Dongdu Pavilion Case Record

Tang Wuyi and Wen Tao wandered around Yangzhou for two days, inquiring about news at the same time.This time the battle was quite big, apart from Zhao Fuyin and Lu Shaoyin from Yangzhou Prefecture, even Jiangnan Dao interview envoys came to join him, not to mention the big salt merchants, tea merchants, and cloth merchants in the Jiangnan area.

In Jinyuan, there are singing and dancing every day. In addition to the oiran ladies of Sifang, there are also many excellent Kabuki from the local Dongfang, which are distributed in pavilions and pavilions in Jinyuan.Guests who have received invitations can go to various places in the garden to have banquets, accompanied by singing and dancing.Naturally, it would be much more difficult to see the lady of Sifang Huakui. Spending a lot of money was not enough, and the owner of Dongfang, Mrs. Chu, was also required to agree to coordinate.The owner of Yunshangfang is different from the head of the ordinary music workshop. He can still show some face in front of all kinds of dignitaries and dignitaries, especially when the oiran holds the election every year, all kinds of nobles gather, and the coordination and entertainment of Chu Fangzhu is indispensable.

Just after noon that day, Tang Wuyi was about to drag Wen Tao to Jinyuan.Wen Tao wondered, "Why did you go so early today?"

"The oiran exam starts today. There are two sessions, one literary and one artistic. Today is the literary event, which will start in the afternoon."

"Oh? What is the essay? Do you write poems and essays like scholars?" Wen Tao imagined a bunch of charming kabuki ladies trying to write essays in the hall, and laughed inadvertently.

It was rare for Tang Wuyi to see him smile, and he was in a good mood. He patiently explained: "After all, the Oiran lady has both talents and talents. Although I said that the two days of art exams are the big ones, today's essay exams are also a warm-up. Every essay exam is the best. A topic is set in advance, and the oirans can write poems, paint pictures, or arrange music. When the time comes, the works will be exhibited one by one, and the distinguished guests will throw flowers to enumerate. The oirans will not show their faces in this essay , is purely literary."

"Oh, then when we enumerate, are the works of the oirans sealed with names like scientific research? Otherwise, it may not be fair." Wen Tao said seriously.

"Hahahaha," Tang Wuyi saw that he was so serious, and said happily, "I don't need to mention the name, but in fact, everyone knows what each oiran is good at. If you want to favor a lady, today is a good time , How many nobles have spent a lot of money and used thousands of flowers to cheer for the ladies."

"Then you can throw the flowers after picking them yourself?" Wen Tao asked naively.

Tang Wuyi glanced at him with caring eyes for the mentally handicapped, and said, "Of course it's specially provided by Yunshangfang, and it's two liang of silver a piece."

"It's still possible to make profits like this!" Wen Tao suddenly realized, "Should we also buy it?"

"No, since I received the invitations, they all come with one flower as a gift. I brought you, so you can get one too. If you want more, you have to pay for it yourself."

The two arrived at Jinyuan briskly all the way, and they saw that there was already a row of fragrant chariots and horses at the door.Wen Tao said: "No wonder the garden was built here. If it were in a noisy place in Yangzhou city, the road would have been blocked long ago."

Tang Wuyi smiled slightly, he didn't know where to find a folding fan today, and now he took it out to fan it, but it changed his usual fierce style, and he looked like a good son of a troubled world.He instructed: "Taotao, today is a matter of elegance, so you just pretend to be a little attracted to beauties, and don't focus on these messy things."

Wen Tao refused to accept it and said: "I went down the mountain to understand the affairs of the world, and if I have enlightenment, I will be happy."

"That's enough, that's enough, turn your love for food on beauty, it's not in vain to come here."

Wen Tao choked for a moment, and could only obediently follow Tang Wuyi into the garden.When entering the garden, the two each got a seasonal flower, and many guests had already put the seasonal flower in their hair.

"Pavilion Master Tang is here. It's rare to see Pavilion Master Tang come to our East Square." A beautifully dressed woman saluted the two of them.

"It's been a long time, Mrs. Jiang, she's getting younger." Tang Wuyi greeted, Jiang Mei, the deputy owner of Dongfang, is Mrs. Chu's right-hand man.At this moment, Mrs. Chu should be hosting the Wenju banquet, so Mrs. Jiang came here to welcome the guests.

"Master Chu is already presiding over the literary examination, and the poems and paintings of the oiran ladies are all in the courtyard of Zhuijin Building. The topic this time is Spring and Jingming." Lady Jiang said with a smile.

Zhuijin Building is the most magnificent building in Jinyuan, and it is full of guests at this moment.Wen Tao saw that there were many people, and there were all kinds of pleasantries inside, so he hesitated for a while.Tang Wuyi glanced at him and realized that he didn't want to go, so he went directly to the backyard with him.Because Mrs. Chu was having a banquet in the building, there were not so many guests in the backyard.Looking from a distance, the four paintings and calligraphy have been mounted and hung high, and four flower baskets made of Jiangnan green bamboo are placed below each, for people to throw flowers and choose the best one.I saw that although the flower basket was not expensive, it was unique in shape and very wild.

When the two walked to the first painting, it was a thick and colorful peony, red, vermilion, rose red, bright pink, layered on top of each other, with bold colors.Although the details are not as good as those of contemporary masters, they are more graceful than ordinary.

"This portrait is the handwriting of Beifang." Tang Wuyi said, "I have heard that Furong lady of Beifang is good at Danqing, peony is the king of flowers, and she can indeed be compared to her."

Wen Tao remembered that the lady Furong he met that night had a luxurious and haughty demeanor, which indeed matched this painting.

"Hey, this is interesting." Tang Wuyi pointed to the second picture.

Wen Tao took a closer look, and found that this piece was not a calligraphy or painting, but a pair of embroidery, inscribed "Spring and Jingming", and it was a picture of mandarin ducks playing in the water in spring.I saw the gurgling water under the peach blossom tree, and a pair of mandarin ducks playing with each other, quite like a child.

Tang Wuyi said: "If you only talk about this female worker, it's not top quality, but this embroidery is very aura, it doesn't look like it is from a girl from Lefang, but it looks like a daughter from a good family who is waiting to be married. I just don't know which workshop it is from. .”

Wen Tao looked at it carefully and said: "This embroidery is made of silk thread, with various stitches, the stitches are thinner than a hair, and the theme is flowers and birds. It should come from Nanfang, and a pair of birds from Quanzhou in the master's collection." The phoenix map is quite similar."

It turned out that it was embroidered by Suxin, the number one soft dancer whom King Qi met that day.That lady is quite young, flirtatious and shy, but she still has this outstanding female worker.Tang Wuyi sighed secretly, and had already reached the third picture.

"Good word!" Suddenly heard a praise.Tang Wuyi and Wen Tao followed the sound and said in unison, "Master Ye Shao!"

The Master Ye Shao of the Tianji Pavilion who I met before is also viewing calligraphy and painting at the moment. He is a familiar person, and when he saw the two of them, he just bowed his hands lightly.

I saw that the third piece of cursive script is so smooth and flowing, it can be pretended to be written by some talented scholar, and it is never expected to be written by a musician.

"It barely catches the eye." Ye Shaoge said, throwing his own flowers into the flower basket of this one, and then took his leave early.Wen Tao looked down and saw that this basket had the most flowers so far, with dozens of flowers.

"It's actually a Qilu." Tang Wuyi said in surprise.Da Zhou regards poetry as the most respected, among which Qilu is the leader of the poems.This lady dared to compete with a Qilu song, which shows her talent.Wen Tao then carefully read the Qilu.