The first volume of the wind and cloud meeting, Chapter 3: Brewing wine to discuss heroes (1). The banquet for Wu Tianbiao's welcome was set in the "Drunken Eight Immortals" wine tower's "Lv Dongbin" hall. Wu's siblings and Director Ma competed to be the host, and finally, under Ma Ben's repeated requests, they managed to snatch the honor of signing the bill.

  This "Lv Dongbin" hall is very stylish in Tianjiao's eyes. The outer room is a reception room, with a black marble coffee table, surrounded by a circle of orange genuine leather sofas. On the wall hangs a large ink painting of "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea", and on both sides of the painting are two pieces of crazy cursive calligraphy that Tianjiao can't understand. The inner room separated by red wood is a dining hall, with an oil painting of Lv Dongbin riding clouds and fog on the front wall. Eight antique purple high-back chairs surround a delicate glass round table, reflecting under the bright crystal chandelier, emitting a faint, mysterious glow.

  Since it's just a small gathering, Wu Tianran said: "Director Ma, there aren't many of us, and we're all family, let's keep things simple. This is a family dinner after all."

  "That's right, I said it, Secretary Wu's awareness is high. Although it's the Communist Party's money, we can't waste it, can we?"

  Next, who should sit in the host's position, everyone was polite again. First, Wu's siblings asked Ma Ben to sit down because he signed the bill. Wu Tianjiao said sweetly: "Still Director Ma, you take the seat, this is an international convention!"

  "Haha, how dare I, how dare I! There are municipal leaders here, great professors, the protagonist of the banquet, and even a beautiful fairy sister who can't be stopped. How could it be my turn, this old rough guy!" Ma Benqi burst out laughing and naturally flattered Wu's siblings one by one at the dinner table. Wu Tianran was just a small secretary in the municipal office, but he called him the municipal leader. Wu Tianfang taught at Shanyang University and was only an associate professor, but he called him a great professor. Wu Tianbiao had just been released from prison and was called the protagonist of the banquet, which made him very happy. However, the happiest one was Wu Tianjiao, who was called a fairy sister, making her feel a little fluttered. It seems that Ma Benqi is still a rough but refined guy!

  After a round of pushing and shoving, Ma Benzheng said: "Well, I'll just have to take charge then." He proceeded to arrange everyone's seats. Wu Tianbiao sat in the seat to his right, which was the main guest's seat. Then he pulled Wu Tianlu over to sit in the seat to his left, which was the secondary main guest's seat. Wu Tianran sat across from him, which was the secondary host's seat. Wu Tianjiao sat between her two older brothers.

  "Miss! Miss!" Ma Benzheng shouted loudly as he saw everyone had taken their seats. A young girl with a childish air about her pushed open the door and came in.

  "Now that everyone is here, let's start with the Ti Kuan Yin tea. Don't drink the hotel's tea leaves, go to the reception desk and get the ones I stored there. Also, bring one of the Da Zhonghua cigarettes I stored there. And move a box of Wu Liang Ye liquor quickly."

  "Too luxurious, Director Ma. You can't be corrupt!" Wu Tianbiao said with a laugh as he saw Ma Ben's enthusiasm.

  "This is all just rot and nonsense, just joking around. Don't think too much about it, it's all just emotions, what's the point of putting a price on that? The cigarettes and wine are my own."

  "Let's order then." Ma Benchi said after looking around.

  "You'd better take charge of it yourself, then you can have overall control." Wu Tianran said with a smile.

  "Come on, one person orders first. Don't look at the menu, just order what you want to eat." He pushed away the menu holder handed over by the waiter and said in Wu Tianjiao's tone: "Ladies first, this is also an international convention!" Everyone burst out laughing after hearing this.

  Tian Jiao said: "Let's have a sour and spicy dish."

  Tian Biao said: "A plate of peanuts."

  Tianlu said: "A plate of raw vegetables."

  "Natural said: 'A portion of roasted shiitake mushrooms.'"

  Ma Benzheng stood up and said loudly: "How can it be all vegetarian dishes? Is it to save money for old horse?"

  Tian Jiao giggled and said: "Now it's popular to eat grass, rabbits eat what we eat. Green, environmentally friendly, healthy, people all over the world know."

  "This is a dish to go with wine, and it's for your Wuliangye." Tian Biao was also laughing.

  "Let me add some more. How about the chicken dish? Spicy chicken, 2 catties, use native chicken, if you use foreign chicken, I won't pay for it. How about the fish dish? Steamed fish, use wild white dragon carp, around 3 catties, can't use net-cage raised ones. Sigh, thinking and thinking, really nothing much to eat. Let's have some game meat, do you have wild boar meat? Stir-fry with fist-sized vegetables, the vegetables must be tender, don't want those that are hard to chew or get stuck in your teeth. Right, add two dishes of 'one star'. Sigh, also, add two more servings of noodles. Tell the chef, hurry up and make it, once done, bring it up." Ma Benzheng listed out four more meat dishes, then looked at Wu Tianran and said to the waiter: "Give the menu to our leader to take a look, finalize it one last time."

  Wu Tianran took the menu and scanned it, saying, "Good, good, good, but there's one obvious drawback - it's too rich." In his heart, he thought that this waiter probably hadn't even graduated from junior high school, because on the menu, many words like "spicy", "steamed", "fist", "tender" and "弹" were replaced with small circles.

  "Then take it away and get it done. And refill our tea cups, would you? This tea isn't bad, is it? A friend of mine from Fujian gave it to me." Ma Benzheng said with some self-satisfaction.

  Wu Tianlu raised his glass, took a look, sniffed it with his nose, and then slowly savored a sip, saying calmly: "Indeed, this is good tea."

  Ma Benzhong admired the way he drank tea on Tianlu Road: "This is what it means to appreciate tea, to understand tea. Unlike me, who drinks tea just to quench my thirst. Using Tian Jiao and those girls' words, that's just 'cow drinking'. Good tea would be wasted on me."

  "What's so special about drinking tea, many girls just pretend to be sophisticated and put on airs. Who knows what the true spirit of tea is?" Tian Jiao said with a mature look on her face.

  "These words are well said, I just hate those hypocritical little people, what I admire is the kind of gentleman who speaks with integrity and has a clear conscience." Ma Benzheng glanced at Tian Jiao, echoing in agreement.

  Tian Jiao asked Tian Ran in a low voice: "Second brother, what is two bullets and one star?"

  He smiled naturally and didn't answer. It's also really hard to answer, because the so-called "two bombs and one star" is actually made by stir-frying cow whip and the outer waist of cows and sheep, how can he clearly explain it to his own sister?

  At this time, Tian Jiao's pager rang "beep beep beep". She took it out of her bag hanging on the back of the chair and glanced at it before putting it back.

  Dishes and courses came one after another, Ma Benzhong looked around at everyone and said: "Let's eat something first to line our stomachs before drinking wine, it's good for the digestion. Come on, let's start."

  Everyone was making a racket unwrapping the plastic wrap on their utensils and started eating and chatting. Suddenly, a fly entered everyone's line of sight, Ma Benqi felt very embarrassed. He loudly questioned the waitress: "Miss, is this also the VIP room? What is this thing?!

  The little girl was at a loss, stuttering and not daring to respond. It was Wu Tianjiao who smiled and said: "This is a UFO, an unidentified flying object. Girl, hurry up and shoot it down." Tianjiao's words finally eased the slightly awkward atmosphere. The little girl looked at Tianjiao with gratitude, quickly lit a solid alcohol block, and placed it on the tea table next to her. It was strange that after a while, this unidentified flying object flew towards the direction of the alcohol and plunged into the flames, burning itself. "I've only heard of moths flying into fire, I didn't know flies would do the same, what an eye-opener!" Tianjiao's words made the dinner party even more relaxed.