Chapter 49: Famous Scholar

The mansion was deep, with lush green bamboo.

Wang Yang and Liu Zhao walked along the bamboo path, led by a neatly dressed young servant.

Liu Zhao admired the bamboo forest scenery, feeling refreshed: "Your master really knows how to choose a place; it's rare to see such a large bamboo forest in a mansion in the city."

The servant said: "Master says this is the bamboo forest of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove reincarnated here."

Liu Zhao smiled: "Only he could say such a thing." Then he whispered to Wang Yang:

"My friend is a good person, but his temperament is a bit eccentric. People say he has the 'style of Ruan Ji.' If he accidentally offends you later, please don't take it to heart!"

The owner of this mansion was named Zong Ce, courtesy name Jingwei, a famous scholar in Jingzhou City. He was unrestrained and wild, and had always had a high reputation.

Back when the Prince of Yuzhang was guarding Jingzhou, he had invited him to be a military advisor with generous gifts, but he declined and did not go.

Five years ago, when the Prince of Luling was the Inspector of Jingzhou, he invited Zong Ce to serve with the courtesy of a carriage and silk, but he was also refused.

He didn't even give face to the Prince, so one could imagine how big his temper was.

Local administration in the Southern Dynasties was a three-level system of county, commandery, and province. Jingzhou City belonged to Jiangling County, so it was also called "Jiangling City"; Jiangling County belonged to Nan Commandery, and Jiangling City happened to be the capital of Nan Commandery, so it had the alias of "Nan Commandery City"; Nan Commandery City was also the seat of the entire Jingzhou province (similar to a provincial capital), so it had the name "Jingzhou City."

The so-called "one city, three names" came from this.

Zong Ce's son, Zong Rui, was currently the Assistant of Nan Commandery. The Assistant of Nan Commandery was the deputy to the Governor of Nan Commandery, roughly equivalent to a provincial secretary-general, and managing household registration was one of his duties. So Liu Zhao brought Wang Yang to visit Zong Ce this time precisely for the household registration matter.

Since he was asking for a favor, Wang Yang had nothing to take offense to. Moreover, this person had the style of a Wei-Jin scholar, which aroused Wang Yang's curiosity, and he really wanted to see the so-called "style of a famous scholar."

The three of them walked out of the bamboo forest and saw a small lake in front of them.

On the grass by the lake were seven long stones as flat as mirrors, arranged in an arc.

On one of the stones, a man in white wide clothes was lying down with his chest exposed, eyes closed and chanting softly, his demeanor leisurely.

The three approached and heard him chant: "I am going to the distant capital, and then I return to the north. I cross the Yellow River by boat, passing by the old residence of Shanyang..."

Wang Yang recognized this as a sentence from the "Ode to Old Friends" written by Xiang Xiu, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, to miss his old friends like Ji Kang.

Liu Zhao walked up: "Jingwei, are you thinking of traveling again?"

Zong Ce said with his eyes closed: "I just bought the mansion, I'm not going out. I'm traveling in my spirit."

After speaking, he continued to chant: "I look at the desolation of the wilderness, resting my carriage at the corner of the city. I tread on the traces of the two, passing through the empty huts in the poor alleys..."

Liu Zhao was used to Zong Ce's temperament and wasn't angry that he didn't open his eyes to look at people. He teased:

"Xiang Ziqi wrote the 'Ode to Old Friends' to miss his old friends. Now that your old friend is in front of you, why don't you even take a look?"

Zong Ce turned over, facing away from Liu Zhao and Wang Yang: "I was in the mood yesterday and sent you an invitation, but you didn't come. Now that my mood is gone, what is there to look at?"

"I had something to do at the time! Let me tell you, I am organizing a strange book, pointing out the errors in the 'Book of Documents'—"

"Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop! Don't tell me about those things of you Confucianists!"

Liu Zhao wanted to use this topic to introduce Wang Yang naturally, but he didn't expect to be interrupted after just one sentence, so he had to plan from a long-term perspective: "Well, the guest is here, you have to give up a seat."

Zong Ce then sat up, turned around, opened his eyes, didn't look at Liu Zhao, and didn't look at Wang Yang, but stared at the six large stones beside him, muttering to himself:

"This one won't do, this one won't do either, this one is even more impossible..."

Liu Zhao asked: "What are you doing?"

Zong Ce then looked at Liu Zhao and said excitedly: "Mingyang, look at these seven stones, don't they look like seven seats?"

"They do look like it..."

"These stones are placed behind the bamboo forest, isn't it heaven's will?"

Seeing that Liu Zhao still didn't understand, Zong Ce said excitedly:

"These are the seats of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove! After two or three hundred years, they can be so similar, if this isn't a miraculous coincidence, what is it!

The previous owner of this mansion said that these seven stones have been standing here for a long time and are natural stone seats. He could sometimes even hear the voices of seven people talking at night! He even thought it was haunted at the time!

I bought this mansion at a high price precisely for these seven stone seats!

I waited all night yesterday and didn't hear any voices, thinking that the Seven Sages wouldn't come every day. But anyway, the mansion is mine now, and there will always be a day when I can wait for them. When that time comes, I will amuse myself with Laozi and Zhuangzi in the morning, and be friends with the Seven Sages in the evening. What a joy! Hahahaha!"

Liu Zhao glanced at Wang Yang, his eyes very helpless.

Wang Yang didn't laugh at Zong Ce too much; he felt that when his own middle-school soul was ignited, it probably wasn't much better than Zong Ce.

Liu Zhao smiled: "Maybe it was the original owner who specifically found the stone seats to sell you the mansion, and made up the story."

Zong Ce was instantly stunned.

Liu Zhao hurriedly said: "I'm joking."

Wang Yang felt that this joke seemed to be the truth.

"It doesn't matter!" Zong Ce waved his hand, "Even if it's really like that, it's the owner who gathered these seven bamboo forest seats for me, and his intention is very sincere! This is also a destiny in the dark, a coincidence of fate, wanting to use my hands, Zong Ce, to reproduce the tour of the bamboo forest!"

He pointed to the stone seats one by one and introduced them to Liu Zhao excitedly: "Look, this is Ji Kang's seat, this is Ruan Ji's seat, this is Shan Tao's, this is Xiang Xiu's, Wang Rong's, Ruan Xian's. I am sitting in Xiang Xiu's seat."

Wang Yang found it very interesting, and Liu Zhao asked curiously: "Why don't you sit in Ruan Ji's seat? Don't you admire Ruan Ji the most?"

Zong Ce looked shocked: "How could I possibly be qualified to sit in Ruan Sizong's seat?! I am not worthy to sit in the seats of Ruan Ji, Ji Kang, and Shan Tao; Wang Rong is not one of us, I disdain to sit in his seat—"

Liu Zhao heard Zong Ce disparaging Wang Rong and glanced at Wang Yang worriedly. Because Wang Rong was, after all, a sage of the Langya Wang clan, if he happened to belong to Wang Yang's lineage, it would be bad. Seeing that Wang Yang's expression didn't change, he felt relieved.

Only to hear Zong Ce continue to express strange theories: "Liu Ling and Ruan Xian are not as good as me, sitting in their seats is meaningless; as for Xiang Xiu, he is about the same as me, so I can sit in his."

After Zong Ce finished speaking, he looked at Liu Zhao: "Come, Mingyang, you sit in Liu Ling's seat."

Liu Zhao: (-__-)b

He just said Liu Ling was not as good as him, and now he's asking me to sit in Liu Ling's seat—isn't this clearly saying that I'm not as good as him?!

He didn't argue with Zong Ce either; if he argued about such a small thing, the two of them wouldn't have been friends for so long.

Liu Zhao didn't take a seat, but introduced Wang Yang: "This is the genius youth I told you about, Wang Yang, Wang Zhiyan."

Wang Yang said modestly: "I wouldn't dare. Junior Wang Yang, I have met Mr. Zong."

Zong Ce rolled his eyes at Wang Yang: "There are no heroes in the world, making a child famous! Now anyone dares to call themselves a genius!"

Liu Zhao blamed him: "Jingwei, you are too much, Zhiyan is my guest of honor—"

Zong Ce didn't give any face: "Then let him go back to your Commandery Academy and sit! These seven seats are not for anyone to sit in. Why don't you let him sit inside the house?"

Liu Zhao couldn't do anything about Zong Ce, so he had to cast a very apologetic look at Wang Yang.

Wang Yang wasn't angry either; instead, he felt that Zong Ce was unadorned, his likes and dislikes were all from his own heart, not hiding anything, which could be considered a rare true temperament. History says Ruan Ji was good at "blue and white eyes." When he saw vulgar people, he would look at them with white eyes. The white eye that Zong Ce just rolled really had a bit of Ruan Ji's legacy. ===== CHAPTER 50 =====