Chapter 29 Section VIII

The cherry blossoms are fluttering and falling. The two drank leisurely. There is a blanket under the cherry tree, and there is a lamp on the blanket. Boya and Qingming are drinking under the moonlight. The cherry blossoms are fluttering and falling, and the breeze is gentle. The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, and when the wind blows, countless petals will fall from the branches.Like being in the snow. "Is this all right? Seimei." Boya asked. "Okay." Seimei replied. "Just drink?" "Ok." "do nothing?" "Aren't you drinking?"

Qingming poured wine into Boya's empty wine glass, and after Boya accepted the pour, he brought the glass to his lips. "Bo Ya, did you bring the flute?" "Take what Ye Er says with you." Ye Er is the flute given to Boya by the ghost of Suzaku Gate. "Let's play a song and listen to it." "Oh." Boya put down the wine glass, took out the flute from his bosom, put the flute to his lips, and began to play.The harmonious and melodious flute sound slipped out of Boya's mouth. The sound of the flute is like a green dragon rising slowly among the falling petals.The sound of the flute grabs the moonlight and flows in all directions, and then melts into the night air.

After playing for a while, Boya was intoxicated by the sound of his flute and closed his eyes. "Here we come..." Qingming whispered. Boya opened his eyes and found that at some time, on the other side of the lamp on the felt, there was an old man with white hair standing under the moonlight. "Keep blowing." Seimei said. The old man seemed to be listening to the sound of the flute, squinting his eyes at the two of them. "It's those two people just now..." the old man muttered to himself. The old man walked forward a few steps, came to Qingming, and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Come drink." Seimei replied. "liquor?" "Do you want to drink together?" After hearing this, the old man made a grunt in his throat, stretched out the tip of his tongue that was split in two, and licked his lips. "How about it?" Qingming urged again, and the old man took a few steps closer and sat on the blanket. Petals fluttered down. The sound of Boya's flute dances with the petals in the night, and Qingqing with the moonlight. "Come on..." Qingming filled his glass with wine and handed it to the old man. "Can you really drink it?"

"I just want to buy you a drink." Qingming said. "Well, um." The tip of the old man's tongue stuck out again. The old man took the wine glass with trembling hands, held it up to the tip of his nose, and smelled the wine. "Oh, the smell is so sweet..." The old man closed his eyes, brought the wine glass to his lips, and sipped the wine in the glass.Then, drunkenly drunk. "It's bliss..." the old man whispered, put down his wine glass, and let out a breath of air.After opening his eyes, he looked at Qingming and said, "Where is the best place to start?" His voice was no longer trembling.

"It's all right." Qingming replied. "Anyway, it's a gift of wine, so I'll tell you all." The old man closed his eyes and began to tell among the falling petals. "My surname is Shi..." "Then your ancestors were from the Tang Dynasty..." "Exactly." The old man muttered to himself, "He is a member of the Han clan." The Qin family and the Han family are the two major immigrant groups that naturalized the Japanese kingdom in ancient times.If it is said that most of the Qin family are craftsmen, then the Han family served the court with their writing skills.

In the fifth century, the imperial court bestowed the surname "Shi" on the Han clan, and established the "Shibu" directly under the imperial court, and gradually developed. "In the past, our Shibu was as prosperous as this cherry blossom. Now it has declined, and the blood relationship has been mixed. Today is the era of the Fujiwara clan, and our Shibu's past glory is gone." The old man opened his closed right eye. "When I was young, I liked drinking very much. Before I was 30 years old, I killed someone because of the controversy at the banquet. Since then, I have become a quack doctor and a Taoist priest for 45 years. Finally, I died in this cherry tree 120 years ago. Under the tree..."

The old man whispered and closed his eyes again. Cherry blossom petals fell on his eyelids and white hair. "Five nights ago, I smelled the aroma of wine that I hadn't seen for 120 years. I couldn't bear it anymore and wanted to beg for a glass of wine..." "That's why you showed up?" "yes." "As a result, not only did he not drink, but he was blinded by the fire chopsticks..." "yes." "What about the snake whose eyes were blinded by the torch?" "My skeleton is in the grass near the root of the cherry blossom tree. About sixty years ago, the snake made a nest of my skeleton and settled down. If my longing rests on the snake, then we are one heart... ..." After speaking, the old man stuck out his long tongue with two pieces of split tongue between his lips, licking the wine remaining at the bottom of the wine glass on the felt.

"I never dreamed that I could drink this fine wine and hear such a beautiful flute sound under this cherry blossom tree..." The old man choked up, tears streaming down his eyes. "Now I can rest in peace..." After leaving a word in a low voice, the old man suddenly disappeared.