Chapter 843: Chapter 97: As If in a Dream
Little Crescent Island could be considered the most prosperous island in the central part of the Near Sea Archipelago.
Not only is its name similar to Crescent Island, but so is its status. In terms of significance overseas, it was akin to "Little Linzi" of Qi Country.
Of course, for Jiang Wang, the most important thing was that he had several old friends here.
Jiang Wang’s intention to head out to sea for the case had already been communicated to Xu Xiangqian and the others by Yan Fu, who departed for the sea earlier.
And the news of Wu Yiyu from the Gold Needle Sect already being executed was hardly a secret to Li Longchuan. In fact, they had been waiting for quite some days.
As Xu Xiangqian put it, "Jiang Qingyang, I’ve been missing you to death!"
There’s a poem as proof:
"Longing for you, dying to see you, I gaze in hope, yet you do not appear!"
After reciting the poem enthusiastically, Xu Xiangqian looked pleased with himself, "How about that? How is this verse? The double meanings, did you all catch them?"
The banquet was set up in the Spring Breeze Tower.
This tower claimed "The spring breeze of the sea, all within this tower," and was naturally a place of top-tier pleasures and entertainments.
With Xu Xiangqian around, there was generally no need to consider more modest places.
"Incorporating the ’hope’ from Jiang Wang’s name into the ’expectation’ of awaiting, truly exquisite. Brother Xu, your poetic skills have greatly improved, congratulations are in order!"
Jiang Wang humored him with a sincere-sounding reply, then turned to ask Li Longchuan, "Why isn’t Brother Yan here?"
"I don’t know which island he’s off playing on," Li Longchuan understood what Jiang Wang meant and explained, "Before he left, he had already arranged with the host here that this welcoming feast would be put on his tab."
If it were Xu Xiangqian treating, he probably couldn’t afford it.
Just from the four beauties seated behind the screen, each embracing a pipa, one could roughly imagine the cost of the meal.
Though Xu Xiangqian acted like the host here, that was just because he had no shame. This kind of fellow, who lives for the moment, had likely spent all his money clean after being in the Near Sea Archipelago for so long.
Generally, Yan Fu would be the one to handle expenses, which is why Jiang Wang had inquired now in his absence.
Xu Xiangqian clicked his tongue in satisfaction a few times, returning from his poetic reverie, and interrupted, "Without a definite word from you, naturally, he couldn’t wait here for you. He’s gone crazy with excitement now, running all over the place, playing everywhere since he went out to sea!"
Yan Fu was a calm and restrained person, always slow and steady in everything he did, never rushed or hassled.
If he had not been so stifled in Linzi, he would never indulge in such unrestrained behavior. It was indeed Jiang Wuyou who had forced him to stay indoors, pressed him too hard.
Alas, it truly makes one...
Jiang Wang couldn’t help but laugh, then he asked Li Longchuan, "And you guys? What exactly happened? I heard some things, but they weren’t clear."
Li Longchuan glanced at Xu Xiangqian and mouthed off, "He sent me an urgent message, saying that his Inner Mansion had been broken into, and the Divine Power Seed was about to be scattered. That’s why I rushed over overnight..."
"Once here, I found out he only got one of his front teeth knocked out!"
Li Longchuan was clearly exasperated.
But Xu Xiangqian jumped up and down, "A front tooth is very important okay, it’s all about appearance! Do you understand the concept of appearance?"
He spat words like flying saliva, and while busily defending himself, he gave Jiang Wang a fierce glare, "What are you looking at, it’s been fixed!"
Blocking the teasing look in Jiang Wang’s eyes as if searching for Xu’s missing tooth gap.
Right now, Jiang Wang really didn’t want to provoke him. Xu was like an enraged lion, furious and wild due to a failed mating attempt, ready to erupt into a duel at any moment.
"The incisor is very important!" Xu Xiangqian repeated.
He glanced at Li Longchuan’s pearly white teeth.
Then he sat down, wrapped an arm around Jiang Wang’s shoulders, playing the we’re-all-in-this-together card, "Forget it, you wouldn’t understand the troubles of us handsome men."
Jiang Wang looked at the heroic Li Longchuan, then at Xu Xiangqian with his remarkably high forehead. It was hard to imagine someone with such thick skin that they could feel more handsome than Li Longchuan.
Could it be that what bulged was not the forehead but rather the skin?
But then he thought again, if Xu Gaoe had so naturally grouped him into the same camp, what did that make his own looks... A sense of schadenfreude complicated his feelings momentarily.
"Fine, the incisor is very important!" Li Longchuan conceded with a helpless compromise, "However, since Brother Jiang is here as well. Let’s talk this out. We’ve fought and now there’s bad blood. It’s pointless to keep bickering over a woman, should we keep this up? After all, the Near Sea Archipelago is their territory."
"What do you mean ’bickering over a woman’!" Xu Xiangqian glared furiously, "Li Longchuan, your words deeply displease me."
His face livid with anger, "I am mutually in love with Miss Zhao, while that Yang Liu scoundrel shamelessly persists in bothering her. Don’t you know? You said the strong dragon cannot suppress the local snake, so I followed your advice, withdrew from Huai Island and rested on Little Crescent Island. Miss Zhao, unable to bear his harassment and with her heart set on me, also came to Little Crescent Island. That shameless scoundrel Yang Liu even had the audacity to follow! Can you blame me for that? Am I the one bickering and being jealous?"
Li Longchuan could not listen anymore, fearing Jiang Wang would be misled, so he interjected, "It was Miss Zhao Wuyan who came to Little Crescent first, and we followed later."
"It’s all the same!"
Xu Xiangqian waved his hand dismissively, "We’re connected at heart, unspoken understanding. Coincidently, we arrived at this place."
He grew more excited the more he spoke, "She clearly has a soft spot for me. Her junior sister and I also have a good relationship."
"Right, her junior sister is named Zi Shu."
Xu Xiangqian turned to Jiang Wang, patting him affectionately, "I’ll introduce you when the time comes."
Li Longchuan just facepalmed and no longer wished to speak.
Jiang Wang felt utterly bewildered, somehow being drawn into an introduction out of the blue.
Zi Shu? What?
He could see now that Xu Xiangqian was completely making a scene, adamant about not leaving and insisting on dragging Li Longchuan into his mess.
The relationship between Li Longchuan and him needless to say; having boarded the proverbial ship of thieves, it was now rather difficult to disembark. After all, one couldn’t just abandon him to be bullied overseas.
As the group bickered and argued, only the four beautiful pipa players seemed to maintain a high level of composure. Despite Xu Xiangqian’s nonsensical poetry and blathering, they turned a deaf ear, not missing a single note in their performance.
"You know," Jiang Wang said curiously, "this Miss Zhao Wuyan, who exactly is she to have you so enchanted, Brother Xu?"
Even though Li Longchuan disagreed with Xu Xiangqian’s jealousy, he couldn’t help but say, "She’s the senior sister of Longmen Academy, an eminent person, truly top-notch."
"Oh?" Jiang Wang was even more intrigued, "What is her cultivation, and what does she look like?"
He was indeed very curious.
For someone like Xu Xiangqian, accustomed to ’gleaning’ the various pleasure districts and a bona fide frequenter of such places, it was hard to imagine who could captivate him to such an extent. Going so far as to get entangled like a common ruffian over someone.
"Brother Jiang,"
Xu Xiangqian looked at him, shook his head, then picked up a cup of wine.
"In our lifetime, we meet many people, see many views. There are thousands of flowers, and myriads of people. But there is only that one, not necessarily unmatched, nor uniquely unrivalled. But once you see her, you see no one else. Once your thoughts turn to her, there’s no room for anything else in your heart."
"That’s when you realize how small your heart is, so small it can only hold one person."
He downed the wine in his cup in one gulp, momentarily lost in thoughts, "Like a dream, she is there night after night, as expected."
