Chapter 13 - Chaos (I)

　　Seeing Peony's joyful and expectant face, Mrs. Bai couldn't help but say, "You're enjoying this banquet?" 　　Peony hurriedly put away the joy on her face and explained, "I have been in poor health since I was young, lingering on the couch and missing out on many wonderful things. Last fall, I was seriously ill and almost died. After that, I figured out that life is all about happiness, and that I have to live anyway, so why should I be sad all day long? Not to mention that people look annoying, even if you look at yourself in the mirror, you don't look good." 　　Mrs. Bai said, "This is the reason why you should be happy in life, I underestimated you earlier." 　　Peony laughed and cast her eyes to the top. 　　Pan Rong and Jiang Changyang stood side by side, Pan Rong had a fine silk apron tied on by a maid, but Jiang Changyang merely pulled his sleeves up. 　　As soon as Liu Chang's chopsticks knocked on the wine glass, the two of them set up a stance and focused on their movements, skinning and boning, slicing, both of them moved cleanly, their hands rose and fell in a rhythmic fashion, rather than saying that they were slicing the fish, it was more like a magnificent display of knife skills, and amidst the flashes of the knives, the fillets of fish on the plate quickly piled up into a small mountain. 　　The maids kept taking half of each of the shredded fish cut out by the two of them and putting them into a small porcelain plate lined with fresh perilla leaves, together with a small plate of Eight and Finely Pieces made with eight seasonings: garlic, ginger, orange, white plum, cooked chestnut yellow, round-grained rice, salt, and soy sauce, and pouring a cup of Xuanmi-tea fried with fried yellow rice and green tea, and the fish were sent to the guests' seats. 　　Mrs. Bai explained to Peony in a low voice, "There is a fixed number of fish on each person's plate, and the two of them are competing to see who is faster and who cuts the chopped fish thinner and finer. See, the difference comes out, doesn't it?" She used her chopsticks to flip the shredded fish on the plate to show Peony, at first glance, nothing could be seen, it wasn't until after the chopsticks picked it up that Peony realized that the thickness and fineness were completely different. 　　Jiang Changyang's shredded fish was so thin and fine that Mrs. Bai blew on it gently, and it even floated up, while Pan Rong's shredded fish was not so thin and light, and was obviously twice as thick as Jiang Changyang's shredded fish. 　　Mrs. Bai steaks Pan Rong's cut to one side and says with slight disdain: "His craftsmanship is similar to that of our family's cooks, and he has the nerve to show it off in public." Clipping a chop and dipping it in the eight and finely chopped pieces, he put it on Peony's plate and sighed, "This stuff is cold, your body is weak, eat less." 　　As if to verify that Mrs. Bai's words are true, "ooh" sound, Jiang Changyang finished cutting the last fish on his plate, put the knife on the cutting board, lightly smiled and bowed to the crowd, turned back to the side of the ginger soup sent by the maid to wash her hands to remove the fishy, lifted up his robe and sat back at the table. At this time, Pan Rong's plate still lying two or three fish. 　　Liu Chang laughed and said, "Ah Rong, you lost! Still cutting?" 　　Pan Rong also felt that there is no fun, "Snapped" the knife down, stretching both hands to let the maid come up to wash his hands and clean his hands to organize his robe, lazily said: "Cheng Feng, I practiced hard for two years, but still not as good as you. It's just that, what I said must count." 　　Liu Chang laughed, "Naturally you can't compare to his long years of holding a sword, you should be convinced." 　　Sheriff Qing Hua laughed, "What kind of bet did you make?" 　　Pan Rong smiled narrowly, "Secrets." As she said this, she swept a glance at Peony, and when she saw Peony looking away, she turned to throw a wink at Lady Bai. 　　Mrs. Bai turned a blind eye and asked Peony, "Have you seen this flower today? What do you think of it? I've been looking around for half a day, but I don't see what kind of variety it is." 　　Peony laughed, "This flower happens to have the same surname as Madam. Its style is good, and compared with my several pots of flowers, they are all different." 　　Jade Plate White, white like jade, hard petals, stamens occasionally petalized, lotus type, flowers straight up, the advantage is high flowering volume, early flowering period. Liu Chang's plant, however, is just occupying a delayed flowering period, the same plant has a few flowers with high degree of stamen petalization, and it is a variety that is not found in his own peonies, so it is regarded as a rarity by him, and he purposely took it out to show it off. 　　In fact, Peony privately thought that according to the viewing eyes of the crowd at this time, when comparing the Jade Plate White with the Jade Floor Jade and Yao Tai Jade Dew, which were also of the white color family, they would surely think that the Jade Floor Jade of the Lou Zi Dai Gei type and the Yao Tai Jade Dew of the Hydrangea ball type were more beautiful and precious. Just the relationship between the two is delicate, in front of Mrs. Bai, she is not good to comment. 　　Mrs. Bai smiled and pointed to Pan Rong, who was pestering Jiang Chang Yang for a joke at the top, and said softly, "Someone wants to count your flowers, so be careful." 　　Peony froze, it turned out that Pan Rong had helped himself earlier for this purpose, was he also afraid that the Wei Zi plant would be taken by the Qing Hua Sheriff? She raised her eyes and looked earnestly at Lady Bai and whispered, "Whether you did it out of sympathy or for whatever reason, I am very grateful to you for reminding me. Those few pots of flowers, no matter what, I will not give them to anyone, nor will I sell them." 　　That was the capital of her future livelihood, and she wouldn't abandon them until she had no choice. 　　"In that case, I will try my best to persuade him to give up this idea." Mrs. Bai fixedly glanced at Peony, shook the embroidered orchid fan in her hand, and let out a few inaudible sighs. 　　Peony suddenly lost her good mood. She uneasily adjusted her legs, which had become numb because she wasn't used to sitting on the floor, and looked down at the fine eating utensils and exquisite food in front of her, secretly thinking that when that day came, her days might not be as luxurious as they were right now, but she certainly wouldn't be as wary as she was right now. 　　Not long ago, all the people are full of wine and food, into the flower appreciation link, Liu Chang smiled: "All of you know, the humble abode planted a few flowers, fluke barely into the eyes, every year in late spring and early summer, always add a little bit of fun to all of you in the leisure time. This year is different from previous years, I recently got a jade plate white, born with a difference, not only than the ordinary jade plate white bloomed much later, there is a tree with two types of flower traces." 　　After saying that, he is not in a hurry to open the green veil, but look at the crowd with a smile, listen to the crowd said a round of congratulations good words, Fang got up and ready to personally go to open the green veil. But just stood up, Qinghua county princess will use the fan blocked him, delicate smile: "Zishu, let me first see how?" 　　This was her way of saying that she was going to be the one to reveal the veil. Peony thought, it is just like the modern people cutting the ribbon, they like to invite a leading star to do the cutting, and with Princess Qinghua's egotistical nature, this kind of behavior is not much of a big deal. Since Liu's son wants to praise her, should be from is. 　　Who knows that Liu Chang haha a laugh pushed over: "All visitors are guests, if I let the county princess to see first, is it not intentionally slow down other guests? Next time, no one will come to play." Surprisingly, he went ahead and uncovered the green veil. 　　Princess Qing Hua laughed delicately, "You, this person, this kind of arrogance, there is always no one in your heart and eyes." Saying that, she glared back at Peony fiercely, so much so that Peony was puzzled and just thought that she was crazy and abnormal. 　　The crowd got up to view the Jade Plate White, and went to look at the several pots of flowers carried out from Peony's yard. Peony also followed behind Mrs. Bai and went up to admire the flowers, taking the opportunity to give Yu He a wink, Yu He understood and got up to leave. 　　Not long after, the crowd began to critique the poems, Peony didn't know how to, nor was she willing to plagiarize anyone's verses to achieve her own reputation as a talented woman. Since she saw that Li Nympho had already circled out of the banquet place on her own, she took advantage of the fact that the crowd was concentrating on their thoughts and no one was paying attention to her, so she took Lin mother and Yu He and followed her out. 　　Princess Qinghua had never given up paying attention to Peony, and when she saw this, she didn't move and raised her chin to one of her maidservants, who nodded and retreated silently. 　　Pan Rong, however, also pulled Jiang Changyang, signaling him to follow her out. Jiang Changyang faintly swept a glance at the meditating crowd, turned around and followed Pan Rong out of the banquet place.