Chapter 33 Bleak foreign field (2-4)

Gu Hu and the two stood in the sky and waited, only to see the auntie with red flowers in her head and white powder on her face. This is what Suzhou people call "Neighboring Beauty"! "Oh, old man, why did you come here to introduce me? Miss Seven can wait." When she found Hu Xueyan, she became more and more fussy, "Oh, yo, it's a big deal! What is the God of Wealth? Can the master pay off the debt? It doesn't matter if she shouted, the windows upstairs opened one after another, and several handsome faces came out to visit in the courtyard; one of them shouted loudly: "Master Hu, Master Hu, Naia remembers me? The slave is Xiangyun Fourth son, Yanxie, come and sit at Nita." Hu Xueyan walked through the flowers and visited a lot of people, but he couldn't remember any Xiangyun fourth son, so he only agreed repeatedly: "Okay! Good!"

Now following my aunt to go upstairs, I saw a young woman at the door of the back room, opened the curtain and waited with a smile on her face; after entering the door, Gu Yingchun said: "Lao Qi, you probably haven't seen Mr. Hu?" "What do you mean I have met Xie? I have seen Ge." He bowed his head and saluted, and said in his mouth: "Master Hu, good luck for Naifa." "Oh," Hu Xueyan asked, "Miss Seven, where did we meet?" I also turned the slave around, the nobles often forget things, and the slave always remembers the waves in his heart." Then, he came forward to unbutton Hu Xueyan and take off his jacket.

Hu Xueyan smelled the fragrance of her hair, and remembered that when he passed by Suzhou at the end of that year, the eldest son of Le Fangqi, the governor of Jiangsu, was Renyou in Shanghai; It was changed during the banquet, his appearance was vague, but he couldn't remember his name, but it was definitely not three words. "You weren't called Aiyuelou at that time, were you?" "Yi Chenguang is called Xifang." "No wonder." Hu Xuedao smiled and chattered: "How have you been these few years?" Ever since the old man came to the field, he has gradually become better."

"At the end of the day, don't wait for the Bodhisattva, the God of Wealth, to arrive. It's better to add two at the end of Ge Mo!" It was Jiu Pantu who interrupted, Hu Xueyan and Gu Yingchun were used to this kind of flattery, and they didn't take it seriously; but the seventh son of Aiyuelou heard it harshly, and immediately said: "Nai gossip, how can you explain too much?" Then, with another wink, let her back out.At this time, the fruit plate had already been put on the table, and when Hu Xueyan and Gu Yingchun sat down, the old seven of Aiyuelou offered melon seeds and tea while chatting.

"Master Hu came to Gejie in one day?" "I've been here for two or three days." Gu Yingchun replied, "But it's the first time I've come out to eat flower wine today." "Ah! I went to Nuta right after the first turn, and Ge really thinks highly of Nuwan! Thank you, thank you." "I knew you were old friends, and I invited our little uncle here yesterday." "Well, call me uncle ? Old man, Nai’s surname is half Hu Wan, what do you mean by uncle and nephew’s life?” "Wonderful!" Hu Xueyan laughed and said, "Ying Chun, this is the first time I've heard that your surname is half Hu."

Gu Yingchun also laughed, looking back at a group of young ladies and said: "From now on, you can call me Mr. Banhu." "It's really interesting!" Aiyuelou Laoqi said: "Eat half a pot of wine at the end of the wine, and don't make it with the sparrows at the end. Do you want to do something evil?" Hu Xueyan saw her flexible mind and eloquence, and liked her; Gu Yingchun saw his thoughts, and immediately said: "Uncle, today's guest, are you here to invite me?" Hu Xueyan has been walking with him for many years, and occasionally has this kind of "letting the virtuous"; when he was considering whether to accept this kind offer, the seventh child of Aiyuelou spoke up.

"Don't be arrogant! Old man, how good is it to be able to bear the current table wine? Stop eating and turn the table to the front room. Master Hu, how good is it?" "The front room?" Hu Xueyan asked, "It's Xiangyun's fourth brother." Now that everyone has already drawn the Tao, Hu Xueyan, who is used to acting on every occasion, has no objection, and only asks Gu Yingchun: "Who are you inviting?" "Who does my uncle want to see?" So Hu Xueyan casually reported four or five names, all of whom were good friends in the brothel; Gu Yingchun wrote the invitations like a fly, and after ordering the host and guest, there were seven people in total, and said: "Let's come to the Eight Immortals to cross the sea. "As he said, he wrote another invitation card: "Fly to Changfa Inn on Sanma Road, Uncle Sha will seal his heart and come to talk about it." Please don't say no."

Coincidentally, it happened that this special guest was unable to attend the appointment due to illness.However, if the rain does not come today, it will rain in the past. Lin Maoxian, an officer of the Ministry of War who both Hu Xueyan and Gu Yingchun knew, was sent to the prefect of Fujian, and he lived in that inn when he passed by Shanghai. As usual, those who can break into the banquet are bored against the journey, so they become uninvited guests. "Excellent, excellent!" Gu Yingchun welcomed him very much, because this Lin Maoxian was also a very interesting person. Will not be left out.

After the table was laid, it was called "Shuangtai", but it was actually a round table; the seventh child of Aiyuelou took a pair of brand-new white cloth, wrapped in a pair of silver-encrusted ivory chopsticks, walked up to Gu Yingchun and asked: " Are the guests ready?" "There is still one person short. But let's start!" At this time, Hu Xueyan spoke, because although Goulan is not an official place, the seat is also a matter of status; Hu Xueyan is justifiably the first seat, and he rushed to the front to thank him without waiting for others to invite him.

"Today's first seat, Lin Maoweng can't even push it away—" "Xue Weng, Xue Weng!" "Listen to me, if you don't make sense, then you can refute me." Hu Xueyan waved his hand to stop him and said, "First, you are a visitor from afar; second, you have a happy event; third, apart from me and Ying Chun, The rest of you are just meeting for the first time, so you should be polite." After speaking, everyone said that it made sense, and Lin Maoxian cupped his hands and said, "There are tyrants, there are tyrants." When the old seven of Aiyuelou settled down, they took their seats first.

The second seat is of course Hu Xueyan, and the rest are Renyou, no distinction is made, only Gu Yingchun is reserved for the main seat, as soon as he sits down, the young lady immediately holds a black wooden tray, inside the middle is a stack of brushes and inkstones. round ticket. "Mao Weng, who is your name?" "I'm a layman here, and I just arrived yesterday. Today is the first time I've come back for sightseeing. Please give me your talents!" "Call Xiangyun the fourth son." Hu Xueyan said, "I remember that her mouth is very eloquent, which matches Mao Weng's eloquence." Gu Yingchun thought about it for a while, wrote it down, and asked again: "How about you, little uncle?" Hu Xueyan has too many acquaintances, and said with a smile: "You can decide for me." Gu Yingchun nodded and said: "I will call two for my uncle, one is Haoyuan Laojiu. The other is—" "No, no! I remembered." Hu Xueyan said, "The other one is called Jiaofeng Lao Wu." "Why call her?" Gu Yingchun said with a frown. "Don't worry about it, I have something to do with her." So I wrote the game tickets one by one and sent them out; the first one who came was Xiangyun's fourth child, who was near the front room, with little feet, holding the shoulders of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old young lady, came in and asked, "Luoli One is Master Lin?" "Here, here!" Hu Xue pointed and said, "This is Mr. Lin from Beijing, the current magistrate. Fourth, I'm going to be a matchmaker for you." Xiangyun's fourth son was very upset because Hu Xueyan didn't call her; now that he realized that he deliberately pushed her to someone else, he became even angrier: "Thank you Nai!" With a glance, it was obvious that she was angry. It turned out that this was also Hu Xueyan's painstaking efforts in hospitality.This Lin Maoxian was also a prostitute in Beijing, but he liked to visit "tea rooms".Because the "Qingyin Small Class" in "Bada Hutong" is like "Changsan" in Shanghai, and the "tea room" is equivalent to "Yaoer". The latter is more straightforward, even if it is the first time to "open the plate", as long as the conditions are negotiated, the candle can be extinguished and the hair will stay.Lin Mao went to Mazhangtai first, and he liked to have a good time, which is why he often visited the teahouse. Because of this, he recommended Xiangyun's fourth child, because she was famous for her "loose belt" in the third year of high school.Hu Xueyan thought that it was rare to meet Lin Maoxian on a road trip, and wanted to find a one-night pleasure for him, so he made this arrangement; but Xiangyun's fourth child may not understand the grievances, so he might as well explain it to her. I made up my mind that it would be better to do it quickly before Haoyuan and Jiaofeng come.Therefore, when Xiangyun's fourth brother made a toast one by one as usual, explained his appearance, and finally came to the second seat, Hu Xueyan, he asked with a smile, "Can I turn you around?" "Whatever you want! Who is this slave? If you're happy, you'll come with a wave; if you're not happy, you'll kick him to the sea." Hu Xueyan smiled, and said to Lin Maoxian: "Mao Weng, I'm sorry, the fourth brother and I had a little misunderstanding because of other people's affairs. I changed the game and made it clear to her. I will return it to Zhao. How about it?" "Ah yo!" Jiang Luobo, a "foreign kid" who is used to hanging out among the flowers unless he doesn't go home on New Year's Eve, imitated Su Bai and said, "It's news! Why do you call me Ni Xiangyun's fourth son?" It's Qing Guan Renwan!" Everyone knows that this is a deliberate misinterpretation of "Wanbi" to make fun of Xiangyun's fourth child; she doesn't understand this allusion, but she knows that she is joking, but she can tell that she is simply old-fashioned and imitating the "pheasant" of Si Malu. Responding to Jiang Luobo in a tone of voice: "That's right, Ala is a very clean water product. 'Spiced radish', what are you doing!" Amidst the roar of laughter from all the audience, Hu Xueyan pulled the fourth son of Xiangyun aside, and said in a whisper, "fourth," he said, "I'll be the matchmaker for you, what do you think?" ?Master Naihu sees me again, and eats rice from a zigzag bowl, what can I do?" Hu Xueyan originally owed her a favor—there was a time when he replied that he should praise her, but he forgot it; this day he just had the opportunity to make up for it, and he also made friends with Lin Maoxian, so he asked straight to the point: "Master Lin is going to Fujian to take up the post." , I'm afraid I don't have time to come to you to 'make a flower head', can you accompany him." "Then how to accompany?" "Do you want to say more?" Xiangyun's fourth brother blushed, "Dial the number properly!" She said, "After Chuanzai goes out, will there still be a face in Nuluo to meet someone?" "Of course it's not that I don't do all the tricks. I'll be the host when the stage is turned over. Tomorrow afternoon, he will come to your place to have a meeting. In the evening, he will set up a double stage and come down to 'borrow the dry shop'. Do you think it's okay?" "Borrowing dry shop" is Changsan Middle School's way of deceiving benefactors. It means that the guests are drunk, or the road is too far away, and the weather changes suddenly. The rule is that they will spend six taels of silver.Of course, no one asked whether it was dry or wet.Xiangyun remained silent, which seemed to mean that he was a little active; Hu Xueyan took the opportunity to make amends, "Fourth," he said, "Master Lin is my friend, even if you are wronged once, Master Lin is very straightforward, and he will not attack you." Too stingy. In addition, you go to Fang Jiuxia on the main road to pick out a pair of gold bracelet heads, and I will give it to you." In the sensual scene, gold has always been able to buy the hearts of beauties. The fourth son of Xiangyun thought about it and said: "Master Hu. As a friend, Ge can worry about ways, which is really rare. But Ge is Master Naihu's idea, you are so happy Don't you see me as a slave? I, Foneng, can go up and throw it away." Hu Xueyan understood what she meant, and was afraid that if the presentation failed and the gold bracelet fell through, he immediately replied, "In any case, I have given up all my heart. As long as Master Lin boards the boat to Fujian today, you can go to Fang Jiuxia to pick the bracelet head tomorrow, okay?" That's it, it's settled like this," Hua Zong, Hu Xueyan stood up and went back to the table first. At that time, Yingying, Yanyan, came one after another, and they all brought "Mr. Wushi", the singing and singing were noisy, and it was very lively.At this moment, the "Xiangbang" downstairs shouted: "Guests in the back room." "It must be Sha Yixin who has come." Gu Yingchun hurriedly stood up and went out to welcome him, and it was indeed Sha Yixin. "Brother Yingchun," Sha Yixin held him at the top of the stairs and said, "My luggage has already disembarked from the Yangtze River ship, and I will be on board at dawn. Because you said you wanted to introduce a friend for me, so you came here specially. I don’t know who this friend is? If you originally lived in Shanghai, we will meet again when I come back from Guangzhou in half a month, okay.” After a short pause, he continued: “To be honest, I have to go back Fun." Gu Yingchun thought for a while and said: "The friend I want to introduce for you is Mr. Hu Xueyan and Hu Da. In this way, you go in to meet and greet everyone, and then I will explain the reason for you. Let you go back to Changfazhan, when you come back from Guangzhou, if Mr. Hu Da is still in Shanghai, how about we talk about it?" "This is the wrong way." So Gu Yingchun led him to the banquet and introduced them one by one, most of them were first acquaintances.This Sha Yixin is more than thirty years old, handsome and handsome, he speaks a Beijing accent with a Sichuan accent, and his voice is clear, which is quite favorable to others.Hu Xueyan likes this new friend very much.He is a team of candidate fellow prefects, so they call each other by their official titles, "Hu Jian is famous all over the world, and he only knows the thorns today, which shows his loneliness. However, he also paid homage to a great Bodhisattva in the end, so fortunately." He raised his glass and said: " Borrowing flowers to offer Buddha." After finishing speaking, he drank the cup in one gulp. "Don't dare, don't dare." Hu Xueyan declared: "For the first time, I have to quit." "There are rules for Hu Guan to eat flowers and wine, and I want to drink to Bu." Jiang Luobo said: "Today is Sha Sima's face. Come, come, let's all have a toast." Sha Yixin was modest and looked full of face, he quickly stood up and said, "I really dare not accept the love from you all, and I should pay respects to you." As he said, he poured his own cup and drank it. He drank the wine and kept saying, "Thank you!" At this time, the wooden plate on which the game ticket was written was brought up again, and Gu Yingchun looked at Sha Yixin and asked, "It's still the third child of Xiao Jinling, how is it?" "No, no! Brother Yingchun, I am exempted today! You know, my situation is different today." Sha Yixin said again: "And steal this moment, don't ask Hu Guan for a good lesson, it's vain It's a pity to waste time." "Alright." Gu Yingchun nodded, "I'll make other arrangements later." "I've already made arrangements." Hu Xueyan interjected, "We'll go to the front room later and have a farewell party for Lin Taizun and Sha Sima." "Don't dare to do it, don't dare to do it." Lin Maoxian and Sha Yixin said in unison. Gu Yingchun already knew Hu Xueyan's original intention to win over Lin Maoxian and Xiangyun's fourth son; and his other arrangement was to see that Hu Xueyan and Sha Yixin were quite sympathetic, and he needed to spare time for them to have an in-depth conversation. Let's do it together, and immediately said: "You heard me. I will be the master on behalf of Mr. Hu Da. Fourth brother, you can go back and prepare now." The fourth son of Xiangyun stood up diligently, and first said to Hu Xueyan with a smile: "Gemo Nu, turn around first, and turn the table top to make it up." Then, he raised his voice and said, "Masters, Yan Xie is just going to invite you here, don't make fun of it." Slip it! Young Master Jiang, it’s the end of the matter, I beg you, Zai Naizai!” "Pull me up, I'm missing something. But, fourth child, thank you so much?" "Tell me!" "Have a nice face, okay?" "Just talking nonsense, if you talk about it, you will be able to find it!" Jiang Luobo gave Jiang Luobo a glance, and walked away. Lin Maoxian lived in the north for a long time, and was used to seeing the bold and incomprehensible northern rouge. This day, he saw the delicate, charming, enchanting and changeable gold powder of the Southern Dynasty, and was fascinated.Everyone knows that the host and guest of this day are Lin Sha and Lin Sha, and at the same time, from Gu Yingchun's announcement of "acting as the host", he realized that Hu Xueyan and Sha Yixin might have something to talk about, so they took the opportunity to make a fuss, and it was not as good as it is now Just turn over. "Let's do this!" Gu Yingchun just re-arranged, "Brother Yixin, please enjoy yourself here, and Mr. Hu Da will accompany you to talk. I will accompany everyone there first, and please come over when you are satisfied." Said, standing Get up; because the guests are in the front room, they save a lot of trouble in wearing mandarin jackets, lighting lanterns, and going out and in. The seventh child of Aiyuelou still kept her rules of seeing off guests, and stood at the door to greet one by one; when the guests who were supposed to leave had left, she turned around and said to Hu Xueyan, "Master Hu and Mr. Sha, please come here!" In the back is the bedroom of the seventh child in Aiyuelou. There is a big copper bed in the back. In the middle of the bed, there is a cigarette tray, two embroidered lake crepe quilts, folded into long strips, and two foreign-style pillows on it.Although Hu Xueyan doesn't smoke opium, he knows that smokers lie on the left side because the right hand is on the top, which makes it easier to move, so he said "please"; let Sha Yixin lie down, and he accompanied him on the opposite side of the cigarette tray. "Master Sha!" The seventh child of Aiyuelou walked up with a cigarette case with a bright corner in his hand, and said, "What kind of smoke cream do you want to use, please be patient, there is only 'yuntu', do you know how to accommodate?" Then, drag a small stool and sit down in front of the bed. "It's good, it's good. Seventh Miss, I'll do it myself, I don't dare to work." "Old Seven," Hu Xueyan said, "you don't have to be polite, I know you are not very good at smoking. Since Master Sha said so, you let Master Sha come by himself." As fate would have it." As he spoke, he put down the cigarette case, ordered some hot tea and candy, and went to peel a plate of fruit, and then said, "If anything is over, just say hello, and the servant will come to the front of the wave. " When she put down the door curtain and left, Sha Yixin had already lifted the lid of the box, and started to froth on the crystal "Taiguda" with a cigarette stick. It was clean and neat, and after a while, it was labeled as a big smoke with all three characters of "yellow, high, and pine". Make a hole in the middle of the smoke bubble, then throw it over and extend the bong towards Hu Xueyan. "Please, please." Hu Xueyan waved his hands hastily, "I don't have the blessing of 'fushou balm'." Hearing this, Sha Yixin stopped being polite, aimed at the fire and finished smoking in one breath, "sha, sand, sand", picked up the hot camellia pot and took a mouthful of hot tea, closed his eyes for a while, and then started Pale white smoke came out of the nostrils. Sha Yixin had the energy to talk after this pipe of smoke went down—it was really interesting. Let’s talk about a person Hu Xueyan knows very well—Gong Xiaogong, who is called a “traitor”. This person is the son of Gong Dingan, a famous scholar during the Daoguang period.The Gong family is a family in Hangzhou. Gong Dingan's father and ancestors were all prominent officials. He also has profound attainments in his studies; but after winning the exam, he was unfavorable in the general examination and failed several times.It turns out that Xuanzong's qualifications and temperament are very similar to Sizong, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He has the intention to be a hero, but his talent is very short, and he lacks the knowledge of people. , specifically to persuade Xuanzong to be picky, and to be discerning, so the political style and writing style are both weak; the quality of the articles in the test paper is second, and the most important thing is that the format must not be wrong. If it is wrong, it is a violation of "law". was also rejected.Gong Ding'an lost his name to Sun Shan several times because of this. After finally passing the exam, everyone said that he must order "Hanlin Academy Shujishi", but who knew that the palace examination paper was not selected by the Hanlin Academy because of poor calligraphy.Gong Dingan was full of complaints and had nothing to vent. He asked his concubine and girls to use "big papers" to practice calligraphy. Some of them wrote "black, big, light, and round" in an excellent "guange style". He boasted to others and said, "If you can go to the test for this move, you must order Hanlin."At that time, there was a talented woman from Manchuria named "Xilin Taiqingchun", whose poems were as famous as Nalan Xingde.She is the side Fujin of Baylor Yihui, who lives in Taiping Lake in the southwest corner of the capital, which is later known as Prince Chun's Mansion, which is also the "Qiandi" where Emperor Guangxu was born.Because Gong Ding'an works in the clan's mansion, and because he has a deep knowledge of the phonology of characters and can speak Manchurian and Mongolian, not only for "returning to official business", he often visits the mansion of relatives and nobles, but also wins the appreciation of some relatives.Yihui people are very open-minded, and Xilin Taiqing can't help singing with the nobles and celebrities of the court. Gong Ding'an is the person who has the closest relationship with Xilin Taiqing's spring poems and papers. Gong Dingan, because of his late academic name, was only a "officer" in his forties when he was in his forties. His future was limited and his salary was meager. A person like Gong Ding'an, who is famous as a public official, can live a very comfortable life by "playing the autumn wind".I made up my mind and acted resolutely, but there have been rumors in the capital that he has no choice but to dismiss his official position, because there is an ulterior secret between him and Xilin Taiqingchun, if he does not resign his official position and leave Beijing, there will be unforeseen disasters "Unfortunately, not long after resigning from office, he became the head of an academy, and died suddenly overnight. It was really a stroke, and it is said that he was poisoned to death. Gong Xiaogong is the eldest son of Gong Ding'an. He has many names and nicknames. In his later years, he called himself "Half Lun". , it is hard to say that there is still a "half relationship".From this alias, one can imagine that he is a madman. Gong Xiaogong is very talented. Due to his genetics and family education, he is also proficient in Manchu and Mongolian characters. What is even better than his father is that he can also speak English.During the Xianfeng period, Gong Xiaogong lived in Shanghai, and was introduced by a Cantonese surnamed Zeng, and met the British minister Wade. During the battle of the British and French allied forces, Wade went north, and brought Gong Kaogong's documents and consultants.When the British and French allied forces broke through the capital and set fire to the Old Summer Palace, it is said that Gong Xiaogong was the leader, and took advantage of the fire to steal a lot of treasures, became a rich man in the Shanghai Concession, spent money, and died in poverty. This is why he was called "" The origin of "traitor". "This is wronging him." Hu Xueyan replied: "I know him very well. There are madness, but it is not enough to be a traitor." "It's true. It's a pity for this person!" Sha Yixin said: "Nowadays, there are not many people who pay attention to Western affairs and can really understand the temperament of foreigners. Gong Xiaogong is one of them; if he didn't give up on himself, he can replace those people now." If you want to learn the strengths of foreigners, or if you really want to be a governor, you can help me a lot." "Then according to a man, among the current governors, which ones really want to make a career?" Hu Xueyan asked casually. "Like Zhang Zhenxuan."