Meng Jianqing had long known that this daughter of the Long family was very good at spending money, but he never dreamed just how good at spending money she truly was.
He and Wen Ruhai were attending the banquet together with Prefect Wang. The Long family’s Flowing Gold Garden was located in a secluded area on the city outskirts, backing against mountains and facing water, leaning against the city wall. In the night, only scattered lights could be seen, making it impossible to estimate how much land it occupied. On the left and right sides outside the main gate were two long streets lined with shops. The wealthy merchants and local gentry attending the banquet, whether arriving by sedan chair or on horseback, would stop outside the gate where Long family servants would come forward to receive them, taking charge of the chairs and horses. Each accompanying servant of the guests received a thousand wen as a reward, allowing them to freely spend their time in the shops along the two streets while waiting for their masters to emerge. Meng Jianqing coldly observed and roughly counted—in just the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, the Long family had already given rewards to twenty or thirty people. With prices being cheap at the time, even in a prosperous city like Quanzhou, a thousand wen was enough for a family of five to live on for three to five days. Just this one expense alone for the Long family’s banquet was already an astonishing sum.
The person who came out to receive Prefect Wang’s party was a slender woman in white robes. Judging by her dress, she was merely a maidservant. Just as Wen Ruhai was wondering about this, Secretary Jia quickly stepped forward and cupped his hands toward the maidservant with a smile: “We trouble Miss Liu with her gracious presence.”
Meng Jianqing said in a low voice beside him: “Liu Baiyi.”
Wen Ruhai understood.
Although Liu Baiyi was only a maidservant, her position in the Long family could truly be described as “below one person, above ten thousand.” Ordinary guests probably couldn’t even catch a glimpse of her.
Two attendants carried lanterns ahead while Liu Baiyi led them through a winding path, passing through flowers and brushing past willows, until they reached Flowing Gold Garden. Only then did Liu Baiyi withdraw—presumably she had to oversee the entire event tonight, so she couldn’t accompany them.
The Flowing Gold Garden had gardens within the garden. For summer banquets, they always used the Lotus Clarity Garden. White stone pillars supported four platforms above a lotus pond spanning several acres, connected by curved railings, finally leading to a Lotus Viewing Pavilion that was half suspended over the pond’s edge. Other guests were seated on those four platforms, while only Prefect Wang’s party and the other twelve sea merchant families were qualified to sit on the Lotus Viewing Pavilion—naturally including the Yun family siblings.
Stars filled the sky, and under the starlight, Long Yan was already standing before the Lotus Viewing Pavilion to receive Prefect Wang’s party. This time she wasn’t wearing a face veil, but her beautiful features in the starlight still seemed shrouded in a thin mist, ethereal and hazy. She lightly stepped forward, curtsied slightly, and said softly: “Magistrate Wang, please.”
As she spoke, she gently waved her left hand. Amid the sounds of insects and frogs, a series of soft “pop pop pop” sounds could be heard. The giant candles in the stone lanterns atop each pillar ignited almost simultaneously. The transparent glazed covers, thin as cicada wings, protected the candlelight securely in the summer night breeze. Above the lotus pond, it instantly became as bright as daylight.
Meng Jianqing naturally knew this must be controlled by some mechanism, but what kind of mechanism could be crafted so exquisitely still caused wonder and shock. In the candlelight, looking around, he could see that the white stone of this lotus pond was all high-quality white marble. On the wall facing the mountain behind the Lotus Viewing Pavilion, twelve large marble panels were embedded in a row, connected in a winding pattern, forming a magnificent landscape scroll. Wen Ruhai sighed deeply: “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.”
Although Meng Jianqing wasn’t knowledgeable in this field, how could he ignore the great fame of Huang Gongwang’s “Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains”?
How much effort and money must have been spent to collect these twelve marble panels?
On the Lotus Viewing Pavilion were sixteen rosewood tables. Long Yan and Prefect Wang naturally occupied the center, with Wen Ruhai and Meng Jianqing next to Prefect Wang, while the Yun family siblings were beside Long Yan. The remaining twelve sea merchant families and their accompanying sons and nephews were arranged on both sides. In the very center was a large jade vessel the size of a lotus vat, filled with ice blocks that were silently emitting white mist. Several crystal wine bottles were inserted diagonally among the ice blocks.
Fujian’s winters weren’t particularly cold and often had no ice or snow, so these ice blocks were presumably transported from the north and stored underground in cellars, only taken out during the height of summer. It was said this custom also originated with the Long family, with other sea merchants following suit. Every winter, just the expense of harvesting and transporting ice was enough to exhaust the family fortune of an ordinary wealthy household.
After Wen Ruhai sat down, he noticed bamboo curtains gently drawn on both sides of the stone platform. The night breeze carried waves of floral fragrance into the curtains. He was momentarily stunned, then suddenly sighed deeply: “The water pavilion’s wind brings fragrance filling the air.”
The next line was “Ice-like skin and jade-like bones, cool without sweat.” Only after Wen Ruhai had spoken did he realize he had misspoken—after all, the host Long Yan was a young woman, and he really shouldn’t have carelessly used the Shu ruler’s lines describing Lady Huarui.
Fortunately, the attendants were just taking out chilled wine, drawing everyone’s attention, so no one had time to notice his slip of tongue.
Long Yan smiled and said, “This is Western Region grape wine brought here three years ago. It must be chilled before it can be properly enjoyed.”
She gently waved her hand, and the candlelight extinguished almost simultaneously. Above and below the lotus pond, immediately darkened.
Only the wine cups on their tables glittered in the starlight.
They were indeed luminous cups.
After one cup, the candlelight brightened again.
Wen Ruhai murmured: “Still wanting more, still wanting more.”
Such fine wine, only one cup was permitted.
Long Yan certainly wasn’t being stingy—she simply understood the principle of knowing when to stop.
Meng Jianqing couldn’t help but ponder silently.
In Yingtian Prefecture, when mentioning the Long family and Long Yan, even Shen Guangli had that kind of thinking: the Long family had always had few descendants, and after Long Yin’s death, with no other relatives, leaving behind such a daughter who only knew how to spend money like water, this probably wasn’t very good…
Was Long Yan the way they originally knew her to be?
Also, the name Long Yan was truly strange… why would Long Yin give his daughter such a name?