I became an immortal in the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 136 Li Bai seizes the opportunity to show off
The guests also looked over.

"Li Bai said that the house they live in now is infested with spirits... They say it's a rat spirit that can sweep snow."

"It was probably just drunken talk, it shouldn't be taken seriously."

The guest smiled.

He later inquired and found out that the house was indeed said to be haunted, and had been vacant for a long time before Li Bai and his companions moved in.

However, Pei Zezhi has been troubled by the ghostly nightmares during this period, and his mood is not good.

I won't argue with him anymore.

As the pipa played its notes, all the guests arrived.

A group of scholars then began playing drinking games. They elected an elder guest to be the game master. The game master would start, and the guests would then continue the game, quoting classical texts and responding to each other during the meal.

Jiang She could answer some questions and couldn't answer others, so he drank a cup of wine.

What they said was all very vague and unclear.

This has caused the cat a lot of trouble.

They came here to eat and drink, and incidentally to exorcise ghosts for others. Instead, they ended up listening to a barrage of poetry and prose. The cat, which had been peeking out from behind the table, its fluffy little head now completely absorbed in the conversation, continued listening.

It shrank inch by inch.

In the end, the cat slumped onto Jiang She's lap.

A deep sleep.

The guests across the way found it amusing and couldn't help but smile.

Outside, the wind was biting cold, but inside the hall, it was warm and cozy, with music playing continuously. Seven or eight people sat together, eating snacks, drinking wine, and playing drinking games and reciting poems, oblivious to the chill outside.

As they were giving orders, the host, Pei Ze, would occasionally glance outside.

It got dark.

Pei suppressed his disappointment and smiled as he spoke of the emperor's Fengshan ceremony: "I heard that during the ceremony, people all the way down Mount Tai shouted 'Thank you for the grace of our Great Tang!'"

A guest raised his glass and said:
"The emperor exempted Yanzhou from taxes for three years, which was indeed a great act of grace."

As Jiang She sat at the table, he thought of the men in Yanzhou who had helped him build houses and carry goods for others, and he even made a wish to ask for a year less taxation.

He said:

"The people of Yanzhou will be much better off."

“What Jiang Langjun says is true,” Pei Ze said with a smile, “Things on the estate have become much easier these past few years.”

Li Bai drank the most. While others drank because they couldn't answer the drinking games, he alone, who wrote the most and most exquisite poems, kept drinking cup after cup. His face showed signs of intoxication.

I overheard some people talking about the emperor's Fengshan ceremony.

He said, "I heard that the sage encountered immortals during the Fengshan ceremony and even bestowed the title of Tianqi King upon the Lord of Mount Tai."

Yuan Danqiu also listened.

He and Taibai were most moved by their encounters with immortals.

"Do gods really exist?"

Pei Ze also heard about it, "It's the Lord of Mount Tai. I'll have to go to the temple on the mountain to pay my respects later."

As he spoke, he yawned.

He looked a little sleepy.

To cheer himself up, Pei casually turned a fruit upside down in a bowl, playing a guessing game, and hid several other identical fruits in his sleeve to avoid being guessed correctly.

He pointed to the bowls on the table and asked the guests with a smile.

"What is this?"

Yuan Danqiu looked over and asked:

"Any hints?"

Pei Zexiao replied:

"This is something that is red on the outside and yellow on the inside."

The guests scanned the table, looking for anything similar. Some even took out a few copper coins, ready to cast a divination.

Pei watched, a sense of amusement rising in his heart.

The guests took turns guessing.

"A red-painted egg?"

"No."

Yuan Danqiu guessed peach and plum, but he was wrong.

His friend didn't win, and Li Bai laughed beside him, drunkenly saying, "A copper coin tied with a red thread?"

"Taibai, guess again."

Yuan Danqiu laughed even more heartily than Li Bai had just done, "Tai Bai, Tai Bai!"

Li Bai was somewhat unconvinced. He squinted and looked closely, but still couldn't see what was under the bowl. After thinking for a while, he looked towards Jiang She and asked, seeking knowledge:

"gentlemen……"

Jiang She glanced at it.

She whispered two words to Li Bai.

Yuan Danqiu also saw it, and he widened his eyes.

Li Bai smiled smugly. He knew the answer, but suddenly there was no rush to reveal it. He drank his wine to the side, waiting for the others to answer several times without success before speaking out.

That's what you call satisfying.

The guests were guessing.

Jiang She heard footsteps approaching from afar. He continued to pour himself wine, then took a pastry and ate it slowly.

Half an hour later, the servant returned, covered in snow, accompanied by a Taoist priest whose robes fluttered. He was one of the people who had been copying books in front of the temple.

Pei Ze had sharp eyes. "The Master is here—"

He personally and respectfully went up to greet them.

The Taoist priest looked even worse than Pei Ze, with bloodshot eyes.

He could hear the commotion coming from inside the house from afar. The Taoist priest brushed the snow off his robe, and a money pouch was tied to his waist. He asked, "Is this house haunted?"

Pei Zelian agreed.

The mention of ghosts silenced the guests who were guessing the riddles, and they all looked in that direction.

Pei Zexiao said:

“I will take the master to see that house right away.”

The Taoist priest didn't answer, but asked, "When do nightmares usually occur?"

"Midnight (11 PM - 1 AM) or early morning (1 AM - 3 AM)."

When was the earliest?

Pei recalled, "It must have been the last quarter of Hai hour. That night I woke up and suddenly found myself unable to move, and there was a shadow-like figure flickering by the window..."

The Taoist priest nodded.

"No rush, we can talk about it at 9 PM."

Pei hurriedly invited the Taoist to sit down, his voice respectful. He knew that this was a master summoned by the sage, a man of great virtue and power.

The Taoist priest sat diagonally opposite Jiang She.

Seeing a black cat on a guest's lap, the Taoist priest couldn't help but take a second look.

The arrival of a Taoist priest who exorcises ghosts has unsettled the guests.

The main room fell silent.

The Taoist waved his hand, "Were you all playing the guessing game just now? Please continue, there's no need to be so formal."

As he listened to everyone's guesses, he casually cast a divination.

Let's examine it closely.

On the other side, after greeting the Taoist priest, Pei walked up to Jiang She and said apologetically:

"Jiang Langjun..."

Jiang She noticed the dark circles under his eyes.

"nothing."

"In the end, it is my fault for not being hospitable enough, and for making you come all this way for nothing."

Pei picked up his wine cup, apologized, and said in a low voice, "This nightmare is not something to be trifled with. As you can see, Jiang Langjun, I haven't had a good night's sleep for three months."

"Although I don't experience nightmares every day, ever since this happened, I've been on edge every time I go to sleep, constantly afraid that the ghost will come back."

"I have arranged a room for you today, sir. Please stay here comfortably for the day..."

Jiang She thought for a moment.

"They might not be so bad to mess with."

Pei was taken aback, not quite understanding.

"Jiang Langjun means..."

"May I take a look?"

Are people really going to go out of their way to encounter ghosts? Pei was taken aback and looked at Li Bai, whom he had recently met, wondering if the two of them could offer some advice.

Li Bai stood beside him, holding a wine cup, and smiled.

Bai also wants to go and take a look.

Yuan Danqiu, having been interrupted, had no choice but to add a sentence after Taibai had spoken.

"Me too!"

Are there really people like this in the world?
Pei felt a little dizzy. He had forgotten how he got back to his seat. He only came to his senses when he heard the Taoist priest next to him speaking.

There were six copper coins in front of the Taoist priest.

"Fire above and below, solid on the outside and hollow on the inside. The Li hexagram."

He said, “There are two interpretations. One is that it is solid on the outside and hollow on the inside, and the character 'Li' represents a pheasant, a tortoise, a crab, a clam, or a snail. It is probably a small, round thing painted red.”

"But chicken eggs?"

"Secondly, we can take the colors red and yellow, as fire generates earth. This perfectly matches the red exterior and yellow interior."

The Taoist priest's gaze swept around the table.

Li Bai tensed up, afraid that he would reveal the answer.

The Taoist priest looked towards the aroma of meat wafting from the kitchen and, considering the identity of the other party's host family, asked:

"Is it roasted meat?"

Li Bai slowly exhaled.

My mind relaxed a little.

Pei Ze stroked the bowl and said slowly, "What the master said is half right. It is indeed a small, round thing, but it is not one of these two things."

"What is that?"

After the Taoist priest finished asking his question, he heard a voice from the other side. The other person was dressed in white, holding a wine cup, and had bright eyes.

"I know what it is!"

Everyone looked over.

Outside, the wind and snow were raging. Li Bai took a sip of wine before laughing and saying:
"red dates."

【Ask for monthly ticket】

(End of this chapter)