Chapter 64: Clear Night
An old man and a young man sat facing each other. Nine plates of exquisite dishes were placed on the table, and a few pots of wine also quietly stood beside the dishes. The aroma of the wine spread throughout the room, the strong and piquant scent could make one intoxicated.
"Master, are you really leaving in a few days?" The old man's voice was hoarse and the corners of his eyes were cloudy.
The teenager murmured quietly, "Drink this glass of wine."
The old man spoke slowly, his body froze a little as if he had already got the answer, "Master, why is this wine called Clear Night?"
The young man replied, "The sky is clear at sunset, blowing breeze is gentle in spring, the beautiful woman is beautiful at night, and the dawn is full of singing..."
"Take wine as a song, life is geometric! Master, this Clear Night is really a good name. It's a pity that there are only so few jars of this wine. But you can rest assured that this wine will be preserved well. If one day, when master meets the descendants of my Wang Family, you can ask them to take the wine out." The old man said seriously, he had come to the end of his life, and there was not much he could do, he just hoped that this wine could bring some preordained fate to the descendants of the Wang Family.
"All right." The young man didn't care and answered casually.
Unexpectedly, the old man took it seriously and actually kept the wine for thousands of years.
And that wine, it was brewed by Ye Bei himself.
If he could drink it now, it's really a kind of romance for him.
...
Before the dinner table.
Wang Xiu's body was startled, but then he was relieved that Wang Xizhi's line began to take shape thousands of years ago, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
The young man in front of him was a person who lived in the same era as Wang Xizhi.
It was not strange to know that the Wang Family had wine.
It couldn't be more appropriate to entertain Ye Bei this night.
"Little Gu, there is an ancient willow in the courtyard, three feet deep in the southwest, two jars of wine are buried there. Go and dig it! It was handed down by the ancestors. Only those who come to Wang's house and tell its name, Clear Night, can they have the opportunity to taste it." After calming down, Wang Xiu looked at Wang Gu and gently said.
"Master, you actually hid wine? Clear Night wine... it sounds good; I will dig it." Wang Gu said in a low voice, with a little surprise on his face, his father was hiding wine under the willow tree, this was the first time he knew, wanting to drink a bit of wine, one actually had to say out its code.
He got up and walked to the inner courtyard and found a lot of new bamboo slips and some decorations in the courtyard, but he quickly looked away.
Ten minutes later...
Wang Gu really dug out two jars of wine under the ancient willow.
When the soil was peeled away, a clear aroma of wine filled the entire yard, and the old willow wicker that had just sprouted happily danced and swayed in the yard.
"So fragrant!" Wang Gu carefully lifted the two wine jars out of the soil. He occasionally drank alcohol but didn't have much hobbies regarding that. However, when he smelled the clear and elegant but with the mellow aroma of the wine before him, he seemed to have sublimated his soul at this moment.
Other than this great wine, nothing else was needed.
"Master, there really is wine!"
He pushed the door, holding a hip flask in one hand.
When Wang Gu spoke, his eyes were groping in the room, and he couldn't wait to find the wine glass.
"It's good that it's here." There was a smile on Wang Xiu's face, he actually met with an ancient elder and solved some of the Wang Family's thousands of missions. Although he did not say it today, Wang Xiu felt very happy, "Little Gu, the wine glasses are in the seventh secret compartment of the closet, you can go get it."
"Yes!" Wang Gu put the two jugs of wine on the table, then went to get the wine glasses, facing this particular Wang Xiu's order, he did not complain at all.
Twenty seconds later...
At the table, in front of everyone, there was a clean glass of wine.
As for Ye Bei...
When the wine and food were all ready, he stretched out his hand, lightly held the wine glass in one hand, and picked up the chopsticks in the other, sniffing the attractive and familiar aroma of wine in the air.
Those wines glasses were made of blue and white porcelain from the Ming Dynasty, each one of them was worth a million. And that jug had an even longer history. The jug was not big, had a smaller shape, a round belly, and a chicken head on the shoulder. It was small and had no neck. It was the most famous chicken head jug in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.
And this jug was extremely well-preserved, with porcelain luster blooming on it, if it was put up for auction, it would definitely be bought with a sky-high price.
"Ancestor, it's time to eat! Please first..." Wang Xiu smiled. Although Ye Bei was young, he knew that this was an extremely old elder.
He lived a hundred years old, and some etiquette had long been ingrained. He still understood the principle that the elders were always first to move chopsticks at the dinner table.
"En." Ye Bei answered softly.
He took a bite of a side dish at random, put it in his mouth, and chewed gently.
The taste was much more perfect than it was a thousand years ago. However, it was no longer so familiar.
Picking up a glass of small wine, drinking it all in one sip, leaving fragrance on the lips and teeth, and a long aftertaste.
Clang!
He put down the wine glass.
Sitting at the table, Ye Bei always felt that something was missing.
The wine was indeed brewed by himself thousands of years ago, but after a thousand years of silence, the taste became more beautiful and the color became purer, but this was not the wine that Ye Bei really wanted to drink.
"Eat!" After a long time, Ye Bei said faintly, his complexion remained unchanged from beginning to end.
"Yes, Old Ancestor!" Wang Xiu also picked up the wine glass and drank it in one gulp.
Wang Gu had been greedy for a long time. He was obviously a 70-80-year-old old man. But here, he was really no different from a child. Seeing Wang Xiu finished drinking, he also picked up the wine glass. After drinking in one sip, his cheeks were slightly red, leaning on the chair, and sighing with a long aftertaste, "This wine is really rich and much better than the ones I drank before! Master, you can really hide!"
Wang Xiu waved his hand, "Don't talk nonsense, this wine is handed down from the ancestors, so I won't let you drink it."
Wang Gu was a little drunk, "Father, I heard that two days later, when the ancient town passes the Spring Equinox, there will be an antique auction house, and then the rich and powerful people around here will also come over, so how about we try taking the calligraphy and painting there?"
"That belongs to the ancestor!" Wang Xiu immediately refused.
Wang Gu was unwilling. He felt that it would be a great regret if this kind of calligraphy and painting were not available and recognized, "Well, Old Ancestor, but Old Ancestor has given us the calligraphy and painting as this was also something he used to buy this house." After that, he looked at Ye Bei for advice.
"Okay." Ye Bei gave a nod, the calligraphy and painting had been given away to others, and how to deal with it was their own business.
Drink, eat, talk about the past!
At the dinner table, time always flies quickly...
When all the nine dishes had bottomed out, the three of them put down their chopsticks one after another.
Wang Xiu and Wang Gu crouched and began to clean up their dishes.
Ye Bei was not polite, he stood up and stepped aside.
With his white gown, he walked to the door of the room.
He opened the door, looking at the courtyard leisurely, there were piles of bamboo slips over there, a large number of calligraphies and paintings, and each piece was invaluable.
Ye Bei looked at them, his eyes did not change at all, he was very calm.
However, the tired and poor Wu Sanri and others sat paralyzed in the courtyard with shock in their eyes.