Zhutian: My skills are not serious

Chapter 411: Traveler vs. Traveler

Chu Pingsheng laughed and said, "The eldest princess still loves me."

The ministers at the head of the group looked at each other in bewilderment, especially those from the Northern Qi delegation. They thought that this Prince Grand Tutor of the Southern Qing Kingdom was indeed as the rumors said, a mountain king-like figure, so lustful that even female ghosts would try to be his lover. He was truly one of a kind in the world, one of a kind.

Xin Qiwu found that several officials from the Ministry of Rites were looking at him and whispering to each other. He was speechless and wanted to explain but didn't know how. Lord Chu had slept on the flower boat on Liujing River and now wanted to try what it felt like to be a female ghost. What did this have to do with him?
Only Fan Xian narrowed his eyes slightly, with resentment boiling in his heart.

Just now, when Li Yunrui answered Lin Youdao's question about whether his wives and concubines were beautiful, he glanced at him, unable to hide his mockery.

As a mother, she has no affection at all and wants to marry Lin Wan'er to a lustful and savage man like Chu Pingsheng just to control the financial power of the royal family. This is so hateful and so dirty.

Seeing that he was like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water, Li Yunqian lost his temper and waved his hands down.

"Serve the meal."

Following the emperor's order, palace maids in formal attire came in one after another with vegetables in their hands, knelt down in front of the food tables, placed the food boxes one by one, slowly stood up, bowed and retreated.

"My dear ministers, come and drink this cup with me."

Li Yunqian picked up the golden cup handed to him by the palace maid and invited all the ministers to drink together.

Everyone raised their glasses, toasted Long Live the Buddha, and drank the wine in their cups.

Drink it.

Li Yunqian glanced around and saw Fan Xian drinking three cups in a row, as if he was drinking to keep quiet, so he cleared his throat and called out, "Fan Xielu."

"Fan Xielu..."

It was not until Xin Qiwu knocked on his food table and pointed at the top that Fan Xian realized the emperor was calling him. He quickly swallowed the food in his mouth, stepped out of the line and bowed: "I am here."

"I heard that you have been in the Honglu Temple these days... Xin Qiwu praised you for being neither humble nor arrogant, calm and steady, and doing a good job."

"It's just my job."

Fan Xian raised his head slightly and glanced at the person sitting on the dragon throne.

"Come, come to the front and have a drink with me."

Of course Li Yunqian could hear the resentment in his heart.

Fan Xian stepped up the stairs, walked closer, and took a look at the Prince's Grand Tutor, Lord Chu, who was sitting with his left leg crossed, his right knee bent, and his body slightly leaning back, looking extremely relaxed, with a slightly cold look in his eyes.

A talented time traveler, whose mother is the emperor's favorite woman, who has a servant who is a grandmaster, and who is protected by a group of powerful officials. It is undoubtedly a perfect start.

But what can he do? In the end, he couldn't even protect the woman he loved, and was used as a political bargaining chip by the emperor to marry a despicable and shameless lecher.

He took the wine glass handed to him by the palace maid and drank it all.

Li Yunqian looked at Yun Zhilan who was sitting upright below Zhuang Mohan and said, "Yun Zhilan, see, Fan Xielu is not only a man of outstanding literary talent, but also a leader in martial arts. He was the one who killed your two disciples."

Yun Zhilan stood up and said, "I wonder who is stronger between him and Lord Chu."

Li Yunqian smiled.

Even Guo Youzhi's son, Guo Baokun, the palace compiler, could sense Yun Zhilan's intention to provoke.

"Speaking of this, I am also very curious, who is more powerful, your master Si Gu Jian or Chu Pingsheng's master Bai Feng."

"We'll know only after we've compared them."

"Well, Si Gu Jian's disciple is indeed a bit arrogant."

Li Yunqian praised him and waved his hand, signaling Fan Xian to leave.

"Fan Xielu, please wait a moment."

Li Chengze suddenly called Fan Xian, walked out from behind the food table, and knelt down: "Father, I have something to say."

"speak."

"I feel that Fan Xian's literary talent is even better than his martial prowess. If the next spring examination is handed over to Fan Xian, it will surely inspire the talented students of Daqing to strive for strength and create a good story."

"..."

Li Yunqian used chopsticks to poke the beef in the food box a few times without saying a word, only glancing at Fan Xian and Chu Pingsheng out of the corner of his eye.

Crown Prince Li Chengqian looked at his second brother with a frown and a serious look.

Yun Zhilan had already sowed discord between Chu Pingsheng and Fan Xian, so now it was the Second Prince's turn to sow discord between them...

Of course, compared to Yun Zhilan's childishness, Li Chengze's operation is much more sophisticated.

It is well known that Chu Pingsheng and Fan Xian have a bad relationship because of Lin Wan'er's affiliation.

For so many years, the three first-rank positions of the Crown Prince's Grand Tutor, the Crown Prince's Grand Tutor, and the Crown Prince's Grand Guardian have been vacant. This year, a teacher was suddenly found for the Crown Prince. Logically, the teacher who teaches the Crown Prince poetry and prose should be a well-known scholar. However, what has Chu Pingsheng done in the past few months? He has slept with prostitutes, indulged in sensual pleasures, and has a bad drinking habit. He beats the Prince of Jing and the prostitutes in the brothels. He is even more dissolute than the dandy boys in Kyoto.

As for Fan Xian, he made a sensation with a seven-character poem at a poetry meeting hosted by Prince Jing, and also wrote the popular script "Dream of Red Mansions". People even gave him the title of the best poet and writer in Nanqing.

Letting him preside over the Spring Examination can indeed convince the public, but with this kind of one praising and one criticizing, Chu Pingsheng, a rough man, may not have any ideas, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will definitely lose face.

Standing on Li Chengze's point of view, it is equivalent to disgusting the Prince's tutor in public and avenging Chu Pingsheng for what he did in Shujing Palace. It can also intensify the conflict between Fan Xian and the Prince and make him side with him, and from now on, they will jointly fight against the Prince who has clung to Bai Feng's thigh.

But others can't say anything, because the person who praised Fan Xian for his good work was Li Yunqian, and the person who praised Fan Xian for his good writing skills was also Li Yunqian. He deserves to be rewarded for his good work and good writing skills. As a son, he just speaks according to his father's wishes without mixing in personal interests.

Li Yunqian slammed his chopsticks on the table, waved his sleeves, drew his legs together, straightened his back and said, "There are still several months before the Spring Examination. Let's discuss it then."

The prince has his own standpoint, Li Chengze has his own little plans, and he certainly has his own considerations.

What was the purpose of letting the prince worship Chu Pingsheng as his teacher? It was simple, to ease the conflict between the two sides and show goodwill to Bai Feng.

But correspondingly, this brings up a question, if the prince and Chu Pingsheng are of the same mind, can he still sit firmly on the throne?

So after Chu Pingsheng became a first-rank official, he let himself go, sleeping on flower boats at night and hanging out in taverns. The prince often lamented that it would be better not to worship a teacher like this who damaged the royal family's reputation. He also shook his head when he talked about this, but he actually felt happy to see this scene.

If Chu Pingsheng worked hard and paid attention to government affairs, he would be troubled instead.

As for the current situation, Li Chengze proposed to let Fan Xian preside over the Spring Examination. If this caused the Crown Prince and Chu Pingsheng to share a common hatred for the enemy and their relationship to heat up, then things would be bad.

"Yes."

Seeing that the emperor did not agree, Li Chengze had to give up and turned back to sit behind the dining table.

Fan Xian also wanted to return to his seat, but Zhuang Mohan, who had been silent all the time, called him back.

"Your Majesty, is this boy Fan Xian?"

"That's right." Li Yunqian said, "Mr. Zhuang knows him?"

“I’ve read his poems.”

Zhuang Mohan pondered for a moment, shook his head and said: "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, and the endless Yangtze River is rolling in. I am often a guest in the sad autumn thousands of miles away, I am alone on the stage for a hundred years due to illness, my hair is covered with frost due to hardship and hatred, and I have just stopped drinking... Good poems, good poems, but..."

His words "but" caused everyone in the audience to hold their breath and pay attention. Fan Xian curled his lips with contempt on his face, left the table directly, returned to his seat, sat down, drank and ate, and did what he wanted.

Li Yunqian glanced at the illegitimate son, then looked at Zhuang Mohan and said, "But what?"

"But the last four lines of this poem were written by my teacher."

"Mr. Zhuang's teacher?"

"Yes."

While drinking, Fan Xian looked down on Zhuang Mohan and asked, "Mr. Zhuang's teacher's surname is Du?"

The old man shook his head: "My master's last name is not Du."

"Then it'll be fine."

Fan Xian felt confident and had no worries. He ate the food and drank the wine with big mouthfuls, and his face gradually turned red.

Li Yunrui said at the right time: "Mr. Zhuang, although you are a literary master, you can't accuse our talented scholars of plagiarism without any evidence, right?"

Zhuang Mohan untied the strap of the copybook on his right hand and threw it forward. It was a piece of calligraphy with strong strokes and majestic momentum, like a dragon swimming and a phoenix dancing, heroic and free and unrestrained.

Li Yunrui stood up and looked at it for a while, with a surprised look on his face: "It is indeed the last four lines of the quatrain."

Li Yunqian waved his hand, and the young eunuch behind him on the right came forward and picked up the calligraphy to show it to the court officials present.

Everyone was talking about this, but they only dared to speak in a low voice and not loudly. Even Guo Baokun, who hated Fan Xian to the core, only dared to show a slight smile.

The reason...is naturally that Fan Xian is the illegitimate son of Emperor Qing.

Li Chengze glanced at the expressionless Li Chengqian and said tentatively: "Father, I think there must be a misunderstanding here."

"Misunderstanding? There is no misunderstanding. It's just a bunch of filthy... hiccups... stuff."

Fan Xian stood up, holding the wine pot and walked over drunkenly, pointing at Zhuang Mohan and said, "You? A great writer in Northern Qi? Haha, that's ridiculous. I copy poems for myself, and you copy poems for your teacher. You are not as good as me."

After saying this, he took advantage of the alcohol to look at Chu Pingsheng who was sitting at the top of the table: "Is this the person you hired to deal with me? His level is too poor."

Chu Pingsheng shook his head and ignored him, nor did he respond to the questioning looks of Emperor Qing, Li Chengze and others.

So it's right to compare the worst. As long as the other party is worse than me, then I am noble? Bright? Correct?

He recited poems while drunk, thinking he was full of passion, but in the end, they were still other people's poems? Moreover, when he published his poems afterwards, he did not write down the source and the name of the original author.

Fan Xian took another sip of wine and pointed at Zhuang Mohan and said, "I'm not afraid to tell you that this poem was written by the Shaoling Ye Lao poet Du Fu. It has nothing to do with your teacher. Mr. Zhuang is deceiving the world and stealing the name of your deceased teacher. Is this the great literary figure of Northern Qi?"

"The great poet Du Fu? Has this great poet left his name in history?"

"No, he belongs to another world."

"Is it the fairy world?"

"Compared to this place, it's not an exaggeration to say it's the fairyland."

Li Yunrui stood up and said, "Fan Xian, according to you, this poem... was brought here from another world?"

Fan Xian said, "That's right."

"absurd!"

"Ridiculous? You don't believe it? I don't just memorize this one."

(End of this chapter)