I served as Li Bai's page.

After Meng Ning left, Wu Zhinan and I continued fishing by the pond, and we had a pretty good catch.

Li Bai and Meng Haoran stepped down from the table, staggering and holding hands as they walked into the courtyard. I quickly got up, moved two chairs, and helped them sit down.

"Meng Ning, bring me Uncle's and Li Bai's teacups," Meng Haoran stammered.

"Meng Ning seems to have gotten into that carriage, isn't that him? Where did the carriage go? Am I seeing things?" Li Bai mumbled, trying to stand up, but after struggling a few times, he still couldn't get up.

I placed the teacup in front of them on the stool beside them and said, "You two wine connoisseurs, Meng Ning and his friends have left. They even said goodbye to you before they left, don't you remember?"

"Oh, I remember now, Uncle Zhang came to pick him up. Has Uncle Zhang left too? He didn't even come to have a couple of drinks with us, that's not very nice of him." The two of them suddenly realized.

The two poets leisurely drank tea, chatted, and basked in the sun in the open space. Before long, Meng Haoran started snoring.

After sitting for most of the day, Li Bai sobered up considerably. He came to the pond where we were fishing, and I gave him my stool and helped him sit down.

"Moonlight, do you want the sun? One in the sky, one in the water," Li Bai asked me.

"If you want it, I'll take it as long as you can reach it." I looked at him with a half-smile.

"Don't laugh at me. If I can't get what's in the sky, I'll try to get what's in the water. I'll give you one eventually." Li Bai said, standing up and taking off his shoes.

I was startled and quickly called out, "Young Master Wu, come quickly and get my young master inside. He's too drunk."

"Weren't you awake just now? You could walk and talk without any problems, so why are you confused again?" Wu Zhinan said.

"He wants to scoop the sun out of the pond. Do you think he's sober?" I was so scared that I grabbed Li Bai and didn't dare let go.

Li Bai laughed heartily at my expression: "Are you kidding me? You look just like Yueyuan. When Yueyuan was little, she wanted a moon, so I took her to the lake in our garden, pointed to the moon in the lake, and said to her, 'Is that the one in the lake? I'll go get it for you.' When she saw me take off my shoes, she was so scared that she hugged me tightly and burst into tears, which made my father scold me."

Upon hearing Li Bai mention the full moon, Wu Zhinan coughed twice and lowered his head.

I released Li Bai, lifted him onto a stool, and said, "You really don't know how to talk. You always bring up things that shouldn't be discussed. Honestly."

At this moment, Meng Haoran woke up, rubbed his eyes and said, "Is the water boiling? I'll go get it." With that, he got up and walked towards the kitchen.

I couldn't help but burst into laughter, and Wu Zhinan and Li Bai also laughed heartily. The momentary unpleasantness was temporarily masked.

Meng Haoran came out of the kitchen and said, "Yuehua, you didn't boil any water. I couldn't find the kettle."

Li Bai and Wu Zhinan laughed so hard they could hardly breathe.

"Master Meng, they're just teasing you, seeing if you've sobered up yet," I said.

"You naughty fellows! Do you think you can tease me? Each of you is to copy the Book of Songs a hundred times." Meng Haoran said, picking up his teacup and heading towards his study.

"We brothers' fates are attributed to Yuehua, who copied the Book of Songs three hundred times." After saying this, Li Bai pulled Wu Zhinan along and followed Meng Haoran away.

I stomped my foot and said, "You always bully me." Then I put away my fishing rod and went inside.

I put the fish in a basin in the kitchen and stormed into the study, where I saw the three of them reading a book, swaying their heads and discussing something.

I said loudly, "Would you like some scallion-stirred crucian carp for dinner?"

The three of them said in unison, "Yes."

"Who will do it?" I asked.

"You do it," Meng Haoran said.

"I'm going to cook fish, so I won't be able to copy the Book of Songs. Why don't you go cook fish and I'll copy the book?" I said to Meng Haoran.

"No, no, no, you don't need to copy the book. Let your two young masters copy it, and each of them will get an extra fifty." After saying that, Meng Haoran didn't even look at Li Bai and Wu Zhinan, and followed me out of the study without turning his head.

I chuckled as I approached the vegetable patch, about to bend down and pull up some scallions, when Meng Haoran suddenly ran up to me from behind and said, "You think I don't know what you're up to? I won't punish you, but you have to stir-fry some peanuts for me to enjoy with some liquor."

"Still drinking tonight? No way, you've never been drunk before." With that, I grabbed a handful of scallions and stormed off angrily.

Meng Haoran smiled and shook his head as he returned from the vegetable garden to a chair in the courtyard. It was sunset, and the dappled sunlight filtered through the pear and peach trees, casting dappled patterns on Meng Haoran. The great man stroked a few strands of his beard, smiling as he gazed into the distance. This was a poem in itself; did it even need a writer?

When I served the fish, Li Bai and Wu Zhinan smelled the aroma and came out of their study. They saw Meng Haoran in the setting sun and were so surprised that they couldn't speak.

Li Bai quietly entered the kitchen and said to me, "Yuehua, go and get paper and a brush. Draw a portrait of Master Meng."

I went into the study, picked up paper and pen, and went outside.

"We mustn't disturb him. He's in the best condition right now. Yuehua, you continue painting," Li Bai said.

"Young master, why don't you draw it? Or we can each draw one." After I finished speaking, I handed the paper and pen to Li Bai, and then picked up the paper and pen myself.

First, I sketched the scene where the characters were, then I sketched their portraits, and then I added details stroke by stroke. When I finished, a lifelike portrait of Meng Haoran under peach blossoms appeared on the paper. Li Bai, on the other hand, only depicted Meng Haoran stroking his beard.

Meng Haoran snapped out of his reverie, realizing we were drawing him. He came over, picked up the two paintings, and nodded repeatedly, saying, "They're so lifelike! I never knew I could be so refined. I'll keep these two paintings."

"Don't move it yet, the ink isn't dry. Take it in later," I quickly stopped them.

Meng Haoran carefully placed the two paintings on the table, then took Li Bai's hand and said, "Let's go eat."

After dinner, the four of us sat in the courtyard in silence, watching the sunset fade away and the night fall, until we saw the lights of our neighbors' houses twinkling.

I stood up, went inside, and turned on the light. Wu Zhinan followed me into the room. Li Bai and Meng Haoran remained motionless, lost in their reverie in the darkness.

"Master Meng, young master, please go inside and rest, be careful not to catch a cold," I called out as I walked out of the house.

Li Bai said: "Moonlight, I don't want to sleep yet. How beautiful the summer night is! Listen to the croaking of frogs, the chirping of crickets, and even the occasional bark of a dog, all mixed together, like your hands stroking the strings of a zither, the large strings clanging and the small strings whispering—such beautiful music! It can only be felt with the heart; it cannot be expressed in words."

"Young Master, if you and Master Meng can't express it in words, then I'm even more at a loss for words. Let me recite a poem for you: 'The bright moon startles the magpies on the branches, the clear breeze awakens the cicadas in the middle of the night. In the fragrance of rice blossoms, they speak of a bountiful year, listening to the chorus of frogs. Seven or eight stars beyond the sky, two or three raindrops before the mountains. The old thatched inn by the village shrine, suddenly appears as the road turns and the stream bridge appears.'" After reciting Xin Qiji's "West River Moon - Traveling at Night on the Yellow Sand Road" from the Song Dynasty, Li Bai and Meng Haoran both looked at me in surprise.

"Yuehua, whose poem are you reciting? I've never heard of this person before," Li Bai asked.

"Of course you haven't heard of him. He also admires you and Master Meng, but he can't come." Unable to explain clearly, I tried to brush it off.

Meng Haoran stood up, stretched, and said, "If they can't come, that's fine. There are plenty of talented people out there. Listen to Yuehua, let's go to sleep."