The other guests were fine, but at this moment, the guest sitting at the round table in the center of the hall, holding a folding fan and slightly flipping it, was like a jackal or tiger in the eyes of the housekeeper and had to be treated with respect.
This man was dressed in a green brocade robe, a white jade fur coat, and a light gold belt around his waist. From his appearance, he looked like a handsome man from a wealthy family.
"The carriages flow like water and the horses are like dragons, the flowers and the moon are in the spring breeze... The brocade city is prosperous. The palace and the old residence are surrounded by overlapping petals and exotic flowers. Handsome guests and beautiful ladies are competing to fly the golden reins and park their fragrant carriages." The middle-aged man dressed as a rich man chanted softly, then smiled and said:
"Anyone who comes to stroll along this long alley of Qinxie will have to sigh that this prosperous and flourishing era is rare in a thousand years, right?"
"Your Excellency is absolutely right." The gray-haired housekeeper could only agree.
"Shiyilang is right." The man who came with him said generously:
"This place is full of flowers and green willows, carriages loaded with wine, minks and jade, and everywhere is the prosperity of the Great Zhao!"
"Haha——" Zhao Qianyuan suddenly slammed the table, startling the butler next to him: "Bring the wine, bring the best wine in your building! Today, we will not leave until we are drunk with Brother Shimei!"
"Please wait a moment, sir." The housekeeper bowed and quickly stepped back to leave this dangerous place.
He went to the wine cellar, took a deep breath, asked the maid to bring out the fine wine that had been aged for many years, and took a few deep breaths himself before going back.
Zhao Qianyuan just finished a cup and waved his hand again: "Come here, dance!"
The butler hurriedly made arrangements, as if this place had become the other party's palace.
Not long after, dancers came onto the stage and danced with fans in their hands, while musicians plucked strings and played flutes.
The music and dance resonated in harmony, and during a pause in the middle of the song, the person below whom Zhao Qianyuan called "Brother Shimei" raised his hands and applauded:
"The name of Hua Man Lou is well-deserved. The dancers in the building are gentle and graceful when they perform the fan dance. Most of the details of their body movements are satisfactory, but they still lack some tenderness in their eyebrows and eyes."
He just praised it, and then said to the housekeeper beside him: "Shopkeeper, can you allow me to go to the stage to get a fan and dance for my brother Shiyilang?"
"Sir, you can dance too?" Even though the housekeeper was old and had seen a lot, he couldn't help but feel confused by the man's dancing.
The other party said happily: "This fan dance was created by me. If I don't know how to do it, no one in this huge capital city will know how to do it."
"Brother Shimei is very talented." Zhao Qianyuan responded with a smile from below: "Let's toast to you!"
"Thank you, Shiyilang!" Li Shimei shouted loudly, went up to the stage and took a round fan, then raised his hand to ask the musicians to play again, and then he walked evenly and performed soft and gentle movements.
And looking at her movements, posture, facial expressions, she actually has more flavor than the dancers in the building.
Zhao Qianyuan, who was drinking below, laughed loudly and cheered.
The lobby of Huamanlou, which should have been deserted during the day, became much more lively due to the noise of these two people.
Most of the scattered guests around did not know this crazy emperor. They were aroused by the atmosphere and watched the man dancing on the stage, laughing and clapping, and the emperor did not find it strange.
Seeing that the atmosphere was relatively safe, the building manager breathed a sigh of relief.
The dance on the stage gradually ended. After the dance, Li Shimei walked down, swaying slightly with a fan in his hand. He faced Zhao Qianyuan and covered his face with his hands from time to time, with a smile on his handsome face.
"Brother Shimei is indeed a man of both talent and beauty, good at singing and dancing. Many of the scholars below call you a dissolute and idle person, but now it seems that they are just not talented and elegant. Brother Shimei is clearly a romantic and unrestrained wanderer like the great poets of the previous dynasty!" Zhao Qianyuan poured two glasses of wine: "Let's toast you another glass!"
"Thank you for your compliment, Brother Shiyilang." Li Shimei said politely and immediately drank the glass.
"Speaking of poets." Zhao Qianyuan seemed to suddenly remember something and looked at the butler who was quietly waiting for instructions: "There are only two dances, why hasn't the poet we came here to find come yet?"
The musicians on the stage played another song and the dancers danced to the tune.
The housekeeper said, "The guest has only booked a room here. My young lady has gone upstairs to call him, but I don't know if he is in the building or whether he will come downstairs to meet the guest."
Zhao Qianyuan chuckled and said proudly, "In this vast country, is there someone I want to see but cannot?"
"Sir, wait a moment." The housekeeper barely suppressed his nervousness and said calmly with his long-term professionalism: "I'll go and notify them later."
"No need." Xi Heng happened to have arrived, and walked out from behind the wall of the pavilion. Seeing Zhao Qianyuan's face, he felt hostile and said first: "If I don't want to see anyone, I won't get on the ship even if the emperor calls me."
She wore a white veil that vaguely covered the lower half of her face. If she was not recognized by the other party this time, she could continue to stay in the Huamanlou.
"Son of Heaven..." Zhao Qianyuan sneered a few times, narrowed his eyes and said, "Little girl, you are so brave. If you really meet the Son of Heaven, can you still say this?"
"Why not?" Xi Heng said lightly.
The other party stared at Xi Heng coldly for a few seconds, then laughed unsteadily the next moment and clapped his hands:
"Great! You are indeed a rare talent in the world. A poet should have the courage to fight against the heavens!"
"Come, come! We've been waiting for you here for a long time. Come to the table and have a few drinks with me! Getting drunk watching dance, what other pleasure in the world can compare to this?!" he called out loudly.
Even though Xi Heng had killed this guy once in his previous life, he still couldn't understand this guy's extremely strange temperament.
"No need for wine." She sat at a farther distance and asked directly, "Why are you looking for me?"
"Why? How can there be so many whys in the world?" The other party asked back, and said:
"Wherever my heart leads me, I will go there; whatever my heart loves, I will get there."
"I have heard the girl's poems from her mouth since childhood, and I have savored them countless times. The lingering rhythm lingers in my heart for a long time." Zhao Qianyuan closed his eyes slightly, raised his head and recited softly: "The clouds are like clothes, the flowers are like faces, the spring breeze blows against the threshold... Revlon."
"If we hadn't met on the top of the Jade Mountain, we would have met under the moon on the Jade Terrace..."
He was very emotional when reciting, and he squinted his eyes as if he had seen the scene in the poem.
"This poem was written effortlessly, without any affectation, as if it was created naturally. The few words and sentences are rich and colorful, and each word is beautiful..." The other party sighed and commented: "I came here to see who wrote such a poem and how he could write such a poem. In just four short lines, he expressed the word "beauty" to the extreme, which is beyond the reach of life. This is a great talent..."
"Did you really write this poem?" Zhao Qianyuan asked.
"Is there anyone else in this world who can write this?" Xi Heng's words were not a lie. She was indeed the only one in this world who could copy this poem.
"Miss, you are so confident, could you write another one today?" Zhao Qianyuan said the purpose of his visit: "If it is good, I have a small fortune and can reward you with a thousand taels of gold."
"No." Xi Heng would not bow down for a fortune.
The other party was not surprised at all. He chuckled and continued, "Young lady, you regard money as nothing. I admire you... How about this? If your poems are good, I can use the connections in the court to find you a sinecure position as a university scholar in the Hanlin Academy, a third-rank official position!"
"No."
"You don't want money or power, what do you want, little girl?" Zhao Qianyuan looked more serious.
"I want to become an immortal." Xi Heng said calmly.
"..."
The music on the stage continued, with the strings playing in a rapid rhythm and the flute playing in a lingering and melodious manner.
The dancers' movements are graceful and charming when they are slow, and like snow blowing in the wind when they step and turn around, which is quite moving.
"Become an immortal?" Zhao Qianyuan was stunned for a few seconds and chewed the two words carefully several times in his mouth.
He stared at Xi Heng for a long time, and felt that the word "becoming an immortal" was extremely absurd. He felt that what Xi Heng said was really humorous. He chuckled a few times at first, and then laughed out loud without restraint.
The resounding laughter was louder than the faint sound on the stage, and its echo continued to ripple throughout the flower-filled building.
"Become an immortal! Haha! Become an immortal——!" He slammed the table hard, making a loud noise.
The wine glasses on the table were shaking, and the slender purple ceramic wine jug fell over as a result. The round bottle rolled to the edge of the table and paused.
The next moment, the wine jug continued to roll down, fell to the ground with a snap and shattered, emitting a rich aroma of wine.
"How are you going to become an immortal?" Zhao Qianyuan suddenly changed his attitude, his eyes fixed on Xi Heng: "How can you become an immortal?!"
"I don't know." Xi Heng answered: "But I will definitely become an immortal."
The mad emperor gritted his teeth, picked up the wine glass and drank it all, then smashed it to the ground.
"The way of heaven is broken, and it is difficult for spirits to survive. I am the best person in the world! I couldn't even become an immortal! How can you become an immortal?!"
He raised his hand and pointed straight at Xi Heng, questioning him repeatedly.
"Who knows, but if there really are immortals in the world, I must be one of them." Xi Heng still maintained a relatively calm attitude in the face of such a hoarse voice.
After hearing this, Zhao Qianyuan stared at Xi Heng coldly for a long time.
Faintly, a figure in memory overlapped with the appearance of the girl in front of him.
He tried hard to see through the veil covering the girl's face and saw the outline of her facial features. In the dim light, a shocking guess suddenly emerged in his mind.
"Zhao Qianqiu! It's you!" He opened his eyes wide, his heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he took several steps back.
"Brother Shiyilang?" Li Shimei, who was beside him, saw him losing his composure and raised his hand to comfort him.
But Zhao Qianyuan suddenly swung out one hand and knocked the other party's outstretched arm aside.
Zhao Qianyuan gritted his teeth, his face full of disbelief, and kept saying:
"You're still alive? How could you still be alive? I abandoned 10,000 victorious soldiers just to trap you in the enemy's camp. With your determination, you will surely die on the battlefield... How could you still be alive?"
Xi Heng blinked, as if he had heard some incredible secret.
"Someone come!" Zhao Qianyuan waved his hand, and several figures suddenly appeared on the beams of Huamanlou: "Catch this man and bring him back to the palace!"
"Wait, wait." Xi Heng found that he seemed to have gotten out of trouble.
She never imagined that the simple words "becoming an immortal" could have such a great impact on this crazy emperor.
Previously, the other party could barely be considered a normal person, but once the topic of becoming an immortal or practicing Taoism was brought up, the obsession and madness in this madman's heart would immediately be triggered, resulting in the current chaotic scene.
At this point, there seemed to be only one way to calm the situation down. After all, she probably couldn't beat the crazy emperor's bodyguards around her...
"Your Majesty, calm down."
She reluctantly took off her cheek veil, revealing her face:
"Just now, I was just joking because I haven't seen Your Majesty for many years... I am not the person Your Majesty is talking about, but Zhao Xiheng, the daughter you lost ten years ago."
Zhao Qianyuan frowned, and it took him a few seconds to remember who this name belonged to.
"Zhao, Xiheng?"
He raised his hand to let the shadow guard who jumped to the ground retreat, and then stared at Xi Heng for a long time.
His eyes flickered and his thoughts churned.
After a few breaths, the Mad Emperor finally responded. He slowly breathed a sigh of relief and then seemed to have suddenly aged a few years. He lost all his strength and sat down on the chair.
He raised his head, squinted his eyes, and waved his hand gently in Xi Heng's direction.
"I see... It's been a while since we last met. You look a lot like your aunt, and you have poetic talent. You are truly a descendant of the Zhao family."
"I have imagined many times before what it would be like when you and I meet, but I never thought it would be like today." His tone immediately changed from passionate to weak, and it was really changeable.
"I am tired, Shi Meiqing, please send me back to the palace..."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Li Shimei, who had previously addressed His Majesty as a brother, also used the honorific title.
"As for Xi Heng." Zhao Qianyuan took a few deep breaths to calm his mind, and slowly said: "Let me think about it carefully today... Tomorrow I will send someone to welcome you into the palace."
"Okay." When Xi Heng revealed his identity just now, he was actually ready to enter the palace.
We are also ready to kill this crazy emperor again.
Li Shimei, who was handsome in figure, supported the emperor as he walked out of the hall, around the screen, and his figure gradually moved away.
Xi Heng breathed a sigh of relief only after they and their guards had walked out of the floor.
Just now, she always had hostility towards the crazy emperor in her heart, so she subconsciously said some words that did not please the other party.
At first, there was nothing wrong with it, as the other party just thought I was a poet with a higher ambition.
But just by absent-mindedly saying the word "becoming an immortal", everything became too much.
Xi Heng shook his head.
"Perhaps when the emperor came to my house, I would have been exposed."
The reason he was sought out was because the poem he copied was so good.
If he had copied a less brilliant poem, perhaps he would not have attracted this crazy emperor.
Or maybe I could come to the capital a little later to avoid meeting the princess named Chu Xiao...
But now, these experiences are meaningless in this life. I will try to use them after reloading the game.
"I should be more careful in my next life." Xi Heng said to himself helplessly.
Zhao Qianyuan's figure finally disappeared. Xi Heng breathed a sigh of relief and looked back, only to see Yan Hongji and the others still standing there in a daze, unable to come to their senses and understand the changes before their eyes.
"I'm a little tired too, let's go back first." Xi Heng said briefly and walked towards the stairs he came from.
After taking a few steps, Yan Hongji finally came to his senses and trotted over.
"Senior sister is actually a member of the royal family...?"
"Yeah." The fact was already clear, and Xi Heng did not refute it.
"When I was in the Sword Academy, I also guessed the identity of Senior Sister." Yan Hongji whispered, "But I never thought that Senior Sister is actually a direct descendant of the royal family."
"Whether it's legitimate or illegitimate, it doesn't matter." Xi Heng shook his head.
