Qin Zhao frowned and looked at Jing Li for a long time before he was sure from his expression that he was not joking.
This was really beyond his expectations.
How come this little fish has no interest in going out to play
Looking at his expression, he doesn't seem to be speaking in anger.
Qin Zhao patiently advised: "Xiao Yu, there is not only a poetry gathering on Mid-Autumn Festival, but also a temple fair at night. There are many novel things, and you can guess lantern riddles and light lanterns. Don't you want to go and have a look?"
Jing Li looked a little hesitant.
He had heard that the temple fair was very interesting, but he had never been there.
Jing Li was wavering in his heart, but when he thought of his own plan, he could only cruelly say, "I'm not interested."
Seeing him like this, Qin Zhao had some vague guesses in his mind, so he said, "Okay, if you don't want to go, then don't go. I'll stay at home with you."
Jing Li: “???”
"How can this be possible!" Jing Li asked anxiously, "Didn't Chen Yan'an invite you?"
"I haven't agreed yet." Qin Zhao said slowly, "I wanted to come back to ask you what you think. If you want to go, I will go with you. If you don't want to, we can spend the Mid-Autumn Festival at home."
Jing Li was stunned.
How could this person be like this!
"Well, well..." Jing Li pulled Qin Zhao's sleeve and whispered, "Isn't the poetry gathering held by local literati? You will definitely meet a lot of people. Just go..."
Qin Zhao: "But I want to stay with you."
Jing Li: “…”
"Actually, I don't really want to go to town." Jing Li forced a smile and said, "How about this, you go to the poetry gathering first on Mid-Autumn Festival, and I'll find you after the gathering, and we'll go to the temple fair together."
What this means is that the little guy is not unwilling to participate in the temple fair, he just hopes to be separated from him for a while.
And this separation also requires Qin Zhao to be away from home.
Qin Zhao quickly came to a conclusion in his mind, but he did not expose it. Instead, he nodded and said, "Okay, I will go to the poetry meeting on the Mid-Autumn Festival, and you can come find me before the temple fair starts."
Jing Li: “Okay!”
Three days passed quickly, and on August 15th, Chen Yanan came on time to call Qin Zhao out.
He specially wore an indigo silk gown today and his hair was neatly combed into a bun, looking particularly energetic.
Chen Yanan looks pretty good. I don’t know if he has been trying to lose weight these days, or if he has been studying too hard, but he has lost a lot of weight and looks much better than before.
When he saw Qin Zhao, he frowned: "You're going to wear this?"
Qin Zhao was still wearing the same light blue gown made of coarse cloth, and he looked as if he was just going to town to do some shopping.
After hearing this, Qin Zhao asked, "What's wrong?"
Chen Yanan pulled Qin Zhao aside and whispered, "Brother Qin, don't blame me for being nosy. Some scholars in this town like to judge people by their appearance, so..."
He hesitated for a moment and didn't finish his words.
Qin Zhao knew that scholars were noble and always wanted to compete with each other. But he had no intention of participating in these things. He agreed to go to the poetry meeting today just to fulfill his little fish's wish and see what "surprises" the little guy could come up with.
He doesn't care what others think of him or whether he can integrate into those circles.
Qin Zhao said: "It's okay, let's go."
Just as he was about to leave with Chen Yan'an, Qin Zhao remembered something and turned to Chen Yan'an and said, "Wait a moment."
After saying that, he turned and walked towards the main house.
Jing Li was leaning against the window to see if he had left, when he saw Qin Zhao suddenly come back, he quickly picked up the book beside the small table and started flipping through it as if nothing had happened.
Qin Zhao entered the house, and Jing Li asked, "Why are you back? Did you leave something behind?"
"Yeah, it's like falling." Qin Zhao walked up to Jing Li, bent down and kissed him on the lips, "I forgot to kiss you goodbye. I'm leaving first, don't miss the time."
Jing Li blushed and nodded.
Qin Zhao turned around and left, striding out of the courtyard gate. He turned back to look at Chen Yanan who was still standing by the door, with a calm expression: "Are you not leaving yet?"
“Here, here I come!”
Chen Yanan's face turned red, and his heart was full of regret.
He shouldn't be curious about what Qin Zhao would do when he returned!
He's so jealous!
The two men's backs quickly disappeared and Jing Li withdrew his gaze.
He secretly asked Chen Yan'an, and learned that the usual process of the Mid-Autumn Poetry Festival was to appreciate flowers, drink wine, compete in poetry and exaggerate one's feelings. It was not yet noon, and if they went to the poetry festival now, it would be difficult to end before the sun went down.
Jing Li was not in a hurry. He waited patiently at home for half an hour before he pocketed the copper coins in the small wooden box at the foot of the bed and went out.
The Mid-Autumn Poetry Festival was held in a village on the outskirts of the town.
When Chen Yan'an and Qin Zhao arrived outside the manor, there was only a little boy waiting outside the door. Chen Yan'an told them the purpose of his visit and showed them the invitation card for the poetry gathering before he was allowed to enter.
They only had a visiting card, and if they went to a larger town, they wouldn't be able to enter without one.
Because their town is small and there aren't that many educated people, poetry reading is allowed to bring a few friends to the poetry reading. The requirements are not high, as long as you can be a decent reader, and it's better if you have read a few books or poetry collections.
That's why Chen Yan'an was able to bring Qin Zhao along.
There is a small artificial lake in the manor. This is not the first time Chen Yan'an has come here. He led Qin Zhao through the lakeside corridor with ease and said, "This manor belongs to Mr. Fang. Although he is a businessman, he likes to write poetry and every year he lends this manor to those literati to recite poems and write couplets."
Qin Zhao asked: "Is it the Fang family in town?"
"Yes, I remember that you still know the young master of the Fang family, Fang Tianying?"
Qin Zhao nodded.
Chen Yanan sighed, "That young master Fang was my classmate before, but he only came to the private school a few times. He went home and made a fuss and refused to study, so he was beaten by his father several times."
"… I heard that not long ago, the young Master Fang ran away from home, which frightened Master Fang so much that he didn't sleep for several days. Since then, Master Fang no longer forced him to study, and let him stay at home to learn how to do business."
Qin Zhao: “…”
It turned out that this was the reason why Fang Tianying ran away from home.
Qin Zhao asked: "Is Fang Tianying also coming to attend the poetry gathering today?"
"Most likely he won't come." Chen Yan'an said, "Master Fang did want Fang Tianying to come and learn from him, but the young master thinks that the writers at this poetry gathering are just boasting and praising each other, and are very pedantic and hypocritical, so he looks down on them. To be honest, I also..."
"Isn't this Brother Chen?" Someone called out to the two of them from behind.
They turned around and saw a tall and thin young man in front of them. The man was wearing a jade-colored brocade shirt and smiled before he spoke: "I thought Brother Chen would not come here today. It's already August, why did the teacher let Brother Chen come to the poetry gathering? If it affects the county exam in February next year, Brother Chen will have to wait another year, right?"
Chen Yanan's face flushed red, and he said stiffly: "What does it have to do with you? If you want to know, just ask the master!"
The man did not answer and looked at Qin Zhao beside him.
"Brother Chen, did you bring friends here today?" The man looked Qin Zhao up and down. The man in front of him was dressed in ordinary clothes, with a gentle and peaceful temperament, quite noble.
He bowed to Qin Zhao and asked politely, "Which teacher is this brother from?"
This man has a handsome face, but there is always an invisible arrogance in his conversation, which makes him not very likable.
Qin Zhao returned the greeting and said calmly, "He is just an ordinary farmer and has not become my disciple."
The man was startled, and then asked, "But you want to become my disciple?"
“I never intended to do that.”
Man: “…”
The man put away the last bit of respect on his face, stood up, and said calmly: "It's okay, it's also beneficial to come to the poetry gathering to listen."
Qin Zhao did not answer.
Chen Yanan couldn't help but roll his eyes.
The man lost interest in Qin Zhao and left without saying much to them.
After he left, Chen Yanan said, "Finally he left. I hate talking to him."
Qin Zhao asked: "Who is that?"
"That man is Yan Xiu, and he will take the Tongsheng exam with us next year." Chen Yan'an snorted coldly, "I don't understand. We all failed, why is he so arrogant? Just because he won the first place in the county exam?"
Qin Zhao: "Since he ranked first in the county exam, how could he fail?"
"Bad luck." Chen Yan'an shrugged. "He took the Tongsheng exam three years ago. At that time, several neighboring counties were full of talented people. Yan Xiu took the top spot in our county's exam, but his performance in the prefectural exam was mediocre. In the imperial examination, his performance plummeted and he ranked last."
Chen Yanan lowered his voice and said, "He said he had a stomachache because of something bad he ate on the day of the college entrance examination. I don't believe it. He is just not as skilled as others!"
Qin Zhao made no comment.
The two walked around the artificial lake and came to the backyard. The yard was filled with the fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus, and several long tables were arranged in a circle, with paper, pens, cakes and a pot of wine on the tables.
More than a dozen scholars sat behind a long desk and began to compete in poetry.
Chen Yanan found an empty long table and asked Qin Zhao to sit down.
There are several ways to compete in poetry, such as flying flowers, rhyming, using objects as the subject, etc. When they arrived, the original literati were doing flying flowers with the word "moon" as the order.
Chen Yanan has memorized a lot of poems recently, and he followed up with a few lines without falling behind at all.
When the message reached Yan Xiu, it got stuck: "The moon is slanting, it's five o'clock in the morning upstairs."
"I've said that before." Chen Yan'an stole the show this time, sitting swaying from side to side, and said proudly, "Cheers!"
Yan Xiu didn't have a very good relationship with people in the past, and everyone was happy to see him make a fool of himself, so they joined in the fun and forced him to take a big gulp of wine.
Yan Xiu put down his wine glass heavily, his ears reddened: "What's the point of playing Feihualing every year?"
He looked around and saw that the sweet osmanthus in the courtyard was in full bloom, so he said, "How about we change to writing a poem on the theme of laurel? I'll go first!"
After he finished speaking, he picked up the pen and started writing on the paper.
In a poetry contest with objects as the theme, the person who starts the game writes the first line of the poem, which is then passed to each table in turn. Each person writes a line until the line is returned to the person who started the game. He or she can then choose to continue passing it on or leave out the last line to complete the poem.
Anyone who fails to continue in the middle will be punished with a glass of wine and become the next person to start the game.
Yan Xiu was sitting on the left side of Chen Yan'an, but after he finished writing, he did not pass it to Chen Yan'an's desk, but turned around and passed it to the desk on the other side.
This kind of poetry competition always becomes more difficult as time goes on.
He wanted to embarrass Chen Yanan.
But Chen Yanan was not afraid at all this time. He poked the person next to him and said, "Brother Qin, this depends on you."
Qin Zhao glanced at him.
From the moment he heard the rules of the poetry contest, he understood why Chen Yanan insisted on bringing him here.
They are waiting for his help to get back the situation.
The paper with the poem was passed around the table. Yan Xiu looked at the two people beside him with a smug look on his face. "If you can't do it, give up as soon as possible. If it's like last year, it will be a huge disgrace."
After he said this, the poem was passed to Qin Zhao and his friends' table.
Qin Zhao just took a quick glance and started writing.
His handwriting is completely different from his temperament, with smooth, vigorous and powerful strokes.
Yan Xiu's face changed.
Qin Zhao put down his pen and passed the poem over: "Thank you."
Chen Yanan poked his head out from behind him and said with a grin, "If you can't do it, admit defeat as soon as possible. If it's the same as in the last round, it will be a huge embarrassment."
Yan Xiu was so angry that he gritted his teeth. He thought carefully for a moment, wrote a poem on the paper, and passed it to the next person.
He did not leave the last sentence, but chose to continue.
This process of transmission lasted for three rounds in total. As time went on, the people took longer to think. Only Qin Zhao could answer the next sentence with just a glance, without pausing.
Qin Zhao handed the paper filled with poems to Yan Xiu, who glanced at it and stood up suddenly: "How dare you use this sentence?!"
His voice awakened all the scholars who were scratching their heads. They gathered around and saw clearly the poem that Qin Zhaoti had mentioned.
"This... isn't this someone's poem?"
"Yes, I remember it very clearly. It was that person who did it."
"This poem was spread all over the world, but no one could finish it. This..."
Chen Yanan had not noticed what Qin Zhao had written just now, but now he curiously leaned over to read it, his eyes lit up with joy: "Great, great, let me see how you respond now!"
Everyone had different looks, only Qin Zhao didn't know what was going on, and asked, "What's wrong with this poem?"
"Are you still pretending not to know?" Yan Xiu said, "This is clearly the poem that Prince Rong wrote when he was drunk and competing in poetry in front of the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, the prince said that whoever in the world could follow up with his poem would be promoted to the Imperial Academy. Who among the scholars would not know this?"
Qin Zhao really didn't know.
He didn't even know who Prince Rong was.
Just now this sentence suddenly appeared in his mind, so he wrote it down. Besides...
"Is this poem difficult to continue?" Qin Zhao asked.
Yan Xiu sneered: "If you have the guts, come and try. If you can finish the next sentence, I will—"
Before he finished speaking, Qin Zhao calmly took the paper from his hand, spread it on the table and started writing.
Yan Xiu's expression froze on his face. Everyone gathered around Qin Zhao and soon burst into shock and exclamation.
"He he he—he actually did it!"
"This... This can actually be connected like this, I thought about it for a whole month!"
Everyone was talking about it. Yan Xiu suddenly rushed forward and snatched the paper from Qin Zhao's hand: "So that's it... So that's it..."
He looked a little crazy, and kept muttering to himself, and ran out with the paper in his hand.
Everyone was silent for a moment and returned to their seats.
Qin Zhao asked: "What happened to him?"
"Well, maybe he was stimulated." Chen Yan'an was hungry after competing in poetry competition, so he took a bite of the cake on the table and said, "I heard that after the prince wrote this poem, scholars all over the world competed to try. Yan Xiu locked himself in the room for half a year, but he still couldn't come up with it."
Qin Zhao looked in the direction where Yan Xiu left and said leisurely: "He is an interesting person..."
After this incident, no one was in the mood to continue the poetry competition. They were obviously more interested in Qin Zhao.
From time to time, someone would find an excuse to talk to Qin Zhao, mostly asking him where his teacher was and whether he had any intention of taking the imperial examination. The core members of the literati circle even invited Qin Zhao to attend their monthly gatherings.
However, Qin Zhao refused on the grounds that he was preparing for an exam.
Qin Zhao became famous among the local literati this time. By the time they had sent away all the literati who wanted to get close to them and left the farm, the sun was about to set.
"Don't be annoyed. Once this matter gets out, there will be more in the future." Seeing that Qin Zhao looked a little unhappy at the end, Chen Yanan said.
Qin Zhao heard the teasing in his words and said coldly, "It's not that I'm annoyed."
"… The time agreed upon with my husband has passed."
I had been thinking that after we were done here I could take Xiaoyu to a restaurant in town for dinner and then slowly visit the temple fair, but who knew it would get so late.
The little guy must be starving now.
Chen Yanan: “…”
This person only has her husband in her mind!
Chen Yanan had arranged for a bullock cart to pick them up. The two of them walked toward the path in front of the village. Someone called them, "Qin Zhao!"
A bright red figure ran over, and when he was getting close, he slipped and was caught by Qin Zhao.
"Be careful." Qin Zhao hugged Jing Li, his brows relaxed a little, "Why did you come here?"
Jing Li seemed to be in a good mood and said, "Fang Tianying brought me here."
As soon as he finished speaking, Fang Tianying came over from a distance.
Fang Tianying smiled and said, "I heard from the servants that someone wrote a quatrain at this year's poetry meeting. I found out it was Brother Qin, so I wanted to join in the fun. When I got to the town entrance, I happened to meet my sister-in-law, so I brought him here with me."
Qin Zhao nodded at him: "Thank you."
"Brother Qin, you're welcome." Fang Tianying said, "I've reserved a table at the best restaurant in town. Brother Qin must be hungry. Let's go over there quickly."
Qin Zhao: “That’s not—”
Before he finished speaking, Chen Yanan was dissatisfied: "I brought Brother Qin here today, why are you trying to steal him from me?"
"So it's Chen Xiaopang, you've lost weight recently and I almost didn't recognize you." Fang Tianying didn't get annoyed, so he said, "Then let's go together, it's my treat!"
Qin Zhao: “…”
Qin Zhao continued: "My husband and I—"
Jing Li's eyes lit up when he heard about eating, and he broke free from Qin Zhao's arms: "Okay, okay, let's go quickly, I didn't eat much at noon, and I'm almost fainting from hunger."
Qin Zhao: “…”
Fang Tianying smiled and said, "Okay, the carriage is waiting by the roadside, let's go."
The four of them walked forward. Jing Li held Qin Zhao's hand and turned back to ask, "Qin Zhao, did you want to say something just now?"
"… "
Qin Zhao glanced at the two people who had suddenly appeared in front of him, expressionless: "No, nothing."