I hurriedly caught hold of her, but she seemed utterly drained and slumped against me. Just as I was about to help her back home, she shoved me away, then staggered back to the pavilion ruins. Fumbling around, she placed the qin on her knees again and looked at me with hazy eyes.
I was about to offer a few words of persuasion when the stubborn Meng Xuejun swept a slender finger across the strings. The qin's notes cut off what I was about to say. Even when I prepared to put the wine pot away, she stopped me. "Are you even a man?"
"I..." I thought, This is hopeless. It's precisely because I'm a man that I haven't touched you. Talk about a dog biting Lü Dongbin—you don't recognize a good person when you see one.
I figured I wouldn't be able to put the wine pot down unless I took another sip, so I had no choice but to drink again. The result was that an unseen force lifted the wine pot, and the wine gurgled straight down my throat. Caught off guard, I choked out everything left after that sip. Seeing this from the pavilion, Meng Xuejun giggled. "You... if I don't force you... you really won't drink..."
I felt rather helpless, but then thought, Forget it. This woman is usually so lonely here. Now that she's drunk, it's rare for her to laugh like this. It's as precious as an iron tree blooming. Why should I disturb her beautiful dream? So I smiled and said, "Meng Xuejun, you look beautiful when you smile."
The moment Meng Xuejun heard that, the qin music stopped abruptly. But whatever she had thought of, she suddenly let out a muffled laugh and began playing again. "Hurry up and dance with