Nightfall

The topic of debate was given by Grand Secretary Zeng Jing, and just at the beginning of it, Mr. Xie, who was invincible in debate in the Academy, realized what an unshakable mountain that he had to confront.

After grooming himself, Prince Long Qing began to debate with a dignified look, not because he was fearful of his opponents, but because he respected the exchange of wisdom during debate, which meanwhile served as an appreciation of Mr. Xie’s courage to some extent. However, when the debate started, he directly revealed his uncomparably true level without showing any mercy.

Numerous words flew out from the lips of Prince Long Qing as if they were delicate lotuses. Countless classics from previous sages were cleverly cited and organized by him while incorporating the topic, which were then changed into a complex, yet clear, network. It took those listeners a long time of pondering to understand the meaning between the lines. What made the students more shocked and speechless was that Prince Long Qing was actually not using classics from Haotian Taoism of West-Hill, but was just citing views from the classics in the Academy!

As Ning Que had judged, Xie Chengyun was only able to give a few rebuttals in the face of the emotionless argumentation of Prince Long Qing, and soon after, he was trapped in the ocean made by those lotuses of words, where no mistakes nor indefensible points could be found. All he could do was helplessly wait for the network to be more and more intense with no way to fight back at all.

Ning Que was not skilled at seeking truth through citing the classic books for debating, nor would he become fond of it. Since the age of four, after realizing that those mathematical problems solved in the Mathematical Olympiad class were totally useless for his begging career, he had firmly set himself a living standard: No matter how wonderful an idea or a thought was, if it could not help him in fighting or earning food, it would be meaningless to his life and did not deserve to be further studied.

Well.. calligraphy was an exception because he loved it.

In short, he did not like debate and, thus, could not form a favorable impression of Xie Chengyun. As the one neglected by the Academy for six months, he found it difficult to have any sense of group honor, yet he was also unwilling to see that prince, who could remain devastatingly handsome with a poker face and continued to behave so arrogantly. So, he hid himself in the dim corner with Sangsang, who was also unable to comprehend debate, enjoying wine and vegetable dishes regardless of what was happening around him, waiting for the debate to end.

“The Headmaster of the Academy once said when all his disciples were gathered: If one can remain unchanged in their behavior for three years, then it can be called the Tao.”

Finally, Prince Long Qing concluded his speech with the opinion expressed in an essay by the Headmaster of the Academy from 30 years ago, which at the same time ended this lop-sided debate.

The courtyard was shrouded in complete silence. All of the students speechlessly watched the indifferent prince, not knowing what to say. Even those female students, including Situ Yilan and Jin Wucai, were shocked with their backs slightly damp. Such a thoughtful man with a rigorous method of debate was really terrifying, not to mention that what he cited was all from the Academy classics. Furthermore, he even used the doctrine of the Headmaster of the Academy to draw a conclusion, so how could they shamelessly continue to make trouble over nothing?

At this time, all those in the courtyard finally understood why Prince Long Qing gave people a sense of pride and indifference although he looked handsome and quiet with gentle manners and said few words. He should not be blamed for his arrogance. The problem was that others would naturally feel themselves inferior when confronting his strong capability. Then, gradually, the prince got used to this way of getting along with others and, hence, became a superior outstanding man without needing too many words.

…

…

“Before complaining that others always like to climb over your back, you ought to think about how you took the initiative to squat first.” Ning Que looked at his classmates, who were as still as frozen quails, shook his head, and said, “You all treated me with such loftiness, yet turned into hatracks today in the face of a tough one. How shameful you were.”

Sangsang picked up the wine cup that he had quietly handed to her and took a sip, then she looked to the front and said, “It seems that Prince Long Qing is very powerful.”

As if he were answering the confusion of the little handmaiden, Priest Moli, the vice president of the Revelation Institute, looked at the students and complemented with great satisfaction, “The debating capability of Prince Long Qing is even greatly appreciated by the elder of the Lanke Temple.”

The atmosphere was somewhat embarrassing at the moment. The middle-aged general from the Gushan Commandery, who was sitting below Lee Yu on the left, suddenly laughed and said, “I, Zhang Jianxin, am a rough man and can’t understand what the prince and that young master were debating about. But I know that wine is a good thing to liven things up at a banquet. Today, we all came to see Crown Prince Chongming off. In our Gushan Commandery, we don’t have anything special, so I just brought dozens of vats of Nine-river double-distilled wine, and have called those lieutenants to carry them into the backyard. So, I will invite you to have a taste.”

Those remarks were straightforward, yet polite. The Nine-river double-distilled wine produced in the Gushan Commandery was not ordinary wine. It was a kind of high spirit brewed by double distillation, which had been used by an emperor of the Tang Empire to soften the minds of the barbarians in the grassland and corrupt the strong will of the tribes there, which had thus helped to get a miraculous effect. Since then, it had become a secret craft under the strict protection of the Empire and was often used as a bargaining chip with the tribes of the grassland and was rarely served for consumption.

The reason why the Nine-river double-distilled wine was rarely served for consumption and was even not chosen as a tribute wine by the palace was that it was not easy to brew the wine. But more importantly, this wine was so strong that an ordinary brawny man would be drunk after drinking only one bowl of the wine. Although it met the generous and brave temperament of the Tang people, it would be too unpleasant to become drunk after just a few sips of it when you were leaning against a rail, enjoying the wine and the breeze and thinking yourself to be grand and unrestrained. Therefore, the Tang people had to painfully abandon it.

The rarely seen double-distilled wine from the Gushan Commandery was separated into smaller pots and sent to all the tables. Then, more refined wine sets were offered, which slightly relieved the previous tension. But no one had expected that the general from the Gushan Commandery called Zhang Jianxin would ask for the maidservant to change the small wine cup in front of him for a big bowl. After filling the bowl with the liquor, he stared at the eyes of Prince Long Qing, saying in a muffled tone, “I don’t know if the West-Hill Divine Palace forbids drinking.”

Prince Long Qing looked at the small wine cup in front of him, shaking his head with a faint smile. This was the first time that his expression was different as gentleness and indifference appeared on his handsome face, revealing another sense of charm, thus, making those girls dizzy with fascination again, despite the fact that they were just now annoyed at him for discrediting the Academy’s reputation.

General Zhang suddenly looked serious. He raised his left hand to hold the bowl with both hands and solemnly said, “Back then, I once fought against the cavalry of the Yan Kingdom at the foot of Min Mountain. Now nearly 10 years have passed and the two countries have formed a good relationship. So, with this bowl of wine, I want to propose a toast to Prince Long Qing. Hopefully, you won’t mind. But the wine is so strong, and on the grassland, they say that after three bowls of it, one cannot ride a horse. I don’t know whether you, the prince, can, or rather, dare… to drink?”

With these remarks, the room became still again.

In the corner, Ning Que looked in that direction and shook his head, saying, “Is he trying to compel him or is it just a joke? Vulgar, so vulgar! The guys from the military troops of the Tang who have withdrawn from the front line are so honest, or perhaps stupid. The prince is a genius at the Peak of the Seethrough State, and you should initiate a drinking game with him! It’s just like gambling with me, your young master, in a dice game. It’s simply looking for abuse.”

While speaking, he emptied the bowl that had been previously filled with rice wine and poured the fine wine of the Gushan Commandery from the pot into the bowl. He then carefully covered it with his sleeve and handed it to Sangsang behind him. That double-distilled spirit was indeed extraordinary, the fragrance of which filled the air in an instant. Sangsang was normally calm, but now she could not even restrain herself from showing delight, as even her eyes were burning brightly.

In the depths of the courtyard, Grand Secretary Zeng Jing found the scene embarrassing, so he stood up to abate it. He lightly patted the folding fan in his hand, looked at General Zhang Jianxin, and suggested with a sudden seriousness, “Now, for the sake of our good relationship, how about drinking together?”

In the face of such seriousness from the Grand Secretary, even the commanders from the Tang frontier troops dared not disobey. However, for some unknown reason, Zhang Jianxin persisted in holding his bowl with both hands as if nothing had happened. He looked at Prince Long Qing coldly, saying, “Whether we drink together, or just serve it between the two of us, I was just wondering… whether the prince drinks.”

Taking a sip of the liquor, Ning Que tightly furrowed his brows because of its spicy taste. When he heard those words, he felt something like taking just one dipper of water to drink from 3,000 miles of water, which meant being single-minded to love, was indicated.

He frowned as he stared in that direction, figuring that the general surnamed Zhang previously claimed himself to be rough… perhaps was just a disguise which deliberately compelled the prince to drink via a vulgar method. Using a coarse and crude manner to fight against an adversary’s elegance and arrogance would be a surprise trick under the current situation of the Empire’s reputation being constantly hurt. Perhaps it was Lee Yu who had incited him secretly.

However, just like in debate, which was one of the two basic elements that made Prince Long Qing so proud of himself, these things had nothing to do with Ning Que. Realizing that Sangsang loved this double-distilled spirit very much, he busily poured the wine out of the pot and then secretly handed it to Sangsang sitting behind him. Next, he secretly stole wine from a classmate next to him to give to Sangsang and tirelessly repeated the whole process cautiously and happily.

When the two hid themselves in the dim corner of the courtyard to steal wine, the situation in the courtyard had changed again. Most people thought that Prince Long Qing would ignore that invitation of a wine competition from the Tang general out of his constant indifference and arrogance, yet they only perceived a sudden flash of a light smile upon his face. With a slight wave of his right hand, a pot appeared in his hand silently.

Soon after, Prince Long Qing lifted up the lower part of the pot, from which crystal-clear wine rushed out accompanied by its spicy fragrance and filled the big bowl instantly. Not allowing the wine to overflow, he raised his left arm as quickly as a whirlwind to send the bowl toward his lips, and he drank the wine up at the same speed as that of a whale inhaling water or that of a tornado. How nonchalant he was!

General Zhang Jianxin looked somewhat stupefied, as if he had not expected that Prince Long Qing, who was well-known for his indifference, solemnness, and arrogance, should turn out to be so casual and unrestrained in the face of his invitation of a wine competition. Then, after a moment of distraction, he realized that he was still holding the bowl, and thus immediately sent it to his lips and drank it up.

However, just when he was about to withdraw the bowl from his lips, he found that Prince Long Qing on the other side of the table had unnoticeably poured himself a second bowl of wine, handsomely drinking it up again.

Then the third bowl, the fourth bowl, the fifth bowl… Even on the grassland, there were tales about the Nine-river double-distilled wine from the Gushan Commandery, where, after drinking three bowls of it, one could not ride a horse. Now that Zhang Jianxin dared the prince to compete in drinking this wine, he should naturally be an expert in drinking. However, he finally failed in this competition with the prince, who constantly swallowed the wine without batting an eye. And finally, he flopped down to the ground with a flushed face.

Then, maidservants carried General Zhang away, who was full of the stench of wine. All those from the Tang Empire sitting in the courtyard felt ashamed. Inviting others to have a wine competition was in itself a vulgar thing to the extreme. And what was worse was that the extraordinarily refined prince, who looked as handsome as those in the pictures, should get a complete victory in the end. It was not only vulgar to the extreme, but also a shame to the extreme!

Holding his eighth bowl of wine, Prince Long Qing gradually drank it up, rather than putting it down when his opponent flopped to the floor. Then, he calmly looked at the others and said with a trace of a weary smile from deep in his heart,

“In my life, I first worked hard to seek Taoism and was then in charge of court rulings. In terms of wiping out the remaining forces of the Devil’s Doctrine and punishing the betrayers of Taoism and heresies and evil doctrines, I was always harsh and strict, never allowing any mistake to be made. So far, it could be said that no other objects were able to stir my heart… with only one exception, which was fine wine.

“Wine can help us to feel the way of nature and understand the mystery of the enigmatic world. It is a fine gift given to us by Haotian. So, I always think that if cultivation is used to dispel the effects of wine, it will be a reckless waste of this valuable gift. Although I liked drinking wine from a very young age, I seldom drink it. After I left Capital Cheng during my childhood…”

He calmly glanced at the crown prince, his elder brother who seemed to have been forgotten by everyone in the courtyard, and he continued, “… I have only drunken liquor four times in these years, one of which was at the Royal Palace of the Yuelun Kingdom. I was misunderstood by some people in that affair with Lu Chen Jia, so they in turns competed drinking with me. The wine was not as strong as it was today and we didn’t stop until all the wine pots in the palace had been emptied. During the following three days, the palace was filled with the stench of wine, yet I was not drunk.

“Wine is an extremely fine product, and simultaneously, the devil’s music that can erode one’s bones. So, I rarely drink, unless I have to, such as in that situation in the Yuelun Kingdom, or today, when the general compelled me.” He indifferently continued, “Or perhaps, there are wines worthy to be drunk, such as this fine double-distilled wine from the Gushan Commandery, or there are opponents that are worthy to drink with.”

Then, Prince Long Qing once again filled the bowl in front of him and lifted it with a single hand. He looked at Xie Chengyun sitting below and said, “This bowl is to the bravery of Prince Xie.”

Xie Chengyun slightly stiffened, and then, with a sorrowful sigh in his heart, he changed for a big bowl, filled it with wine and drank it in response from a distance.

Then, Prince Long Qing poured another bowl of the liquor. Turning to Wang Ying sitting beside Xie Chengyun, he calmly said, “Wang Ying from Lin Chuan, you’ve known etiquette since the age of 12. I have read your notes on etiquette, which were written the year before last.”

Wang Ying was no older than 15, who was still too young to understand the previous strife at the banquet, thus, he never expected that he himself would be mentioned. Therefore, he could not help feeling excited and happy when he heard that Prince Long Qing, who had conquered all those present with his charisma, should have read his notes on etiquette. So, he hurried to lift the little wine cup in front of him and drank it up.

Unsurprisingly, after a moment, both Xie Chengyun and Wang Ying slumped on the stable because of the strong alcohol. However, they drank the wine in such a peaceful way that no one from the Academy felt annoyed. Instead, Zhong Dajun and those sitting below him all filled their cups with the wine and waited for Prince Long Qing to mention them.

Holding his bowl of liquor, Prince Long Qing looked at the other students, showing no further intention to make a toast, instead, he brought the bowl to his lips and slowly drank the wine up. Then, he put the bowl down without taking a look at those sitting below. The other Academy students would naturally feel unpleasant, and even Ning Que, who had filled his bowl following the trend, was out of sorts. The good impression of that guy that had just been formed had all suddenly gone.

Prince Long Qing looked at the empty bowl with a faint smile and slightly sighed, “The Academy… what big fame it has. I only hope that the real Academy won’t disappoint me.”

“How conceited you are!” Lee Yue somewhat scoffed at him and said, “If you do not know what the real Academy is, how can you come to be a hostage from such a long distance? How can the hierarch Lord and the three Great Divine Priests allow you, such a bigwig in charge of the Judicial Department of the Divine Hall, to quit the job and study in the Academy?”

After a short while of silence, Prince Long Qing looked up and calmly answered, “You are right, Your Highness.”

Lee Yu quietly looked at him and suddenly said, “Long Qing, I admit that you are really talented and have the capital of being proud. But now that you are in charge of the Judicial Department and have a good knowledge of Haotian doctrine, you should be well aware of the principle that one should let nature take its course and be free from forcibly insisting. But why do you force yourself to be against your own will and pretend to be so arrogant?”

Prince Long Qing remained silent for quite a long time after being questioned, and a gloss gradually appeared over his handsome face. He then replied slowly but firmly, “Our country is weak and we haven’t found a solution, so what I can do is to behave more proudly.”

He made the reply calmly and frankly, which made it clear that the Yan Kingdom was too weak to be an opponent of the Tang Empire, and he, a royal member of the Yan Kingdom and, meanwhile, a disciple from West-Hill, should remain proud though he was a hostage in Chang’an. Only in this way could he continuously remain strong despite the weakness of his mother country.

Then he continued, “As for not drinking, it has nothing to do with pride. It is just because I cannot find an opponent in drinking.”

Situ Yilan could not help retorting him in a whisper, “Men’s ability should be shown on the battlefield, rather than in any drinking game. What is the point in drinking so much wine?”

“This lady is right.” Prince Long Qing calmly replied, “Only good debaters can debate with each other, and good drinkers can drink with each other. Today, we didn’t have a debate competition, then naturally, we won’t have competitions in drinking.”

Who could debate with Prince Long Qing? The most excellent debater, Xie Chengyun, had been utterly defeated. Who could drink with Prince Long Qing? He had swallowed nearly 10 bowls of the liquor, and claimed that he had never gotten drunk in his life.

Then another period of embarrassing silence followed. What an unbearable shame it was for the Tang Empire and the Academy to be stunned by a person from the West-Hill Divine Palace with nobody daring to challenge him! Lee Yu slightly clenched the silk handkerchief in her slender hand and was about to leave. Suddenly, she heard a sound of gurgling from the corner.

At the moment, the courtyard was in an audible silence, even the sound of a pin dropping to the ground could be heard. So, the actually subtle sound of gurgling was comparatively amplified, which attracted all those in the courtyard and made them puzzled.

The sound was like a spring flowing through a waterway made by moso-bamboo and then falling into an icy stream, or like a long-necked stork freshly waking up in the morning who was proudly combing its feathers around its neck in the grass of the wetlands. It sounded pleasant and attractive.

Everyone, including Situ Yilan, gazed wide-eyed at Ning Que sitting in the dark corner. They carefully listened to that sound of gurgling coming from behind him, looking somewhat confused.

A moment later, Sangsang, the small-figured handmaiden dressed in a maid costume, kneeled out from behind Ning Que, holding an empty bowl with both hands. Then, she was stunned to find that she was in the spotlight, and not knowing why. Everyone in the courtyard looked at her as if they were looking at a god.

Sangsang felt very unaccustomed when she discovered that she was being stared at by so many pairs of eyes. Then, she raised her right sleeve to wipe her mouth and gingerly put the bowl down on the table in front of Ning Que, and then quietly returned to her original place.

It was only then that the others finally noticed that in that corner beside the square table, neatly ordered in a line, were four empty wine pots.