Everyone else had submitted their prepared poems, but Su Ruojin hadn't prepared any. She could only take the brush and ink from the palace maid and write a poem on the spot before submitting it.
Jia Yingying watched from the side with a gloating expression. She thought to herself, "How could Su Ruojin possibly write any poetry? I'll just wait and see her make a fool of herself."
Su Ruojin finished writing in a few strokes and handed it to the palace maid.
The palace maids presented the collected poems to the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy and two Vice-Chancellors. Only after the top three poems were selected would they be presented to the Empress for her evaluation.
"Next, we invite Your Highness to give today's topic," said Granny Kong.
Everyone looked at the Queen, who sat in the seat of honor, holding their breath and waiting for her to pose the question.
The young masters and ladies of noble families have been predicting the possible questions based on the Empress's past practice of setting questions, and have prepared many poems. Now they are just waiting to see if they can guess the right one.
"It's a rare treat that Princess Chang Le is here today. Why don't we compose a poem on the theme of the long-standing friendship between the Great Chu and Yun Qi?"
When the Empress posed this question, the young masters and ladies who had prepared poems in advance all looked dejected. In the past, the questions posed by the Empress were all related to the current scene, and at most, they were about flowers or objects.
Unexpectedly, today's topic is unusually focused on the relationship between Da Chu and Yun Qi.
This topic is much grander and more challenging than those that focus on specific objects.
Many people gave Su Ruojin a resentful look. If it weren't for her, the Empress wouldn't have set such a difficult question.
"One incense stick is the limit." Granny Kong gestured to the palace maid to light the incense.
Everyone buried themselves in thought, and Su Ruojin also picked up her pen, wrote a few lines, and then leisurely drank her tea.
Anyway, she has already said that she is not good at writing poetry, and she can just write whatever she wants without any pressure.
Zhao Jingning stood beside Su Ruojin. She had been worried that since her sister Jin was proficient in medicine, she probably wouldn't have time to study poetry and prose. What if she really couldn't compose anything?
She pondered, if that didn't work, she would write a few poems for Jin-mei, whispering them in her ear so that Jin-mei could write them down as she instructed.
Fortunately, Zhao Guangtao had hired a tutor to strictly educate the four children of the Zhao family since they were young, and Zhao Jingning was quite proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
However, Zhao Jingning fell completely silent after seeing the two poems written by Su Ruojin.
Zhao Jingning had seen Jinmei write beautiful small regular script calligraphy many times and was used to it.
But now that I've seen the poems written by Su Ruojin, I realize that even the tutor my grandfather hired for her back then might not have been able to write them.
You should know that the tutor invited by the Zhao family was no ordinary person; he was a famous literary sage in Yunqi.
Zhao Jingning was both surprised and relieved.
Empress Sun naturally saw that Su Ruojin hadn't thought about it at all and had already written it down, and a slight smile appeared on her lips.
Empress Sun knew that Su Ruojin was skilled in medicine, so when Su Ruojin said that she was not good at poetry, Empress Sun also thought that what she said was true.
She already knew that Su Ruojin was the legitimate daughter of General Su of the Great Chu who had been lost for many years and had only recently been recognized. She had lived in the countryside since childhood and had no opportunity to learn how to compose poetry.
Even so, Empress Sun insisted on making Su Ruojin compose a poem, only so that she would feel ashamed of herself and be willing to marry her godson as a concubine.
The time it takes for an incense stick to burn is quickly up. As before, the palace maids collected everyone's poems and handed them over to the three scholars for evaluation.
According to the rules, the teachers are not allowed to announce the rankings before the three rounds of competition are completely over, so as not to affect everyone's mood.
Empress Sun glanced sideways and saw the three scholars whispering among themselves over a poem, a look of shock appearing on her face.
She felt a little smug. She had already told her godson the topic beforehand, and with the help of his advisors, his poem was sure to be a sensation.
As for the draw for the third round, with her arrangement, her godson will naturally be able to draw the question he wants.
Su Ruojin drew a plum blossom as her fortune stick. Upon seeing this topic, she couldn't help but recall how her fourth master had asked her to write a poem about plum blossoms. She refused and instead broke off all the plum blossoms that her fourth master had planted behind the courtyard, claiming that she couldn't write a poem without seeing plum blossoms.
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