Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 249 - 213: East Wind Releases A Thousand Flowers at Night_1

Chapter 249: Chapter 213: East Wind Releases A Thousand Flowers at Night_1

Just as Wang Jing was deep in thought, Li Xuan casually walked up to the second desk, where couplets were being tested. A variety of questions of varying lengths were written on the many pieces of rice paper arrayed on the desk.

"The rules here are the same as those of Wang’s area. There are three questions for ordinary people, with a prize of three thousand patterned silver; however, for cultivators, the last question will change, and the prize will be the Divine Blood Azure Phoenix over there."

Long Rui looked eagerly at Li Xuan. "If the Duwei is interested, you may choose two from my selection of questions first."

"I’ll go first!" Song Zian still got ahead of Li Xuan, drawing out one of the papers.

Long Rui’s expression was clearly displeased, he thought, you haven’t even passed the first round! But when he saw the glint in his eyes, he resignedly let him be.

This guy is drunk on Evil Heart Wine and is acting crazy.

"The sun at the bottom of the water is the sun in the sky?"

Song Zian furrowed his brow, standing still and dazed. He thought he should be able to figure it out, but somehow his mind was tied in knots. For a moment, he couldn’t come up with anything.

At this moment, Li Xuan drew another couplet.

"The green brook gives birth to tides from dawn till dusk? The green mountains look the same as they did in ancient times!"

"The clear wind and bright moon are priceless? The water and the distant mountains both have feelings!"

Li Xuan matched these two couplets and then turned to Long Rui with his hands behind his back, "Where’s the third question?"

At this point, Song Zian had finally managed to match his first question, "The sun at the bottom of the water is the sun in the sky, the person in the eye is the person in front of you."

He glanced at Li Xuan, his eyes filled with confusion and shock. He thought, how could this guy be so fast?

Yue Qianqian in the audience was also shocked. She never knew that their Duwei had such literary talent.

Master Xuanchen was taken aback as well. He had carefully investigated Li Xuan’s past and this guy was clearly ignorant and incompetent.

Only Xue Yunrou did not seem surprised, pointing out the simple fact. If Li Xuan were truly incompetent, how could he come up with a beautiful line like ’clouds want to dress, flowers want to look beautiful,’ and how could he become the Hufa of Neo-Confucianism?

"The third question I am giving to you cultivators, is not a couplet."

Long Rui’s eyes flashed as he displayed a scroll before Li Xuan: "Duwei, we do not know who created this scroll. It has a miraculous trait — only literate, deeply emotional words can leave a mark on it. Today I would like to ask the Duwei to take the lady by your side as the theme and write a poem on this scroll."

"Literate, deeply emotional?" Song Zian pondered for a while: "Is this scroll made of Xuehou Paper?"

Long Rui glanced at him, then began to laugh, "The learned Song is well informed. This indeed is Xuehou Paper, refined further by a secret technique from Taoism. That’s why ordinary characters can’t leave a trace on this paper."

Upon hearing their conversation, Li Xuan also recalled the information about Xuehou Paper from the original host’s memory.

It was a magical type of paper, said to be made by the Marquis of Wenyuan of the great Zhao dynasty, Xue Liang, four thousand years ago from the bark of a giant mulberry tree, hence the name Xuehou Paper.

Legend says that the giant mulberry had cultivated to a substantial level and had transformed into a human-like being known as ’Lord Sang’ before it died. Therefore, Xuehou Paper could not only be used to make the highest quality talismans but also bear the greatest literary works.

Song Zian furrowed his brow and then stretched out his hand, "Bring the brush!"

A corner of Long Rui’s mouth twitched, thinking that Song Zian had only answered one of the two couplets. But after a moment’s thought, he gave him the brush and ink.

Song Zian immediately dipped the brush in ink and began to write rapidly. From the strokes, it looked like he intended to write the character for ’forest’, but after completing a single ’wood’ radical, the black ink could not permeate the paper at all.

Song Zian frowned and then changed to a ’river’ character. The result was the same. The black ink rolled off to the side, leaving no trace on the scroll.

Song Zian tried several more characters in succession, but none could leave a mark on the paper. This infuriated him and his face turned red.

"I told you, only genuine, high-quality poetry and prose can leave a trace."

Fearing that he would tear the scroll in his anger, Long Rui took the scroll back in haste and then looked at Li Xuan with a smile: "Would Duwei Li like to give it a try?"

Li Xuan hesitated for a while: "Can I just say it? Does it have to be written?"

He was worried about his own terrible handwriting, which was really unsightly.

"It must be written." Long Rui shook his head: "This scroll is the crux of this test. Not only does the poem have to be of high quality, it must also contain genuine emotions."

Why else would he, Xuanchen, be able to tell if Li Xuan’s feelings for his younger sister were true?

Li Xuan turned his head to look at Xue Yunrou, still a little hesitant.

He had already thought of the poem, all he had to do was plagiarise it, but once it was written, it felt a bit too forward.

Then Long Rui pointed to a nearby bird cage: "This test is indeed very challenging, so our prize is substantial. This Divine Blood Azure Phoenix is extremely rare and its bloodline purity is as high as 70%. If it were sold in the black market in Chuancheng, it would not sell for less than three hundred thousand teals of patterned silver."

From the side, Song Zian scoffed, "Don’t waste your effort. How could a pampered playboy like you, who has never read a book, write any decent poetry?"

However, Li Xuan had already picked up the brush, and wrote the character ’east’ on the scroll.

To Li Xuan’s relief, his bad handwriting didn’t affect his writing.

"Your handwriting is as bad as a dog’s crawl."

First, Song Zian mocked him, but then his expression froze.

This guy, did he just write the character ’east’ on this scroll? How is this possible? Wasn’t it said that only superior literary meanings could make a mark on this scroll?

At this moment, Long Rui was also surprised. He looked attentively at the brush in Li Xuan’s hand, watching the words under the brush appearing on the paper one by one.

—The east wind blew and illuminated a thousand trees with flowers overnight. It blew more, dropping stars like rain. A carriage with a treasure horse filled the road with fragrance. The sound of phoenix flute stirred, the jade pot light rotated, fish and dragons danced all night.

The girls dressed in golden threads of moths and willows, their laughter filled with hidden fragrance as they walked away. I searched for her among the crowd a thousand times, only to turn and find her where the lights were dim.

This is Xin Qiji’s "Qingyu Case · Yuanxi", which describes the night of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The lanterns at night are like trees of silver flowers blown open by the spring wind, and falling like stars raining from the sky. The carriages pulled by the treasure horses were filled with exotic fragrance, all of them owned by wealthy families who came to admire the lanterns. The melodious sound of the flute echoed around, and the bright moon gradually tilted to the west. The fish and dragon lanterns danced happily all night long, and didn’t feel tired even till dawn.

The girls were dressed as beautiful as jade and flowers, with moth and willow decorations on their heads. They walked by, their laughter filled with fragrance. I anxiously searched for her among the crowd, looking for her a thousand times but couldn’t. Suddenly I turned around, and unexpectedly I found her in dim light.

The first half of this song fits well with the bright lights of the City God Night Market. But the second half actually doesn’t quite fit the situation between him and Xue Yunrou.

But when Li Xuan thought of the recent sight of Xue Yunrou riding towards the temple fair, he felt that only this song by Xin Qiji could describe seven or eight of his feelings.

"The east wind blew and illuminated a thousand trees with flowers overnight. Blowing more, dropping stars like rain—"

While Long Rui was murmuring and pondering about it, a scholarly man next to him loudly read the content of the poem.

The whole stage was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Almost everyone was listening carefully.

Xue Yunrou was initially amazed by the beautiful diction of this poem, but when she heard ’I have looked for her thousands of times in the crowd, and when I turned abruptly, she was there in the dim light’, she felt her heart ’thump’ as if something had hit it hard. It was as if someone had grabbed it firmly, missed a few beats.

Xue Yunrou’s flushed, and without hesitation, she flew onto the stage, taking the scroll in her hands. She was overjoyed and couldn’t let go, looking at it carefully, a sweet, indescribable sentiment swirling in her heart.

The only thing that was a bit ugly was the handwriting — yes, it was cute!

But Xue Yunrou was still secretly annoyed, thinking that it was Peng Fulai and Zhang Yue, those two scoundrels, who led Xuan astray!

Otherwise, with Xuan’s talent and intelligence, if he just put a little more time into practicing his handwriting, he wouldn’t have made it so crooked, like spring worms and autumn snakes.

Meanwhile, Jiang Hanyun, who was hidden in the crowd, was murmuring with a complicated expression.

"I have looked for her thousands of times in the crowd, and when I turned abruptly, she was there in the dim light?"

"What a splendid poem! In my three hundred years of life, I have only heard about three or five poems that can match it."

Tingtian Ao, who was hanging in the air, looked meaningfully at Jiang Hanyun, "Including that ’clouds want to dress, flowers want to look beautiful’, which was made by Li Xuan for you, right?"

Jiang Hanyun gave it a cold glare, the chill in her eyes sending a shiver down Tingtian Ao’s spine.

Downstage, Yue Qianqian was first astonished by the beauty of the poem, her eyes shone as she looked at Li Xuan on the stage. But then, her expression turned sad and self-pitying. The poem was excellent and Captain Duwei’s talent was truly awe-inspiring, but it was not written for her.

"How much for this scroll?" After looking at it for a while, Xue Yunrou carefully put away the scroll, and then directly put it in her sleeve, "Name your price, I’ll buy it."

"I gift it to the young lady." Long Rui was very obedient and pointed to the bird cage again, "The two of you can take this Divine Blood Azure Phoenix too."

Only then did he notice that the Divine Blood Azure Phoenix, which had been languishing, was now raising its head, its eyes ablaze as it looked at Li Xuan.

Long Rui suddenly remembered what Master Xuanchenzi had said before; the bird was not only extremely proud, but also sentimental.

—Could it be that they caught each other’s eye?

"Don’t rush to accept the prize."

Although Li Xuan was smiling at Long Rui at this moment, there was a hint of coldness in his eyes, "Judging by the many couplets here, I can see that Brother Long is very fond of this. I wonder if Brother Long dares to answer a question from me? As long as Brother Long can match it tonight, I will return this Divine Blood Azure Phoenix."

Long Rui knew that revenge was coming. It was not easy to deal with the man in front of him.

Wang Jing, who was next to him, was a living example; even now, he was still pondering over the chessboard.

However, he didn’t care and replied confidently, "Just ask your question, sir!"

Li Xuan stood with his hands behind his back, a slight smile on his lips, "A few years ago, when I went to Hangzhou to accompany my brother for his wedding, I came up with a line for a couplet that I have never been able to match. Going to West Lake, carrying a tin pot, the tin pot falls into West Lake, regret the tin pot. What do you think, Brother Long?"

Long Rui’s expression instantly became serious. The arrogance in his eyes was gradually eroding.