"Lei Jiu is the best of this generation of the Lei family. He came here after losing the Denglong Stone, and his intentions are obvious. Although the Lei family is arrogant, they would never dare to challenge three top scholars as soon as they enter the capital. He must be doing it to vent his anger! Brother Qiao is right. This is Jing Country! We must put down his arrogance!" While speaking, Zhang Chengyu looked at the two scholars from Kang Society and Liufeng Society.
The two scholars looked at each other and nodded silently.
Although the two were opposed to Fang Yun due to factions and should have helped the Lei family, most of the people here had close ties with the semi-saint families of the Jing Kingdom, and some were even from the side branches of the families. If the two helped the Lei family now, they would inevitably suffer unprecedented exclusion.
"Hmph, he wants to become famous by stepping on us, so we have to give him a hard time today and let him know the price! It's up to you." You Nian said as he looked at Fang Yun, but did not mention Fang Yun's name to prevent the Lei family members who were about to go upstairs from hearing it.
"Yeah." Fang Yun nodded slightly.
There was the sound of messy footsteps going up the stairs outside the door.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer. When they were still a dozen steps away from the door, Lei Yuanting said with a smile: "Qiao Juze, I know you are talented and have great literary talent, but compared to my ninth brother, you are like a parrot showing off its eloquence in front of a phoenix. For the sake of your reputation and that of Jingguo, I advise you to leave Lingyun Tower."
"What a joke! Lingyun Tower belongs to my Jing Kingdom. If we are driven out by you Lei family, it will be a disgrace to Jing Kingdom. I would like to advise you Lei family members that when you come to Jing Kingdom, you should abide by the rules of my Jing Kingdom! Otherwise, be careful of the phoenix losing its feathers! Hahaha..."
Many scholars in the room joined in the laughter.
The person outside stopped in front of the door of Room 1 and did not enter immediately.
Lei Jiu smiled and said, "I was listening to you guys chatting just now and came up with a couplet. This is my gift to you. I hope the scholars of Jing country will not let me down. The first line is, 'A parrot can speak but it cannot be as good as a phoenix.' I hope you can give me a second line within a hundred breaths."
"Good!" Everyone in the Lei family cheered.
The scholars in the room were stunned. They didn't expect Lei Jiu to come up with a question so quickly. This couplet was not difficult, and most people present could answer it in a short time, but it was hard to say how good it was. The cleverness and artistic conception were very important, otherwise it would be a bad answer, and it would be better not to answer it at all.
Then many people showed displeasure on their faces. Lei Jiu was too arrogant. He was simply saying that the students of Jingguo were all parrots who imitated others. No matter how beautiful their calls were, they were not as good as the cry of a phoenix.
Everyone looked at Fang Yun subconsciously without even thinking about it.
Fang Yun stretched out his index finger and dipped it in the tea, then he released his talent and wrote in the air.
Then I saw talent supporting the water to leave a line of transparent words in the air.
Although spiders are clever, they are not as clever as silkworms.
Qiao Juze immediately laughed and said, "The youngest friend among us has already said the second line, which is, although the spider is clever, it is not as good as the silkworm."
The cheers from the Lei family came to an abrupt end. Spiders and silkworms both produce silk, but spiders' silk is useless, while silkworms' silk can be woven into silk and worn on the body. The counterattack was even more sharp than the previous couplet, almost equivalent to calling Lei Jiu a idiot.
Lei Jiu smiled coldly and said, "In less than ten breaths, we can find such a good pair. I didn't expect that there would be such a hidden dragon and crouching tiger in the mere Dizi Room. I, Lei Jiu, have just arrived in the capital of Jingguo. I must meet this great talent of Jingguo! How about this, we have a literary competition, and you can pick another pair. If we can't match, I won't enter this room!"
"Brother Lei, you are the most outstanding person of the younger generation of the Lei family. If you really can't get in, others will blame us Jingguo for not knowing how to entertain guests! That's not good!"
Lei Yuanting said coldly: "Stop talking nonsense! Do you dare to come up with the first couplet? If you don't dare, get out of Lingyun Tower!"
Everyone in the room looked at Fang Yun again.
Fang Yun dipped his finger into the tea again and wrote in the air.
When Fang Yun finished writing, Qiao Juze and the other nine people were stunned. After thinking for a while, a look of ecstasy appeared on their faces.
Qiao Juze couldn't help but shouted, "We've already thought of the first line of the couplet. It only takes five words. Listen carefully! Smoke locks up the willows in the pond!"
Fang Yun smiled slightly. This first couplet was very famous. There were many second couplets in later generations, but none of them could be truly called a great couplet, so it was called the best couplet of all time.
After Qiao Juze finished speaking, Lei Yuanting sneered and said, "Isn't it just 'smoke locks the pond willows'? The artistic conception of this sentence is good, but even I can match it, let alone my family's Jiu..."
"Shut up!" Lei Jiu suddenly shouted, with a hint of shame and anger in his voice.
After a long while, Fang Yun heard Lei Yuanting outside saying guiltily: "Who came up with this couplet? It's so vicious! The conception is wonderful, but the radicals of the five characters are gold, wood, water, fire and earth. How can anyone respond to this? The person who came up with this couplet is extremely vicious! Extremely vicious!"
The people in Room No. 2 laughed quietly, and several of them gave Fang Yun a thumbs-up.
"Think about it together, don't just stand there!" Although Lei Yuanting lowered his voice, the people in the room heard it clearly.
Lei Jiu didn't speak for a long time.
The people in the room began to talk in low voices.
“This first couplet seems really difficult.”
"It's hard enough to have a radical that contains the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth. Where can you find other radicals that contain the five elements? In the end, you still have to use gold, wood, water, fire and earth. This alone makes it inferior."
Qiao Juze said, "When it comes to couplets with five elements as radicals, I can also match them, but the artistic conception is much worse. For example, Fengfen Zhenhaidi, this kind of couplet can barely match, but the meaning and artistic conception are too different, it's better not to match it."
Everyone nodded together, and a few of them began to smile evilly and give Fang Yun a thumbs-up.
"Come on, let's continue drinking tea!" someone said.
Everyone drank a few more cups of tea, and after a quarter of an hour, no one outside had answered correctly.
Lei Yuanting was pacing back and forth outside, as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
After a while, Qiao Juze coughed lightly and said, "Brother Lei, are you guys trying to stall for time? We've been eating and drinking, and when we can't hold it anymore, we'll go home and take care of it. Are you also going to spread the word that Lei Jiuwen beat the top Jinshi of Jingguo? Are you going to spread the word that the students of Jingguo are not good at writing, and they can't even hold their urine?"
"Yeah, give us a message! We didn't steal anyone, so why are you blocking us at the door?"
"The windows have been frozen by Brother Lei, so it's hard for us to jump!"
"If all else fails, get a parrot."
Qiao Juze and the other two were ridiculing the Lei family one after another, while the others basically kept silent for fear that Lei Yuanting would hear them.
Another quarter of an hour later, Lei Yuanting suddenly said, "This couplet is too weird. Let's do it another day. We want to see who came up with such an absolute answer! We won't go in. But we can continue the literary competition at the door!"
There was a bang and Lei Yuanting kicked the door open.
If their upper room was kicked open under normal circumstances, even the best-tempered among these upper-class scholars would stand up to save their faces, but at this moment, ten people sat quietly on their chairs, most of them with playful smiles on their faces, looking at Lei Yuanting and a strange face at the door.
The strange face seemed to have excellent temperament, but his complexion was too gloomy and he lacked a little bearing.
"It's just a couplet. The following text is more..."
Lei Yuanting stared at Fang Yun. His mouth remained open, but he could not make any sound. His Adam's apple rolled up and down as he swallowed saliva, and his eyes kept blinking as if he wanted to confirm the person in front of him.
Lei Jiu frowned, looked at Lei Yuanting, and said, "What's wrong..."
Lei Yuanting shuddered suddenly, covered Lei Jiu's mouth with one hand, grabbed Lei Jiu's wrist with the other hand, turned around and jumped hard. The two of them jumped over the railing and jumped from the corridor on the second floor to the lobby on the first floor.
"boom… "
The two men trampled a table to pieces.
"Uh, you..."
Before Lei Jiu could say anything, Lei Yuanting let go of his mouth. He pulled him out and said as he ran, "Ninth brother, stop talking! That bastard Fang Yun is in there! They have dug a pit, set a trap, and buried a nail waiting for us to jump! If you really continue the literary competition, Fang Yun would not be a courage-breaking maniac if he doesn't make you lose your courage! He is not good at verbal battles. In literary competitions, I am afraid that only those Hanlin or university scholars can suppress him! Damn it! The hearts of the Jinshi of Jingguo are all black! Too black! If I had known that Fang Yun was in Lingyun Tower, I would not have gone in even if I was blind!"
The distinguished scholar of the Lei family couldn't help but swear.
Lei Jiu, a scholar who was outstanding even compared to the disciples of the semi-saint family, was trotting along with Lei Yuanting, completely losing his momentum just now, like a young man without any opinion who was just drifting with the crowd.
Lei Yuanting sighed, "The elders of the Lei family asked you to come here, hoping that you could win over Fang Yun with your writing skills, or provoke Fang Yun to gamble again and win back the Denglong Stone. But before you even reached the capital, Fang Yun, that beast, made a scene, and the elders of the Lei family were all scared, so they could only let you wait and see what happened. I know you are furious, and to make you feel better, I decided to clear out Lingyun Tower to welcome you, but who knew that Fang Yun and the others were also there! Ninth brother, if you want to scold someone, scold me first, because I didn't know that he would come to Lingyun Tower to eat right after his lecture!"
Lei Jiu's eyes were dull, and he followed Lei Yuanting weakly, with a complex light flashing in his eyes. He was not usually so arrogant, but he came to Jingguo to challenge Fang Yun but gave up halfway. He was angry but had no place to vent. When he met Qiao Juze, he naturally wanted to vent his anger in a literary competition, but who knew that Fang Yun was actually sitting inside.
And he kept silent!
This was a busy street with shops lining both sides. Everyone along the way looked at the two people in confusion.
It was really weird to see two scholars in white robes and sword suits jogging hand in hand, like frightened children.
Lei Yuanting said, "Forget it, don't get angry. Fang Yun must have got these two pairs right. It's not shameful to lose to him! Fortunately, I was smart and took you to jump off the building and escape. If I didn't know Fang Yun and continued the competition, it would be the same as the Xun family losing ten games in a row. It doesn't matter who plays. The Lei family will lose all their face!"
"Alas, who knew Fang Yun would be in there." Lei Jiu's tone was very depressed.
"Actually... Fang Yun is nothing special, but he is so powerful and imposing that anyone who competes with him will be in trouble! Don't get discouraged. I will continue to find out what he is not good at and continue to look for people! If poetry and prose are not good enough, let's compare military tactics! If military tactics are not good enough, let's compare farming! If farming is not good enough, let's compare fortifications! If fortifications are not good enough, let's compare medical skills! I don't believe that Fang Yun is omniscient and omnipotent! If he is good at everything, I will work like a slave for him in the future!"
"Let's not talk about this anymore." Lei Jiu said.
Lei Yuanting said hurriedly: "Okay! Don't be discouraged, there is still the Dragon Terrace that our Lei family is best at! After the New Year, there is also the Spring Hunt for Jinshi in the Holy Academy! I don't believe that we can beat him!" (To be continued...)