Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

Chapter 493 Literary Fight

The young lady who had been the first to stick her head out changed her expression and retracted her head back into the crowd.

It's really shameless. Who would brazenly say that they are both talented and beautiful? Shouldn't such words come from other people?

She was not from the first or second wife, but a daughter of a concubine from the Cui family's side branch. The whole family, young and old, depended on the Cui family for their livelihood.

Wang Xianzi never showed any concern for her, but the maid beside her slightly expressed her dissatisfaction with Jiang Shangxian, and her family would naturally understand.

But who knew that Jiang Shangxian was such a spineless person? After he just said a word, she sent someone to complain.

Snitch!

Wang Xianzi couldn't pretend to listen to the maid anymore. She winked and told someone to stop Yingzi while she and Jiang Shangxian laughed and said, "We were just joking around. How could you say that to a man from outside? Jiulang has been in Chang'an for a long time and has finally returned. I'm afraid many old friends will come to visit today. If we make people laugh at us, wouldn't it be a disgrace for us men?"

"Oh~ Madam Wang is right, Yingzi, come back." Seeing these people's faces change, Jiang Shangxian immediately stopped them, as if he was teasing them.

This is just the beginning. She just wants to scare them.

Yingzi was very obedient. She turned a corner and dodged the maid who was trying to catch her and returned to her mother in a flash.

Before they came out, they had agreed that if they really wanted to look for their brother-in-law, they would just make gestures quietly. If they said it directly, it would be just a scare tactic.

Wang Xianzi also saw that she was not really going to complain, and couldn't help but curse in his heart that women in the market were really cunning and she was not just talking casually.

But he still managed a smile through his teeth: "Why don't you play the fighting game? This kind of fighting is mostly for children. How old are you? You're still playing this."

As he spoke, he pulled Jiang Shangxian toward the crowd, nodding this and that with a smile, "It just so happens that your future ninth sister-in-law is here too, why not have some fun together? She's from Chang'an, the most prosperous and wealthy place under the Emperor's feet. You might all lose to her today, and if you do, don't cry!"

Jiang Shangxian doesn't know how to fight with grass. She only knows how to fight with physical weapons, which doesn't require much technical skills. However, fighting with words requires knowledge and cultural cultivation, and the mere nine years of compulsory education did not give her this skill.

Some people may not accept this and ask, what is there that I didn’t learn in my nine years of compulsory education?

Really!

Have you read Dream of the Red Chamber?

There is a description of several little girls fighting over flowers and plants. It is about the Wen Dou Cao. It is written very clearly above. Wen Dou Cao is that at the beginning, each person has a basket, and everyone finds different flowers and plants in the garden, picks them, and then gathers together.

The first little girl took out something and said: I have Guanyin Willow.

So how do I answer the next one?

The second little girl immediately took out something and continued: I have Podocarpus.

Did you see it?

The things that the ancients played with were of real cultural level and quite advanced. They didn't just play for fun, they used their brains to play with them.

Guanyin is paired with Arhat, willow is paired with pine, the couplet is perfect, instead of just picking any flower or plant and saying that it matches.

Just like the ancients had specific requirements for the prosody of couplets and poems, they could not repeat or make up words, and they had to echo each other and have neat parallelism.

So many people think that after traveling through time, they can just memorize poems as much as possible, and there will be no problem as long as the poems they memorize did not appear in this era.

This is impossible and a pipe dream. If you don't even understand the basic format requirements of poetry, when others discuss with you and communicate with you in depth, you will be completely in the dark and may not even understand what they are asking. Just being able to memorize poems will not last long.

Cao Xueqin is truly a great man. He can create masterpieces that will last forever with just a few strokes of the pen.

Although he was not well educated, Jiang Shangxian did not struggle to pull his hand out. Although Wang Xianzi had been married for some years, she was only in her twenties after all. She was as charming as a flower, her body was fragrant, and her hands were soft.

Other people's wives mainly want to hold hands with her, so Xiao Jiang not only does not lose out, but also feels like she is taking advantage of Cui Wei.

"Mrs. Jiang also knows how to fight grass?"

"You'll know whether you can do it or not if you try it. It's just some stuff."

"If she loses, will she go to Brother Nine to complain again?"

The young ladies may not have learned the key point that they must lower their voices when speaking ill of others, and their whispers reached Jiang Shangxian's ears one after another.

"I've long heard that Qingzhou is a city of Confucianism. Seeing it today, I can see it's truly extraordinary. Look at all these young ladies..."

Jiang Shangxian looked at Wang Xianzi with a look of satisfaction: "A gentleman never speaks after others. The young ladies are indeed sincere gentlemen."

Is this scolding them?!

The young ladies could all hear it and were all speechless for a moment.

They want face!

In order to force the issue, Wang Xianzi completely ignored her words and directly pushed her to the main seat: "It's just a game of fighting for grass. Have you forgotten that Miss Jiang is from Chang'an?"

Jiang Shangxian: Thank you...

The group of old wives and thugs were separated at this time, but none of them panicked at all. Of course they wouldn't fight with grass, but they firmly believed that their wives would definitely do it, otherwise how could they have eaten their own son-in-law so well?

Not to mention having a concubine, he didn't even dare to have a maid by his side!

Such a powerful lady, it’s just a matter of fighting with grass, how could she not know it!

"What's so great about coming from Chang'an? Come on, get the basket!" Wang Xianzi's words successfully aroused the competitive spirit of the young ladies. People in any era cannot stand regional discrimination, and they are no exception.

Jiang Shangxian, who was 'very impressive', looked at the baskets placed before him one by one and finally said, "Wait."

One of the young ladies, with her hands on the basket, stood up and was about to pick some flowers. Upon hearing this, she immediately revealed a look of disdain: "What? If you can't win, it's not too late to admit defeat now!"

Jiang Shangxian continued his shy performance, a little embarrassed, "Madam Wang just said that I'm from Chang'an. In Chang'an, the games are different from those in Qingzhou. This grass fighting game is just the same game over and over again. It's no longer played in Chang'an."

The young ladies were not convinced by this statement. Doesn't this mean that they are country bumpkins?

"Tell me what to do in Chang'an City!"

Jiang Shangxian blinked, put his hand on his cheek, tilted his head and said with a smile: "We are playing Mushroom Fighting."

"Dou Jun?" Not only were the young ladies puzzled, even Wang Xianzi was a little confused. The Cui family also had shops in Chang'an, and they would send any new things to Qingzhou. How come she had never heard of it?

Jiang Shangxian nodded innocently: "Yes, it's a mushroom fight. It doesn't matter what kind of mushrooms, as long as they are available, whether they are colorful or ordinary. You take a basket, I take a basket, and we blindfold ourselves and exchange them. You eat one, I eat one..."

Who can see the milk first?