Besides lying down, I also know a little about power struggles

Chapter 70 Where Have You Been?
Fang Tong took a step back and felt something under her feet. Without thinking too much, she turned around in a hurry and raised her hands to protect her face.

The expected pain did not come, and Feng Twelve's question rang in my ears: "Are you okay?"

Fang Tong slowly lowered her arm that was covering her face and looked up, only to see Feng Twelve holding the scroll in one hand and his other hand still tightly holding her other arm.

Only then did she realize that after she turned around, she almost fell into his arms.

And her foot was stepping on the top of his boot.

Fang Tong was stunned for a moment and quickly moved his feet away.

"Did it hurt you?" she asked.

Feng Twelve had a blank expression on his face: "Nothing."

He threw the scroll in his hand to the guard beside him and said: "Ask the guards to maintain order. There are too many people here and it is easy to be trampled."

He held Fang Tong's arm and led her to a less crowded place: "Let's go to the teahouse first."

They came to the second floor of the teahouse and asked for a private room. The room had a row of large windows facing the street, providing a clear view of the outside scene.

"Not going to Prince Jing?" Fang Tong asked.

Feng Yuyang and the Five Mountains Hermit were all in the restaurant opposite, which was right next to the shed. The yamen runners had been busy since morning until now. Every hour, they put the manuscripts submitted by everyone into large baskets and sent them to the restaurant for the Five Mountains Hermit to taste.

"There are a lot of people over there, I'll go there." Feng Twelve asked the store owner for some tea and snacks, and asked Fang Tong to stay here and watch the fun. "There are people guarding the door outside, just stay there."

Fang Tong heard that in addition to Prince Jing and Wuyue Mountain Man, there were also many famous scholars and wealthy people in the county. If she went with Feng Twelve, it would inevitably attract attention. She nodded and said, "I'll wait for you."

Feng Twelve glanced at her and said, "If you're hungry, there's a restaurant next door. Ask them to deliver some food."

Fang Tong laughed: "Don't worry, I won't starve myself."

Feng Twelve smiled and said, "I think so too."

Fang Tong raised his eyebrows. In his heart, she probably had nothing else to do except her love of eating.

"Goodbye, Your Highness." She knelt and bowed, wishing he would leave quickly.

Feng Twelve did not move.

He looked at the top of her head and said, "Your hairpin is crooked."

Fang Tong raised his hand and touched his head. Not only was it tilted, but a few strands of hair had fallen down and were floating behind his head.

She pulled out the hairpin, grabbed her long hair before it spread out, twisted it into a strand, and put it behind her head, securing it with the hairpin.

Her movements were smooth and seamless, her slender wrists flexibly turning in front of Feng Twelve's eyes, and she had her hair done up in a bun in the blink of an eye.

"Is it straight?" She didn't have a mirror, so she could only ask the person opposite her.

Feng Twelve: “Yeah.”

Walking downstairs, his eyes swept across the shops on the street and paused briefly on the sign of a jewelry store.

"Your Highness, what's wrong?" Xiaonian followed him and saw him slow down his pace, looking towards the street vigilantly.

Feng Twelve retracted his gaze: "Nothing."

He took Xiaonian into the restaurant across the street.

The restaurant is not accepting outside guests today, and the three floors are all booked by Feng Yuyang.

The two lower floors entertain talented people from Linshui County and nearby prefectures. The manuscripts collected in the greenhouse will be evaluated by them first, and only those with the best scores will be sent to the third floor for Wuyue Shanren to review.

Feng Twelve walked past everyone and went straight up to the third floor.

On the third floor, there were graceful singing and dancing, and the sound of stringed instruments. Wu Yue Shanren, Feng Yuyang, and several other scholars were sitting at the table, talking and laughing cheerfully.

Feng Yuyang saw Feng Twelve coming and waved with a smile: "Little Twelve, you are finally here." He introduced several people present to Feng Twelve, picked up a manuscript from the side and spread it on the table: "Little Twelve, what do you think of this calligraphy?"

This is a piece of regular script, which is elegant, handsome, lively and fluent. It is a copy of a passage from the "Amitabha Sutra".

Feng Twelve only glanced at it and said: "Even His Majesty praised your calligraphy, so it must be very good."

Feng Yuyang clicked his tongue and took away the manuscript: "You recognized it at the first sight, which is boring."

A middle-aged scholar at the bottom said with a smile: "Your Majesty's handwriting already has the style of European and American style, no wonder His Majesty the Twelfth Prince can recognize it at a glance."

The rest of the people praised him one after another. Feng Yuyang looked a little proud, but still didn't smile. He looked at Wu Yue Shanren and said, "But what I envy most is Mr. Wu Yue's cursive writing."

Wuyue Shanren laughed and said, "The skill lies outside the painting. Your Majesty is not a showy person. If you want to practice cursive calligraphy, you have to wait at least another thirty years."

Feng Yuyang's expression turned dull.

"Forget it, there is only one Wuyue Mountain Man in the world. I am a prince, why should I compete with you for this title?" He raised his glass, "Come, drink this glass with me first, and then we can talk about other things."

After everyone finished drinking, Feng Yuyang ordered the dancers and musicians to leave the stage, and had someone bring up the previously screened manuscripts and spread them on the floor for everyone to comment on.

Fang Tong sat alone in the private room of the teahouse, drinking tea and listening to the noise outside.

Every time a piece of calligraphy was sent to the third floor at the other end of the restaurant, the name would be called out. When the literati surrounding the building heard their names, some laughed out loud, some cried bitterly, while those who did not hear their names for a long time became distraught and dejected.

Fang Tong leaned against the window frame and looked at them, feeling even more depressed than if they had failed an exam. He felt both sympathy and amusement.

There were many people in teahouses and taverns near and far who, like her, did not attend the literary gathering, but just came with friends to watch the fun. Seeing this, they chattered and pointed at the scene in front of the building and talked about it.

Fang Tong looked outside for a while and suddenly felt someone was looking at her.

She looked up and saw a group of dancers walking on the outer corridor of the restaurant opposite. Some of them were beautiful, some were charming, and all of them had graceful figures. They soon disappeared around the corner of the corridor.

Fang Tong didn't find the owner of his sight, but heard a commotion coming from downstairs in the teahouse.

She listened carefully and found out that some tea drinkers were mocking several scholars who failed the exam. The scholars were indignant and an argument broke out between the two sides.

After a while, the quarrel turned into a fight. Amid the curses and shouts, someone ran upstairs with a "bang bang bang".

"Don't hide!"

"catch him!"

Several scholars chased the tea drinker to the second floor, pinned him to the corner and started beating him.

Soon two more people came up. They must be the tea drinker's companions. Seeing what was happening, they hurried forward to help and started to wrestle with the scholar.

They were making a lot of noise upstairs, and no one could stop them. The guards outside the private room couldn't stand it, so they separated them and dragged them downstairs: "Boss, go call the bailiffs."

There were some people making noise in the store, but when they saw the two tall and strong guards, they immediately became as quiet as chickens.

The shopkeeper and the waiter were getting extremely worried, but they breathed a sigh of relief when they saw this, and quickly ran up and down serving tea and snacks to appease the customers in the store.

Fang Tong also got a plate of pine nuts for free.

The tea lady who came in had a cloth scarf wrapped around her head. She was pretty and spoke sweetly: "I disturbed the guests just now. The shopkeeper asked me to send a plate of pine nuts to calm the guests down."

She came into the house carrying a wooden tray, but suddenly her foot twisted and she fell out with the tray.

The pine nuts on the plate dripped onto the ground. The tea lady held her waist and groaned.

Fang Tong saw that she had fallen hard, so he quickly got up to check on her: "Are you okay?"

As soon as she squatted down, a cold light flashed before her eyes, and a dagger was pressed against her throat. Lady Cha said coldly, "Where have you been these days? Bingqi."

(End of this chapter)