Along the Nine-Curve Bridge at the Imperial Tutor's Mansion, a late spring breeze carried the sweet fragrance of wisteria across the lake, rustling the bamboo curtains draped beneath the veranda. Seventh Prince Xiao Yu leaned against a delicate, translucent Taihu stone. The white jade teacup between his fingers rippled as his shoulders trembled, and the Biluochun tea in the cup nearly spilled onto the darkly patterned sleeves of his moon-white brocade robe. Beside him, attendant Mo Shu rubbed his hands anxiously. He looked at his prince's reddened ears and whispered, "Your Highness, look at this teacup; it's almost like a rattle!"
"You're nosy." Xiao Yu wiped the tears that threatened to burst out of laughter, but the corners of his mouth kept rising as if pulled by a string. "Didn't you see me thinking about 'collecting folk songs'?" He looked through the cracks in the stone and saw Shen Weiwan in the center of the waterside pavilion, surrounded by three blue-robed scholars. The leader, Wang Lang, raised a mud-gold folding fan and spit flew everywhere. The ink bamboo painting on the fan trembled with anger. "Miss Shen, that 'spider web poem' just now was not logical. If you have the ability, write an elegant poem on the title 'cow dung'!"
Mo Shu's hands trembled with fear, and he nearly fell to his knees on the mossy stone path. "Your Highness, your Highness, this question is too... vulgar, isn't it?"
"Hush!" Xiao Yu flicked the grass between the cracks of the stone with his fingers, staring intently at the figure jumping in the waterside pavilion. Shen Weiwan's eyes lit up when she heard the words. She squatted down like a child who had found a new toy, poked the wet moss by the pool with her fingertips, and suddenly a crisp voice rang out:
“In spring, oxen plow the fields;
Golden pills everywhere.
The farmer took it home.
Fertile soil piled up into mountains.
Flowers and grasses smiled when they saw it,
The seedlings stand tall when they see
Huh?
The sour scholar covers his nose because of the stench.
It’s better to eat candied fruit!”
The moment the last note fell, the pavilion fell into pin-drop silence, then erupted into roaring laughter. Wang Lang's face flushed purple, and he slammed his folding fan on the stone table, sending the chess pieces tumbling off the board. "Vulgar! You're simply polluting this elegant place of flowing wine and winding water!"
"Dirty?" Chen Weiwan brushed off the grass debris on her skirt and stood up, the glass beads in her hair jingling with her movements. "Young Master Wang, do you know the saying 'turning into spring mud to protect flowers'? Without this 'cow dung' fertilizing the soil, how could those fake black bamboos on your fan bloom?"
"Puff!" Xiao Yu couldn't hold it in any longer, and the tea in the cup splashed onto his clothes, scalding him and making him shudder, but he still laughed breathlessly. Mo Shu was so anxious that he kept pulling at his sleeve, almost crying: "My Highness! You are a prince! Behave! Pay attention to your manners!"
"Can demeanor be eaten as sweet-scented osmanthus duck?" Xiao Yu took out a handkerchief and wiped his clothes, but his eyes were surprisingly bright. "Listen carefully--"
"That's enough!" Wang Lang pointed at Shen Weiwan, veins throbbing on his forehead. "I want to see what tricks you can come up with! With 'Broken Shoes' as the title, write!"
Just as Chen Weiwan raised an eyebrow, about to speak, a clear, melodious voice suddenly rang out from behind the rockery. Xiao Yu strolled out slowly, the hem of his moon-white brocade robe brushing against dew-drenched irises, and two playful wisteria petals clung to his hair. He cleared his throat, coughing deliberately in a rhythmic manner. "Young Master Wang, please be patient. This poem, though vulgar, evokes the profound wisdom of 'too clever to be too calculating.' Brilliant!"
Wang Lang was stunned: "Why do you say that, Your Highness?"
"Look at this 'Spider Web Poem,'" Xiao Yu walked to Shen Weiwan's side with a mischievous smile on his face. "'Aunt is very calculating, her calculations are like a web' - isn't it saying that the calculations in the world are like spider webs, seemingly dense but actually easily broken? It's much more realistic than the pedantic ink bamboo on your fan."
Chen Weiwan secretly gave him a thumbs-up in her sleeve, but then Xiao Yu changed the subject, his eyes sweeping across Wang Lang's stiff face. "As for the 'cow dung poem,' it speaks to the profound truth of 'the cycle of all things.' If you find it smelly, Young Master Wang, you've probably never seen the scene of people 'getting up early to clean up the weeds' in the fields, have you?"
Wang Lang's breath got stuck in his throat, his face turning from purple to blue, like a rooster whose tail had been stepped on. Liu, hiding behind the crowd, stamped her feet in anger, nearly shredding the silk in her hands. Shen Ruorou, beside her, even crushed the lotus embroidery on her handkerchief.
"Your Highness, you are too kind," Shen Weiwan tilted her head and pretended to be stupid, the tassels in her hair brushed across her flushed cheeks, "I was just talking nonsense, I don't understand any big principles."
Xiao Yu looked into her sparkling almond-shaped eyes, and suddenly lowered his voice, his warm breath brushing against her ears: "Oh? As for the 'slut' problem, does Miss Chen have a better solution?"
Shen Weiwan's eyes rolled around, and she suddenly pointed at Wang Lang's pair of shiny cloud-toe boots: "Broken shoes - 'Old shoes wear out the soles, new shoes rub the heels, it's better to go barefoot, it's comfortable and worry-free. Auntie likes to wear high heels, and when she twisted her ankle, she blamed the uneven road, hahaha!'"
When this poem came out, even the wife of the Grand Tutor, who was sitting in the main seat, could not help but cover her lips with a jade-edged handkerchief, her shoulders trembling slightly. Wang Lang trembled all over, pointing his finger at Shen Weiwan, his lips trembling for a long time before he squeezed out a sentence: "You...you..."
"What do you mean by 'I'?" Shen Weiwan put her hands on her hips, the lotus pattern on her skirt rising with her movements. "If Prince Wang doesn't have a topic, I can still use 'Sour Confucianism' as the topic—'Sour Confucianism is so sour that it makes your teeth fall out. It's full of nonsense, but it has no knowledge and can only pretend!'"
"Hahaha!" Xiao Yu, no longer concerned with his princely manners, burst into laughter, startling the egrets drinking from the pond. Mo Shu, beside him, sweating profusely, saw his prince had finished laughing. He slowly turned to the ashen-faced Wang Lang, his eyes suddenly cold. "My Lord, poetry is about expressing one's aspirations, not about judging one's elegance or vulgarity. Miss Shen's poetry is truly insightful and interesting, don't you think?"
Wang Lang felt the coldness in the Seventh Prince's eyes and immediately lost his temper. He bowed and said, "Your Highness...Your Highness is wise and wise."
Seeing that the situation was not good, Liu quickly pushed through the crowd and stepped forward, a stiff smile on her face: "Wanwan, don't be angry with Master Wang, come over and try the newly made honeydew melon from the Taifu Mansion..."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
