Red Mansion: Bastards rule the roost

Chapter 12 Under the Reward
  Jia Cong and Baochai walked behind, looking at Baochai's white and rosy face, they were quite excited. This was the goddess they had admired for a long time in the previous life, and now they could witness it with their own eyes. They sighed at the wonder of fate and couldn't help but smile.

"Brother Cong, is there something wrong with my face? Why are you laughing?" Xue Baochai's eyes flickered and she glanced at him.

"That's not true. I just didn't expect to see Sister Bao in this life, so I'm happy."

Baochai thought he was talking about being almost beaten to death by Jia She, so she sighed in her heart and said, "You are getting better now, and you will be better in the future. I'm afraid I can't even count the things that make you happy."

"Why haven't you seen Brother Xue?"

"He is a horse without a bridle. He must have wandered outside again. Don't care what he does."

Jia Cong nodded and was about to take his seat when he saw Tanchun lecturing Jia Huan again.

"Brother Huan, it's not disgusting if you don't throw away the toad when you eat."

"No, you are not naughty with me. You are only naughty with Baoyu, and you don't want me to be naughty with a toad." Jia Huan stubbornly turned his head and tied the toad to the leg of the chair on one side.

Everyone covered their mouths, smoothed over the situation, and greeted everyone to take a seat.

Jia Cong laughed and pulled Jia Huan to sit down.

Cups, plates, bowls and chopsticks were neatly placed on the round table. Baochai called for the meal. Immediately, more than a dozen girls filed in. First, they served four-die cold dishes, Songhua tripe, soy sauce chicken, goose-foot duck letter, and three shredded vegetables. , followed by hot dishes, crab meat lion head, long fish, Wensi tofu, steamed deer tail, roasted flower duck, pot roasted carp, steamed eight-treasure pig, duck stuffed with glutinous rice, stewed elbow with ham, pheasant cub soup... again All kinds of tea and fruit snacks were placed on the table.

The aromas of various dishes were mixed together and hit Jia Cong's nose, making him move his index finger. Fortunately, he thought that he was also a prince now, so he was not rude.

"Brother Cong, Brother Bao, Brother Huan, sisters, don't just look at it, try it quickly." Baochai said with a smile.

Everyone gave in for a while and moved their chopsticks one after another, but they were a little absent-minded.

Baochai raised his glass and said: "This is my first glass of wine. I would like to pay tribute to brother Cong. Congratulations to brother Cong for receiving the enlightenment from the old man Xianrong Guogong. He will definitely be able to achieve great success in the future."

Everyone was refreshed and quickly put down their chopsticks and raised their glasses to drink.

"Thank you Sister Bao, please." Jia Cong raised his glass and touched it lightly with Baochai, and drank it all in one gulp. The rice wine with more than ten degrees of alcohol content was almost like juice to him.

"Okay, Brother Cong, it's cool." Everyone laughed.

Just as Jia Cong put down the cup, Jia Baoyu stood up again and said with a smile: "With this second cup, I congratulate Brother Cong on his move to a new house. From now on, we will have another naughty companion."

Jia Cong still ate and smiled to see what they wanted. After all, he was full of "talent and learning" and was not afraid.

Tan Chun said with a smile: "For the third cup, I admire brother Cong's literary talents. After being enlightened by the master, he is no longer Wu Xia Amen. My little sister admires him."

When he came, seeing everyone looking at him with glaring eyes, Jia Cong hurriedly waved his hands and said: "Third sister, I don't dare to take it for granted. My master only taught me some superficial kung fu, how could he teach me any literary talent?"

"Brother Cong, since you are a heroic man, you should be upright and do your duty. Anyway, now you have fallen into our trap. You have to do it whether you do it or not." Lin Daiyu said with bad intentions.

"Lin... Miss, why do you talk like a mountain king? What do you want me to do?" Jia Cong said with a smile. Originally, he wanted to call Lin Daiyu sister, but thinking of Lin Daiyu's arrogant temperament and the fact that she didn't have much contact with her on weekdays, he might not be willing to acknowledge her. As an elder brother, he changed his words to avoid embarrassment.

Everyone laughed: "Of course I am composing poetry."

"This is no good, no, how can I compose poetry? Isn't this just trying to catch a duck?"

"No, everyone has to do it today. It's fun, good or bad."

"Yes, how can there be any reason why you can't do what everyone does?"

"If you don't do well, we won't laugh at you."

"If you don't do it, you are looking down on us and think we are not worthy of listening to your poems."

Everyone tried to persuade him, but Jia Cong just refused, being modest and unable to write poetry.

Finally, Lin Daiyu threatened fiercely: "If you don't do it, you will have to accept the punishment. This is the rule at the wine table."

"Punishment for what?"

Everyone said in unison: "You will be punished by drinking this jar of wine."

Jia Cong followed everyone's fingertips and looked back. Hey boy, there was a large jar of wine on the high table behind him. It weighed at least ten kilograms. Even water, he wouldn't dare to drink like this.

He had to smile bitterly and said: "Then you do it first, I am all ears, and I will talk when it's my turn. Let's say it first, I can't do the limited rhymes, and I can't do the limited questions."

Everyone just spared him. Just listen to Baochai saying: "In that case, let's use everything in this hall as the theme. How about everyone doing whatever they want?"

Everyone is good.

"Then I'll start by throwing some bricks and mortar," Baochai glanced up, pondered for a moment, and said, "I'll take this pot of rich bamboo as the title. The bamboo has rich people in Qiao Lin, and the flowers are rich and beautiful in the moonlight. Why should they be placed side by side? Moving the shadows in the wind, we can see the blue clouds and thousands of miles of sand."

"Okay, what a poem. Sister Bao is really smart and sharp." Everyone cheered.

Lin Daiyu's spring-like eyes flashed with a trace of dissatisfaction, she pursed her lips, and then said: "I will use this tofu as the title. Tofu in the mountains is really edible, and rice in the world can also be eaten. Mr. Mo Xiao is so poor that in this world, Everything comes to Handan."

"Everything in the world of a good person always comes to Handan." Everyone praised them again and again, admiring their great poetic talents.

Jia Cong also applauded, remembering that Xue Baochai's peak works were poems about catkins and crab poems, while Lin Daiyu's poems about funeral flowers and poems about chrysanthemums. Nowadays, these two short poems are naturally at hand. Then Jia Baoyu and Tanchun did it, and Yingchun and Xichun were not good at poetry, so they reluctantly did it. Only Jia Cong and Jia Huan were left. Everyone looked at the two men pushing and shoving, showing expressions of gloating.

"Brother Cong, you come first?"

"Brother Huan, please go ahead, brother, I'll let you."

Jia Baoyu also urged: "Brother Huan, do it quickly."

Jia Huan had been thinking hard for a long time. Seeing that he couldn't escape, he bit the bullet and said, "I thought of a poem about a toad. It breaks your throat by shouting, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak, croak." talk."

Poof, everyone sprayed their rice and burst into laughter.

When Tanchun saw his brother making a fool of himself, he couldn't laugh or cry: "Huan'er, if you don't know how to do it, just don't do it. It's not embarrassing enough."

"I didn't want to do it, but you forced me to do it, and then you came to blame me." Jia Huan sat aside angrily, turning his head and ignoring everyone.

Baochai hurriedly comforted her and said, "This is for fun between the sisters, and we are not going to take the first prize exam. Why should the third sister take it seriously? Come on, it's Brother Cong's turn."

Everyone looked at Jia Cong with expressions of success.

Jia Cong smiled bitterly and said: "I can't do it. Otherwise, if I drink a bar, I will die drunk in Sister Bao's house."

"No, we agreed to write poems, how can we go back on our word? We have all done it, even Brother Lian has done it. Do you want to default on your debt?" Everyone refused.

Seeing that the atmosphere was almost heightened, Jia Cong said: "Let me think about it, I am not as quick-witted as you." After that, he lightly kicked Jia Huan.

Jia Huan heard the elegant meaning of Xiange, coughed twice, and said slowly: "I think Brother Cong will definitely not be able to do it like this?"

"Brother Huan, do you mean to set up a lottery?" Xue Baochai's eyes flickered, he turned to the two brothers and asked with a smile.

"Sister Bao, don't listen to his nonsense." Jia Cong hurriedly confessed, acting like I was a serious person.

Jia Huan frowned and said, "Brother Cong himself said that the great master sued him, and there must be a brave man under the heavy reward."

Everyone's eyes returned to Jia Cong. Hum, Brother Cong is indeed cunning.

Jia Cong said hurriedly: "My grandpa once said this, but this is the art of war, and it has nothing to do with writing poetry. Brother Huan, please don't talk nonsense."

No one believed him, they just sneered at him. When you two sing in harmony, do you really think others are fools?

Baochai smiled and said: "In Brother Huan's opinion, what kind of lottery is right?"

"At least 200 taels of silver." Jia Huan's eyes lit up and he stretched out two fingers.

When everyone saw that he was impatient and exerted too much force, they all covered their mouths and chuckled. The acting was too fake.

Jia Cong was also a little embarrassed, so he could only put his forehead on his hands and pretend to be deep in thought, for fear that seeing Jia Huan's exaggerated face would make him unfaithful.

"If Brother Cong does as well as you, wouldn't he have defrauded his money in vain?" Lin Daiyu sneered.

Jia Huan was confident and said: "This is simple. Let Brother Cong write it out first for everyone to taste. If it is done well, give him the money. If it is not done well, let it be."

Baochai nodded and said: "This is reasonable, but the lottery is not so easy to earn. If everyone thinks it is not good, you can just draw water from a bamboo basket." After saying this, he looked at Jia Cong with a smile, and waved to Mingying. I got the banknote.

"Yes, that's right. I've written so many poems, but I've never gotten any prizes. Why should you, brother Cong, get any prizes for writing poems? If there are any bad points, you can't even think of taking away these two hundred silver." Baoyu was busy making noises.

Lin Daiyu rolled her eyes at him, pulled his sleeves and asked him to sit down. She, Lan Zhihuixin, had already noticed that Jia Cong and Jia Huan were playing double roles. In this case, Jia Cong must have something to rely on.

When Jia Cong saw that Ying'er had brought two colorful silver notes, he couldn't help but his eyes were hot, and he cupped his hands and said: "Cong has no ink on his chest, and he didn't want to show his embarrassment in front of Sister Bao and other sisters, but it's hard to refuse such kindness. Whatever. , I will make up a nonsense poem and ask everyone to criticize it. If anyone here thinks it is not good, Cong will never dare to accept Sister Bao's reward shamelessly."

"Brother Cong, you are very conceited. Could it be that you have convinced me?" Tan Chun and others said with a smile.

"I don't dare, I just got something occasionally." Jia Cong said with a smile, and everyone could see the complacency on his face.

"It seems Brother Cong has got it. I'll take care of you with pen and ink." Baochai called for pen and ink and placed it on the table at one side.

Jia Cong didn't refuse. He stood up, picked up his pen, and said, "Brother Huan just now composed a poem about frogs. Let me compose one too."

Jia Huan chuckled and glanced at her sister Tanchun rather proudly, "Brother Cong is thinking the same thing as me." He only got a blank look in return.

Without thinking, Jia Cong wrote immediately and asked Ying'er to send it over.

Baochai took the piece of paper and looked at it intently. His eyes suddenly lit up. He read it carefully twice and nodded repeatedly: "Good poem, good poem. Brother Cong is really extraordinary."

"What's written? What's written? Show me quickly."

Baochai handed the note to Tanchun and looked at Jia Cong, as if he wanted to see through him.

Jia Congyun winked at Baochai lightly and sat back on the table. Baochai felt something unexpected in her heart and didn't dare to look at him. She quickly turned her pretty face to one side, but the red color flying from her ears betrayed her panic.

When Jia Cong saw this, he said softly: "It's only when they are light that they become more beautiful. No matter how ruthless they are, they are still moving."

(End of this chapter)