Everyone present was a scholar; perhaps their ability to write good poetry was limited, but their appreciation skills were still quite good.
"What a beautiful poem! What a beautiful poem!"
"Based on this poem alone, it deserves first place!"
"I never knew before that Young Master Feng was such a devoted person. Reading his poem was truly moving!"
"No wonder Young Master Feng's poetic talent has improved so much recently. Since the last Mid-Autumn Festival poetry gathering, Young Master Feng has won first place twice in a row with excellent poems. Even if Miss Lin had participated in the poetry gathering back then, it would have been difficult for her to win first place!"
"Indeed, Young Master Feng lives up to his name. With this poem about peach blossoms, the final piece of calligraphy is already decided!"
"..."
Since they were all from Jiangling, and given that Feng Mubai's peach blossom poem was indeed of good quality, the scholars of Jiangling praised him without reservation as soon as he finished reading it. After all, Feng Mubai represented Jiangling, and they knew the saying "one prospers, all prosper; one suffers, all suffer," so they all flattered him.
Feng Mubai was flattered by the photos. He had put a lot of effort into preparing this poem, so he naturally deserved so much praise.
Master Xia, who had been blaming himself for leaving behind his calligraphy due to his recklessness, said with a smile, "I recently heard that Mu Bai prepared a poem for the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering, but I have never heard him reveal a word about it. Now I know why he kept it a secret. However, his secrecy has caused me, his teacher, a lot of trouble. If I had known that he had written such a good peach blossom poem, how could I have written a poem to embarrass myself?"
"Ha ha…"
Although Master Xia made a self-deprecating remark, his underlying meaning was nothing more than praising how good Feng Mubai's poem was, which made everyone laugh.
Prefect Xu nodded in agreement, saying, "I've watched Mu Bai grow up since he was a child. That's just his personality—neither humble nor arrogant, neither proud nor impatient. It's not surprising that he can write such excellent poems."
"Prefect Xu, you flatter me!"
Feng Mubai nodded slightly. After reciting the poem and receiving unanimous praise, his originally dark expression softened considerably. After exchanging pleasantries with everyone, he turned to Lin Wan'er and asked, "Wan'er, what do you think of my peach blossom poem?"
This poem, "Peach Blossom Temple," was carefully prepared by Feng Mubai for Lin Wan'er. He even felt that all the poems he had written in the first half of his life combined were not as good as this one, because it truly touched his heart.
Although this Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering was full of twists and turns, and Jing Zhe, the "troublemaker," appeared in the middle, Feng Mubai thought that at least the result was good—or even better than before. With Jing Zhe's support, his poem raised the atmosphere of the poetry gathering to its highest level.
At this moment, his greatest hope was to receive praise from Lin Wan'er, because he had been waiting for this moment for too many years. As for Jing Zhe, he didn't care much, because he felt that once this poem was published, no other poem at the Peach Blossom Poetry Gathering could match it!
Lin Wan'er gently brushed a strand of hair from her forehead and smiled, "Young Master Feng's poem about peach blossoms is excellent. I've attended so many poetry gatherings with you and heard so many of your poems, but this one is the best. Someone was right earlier; if you had written this poem earlier, you would probably have won first place in the poetry gatherings long ago!"
"..."
This was undoubtedly the highest praise Lin Wan'er had given Feng Mubai in all these years. Feng Mubai was completely flattered after hearing it. He was just about to say something polite when Lin Wan'er spoke again.
"However, what I want to hear most right now is not Young Master Feng's poem, but my younger brother's."
As she spoke, she looked at Jing Zhe with tender affection once again, and Feng Mubai suddenly felt that all the preparations he had made for Lin Wan'er over the years and all the effort he had put in seemed to have been in vain.
I want to cry…
Looking at Jing Zhe, her sadness turned into anger.
Then he became sarcastic: "Young Master Jing, I have finished writing. Didn't you just say that you could write a whole basketful of those kinds of poems off the top of your head? Heh, when it comes to poetry, quality matters, not quantity. Perhaps in Jingzhou, you could win first place with that peach blossom poem you just wrote, but in Jiangling, even if you wrote a whole basketful of those kinds of poems, you still wouldn't win first place, because Jiangling has me!"
When he said the last sentence, Feng Mubai almost shouted it out. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought that Jing Zhe had done something to him.
"It's my turn, right?"
Jing Zhe did not answer Feng Mubai's question, nor did he even glance at him. He said to himself, "Since my seventh sister wants to hear it, I will just write a poem at random first."
"It can't be done casually."
Lin Wan'er immediately protested against Jing Zhe's perfunctory attitude.
"Hehe, I'm just being modest."
Jing Zhe smiled and said, "Besides, even if it's just any random poem, it's more than enough to win first place at the Jiangling Poetry Festival."
"Arrogant!"
Seeing the two of them flirting like they were not human, Feng Mubai roared, "If you're really talented, then hurry up and write! What kind of skill is it to just talk the talk but not walk the walk?"
This time, Jing Zhe glanced at Feng Mubai, just once, then walked to the front of the crowd, remained silent for a moment, and suddenly spoke.
Do you have any alcohol here?
"..."
Everyone was shocked, thinking he had made up his mind. They never expected him to ask for wine. Lin Wan'er rolled her eyes at him: "Where would we get wine in this Buddhist land?"
"Oh, no, no, I was just asking."
After saying that, Jing Zhe became serious again, walked to a peach tree, picked a peach blossom, smelled it, and then thought it was too girly, so he quickly started reciting.
"On Peach Blossom Mountain is Peach Blossom Hermitage, and beneath Peach Blossom Hermitage dwells a Peach Blossom Immortal."
The Peach Blossom Immortal planted peach trees, and then picked the peach blossoms to sell for wine money.
When sober, I sit before the flowers; when drunk, I sleep beneath them.
Half-awake, half-drunk, day after day; flowers blooming and falling, year after year.
This is a passage from Tang Bohu's "Peach Blossom Hermitage Song". Logically speaking, among the peach blossom poems that Jing Zhe knows, this one is not the most outstanding, and it does not quite fit the scene here. However, Jing Zhe still chose this one first, and he had his own reasons for it.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished reading his poem, Feng Mubai burst into laughter: "Young Master Jing, you can't possibly have all those poems in your basket that are of this quality, can you? If so, you can't beat me!"
After finishing, he didn't forget to encourage the others: "What do you all think? How does this poem compare to mine?"
"This poem, at first glance, doesn't seem so bad..."
"It reads smoothly and is really good..."
"It's not bad, but the artistic conception..."
As soon as the last sentence was uttered, everyone fell into deep thought. The reason why poetry is poetry is that it is based on the imagery of a scene to evoke emotions. If there is no scenery to accompany the poetry, it is more like a pile of fancy words and cannot be considered good.
"In my humble opinion, this poem is utter nonsense!"
Suddenly, a deep voice rang out, and Jing Zhe was overjoyed: "It's the one I've been waiting for!"
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