The old drunkard looked thin, but he was very strong, and the boat quickly moved away from the shore.
By the time the boatman picked up the silver and swam ashore, only a faint shadow of the boat was left on the lake.
The boatman held the silver tightly, looking confused.
Someone on the side said, "Don't be upset. This man is a madman in Yueyang City recently. He gets drunk and acts crazy. When he sobers up, he will return your boat. If you lose it, you can go to the government office and sue him."
The boatman wiped the water off his face and asked, "I have seen this old madman several times. Logically speaking, in places like Dongting Lake and outside Yueyang Tower, officials would not allow such people to cause trouble. Is there something strange going on?"
"I just heard that he was a poor man, but he didn't do anything bad. He would compensate for all the bad things he had when he woke up, and the compensation was a lot. Some people wish that this old madman would torture them."
The boatman laughed and said, "I see. Then I hope he sinks the old boat and buys a new one."
Everyone laughed it off.
The Dongting Lake was misty and at night it reflected the starry sky, just like the sea. The old drunkard rowed to the depths of the Dongting Lake, staggered to his feet, stood at the bow, and actually unbuttoned his trousers, facing the sky and letting the water flow.
The old drunkard shuddered and hummed in comfort. Then, tiredness overwhelmed him and he lay down on the boat in a daze and fell asleep.
After an unknown amount of time, the boat swayed and an ordinary pleasure boat gradually approached. The sound of a piano on the pleasure boat was pleasant, elegant and clear.
The old drunkard frowned slightly, slowly opened his eyes, and the starry sky came into view.
The drunkenness in his eyes disappeared completely, and became extremely clear.
"well… "
A look of sadness flashed across Ji Anchang's face.
In order to defeat Li Wenying, Ji Anchang practiced hard in the ancient land, and finally returned to Shengyuan Continent quietly, wanting to defeat Li Wenying in the Shengxingwenhui and return home in glory.
He wanted to leave a way out for himself, so he just wanted to keep a low profile at first, but he didn't know that Zong's Qing Kingdom and Fang Yun's Jing Kingdom were already at loggerheads. As soon as he appeared, he was put on a high position by Zong Xueyan and others, making him the hope of the entire Qing Kingdom. He thought he had a sure win, lost his vigilance, and regarded himself as the leader of the Qing Kingdom's literary world, challenging Li Wenying and Jing Kingdom.
Everything was going smoothly at the beginning, but after Li Wenying finished writing "Gift to Fang Yun", the sentence "One sword freezes fourteen states" alone alarmed the entire human race, not to mention all the strange visions and the infinite light in the legend.
Since then, there is only this poem "Presented to Fang Yun" in the world, and no one else dares to use this title.
After being suppressed by Li Wenying, Ji Anchang left in despair. The first thing he received was not comfort, but reproach from Zong Xueyan and others, who accused him of pretending to be strong even though he clearly lacked the strength, bringing shame to Qing State.
Not only that, some scholars from other countries who had old ties with him also criticized him, believing that he was disrupting the human race and breaking off ties with him by engaging in a literary battle with Li Wenying at this time.
What he could not tolerate the most was that the Ji family had already made preparations to welcome him home with a grand ceremony. However, when this incident happened, the Ji family removed all the arrangements and the old man of the Ji family fainted from anger.
The family of "three top scholars in one family, four bachelor's degrees in father and son" became the laughing stock of Qing Kingdom and even Shengyuan Continent.
On the discussion board, all kinds of mocking words continued. Especially the scholars of Jing country, especially the Jing people of the same generation as Ji Anchang, who had been ridiculed and humiliated by Ji Anchang many times in the past, now new hatreds and old hatreds came together, attacking Ji Anchang on the discussion board for many consecutive days.
Under such heavy pressure, Ji Anchang finally couldn't stick to his original intention and became disheartened.
Ashamed to face the people of Jiangdong, Ji Anchang had nowhere to go, so he simply changed his clothes, let his hair down, and covered his face with dust to hide his features. He then spent his days drinking in Yueyang City to numb himself.
The reason why Ji Anchang did not leave was that he had another idea in his mind, that is, to get up where he fell, find an opportunity to defeat Li Wenying again, spread the power of Qing State, and return to the Ji family as a winner.
However, Ji Anchang repeatedly analyzed Li Wenying's poem, but could not find any power that surpassed that poem. Even if this poem was not a war poem, the spirit in the poem alone would rank among the top, not to mention that it was a war poem handed down from generation to generation, and it also created unprecedented brilliance.
Theoretically speaking, this poem is not a completely new form. After all, it is essentially a war poem that commemorates famous scholars. Therefore, Li Wenying cannot be regarded as the ancestor of poetry. But in everyone's hearts, Li Wenying's title of the ancestor of poetry is absolutely well-deserved.
Ji Anchang used all his great Confucian power to deduce, but could not find any hope at all.
If there must be hope, it is canonization.
However, how can he be canonized as a saint if he cannot even defeat the inner demon Li Wenying
Ji Anchang fell into a vicious circle. When he was sober, he tried to find a way to suppress Li Wenying with words, but the more he thought about it, the more hopeless he felt. He was upset, so he drank to drown his sorrows and wear out his will. After waking up, he was unwilling to give up and continued to think of ways to do it. The cycle continued...
Ji Anchang originally wanted to use his drunkenness to get through more time, but he was unexpectedly woken up by the sound of the piano and the waves. He was so angry that he couldn't control himself and glared at the pleasure boat.
The pleasure boat was very ordinary, and was dozens of feet away from Ji Anchang's boat. The waves caused by the pleasure boat made the boat sway constantly, making the hungover Ji Anchang even more irritable.
However, Ji Anchang was basically sober at this moment. Although he was unhappy, he would not yell and curse casually like he did when he was drunk.
Ji Anchang took a deep breath, ignored the pleasure boat, and observed his situation.
Only then did Ji Anchang realize that the boat had left Dongting Lake and arrived at the river between Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River.
A great scholar would not forget things, but he has been drinking constantly these days and deliberately gave up his great scholar power to resist the drunkenness. His mind is not as sharp as usual and his perception of the outside world is particularly dull. He needs to rest for several days before he can return to normal.
After several breaths, he finally remembered the ridiculous thing he had done yesterday, and a look of shame appeared on his face.
He looked at the wooden boat under him, recalled the place where he had sailed and the boatman, and decided to row back to return it to the boatman and give him another five taels of silver as compensation.
At this time, there were chaotic sounds coming from the pleasure boat, as if the people on the boat were discussing poetry or essays, and the voices became louder.
Ji Anchang listened attentively and frowned.
Although they were too far away, the sound of the piano and the waves disturbed his voice, and his hearing was impaired due to being drunk, so the voices of those people were a little distorted, but Ji Anchang still heard some obviously flattering words.
"A great master of the time", "famous throughout the world", "good poetry", etc.
Ji Anchang took another look at the painted boat. It was very ordinary and did not look like a boat used by real celebrities. It was obviously just a gathering of ordinary scholars, at most Hanlin scholars. Most university scholars would not bother to ride on this kind of painted boat.
Ji Anchang snorted coldly, aimed at the direction, and rowed towards the lake, but suddenly stopped. A cold look appeared on his face and a hint of sarcasm in his eyes.
Because he heard someone praising another person as "the poet sage", and the others actually agreed and echoed him.
In Shengyuan Continent, some flattering words are not important, such as "the great man of the time" or "famous all over the world", such praise can be seen everywhere. However, any title related to the word "saint", even if it is flattery, cannot be uttered casually, otherwise it will inevitably bring trouble.
Although it is harmless to say "Poet Saint" in private, it must never be made public.
Ji Anchang snorted coldly and said loudly: "Who is the poet on the river? Let me take a look at his beautiful article!"