Eight young girls, like a multitude of stars surrounding the moon, brought forth a woman wearing a yellow silk skirt and a crimson red undershirt. She held a pipa in her arms, listened intently to the music, and began to play along with it.

  As the prelude ended, she pressed the pipa and her singing voice burst forth. Every word was clear and crisp, every sound was melodious and turning, like a new oriole emerging from the valley, a swallow returning to its nest. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, suddenly high, suddenly low; in the midst of changing tones and tunes, there were countless variations. Just listen to her singing:

  The sun is high, the veranda is lazy and combs its hair. Speechless, leaning against the makeup building. Eyebrows are trimmed, distant mountains are horizontal and green, facing each other with spring sorrow.

  The king's son rides a long-distance horse, indulging in romantic love and youthful travels. It seems like he is carefree and unrestrained, but actually, he is being controlled by his desires, and it's not as elegant as it seems.

  On the brightly lit stage, those slender and elegant girls danced in the ethereal music, their sleeves fluttering, their feathered clothes floating... They used their slender hands, their wonderful eyes, their waists, the cloths on their waists, and the fans in their hands to move slowly like light clouds, to turn quickly like whirlwinds. Their dance expressed the joys and sorrows of parting and reunion, leaving all who watched and listened dazed and enchanted, sighing in admiration.

  "This singing... " Chen Ke, although feeling that the performance was good, but not to the point of being infatuated, quietly asked the woman beside him: "I suppose it's Du Dajia?"

  "No." The woman beside Chen Ke had a strong artistic temperament... At the time, he wanted this type of woman for the sake of his brothers, fearing that if she was too bold, it would scare them off. But this didn't mean that he himself liked such a gentle and delicate woman. As a result, Wu Xian mistakenly introduced him to the most unassuming one: "This is Du Hangshou's younger sister, Little Du. Her singing skills were all taught by Du Hangshou. But compared to Du Hangshou, who knows how much worse she is!"

  "What's the difference?" Chen Ke lightly tapped the jade liquid in his cup. The wine was good, but using a silver cup affected the taste.

  Her good points are expressible, Du Xing's bad points are inexpressible; her good points can be learned, Du Xing's good points cannot be learned. Since Du Xing became famous these few years, who hasn't learned from her? Everyone has learned, at most it's like Little Dou, who has learned the tunes to about 70 or 80%, but the charm is not even one-tenth of hers. Artistic tunes also have their own good points, for example... let's talk art with you.

  When Little Dou finished singing, the audience burst into warm applause. Soon, a group of idle rascals rushed onto the stage one after another, shouting loudly:

  "On the second floor, in the chrysanthemum room, Zhou Yuanwai rewards Miss Xiao Du with ten strings of cash."

  "The Second Floor's Peach Room: Mr. Murong rewards Miss Xiao Du with 20 taels."

  Third floor, Kung character room, waiting for Mr. Hou, rewarding Miss Xiao Du fifty...

  "Xu Dai was rewarded with twenty taels..."

  "Zhou Xiaolian sends two new poems..."

  "Liu Xiaolian sends a new poem..."

  Chen Ke's mouth was wide open as he listened, his arithmetic skills were excellent, and after those idle reports finished counting, he also calculated the total amount to be 220,000 yuan, this is too crazy! Singing a song can earn 22 million yuan, and this is still before the big show... But, how can there still be people sending their own lyrics, aren't they ashamed?

  "You are all scholars," but Zhang Wu chuckled and said, "If there's a new work that you like, don't mind letting me go down and show my face too."

  "Aren't you afraid of losing face?" Chen Ke smiled and said, "I didn't bring that much money." He had only a few dozen taels of silver on him, which might not even be enough to settle the bill. Fortunately, he still had a few gold leaves hidden on his body, so he wouldn't have to worry about being detained to wash dishes to pay off the debt.

  "Sir, how can you be so foolish?" Zhang Wu smiled and said: "As the saying goes, a phoenix loves money, a lady loves talent. If you have a good work to present, I guarantee that it will be more valuable than a hundred taels of silver, and it will also move Miss Du's heart. Who knows, maybe there will even be an opportunity for a romantic encounter."

  The courtesans of Bianjing were so eager to pursue good lyrics, for good lyrics could bring about a change in fortune and fame. Once sung, their value would skyrocket... Don't believe me? Just look at the singers of later generations, how important it is to encounter a good song! So they pursued good lyrics like beasts chasing after qilin, birds flying towards phoenixes; as for those talented scholars who could produce good lyrics, they would spare no effort in serving them, even offering them gold and treasures.

  At the same time, prostitutes can also gradually grasp the subtleties of singing and lyrics, learn the techniques of filling words, and improve their cultural literacy. After a long period of immersion in this way, their level of poetry is higher than that of scholars who occasionally do it. So Zhang Wu was just being polite, and he didn't think at all that these country bumpkins could have any good songs or lyrics that would meet the standards of the Fang family.

  Chen Ke glanced at Su Shi and smiled secretly: "There is a talent here that surpasses Liu Qi's... unfortunately, he has not yet reached the age of producing excellent works. At this age, Su Dongpo excels in writing essays, his poetry is also passable, but when it comes to ci (lyrics), he doesn't have much accomplishment... because ci is something for singing girls to sing, and scholars who aim to pass the imperial examination will not focus on this aspect before they achieve success."

  Apart from Liu Qi...

  But Chen Ke still urged his elder cousin to come and have a try.

  Su Shi, who was never timid, said to bring the pen. They were in a lively and noisy conversation, but suddenly heard that it was quiet outside. This table also hurriedly closed their mouths and looked out at the railing.

  Only on the stage, another woman appeared. She wore a moon-white dress, with a figure and appearance that was flawless. Her movements were elegant and refined, and her beauty was at its peak. However, this woman's presence made the previously radiant flowers lose their color, because she had an air of calmness about her, cold and detached, as if nothing could stir up any emotions in her. It was as if she was standing on the stage, with everyone's eyes on her, yet it seemed like she was observing the world with a detached gaze, as if she was above the mundane world. In short, she was calmness personified.

  Why say that men are all cheap bones? The colder the woman, the more deeply she attracts a good man, making him forget everything in his heart and not willing to move his gaze.

  She stood alone on the stage, her head slightly bowed at first, but as soon as the clappers sounded, she raised it and swept her gaze across the audience below. Her eyes were like autumn water, like cold stars, and like a spring breeze caressing one's face; as she glanced around, even those sitting far away in the corners felt as if she had seen them. Those seated closer didn't need to be mentioned. With just this one glance, the entire hall fell silent, so quiet that you could have heard a pin drop!

  The woman then opened her vermilion lips, revealed her white teeth, and sang a few lines of verse. The sound was initially not very loud, but it seemed to enter the ear with an indescribable wonderful feeling: in the five viscera and six bowels, it was like being ironed by a hot iron, with no place not smooth; three million six thousand pores, like eating ginseng fruit, with no pore not feeling refreshed.

  After singing a few sentences, the music sounded, and the song became more beautiful and lingering. It was as if people were in the early morning of late spring, standing on a high building, with the gentle breeze blowing across their faces, looking far into the distance, seeing only the green grass and misty smoke hiding in the afterglow of sunset, all of which were endless longing for spring...

  Everyone deeply feels the singer's melancholy and depression, their senses have been taken over by the singer. At this moment, with the singer's heart as one's own heart, with the singer's thoughts as one's own thoughts, there is only the singer's solo in the world. Who can lean on the railing silently? Pretending to be carefree, getting drunk and singing, but still feeling unfulfilled. The belt gets looser, yet there's no regret, for her, I'm willing to wither away...

  The woman had finished singing for a long time, but people were still immersed in the artistic conception and couldn't extricate themselves. Many people even shed tears and couldn't stop.

  The woman sang another soothing and pleasant song. Everyone who heard it came out of their self-pitying and sorrowful mood, the atmosphere became joyful again, and when they looked back at their previous sadness, people's hearts seemed to have been baptized, becoming much purer...

  Between sorrow and joy, the emotions of hundreds of people were drawn by this woman's singing voice, its divine skill, nothing can be added to it...

  The girl sang two songs and then bowed and left the stage. Perhaps she felt that Ah Du was not worthy of a fairy, and no one gave her gold or silver coins as rewards, but those wealthy households upstairs presented her with bright pearls and silk fabrics, which were worth far more than Xiao Du's.

  More enthusiastic are those bookworms, just now only a few poems were given to Xiao and Du, but now dozens of people have emerged with hundreds of poems... It turns out that everyone wasn't without goods, but was waiting for the right hero to offer them to.

  At this time, the hotel lights lit up again, and the waiters re-heated wine for each table of guests, removed the cooled dishes, and replaced them with steaming new dishes. Under the encouragement of the music band, the banquet restarted, but people obviously became more reserved in their speech, and their behavior was much more elegant than before.

  "Is everyone leaving just like that?" Chen Ke said in his heart, although you are a big shot, but without even saying goodbye before leaving, it's just being arrogant.

  "There isn't." Zhang Wu smiled and replied, "Du Xing Shou hasn't left, he's in the study room reading poetry. According to convention, as long as he writes a poem for her, she'll come to the table to thank him. If she thinks it's good, she'll even offer him a toast." He lowered his voice and said with a sly tone, "If there's an exceptionally good poem, tonight will be Du Xing Shou's night in the inner chambers."

  "Oh......" This table also wrote five or six lyrics, naturally born with expectation.

  Chen Ke took a look at Wu Lang, smiled and said: "So to speak, I also have to come up with one." He picked up his pen and quickly wrote a few lines, handing it to Zhang Wu: "Tell Du Dajia that we won't wait for too long."

  This is also a marketing strategy for the wine house, as everyone has to wait for the courtesan to come out and offer a toast, so no one leaves. Many early-arriving customers have already ordered their second table of dishes.

  Bianjing City is a city that never sleeps. People living in the Song Dynasty do not have to follow the Tang Dynasty's rule of not being allowed out after dark. They can freely roam their capital city until dawn, with no one to stop them. And banquets often go on till the third or even fourth watch...

  Left and right, they couldn't wait for Du to come out. Since they still had class tomorrow, Chen Ke and the others decided not to wait any longer. After settling the bill, they gave a generous tip to Zhang Wu and the female companion, spending a total of twenty taels of silver... two thousand yuan, enough for a family of three to live simply in Beijing for half a year... The crowd then got up to leave.

  But then a woman who had been dancing below came over, and with a curtsy to Chen Xiao and the others said: "May I ask, which one of you is 'Life is but a first meeting's' Mr. Chen?"

  "He is!" Chen Ke pointed at Wu Lang and said, "This gentleman's surname is Chen."

  Wulang was confused, he had never written lyrics before. Although the crowd couldn't understand the situation... because those lyrics were written separately and handed over to Zhang Wu, without mutual discussion... but as soon as they saw Chen Ke's sly appearance, they knew there would be a good show to watch, so they nodded in agreement, saying it was him, it was him.

  The woman took one look at the man who resembled a black iron tower and immediately broke out in sweat, thinking to herself: "Indeed, you can't judge people by their appearance!" She then struggled to speak softly, saying: "That... my family's head, please, Mr. Chen, would like to meet with you..."

  After coming back, I slept a lot better, but overslept as a result. Hurriedly got up and finished writing it.

  Actually, although the monk doesn't produce much, he really works very hard... (sigh)