Chapter 111 — The Restaurant (Bonus Update for 1,050 Pink Votes)
Purple Streets of Chang'an · Page 1 of 4
He Yu straightened the moon-white Hangzhou silk robe patterned with bamboo leaves that he wore, and only then climbed down from the carriage.
Looking up, he saw the three characters "Zui Xian Lou" in gilt on a black lacquer plaque, with a small seal in the right corner bearing four characters in ancient clerical script—"Qingxi Sanren"—the sobriquet of Lin Guanlan, former Chancellor of the Hanlin Academy.
His bodyguard came over and murmured, "Young master, shall I come along with you…"
"No need." Before the guard could finish, He Yu cut him off. "Ji Jianming is not that sort of man. If he meant me harm, he would have a hundred ways to do it; he would not need to pick a restaurant bustling with people like this."
"Yes, sir." The guard withdrew and, together with the others, helped park the carriage in the square beside the restaurant.
He Yu entered the Zui Xian Lou with his personal attendant close behind.
Ji Yong's retainer Zixi was waiting for He Yu in the main hall. Seeing him enter, Zixi stepped forward with a smile, made his bow, and invited him up to the third floor. "Our young master awaits you in the Canghai Pavilion, Master He."
The Canghai Pavilion was the finest private room in the Zui Xian Lou, occupying an entire floor of the establishment. A meal there could not even be broached for less than two or three hundred taels, and a reservation was required besides.
He Yu gave a faint smile.
This Ji Jianming—putting on such a grand show. What exactly did he intend?
Someone came over to greet He Yu.
He was a regular here as well.
He Yu responded absently, his mind on the look in Ji Yong's eyes that day when they were writing spring couplets—the way he had looked at Dou Zhiwei.
Bright and burning, as if a fire blazed within them.
A strange feeling flickered through his heart. But he quickly cast aside this emotion that made him uneasy.
A woman taken as wife is a wife; one who elopes is but a concubine.
Matters of marriage, after all, must follow the command of parents and the word of matchmakers.
Slightly reassured, He Yu smiled and set foot on the stairs.
Ji Yong stood with his hands clasped behind his back before a wide-open window. The cloisonné enamel glass set into the casement cast its colors against his lotus-blue fine-cloth robe, making his tall, upright figure seem all the more striking.
When you came down to it, this Ji Jianming was quite a figure.
He Yu muttered to himself.
Ji Yong had already turned around. There was not a trace of a smile on his handsome face; he greeted He Yu coldly: "You've come."
He Yu nodded faintly, then strolled to the window with an air of leisurely ease. With a flick he snapped open his folding fan, waved it twice in an idle motion, then smiled and pointed to a crowded shop across from the Zui Xian Lou. "Brother Ji, how many times have you been to the Zui Xian Lou? That Yao's Roasted Goods across the street does excellent sugar-roasted peanuts. No matter how the Zui Xian Lou tries, it can never match theirs; several times we've wanted to buy their recipe, and never succeeded. Everyone in the capital says it's the Zui Xian Lou that made Yao's Roasted Goods what it is…" His tone carried the peculiar superiority of a local, as though he meant to overwhelm Ji Yong's presence.
At this, Ji Yong's mouth twisted into a smile that was not quite a smile, and he instructed Zishang: "Go, buy Master He a packet of Yao's sugar-roasted peanuts."
Zishang answered and went off.
Ji Yong turned and drove his fist straight into He Yu's face.