Flowers bloom like fire, yet also like loneliness.
Taken from the poem "You Like Folk Songs" by Gu Cheng, a representative figure of the Misty Poetry School.
As for who Gu Cheng is, I suppose there's no need for much introduction?
His masterpiece, "A Generation"—"The night gave me black eyes, but I use them to seek the light"—is a classic line from a popular essay by junior and senior high school students, and a must-read modern poem for literary youth throughout history.
When they have nothing to do, they might say a few words, regardless of whether others see it or not, they just feel incredibly sophisticated.
He Yunxiao wasn't very good at reciting texts, but when it came to pretentious and artistic talk, he was all about Shuanghui ham sausages—the king of sausages.
He Yunxiao must have memorized just as many sophisticated modern poems as he did in his past life.
Despite the jokes and the playful banter, although He Yunxiao's initial intention was to show off in front of the despicable Yang Zhe, the artistic value of the poem itself cannot be erased, regardless of the motive.
Flowers bloom like fire, yet also like loneliness.
Four characters per line, eight characters per poem, concise yet profound, with a lasting meaning.
"good!"
In the ensuing silence, Li Jin was the first to stand up and applaud.
He Yunxiao was not surprised at all when he saw Li Jin stand up.
Although Li Jin had been causing him trouble not long ago, He Yunxiao had a very good impression of Li Jin.
In the original novel, Li Jin has a consistently good reputation. The reason for this lies in his exceptional naivety. Of course, this is an explanation based on high emotional intelligence.
His motivation was actually very simple: to get revenge on Yang Zhe.
Whether it's "upholding justice" or just memorizing idioms all at once.
In reality, they all wanted to show off their power in front of Yang Zhe.
If He Yunxiao were to settle scores, he would undoubtedly use his advantageous position as Yang Zhe's cousin to touch his aunt's hand and rub her face in front of Yang Zhe. This would not only strengthen their family bond but also make Yang Zhe seethe with hatred yet unable to voice his objections.
Li Jin wouldn't do something like that, but he can do something else entirely.
For example, right now, while everyone was still reeling from the poem, Li Jin was the first to stand up and shout, "Great! Great poem! Truly a great poem! It's really well written."
After speaking, he gave Yang Zhe a provocative look, thinking to himself: Yang Zhe, I, this young master, am not afraid of poetry, didn't expect that, did I?
Yang Zhe's face was gloomy.
He wasn't provoked by Li Jin, but he never expected that He Yunxiao could actually write a poem.
These eight characters, setting aside everything else, are far superior to my own frontier poems in terms of simplicity and connotation alone.
A top-scoring liberal arts student was defeated by two nobodies at a poetry gathering in a brothel.
They have truly lost all face.
Seeing Yang Zhe's gloomy face, He Yunxiao did not miss the opportunity to kick a man when he was down.
Being magnanimous is something the protagonist should do; villains are never magnanimous.
He chuckled and said, "Commander Yang, what do you think of my poem 'Flowers Bloom Like Fire'?"
It can only be said that Yang Zhe is indeed Yang Zhe; even when he was upset inside, he still managed to put on a very good show.
He stood up with great poise and said, "These eight characters are truly excellent. I never imagined that Young Master He would be such a refined gentleman."
Although not explicitly stated, the implication that He Yunxiao was a spoiled brat was already clear from the words.
He Yunxiao was naturally unwilling to fall behind.
"Commander Yang is joking. It is normal that you are more worldly than us, always wearing armor and kneeling before the palace.
Yang Zhe's lips twitched, but he was secretly startled.
Who says He Yunxiao is arrogant and ignorant? His sharp tongue surpasses even some of the court officials who dared to speak out.
Since that's the case, Yang Zhe didn't intend to waste any more time with He Yunxiao and immediately unleashed his ultimate move.
He said, “Young Master He, your eight characters, ‘Flowers bloom like fire, and also like loneliness,’ are truly wonderful. However, since ancient times, there has never been a saying that a poem can be composed of eight characters. Even a four-character poem must have eight lines in total, totaling thirty-two characters.”
Yang Zhe looked at He Yunxiao with disdain; he didn't believe He Yunxiao was truly talented.
These two brilliant lines of poetry, "Flowers bloom like fire, yet also like loneliness," were probably copied from some unknown scholar.
With such confidence, Yang Zhe pressed directly: "If Young Master He really wants to compose a poem, please write down the context directly."
In He Yunxiao's view, Yang Zhe's interrogation was like offering his face up and asking him to slap him.
That was truly the strangest request I had ever heard of.
With his hands behind his back and his chin tilted back at a 45-degree angle, He Yunxiao slowly began to recite Gu Cheng's poem "You Like Ballads," word by word:
"You love songs, child. This song is for you. This beautiful honey-colored flame is stirred again and again by autumn."
The morning air was as clean as a pane of glass, glistening with water. At first, I didn't know it was me singing for you in the woods.
The trees that were once sung about have all fallen.
Flowers bloom like fire, yet also like loneliness.
After He Yunxiao finished reading, the entire room fell silent.
Tie Weiqi, Shen Kuan, and the others didn't dare to speak at all, because it would be embarrassing to be discovered by everyone that they hadn't understood anything.
"That's strange!" Li Jin scratched his head. "This poem is really weird. It doesn't follow any rules of meter at all, and the lines are all different lengths and don't match up properly. The strangest thing is that I can understand each sentence individually, but why can't I understand a single word when they're put together?"
Li Jin's words truly reflect the sentiments of the vast majority of people.
Yang Zhe was even more blunt, saying, "I thought Young Master He was really learned. He wrote a poem, but it turned out to be completely nonsensical."
Liu Feiyun was also frightened by He Yunxiao's words, "Flowers bloom like fire, and also like loneliness."
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