Xuzhou City is... very lively today.
There are duels.
Zheng Mukai, the head escort of the Guangxing Escort Agency in Kaifeng Prefecture, wants to compete with Ge Shigong, the fifth leader of the Huai'an Chivalry Sect, in the city's arena.
These two are both well-known figures in the world.
Zheng Mukai, who is thirty-five this year, is known as the "Kaifeng Three-Armed Sword". Of course, he is not a "Three-Armed Sword Style". He only has one sword, but he can use the sword with such speed that it makes people feel uncomfortable. It feels like he has three arms.
And that Ge Shi is not a fuel-efficient lamp. He is thirty-one years old this year and is nicknamed "Scorpion Tail Spear". His seven-foot flower spear is ever-changing and extremely sharp. It can be said that everyone in the Huaihe River area knows it.
Although these two people... had no friendship to begin with, they didn't get into a fight, let alone sign a life or death certificate and enter the arena for a duel.
But today they were going to fight, and they had to fight.
why?
It's not hard to guess - two men fight to the death, mostly for money or women.
They have enough money to spend.
So, the answer is women.
There are many types of women. Zheng Mukai and Ge Shi both have wives at home, and their wives are also women, but they are obviously not fighting for their wives who are far away today.
They...were fighting for a woman they had never even met.
That woman, nicknamed "Chu Xue", was the number one in the "Qiliu Youlan", the largest brothel in Xuzhou City.
In those days, the brothels were also divided into three, six or nine grades; let’s not mention the second- and third-rate brothels, which usually didn’t have that many rules, but the first-rate brothels… there were a lot of rules when visiting them.
The kind of brothel that can achieve great fame must have a very powerful backer behind it, so most people will never see the top names in such a brothel.
It doesn't mean that if you have money, you can go into the brothel with a loud mouth and ask for sleep with the top card. Sorry, there is no such operation.
For those with status, prostitution must also be elegant and classy. They cannot just lie down and sleep in the house like ordinary people who visit the lower-class brothels. In their eyes, they are just animals.
What real dignitaries, literati and elegant guests want to pursue is not just physical release; before that, they must first be spiritually satisfied.
Therefore, if you want to meet the top celebrity in such a high-end brothel, you have to "ask for an interview" just like a door-to-door interview.
Regardless of whether others see you in the end, you still have to put down the money first and let the madam know that you are willing to spend it.
Then, I usually invite you to drink tea in the room first, and let the girl take a look at you in the dark. If you look impersonal, crooked, rude, etc... then basically you You can go back after drinking tea.
If your appearance and temperament are all good, then the next step is for the girl to come out and talk to you...
Of course, it's just a chat. If you see someone coming out and you make a move, or show an anxious look, that person will turn around and leave.
You still have to carry it and hold it. You are obviously here to visit the brothel, but you also have to look like you are calm and relaxed, chatting with others about music, chess, calligraphy, painting, romance... Then people will start to offer you tea and toasts. Flying eyes are flirtatious.
We chat like this until the third watch of the night shift. The girl takes the initiative to say hello to the maid next to her, asking her to pass on the message and close the door. Then she "invites" you to go into the back room to rest together, so that you can go in and complete the real purpose of coming to the brothel.
This series of... operations that seem to us today to be like taking off your pants and farting, were considered by the upper class of that era to be foreplay that was even more essential than foreplay.
In fact, if you taste it carefully, you will find that this thing makes sense.
If you get something too easily, it will reduce your happiness when you enjoy it...
Even if it's pooping, the feeling of relief when you poop when you feel the slightest urge to poop is completely different from the pleasure of pooping when you feel like you're about to poop in your pants.
The happiness of a rich and handsome man who spent a day sleeping with a goddess is comparable to the happiness of a licking dog who spent a year sleeping with a goddess. Can that compare?
Therefore, this kind of initiative to create difficulties for one's actions and enjoy the feeling of worrying about possible failure or rejection is a higher state and a skill to subtly induce one's brain to secrete more endorphins. .
Of course, having said that, you must have the strength to operate like this. If you don't have the strength, no matter how you adjust the probability, you will only lose.
It's a bit of a tangent... Let's get back to the point.
So what happened to Zheng Mukai and Ge Shi?
With the foreshadowing I gave above, the explanation is relatively simple: they both went to Qiliu Youlan last night, and both wanted to see the Chuxue girl, so they were invited to the house to drink tea together by the madam. As a result, Chuxue didn't show up. She just looked at the two people from behind the curtain for a while and said: "One catkin cannot distinguish two Yu (pronounced yu, second tone)." Then he asked the old bustard to see the guests off.
After the two came out, they were a little confused, so they asked the madam to ask Miss Chuxue what she meant. Seeing that everyone had spent money and that they were all well-known figures in the world, the madam went to ask. As a result, Miss Chuxue wrote down the six words again and handed over a note.
So what exactly does she mean?
This "one piece of snow" undoubtedly refers to herself, and the piece of snow is snow; "no distinction between two pieces of rain", literally, seems to be saying, "I am a snowflake that cannot fall on you two." 'In the valley'.
But it's not...
She has hidden the word here. The word "Yu" is actually not "Yu" but "Ou" because there are two of you sitting there.
Miss Chuxue was very smart. When she saw the clothes, boots, cuffs and belt details of the two people, she knew that they were both married people, and their wives took good care of them; this "Idol" The word "" is to remind them that they still have wives at home; the deliberate absence of the radical is to persuade them to be "people" and have a conscience.
The so-called "one catkin cannot separate two people" does not mean that I will not "divide" myself to you two, but that I, Chuxue, do not want to "break up" you two "couples".
She... thought so.
But Zheng Mukai and Ge Shi didn't think so.
These two are suffering from lack of education. What level of education do you think the girls who can be the top players have? If women could take the exam, they would have become officials long ago. How come you two still want to be on top? Doesn't this bring bad luck?
In this way, Zheng and Ge took that sentence into its literal meaning, and interpreting it according to that meaning, the other party seemed to be implying, "If only one of you comes, then my piece of snow will fall there."
So, they followed the formula of "two peaches kill three soldiers" and fought among themselves.
Both of them are from martial arts circles, well-known and upright people. They can't just fight outside a brothel at night, and the winner can go back after the fight? It wouldn't sound good if it was spread out.
So they made an appointment to compete in the East Street Arena in Xuzhou City at noon today.
As for the reason... they naturally didn't publicly say that it was for a prostitute. They only said that they wanted to compete in martial arts and compete with each other. However, considering that swords have no eyes, it would not end well if something went wrong, so they decided to talk to the local landguard. He said hello and signed a life and death certificate.
That's what the scene said.
But in fact, both of them had murderous intentions.
I have signed the life and death certificate, can I still keep my hand?
This thing is equivalent to a "legal killing contract". As long as both parties sign it voluntarily, life and death will be decided afterwards. No relatives or friends of either party can come to seek revenge afterwards. If anyone seeks revenge or takes revenge in a different direction, it will be you. There are mistakes first.
…………
After noon, crowds of spectators began to gather on East Street.
The common people would stay away from the vendettas they encounter on the road, because they are afraid of being harmed. But this competition in the ring with rules is so cute for them. Some of them even climb up to nearby merchants to get a better view. of the roof.
It's not time yet, it's here in the blink of an eye.
Ge Shi and Zheng Mukai finally made their debut.
Both of them waited until the last minute to show up, which can be regarded as a sign of their experience in the world - they both know that if such an occasion comes early, they will be more anxious.
The certificate of life and death had already been signed. The two of them just came to the witness and bowed briefly. After hearing a few brief explanations from the other party, they each used Qinggong to jump onto the six-foot-high ring.
"please."
"please."
They held weapons in hand, cupped their fists, and said a final hello in the center of the stage, then walked to both ends of the stage.
At this moment...
"Lai lai lai, the market is open. Buy it and leave! The game will start soon. It's the last minute. If you want to place your bet, hurry up. What? What is one minute? One minute is when you count from one to sixty. time."
All I could hear was that at the corner of an alley about ten meters away from the arena, a man with a somewhat shrill voice was shouting without hesitation.
At the same time, there was another voice, not far from the "opener", speaking to a group of villagers gathered here calmly: "Oh, I am a professional commentator, you believe me. Let me tell you, today’s match is the 64th opener. Ge Shixiaoyou... As the saying goes, practice swordsmanship for a hundred days, spear practice for a thousand days, and sword practice for ten thousand days. Players of their level...oh no...masters, Generally speaking, one should practice spear training more vigorously. Of course, this Zheng Mukai is a few years older than Ge Shi, so this has to be taken into account. You listen to me, go to Ge Shi, that's right."
If the owners of these two voices are not Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai, who are they?
These two guys also just arrived in Xuzhou yesterday. Rumors about the duel were spreading in the streets this morning, so they joined in the fun.
Sun Yixie deserves to be a business genius. He almost immediately thought of setting up a "handicap" near the ring as soon as he heard the news. You may say that he is short of money, but in fact he is not. It's just because he was Zhu Xiaowan's black shop cost him two hundred taels of silver. He felt uncomfortable, so he wanted to make some extra money - this was due to his character, and it really wasn't about money.
As for Huang Donglai, he also had a special liking for commentary, so he came to help Brother Sun "keep the edge".
The two of them stood there and chatted like a cross talk at first. When more people came to listen, Huang Donglai started telling stories alone, while Sun Yixie went to the side and took out the "" "Betting" started to open, and then the scene in front of me happened.
Listening to the unscrupulous words and deeds of the two boys, Zheng Mukai and Ge Shi in the ring also looked embarrassed and twitched their mouths slightly. But now that the arrow is on the string, they are unlikely to call a timeout or anything.
The two could only pretend not to hear, and each took a stance, preparing to fight.
