My name is Chang An, your name is Gu Li

Chapter 125 3 Learning to Play the Pipa

Su Meng put the pipa in her arms aside, reached out and casually brushed off the wine stains on her skirt, then picked up a glass of wine on the table and drank it all.

After drinking, she seemed to feel a little hot on her face, and raised her hand to fan herself. She leaned slightly on the railing beside her, and seemed to feel a little tired.

Chang An saw her like this and asked jokingly, "Has it been like this all this time? Why haven't I seen you surrounded by so many gentlemen before?"

Su Meng heard Chang An's teasing and said with a smile: "Do you want to listen to what you are saying? I, Su Meng, am still the most popular courtesan in Xinluan Restaurant and even in the entire Nanqu. There are so many people who admire me and want to find me. How could there be no one around me?"

"Where is Madam Su Meng? I want Madam Su Meng!"

At this moment, a drinker in the audience suddenly started shouting, as if he was drunk.

"Mother Su! Call Madam Su Meng over!"

When people drink too much, their voices naturally get louder, and the sound naturally reaches the ears of Chang An and others. At this time, Su Meng looked at Chang An, tilted his head slightly downstairs, and raised the corners of his mouth slightly, as if to say, "Look at what I said."

Chang An naturally nodded, raised his eyebrows helplessly, and said, "I'm sorry for talking too much."

At this time, the mother of Xinluan Restaurant also trotted over to the customer, smiling but apologetically said, "Sorry, sir, Su Meng has to accompany Mr. Chang today, and they booked Su Meng first today."

"Who cares about Mr. Chang or Mr. Short? I have plenty of money!" the drinker said, and threw the bulging purse on his waist onto the table. From the sound, one could tell that the purse was filled with large silver ingots.

"Call Madam Su Meng to play me a song and have a drink, and then all the money in this bag will be yours. How can you not do business when it comes?"

"Sir, it's really not a matter of money. The main thing is that Su Meng has to accompany Mr. Chang now." Mother Su was obviously a little embarrassed at this time.

But the drunkard had drunk too much, so he took out a purse and said, "I want to see Madam Su Meng! Why are we here today? Isn't it just for Madam Su Meng's pipa music?"

"That's right, Mama Su. We come here not only to drink, but also to watch dancing and listen to music. How can we just drink without listening to music?" At this time, the drinker on the other side also responded and threw a bag of silver on the table.

"Yes, I want Madam Su Meng to come too!" At this time, another drinker threw his purse on the table, as if he would not give up until he saw Su Meng.

Su Meng sighed, and finally picked up the pipa and stood up, and said to Chang An with a forced smile: "I'll go and entertain them first, you just wait here for me."

Chang An was helpless and could only nod. Seeing that Su Meng was going to accompany the guests with wine, Gao Shi followed her to prevent some of the guests from getting drunk and making trouble.

Gu Li frowned his beautiful eyebrows and said, "Why are these people like this? They know that my sister doesn't want to go, but they still want to make things difficult for her."

"There's nothing we can do about this." Chang An sighed. It was obvious that he was helpless about this matter and couldn't change it in the slightest.

"There are two courtesans in Pingkangfang, namely Zhong Zhang and Nan Su, also known as Zhang Wu Su Qu as the two best in Pingkang. Zhong Zhang refers to Zhang Aiyu who lives in Zhongqu, Pingkangfang, and Nan Su is Su Meng."

Chang An said: "It would be abnormal if even the courtesan was not popular. So whether it was Su Meng or Zhang Aiyu from Zhongqu, it was like this every night."

But Gu Li still didn't quite understand why, and asked again: "But I haven't seen my sister so busy before."

"That's because of me." Chang An sighed and said, "Because of my existence, they can't just ignore my face and force Su Meng to play her song."

"And now, after learning that I married you, Gu Niang, those who were originally inconvenienced by my face have naturally begun to recruit Su Meng."

"Even in the past, during the period between the end of the Spring Examination and the beginning of the Imperial Examination, many people would come to see her, so this time is always the busiest time in Pingkangfang."

Hearing this, Gu Li also felt helpless and could only look downstairs through the railing. There was a small team, led by Gao Shi who was protecting Su Meng; the second was Su Meng who was going to accompany the wine; and behind Su Meng was a maid holding a tray, which was full of money bags.

Chang An looked downstairs with his eyes slightly narrowed. He watched Su Meng moving back and forth among the many drinkers, her every smile and frown full of charm, her every move full of style, as if the tiredness just now was fake.

After a while, Su Meng returned to Chang An's table and sat down again. Because she drank too much, her face was flushed and her eyes were a little blurry.

Seeing this, Chang An also poured a cup of hot tea and motioned Gao Shi to push the cup to Su Meng. Su Meng looked at the hot tea that suddenly appeared in front of him, then raised his eyes to look at Chang An sitting opposite him, just smiled faintly and said:

"Thanks……"

After saying that, she casually threw the pipa in her arms aside, picked up the teacup, blew it gently, and then put it to her mouth and drank it bit by bit.

Chang An looked at Su Meng drinking tea and found it a little funny. After Su Meng finished her tea, she picked up the wine pot and filled Chang An's cup with wine.

Chang An looked quietly at the wine glass in front of him, slowly reached out his hand and picked it up, but when he brought it to his lips, he found it hard to swallow.

"Why, is this wine unpalatable?" Su Meng took the wine pot, opened the lid, put it close to her nose and sniffed it, then said, "But this is what you like to drink, what's wrong with you..."

Chang An did not answer her. It was the original owner who was her confidant, not herself, but why did she still feel powerless? Gu Li just looked at him, watching him keep this action, and finally watched him tilt his head back to drink the wine, and then slammed the teacup on the table.

"Someone come! Bring me a poetry board, paper and pen!" he shouted.

When the maidservant heard this, she quickly went to get paper, pen and poetry board and placed them in front of Chang An. Chang An picked up the pen and dipped the ink, then started writing directly on the poetry board:

"The guests improvised a new song - the thirteen music houses finished the pipa, and on a moonlit night, tens of thousands of people competed for the song. I passed by Xunyang while reciting "Pipa" while drunk, and now people can't stop playing the instrument. In the morning, I cleaned the pipa and played the piano, and in the evening, I played the singer, with a smile on my face and eyes full of love. Seven years have passed and I am still beautiful, but I don't know myself anymore because of the happiness I have gained."

After finishing, Chang An threw down his pen, stood up with the poem board, turned over and sat on the railing, and shouted: "All the young men!"

The drinkers were attracted by Chang An's shouting, and he shouted again, "Where is Mama Su?"

When Mother Su, who was busy entertaining guests, heard Chang An's call, she ran over and asked, "What do you want, Mr. Chang?"

Chang An held out the poem board in his hand, then let it fall naturally to the first floor. Then Chang An took out the money bag, opened it and poured it downstairs, and then said:

"My dear guests, I have always believed that a beautiful woman should be paired with a talented man, but allow me to say something offensive -"

As he was talking, Chang An turned over and stood on the railing, and continued: "I, Chang An Chang Yonghe, think that the gentlemen present here are not talented people!"

"Mr. Chang! What do you mean by this?" At this time, a man stood up and pointed at Chang An and questioned.

Chang An smiled, paced on the railing and said: "It's nothing, I just think that you gentlemen are a bit too high to drink with Su Meng. If you really want to drink with Su Meng..."

"Did you see the poem board and the silver on the ground, Mother Su?"

Mother Su had already picked up the poem board and started reading it. As she read, she said, "I see."

"This poem board contains a seven-character quatrain. I also admit that my talent is not good enough. If someone can write a similar poem, then he can drink with Su Meng."

"Of course, if Su Meng agrees, we can drink together without having to do it. But if Su Meng doesn't want to, then the only way is to recite poems."

At this time, a young man came forward and took the poem board from Su Mama, so Su Mama was able to bend down and pick up the silver coins that Chang An dropped. Looking at the young man who took the poem board, his face turned pale, and he opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word.

"Mother Su, what do you think?" Chang An asked, ignoring the pale-faced man.

Mother Su also felt sorry for Su Meng - she was afraid that she would get exhausted and lose her cash cow, so she quickly said, "Of course."

Chang An then turned around, got off the railing, and sat back in his original position. At this time, Su Meng also said jokingly: "Why do you want to set up this poetry test? Aren't you just cutting off my financial resources for nothing?"

"Are you willing to earn this money?" Chang An said with a smile, "I'm not cutting off your financial resources. Rather than calling this a test, it's more like a paper tiger to intimidate them."

"What do you mean?" Su Meng asked with some confusion.

"What I mean is that the reason why this poem was released is to intimidate those drinkers. To them, this poem is my face." Chang An explained, "If they really want to find you, they will naturally rack their brains to come up with a poem. Whether it is good or bad, at least it can prove that they are sincere in coming to you."

After Su Meng heard this, she couldn't help but laugh and pointed at him and said, "You are so good, Chang Yonghe..."

At this time, Chang An also smiled slightly and said nothing.

"Won't you break your own rules by doing this?" Su Meng asked again.

Chang An shook his head and said, "I'm helping you. How can this be considered breaking the rules?"

Su Meng smiled and asked again: "Then...what is written in your poem?"

"Why don't you go and see for yourself when the time comes?"