A Clash of Gods - Chapter 157
Chapter 157 Eight Beauties on the Qinhuai River
Yuan Rong clenched his fists and said angrily, “That beast. I…I am going to see him.” He got up and prepared to leave, but after he took only a few steps, Yang Ning asked impassively, “Who are you going to see? Ding Yitu? Are you planning to fight against him or reason with him?”
“I…”
Yang Ning sneered. “You are a young master in the mansion of the minister in the Ministry of Rites, yet you want to fight against the manager of the Rising Sun Escort Agency. What can you do even if you win, not to mention whether you have the ability?”
Yuan Rong was stunned.
Yang Ning stated slowly, “You know more about Ding Yitu’s strength than me. This is a battle and the victory can’t be decided after only one fight.” He smiled faintly and added, “Yuan Rong, I will say something that you don’t want to hear. You, a young master in the mansion of the minister in the Ministry of Rites, probably can’t compare with the manager of the Rising Sun Escort Agency in actual strength.”
Yuan Rong’s eyes dimmed even though there was anger in them.
At this time, he heard a voice from a distance. “Yuan? Is that Yuan over there?”
Yuan Rong was astonished and followed the voice, to see that a pleasure-boat had approached, close to this boat. That pleasure-boat was bright with many lights, and several people stood by the side upstairs, waving at him.
Yuan Rong moved closer to it and glanced at them. Then he cupped his hands. “Is that Zhu?”
“Yes, it’s Zhu Yuchen.” Somebody over there smiled. “Yuan, we are talking about you. You won’t stay indoors on such a big day. We have wine and dishes here. Are you coming to have a drink?”
Yuan Rong wasn’t in a good mood but still replied politely, “Please help yourselves. I am drunk now.”
“Master Yuan, others don’t know how much you can drink, but I know.” That man chuckled. “Wait for me there. I will introduce some friends to you.”
Yuan Rong was helpless and returned to the table. Yang Ning laughed. “It appears that you have friends everywhere.”
Yuan Rong explained, “Zhu Yuchen is the first young master of the Zhu family, and they have a large cloth shop in Hangzhou Prefecture. There are many wealthy merchants in Hangzhou Prefecture, and the most famous is the Zhu family’s cloth shop. The Zhu family has wealth and speaks louder than others as the richest family in that city. Zhu Yuchen has an uncle who works in the Ministry of Rites, so he will stay for a few days in the capital city every year. We had connections in the past.”
When they were talking, they heard noises from downstairs. Soon several people came upstairs. The first one was dressed sumptuously in brocade clothes with a jade belt. He was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old and walked over quickly with a smile, cupping his hands. “Yuan, we haven’t seen each other for many days. How are you?”
Yuan Rong laughed. “Master Zhu, you travel around the world and enjoy romance. How can you have time to see me? We haven’t seen each other for a long time indeed.”
Zhu Yuchen laughed and pointed to the others beside him, introducing, “This is Qiu Fang. This is Jiang Cheng, and this one, Chen Mukuan from Weitang.”
“Chen Mukuan from Weitang?” Yuan Rong cupped his hands and asked. “Is he from the Chen family in Weitang?”
Zhu Yuchen replied with a smile, “Right, the Chen family owns the Weitang Porcelain Shop. Chen Mukuan is the first young master of that family.”
Yuan Rong smiled. “He is from the Chen family as expected. If I guess right, Jiang Cheng must be from the Jiang family owning the Songjiang Tea Shop.”
Zhu Yuchen gave a thumbs-up sign. “Yuan, you have sharp eyes.” Then he talked to the others. “This is Young Master Yuan I mentioned frequently. His grandpa was a teacher of the late emperor.”
All of them cupped their hands.
Zhu Yuchen saw Yang Ning who was sitting aside and asked, “Yuan, this is…”
Yuan Rong was about to explain while Yang Ning coughed. Yuan Rong understood and answered with a smile, “This is also my friend. Just call him…Master Ning.”
Yang Ning got up and moved one clenched fist in the other hand at his chest. “You are from afar, and Yuan will entertain you. It’s late now. I have to leave.”
Zhu Yuchen asked in surprise, “Ning, are you leaving? It’s surprising. The election of the beauty queen is going to start soon. If you leave now, won’t it be a pity?”
The others were clear that this young man must not be an ordinary person as he could sit and drink wine together with Yuan Rong. They were from wealthy families in the commercial circle, so they knew that they would have more profit if they had more friends. Moreover, they were in the capital city, so they exceedingly welcomed more new friends. They wanted to make friends with Yang Ning, so they tried to persuade him to stay and watch it.
Jiang Cheng from the Songjiang Tea Shop didn’t look like a businessman. He was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old and looked learned, like a scholar. He smiled at Yang Ning. “Ning, you are Master Yuan’s friend, so you are our friend. It’s our first time to see each other. Hope that we can have a drink together. What’s your opinion?”
Before Yang Ning replied, the first young master from the Chen family in Weitang, Chen Mukuan said in a hoarse voice, “Ning, we will have something splendid to watch soon. We rarely get together on the Qinhuai River. We will decide the beauty queen tonight. I have heard that there are eight girls in the boat king, and they will show their faces to the public later…If you are willing, we will try our best to help any girl you like become the beauty queen. What do you think?”
He spoke in a deep and gruff voice and talked big. He was fat yet had delicate skin and must be spoiled since childhood. He was wearing gold accessories and jade, looking much more showy than the others.
Yang Ning chuckled. “Chen, you are so generous.” He glanced at the man named Qiu Fang. Yuan Rong seemed to be clear about the other men’s background but didn’t mention Qiu Fang’s family. This man was in his early thirties, several years older than the others, and he looked experienced. He stood with his hands behind his back while smiling and looked handsome yet didn’t talk much.
Yuan Rong smiled. “Master Chen, all of you are from wealthy families and you can spend gold on one throw. If you join hands, nobody can compare with you tonight.” He looked at Qiu Fang and asked, “Is Qiu from Hangzhou Prefecture, too?”
Zhu Yuchen shook his head. “Qiu is from Liaodong.”
“Liaodong?” Yuan Rong frowned. “It seems to be the territory of the Northern Han State.”
Qiu Fang explained with a smile, “I am from the Northern Han State indeed, but Master Yuan, don’t take me as an enemy. I am a member of the Northern Han State, yet I don’t have hostility to your state. Since many years ago, my family and Zhu as well as the other friends have contact with each other. We are businessmen and only want to do business in peace. The war between the two states is the last thing that we want to see.”
Zhu Yuchen asked, “Qiu is from the Qiu family, the ginseng king’s family from Liaodong. Have you heard about them, Yuan?”
Yuan Rong responded, “I naturally have heard about the ginseng king from Liaodong. Liaodong abounds with ginseng and pilose antler, which are quite valuable. The best-quality wild ginseng can only be found and dug in remote mountains. In the laymen’s opinion, it seems to be easy to dig ginseng in mountains, while the experts know that it is very difficult.”
Qiu Fang asked while smiling, “Master Yuan, do you know how to dig ginseng?”
Yuan Rong replied, “If you want to dig ginseng, you need to find it first. The experienced ginseng seekers can find the ordinary wild ginseng, but it needs experience and luck to find the best-quality old wild ginseng. I have heard that there is a capable man in Liaodong who could find the top-quality wild ginseng every time he went to remote mountains when he was young, and many people admired him. That man is called the ginseng king later.”
“That’s my grandpa.” Qiu Fang laughed. “He passed away several years ago, yet his skills of finding ginseng have been passed down, and we still depend on these skills to make a living.”
Yuan Rong sighed. “Qiu, it turns out that you are a real rich man. Although the ginseng king from Liaodong was famous for his skills of finding ginseng, and the real top-quality wild ginseng can only be bought from your family, as far as I know, your family mainly deals in medicinal materials now. Many kinds of rare medicinal materials can’t be found, but people can get any rare kind as long as they find your family.”
Zhu Yuchen laughed loudly. “Even the extremely wealthy people feel as if they have discovered some precious relic once they have one or two kinds of rare medicinal materials, but to you, they are only dead twigs and withered leaves piled up like mountains and will become mildewed.”
Qiu Fang instantly waved his hand. “Zhu, you are exaggerated. How can it be so absurd? We just make a living depending on the nearby mountains. My grandpa built up a fortune by selling ginseng those years and later thought that if he dug wild ginseng all the time, it would root it out. No matter what you do, you have to allow for unpredictable circumstances and needs, so later my grandpa specially summoned the ginseng seekers in Liaodong and made a rule, stipulating the amount of ginseng to dig every year and they couldn’t get more, just to leave something to the descendants. All people need to eat and stay alive. Since we can’t dig wild ginseng, we can only do business in the field of medicinal materials.”
Yang Ning praised, “It is wisdom not to root it out.”
Qiu Fang smiled. “You flatter me.”
Zhu Yuchen asked, “Do you have the best candidate in your estimation? The eight girls joining the election of the beauty queen are called eight beauties on the Qinhuai River, and they are all beautiful and talented.”
The huge boat king stopped in the center of the Qinhuai River. Twenty or thirty pleasure-boats of different sizes, including Pearl’s boat surrounded the boat king, which was like the moon surrounded by a myriad of stars. It was bright, colorful and dazzling, a real pearl on the river.
Before Yuan Rong said more, they heard melodious music of traditional stringed and woodwind instruments and then the sounds of orchestra. It was bustling with noises around the boat king, yet as the sounds appeared, it fell into silence in an instant. Soon a girl opened her mouth and sang a song. For the moment, the water waves were soft and quiet, and her voice was tender with charm innately. The scene on the Qinhuai River was more beautiful and fantastic than usual.
“This must be Wu Yin’er?” Zhu Yuchen whispered.
Jiang Cheng replied with a smile, “It’s said that among the eight beauties on the Qinhuai River of this year, Dong Qiaoqiao must be the most beautiful, but she can’t sing as well as Wu Yin’er. Wu Yin’er can sing well, yet she is too seductive, and too much is as bad as too little, so her temperament is inferior to Luo Ning’s who is gentle and graceful. However, Luo Ning is not as talented as Yu Shuang…” He sighed and then continued, “However, Yu Shuang is too distant, and by comparison, she is inferior to Zhuo Xian’er in playing zither…”
All of them looked at Jiang Cheng. Yang Ning thought, “This guy is very familiar with the eight beauties on the Qinhuai River and knows not only their names but also their merits and faults. It appears that he is fully prepared.”
Yuan Rong asked with a smile, “Jiang, who do you think is most likely to become the beauty queen among the eight beauties?”
Jiang Cheng laughed. “I came here because Zhu invited me. I will follow you no matter who you think should be selected as the queen beauty. However, in fact, I think the girl named Shen Jiaonu must be nice.”