A corner of the Gathering of Beauties Banquet's Ding District.
A table had been set out.
Fruit, pastries, and several pots of fine wine were spread across it.
Six or seven people had gathered there—three women and four men.
They watched the stages in all four directions of the Gathering of Beauties Banquet amid cheerful laughter and conversation.
He Xiao was among them as well. Back then, he had taught Xie Guan.
He Xiao's complexion was rosy today after a few cups of wine. He slowly set down his cup.
He was thin, with his hair tied beneath a crown. His features were quite handsome, and he wore a pale moon-white robe.
He had deliberately dressed up today, powdering his face. The wine had brought two red clouds to his cheeks.
Especially before several beauties from Moonlight Pavilion, each as soft and alluring as coiling finger softness, his expression was particularly smug.
This time, he had not had the silver to attend the Gathering of Beauties Banquet.
It was only thanks to Yaya's help that he had gotten the chance to come here.
With beauties at his side, drinking and making merry—naturally, he was a refined scholar.
Only, the few Confucian scholars beside Moonlight Pavilion's top courtesans were rather unpleasant to look at.
He Xiao saw several scholars surrounding a woman in golden robes. She was graceful and luxurious.
Those fellows called themselves students of Lofty Mountain Academy, but in truth, they had merely failed to gain admission and relied on their families' wealth to enter an academy of this sort.
What was so impressive about that? He Xiao thought.
At that moment!
One of the women, dressed in white and about twenty years old, was poised and gentle. Seeming to notice He Xiao's embarrassment, she raised her cup with