Only until the end of the We Hour (3 o’clock in the afternoon) did the female guests bid their farewell to Minglan in succession. Minglan rubbed her cheek which was about to get a spasm due to smiles and climbed onto her bed. The moment she closed her eyes, she fell into a deep sleep. After she didn’t know how long, while she was still in a trance, she felt a familiar sense of pressure on her belly and chest.

Minglan opened her eyes calmly, seeing the sunset out of the window. The man lay on the bed beside her with his leg on Minglan’s belly and one of his arms on her chest. Minglan could feel his head against her neck and his wet and hot breath spraying to her.

She exhaled with difficulty. Then, she, having twisted her waist, reached out two of her arms from the thin blanket and raised the man’s arm a few inches away from her like she was lifting a barbell. After that, she rolled down from the bed. The whole set of her movements were quite smooth, looking very skillful.

After smelling her clothes, Minglan went to the shower room straight away. Danju helped Minglan pull down her hair and undress her clothes. Xiaotao rushed to fetch hot water and the towel. As the two maids saw the angry look on Minglan’s face, they looked at each other. Then Danju couldn’t help saying, “Xiazhu and Xiahe have already made the bed for Master as you have told, however…” Xiaotao said blankly, “However, the moment Master stepped into the room, he asked ‘Where is Madam?’ right away. Then, he headed to the east side room drunkenly.” Xiaotao sounded a bit indignant while saying that.

Minglan sighed gently, “You don’t have to say anything. You think I didn’t know?”

After Minglan had washed herself, she put on a clean sleep suit and a light-yellow cotton-padded jacket embroidered with plum blossom. As she looked in the mirror to put on some make up, she said to Xiaotao, “Call Little Quan and Little Shun over. I want to know what has happened in the outer yard today.”

Xiaotao answered and left. After a short while, the two boys came over.

Gu Quan was quick of wit while Gu Shun was prudent. The younger one of them had reached the age to go to the fifth grade and the elder one was at the same age as the seven grade’s student. Minglan put a handful of snacks into their hands while asking them questions gently. Gu Quan, with two of his cute tiger teeth exposed, talked about everyone on the feast one after another. Although the boy was young, he did have a good memory. He remembered clearly which masters had got loaded and been carried back to their mansions, which masters had acted crazily after taking a sip of the wine and which masters carried their liquor like gentlemen.

The Duan’s brothers had impressive drinking capacity. Half of the people had been carried out because they had been inebriated by the two brothers, including Old Master Gan, the old official who had gained vigor with age and refused to retire. It was said that he had been talking with Gu Tingye at that time. However, after the two brothers had plied him with drink, he had nearly been drowned in the wine.

Old General Bo had stroked his beard and claimed with a smile, “Old man like us should always drink in moderation.”

“How old is Old Master Gan?” Minglan asked with curiosity. There was no standard of the retirement age in the ancient times.

“About fifty or sixty years old.” Gu Quan wasn’t clear about that. Then Gu Shun added for him softly, “I heard that Old Master Gan held a feast to celebrate his sixtieth birthday the year before last.”

Minglan nodded with satisfaction. Old Madam Gan was only around forty years old. So this old madam should be the second wife of Old Master Gan, unless she and Suet-Fa Kong were from the same sect.

The feast was basically very successful. Not only had the dishes been fancy and the dices, gourds, lot pots, wager game cards and other game props been complete, even the tea and the pills for the guests to sober up had been prepared. The people who gave Minglan the biggest surprise were her father and her brother. She had thought that Sheng Hong and Changbai would have felt boring during the banquet since most of the guests there had been generals or childes from the noble family. However, the reality had been the other way around.

After the meal had started for just a short while, the grim-faced Changbai ran into the even more grim-faced Master Fu Jinran who held a post of the Right Minister of the Court of State Ceremonials. After that, Qiu Shu who worked in the Imperial College joined them. The three of them talked with each other solemnly. Others who didn’t know about the feast might even assume that they were attending the memorial meeting.

In the meantime, Sheng Hong and Fifth Old Master were like old friends at the first meeting. They talked about how hard they had studied in their childhood, how difficult the Imperial Examination had been and the difficulties of being an official. The more they talked with each other, the more pleasant their conversation became. Fifth Old Master admired the educated scholars the most. However, most of the civil officials who had passed the Imperial Examination despised the descendants from noble families. However, Sheng Hong had strong social skills and a refined style of conversation with an elegant temperament. No matter what he really thought of the person he was talking to, he could always make that person feel delighted.

When Fifth Old Master said that he felt ashamed that he had failed in the Imperial Examination for so many times though he was ten years older than Sheng Hong, Minglan’s father disagreed with that earnestly right away and claimed, “Fifth Old Master, you should never be judged by your failures since the literary output is always the hardest thing to value in this world. Perhaps the examiners who have examined your papers happened to dislike your style of writing.” Then Sheng Hong also gave lots of examples of the great writers who had failed in the Imperial Examination.

Hearing that, Old Fifth Master, eyes filled with tears, regarded Sheng Hong as his best friend immediately.

As Minglan heard that story, she thought, ‘Come on, how you think my father has managed to be successful in his official career all along? Even those sophisticated officials were fooled by him.’

After that, Sheng Hong and Old Fifth Mater started to talk about the educational issues. Although Sheng’s ancestors were not as renowned as the Gu’s. The descendants of Sheng Hong were obviously more promising than Old Fifth Master’s. As they kept talking with each other, Old Fifth Master gradually felt more and more inferior. It was like on the school parents’ meeting, most of the parents of the students with bad grades were always self-abased in front of the parents of the kids who had excellent grades.

Hearing that, Minglan who was holding a tea cup in her hand couldn’t stop laughing with her shoulders shivering.

Her joyful mood hadn’t faded away until Gu Tingye woke up. As she ordered the servants to set the dinner table, she still talked about Sheng Hong’s story smilingly. It was already the end of the You Hour (7 p.m), Minglan and Gu Tingye both felt discomfort in their stomachs due to the wines they had drunk during the daytime. Therefore, Minglan ordered the mung bean porridge with almond, the sauced beef with sesame baked roll and a few light vegetable plates. Mama Ge also cooked her specialty pickled dish for them. After mixing a bit sesame oil or vinegar, the dish tasted even better.

As a matter of fact, Gu Tingye hadn’t eaten too much solid food in the noon. At first he was still out of spirit, however, after he had taken a few bites, his appetite opened greatly. Having gobbled up three huge bowls of porridge, he ate five crisp sesame baked rolls with beef, feeling much more comfortable than before. As he heard Minglan telling the funny stories, he was also amused.