THE SMILING PROUD WANDERER by Jin Yong

Wine Cups Part 4

Root Fairy and Trunk Fairy each picked up a jar. After opening the seal, they poured the wine into bowls. The wonderful smell immediately filled the air. The six Fairies didn't even pretend to be polite to Linghu Chong, raising the bowls up and down, they began swallowing the great wine in big gulps.

Linghu Chong also filled a bowl with wine and took it to Yue Buqun.

"Master, please have some. This wine is not bad, indeed."

Yue Buqun slightly frowned and hummed.

"Master," Lao Denuo joined in, "taking precaution never hurts. We don't know who sent us these wines. Who knows if there's anything odd in these wines?"

Yue Buqun nodded in agreement. "Chong, we'd better be careful."

But once the wonderful smell of high quality wine had gone into Linghu Chong's nose, he could no longer hold his craving.

"I won't be living much longer, anyway. It's no difference for me whether the wine was poisoned or not," he said with a grin.

Raising the bowl up with both hands, Linghu Chong poured all the wine in the bowl into his mouth and swallowed them in big gulps. "Great wine! Fabulous!" he praised.

Suddenly a voice came from ashore. Someone also praised loudly, "Great wine! Fabulous!"

Linghu Chong looked toward the direction the voice had come from and his eyes came upon a down and out scholar looking man in shabby clothes. The scholar had a torn folding fan in his right hand. Raising his head high, he sniffed again and again in the air, trying hard to catch as much of the great scent of wine as possible.

"Definitely great wine!" the scholar praised again.

"You haven't even tasted it, how would you know if the wine was good or bad, brother?" Linghu Chong asked with a grin.

"As soon as you smell the scent of the wine, you should have known that this is sixty-two year old High Grade Fen-Wine. Then undoubtedly it has to be great!" the scholar replied.

Linghu Chong had become quite an expert in the subject of wine thanked to the enthusiastic teachings from the Elder Bamboo-Green. He had already figured out that the wine was about sixty years old. But it would be simply impossible to be so sure that the wine was exactly sixty-two years old. The scholar must be exaggerating, he thought.

"If this brother doesn't mind, would you like to join us for some wine?" Linghu Chong invited with a smile.

"But you hardly know me at all," the scholar replied while wagging his head back and forth. "We have only met by chance like patches of drifting duckweed. I've already disturbed you enough by sniffing the scent of wine here. How can I trouble you even further by drinking your wine? I really couldn't do that! I certainly couldn't do that!"

"The old saying said it well: We are all brothers within the four seas. From what you just said, I can tell that you must be an expert in the knowledge of wine. I'd love to consult you on some of the questions. Come aboard please! Don't be too modest," Linghu Chong invited again with a smile.

Hearing these words, the scholar strolled over slowly. After bowing down deeply, he said, "My surname is Zu, the same Zu that's in the word ancestor.[13] The famous Zu Di[14] in history who trained at the first crow of a cock was indeed a remote ancestor of mine. My first name is Qianqiu, which means a thousand years. This brother! May I ask what your respectful name is?"

"My surname is Linghu, and my first name is Chong," Linghu Chong replied.

"Great surname! Great surname! And your first name is great too!" Zu Qianqiu praised while walking aboard the boat from the springboard.