"This place, and only this place, has such a vast and majestic temple of the land god. It's said to be very efficacious, and people from seven or eight surrounding counties know about it, with many incense offerings." Lu Yi explained.

  Li Wenshan's heart slightly stirred, the first place he came to was the Temple Fair of this land, because of the obscene sacrifice case before the New Year? Hmm, it must be so, if I were in his shoes, I would also look at these gods and ghosts first, that obscene sacrifice case was really too evil.

  "Can you tell what play is being sung?" King Qin looked at the stage, listened carefully for a while, and asked Jin Xuan with furrowed eyebrows.

  Jin Zhen's eyebrows were furrowed even tighter than Qin Wang, but he hadn't caught on either. To be honest, he hadn't really understood what the actors on stage were singing about, with all their "yi yi ya ya".

  The King of Qin turned his head to look at Lu Yi, and Lu Yi spread out his hands and shook his head, he really didn't know this one.

  Gu Liu furrowed his brow, cocking his ear to listen, but it was all Greek to him. As for Li Wenshan, he might as well have been singing for half a day, not a single word made sense to him.

  Looking at the four people with a bewildered face, Lu Yi couldn't help but laugh, covering his mouth and coughing, pointing to the tea shed next door: "Go over there to get a bowl of tea, sit down and watch for a while, those few old men are just right to ask."

  The King of Qin nodded and walked towards the teahouse.

  Several people sat down in the teahouse, Lu Yi took out a large sum of money, each person ordered a bowl of tea and several plates of dim sum. He pushed two plates of dim sum to the other side of the big table where several elderly men were sitting, smiling: "Please help yourself, old gentlemen."

  "Ah, you're too kind." Four or five elderly men, either sipping tea or puffing on dry tobacco pipes, hastily nodded in unison with Lu Yi, expressing their gratitude and courtesy.

  "These young men, one look and you can tell they're of noble birth, just look at how well they were born."

  "It's clear that they are all book-smart scholars, each and every one of them is like a Wenqu star, destined for great wealth and honor in the future."

  Lu Yi also asked a few elderly people for a bowl of Lei tea each. The several old men smiled and spoke more politely.

  "Old gentleman, Xiaoke wants to ask for your guidance. What play is being performed on this stage?" After a few old men politely and flatteringly asked, Jin Zhu spoke with a smile and asked for guidance.

  "Are some of you young scholars from out of town?" An old man with a white beard and an extremely good temper asked with a smile.

  Jin Zhiyan nodded with a humble smile on his face.

  "You don't understand, you bookworms are right, a scholar doesn't need to leave home to know the world. But this opera of ours, it's definitely not in your books. We perform it every year, and only here do we have it. This opera tells the story of our town producing a county horse, a county horse, you bookworms should all know what that is? That's a big nobleman."

  The old man's eyebrows danced, from Qin Wang to Li Wenshan, and just as he heard this, he was stunned.

  "Old fellow, what county are you talking about? What kind of noble person is it? With the surname County?" Jin Zhen couldn't help but interrupt and ask.

  "Huh? You bookworms don't even know County Horse?" The old man exclaimed in surprise.

  Four or five old men beside him burst out laughing, chattering away, "Xiangzi's son is reading books, this county's horse, I suppose there's no such thing in the book?" "I'm telling you, Xiangzi's son, can't just read dead books." "Exactly, exactly, after reading books, what else should he do?"

  The King of Qin looked at Jin Shu and saw Gu Liu, then looked at Li Wenshan, and then looked at Lu Yi. Like the play on stage, all five people had a look of bewilderment on their faces.

  "This Mr. Zhang, with the surname Zhang, from Zhang County, is a man of great fortune. He married a county mistress and became a county horse. You know what 'married' means? It's to take a wife. We common people call it 'taking a daughter-in-law', but if you marry a county mistress, you can't say 'take', you have to say 'married up'. That means climbing up, upwards, understand?" The old man looked very knowledgeable.

  From Qin Wang to Li Wenshan, they all looked stunned, and Jin Cuishan's words made them feel a bit guilty and short of breath. "Old fellow, how did you manage to marry the county mistress and become the county horse? This county horse?"

  "Look, this book says that a wise face is like a princess's, and it's called a 'princess horse'. If it's a county lord's, then isn't it just called a 'county horse'?" The old man looked at Jin Zhiyan with a somewhat regretful expression, his face full of wisdom.

  Jin Zuo's face was expressionless as he stared at the old man, his mouth agape, but unable to utter a single word.

  The King of Qin's eyes blinked and could hear the sound. Lu Yi stared at him with a mixture of extreme speechlessness and impending laughter. Gu Liu looked disbelieving, staring at Li Wenshan, who was also staring back at him.

  "Cough!" King Qin coughed loudly and leaned forward, asking the old man seriously, "What about the princess? Who married the princess and what's his name?"

  "County Magistrate!" The old man's face said it all.

  The King of Qin took a deep breath, then let out a loud cough, leaning forward slightly, his expression even more serious and solemn. "Old man, what you said is not quite right. The husband of a princess is called a royal son-in-law, the one who marries a county chief's daughter can only be called a county donkey."

  Gu Liu burst out laughing, and at the same time as the laughter, he fell to the ground along with his chair. Li Wenshan held his stomach, laughing so hard that his body tilted over and pressed against Gu Liu's. Jin Zhiyan pointed at Qin Wang, her voice changing pitch from laughing. Lu Yi tried to pull up Gu Liu and Li Wenshan but couldn't stand up himself from laughing.

  Only the King of Qin, continued to look serious and said to the old man who was being laughed at by everyone: "No matter if it's a princess, a county princess or a village princess, they are all horses. Isn't that undifferentiated? That can't be right, there must be a distinction between them. You say so too, right? So, we can't call them all horses, we have to distinguish between horses, mules and donkeys."

  Several young men came over and pulled up Li Wenshan and Gu Liu.

  Lu Yi stood up, clasped his hands together and bowed to the elderly men around him who were clearly displeased. "I'm really sorry, I'll treat you all to tea as a form of apology."

  Lu Yi said, taking out a piece of silver worth half a tael and handing it to the tea shed owner, "Today's tea is on me, please help yourselves."

  Jin Zhiyan wiped away tears of laughter as he walked out with Qin Wang and others, taking over a hundred steps before stopping far away. Gu Liu was rubbing his stomach, letting out one "ouch" after another, laughing so hard that his stomach cramped up.

  The King of Qin fanned himself with a folding fan on his belly, "Such foolish commoners, what's so funny? County Magistrate Ma, it's surprising they can come up with this. This is still the most prosperous region in Jiangnan, with a rich cultural heritage and renowned for producing talented scholars. What would happen to those poor and ignorant people from poorer regions? No wonder this licentious shrine can stir up trouble."

  "I have to go and tell them, don't really wake up the county's donkey, in case it's a big crime." Li Wenshan wiped away two handfuls of tears that had come out from laughing, pulled at Lu Yi and whispered an instruction, then lifted his foot to head over.

  The King of Qin turned his head to look at Li Wenshan, and Jin Cuyan also looked over, sizing him up from head to toe, humming softly.

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