"What's all this noise about?"

At the bend in the wooden staircase on the second floor, the owner of Banbi Studio descended slowly, his hair gray and his eyes sharp.

"Xun Banbi, you've come at the perfect time! Come and see this calligraphy!" The old gentleman holding the calligraphy copybook bestowed by Duanmu called out to the old man as if showing off a treasure.

Xun Banbi, whose real name was Xun Yong, was nicknamed Banbi, which came from "Banbi Studio". After all, he was the owner of Banbi Studio, just like Liang Qichao called himself "Master of Drinking Ice Studio" because "Drinking Ice Studio" was his study.

As Xun Yong descended the wooden steps, he said, "We're here to see Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy today; what's the point of looking at other people's work!" His gaze fell on the calligraphy scroll, and then—

"Whose calligraphy is this? Is it also by Wang Xianzhi? No, it looks quite like the style of Wang Xizhi. Could it be that he truly inherited the skills of the two Wangs?" Xun Yong's eyes lit up. "Could it be by Ouyang Xun?"

The old gentlemen laughed heartily, “Xun Banbi, you really are a calligraphy fanatic! When you see good calligraphy, you probably don’t even know your own name. Didn’t you notice that this Xuan paper is yours? Moreover, there’s no signature or seal, and even the ink is new. You can’t even see that? Are you out of your mind?”

Xun Yong then came to his senses and examined the paper closely. He confirmed that the Xuan paper was indeed from his own shop, and the ink had a faint fragrance, indicating it was freshly made. He exclaimed in astonishment, "It really is! I didn't expect your calligraphy skills to have improved so much in just over a year! You're almost on par with the Sage of Calligraphy! Amazing, amazing!"

The old gentlemen looked somewhat embarrassed; they couldn't possibly accept such praise!

He then laughed and said, "You've misjudged this time! This calligraphy isn't ours; the writer is someone else! Why don't you guess?" His tone was quite joking.

Xun Yong pondered seriously, "Could it be Gu Zhenfeng? I saw his calligraphy last year, and he had already reached a bottleneck. If he could take another step forward, his future would be limitless. Could it be that he has finally realized something?"

"No." The old gentlemen all shook their heads with smiles.

"That's Qi Huangyang. His calligraphy hadn't improved at all in ten years. Could it be that he suddenly transformed into a dragon when the winds of change came?"

The old men continued to shake their heads.

Who is that?

Xun Yong was completely baffled.

Throughout the calligraphy world, how many people can achieve such a level of skill? There are only a handful. Among those few, only Gu Zhenfeng and Qi Huangyang's skills are closest to this piece. Who else could it be but him?

Xun Yong was too lazy to guess anymore, and he simply couldn't resist his curiosity, so he waved his hand impatiently and said, "Just tell me straight, so I can see for myself! To celebrate the birth of this masterpiece, tonight is on me, you can choose any place you like!"

"I never thought you, such a tightwad, would be willing to spend money like this! We'd better make sure to squeeze some money out of you!" The old gentlemen laughed heartily, then pointed, "Far away, yet right before our eyes! Hahahaha—"

Xun Yong looked at Duanmu Ci in the direction the finger was pointing, paused for a moment, and then burst into laughter, "You guys are kidding me! This kid is so young, it's already impressive that he can master the calligraphy of the 'Two Wangs'! How could he have written it?"

Then, after laughing for a while and realizing no one was agreeing, he stopped and asked very seriously, "Did he really write that?"

“Really!” the old men said with certainty.

Xun Yong looked strange. "I feel like all my decades of calligraphy practice have been for nothing."

The old men nodded in deep agreement, their expressions showing a deep sense of sympathy. This "young man" was too ruthless; they simply couldn't handle him!

Xun Yong, whose eyesight was failing, caught a glimpse of what appeared to be an ink stain on the table, as if it had seeped into Xuan paper. He was immediately enraged. "Who did this? This table of mine is a huanghuali wood writing desk made by the master craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty Imperial Workshop! It's priceless! Who dirtied it?"

The old man was furious.

Duanmu Ci was a little embarrassed and was about to say something when an old gentleman interrupted him, "Xun Banbi, come and take a closer look before you speak!"

Xun Yong walked over with an angry expression, then exclaimed "Eh?" This doesn't look like ink stains.

He turned to Duanmu Ci and asked, "Did you write another one on your desk?"

Duanmu Ci shook his head, indicating that he did not.

Xun Yong carefully stroked the characters on the rosewood desk and exclaimed in amazement, "What powerful brushwork! It's perfectly neat and accurate, just like what you would write on Xuan paper. Amazing!"

The old gentlemen laughed and said, "Now you're not angry that he dirtied your Ming Dynasty antique desk?"

"It's not surprising, it's not surprising!"

Xun Yong carefully examined the ink marks on the desk, even taking out his reading glasses and magnifying glass from his coat pocket, putting them on his nose and holding them in his hand to examine them intently.

After a long silence, as if he had made up his mind, he shouted upstairs, "Bring the saw down for me!"

"quick**!"

Xun Yong rolled up the sleeves of his overcoat to his upper arms and chuckled, "I haven't done any carpentry work in over a decade. Today I'll give it a try and see if I've lost any of my skills!"

Amidst everyone's puzzled looks, the waiter handed Xun Yong a wood saw. Xun Yong took a deep breath, picked up the saw, and began sawing at the precious Ming Dynasty imperial huanghuali desk in front of him!

"Xun Banbi, what are you doing? Have you lost your mind?" The old man beside him nimbly stopped Xun Yong, blowing his beard and glaring.

"Get out of my way!" Xun Yong pushed people aside. "I'm going to see if the legend is true today!"

As he spoke, he cut a notch in the precious Ming Dynasty antique furniture in front of him. Just moments ago, Xun Yong had cherished this treasure as if it were his own life, feeling extremely distressed even when it was stained with ink. But now, as he personally took up the knife to saw it off, he didn't even blink an eye, showing no sign of distress whatsoever.

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