Chapter 137: Discussing Social Status with Insects

  Entering the outer courtyard and walking north along the green-brick road leads to the main gate of the main courtyard.

  This was the regulation in ancient times, no matter whether it was an official's mansion, a marquis' or even a prince's, the main gate must face north, and the side gates could only be arranged east-west. This is because the Son of Heaven sat facing south and entered from the north, which means always facing the monarch at all times.

  The main entrance of the Gu Yin courtyard was very spacious, with a row of twenty or so door-facing houses. In front of the tall gate, which stood at over three to four meters high, stood six beauties; however, they were not dressed in fashionable attire, but rather wore cheongsam dresses, had their hair styled in a frame-like fashion, and adorned their heads with various colored hairpins and fresh flowers. Possibly due to the cold weather, the beauties' legs were still clad in relatively thick flesh-colored silk stockings, which instantly dissipated much of the classical ambiance, yet was somewhat unsatisfactory amidst the beauty.

  They looked far away and saw that the guests who came to attend the 'Winter Insect Meeting' had arrived, no matter how arrogant they were in their daily lives, they all behaved very well-behaved, one by one took out the insect gourds from their bodies, took out their own insects, and put them into the beautiful woman's hand-held scoop to weigh. The scoop was also very particular, made of woven warm winter grass, wrapped with layers of red satin on the outside, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, the insects went in and couldn't jump out, connected to three thin steel wires on the side, tied to the scale beam, this kind of scale is said to be extremely sensitive, can be accurate to one tenth of a tael.

  After the weighing, those beauties either handed a card to the guest or shook their heads smiling. When they shook their heads, the guests didn't say much, just smiled and turned around to leave, none of them dared to make trouble.

  Zhou Yi Lideng looked at it for a while, guessing that this Bao Er Ye must have set standards for the crickets. Anyone whose cricket did not meet the standard would lose their qualification to participate in the 'Winter Insect Meeting'.

  "This Bao Er Ye is indeed fair, looks at the insect but not the person, much better than those talent show judges"

  I'm still quite surprised by the Book of Changes. It's said that autumn days are for getting rid of insects, because ordinary insects can't survive past the beginning of winter; but this guy has gone and done something different, insisting on having a "Winter Insect Conference", which means that only those who can bring insects that "can speak ice" are allowed to come, and they're all treasures! But even so, many people's insects don't meet the rules, showing just how strict the selection criteria are - it's not easy to sneak in and get a free meal.

  "I wonder if my Lineaeus golden can meet this gentleman's standards?" Zhou Yi glanced at Liu Ke, seeing his confident expression, and found it somewhat strange, wondering what kind of insect he had in his hand.

  At this time, the weather had thoroughly cooled down, and all the crickets were stored in gourds, relying on human body temperature to get through the winter. Therefore, Liu Ke did not reveal his insect along the way, let alone Zhou Yi, even Zhang Zhao had never seen it before.

  "Are the three gentlemen together?"

  The beautiful woman in the lead flag uniform took over the card from Liu Ke's hand, glanced at it and put it away, smiling: "May I ask if the three of you are together to discuss the ranking, or do you want to calculate separately?"

  Liu Ke was taken aback: "I just accepted Second Master's token, but I've never heard of any rules about hierarchy?"

  "Heh heh, people from different social classes live in rooms of varying quality; and even the seating arrangements after the banquet will be determined by their social status."

  The beauty smiled and explained: "If you are separated, each of you only needs to show your own insect, the top grade lives in the top house, the middle grade lives in the middle house, the lower grade lives in the lower house, and those without grade can't enter; if it's a joint discussion, as long as one of the three has an insect that reaches the top grade, you can guarantee that all of you will enter our ancient garden. If they are all top grade or all middle grade, we also have corresponding rules to determine your social status."

  She probably thought this set of rules was also cumbersome, so she didn't elaborate.

  "Of course we will go in together and come out together."

  Liu Ke still has this kind of integrity.

  "Alright then, who's first?" The beauty swung the ladle in her hand.

  "I'll start first, then Zhang Zhao will continue"

  Liu Ke pulled out a calabaza from his bosom, although it wasn't the best of 'Shahe Liu', but still a fine product from Baoding Prefecture, with twelve golden studs on its surface, which was obviously a good plaything.

  He only saw him open the gourd, and with a light tap on the bottom of the gourd, a big-headed and tail-raised cricket crawled out. Zhou Yi took a look and secretly praised: "It's also a good insect."

  The color of the cricket is divided into six categories: green, black, purple, white, yellow and red. Each category has a king insect and a soy sauce fighter. Generally, the purer the color, the better, such as authentic green, charcoal black, pearl white, etc., just like purebred horses on the racing track, the more purebred, the better, and more reliable.

  However, there are exceptions. Some may not be pure in color, but they have unique shapes and colors, such as Zhou Yi's "Douxian Golden Red", which is a rare treasure. Liu Ke's one has an even more mixed color, with red revealing blue, and purple-yellow stripes on its body, this belongs to the hybrid, having the advantage of hybridization, also belonging to the handsome ones among the frogs.

  The beautiful woman in charge of weighing the insects had seen many good ones, but when she saw Liu Ke's insect, she didn't show any particular reaction. With a very calm expression, she weighed the cricket and smiled: "Please take it back, your rare red sand cicada weighs 7.8 points, barely considered mid-range, passed."

  "This is just mid-range?"

  Zhou Yi suddenly took a breath of cool air, the cricket was enough to weigh seven cents and it was already precious, but here it was only a mid-range product, this standard was too high. Liu Ke's face also changed slightly, but he didn't say anything, and put the red sand cricket back into the gourd.

  "I'm coming!" Zhang Zhuo gritted his teeth and also pulled out a gourd from his body, pouring out the insects he had carefully prepared.

  "A slightly mottled crab shell blue, weighing seven tenths of a catty"

  The beauty said coldly: "Low-grade! If the three of you can only bring out one mid-grade and one low-grade insect, then according to the rules, we can only ask each of you to leave, because your social status is not enough."

  This is the cruel part of the three people's simultaneous ranking, everyone goes in together, once they fail, they all have to leave; if it were individual rankings, Liu Ke and Zhang Zuo could actually stay in the middle and lower grade rooms respectively, this way, Zhou Yi has become a burden to them.

  "Alas, it's all because I was too careless. I thought my Bug Skill would be enough for the three of us to pass, but I forgot to tell Zhou about it and didn't let you prepare in advance."

  Liu Ke sighed, it didn't matter whether he went in or not, but he had brought Zhou Yi all the way from thousands of miles away, yet couldn't even get through the front door, this was really too humiliating.

  It's no wonder he didn't make it clear to Zhou Yi, if you're not a real player or someone with a good heart, who would bother to exchange insects for nothing? Besides, this kind of insect that can survive the winter is not something that can be easily exchanged.

  "Wait a minute"

  Zhou Yi smiled and pulled out the "Jia Si Dao's Cricket Gourd" from her bosom, saying: "I also have a bug here, would you sisters mind putting it on the scale for me?"

  He didn't want to cause trouble, but as a bystander, if he missed this grand occasion, it would be a pity. He had to go in and have some fun, no matter what.

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