There are still eight days before the Hanling Temple Literary Festival begins. The rules of the festival will not be officially announced until the day it begins, so Fan Tianning asked this question out of curiosity.

Tuoba Yuan smiled meaningfully, "In short, there's no way Fu Xiaoguan will win first place..." Then he sighed again and looked into the still-unclear sea of ​​clouds. "I had hoped to win first place so I could marry Princess Taiping, but I was being too ambitious. Princess Taiping will definitely marry Zhuo Donglai, so the winner of this literary competition can only be Zhuo Donglai, not Fu Xiaoguan!"

Fan Tianning became interested, thinking about what Wu Ling'er had said in Fanning City, and said with a smile, "Brother Tuoba, I'm afraid that's not true. If Princess Taiping was interested in Zhuo Donglai, why would she need to go through this literary gathering? A simple decree from Emperor Wen shouldn't involve so much hassle and risk."

"You don't know this. Zhuo Donglai is a man of exceptional skill and military ability, so there's no way he could be a consort. If Emperor Wen issued this decree, it would be an imperial appointment, and Zhuo Donglai would definitely refuse. That's why Emperor Wen issued this decree: whoever wins the top literary prize will marry Princess Taiping—killing two birds with one stone. First, it will make Zhuo Donglai famous, demonstrating that the Wu Dynasty's literary achievements hold a significant position among the four kingdoms. Second, of course, it will allow Princess Taiping to marry Zhuo Donglai, leaving no room for criticism."

Fan Tianning frowned and thought carefully, thinking... Wu Ling'er clearly favors Fu Xiaoguan. If Zhuo Donglai accidentally loses to Fu Xiaoguan, it will not be a good thing for Fu Xiaoguan! - This will definitely offend the Zhuo family!

The Zhuo family is too powerful, and Fu Xiaoguan has no Emperor Xuan or Empress Shang to protect him here. If Zhuo, the right prime minister of the Wu Dynasty, and his entourage want to kill Fu Xiaoguan... the current Yu Dynasty does not have the ability to avenge Fu Xiaoguan, and can only condemn him at most.

This is such an unfair death!

I need to tell Fu Xiaoguan about this. Don't lose your life because of poetry and writing. It's not worth it!

At this time, Fu Xiaoguan and his party also arrived at Guanyuntai.

They had not expected Fan Tianning and the others to come. Fu Xiaoguan bowed to Fan Tianning, Tuoba Yuan, and Yan Hanyu respectively, and said with a cheerful smile, "Good morning, everyone!"

Fan Tianning was amused, thinking that this guy was quite interesting, and seemed to have forgotten the grudge between him and Yan Hanyu.

Yan Hanyu came to Guanyun City in a prison car. If he had not practiced martial arts, he would probably have been shaken to pieces when he arrived in Guanyun City.

Fan Tianning clasped his fists and returned the greeting to Fu Xiaoguan, saying with a smile, "I didn't know Brother Fu would come either. I was negligent. I should have invited Brother Fu to come as well. Princess Taiping is indeed thoughtful."

He glanced at Princess Taiping, and became increasingly certain that the princess had fallen in love with Fu Xiaoguan—beauty was a recipe for disaster! She was so blatantly accompanying Fu Xiaoguan, and the Zhuo family would surely know about it. Before the literary gathering began, Fu Xiaoguan would have a hard time finding peace.

Tuoba Yuan bowed to Fu Xiaoguan very reluctantly, then turned around and saluted Wu Linger.

But Yan Hanyu ignored Fu Xiaoguan and also bowed to Wu Linger.

Wu Ling'er didn't return the greeting. Instead, she looked at Fu Xiaoguan and said, "In another stick of incense, we'll be able to see the wonderful sea of ​​clouds. Let's go there—"

It was a stone cliff with a bluestone fence on the edge and a vigorous old pine growing on the cliff.

There is a stone table and four stone benches under the pine tree. There is a chessboard carved on the stone table. The lines are a bit blurred, and it is obvious that people often play chess here.

"Lord Song, the Director of the Imperial Observatory, and Mr. Wen Canghai, the Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy, often play chess here. My father also comes here occasionally to play a game. Of course, Right Prime Minister Zhuo and his party and Left Prime Minister Nangong Yiyu also come here when they have time."

Wu Linger didn't say that not everyone can sit here, but this is the best place to view the sea of ​​clouds.

A maid brought candied fruit and cakes and a tea table. Wu Linger began to make tea and said to Su Su, "Miss Su Su, could you play a song to liven things up?"

Normally, Susu would not be interested in playing the piano. As she once told Fu Xiaoguan, the piano is used to kill people!

But today, for some reason, she happily opened the piano case.

"Since Your Highness is interested, Susu will play a song!"

Fu Xiaoguan knows Susu very well.

This girl has never been interested in anything other than eating.

As for Susu's zither, apart from killing people, Fu Xiaoguan had only heard from the eldest brother and others in the Taoist temple that when Susu's zither played, hundreds of birds would come to pay homage!

Fu Xiaoguan thought this was an extremely remarkable skill, and he had always wanted to see it, but Susu was not interested.

He thought that Susu would not touch the magical harp except to kill people after leaving the Taoist temple, but he did not expect that after Wu Linger invited her, she would actually play a song - what the hell, in Susu's eyes, he seemed to have no weight at all!

The sky gradually brightened, and smoke rose from the teapot on the stone table. The faint fragrance of tea drifted with the light morning breeze and drifted into the nostrils of Fan Tianning and others. Fan Tianning looked at the table of people under the pine tree and smiled.

He did not feel jealous of Fu Xiaoguan in his heart. In fact, after what he saw at Xianqingju in Fanning City, he was completely impressed by Fu Xiaoguan - that guy was a man of real ability, and he deserved such kindness from Princess Taiping!

This was a matter of strength. In this world, whether it was individuals or nations, strength was respected. As for nations, the Fan Kingdom was stronger than the Yu Dynasty, so the Fan Kingdom's embassy was located in the inner city. As for individuals, Fu Xiaoguan's talent was renowned throughout the world, so no matter how Princess Taiping treated him, it would not be excessive.

However, Yan Hanyu and Tuoba Yuan did not have such an understanding in their hearts, so they were extremely unbalanced, and the look in their eyes when they looked at Fu Xiaoguan was filled with more resentment.

Ku Chan still carried the Prajna Zen stick on his back. He also looked over there, but not at Fu Xiaoguan, but at Su Su, the sixth junior sister of the Taoist temple. He heard that she was a genius, and the master said that he must realize Zen before July, otherwise Su Su would kill him!

We have no grudge against each other, why did she kill me?

Ku Chan had no idea, and the great master of the Buddhist sect had never explained it to him.

But what is Zen?

The withered cicada read thousands of volumes of Buddhist scriptures, but still did not know.

The old man in blue behind Fan Tianning kept looking at the sea of ​​clouds, with a calm expression between his brows, as if he was an old monk who had entered into a state of meditation and was not disturbed by external things.

…

…

Su Su set up the piano.

Wu Linger poured the tea.

But Susu didn't play the piano.

Wu Linger then asked, "What are you waiting for, Miss Susu?"

Su Su's face was calm, and her gaze was cast into the distance - the sky and clouds in the distance were connected, and it was quite dim.

Her big eyes blinked, her little mouth opened slightly, and she said, "Waiting for that one meter of sunshine!"