Laughing at Chang'an

On January [-]th, Ninety-Nine Years of the Tang Dynasty, Shangyuan Festival.

The Guild and the Datang General Chamber of Commerce have organized a series of activities, and the Shangyuan Festival is also the highlight, especially the lantern festival at night, which is the most important of the highlights.All the merchants with a bit of strength have carefully prepared floats for parading the streets at night, and several large squares surrounding the Weiyang Palace in the center of the city are also preparing for the lantern riddle gathering at night, and the moat surrounding the palace wall has been cleaned up. You can see the bottom clearly.

After enjoying the moon and lanterns, of course, we must also appreciate beautiful women.There is no holiday more suitable for falling in love than this day. I don’t know how many girls in the boudoir are looking forward to a romantic encounter under the moonlight, and I don’t know how many bachelors are gearing up to give it a go.

It's funny, Li Shen has only brought one person to the Lantern Festival in Chang'an for so many years.It wasn't Begonia, nor Baobao Yang, but Mu Zhenzhen, the oiran of the Xiaoxiang Pavilion of the original wine inn who was married to someone else.All along, Li Shen hadn't paid much attention to love affairs, but that time, it was the other party who coquettishly teased him and finally got what he wanted.

"Master, do you want to watch the lanterns at night?"

After lunch, the adjutant thief Xixi came over to ask Li Shen, holding a stack of small portraits of beauties in his hands, all of which were meticulously drawn with ink and wash, more attractive than photos.Seeing that Li Shen didn't respond, he smiled and said, "You can choose whatever you want, one or two, as long as you like it, tonight..."

Li Shen closed his eyes and rubbed the center of his brows, and said angrily, "Get lost."

Li Shen has never been short of women in his life, even when he was poor, if he had been more enthusiastic about the affairs of men and women, it would not be Feng He's turn to be the head of the Fengyue team in the wine inn area.It's a pity that for him, between finding a good opponent to fight to the death and finding a good female goblin to fight, he will definitely choose the former.

The adjutant retreated angrily with the portrait of the beauty. Li Shen returned to the study and continued to read the letters sent by Li's family. However, the portrait of the beauty that he had glanced at just now suddenly appeared in his mind. It's very seductive, and what's more, that blurred face gradually turned into Geng Yan.

Li Shen was speechless, almost convinced himself.His desire for Geng Yan is getting stronger and stronger day by day, completely uncontrollable, even he doubts whether it is a disease... But towards other people, he can't feel lust, and even finds it boring.

The cliff is sick, Li Shen made a conclusion for himself.

The solution is extremely simple, as long as Geng Yan is willing to give him a hug, it will be as difficult as heaven to realize, and he wants to give up.Although he is the kind of person who will take action if he wants it, he also knows that there is nothing in this world that you can definitely get if you want it. It is a naive idea that only children who pester their parents and play tricks have.

"Master!" The adjutant rushed into the study holding an invitation card, "Tonight..."

Li Shen was getting annoyed, and interrupted angrily: "No, push it away."

"But this is Commander Geng..." The adjutant walked to the desk, handed the invitation card in front of Li Shen, looked at Li Shen with a delicate expression, and said thoughtfully, "Are you still pushing?"

Li Shen opened the invitation, and frowned after reading two lines. Geng Yan, as the acting president of the guild and the leader of the Geng Army, naturally had nothing to talk about.This invitation is to invite Li Shen, who is the head of the Li family, to attend the Shangyuan Banquet held at Weiyang Palace in the evening.

Li Shen took over the Li family and was obliged to represent the Li family to attend such events, but he didn't have to go, it was not difficult to find an excuse to decline.He himself is naturally not interested in this kind of banquet where he sits there full of nonsense, but this time the host of the Shangyuan Banquet is Geng Yan, and if he does not go, it will inevitably cause unnecessary speculation. It is not a family or two who let go of a little trouble.

"Reply that I will go." Li Shen instructed the adjutant.

Li Shen didn't want to see Geng Yan, because he fell ill when he saw that face, his body was burning with lust, and his brain short-circuited.If this ghost problem is not under control, he really doesn't want to embarrass himself in front of the other party again. Li Shen feels that there is nothing wrong with his aesthetics. In his eyes, Geng Yan didn't turn into a peerless beauty, but directly turned into a ball of aphrodisiac.

... If he doesn't give him a way to survive, he feels that he will go crazy sooner or later.

In the evening, Li Shen was about to change clothes and go out, but when he saw the clothes brought by the adjutant, the corners of his eyes twitched unconsciously.

"A Bao."

"Here I am."

"Go to the water room and wash your brain."

The adjutant blinked in confusion, "Why, sir?" He followed Li Shen's gaze to look at the brocade robe he was holding in his hand, still with a puzzled expression on his face, "This is your prince's robe."

It's the prince's robe that Li Shen wore when he was enshrined in the Nanhai Elf King's Court. It's a standard elf aesthetic, extremely gorgeous and exquisite. If Li Shen wears this to attend the banquet tonight, it will surely attract the attention of all beings... But The question is, why is he so flamboyant?Do you think there are not enough newspapers?

Looking at the innocent face of the adjutant, Li Shen believes that he is a ghost. If you want to say who in this world likes to see Li Shen show off the most, the adjutant is definitely ranked first. For this reason, he has even colluded with newspapers many times to sell Li Shen's exclusive photos. , just to get Li Shen into the headlines.

This is also a disease, Li Shen suddenly felt a sense of sympathy for his fellow patients, and his anger could not help but mostly subsided, he waved his hand and said, "Go and get a normal set."

He was attending as the head of the Li family, so naturally he couldn't wear the Geng Army uniform. The adjutant sadly rolled away with that set of princely robes, and after a short while, brought another set of dark black brocade robes that were relatively plain compared to before.That's right, it was Li Shen's white tiger robe.

Li Shen felt that this guy was looking for trouble deliberately, so he went out of the house without saying a word, even taking his clothes with him.

Ignoring the grumbling adjutant hanging on the railing, he dug out a normal dress from the closet in the bedroom, but it was more troublesome to wear than normal clothes. Li Shen couldn't tie his belt with one hand, so he frowned and called the adjutant to come in for help.

Unexpectedly, after the adjutant came in, he would dare to sing against him: "Master, I don't think your outfit is suitable."

It was very rare for him to directly contradict Li Shen like this, the situation was a little unusual, Li Shen turned his head and looked at him, waiting for someone to say something ugly about Zi Wu.

"Master, this is the first time you have attended such an occasion since you took over as the Patriarch of the Li family." The adjutant met Li Shen's gaze, his eyes were full of seriousness, "I know you don't want to show off, but you have to get the limelight , so that people won’t look down upon it.”

He paused, seemingly hesitant, Li Shen nodded at him, and said, "Continue."

"And your situation is a bit special. A while ago, the scandal was not very good." When the adjutant talked about the scandal, he looked at Li Shen's expression with some embarrassment. Seeing that the person did not show anger, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued, " You are the Patriarch of the Li Family, the superior, your will belongs only to yourself, not to be influenced by others. You cannot let people think that you are Geng Shuai's vassal, even if it is such an illusion."

"Otherwise, you will not be able to convince the public, nor will you be able to intimidate others."

The adjutant was right, and Li Shen knew it well, but the consequences of doing so would make people feel that he and Geng Yan had a rift, mistakenly thought that he had ambitions that he shouldn't have, disturbed a pool of spring water, and brought unhappiness to the Geng army. necessary trouble.If it doesn't matter, it's a test of how much Geng Yan trusts him.

Trust is something that cannot be tested.

The adjutant was already ready to be confused, with his arms raised in the air, as long as Li Shen moved, he would be able to cover the door immediately, but he saw Li Shen looking at him calmly, and asked, "Is it finished?"

The adjutant remained vigilant and nodded cautiously.

"Come here and tie my belt after you finish talking." Li Shen ordered angrily, "The banquet starts at seven o'clock? Is the car ready?"

His attitude was calm, but his meaning was clear. However, the adjutant knew that he had failed to persuade people, so he walked over with his head down in frustration, and bowed down to tie people's belts.

Li Shen's voice sounded above his head: "I subdued the Li family for the sake of the Geng Army. In order to secure the position of the Patriarch, I hurt the interests of the Geng Army. This is putting the cart before the horse."

The adjutant lowered his head and curled his lips in disapproval. It's a pity that their master is determined to die for the Geng Army. What can he do.

"Fame, power, status, no one doesn't want it." Li Shen said with a carefree smile, "Unfortunately, what I want most is..."

The adjutant fastened the belt for him, squatted down to adjust the corner of his robe, and waited for a long time without waiting for the next sentence, and raised his head in confusion.He opened his mouth and called out softly, 'Grandfather'.

Li Shen was bewildered, and after a while, he came back to his senses and nodded.

"Let's go."

………………

The pitch-black RV parked beside the Xiama Bridge, and the adjutant walked around and opened the door for Li Shen. The lantern festival behind him had already begun, and all kinds of colorful lights were ostentatious, which was very pleasing.Li Shen looked at the bustling scene, smiled at the adjutant, "Pack up and go to watch the lanterns, just ask the driver to wait for me here, I don't expect you to hook up with a wife, just have fun."

The corners of the adjutant's eyes twitched, he didn't speak, and silently looked at Li Shen with both eyes, protesting silently.What do you mean you can hook up with a daughter-in-law without pointing at you?Do you look down on people?

——He forgot that he was already a 37-year-old bachelor.

The Shangyuan banquet is held in the Anping Hall of Weiyang Palace. It is a must-have event for the guild and the Datang General Chamber of Commerce every year. It can also be said to be the top social banquet in Chang'an and even the entire Datang.Even when Li Shen was in the limelight a few years ago, he still couldn't receive the invitation letter for the Shangyuan Banquet—because he wasn't qualified.

People can enter the gate of this banquet, but dogs cannot.

No matter how capable Li Shen is, as long as he is still Geng Yan's dog, then he is not qualified to sit with other superiors.The Yue'er River separates the bright side and the ugly side of Chang'an, but this gate separates the people and dogs living in the city.

Yang Xingxing said that he saw that the city was full of dogs.

Li Shen wanted to laugh.

Crossing the palace wall and looking up, His Majesty Dan is singing and dancing, and the lanterns are like waterfalls, embellishing the heaven and the earth with colorful lights.

Eyes are full of people.