Seeing that the academy's teachers and the dean had all arrived, and that there were countless onlookers, Shen Yaozu quickly closed his folding fan, picked up his brush, and wrote several large characters on the scroll.
[One two three four five six seven]
Upon seeing this, everyone's high spirits instantly froze. They looked at each other, several with bewildered expressions, thinking to themselves, "This can be called a couplet?"
"That's it?!"
"What kind of absolute is this? I can match it up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, a total of seven hens!"
"Tsk, if you do it your way, I can do it too! The hen farted."
"I had diarrhea right after I farted!"
"Hahaha... Gentlemen, this is a poem-writing contest, not a couplet contest."
...
Shen Yaozu stood on the steps in front of the academy gate, watching the people below discussing amongst themselves, but no one seemed to understand the situation. A smug look flashed in his eyes.
He repeated as accurately as possible what Shen Qiyin had told him that day: "Alas! This couplet of mine is a couplet with missing characters."
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, but there's no eight. Forget eight, forget eight, the homonym is 'wangba' (turtle)!"
"If any of you can come up with the matching line, please feel free to try."
But when others heard this, their expressions immediately changed.
"It's fine to match couplets, but why are you resorting to insults!"
"Who wouldn't say that? He's so arrogant just because he has some talent. It's a disgrace to Qing Tong Academy to accept him."
“With his ‘turtle alliance’ move, anyone who takes it is a turtle, so who would want to go up there?”
"Hey, do you guys think that's exactly what Young Master Shen was planning? He got into Qing Tong Academy by taking the shortcut of matching couplets, but then he turned around and destroyed the bridge. What a wicked guy! Doesn't he worry about his children being born without an anus?!"
...
If even the onlookers looked down on his actions, one can imagine how much more disapproving Dean Lin and the other teachers at Qing Tong Academy were of them.
Good heavens, his face turned green with anger.
Shen Yaozu, however, was oblivious. He was completely absorbed in his own thoughts and said smugly, "I don't think anyone will be able to come up with the second line for a while. Let's engrave the first line and put it at the entrance of the academy to see if anyone can finish it in the future!"
As soon as the words were spoken, everyone heard a slightly childish voice ring out crisply.
"I'll do it!"
Dean Lin heard the voice but did not see the person, so he said, "Who is contacting me? Stand up and speak."
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