Chen Yanan poked his head out from behind him and said with a grin, "If you can't do it, just admit defeat as soon as possible. If it's like 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 three rounds, with each person taking longer to think as the conversation progressed. Only Qin Zhao could answer the next sentence with just a glance, never pausing.

Qin Zhao handed the paper filled with poems to Yan Xiu. Yan Xiu glanced at it and stood up suddenly: "How dare you use this sentence?!"

His voice woke up all the scholars who were scratching their heads. Everyone gathered around and saw clearly the poem that Qin Zhaoti had written.

"This... isn't this that person's poem?"

"Yes, I remember it clearly. It was that person who did it."

"When this poem spread throughout the world, no one could follow up with the next line. This..."

Chen Yanan hadn't 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's see how you'll respond now!"

Everyone had different expressions, except Qin Zhao, who still didn't know what was going on. He 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 composed during a drunken poetry contest in front of the palace during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Back then, the prince announced that anyone who could match his poem would be promoted to the Imperial Academy. Who among the scholars wouldn't 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 line of poetry difficult to continue?" Qin Zhao asked.

Yan Xiu sneered, "Come and try to answer it if you can. 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 met him!"

"This... this can actually be connected like this. I thought about it for a whole month!"

Everyone was talking about it when Yan Xiu suddenly rushed forward and snatched the paper from Qin Zhao's hand: "So that's how it is... So that's how it is..."

He looked a little crazy, 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?"

"Hmm, maybe it's just provoking me." Chen Yan'an was hungry from all the poetry competition, so he took a bite of the cake on the table and said, "I heard that after that prince wrote this poem, scholars all over the world competed to try their hand at it. Yan Xiu locked himself in his room for six months and still couldn't come up with it."

Qin Zhao looked in the direction where Yan Xiu left and said leisurely, "He's 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, often asking about his teachers and whether he had any ambitions to pursue a degree. Some of the core members of the literary circle even invited Qin Zhao to 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 annoying. Once this gets out, there will be more." Chen Yan'an said, seeing that Qin Zhao looked somewhat unhappy at the end.

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."