Eighty people, forty games, and nine arenas were held at the same time. The competition ended quickly. All two hundred and forty martial arts candidates were selected. Some were happy and some were sad. Some were happy and some were worried.
It gets dark early in the winter, and the sun has already set to the west at Youshi. The Minister of Rites begins to read out the name of the winner and the sect to which he belongs. It is quite time-consuming to read out more than 200 names and sects. By the time he finishes reading them out one by one, it is already the third quarter of Youshi.
Although officials were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Personnel, the appointment and dismissal decisions of all officials in the imperial court were issued in the name of the emperor. Finally, the eunuch who announced the edict came on stage, read out the imperial edict, and conferred the title of 240 victors as military examiners, with the rank starting from the seventh rank.
Although it was only from the seventh rank, everyone who won was overjoyed. Firstly, it could ensure the continuation of the sect, and secondly, from the seventh rank, it was an exceptional title. You must know that candidates who came from the imperial examination could only be awarded the eighth rank, while previous martial arts Juren is half a level lower than Juren, both are from the eighth rank.
After the decree was announced, it was time to hang up the decorations. Changsheng had just hung up the decorations yesterday and hung them up again today. However, compared with the huge silk decorations of the Ni family, the imperial court's linen red decorations seemed quite shabby.
In order to highlight the importance attached to martial arts candidates, the imperial court prepared horses for each martial arts examiner. After the performance, they would ride on the horses and be sent back to their residences by two imperial guards.
After hanging the red ribbon, Da Tou became even more excited and followed Chang Sheng to express his gratitude.
At this moment, Changsheng heard someone shouting "Uncle" outside the venue. He frowned and tilted his head. He saw that the person who made the sound was a servant of the Ni Mansion. His name was Ni Tai, and he was the same person who was waiting for him at the city gate that day.
When Changsheng walked to the sidelines, Ni Tai congratulated loudly across the imperial wall, "Congratulations to my uncle on being elected to the official position. The lady has already booked a banquet in the banquet building to wash away the dust for my uncle and his friends who have been elected."
After Ni Tai finished speaking, Chang Sheng looked back at Yang Kai and Da Tou who were not far away, and then whispered a few words to Ni Tai.
Hearing Changsheng's words, Ni Tai nodded repeatedly, "Don't worry, uncle, it will be done within an hour."
"This is not a trivial matter. Don't rush it. We can just put it in order when we return tomorrow." Changsheng said.
"It won't take that long. The house is ready. Just find someone to write a plaque, engrave it, gilt it and hang it up. I'll go do it right away. You go to the banquet first." Ni Tai said.
While Chang Sheng was talking to Ni Tai, Yang Kai and Da Tou were waiting for him to mount their horses at the exit, and several Forbidden Soldiers were waiting aside.
Seeing Chang Sheng frowning and thinking, Ni Tai guessed what he was thinking and hurried to the exit. He took out some silver coins from his arms and gave them to the Imperial Guards with a smile. He just said that he was a servant of the Ni family, Chang Sheng was his uncle, and now the three of them If people want to go to a banquet somewhere else, there is no need for them to accompany them and escort them.
This group of forbidden soldiers had been standing there for a day. Who wanted to go back to work hard? After hearing Ni Tai's words, he immediately followed the trend, collected the money with a cheerful face, and earnestly told them to pay attention to safety on the road.
Chang Sheng motioned to Yang Kai and Da Tou to take off the red color and hand it over to Ni Tai, and then led the way, "Let's go, the Ni family invites us to dinner and go to the Yanbin Building."
Yang Kai didn't say anything, but Datou was very frightened, "Taoist Master, it's not appropriate for me to go to the Ni family to invite you."
At this time, Ni Tai hadn't gone far yet. When he heard Da Tou's words, he hurriedly turned around and said, "Master Fu, my lady knows that you and Master Yang are friends with my uncle, so she specially booked a seat at the Yanbin Building. Please don't refuse."
"How do you know my surname is Fu?" Datou was very surprised.
Ni Tai smiled back, turned and left.
When Ni Tai turned around, Datou excitedly slapped the baggage on his chest, "Hey, thanks to Taoist Priest Hong Fu, I'm an adult too."
"Brother Fu is out of town. You and I are very close, so we should take care of each other." Changsheng said casually.
Hearing Changsheng's words, Datou was very moved, "Thanks to the Taoist Master for not giving up, I am willing to follow the Taoist priest, in front of the horse and behind the horse..." Datou suddenly became depressed when he said this, "Hey, it's a pity that I'm a naughty boy, I'm afraid I can't even ride a horse. It’s hard to pull.”
Yang Kai had been at the competition yesterday. He knew what Big Tou had said and done. He also had a good impression of Big Tou, but he didn’t know how to comfort people. Seeing that Da Tou was depressed, he could only raise his hand and pat him. shoulders as a sign of comfort.
Changsheng said sternly, "Brother Fu, don't belittle yourself. You are smart, smart, familiar with people, and well-versed in the world. These are the shortcomings of Brother Yang and I. In the future, we will be officials in the same court, so there are some things that I will have to trouble you to deal with."
People are most afraid of being useless to others. Hearing what Changsheng said, Datou knew what Changsheng wanted him to do in the future. He was in a good mood, walked a few steps quickly, and led the way from the front with his short legs.
In fact, you don’t need to lead the way to Changsheng to find the Yanbin Building, because the Yanbin Building is an eight-story building. Nine is the highest number and is usually used by the royal family. Therefore, eight-story buildings are rare in Chang’an. The Ni family The Taiping Inn is only seven floors.
The banquet building faces south. There are many people standing outside the door at this time. These people are waiting for guests outside the door, and most of them are servants.
There were so many people here that Ni Chenyi couldn't wait in person, so he sent a servant to wait for the three people downstairs. Seeing the three people arriving, the servant hurriedly came forward, congratulated the three people and then led the three people into the banquet. Guesthouse.
The first floor of the Yanbin Building is the lobby seating area, with eight horizontal and eight vertical tables, a total of sixty-four tables, and a Bagua layout.
As the best restaurant in Chang'an, it was naturally packed at this time, with diners of all ages. Since they were all wearing casual clothes, no one knew whether they were court officials or wealthy businessmen, but it was certain that there were no traffickers or lackeys among them, because the banquet guests The food in the restaurant is extremely expensive, and even the food in the lobby is beyond the reach of ordinary people.
In addition to officials and businessmen, there were also some people from the world who were scattered in the lobby. Most of these people did not attend the table. They must be waiting to clean up the dust and congratulate the martial arts people who won during the day.
Ni Chenyi decided on the Tianzi Room on the east sixth floor. The Yanbin Building has only one door, but there are stairs from north to south and east to west. Above the second floor, the east and west become independent and are not connected to each other. The servant led three people up the stairs from the east side. , there are seven rooms on the second floor, each named after the Big Dipper. This is only the staircase on the east side of the second floor. There should also be seven rooms on the west side of the second floor.
Going to the third floor, there are fewer rooms. There are only six rooms, named after Liuhe. The rooms are very large, each one is no less than three feet square. All rooms have windows, either south or north.
There are five rooms on the fourth floor, named after the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
There are four rooms on the fifth floor, distinguished by the four elephants of blue dragon, red bird, white tiger and basalt.
There are three rooms on the sixth floor, named Sancai. The so-called Sancai are the people of heaven and earth, and Ni Chenyi booked the Tianzi room in the north building.
Judging from the architectural layout of Yanbin Building, the owner has either received guidance from Taoist masters, or he is a Taoist believer like Li Zongyuan of Baoqing Inn. Judging from the layout of the following floors, there should be only two rooms on the seventh floor, so It is named after Tai Chi, and there is only one room on the eighth floor, which is the top floor, which means Hunyuan Wuji.
Two young women, no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, stood at the door of Tianzi Room. When they saw the guests arriving, they squatted down and greeted them softly.
Hearing the sound outside the door, Ni Chenyi walked out of the house. She was not surprised that Changsheng brought his friends. He congratulated the three of them and invited the guests, then ordered the woman outside the door to arrange the tables and chairs, serve the food and start the banquet.
The first thing that catches your eye when you enter the room is a huge north-facing window. The window is very large and has wooden ribs on it. However, the wooden ribs are not covered with window paper, but something transparent and light-transmitting. Chang'an can be seen through the window. Thousands of lights.
The floor of the room is covered with a thick blanket, and the patterns on it are full of exotic style. There are many calligraphy and paintings hanging on the east and west walls. There is a huge cabinet on the right side of the door, with various rare antiques displayed on it. The whole room does not feel like a dining place, but like the hall of a wealthy family.
Ni Chenyi guessed that Changsheng would bring people, but she didn't know how many people he would bring. In order to ensure that the guests would not be embarrassed, she kept the nine seats around the round table and the nine sets of dishes and cups on the table, and determined that those who were seated would not be embarrassed. There were only four people, and a young woman began to remove the extra seats and eating utensils.
Changsheng was very curious about the light-transmitting window, so he walked over and touched it, and found that his hands were cold and hard, like crystal.
"Are the windows covered with crystals?" Chang Sheng turned to look at Ni Chenyi.
"The eighth floor is crystal, the sixth and seventh floors are just glass." Ni Chenyi replied casually, and at the same time warmly greeted Yang Kai and Datou to take their seats.
The two of them came from humble backgrounds and were dressed in shabby clothes. They were quite reserved when they entered the room. In fact, not only them, but even the immortals were also suffering from discomfort. However, at this time, he was not a guest, but half of the master, and he was groveling and groveling against the ordinary people. The son-in-law is different. He relied on his real skills. The most important thing is that he won the first prize in a row in martial arts competitions. According to the rule of doubling the Ni family's winning streak, he has bankrupted the Ni family's winnings. Yesterday he announced in public that he would give up the silver reward. Returning the family property gave him confidence.
Chang Sheng originally wanted to ask how much the meal would cost, but he didn't ask after second thoughts. First, he was afraid that Yang Kai and Datou would be embarrassed, and second, he was afraid that he would feel distressed. For the Ni family, who made a lot of money every day, spending money like water was just normal. But he had seen too many victims who were starved of food and clothing, and he had also seen too many people dying of hunger on the roadside. If he ate hundreds of taels of silver in one meal, he would feel anxious and guilty.
Although it was Ni Chenyi who was inviting guests, the relationship between Ni Chenyi and Chang Sheng had already been decided. Chang Sheng should sit facing north to accompany him, Yang Kai would sit on the right side of him as chief, Datou would sit on the second seat on his left, and Ni Chenyi would sit opposite him. , with his back to the door, making it easier to order the maid outside the door.
The maid poured tea for the four of them. Only Ni Chenyi gargled and spit the tea into the spittoon. Changsheng and the other three drank the tea without exception.
Only then did the three of them realize that the tea was not for drinking, but for gargling.
Changsheng looked around, and the three of them looked at each other, feeling awkward...
