Zhutian: My skills are not serious

Chapter 406: Imperial Concubine, Uncle Emperor, Please Understand

"Yes, he is more shameless than me."

Chu Pingsheng said seriously: "It's fine to plagiarize poems and essays to gain fame, but he also opened a bookstore to sell pirated books for profit and even used hunger marketing tactics. It's really shameless! I disdain to do this. If I do... hehe..."

"Piracy? Hunger marketing?"

I understand plagiarism, but what do "piracy" and "hunger marketing" mean?
Call...

The coachman didn't give him a chance to explain the meaning of the words "piracy" and "hunger marketing" and knocked on the door frame of the carriage: "Master Chu, Miss Lili, we're here."

"I'll explain to you what 'piracy' means when I come back." Chu Pingsheng pointed at the palace and smiled smugly at her: "You can go back now. I'm going to meet Concubine Shu."

"Hey……"

Si Lili watched him lift the door curtain and jump out of the car. Just as she was about to ask him if he would go back to the Protocol Court tonight, she suddenly remembered his expression and words just now. Would he meet Concubine Shu? Why did he sound like he was visiting a brothel?

She was a secret agent of Northern Qi and knew more or less about the dignitaries in Kyoto. As far as she knew, the second prince's mother, Concubine Shu, loved reading the most and was the most upright and old-fashioned one. How could Chu Pingsheng, an uneducated guy, get away with anything in front of her?
"Hui Shu Imperial Concubine!"

"I'll teach you how to be a lady!"

Si Lili glared at his back with hatred, and told the coachman not to wait for him and to return to the Protocol Courtyard.

……

When Chu Pingsheng entered the palace, the chief eunuch Hou Zhigang was already waiting for him at the front gate and took him directly to the residence of the eldest prince's mother, Ning Cairen.

It can be said that this arrangement was intentional by the old eunuch. In Hou Zhigang's opinion, Ning Cairen was a Dongyi person who liked to wield spears and sticks and did not like to quibble with words. She had never intended to let the eldest prince fight for the throne. She was a very open-minded person. For Chu Pingsheng, the disciple of the grandmaster, she was the easiest hurdle to overcome.

Things turned out just as he expected. Ning Cairen was practicing martial arts in the yard at the time. When he saw Chu Pingsheng coming, he threw a sword at him without saying a word and started to attack him. However, in less than three moves, Chu Pingsheng's sword knocked his weapon away and he was defeated.

Then he said, "After all, he is a disciple of the grandmaster," and told the palace maid to see the guest off.

Hou Zhigang looked confused.

Chu Pingsheng could understand Ning Cairen's feelings. She didn't know how to govern a country, and she didn't like to quibble with words. She just liked to practice martial arts. She practiced for a long time but was defeated in less than three moves. How could she have the face to preach to him?

As the old saying goes, there is no first in literature and no second in martial arts, and a defeated general cannot talk about bravery.

After leaving Ning Cairen, Hou Zhigang took him to the right and entered Shu Guifu's Shujing Palace. He also told him that no matter what questions Shu Guifu asked or how to guide him, he should just say that he was just curious about things that were not available on the grassland.

Chu Pingsheng agreed readily and entered the palace. Led by the female official, he walked into the main hall and sat down in front of a desk filled with ancient books and a purple gold incense burner next to it.

Others were kneeling, but he was not. He crossed one leg and bent the other, leaning his body back, glancing around at the bookshelves stacked with ancient books. He looked relaxed, and the female official standing at the door seemed to want to say something but stopped herself several times, wanting to remind him to be more solemn.

"Are you Chu Pingsheng?"

Accompanied by a voice that is how to describe it, seven parts silly, two parts slow, and one part hoarse, a woman with a small face and petite body walked out of the aisle behind the bookshelf. The color of her clothes was a bit plain, but she had all the hairpins, rings, hairpins, and pendants. When she walked, they made a jingling sound, and were quite dazzling in the sunlight.

"You are the second prince's mother, Concubine Shu?"

The female official at the door looked displeased, but Concubine Shu herself was not angry. She just frowned slightly when she saw his indecent sitting posture, which was quite cute.

She sat down on the other side of the desk with a book in her hand: "I heard you don't like reading?"

Very straightforward indeed.

Chu Pingsheng complained in his heart: "Not really, I only read books that interest me."

"for example?"

"For example... a golden fish should not be kept in a pond."

The noble lady thought for a while, and even touched her temples twice with her slender fingers, but in the end she still couldn't figure it out.

"So... this book is a unique copy?"

"Ah, yes, yes, it is a unique copy." Chu Pingsheng responded casually.

"What kind of book is it?"

"As a poem says, a golden fish cannot stay in a pond. Once it encounters wind and clouds, it will turn into a dragon."

"How can a golden fish stay in a pond? It will turn into a dragon when it encounters wind and clouds?" The imperial concubine frowned slightly and repeated in a low voice, not understanding the meaning of these two lines of poetry.

"This golden scale refers to a fish with golden scales, or goldfish for short."

"Is there... in the palace?"

"Yes, I'll take you to see it sometime."

"What about the second part? Doesn't a fish have to cross the Dragon Gate to become a dragon? Just like... the Dragon Gate Bridge that students would cross during the Spring Examination."

"This wind and cloud is not the wind and cloud in the sky."

"If it's not the wind and clouds in the sky, then it's the ones on the ground?"

Chu Pingsheng thought, can't it be on the bed? Is pillow talk not wind? The clouds are flying on the cheeks, the clouds are piled on the temples, the clouds are moving and the rain is falling, can't it be called wind and cloud?

"do you want to see?"

As innocent as Shu, the noble lady had no idea what Uncle Chu was thinking. She blinked her beautiful eyes and said, "A spectacle like a fish turning into a dragon only exists in books. When have ordinary people ever seen it? Of course I want to see it."

"Then find a time and I'll take the Imperial Concubine to see it."

"Okay." She agreed without hesitation, her eyes full of expectation and her face full of sincerity.

Chu Pingsheng suddenly felt guilty for lying to a child. It was hard to believe that in such a deep palace there was such a silly and cute young woman.

"My Lady Imperial Concubine...you and the Second Prince...are really different."

"No? But they told me that we are very similar. Don't you think his eyes, his mouth, and his hands, which are thin and long, are very similar to mine? And I like reading, and he likes it too."

"..."

Concubine Shu retorted, but when she saw Chu Pingsheng remained silent, she realized that he was referring to her character. She moved back, her eyes unfocused, and worry written all over her face.

"He is thoughtful, overthinking, and likes to play hide-and-seek with others."

"hide and seek?"

"Yeah." She nodded, caressing the foreskin that she had cut earlier for the Huainan Jing, and said sadly: "Hide your heart, no one can find it."

"Does he play hide-and-seek with you, too?"

Concubine Shu hesitated for a long time before she uttered three words: "I don't know."

It's not just "I don't know" to make excuses to others, it means I really don't know.

As if she realized that she had said too much, or maybe she suddenly remembered the purpose of meeting Chu Pingsheng, she put on a stern face and pretended to be dignified: "Let's not talk about Chengze. I heard from the servants that you haven't attended the court meetings recently, you haven't listened to the classes in the Imperial College, you don't care about the foreign affairs of the Honglu Temple, you hang out in brothels every day, not only did you beat up the prince of Jing because of a woman, but you also burned the flower boat on the Liujing River?"

"Except for the burning of the flower boat, which has nothing to do with me, everything else is correct."

"How could you do this? Before His Majesty changed his will, I saw Fan Xian, and he was much better than you."

Chu Pingsheng leaned back again, his back resting against the bookshelf. The two palace maids at the door dared not say a word.

"My Lady Concubine... do you rarely chat with people?"

"Yes what's the matter?"

"You're easily killing the conversation this way."

"Talk to death?"

She was full of confusion, unable to understand. Chatting is just chatting. If one party doesn't understand, then just change the topic. How can the conversation end in death?

"You praised Fan Xian in front of me and asked me to learn from him?"

"Am I wrong? Everyone in Kyoto knows that he is a talented scholar. His seven-character poem is the best in ancient and modern times. Have you read it?" She added, "That's right. You came from the west, which is a cultural desert..."

"The wind is strong and the sky is high, the monkeys are howling sadly, the sand is clear and the white birds are flying back, the endless fallen leaves are rustling down, and the endless Yangtze River is rolling in... Is this the poem?"

"Hey, don't you know that?"

"Yes, of course I know."

This is a poem that even elementary school students can recite, how could he not know it?
"So what do you think of this poem...? Is it good?"

"Okay, great."

"Since you admit that he is extremely talented, you should learn from him with an open mind and work hard. Only then can we safely hand Wan'er over to you."

"Learn from him? Learn from what? Learn from his shamelessness and arrogance?"

Concubine Shu said: "You know, your biggest problem is your attitude towards learning."

"Okay, let's stop here, Your Majesty." Chu Pingsheng replied lazily, stood up with his hands on the bamboo mat, smoothed the wrinkles on the hem of his blue shirt, took out a book from his sleeve and threw it on the table.

"What's this?"

"Ancient books."

"Ancient books?"

“The only copy.”

When Concubine Shu heard that the brown-covered book on the desk was a rare copy of an ancient book, her eyes lit up.

"Don't you like to read Dream of the Red Chamber? This book... is the ancestor of Dream of the Red Chamber."

"The Red Mansion you are talking about, is it the one written by Fan Xian?"

"Yes."

"Ancestor? Didn't Fan Xian write that book himself? Could it be that he referred to the content in this book? But you just said that this is a unique copy and has not been circulated."

"You'll know after reading it."

Concubine Shu felt a little embarrassed.

"You came to see me, and I should have given you some books to study. Why..."

"Come on." Chu Pingsheng waved his hand and interrupted her rudely: "I am an uneducated barbarian. The only result of you giving me books is that they will become the kindling for the fire in the stove."

"How dare you speak to Her Majesty in such a tone?" The female official with a silver headband at the door could no longer bear it and shouted.

(End of this chapter)