Listening to that reward, that quick chubby fellow turned his head and glanced at him. Wanyan Honglie observed that his complete face was coated with pink spots attributable to consuming an excessive amount of wine; his massive and spherical in addition to equally pink wine nostril regarded as if there was a pink tomato caught on his face. He thought to himself: “Such a superb horse; I’ve to have it, regardless of the value.” At this second, two children enjoying tag ran onto the road simply in entrance of the horse. They got here out of nowhere and gave the horse fairly a scare because it had no room to get out of the best way. The horse’s left foot was nearly to land on one of many children when the rider lifted up the reins and jumped off of the saddle. Abruptly turning into lighter, the horse’s stride turned larger and longer, simply flying over the child’s head. That rider then softly and gently landed again onto the saddle.

Shocked, Wanyan Honglie instantly determined, that although there have been a large number of expert riders among the many Jin, none have been a match for this man. If he might get this man to return with him to coach the cavalry, then his cavalry can be nearly invincible; this was one thing rather more essential to him than an ideal horse. On this journey south, he made psychological notes on the place a military might be stationed and the place the rivers might be crossed; he even requested round concerning the abilities and names of each administrator within the counties he crossed. Seeing the superb talent of this quick fellow, he could not consider how silly the Track authorities have been for letting a expertise like this go to waste. He determined then and there that he was going to one way or the other persuade this man to return to Yanjing with him. Having made the choice, he instantly began working after them, fearing that, with the horse’s velocity, he would lose him. He was nearly to shout at them when he noticed the horse had run to the nook of the road and stopped. This was fairly sudden as he figured that, with the velocity that the horse was working, he must slowly come to a cease, but this horse was in a position to cease immediately. That is one thing he had by no means ever seen earlier than; even some nice martial arts practitioners would not be capable to come to a whole cease when they’re exerting themselves like this. The quick, fats fellow jumped off the horse and charged right into a constructing.

Wanyan Honglie hurried to the entrance of the constructing, contained in the constructing was erected a big wood signal: “Handed Down from Venus”; it was a two-storied restaurant. Wanting up, an enormous signal hanging from the roof had the phrases “Pavilion of the Drunken Immortal” written on it; the calligraphy was very elegant. On the facet was written, in smaller characters, “By Resident Dongpo”, it turned out that the phrases have been written by Su Dongpo [One of the greatest scholars of the Song dynasty as well as all of Chinese history.]. Seeing the grandeur of this restaurant, Wanyan Honglie thought: “Since he’s right here, then I’d as properly invite him to an ideal massive meal; that means I can turn into nice associates with him and every part after that will be easy.” Hastily that fellow got here working down from upstairs to the horse’s facet with a wine jug in hand. Wanyan Honglie instantly bought out of the best way.

Now that he was standing on the bottom, the guy regarded much more out of proportion. He wasn’t over 1.5 meters [5 ft] excessive, but he was nearly 1.5 meters huge as properly. The horse was very tall in stature due to its lengthy legs and the person’s head was barely as excessive because the stirrup from the saddle. He positioned the wine jug in entrance of the horse, gently hit the jug a few occasions, after which casually picked the highest half of the jug off, turning the jug into a big bowl of wine. The horse reared up on its hind legs and let loose a loud neigh earlier than coming again down and consuming from the bowl. From the candy odor within the air, Wanyan Honglie might inform that the wine was really the famed wine “Blushing Daughter” [Nu’er Hong] from Shaoxing county in Zhejiang province. From the perfume, it had been left ageing for greater than 10 years.

The quick, fats fellow walked again into the restaurant and tossed an enormous silver ingot onto the proprietor’s desk: “Put together three tables of one of the best meals; two of them can have meat and wine, the opposite one cannot.” The proprietor smiled and replied: “Immediately, Mr. Han. We simply obtained 4 Sai Lu fish from the Track River; they’re one of the best when served with wine. Please take the cash again Mr. Han, we’ll type all that out later.” The quick, chubby fellow rolled his eyes and shouted: “What is the matter? Consuming and consuming are free? Do you assume I am broke and simply beg off of different individuals?” Nonetheless with a smile on his face, the proprietor argued no additional as he turned and shouted: “Males, put together some actually great things for Mr. Han!” The cooks and waiters across the place answered and went about their jobs.

Wanyan Honglie was taking all this in: “Though he is dressed plainly, he spends cash like a rich man; judging from how everyone seems to be treating him with such manners, he is most likely a strong man in Jiaxing. It might appear that convincing him to go up north with me to show horse driving goes to be fairly tough. Let’s have a look at who the persons are he is inviting to lunch earlier than going any additional.” So he went into the restaurant, sat down at a desk by the window, and ordered a few small dishes together with a bottle of wine.

The Pavilion of the Drunken Immortal was located on the shores of the South Lake. The lake floor was coated by a light-weight fog and a number of other small boats have been slowly making their means across the lake. Inexperienced and easy trying water caltrop leaves [water chestnut] cowl about half of the lake. Seeing such a sight, he instantly felt relaxed and at peace. Jiaxing is a well-known metropolis of the traditional state of Yue; the plums grown right here have been candy and scrumptious like one of the best wines. In the course of the Spring and Autumn Interval this place was referred to as Zuili, which means Drunken Plums. It was additionally right here that the famed King of Yue, Gou Jian, had completely defeated the famed King of Wu, He Lu. This place was the purpose at which vacationers and retailers from the 2 states got here collectively. The South Lake was well-known for one more factor, the inexperienced water caltrops [water chestnuts] grown in it. Not solely are the fruit of the caltrops candy and easy, they’re additionally crunchy and refreshing, deservedly proclaimed as one of the best on the planet. This resulted in plenty of caltrop being grown within the lake. It was proper in the course of spring, the lake was clear and the leaves have been inexperienced, as if somebody had coated a sheet of jade glass with small items of jadeite.

Wanyan Honglie was simply having fun with the scene when he all of the sudden observed a single boat come flying into view. This boat was unusually slender in width and the bow of the boat was terribly excessive. Alongside the perimeters of the boat there have been two rows of waterfowl. At first he did not pay a lot consideration to it, however in a blink of a watch, the boat had overtaken one other boat that was far forward of it. The velocity at which the boat was going was astounding. As quickly because it bought nearer, Wanyan Honglie noticed that there was an individual sitting in the course of the boat; one other particular person sporting a straw cape sat within the again steering the boat, surprisingly it was a woman. She had solely to flippantly flick the oar within the water and the boat would shoot ahead like an arrow. That one flick needed to be no less than highly effective sufficient to maneuver a 100 jin object. It was odd sufficient {that a} woman can be so sturdy, however how might she exert such a power by way of a wood oar? Just a few extra strokes and the boat neared the pavilion. The solar shone down onto the oar which seemed to be made from copper. The woman tied the boat to one of many wood posts beside the stone staircase subsequent to the pavilion and nimbly jumped ashore. The person sitting in the course of the boat put a pole with a load of firewood on every finish onto his shoulders and adopted her ashore. The 2 of them walked up into the pavilion. The woman shouted fortunately on the chubby fellow: “Third Brother!” She proceeded to sit down down subsequent to him. The fats man greeted the 2 individuals: “Fourth Brother, Little Sister, you two confirmed up early.” When Wanyan Honglie sized the 2 newcomers up, he observed that the woman was about seventeen or eighteen years of age with a slender physique, massive eyes, lengthy eye-lashes, and snow white pores and skin; she was clearly a neighborhood woman from south of the Yangtze. She had the copper oar in her left hand and took off her straw hat together with her proper hand, revealing a head of sentimental, shining, black hair. Wanyan Honglie mused: “Though this woman is not as stunning as Madame Bao, she remains to be very engaging in one other means.”