The carriage walks on the dim and quiet street at the foot of Fanshan, Inner City, surrounded by the fragrance of laurel trees and jasmine flowers, as well as the white frost-like bushes popping out from the walls.

Zhou Huaian, who was still in a sage, had an extremely clear and calm mind. Looking at the armor accompanying the carriage, his eyes flashed and he was wondering what he was thinking.

After several curfews on the road, Zhou Huaian's carriage arrived at his destination. Although he was known as a different house, he was also a garden that looked quite old and quite large; whether it was the mottled roadbed under the moonlight or the walls of ivy, it was full of antique flavor.

Only the scarlet cloth barriers temporarily set up in front of the door and the curtains full of lanterns, and the word "Lin" engraved on the archway are new, and the surrounding environment is full of some incompatible meaning.

Standing at the door, they bowed to greet the slaves and maids wearing distinctly layered clothes, making this inconsistent nouveau riche feel more and more obvious; it is hard to imagine the simple and ignorant appearance of the master here more than a year ago. This is probably the whole family fortune of the former master.

In contrast, Zhou Huaian's home, although there were more than a dozen people around the daily life of the kitten, he was selected from the relatively loyal and reliable female camp, as well as part-time staff who had some expertise and occasionally came over. After all, as the soul and knowledge of a modern person, he had already passed the stage of relying on many people to show off his wealth and set off his identity.

After walking through the two-in-one vestibule and the affiliation courtyard, what appeared before him was a pond about half an acre of size, and surrounded by winding corridors and swaying blooming lotus, which looked a bit like the "Quyuan Fenglou" in later generations; and at the end of the corridor, the lotus is densely located, where the Banyue Hall holds a night banquet is located.

It was a spacious wooden banquet hall surrounded by large areas of weeping willows and osmanthus flowers. It was directly on the water with dozens of thick vermilion wooden pillars, stacked and stairs to form a spacious wooden banquet hall, with two layers of spiral ladders up and lacquered small pavilions; the rippling water waves reflected in the lotus pond's moonlight rippling moonlight has a distant and deep tranquility.

On the front of the open banquet hall, the expensive silk yarn curtains floated, and the carved inner walls of those bright lights were occasionally exposed; among the intermittent and vague sounds of silk and bamboo, there were sometimes colorful maids holding things floating like butterflies.

"Brother Xu, you are here..."

Lin Yan, who looked enthusiastic, walked down the stairs from the hall, and as always, he held Zhou Huaian's arm tightly and said.

"But let's wait..."

"Everyone is just waiting to listen to your deeds in Annan Pingman..."

But a gorgeous bird-woven brocade robe was worn on his thin and slightly hunched torso, which contrasted with his shiny blue-white face. The deep eye bags under the paint and the silver hoop scarf on his head were actually a bit of a cumbersome feeling.

"Brother Lin is so kind... how to tell me...."

Zhou Huaian couldn't help but respond.

"I just found a few familiar old friends and asked some music to entertain... It's really not a decent scene."

Lin Yan quickly explained as if he had misunderstood something.

"Brother Xu doesn't feel shabby... I'm going to play vocal music quickly,"

He turned around and clapped and shouted at the servants who were in the hall.

"Put it up for me as soon as possible..."

Everyone he mentioned was the only dozen guests here. Except for the few left-behind officials who were nodding or having a relationship, the other ones were all longings;

Just from their demeanor and manners, Zhou Huaian could be divided into purely Qingkes and ordinary accompanying guests with some wealth, as well as individuals with very knowledgeable temperament. When they saw Zhou Huaian who came into the hall with a wide robe and light clothes, they even stood up to greet and salute.

"Master Xu...well"

"I've seen the Xu leader..."

"Meet the commander of the Xu Camp..."

"Xiaoke Luzhou Fan Gui has been a leader for a long time..."

Amid a pile of warm and deliberate greetings, Zhou Huaian finally sat down and placed various delicious dishes filled with gilded silver utensils; first there were eighteen plates of four seasons of tea and honey, then there were eight water, eight land, and the mountain delicacies and sea flavors, and the so-called seven colors of swimming scales and seven colors of walking on the ground;

The dishes that were constantly rotated were filled with the generous food case that Zhou Huaian had occupied in a blink of an eye; and many of the dishes were replaced by a symbolic move and never moved, and they were replaced by a bowl of consolidation. The extravagance and waste only made Zhou Huaian sigh and frown secretly.

Maybe this dish can be used as food and clothing for poor families for several days, but here it is just one of the temporary decorations that show off their pomp and identity as the owner;

He still remembered the time when he was having a party with this person, but he smiled honestly and said that he was really hungry all the way and was afraid of being too lazy to waste food. He mixed the soup into the food and ate it very cleanly. However, he did not expect that he had transformed and degenerated into the kind of person he hated the most at the time so soon.

As the master, Lin Yan was unaware of it, and he also talked and persuaded him in great enthusiasm. While trying to maintain and set the atmosphere with many accompanying guests, he recalled the past cohabitation and working together, which was sincere and quite touching. He had no meaning to relax and inquire about what happened during the day.

On the contrary, those accompanying guests, who were known as great merchants, were polite but polite tone, asking about some details of the Battle of Annan from time to time, and then making various awesome and praise, just as if the living contemporary Ma Fubo was sitting in front of them or the re-editor of Zhuge Wuhou.

Especially among the guests, Hu Liena, the ship merchants who claimed to have some industry in Annanbo, looked even more willing to surpass their owner Lin Yan, and held their thighs and licked them on the spot. Perhaps as long as Zhou Huaian had a look or a hint of timid, he could do his best to join the other person he liked, he would clean up the whole family's women and let him choose the ordinary ones.

However, Zhou Huaian became more and more confused. As the saying goes, "It's a traitor or a thief," he would definitely not believe it easily. Lin Yan invited his family to come here just to bridge the past relationship through this welcome family banquet, or to bring the two parties closer together, and even introduce several relatives to their understanding.

At this time, a rebel general present who seemed to be drinking a little bit, suddenly stood up without any warning and his mouth changed, and he complained in secretly about the chaos and some things that happened in Canton for a period of time;

Then he pushed away the slaves who wanted to support him and started to complain louder. He actually vaguely buried Meng Qi, a left-behind Si Zheng, in his daily life, so that they were a little harsh and ignorant, so that they were all difficult to deal with themselves or to act. Fortunately, his rebel army was back, otherwise the situation in the city would still be like.

"What are you talking nonsense about Zhong Dabo?. Lao Meng has his own reason, but we just failed to understand the meaning."

Then he was immediately scolded by Lin Yan with a erotic look.

"This is my reception for Brother Xu... It's not the other party you are chewing on..."

"What the deputy envoy said was that you are so dissatisfied with big neck..."

"Get out quickly, don't continue to embarrass you in front of the silence..."

Then a comrade quickly stepped forward and persuaded He Shangqi, and then pressed the drunkard back again. Then he pulled him to the outside room, and a faint voice of persuasion came.

"Now that Xutou'er has come back, he will definitely not let things go..."

But as Zhou Huaian watched the scene coldly, he felt the disagreement, and then he became a little clear of the lightning in his heart;

Lin Yan's constant reprimand and the dissuasion of the generals were clearly defending and correcting Meng Qi, who was sending troops outside; but the implicit words were also making some clear-cut separation, or deliberately trying to distance himself from him from his position.

And this is also "Is the drunkard's intention not to drink?" Using this rebuke attitude to express and convey something to me, or to win over me to stand in a row? Or after I left for such a period of time and lost a corner of my three-legged tripod, the remaining two people were inevitably full of conflicts and frictions in daily life, and have developed to such a level?

Zhou Huaian suddenly had something in his heart, and suddenly understood why Meng Qi had to draw out old rebel soldiers from the patrol team, and why Lin Yan had to eat ugly or eat hungry and replenish the patrol team again; this may be the truth hidden under the chaos of daily life that he had never touched.

Now that he is back, the imbalanced power structure in Guangzhou City undoubtedly has another huge external variable; don’t blame Lin Yan for so deliberately inviting himself to come;

Although the farce has been calmed down, the accompanying guests have obviously no intention of staying there, and they have begun to sue for guilt and farewell.

"It's really a joke for Brother Xu."

Then he led Zhou Huaian to the upper floor of the banquet hall alone, and Lin Yan, who was talking in an empty tower, only then did he apologize and laugh at him.

"I thought they were asking for fun, but I didn't want to be so angry."

"It's rare to be pure for a moment, but I have a little thoughtful words. I want to tell Brother Xu to understand..."

"Why should Brother Lin be so apart?"

Zhou Huaian responded, but sighed in his heart that the real drama was still here under the name of today's banquet.
Chapter completed!