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Chapter 370 - 371 Shameless Bastard_1

Chapter 370: Chapter 371 Shameless Bastard_1

Li Changlin quickly walked to the center of the stage, where the host asked him to take a seat and then gestured for the drummer near the edge of the arena to start drumming.

The middle-aged man was obviously very familiar with the rules.

After just a few beats, he raised his hand to stop the drummer.

At that moment, the number displayed above the drummer’s head stopped at eighteen.

The female host quickly walked over and flipped over the wooden block with the number eighteen.

"Couplet number eighteen, the first line reads ’one two three four five six seven,’ contestants please respond with the second line."

This first line was purely numerical; to be honest, Li Changlin had never encountered such a couplet before.

Fortunately, he wasn’t on stage, and he genuinely had little interest in such couplets.

If it weren’t for fulfilling the request of his brothers in the live broadcast room, he probably wouldn’t have even participated in this event.

Now here he was, not only participating in the event but also needing to secure a good result for Zhou Ziyu.

Talk about pressure.

Bummer, he had no idea how many points he still had.

This was definitely not the time to drop the ball!

Inside, Li Changlin kept pep-talking himself.

He wasn’t afraid of losing; now that Zhou Ziyu had shown his earnestness, he certainly couldn’t disappoint him.

He thought about asking Ling’er, but then he thought better of it since asking wouldn’t be of any use.

Points are what they are, they won’t increase or decrease, so he might as well wait.

Qian Ziwei aimed the camera at the contestant in the middle, so the brothers in the live broadcast room could also hear the topic loud and clear.

Many people started to guess, just for a bit of fun.

Looking at the messages the brothers were posting in the live chat, Li Changlin was also very happy.

As long as his brothers were happy, he didn’t mind.

Although he couldn’t figure out the answer, there was no need to feel embarrassed.

Not knowing is just not knowing; it wasn’t him competing, so Li Changlin naturally saw no reason to waste points.

Watching was enough; taking it as a bit of fun.

While interacting with his brothers, Li Changlin also kept an eye on the situation on stage.

Actually, Qian Ziwei had kept the camera focused in the middle the whole time, so even if Li Changlin was looking at his phone, he wouldn’t miss anything exciting. As time went on, the middle-aged contestant picked up the pen and paper on the table and started to write.

Li Changlin was a bit surprised that the organizers had prepared calligraphy brushes.

Well, that was depressing, but luckily for Li Changlin, he had practiced with "Calligraphy for Beginners" for thirty-one volumes, so his brush handwriting wasn’t too bad to look at.

While not a calligrapher, he could still manage neat characters.

It was probably not the case for Zhou Ziyu, though.

Li Changlin turned his head and jokingly glanced at the young boy, noticing that the kid actually looked quite distressed, as if he realized this issue.

"Wow, they run this event pretty formally to even use brushes," he commented.

"Hey, Zhou Ziyu, can you handle this, kiddo? Are your brush-writing skills up to snuff?"

"By the way, Xin Chen, I want to ask you, why won’t you agree to have monkeys with me?"

"Keep it up, young man, I reckon Brother Changlin’s brush handwriting might be quite a challenge for him."

"Hehe, I’m just going to watch and not say a word."

Okay then, the brothers were all very supportive, filled with anticipation.

Regarding everyone’s concerns, Li Changlin expressed that he felt no pressure at all.

After all, he had also gone through thirty-one "Calligraphy for Beginners" books, so this brush writing was really a piece of cake for him.

Soon, the middle-aged contestant had finished answering the question.

The female host walked up, picked up the piece of paper written by the middle-aged contestant, and said, "Filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty, faith, courtesy, righteousness, integrity—judges, is this lower couplet neatly matched?"

Looking at the words on the paper, the female host actually had no approval of them.

In her opinion, one two three four five six seven seemed so simple, yet the middle-aged contestant’s answer was way too complicated, wasn’t it?

Oh, the lack of education really shows.

The female host studied broadcasting and had genuinely never come into contact with Chinese couplets, this essence of national culture!

However, she was aware of her own role and thus did not overstep her bounds.

Otherwise, the situation would surely escalate, and making a fool of herself on the spot would be the least of her worries.

After hearing the host’s inquiry, the judges immediately looked at each other, and eventually, everyone pushed forward an esteemed elder to give his comments.

This elder, Elder Gu, was indeed highly respected in the circle. He gave a slight bow to the other four judges, which was a gesture of thanks.

Following that, Elder Gu stood up.

Commenting was all about mutual respect.

Although it was said that scholars belittle each other and that in literature there is no first and in martial arts no second.

But now, in front of a large audience and at such a solemn event, even with his senior status, Elder Gu couldn’t possibly display an arrogant demeanor, could he?

"One two three four five six seven, many friends might think this upper couplet is very simple." Elder Gu stood up and began his critique, "Actually, this upper couplet isn’t so simple, everyone. You can see, following these seven numbers, isn’t an eight missing? This is what we call ’without eight,’ or ’forgotten eight.’ Yes, it means the eight has been forgotten."

Elder Gu spoke with a sense of humor.

He probably guessed that many people in the audience had understood the implication, so he paused for a moment.

"Forgotten eight, ’wang ba,’ this implication is quite interesting!"

"Ha-ha, who’s the ’wang ba’?"

"Damn, the first contestant’s luck is not bad, to actually pick a ’wang ba.’"

"Eh, so what does his answer mean then?"

The female host had already read out the lower couplet written by the middle-aged contestant, which was "Filial piety, fraternal duty, loyalty, faith, courtesy, righteousness, integrity."

Although the audience had not seen the characters, they could guess from what the host had said that the seven characters were all related to moral virtues.

Oh, moral virtues?

Very quickly, people started to catch on.

Speaking of virtues, it seems that out of those seven characters, the word ’virtue’ was the only one missing.

Missing a ’virtue,’ doesn’t that just mean ’lacking virtue’?

Those who understood the connection between the upper and lower couplets immediately began to smile knowingly.

This lower couplet was indeed well matched.

The upper couplet referred to a ’wang ba,’ and the lower couplet suggested ’lacking virtue.’

Well then, the middle-aged contestant was impressive!

In Li Changlin’s live-streaming room, many viewers couldn’t help but burst out with expressions like impressive, damn good, and damn.

It seems, this middle-aged man did have some real skill.

Having understood the connection between the upper and lower couplets, Li Changlin too was truly impressed.

Impressive, indeed quite damn good!

"It seems that everyone has understood the meaning behind it," Elder Gu then said with a chuckle: "This is the profound depth of our Chinese characters. A few simple numbers can express a completely different meaning. This is what we often refer to as ’insulting without using foul language.’ Chinese characters are really too powerful for words! The first contestant, advanced."