Lord of the Desert

Chapter 233 The Family
The carriage stopped in front of the building.

The three riders accompanying the car stopped at the same time.

The knights rolled off their horses and hurried to the front of the chariot.

No.1 lifts the curtain, and the second person spreads the carpet.

As for the third person, he shrank and knelt in front of the car, forming a pedal.

Everything was completed quickly and silently. In Hong Fan's eyes, it was like a pantomime that had been rehearsed countless times.

The owner of the carriage came out at this moment, and the noise in the street was suddenly quieted down.

This is a young man in his twenties.

This person is plain-looking, pale-skinned, wearing a bright plain white satin gown, and when exposed to the light, it seems to be the source of lights all over the street.

"Please get out of the car, sir."

The coachman begged softly.

The young man in white nodded, took a step on the back of his entourage, and walked up the stone steps along the blanket.

Then he walked up the steps with his head down.

There were only four people on the long steps at this time.

Hong Fan looked at this person.

Hair on the temples hangs down from the cheeks and is tied with white silk.

The face in the center was indifferent, although his eyes were lowered, he didn't seem to be thinking about anything seriously—instead, he had a kind of recklessness that he was used to and took for granted after half his life of being unscrupulous and no one dared to stop him.

The white marble steps are obviously wide enough, but Bai Jiaci couldn't help but take two steps back to the side.

Both sides staggered.

The young man in white didn't slow down until he reached the third step.

He looked up at Hong Fan and Zhan Yuanzi who were standing there, a little confused.

It seems that the earth, stone and mud in the strange flower bed have moved to the road inexplicably.

No one spoke.

After passing by, the young man in white lowered his eyes again and went straight into Mingyue Tower.

"I've never seen such a strange person."

Hong Fan laughed lightly.

"Indeed."

Zhan Yuanzi said.

"On the plain white mirror forging, the same color mulberry silk is used to weave half-hidden lin patterns."

"If it wasn't for the side lighting and standing close, how could anyone see it?"

He frowned, confused.

"And this one? I didn't see that you are good at painting."

Hong Fan wondered.

"The strange thing I just said was his boots."

"Excellent moon white silver woven boots, but no soles."

Zhan Yuanzi was also taken aback.

"Boots without soles will break after a few steps?"

"Maybe this is the family?"

The two were amazed and turned to go up the steps.

Bai Jiaci followed silently, did not listen to their conversation, and was still haunted by the lingering shame in his heart.

For some reason, he remembered his scarlet cloud pattern silk uniform—if he wore that uniform today, he would definitely not give way to that person!
Above the eighteen jade steps is the gate of Mingyue Tower.

Three couples of male and female waiters are waiting on both sides, all dressed in gorgeous clothes and with first-class appearance.

Seeing the guests coming, the outermost couple immediately came up to salute and asked the floor table number and name.

Hong Fan answered one by one.

After only a few words of conversation, he noticed that the waiters' eyes had swept over the three of them from head to toe, and they only paused for a while on his snake leather belt and chalcedony pendant.

After entering the building, what blocked the way was a huge brocade screen several feet long and wide.

The waiter leads the way to the right.

After turning around the porch, Hong Fan's field of vision suddenly widened.

The first thing he saw was the bright moon hanging obliquely in the sky, and the stars clustered around it.

All three of them were taken aback.

It turns out that Mingyue Building is different from other places in that it has a semi-open layout.

The main building where Hong Fan is currently located is eight floors high, and the wing buildings on both sides have four floors each. It is connected to the riverside and extends to two piers.

The entire floor looks down, showing a "concave" shape.

In the courtyard-like space in the middle, a stage of hundreds of square meters rises, surrounded by the river water diverted by the canal.

On both sides of the stage, the band is located in a half-crescent shape, equipped with instruments such as zither, flute, sheng, panpipe, pipa, konghou, etc., and sends out melodious tunes.

Hong Fan crossed the water from the suspended corridor on the ground floor, heard the reverberating human voice above, and saw the straight columns standing on three sides supporting the sky.

Not to mention other things, just dozens of construction logs with a length of more than ten feet are already worth tens of thousands.

Under the guidance of the waiter, the three of them went up the stairs at the corner.

Their location is on the third floor of the wing on the right.

The wide corridors are separated by thick and heavy screens, and inside each partition are two long and narrow wooden tables, one long and one short.

The use of long tables instead of round tables is obviously to allow the guests to sit closer to the fence so that they can enjoy the performance below.

The waiter stopped behind the third screen and bowed to greet him.

Lu Yunshi and the others have already arrived, and they also stood up to greet them.

Everyone sit down again.

Strange to say, as soon as I got into my seat, the chatter of people around me suddenly weakened, only the sound of silk and bamboo from the diagonal below came from afar, lingering in my ears.

As for the view, although it is not as good as the main building on the front, it is not bad.

"The guests are all here?"

The female waitress asked, seeing Master Lu Yun nodding, she backed away silently.

Hong Fan was surprised when he saw this.

"The eight of us are enough? Didn't you call Shi Yuanwei and the others?"

he asked.

The banquet this time was due to the bandit suppression incident in Qifeng Mountain, so Hong Fan thought that the third team would also be there.

Master Lu Yun waved his hand.

"Shi Yuanwei and I are just ordinary friends, we have never been very close."

He said without hesitation.

"For them, the affairs of Qifeng Mountain are nothing more than obeying orders and doing their jobs well."

"But Brother Hong Fan, you are different—if you come a moment later, let alone Xuesong, I am afraid that the lives of the five of us will all stay in Woya Village!"

Several people were talking, when they saw a little lady wearing a blue gauze skirt and a bun with a small bun half-covering her face with a fan, and walking to the table with a small bamboo basket, she was very short.

When everyone turned their attention, she lowered her fan and asked.

"This concubine is a red lychee, can all gentlemen want to drink tea?"

The voice was clear and crisp, like a lark falling between the screens.

Hong Fan looked and saw that the little girl was about thirteen or fourteen years old, with a little rouge on her cheeks, and a flower tin made of dragonfly wings pasted between her eyebrows, making her skin fairer.

"It's not bad to drink some tea before the wine is served."

Lu Yunshi replied that there is nothing to do.

In fact, he is not a luxury guest who often comes to Mingyue Tower, so how can he give up all free services?
"Then how about drinking gold flakes?"

The girl asked again crisply.

The crowd nodded.

"Good."

So the little lady sat behind the shorter table, took out tea cakes from the bamboo basket, roasted them with fire to produce aroma, then mashed and ground them to make tea powder.

Then, she carefully brewed it in the designated direction with boiling water.

"What kind of drinking method is this?"

Hong Fan asked.

In two lifetimes, he had never drank tea like this.

"It's called ordering tea; now folks are making tea, and this method is less used."

Yan Yulin explained.

"Compared with brewing tea, there is only one advantage and disadvantage of ordering tea - that is, the steps are complicated and there are many utensils."

"Look at the Hongli table, there are tea stove, tea mortar, tea grinder, tea sieve, tea bottle, tea cup, tea whisk, tea basket, tea spoon, water bowl..."

"In ordinary schools, it is difficult to make up half of the equipment, so ordering tea is only popular among the upper class."

Hong Fan understood what he said.

No matter which world, aristocratic culture is always like this.

Show the threshold with complexity, the more impractical it is, the more classy it can be.

PS: Strange, I have been extremely lethargic these past few days. I have to sleep for thirteen hours a day, and I wake up with a sore back.

After the key is up, there will be energy for two or three hours, and then I will yawn and be too tired.

The operating officer is even more outrageous than me. He sleeps in the morning and takes a nap in the afternoon, and then sleeps in the evening after sleeping in the afternoon.

inexplicably...

(End of this chapter)