Evening Shaohua in the Red House

It turns out that the Xiyuan Bookshop is the largest painting and calligraphy shop in the capital. Although it is called a bookstore, it also sells books, pens, ink, paper and inkstones, etc., but his shop is different from other shops. The pens, inks, papers and inkstones are all made by famous artists, and the price is frighteningly high. Even the most common brush is not affordable by ordinary people. In addition, there are famous calligraphy and paintings, and even various ancient books, etc., which are very famous. .

Jiuhua Pavilion is the most famous Treasure Pavilion, which sells all kinds of antiques, rare items and so on.

Anyone who can open a shop in the capital has a strong background, and this Jiuhua Pavilion is the property of the natal brother of a favorite concubine in the palace.

As for the West Garden Bookstore being able to compete with Jiuhua Pavilion, the owner behind it is naturally not simple. There are rumors that it is owned by a certain mansion, and some even say that it is a member of the clan, but no one has confirmed it.

Although the two businesses are slightly different, generally speaking, the customers are the same group of people. As the saying goes, colleagues are enemies. For this reason, the two companies often fight each other and beat each other everywhere. There will be competitions every year. After a while, over the years, it has become an interesting story in Beijing, which has been talked about with great interest.

Today is the Shangyuan Festival, and in the first competition of this year, the lottery that these two families have won must be nothing ordinary. Li Shouzhong suddenly became interested, and asked the younger brother, "What's the idea of ​​the two families this time?"

Today many guests are asking about this matter, Xiao Er has already inquired clearly, and said with a smile: "A few days ago, the shopkeepers of the two shopkeepers hired someone to make lantern riddles. The more difficult the lantern riddles, the more expensive the lottery. There are many lantern riddles, whoever is the leader, and the two who won the first place in the end will have a lot of money, and it is said that they are extremely rare and rare treasures."

After hearing this, Li Shouzhong knew that the two families wanted to take advantage of this competition to compare the rarity of the other's things, so as to overwhelm each other.

With confidence in his mind, he ordered the boy to grab a handful of money and give it to Xiaoer. He turned his head to look at Jia Lan and Li Hou, and saw their eyes shining, he couldn't help laughing and said, "How about it? Do you want to give it a try?"

The two brothers had just heard that it was interesting, and they were eager to give it a try. They both nodded and said: "Yes!"

Li Shouzhong smiled and said, "Okay, let's go and join in the fun."

The fight didn't start until late, so there was no rush. Li Shouzhong ordered the two servants to take up the seats first, and had a couple of drinks slowly. Jia Lan and Li Hou also had some tea and fruit, and waited until the time was almost up. go down.

At this time, the arena was already crowded with people, but fortunately, the servants had taken up a place in advance, and their positions were facing the front of the arena

, you can see everything on the stage clearly.

I saw that two long tables and two carved chairs had been set up on both sides of the stage, where the shopkeepers of Xilin Bookstore and Jiuhua Pavilion were sitting respectively.

Both of them were in their forties, but one was dressed as a scribe, quite elegant, he looked like a scholar rather than a shopkeeper, the other was dressed in brocade clothes, very gorgeously dressed.

Right at that time, the two walked to the front of the stage, cupped their hands and said some auspicious words, announced the rules of the competition, and then sat down behind the long table.

Not long after, several young servants in Tsing Yi came to the stage one by one, all holding a tray in their hands, all covered with red cloth, presumably it was tonight's lucky draw.

Everyone was quite curious, secretly guessing what kind of rare thing tonight's lottery would be.

A boy knocked the gong three times to signal the start of the race.

The shopkeeper Qian from Jiuhua Pavilion stepped forward first, and said with a smile, "Today, I will ask three questions first, to attract jade."

After finishing speaking, he clapped his hands, and a servant holding a tray behind Shopkeeper Qian stepped forward and lifted the red cloth.

Everyone felt a blur in front of their eyes, and some people in the front had already seen the contents of the tray, and couldn't help exclaiming, it turned out that the tray was actually a delicate and unique ruby ​​begonia flower hairpin with red gold and silk. The extremely thin gold thread is woven into the shape of the branches and leaves of the crabapple, and then the petals of the crabapple are made of rubies. Several rice beads of the same size are inlaid in the middle of the stamen, which is exquisite.

Such a gold hairpin is not cheap, the gold and workmanship alone are worth it, not to mention the pearls and gemstones, even if you can't wear it, you can exchange it for a lot of silver at a pawn shop.

Everyone in the audience was very excited, and they all shouted loudly: "Master Qian, don't be fooled, come up with a question!"

Shopkeeper Qian arched his hands with a smile, took a step forward and said with a smile: "I wrote the word "revolving horse lantern" and typed a sentence from "Book of Rites"; "The son of a farmer will always be a farmer" and typed a sentence from "Mencius"; Also', hit the name of a medicine, a half stick of incense for a limited time, and the one who guesses all three correctly wins."

As soon as the words were finished, the servant lit a thin candle of Mengtianxiang, and everyone in the audience talked about it, and many of them were deep in thought.

Li Shouzhong thought for a moment, then he understood. He turned his head to look at Jia Lan and the two of them. Li Hou frowned and was still thinking hard, but Jia Lan was smiling, as if he had already guessed it. He couldn't help but startled, and said: "Lan'er, have you guessed it?"

Jia Lan smiled slightly and said, "I guessed it, but I don't know if it's right or not."

Li Shouzhong smiled and said: "Since I guessed it, it doesn't matter if he is right or not, just give it a try anyway."

Jia Lan nodded, and was about to answer the question, but someone

He said the answer first, and said: "The answer to the riddle is 'no candle will stop', 'the tiller will not change', 'rootless water'?"

Li Shouzhong and Jia Lan were startled, and everyone was quite curious. They followed the reputation and saw a [-] or [-]-year-old boy in blue clothes, wearing silver and white dark flower satin trimmed with light blue dark flower soft silk arrow sleeves Round neck gown, white stand-up collar jacket, pine-colored elastic ink pants, blue belt, and lake-blue butterfly spikes and palace sash, with gentle eyebrows, elegant and handsome, like a jade tree in front of the court.

Everyone admired him, what a handsome young man!

Standing beside the young man was a slightly older young man in brocade clothes, wearing a narrow-sleeved gown with multicolored embroidered golden cloud patterns and auspicious patterns on a vermilion background, and a big red jade belt around his waist, he was also extremely handsome.

Shopkeeper Qian's eyes lit up, and he said with a smile: "This young master is really smart, he has guessed everything correctly." After saying that, he ordered someone to send the Begonia flower hairpin off the stage.

The blue-clothed boy smiled slightly, cupped his hands in thanks, and ordered the servant behind him to accept the prize.

After admiring everyone, they looked away and concentrated on waiting for the next game.

Seeing that no one was paying attention to this side, the young man in brocade clothes put his hands on the shoulders of the young man in blue clothes, and said with a smile, "Gu Zhan, you really have some tricks!"

The boy in blue ordered the servant to give him the gold hairpin, and said, "Brother Yan, I won the lottery for you, and you haven't told me why you want this?"

The young man in brocade clothes was Jiang Yan, and when he heard this, he frowned and sighed, "Don't mention it, it didn't mean that I made my mother angry yesterday and deducted all my monthly bills for this month. Make her old man happy."

Gu Zhan raised his head and glanced at him silently, and said with a soft smile: "If you let my aunt know that you call her an old man, I'm afraid that my cousin will lose all your monthly records this year."

Jiang Yan's complexion changed drastically when he heard the words, and he hurriedly looked around before he breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly said: "My good brother, don't tell my mother!"

Gu Zhan glanced at him lightly, smiled without saying a word.

Jiang Yan instantly understood what he meant, took a deep breath, and sighed: "Okay, I'm afraid of you, I'll return that book to you."

Gu Zhan nodded in satisfaction.

The two brothers on this side finally reached an agreement, and Li Shouzhong on the other side was also secretly amazed. For some reason, he always felt that the little boy in blue was kind-hearted and had a sense of deja vu. It stands to reason that such an outstanding young man would never forget once he met However, he couldn't remember where he had seen it.

He had never met Gu Zhan when he visited Gu's mansion that day, so he only felt that his face was kind, and he didn't know this

The boy is the grandson of Gu Yan.

Li Shouzhong thought for a while and lost his mind, so he also threw it away.

At this time, the shopkeeper of Xilin Bookstore on the stage also came up with a question, but typed a word with "West Lake Scenery Entering Notes"; There are two poems in "Xiaozhou Youjiang Village, Shezhou Steps Back": "Who cares about the right and wrong behind the scenes, the whole village listens to Cai Zhonglang", type a Tang poem.

This time the lottery came out, but it was a snuff bottle with a green glass grasshopper pattern on a yellow ground. The pot was no more than the size of a palm. , a coat of green glass decorated with a figure of a katydid in pods.

The whole yellow snuff bottle is covered with translucent green glass, the color is delicate and soft, yellow like chicken fat, green like emerald, it can be described as exquisite.

Li Shouzhong's eyes lit up in an instant. He didn't like snuff, but he always liked to collect these small gadgets. This snuff bottle is really exquisite and unique, and his collections in the past are quite inferior.

It's just that this time the riddle is quite tricky, he only guessed one in a short time, and he was a little unsure about the remaining two.

Li Hou looked bewildered, Jia Lan was concentrating on thinking, and everyone else was also deep in thought. Seeing that the incense was about to burn out, no one answered.

On the other side, Jiang Yan has never been good at this, so he stopped bothering after thinking for a while, looked up and saw Gu Zhan smiling, and couldn't help saying: "Could it be that you guessed it again?"

Gu Zhan didn't nod or shake his head when he heard the words, he just smiled lightly and said, "Could it be that you have taken a fancy to this snuff bottle again?"

Jiang Yan shook his head and said, "I don't use snuff, what do I need it for?"

Gu Zhan said with a smile: "That's good, we don't lack these things at home, so let's leave them to those who want them."

Seeing this, Jiang Yan knew that he had guessed, and sighed: "You don't know who to follow with your temper. If you don't want it, others may not be able to win it away. You see, this incense is almost burnt out, and no one has the right answer."

Gu Zhan smiled slightly, raised his hand and said, "Who said that, isn't there another one?"

Jiang Yan heard the reputation and saw that it was a six or seven-year-old doll in brocade clothes. He laughed suddenly and said, "You mean that kid? He's only so old. I'm afraid he doesn't know a few words. What can he understand?"

As soon as the words fell, the child could hear the child say crisply: "The first answer is the word 'Hao'; the second is Xie An, a famous official of the Eastern Jin Dynasty; 'Thousands of years of pipa as Hu language'."

Shopkeeper Wu on the stage glanced at Jia Lan in surprise, and said with a smile, "This young master has guessed everything right!"

Immediately order the servant to send the lottery over.

Jiang Yan was dumbfounded.

Li Shouzhong smiled triumphantly, and Li Hou was even more delighted, looking at Jia Lan with bright eyes, as if meeting this cousin for the first time.

The others were also taken aback, and looked at Jalan at the same time, and saw that he was wearing a satin cloak embroidered with gold and multicolored colors on a red background, white arrow sleeves trimmed with emerald bamboo leaves, pink blue silk trousers, and silver and white trimmed with red. The bottom is woven with golden bamboo leaf pattern arrow sleeve round collar, the lips are red and the teeth are white, and the makeup is beautiful. She couldn't help saying: "What's the matter today, this one is younger than the other, but one is smarter than the other."

There was a scholar with the appearance of a scholar who thought about it for a long time, and he roughly understood it, but the last one was still a bit puzzled, so he couldn't help but wondered: "The first two are fine, can you explain this last question to us? , How did you guess it?"

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Jia Lan blushed slightly, and said, "This question is really a fluke, because I happened to listen to the song "Pipa Ji" a few days ago, so I just thought of it for a while. Thousands of years have passed, the story of Cai Bojie's wife Zhao Wuniang carrying a pipa and singing to find her husband in "The Story of the Pipa" is all nonsense by a blind man who is carrying a drum", and "Pipa" has been moved from Wang Qiang to Wuniang In Huaizhong, the story of Cai Zhonglang has become more and more outrageous after it has been passed down for thousands of years. "

After hearing this, everyone suddenly realized that there were a few people who had made sour words, but now they were completely convinced and ashamed of themselves.

Gu Zhan, who was not far away, was also secretly amazed, thinking: "I don't know which young master it is, but he is so quick-witted at such a young age, it's really amazing!"

Afterwards, the two storekeepers asked several questions in succession. Although Gu Zhan guessed all of them, he just watched from the sidelines without making a sound.

Jia Lan then won another round of Duanshi Shuanglong Inkstone, so he no longer participated in the competition.

Not long after the lantern riddle contest ended, it was a student from the Imperial College who won the first prize, a pair of calligraphy and paintings by famous masters and a set of stationery items carved from high-quality jasper.

After discussing for a while, the crowd gradually dispersed, and Li Shouzhong and his party also returned home.

Li Hou glanced at Jia Lan, asked the doubts in his heart, and said: "There are still many treasures on the stage just now, Laner, you are so good, why did you keep quiet afterwards, and won't you win back all the leftovers?" ?”

Jia Lan shook his head and said: "There are people outside the mountains and there are mountains outside the mountains. My little knowledge is nothing, not to mention that my mother said that reading and writing is a reason, not to compete with others. I got it today.

These two are enough, too greedy is not good. "

Li Shouzhong smiled gratifiedly when he heard the words, and was about to speak when he suddenly heard a clear voice: "Well said!"

The three looked back in astonishment, only to see a gentleman behind him standing with a smile, about 30 years old, wearing a mink fur cloak with azurite satin, handsome in appearance and extraordinary in bearing, besides three or four young servants, who had just competed in lantern riddles The two outstanding young men in brocade clothes whom I had seen back then were also there.

The author has something to say: the poems in this chapter are all from Baidu~

ps: Recently, because I am considering vision correction surgery, the doctor told me not to overuse my eyes, so the update is a bit unstable. I would like to apologize to everyone.

Thanks to the little angels for irrigating me with nutrient solution~

Thanks to the little angels of the irrigation nutrient solution: 10 bottles of Green Bamboo Cyan, 5 to 4, 1 bottles of my name Xiaoer, [-] bottles of Mianyue Guanghui, and [-] bottle of Zou Xiaoyan

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard! ^_^