Chapter 367 (1/2)

Chapter 367: Chronicles of the Building of Pines and Cranes (Pa

It was late in the night and the time for the Building of Pines and Cranes to put up shutters. People inside the building were cleaning, and thus they embarra.s.sedly refused Ning Que's request. Ning Que, of course, was unwilling to leave now, he took out a sheaf of notes, then drew one and gave it to the manager after thinking for a while.

When he left the Old Brush Pen Shop yesterday, he was ready for the outcome of never going back, in the case he could find Sangsang. So he took the most valuable things with him, including the Primordial Thirteen Arrows, and of course, the notes.

Though it was only one note, the manager clearly saw its denomination and suddenly became frightened when he recalled the thick sheaf of notes in front of his eyes just now. He knew clearly that a guest who carried so many notes would certainly not be an ordinary person. The manager didn't dare to offend Ning Que. So he accepted the note obediently and welcomed Ning Que to the building, arranging a private room near the window on the second floor.

All kinds of delicacies were brought in the private room and put on the table. Ning Que, looking at the extraordinarily fresh night sky beside the window, was drinking the liquor slowly with a tiny cup.

With beancurd sprouts mingled steamed pork, Ning Que gradually became more excited by the liquor and his eyes squinted. He looked upstairs at the stars in the sky, thought about the messes during these past two days, then knocked at the urn with chopsticks and hummed, ”Can we meet once again, I have begged in front of Buddha for thousands of years...”

At this time, there was a remark coming out from the nearby room, ”What is that garbage song? It is so rare to hear such an annoying song, and the lyrics are total nonsense.”

The Building of Pines and Cranes set a veranda at the lakeside for the guests to rest at their leisure. Each private room had a small door which was connected to the veranda. At night when it was quiet, any slightly higher voice could pa.s.s through the doors, windows and the veranda to other room. Ning Que's singing sounds were just heard this way.

It was just until then that Ning Que realized there was another guest in the Building of Pines and Cranes. By the aged voice, he knew the man was old, then he laughed and said, ”I don't agree with you, vulgarity is not always bad. Just take as example, when the aftereffect of drinking shows up and you can't remember other songs, but this one.”

The guest from the next room then asked curiously, ”Does it have a name?”

”Begging to Buddha,” Ning Que replied,”If I don't remember wrongly, that's the name.”

The guest laughed and mocked, ”Buddhas only cultivate themselves and don't get involved in worldly affairs, let alone small love between mortals. Young man, if you truly want to get rid of these annoyances in the mortal world, there is no way but to avoid them. It's better to depend on yourself than to seek help from Buddha.”

Ning Que found these words interesting, so he looked at the next room through the window and tried to figure out who was this man drinking liquor and making fun as he did in the night.

Below the firmament and stars, a man was sitting in the next room's veranda. Ning Que didn't see his face clearly as the light was dim and the man only showed the side of his face. Only one thing was clear, he was so tall that even the large and wide chair still seemed small for him.

Ning Que looked at the tall figure, and found he was familiar but couldn't remember his name. Then he frowned and got lost in memories for a while, later bursting into a laugh as he remembered the saying about why you have to remember every man you meet. So he shook his head and sat back in his chair, then took out a handkerchief and coughed up some blood.

His depressing cough was reverberating on the veranda of the Building of Pines and Cranes.

Ning Que put the handkerchief back in his sleeve. After thinking for a while, he carried the urn and the chair to the veranda, and then looked at the man, and said, ”Do you mind if I sit here?”

The man replied, ”This is your place.”

The manager of the Building of Pines and Cranes knew that the last two guests were sitting on the veranda. He was confused by them not fearing the cold, but he still asked a servant to ignite wind proof light at the edge of the veranda.

With dim light covering the veranda, Ning Que saw the man clearly. Wearing a precious deep red fox-fur robe, the man looked hale with his beard waving in the night breeze, like a rich man in Chang'an. Yet he gave people a mysterious impression. He didn't make others feel old though he was old.

”How about chatting for a while?” Ning Que asked.

The tall old man shook his head, and lifted the urn in his hand and said, ”The first thing I do when I come back to Chang'an is to drink three urns of fresh liquor from the Building of Pines and Cranes. I won't waste my time chitchatting before I finish my liquor.”

Ning Que ignored him and sat back in his chair to watch the stars in the sky above Chang'an, drinking his liquor slowly.

The old man was sitting there, watching the firmament behind the stars as well, drinking liquor at his own slow pace.

Ning Que's drinking capacity was ordinary and far smaller than Sangsang's. Especially when he was injured and fatigued, he fell into the dazed state soon.

The old man looked extraordinary like an unfathomable hermit in the Jianghu world. However, his drinking capacity was also very poor and got drunk after a short while.

Drunken men could be divided into many kinds. For example, the so-called martial drunkenness which was to vent anger, hit people, kick trees, and smash the wall; and the so-called literacy drunkenness which was to write poems, transcribe poems, and brag about their poems. Ning Que didn't belong to these types, so he was just mumbling to himself in the effect of drunkenness.

The old man looked very funny after he was drunk; he was whispering continuously with his bright eyes staring at the firmament over the stars, as if he were talking to the sky. However, telling from the gloomy expression on his face, those words from his mouth would most likely be dirty words.

The elder and the youth were drinking liquor next to each other, and both sighed.

Ning Que was sighing about his life.