Second Main Quest! (2-in-1)

"Chief Steward Bai, just say it." Kuang Wei, Valley Lord of Thunderclap Valley, spoke.

Bai Xiaowen smiled. "All right. First, let me explain two riddles. 'Moon hangs in the sky over lake light and water shadows.' Remove the water from 'lake,' then place it after 'moon,' and you get the character for 'ancient.' As for 'Two men play the yu beneath the secluded bamboo,' the two men are two 'mouths' embedded in 'yu.' Then, referring to the character after 'blow,' it becomes the character for 'song.'"

Everyone silently memorized the two characters, "ancient" and "song."

Ying Jianfan suddenly said, " 'Two men play the yu beneath the secluded bamboo' should give the character for 'elder brother,' with two mouths embedded in 'yu.' It isn't necessarily the character for 'song' you mentioned."

Bai Xiaowen smiled. "That's certainly possible, but I confirmed it was the character for 'song' rather than the character for 'elder brother' by referring to the allusion in the following line."

After a pause, Bai Xiaowen continued, " 'Feng Xuan plucks his sword tassel' refers to the story of Lord Mengchang and his retainers during the Warring States period. This story comes from Strategies of the Warring States: Qi, Book Four. Feng Xuan of Qi was poor and sought food from Lord Mengchang. Lord Mengchang's subordinates thought their master looked down on Feng Xuan, so they gave him only coarse tea and plain food at every meal. After some time, Feng Xuan plucked his sword and sang, 'Long sword, shall we return? There is no fish to eat!' After learning of this, Lord Mengchang fulfilled Feng Xuan's request and gave him fish. Later, Feng Xuan plucked his sword twice more—once to complain that he had no carriage for traveling, and once to complain that no one was caring for