standing there in a daze, as well as a group of onlookers who were laughing loudly.

  Others didn't think much of it, a virtuous and gentle lady, a gentleman's delight, Song Jiu hadn't lifted a hand or foot, it wasn't anything, at most an acquaintance had playfully scolded Song Jiu a few times.

  Besides, it was not only Song Jiuyi who dared to tease the younger sister. If it were Hu Lao Da and his gang, they would have teased her even more crudely and obscenely. Perhaps Zhao Kuangyin, who had been a soldier for a long time, also teased the beautiful younger sister with his brothers.

  A few days later, start assembling the crane.

  The effect is immediate, the cost has not decreased, but it is fast, especially for some large and heavy goods, which normally require multiple people to assist, and a lot of effort to get from the ship to the shore. With this, the problem is immediately solved.

  But new problems also come with it.

  The people in the river who were doing hard labor one by one laughed and laughed, but the laborers in Hebei were worried. As the number of cranes increased, it meant that they might not be able to get work even with their carrying poles, and their family's life would become more difficult immediately. After a few days of endurance, some people who were impatient thought that if they couldn't make a living, they would rob others. By early April, thousands of laborers from Hebei gathered together, holding sticks, carrying poles, and some even had iron clubs, but fortunately, no one brought big knives. They rushed towards Henan from the Bian Bridge in a hot and turbulent manner.

  Seeing something amiss, the people by the river also started gathering.

  They started fighting.

  The people of Hebei were well-organized and prepared, with a larger number of people. The people of the river responded to the battle, but gradually became outnumbered. As a result, some of the people from Hebei climbed up to the high platform and directly destroyed the pulley.

  In the chaos, Song Jiu, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, also received two blows to the head, but he was thick-skinned and knocked down two people.

  This is the capital, where can they afford to have such a large-scale fight? Shortly after the war began, thousands of fully armed soldiers arrived with weapons in hand. A bailiff didn't come, and even if he did, it wouldn't be useful. The scale of the conflict was too large, so only official soldiers came. They rushed to the scene, charged into the crowd, and beat them up. The two groups of civilians were subdued.

  But with so many people, the fight only lasted for a short while, and over a hundred people were injured. This incident caused quite a stir, and the authorities began to arrest people. The most arrests were made among the Hebei villagers who had started the uprising, and several dozen people from the river village were also taken away, especially those who represented the shareholders. Song Jiu was not able to escape either and was arrested as well. Fortunately, he was a holder of a government degree, which gave him some immunity, so he was not put in shackles.

  A general and an official led nearly two hundred people, surging forward to the Kaifeng Prefecture government office.

  Hu Lao Da was not convinced this time and shouted all the way: "We are the victims, why should we be arrested?"

  At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, military discipline was very strict. No matter how much Hu Lao Da shouted, these soldiers were all expressionless and continued to push them forward.

  Kaifeng Prefect Zhao Kuangyi heard the report from Kaifeng Magistrate and thought for a moment before saying, "First put those people in the large prison, and bring up that Song Jiu."

  Song Jiubai is on.

  The second time they met, Song Jiuxin felt a little nervous.

  What Zhao Kuangyi did later was very ruthless and vicious, and he deliberately provoked a fight between the Zhu family's dowry team at his own doorstep. As soon as he came, he asked a few questions and immediately knew that it was a dispute caused by himself. This fierce man, wasn't Song Jiuxiao afraid of him?

  However, he was bold and fearless, but his face remained calm. He put down the big package on his head, walked forward respectfully, and bowed: "I've seen the great king."

  "Are you Song Jiu?"

  "I am Song Jiu." Song Jiu thought to himself, "You're asking this on purpose, aren't you? No wonder in the future when those police officers are investigating cases, they look at your ID card and still ask you, 'Are you male or female? What's your name? Where do you live?'"

  What a ridiculous question, did this tradition come from Zhao Kuangyin, the prefect of Kaifeng?

  "That 'Linjiang Xian' Xiaoling is also well-written, with neat antithetical couplets. Why didn't you compose a rhapsody during the imperial examination?"

  Yan Jidao revised this Linjiang Xian, and Song Jiu changed three characters. The artistic conception was reduced by at least half. However, this was the early Song dynasty, when there were not many clever phrases yet. Even with the revisions, this poem would still be quite good if placed in the early Song. On that day, there were many pedestrians on the Tianhe embankment watching, and several literati with good memories recited it and spread it quickly. Of course, one had to forget the background of Song Jiu teasing a young woman with his rogue charm.

  However, Song Jiuxiao did not know how to respond.

  He had a good memory from his past life, and Chinese was also the subject he chose to study for the imperial examination. He remembered some poems, but these poems were written by others, not by him. Let him plagiarize, let him write in parallel style, where is it possible!

  Zhao Kuangyi suddenly smiled: "You use this talent to play with other people's young daughters, your trouble is big."