"Dad, how did he do it? Just with a string." Ding Dusai stared at Zhang Shixun on the field, feeling incredible.
"Your uncle can do it. The actor he just mentioned is your great uncle—Xu Yan."
"Granduncle?"
"He died young, and you never met him."
"oh!"
"After he passed away, I thought this unique skill had been lost, but I didn't expect to see it on this kid today."
Ding Dusai: "Dad, look how well he plays. It sounds just like the sound of a zither played on two strings."
"It's just so-so." Father Ding denied it.
"Hmph!" Ding Dusai rolled his eyes at him.
Father Ding asked, "Saisai, this kid isn't bragging, is he? Did the emperor personally confer the title of Master of One Finger?"
"Dad, does he dare to joke about this?"
Father Ding scratched his head and said, "He doesn't dare."
After listening for a while, Father Ding asked again: "Saisai, how did you know him?"
"I am... Daddy. I will tell you this slowly." Ding Dusai's attention was on Zhang Shixun.
"You won't be with him...?"
Ding Dusai pouted, "Daddy, what are you thinking? You don't even trust your own daughter?"
Father Ding rolled his eyes, wanted to say something, but swallowed it back and turned his gaze back to the stage.
On the stage, when Zhang Shixun finished playing, the audience burst into cheers and applause.
He stood up and walked to the front of the stage, raised the erhu in his hand, and shouted: "Please ask one more person from the audience to come up and check whether it is a single string."
As soon as he finished speaking, five or six people came up from the audience.
Zhang Shixun didn't mind and smiled as he let them look at the erhu in his hands.
After they finished watching, Zhang Shixun said loudly: "You guys tell everyone whether it is a string or not."
"yes!"
Zhang Shixun smiled and said loudly, "Just now when I was showing them the strings, one of them whispered a question to me..."
Having said this, he deliberately stopped talking.
"What's the problem?" Many people couldn't help but be curious.
"This fellow asked me if I could still play the music if both strings were broken."
The whole audience laughed, but someone still asked, "How did you answer?"
"I smiled and said one word to him..."
"What?" everyone asked in unison.
"roll!"
The whole audience was stunned!
Zhang Shixun bent down, saluted respectfully to the audience, then turned and walked off the stage.
Behind me, the audience's shouts of "One more" rose and fell, becoming louder and louder.
"Sir!" Ding Dusai came forward and called out happily.
"Don't call him that. You should call him Mr. Zhang." Father Ding scolded her.
Ding Dusai remained silent.
Father Ding stopped Zhang Shixun and said, "The audience is cheering so loudly, you'd better do another piece, or at least take another bow."
Zhang Shixun looked at him and asked, "Do you really have to go?"
"You have to go, otherwise, this won't end well."
"Okay." Zhang Shixun had no choice. It was his first time meeting his future father-in-law, and he dared not disobey him.
Zhang Shixun returned to the stage and bowed, saying, "I'm new here, thank you all for your support... By the way, there are so many people here today, almost ten thousand."
"Haha! No!" someone shouted from the audience.
Zhang Shixun: "Who said no? Do you dare to stand up and let me see?"
"I said no." A man who looked like a soldier stood up.
"You're wrong." Zhang Shixun gave him a grin and asked the audience loudly, "Is there anyone with the surname Wan in the Lotus Pavilion today? If so, please raise your hands."
Three people in the audience raised their hands.
Zhang Shixun spread his hands to the soldiers and said, "Look, there are people named Wan here—ten thousand people. I underestimated it, a full thirty thousand."
The whole audience burst into laughter. The soldier laughed out loud and sat down again.
Zhang Shixun's approach is actually a copycat of Master Guo from later generations.
"Everyone, please let me have another one, but I'm a little tired today. Can we do it another day?"
"Not good!" the audience said in unison.
Zhang Shixun scratched his head, pretending to be furious and pointing at the audience. After a long while, he put his hand down dejectedly. "Forget it! Since you are so supportive, I will risk my life to accompany you and show you some of my unique skills."
There was thunderous applause from the audience again.
After the audience quieted down, Zhang Shixun said, "I learned this unique skill because I was drunk once."
"Drunk?"
"Yeah! It comes from being drunk."
Someone in the audience shouted, "Tell us something quickly."
Zhang Shixun: "Want to listen?"
Audience: “I want to!”
"Well, since you want to hear it, I'll tell you." Zhang Shixun coughed lightly and said, "I was drunk once and felt hot all over. I felt very uncomfortable, so I stumbled outside the tavern to practice boxing to dispel the effects of the alcohol. As a result, I was spotted by a few ruffians. They stood by and pointed and taunted me. In a rage, I unleashed a set of punches and kicks and beat them up. They cried for their parents and ran away in panic..."
"When the alcohol wore off, I thought back to what happened yesterday and was completely baffled. Normally, I'd struggle to handle three or five strong men, but yesterday I was so drunk I couldn't even stand. How could I have beaten a few hooligans so badly?"
"So, I sat in the yard, reminiscing and rehearsing the moves I'd made last night... Haha! From that, I created my own unique set of moves—Drunken Fist!"
"Drunken Fist!?"
"This set of boxing and kicking is called Drunken Fist, also known as the Drunken Eight Immortals. Since everyone is so supportive today, I'll demonstrate this set of Drunken Fist to everyone," Zhang Shixun said, pointing to the front row: "Brother, please lend me your wine jug."
The man quickly stood up and handed over the wine jug.
"Thank you!" Zhang Shixun took the wine jug, tilted his head back and took a sip. Suddenly, he stumbled and fell flat on the stage. He held the wine jug high and shouted, "Good wine! Good wine!"
On and off the stage, everyone in the lotus tent straightened their necks and stared at the stage, only to see this drunken man stumbling and falling from side to side.
He looked drunk, but in reality his punches were swift and powerful, his movements light and graceful. Seeing him dodging, tumbling, and rolling on the stage, his body was like a madman, his punches were a combination of hardness and softness, his footwork was all over the place, and the crowd was dazzled and fascinated...
Zhang Shixun is actually a half-baked person.
I learned this set of drunken boxing from Hei Wuchang in the shuttle.
Originally, Drunken Fist was not included in the curriculum. It was Zhang Shixun who proposed to learn it. The reason was that he felt that Drunken Fist was interesting and fun, but the most important thing was that he could show off.
If an expert saw his demonstration of "Drunken Fist", he would surely burst out laughing.
But it was different in the Song Dynasty. In this era, not to mention drunken boxing, even martial arts routines were in their infancy.
He threw a set of seemingly legitimate drunken punches, winning applause from the whole room.
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