The Kongcheng Grand Canal connects Yuejiang River and the East China Sea and runs across Kongcheng. It was opened up by Confucius himself and runs parallel to the Yangtze River, so it is called the Little Yangtze River.
As the sun sets and night falls, if you stand on Daofeng Mountain and look down, the Grand Canal, like a jade belt, seems to have gathered all the lights of Kongcheng at night, like a river of lights running across Kongcheng.
There are many buildings on both sides of the Grand Canal, with bright lights on. There are pleasure boats coming and going on the canal, and laughter can be heard everywhere.
Linjiang Pavilion is located on the bank of the Grand Canal. It is a famous restaurant in Kongcheng. Because the son of the restaurant owner once won the top prize in the imperial examination in Kongcheng, it is called the Zhuangyuan Pavilion. It is a gathering place for literati and poets in Kongcheng, and literary gatherings are held there every day.
After decades of operation by the boss, Linjiang Pavilion has been continuously expanded and has become a restaurant that can accommodate two thousand people. This is already the limit of the restaurant. Any larger literary gathering can only be held in the Confucius Mansion and Palace.
The invitations to the Ten-Kingdoms Literary Gathering have always been strictly distributed, and only famous Jinshi scholars from the Ten Kingdoms are invited. Although the scale is not large, it is the top Jinshi literary gathering of the Ten Kingdoms every year.
The carriage stopped and Fang Yun and others got off one after another.
At this moment, the lights are on, and the three-story Linjiang Pavilion is extremely magnificent. Bright red lanterns are hung all over the eaves, as if it is a grand festival.
When everyone arrived at the main gate, Qiao Juze took out the invitation. An ordinary invitation was just a piece of red paper, but the invitation for the students of the 11th Academy was made of gold-stamped hard paper and was two circles larger than the ordinary invitation.
Before Qiao Juze handed it over, the receptionist at the door came quickly, took a look at everyone's clothes, bowed and said with a smile: "Hello, brothers, I am here to greet you all. Please follow me to the third floor."
When everyone saw this receptionist, they found that he was wearing a scholar's uniform, which was rare in Jingguo, but common in Kongcheng, where "juren are everywhere and jinshi are as numerous as dogs". This person called them "brother", which made them feel more comfortable than "master", so they naturally regarded this place as an elegant place for literary gatherings rather than an ordinary restaurant.
Fang Yun and others immediately bowed in return and followed the scholar in charge of reception into the main gate.
As soon as Fang Yun stepped over the threshold, he saw that the place was full of Jinshi scholars dressed in white sword robes. Many of them were discussing books, essays, playing the zither and appreciating paintings. Although it was a large restaurant, there was a scholarly atmosphere.
The hall was extremely spacious, with neatly arranged tables and chairs, flowers and plants everywhere, and lush greenery. There were many famous paintings and calligraphy hanging on the walls, but the atmosphere was not messy.
At the innermost part of the hall were open windows, and outside was the Yangtze River. Boats were passing by, and the lights were bright, illuminating half of the river red.
Looking up, you can see hundreds of night-shining pearls hanging from the ceiling in the middle, lighting up the lobby as bright as day. People on the second and third floor corridors are looking down. Unlike the scholars on the first floor, the people on the second and third floors are more calm and composed. No matter how they try to hide it, their eyes are slightly arrogant, making people feel unattainable.
However, when these arrogant people saw Fang Yun and others coming in, their expressions immediately changed.
"Fang Zhenguo is here." After someone nearby said this, the news spread quickly throughout the hall like ripples in the water.
Fang Yun and the others felt something was wrong after walking a few steps. When they turned around, thousands of students in the hall were looking at them.
Fang Yun smiled slightly, bowed and said, "Greetings, everyone."
Then thousands of people bowed in return.
"Meet Fang Zhenguo!"
"Meet Fang Wenhou!"
…
The scholar led everyone to the side door and walked up the VIP stairs at the side door. As he walked, he said, "As usual, the top scholars from the eleven countries are on the third floor, and the scholars from the Holy Academy or the aristocratic families are on the second or third floor. The rest of the scholars are on the first floor. Don't worry, it may take a while, but in the end you will stand high and see far."
"You, the scholar, are good at talking." Chen Lile took out a gold leaf from his purse and threw it to the scholar who was receptionist.
"Thank you, brother! You are so generous that I can tell at a glance that you are Fang Zhenguo!" The scholar who was in charge of reception deliberately joked, after all, Fang Yun had already spoken just now.
Everyone laughed, and Chen Lile scolded with a smile: "Are you praising me or disparaging Fang Yun? This is the one." He pointed at Fang Yun.
The scholar smiled mysteriously and said, "Fang Wenhou, if you are interested in any of the most beautiful ladies in Kongcheng, I will help you get in touch with them. You don't know how many beautiful ladies in Kongcheng are waiting for you and miss you!"
Everyone laughed again, and Qiao Juze said seriously: "Fang Yun is not even eighteen yet, but he is the number one in the Ten Nations Competition. How can he linger in the red-light district? But... it's okay as long as I'm with you."
Everyone laughed.
The scholar who was in charge of reception was just trying to liven up the atmosphere by saying things that scholars and writers often say. When they reached the third floor, he immediately shut up and respectfully escorted everyone to a room upstairs.
Before everyone was seated, ten top scholars from Yue State came forward, holding a wine jug in one hand and a wine glass in the other.
The leader, Hu Shang, said with a smile: "We have been waiting for you for a long time! Without saying anything else, the ten of us will toast Fang Zhenguo first, and then toast all the students of Jingguo, benefactors!"
Fang Yun picked up the glass on the table with a smile, and Hu Shang poured wine for him personally, and then both of them drank it all in one gulp.
The third floor seemed like two different worlds. People from the second or third floor came to Jingguo's room to toast, but the people on the first floor were not even qualified to go upstairs and had to be led by people from the second or third floor.
"My name is Jia Ting'an, nice to meet Fang Zhenguo..."
"I, Kong Deming, have met Brother Fang. I also talked about you with Delun the other day..."
"Haha, Sun Bingning has met Fang Wenba..."
Famous Jinshi from all ten countries came one after another.
Today, the eight Jinshi scholars from Jing State are extremely excited. Many people here participated in the Ten-Nation Competition last year. But when they came here last year, there were hardly many Jinshi scholars coming to toast. But today, there are endless guests, and their attitude is very good. They completely treat these Jinshi scholars from Shangshe as Jinshi scholars from Shengyuan.
Qiao Juze and the other eight knew clearly that these people respected them because of Fang Yun.
It won’t be long before Fang Yun will enter the Holy Academy and become the most outstanding member of the Holy Academy.
However, the truly most outstanding scholars from the Ten Kingdoms did not come here, because they were all accumulating strength to ascend the Dragon Platform.
Before every ascent to the Dragon Platform, there would be undercurrents between the human race and the demon world, fighting for the Dragon Stone and also to guard against each other.
Fang Yun and others welcomed and saw off guests. The guests came to establish good relationships and make preparations for the future. There was nothing big, except for Kong Deming's words before he left, which were a little special.
"The literary gathering of the ten nations is held in turn, and this time it is held by Gu Nation."
After Kong Deming left, Fang Yunlue understood after thinking about it.
Gu State has been controlled by officials of the Miscellaneous School, even more so than Jing State. It can even be said that Gu State has become a test field for the Zongsheng to verify the Holy Way.
Not to mention that Gu State ranked last this time, Qing State was defeated and stopped at ninth place. It can be said that the whole country is sad. The Zong family and the Xun family must hate each other to the core. Gu State is very likely to play tricks in this literary meeting.
Fang Yun sneered in his heart. The human race's literary gatherings were flourishing. Thousands of literary gatherings were held in various places every day, and during festivals, there were hundreds of thousands of literary gatherings. There were endless tricks in the literary gatherings, such as praising people and stepping on others, secretly competing, framing and blaming others, etc.
The smaller the literary gathering, the more tricks there are. For example, although the Ten-Nation Literary Gathering is a large-scale literary gathering, it is easy for problems to arise because there is no supervision by senior people with higher literary status.
When Fang Yun attended the literary gathering in Dayuan Prefecture that day, he encountered the fact that the winner of the gathering had been decided internally. Liu Zicheng originally wanted to use the literary gathering to suppress Fang Yun, but Fang Yun stunned the whole audience with his poem "There are beautiful women everywhere in the world" and his resonant voice.
Fang Yun thought about it. This literary gathering was a gathering of ten nations after all. Gu Nation would probably use some small tricks to disgust people, but it would not be too extreme. After all, this was the foot of the Holy Academy.
Fang Yun did not attach much importance to this literary gathering. To put it bluntly, this kind of literary gathering was a place for the Jinshi of the ten countries to communicate and get to know each other. Mutual acquaintance was the first priority. As for the Jinshi of real status, they did not care about the prize of this literary gathering at all.
Fang Yun thought about it and realized that he had already stole the limelight in the Ten-Nation Competition, so there was no need to suppress other Jinshi in such a literary gathering.
After this thought came up, Fang Yun was filled with emotion. Unconsciously, his mentality had changed. He even had the idea of helping others.
"Below the Jinshi level, people compete for literary fame. After the Jinshi level, people compete for the merits of the human race. After becoming a great scholar, people probably compete for the path of sainthood. Only by recognizing your position can you know the direction."
Fang Yun smiled calmly, feeling relaxed, and Wen Dan also made an imperceptible sound.
When the heart and courage are in harmony, everything will be successful.
Fang Yun looked out the window. The autumn wind was howling and the night stars were twinkling. The next step would be to face a new world.
Fang Yun breathed a sigh of relief. The most terrifying thing in a person's life is not the dangers, but the confusion. Once you lose your direction, it is more fatal than any hardship. If you are in the wrong direction, then the road ahead will be extremely difficult.
In life, one often has to go through many wrong paths before one can find the right direction.
Soon, the sound of thundering tongues came from below. Everyone knew that the literary gathering was about to begin, so they walked out of the room and stood at the railing of the corridor on the third floor.
Fang Yun looked around and saw many Jinshi from the second and third floors coming to the railings one after another, while many Jinshi on the first floor looked towards the second or third floor with envy in their eyes.
At the small literary stage on the first floor, Gu State's Shangshe Jinshi presided over the literary gathering. After the opening remarks, he explained the rules of the gathering.
There was a black box in front of him. Representatives from each country had to draw a piece of paper from it and then write a poem based on the title of the paper, and it had to be in line with the scene here and now.
Everyone couldn't help but frown when they heard this. It was not uncommon for people to write poems based on the scene at this time, but it was rare for them to draw out the topic. It was autumn now, and there was a canal outside the building, surrounded by pavilions, flowers and boats. It was really unremarkable.
But that’s how literary gatherings are, there are always all kinds of unexpected things happening, and everyone would complain in low voices and then quiet down.
Afterwards, the Jinshi candidates from ten countries sent representatives to the Wentai to draw questions, and Qiao Juze went on behalf of Jingguo.
Fang Yun stood at the railing, watching the representatives of the ten countries line up and each draw a piece of paper from the box, and finally the host read it out.
"Qingguo, with the theme of 'Trees'."
After listening to this, Fang Yun immediately thought of various poems about trees, and many ci titles also contain the word "tree", which can be used in this literary meeting. For example, "Wannianchun" and "Daochuiliu" are all names of trees, and are also the names of ci titles.
The host then read out the note from Shu: "Shu, with the title 'Flowers'."
The people of Shu State laughed softly. This theme was too broad. Not to mention ancient poems, there were also many names of ci tunes, such as "Chrysanthemum Sky", "Man Jiang Hong", "Yi Jian Mei" and so on.
The host recited one after another, and finally Qiao Juze, with a sullen face, handed over his note.
"Jingguo, with the title 'Chinese Medicine'."
Everyone was stunned, and then the scholars from some countries that lost to Jing, such as Qing and Jia, burst into low laughter. Chinese medicine poems or ci tune names are not uncommon, but it is very difficult to write well.
The people of Jingguo present were thinking hastily, and many of them even spent their energy, but the more they thought, the tighter their brows frowned. (To be continued...)
ps: I had a family gathering and thought I could come back early, but I went to KTV after dinner. I didn’t manage my time well. I will make up for it tomorrow. Sorry.