Chapter 57: Seeing Off Friends

  The worship ceremony didn't last long, and it ended in half an hour. Liu Biao had to rush to the provincial government office to accept the New Year's greetings from the officials of Jingzhou. The rest of the family members went about their own activities, mostly gathering together to chat and prepare for the grand lunch banquet at the Liu mansion.

  However, this family banquet is not necessarily to be attended. For example, Liu Biao cannot attend, and Liu Xuan naturally wants to leave as well. The longer he stays with his relatives, the greater the chance of him being exposed.

  However, Liu Xuan wanted to leave but unfortunately was held back by his clansmen, who asked him questions and played several rounds of liubo chess with them. This was also something that Liu Xuan had just learned, where two teams of six white and six black pieces moved based on the throwing of arrows, or rather, throwing chopsticks into a vase one zhang away to gain the qualification to move pieces.

  There are gambles and cleverness, with extremely strong competitiveness. Many people become infatuated with Bo games, 'abandoning their duties and careers, forgetting to sleep and eat, exhausting day and night, and continuing with candles.'

  In Weiqi, situations of flipping the board, shouting and fighting have occurred from time to time, which has led to some famous events. For example, after drinking with eunuchs in Qin Palace, a dispute broke out during a game of Go between the eunuchs and the nobles, and Lao Ai angrily said: "I am the fake father of the Emperor!" This incident triggered Qin Shi Huang's purge of the Lao Ai group.

  For example, in the late Warring States period, Jing Ke and a man from Lu named Gou Jian (not the one who slept on brushwood and tasted bile) had a dispute over a game of chess. Gou Jian burst out scolding, and the dignified assassin Jing Ke actually fled in panic.

  The Crown Prince Liu Qi and the Wu Wang Taizi Liu Pi were playing chess, disputing over the way, the Crown Prince was angry and humiliated, using the chessboard to kill the Wu Wang Taizi Liu Pi, this matter became the fuse of the Seven Kings Rebellion.

  Liu Xuan learned to play this game of Boqi in order to get along with the soldiers, but they were all just pretending to gamble and no one dared to win against him, finding ways to lose money to him.

  Liu Ze can understand the mentality of soldiers, and today is no exception.

  Today he patiently accompanied a dozen or so Liu family elders to play Weiqi for an entire morning, losing thirty or forty taels of gold to them, but earning the praise and admiration of the elders, who exclaimed that he was indeed a worthy nephew of the master of the house, with quite a bit of his ancestors' style.

  As noon approached, the banquet at Liu's residence was about to begin. Liu Xuan did not want to see Mrs. Cai, so he prepared to leave. Just as he walked out of the main hall, he was called back by Liu Qi from behind.

  "Wait, brother!"

  Liu Xuan hastily made a bow and smiled: "Elder brother, it's been a long time since we last met."

  Liu Qi apologized: "Recently, I've been busy preparing for the sacrifice and my head is in a muddle. I didn't have time to take care of you, Brother Jing, and I'm really sorry!"

  "No big deal, I've been busy too!"

  "Right, you've got a job now, I almost forgot."

  Liu Qi smiled and said: "How is this touring collection supervisor Cao doing?"

  Liu Jiong sighed with a bitter smile, shaking his head. "Every day there are thousands of things to deal with, making my head spin. Just arranging the New Year's duty roster, everyone was arguing for half a day. This is just a small tax collection office, if it were an army, I wouldn't know what to do."

  "There's a big way of managing things, but it's actually about the same."

  Liu Qi changed the subject and smiled: "Are you free today? I'll take you to a banquet, I think you'll be interested."

  Liu Jiong was just unwilling to stay here and immediately agreed with a smile, "I can set off at any time!"

  "Wait a moment, I'll go change into some other clothes, and then we can set off." Liu Qi turned around and hastily left.

  Liu Xuan sat patiently by the flower bed in the central courtyard, waiting. At this moment, Mrs. Cai hurried over from the other side, surrounded by a large group of maidservants, and happened to run into Liu Xuan head-on. Both of them were slightly stunned.

  Although Liu Xuan was in a hurry to leave because he didn't want to see her, unexpectedly they met again on the narrow road. Helplessly, he stepped forward and bowed his head to pay respects, "Greetings, madam!"

  Mrs. Cai gazed at him with a complex look, two days ago her husband and the Cai family had reached a compromise, temporarily putting off the marriage for one to two years, on the grounds that Cai Shaoyu was still young, and they would discuss the matter again when she grew up a bit.

  Although this result was not the best, it at least solved the current crisis and gave Lady Cai time to arrange for Liu Xuan to marry a daughter of the Cai family.

  On the other hand, Liu Xuan explicitly stated that he would not marry Shao Yu, which temporarily reduced Cai's hostility towards Liu Xuan.

  However, Mrs. Cai's hatred for Liu Xuan was not this marriage, but her child's miscarriage, she always thought that Liu Xuan had killed her own child.

  This hatred was like a poisonous thorn hidden in Mrs. Cai's heart, and every time she saw Liu Xuan, Mrs. Cai felt a sharp pain in her heart, reminding her of the child she had lost.

  "I heard you've taken up an official post?" asked Mrs. Cai coldly.

  "Yes!"

  "Oh! That's good. Young people should know how to make progress and not always think about relying on their family background. Your uncle is very busy, so try to bother him as little as possible in the future."

  I know!

  Liu Jiong's tone was also very cold, without even a fake smile. This woman really made him extremely disgusted, and saying one more word to her was a kind of torture for him.

  "How can you be so disgusted with me?" Madam Cai felt Liu Xuan's coldness and asked in annoyance.

  "How dare I dislike the lady, it's the lady who dislikes me, so I want to disappear from her sight as soon as possible and speak less to avoid ruining the lady's good mood."

  "Hum! You actually have some self-awareness. Besides, I'll tell you something else: your marriage with the Cai family has been annulled, so you don't need to worry about it anymore."

  This news is great, it suddenly lifted Liu Xuan's mood, he felt relieved and bowed again, "Thank you, madam, for telling me the good news."

  "Hmph!" Lady Cai snorted again, taunting: "Now you can go marry Cao Cao's daughter and Sun Quan's sister. Our Cai family is not worthy of such a high match."

  After finishing, Lady Cai walked away with a swagger, and Liu Xuan was stunned for a moment. These were the words he had told Liu Bei, but Lady Cai actually knew about them. It seemed that Liu Bei attached great importance to these words. Could it be because of this sentence that Liu Bei asked him to move out?

  Liu Jiong is after all young, and some things he considers not so mature and thorough, some words that shouldn't be said, he sometimes also blurts out, inviting other people's suspicion.

  It was obvious that marrying Cao Cao's daughter and Sun Quan's sister had aroused Liu Biao's suspicion, perhaps Liu Biao had already suspected his own ambition. Liu Xun felt a little regretful, he also realized that sometimes he was too sharp, it had only been more than two months since Xiangyang, yet so many things had happened.

  Just as Liu Xuan was secretly regretful, Liu Qi had changed his clothes and came hastily, "Xuan brother, let's go!"

  He changed into a purple long gown, wore a golden crown on his head, and looked spirited and handsome. I don't know who he is going to see today.

  Liu Xuan gathered his thoughts and followed Liu Qi out the door.

  Liu Cong did not ride a horse, but instead got into Liu Qi's carriage, which sped rapidly towards the west of the city.

  "Today, a friend is going on a long journey, and several of our fellow students from the Lu Men Academy are hosting a farewell dinner for him. Coincidentally, it's also his birthday, so everyone is taking the opportunity to gather together. Among them is someone you're very interested in."

  "Who is it?" Liu Xuan was piqued by Liu Qi.

  Liu Qi smiled mysteriously, "You'll know when you get there."

  The horse carriage slowed down and stopped beside a tavern at the west city gate, which was surprisingly the same tavern where they had stolen the horses last time. It was dawn, most families were having dinner together at home, the streets were empty and quiet, and there were no customers in the tavern, only a few figures could be seen.

  Liu Qi saw three horse-drawn carriages stopped at the gate and couldn't help but smile: "They've arrived."

  The two of them went upstairs, where there were only two or three other customers drinking.

  The tavern is spacious, with no tables or chairs, and everyone sits on the floor. In front of each person is a low food tray, and the seats are separated by partitions, whether there are many or few people, to maintain the independence of each table seat.

  If in a slightly higher-end tavern, you can still see screens separating them, and even in the banquet halls of the nobles, you can still see gold-inlaid white jade screens.

  In a corner, five or six people were already seated, all young scholars, with their heads wrapped in turbans and wearing Confucian robes. Among them, Liu Xuan recognized one person, who was precisely Kuai Qi, and another person he also knew, who was Bai Mei Ma Liang.

  Liu Cong suddenly thought of Zhuge Liang, he swept a glance, didn't see Zhuge Liang, but unexpectedly found that there was also a young woman among them.

  Wearing a hood, with thin gauze covering her face, her features are not visible. She wears a light green short jacket on top and a long purple-red skirt below, tied at the waist with a white wide silk sash. Her figure is slender and elegant.

  Behind her sat a little maid, who was also quite pretty and lovely.

  There were two others beside them, who were talking in hushed tones and hadn't noticed their arrival.

  "It's here! It's here!"

  Kuai Qi saw the two of them, burst out laughing, and everyone stood up. Liu Qi quickly stepped forward, cupped his hands and smiled: "I'm really sorry, I came a step late, making you all wait."

  Ma Liang chuckled and said, "We are discussing it, let's first have three cups of penalty wine."

  "Penalty! Penalty!"

  At this time, another two people also came forward and bowed, "Young Master Qi, it's been a long time."

  The two men were of different ages, with the older one being about forty years old and the younger one being twenty-three or four. Both wore Confucian robes and had a refined temperament.

  Liu Qi smiled and introduced the two people to Liu Jing, "These two are today's main characters, we're here today just for them."

  This older one, Cui Jun of Zhao Ping, from the Boling Cui clan, was the one who incited Yuan Shao to rebel against Dong Zhuo back then and had a very high reputation.

  Liu Xuan had also long heard of his great reputation, but hadn't expected that he was already a middle-aged man. He hastily paid his respects, "I am Liu Xuan, I have long heard of Mr. Cui's great name."

  Chui Zhouping stroked his beard and smiled, "The name of Gongzi Xing, we've also heard of it. I heard that Gongzi Xing has obtained the Luoma horse, may I take a look?"

  "It's still at the Liu residence, hasn't been ridden out yet, next time I'll definitely let Mr. Cui try it."

  Cui Zhouping smiled and didn't speak, Liu Qi introduced another young man to Liu Xuan, "This is Xu Yuandao from Yingchuan, he has great ambitions and talents."

  Liu Jiong stood up respectfully, and it turned out that he was Xu Shu. This was their first meeting, and all Liu Jiong saw was that Xu Shu was about seven feet five inches tall, with fair skin, a clear and elegant appearance, and a pair of bright and spirited eyes.

  "So you're Xushu of Yingchuan!"

  Xu Shou was taken aback and smiled: "Has Young Master Jing also heard of me?"

  "The name of Yuan Zhong's brother is as familiar as thunder in one's ears!"

  Just now, Cui Zhouping was a household name, but now Xu Shu is like thunder in his ears. This is obviously not a social gathering, and it's slightly biased towards Xu Shu. Liu Qi made some small talk to introduce the last woman to Liu Xuan.

  "This is Huang Zhongying, a talented woman of great learning and beauty, who has come especially to congratulate Zhou Ping and Yuan Zhi on their wedding day."

  Liu Xuan's attention was suddenly drawn over, and it turned out that this was Huang Yueying. It was rare for her to show up in person for a friend, and she was admirable just for this courage.

  It's a pity that she wore a veil to cover her face, and he couldn't see her appearance. He hastily bowed deeply and said, "I've long heard that Miss Huang is talented and learned, with a beautiful exterior and inner wisdom. Today I'm fortunate enough to meet you, Liu Xuan is blessed for three lifetimes."

  "Master Xing is too kind, Master Xing bravely saved Zhao Yun, with both wisdom and bravery, willing to die for loyalty and righteousness. Such a loyal and righteous man, even my father can't praise enough. I'd like to invite Master Xing to visit the Huang family when he has time."

  Huang Yueying's voice was very gentle, but Liu Xuan felt a wave of embarrassment. The fact that he had saved Zhao Yun had spread without him realizing it, and it must have been Zhao Yun who told Liu Bei, who then spread the word. Although this wasn't a bad thing, Liu Xuan still didn't want others to know.

  He hastily made a few modest remarks, saying that he would definitely visit the Huang family when he had time. Then, with a smile, he asked: "Why didn't Brother Kongming come today?"