Tang Dynasty Little Godfather

Chapter 157 Misstep
Wu Xin did not intend for the Nameless Academy to participate in the singing competition. He did not want it to. From his perspective, whether Wang Xi came or not would not affect Li Longji's status in his heart, because Li Longji liked him, not his poetry, so it was meaningless. The main purpose of this singing competition was to increase the Wu family's status in the outer court. It was Wu Chongwen and his group who used a provocation tactic to force the Nameless Academy to participate.

From Wu Chongwen's perspective, it was necessary. The Wuming Academy was incredibly successful thanks to opera, but in Wu Chongwen's eyes, it was a job for lowly people, and this situation only arose because Li Longji liked it.

They have always been very dissatisfied with this.

If you have the guts, come and test your knowledge in this field.

But they alone couldn't do it, since the invitation was issued by the Imperial Academy, not by them. It was mainly because Jiang Yanbo and the others supported it.

The reason is simple: Mr. Wuming's fame has already surpassed theirs.

These PhDs, though they didn't say it aloud, were secretly very unhappy, thinking that Wuming had no publications and therefore no right to surpass them.

Wu Xin had no choice but to agree to the invitation from the Nameless Academy.

as predicted.

When Li Longji arrived, he clearly sided with the Nameless Academy and even indulged them so much that more than a hundred people came to participate in the competition. This was truly unprecedented and will never be repeated.

This left Wu Xin quite helpless, and he could only order Wu Chongwen to let the people in.

“With so many of you participating, it wouldn’t be a problem if you only recited one song, but there are just too many of you and not enough space for you to rest. You can stay here.”

Wu Chongwen walked over and said to Wang Xiyan.

Although they had been allowed to participate, Wu Chongwen still wanted to make things difficult for them.

Wang Xi was not one to suffer a loss; moreover, he was a troublemaker. He snorted, "That's because you weren't prepared enough. We won't take responsibility for that. We need a place to rest."

"Isn't it?"

Li Jie chimed in, "If you can't do it, then don't do it. Being petty is truly shameful."

Yang Zhan immediately rebuked, "What did you say? Who knew so many of you would participate? This is the Vermilion Bird Sect, we won't tolerate your insolence here. If you don't want to, then go back."

Wang Xi laughed and said, "Going back is fine, is it that rare?"

"Wait a minute!"

Wu Chongwen immediately stopped him, "Please wait here for a moment, I'll have someone think about how to arrange things."

The bets have already been placed, but we can't let them leave!
Wang Xi shook his head and said, "Then you guys better hurry up. Standing for too long will affect our condition. If there are any problems, we won't stand for it."

Wu Chongwen glared at him fiercely, then turned and left.

The commotion also disturbed the spectators on the sidelines.

"Why are there so many people?"

"It seems to be from the nameless academy."

"Why are there so many of them participating?"

"Could it be that they've come to perform Tang Dynasty opera?"

"That's wonderful! I heard they performed Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai in the palace. It was so good that my mother cried while watching it."

"This is a singing competition, what does it have to do with Tang opera?"

"That's true."

Hearing the sounds of women everywhere, Wang Xi couldn't help but look around. "Oh my, why are there so many young ladies today?"

Li Jieman chuckled and said, "Stop pretending. On this Lantern Festival, all the women are out and about. You used to look forward to the Lantern Festival every day."

Wang Xi suddenly looked at Li Jieman and realized, "No wonder you were so determined to go up and sing this time."

The four senior brothers usually don't perform on stage. Last time, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai were chosen by the emperor himself, but this time, Li Jieman suddenly insisted on participating.

Li Jie chuckled to himself.

"Oh dear! What a blunder! What a blunder!"

Wang Xi slapped his forehead and said, "If I had known this would happen, I should have arranged a solo performance. With so many of us here, how could those younger girls and ladies even see me?"

Upon hearing this, Li Jieman immediately grabbed Li Jieman by the throat, saying, "You're not satisfied with having a teacher? You want to take this from us too."

"Oh dear! The teacher isn't here," Wang Xi hurriedly explained.

"You're such a womanizer! The teacher's not here, and you're already trying to flirt with innocent girls. Shuang-ge, what are you standing there for?"

"Hey!"

Wang Shuang immediately grabbed Wang Xi from behind.

"Oh no! I was wrong! I was wrong!"

Faced with Wang Shuang and Li Jieman, who were both men and used both soft and hard tactics, Wang Xi had no choice but to beg for mercy.

Hongxiu did not come today. After the huge controversy at the last charity banquet, she felt that she should try to appear in public as little as possible.

Yang Zhan then said, "If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have invited them."

Wu Chongwen sneered, "Let them be arrogant for a while longer. They'll have their moment to embarrass themselves on stage later."

Cen Wenzhi said, "If we can't even compare to them in poetry and prose, then we might as well give up on our studies."

Wu Chongwen said, "Let them stand outside for a while before letting them in."

Actually, there is still space outside the Vermilion Bird Gate, but it's just that there isn't enough room for so many people.

What annoyed them was that everyone else was competing individually, while they had a hundred people showing up—they really had the nerve to do that.

After a while, Wu Chongwen ordered his men to let Wang Xi and the others in and led them to the contestants' waiting area.

In reality, they were just temporary wooden sheds, lined up along the street, with the smallest shed assigned to the Nameless Academy.

"How can we sit here?"

Linghu Baodi scratched her head and said.

Xu Daoxuan snorted, "With so many of you here, you expect everyone to have a seat?"

Huangfu Sengnian cupped his hands and said, "Today we have truly witnessed the Imperial Academy's way of treating guests."

"guest?"

Xu Daoxuan raised the corner of his mouth in disdain, then turned and left.

Huangfu Sengnian was immediately filled with anger.

"calm down."

Wang Xi quickly reassured Huangfu Sengnian: "We're here to cause trouble today, they'll get what's coming to them later."

After saying that, he turned to the others and said, "Everyone, please stand up."

"That's all we can do," Linghu Baodi sighed.

Just then, a scholar walked over and said, "Young Master Wang, how have you been?"

"So it's Brother Chao."

Wang Xi turned around and saw that it was Chao Heng. He quickly cupped his hands in greeting and said with a chuckle, "I didn't expect Brother Chao to be interested in competing for second place."

"???"

Chao Heng was stunned for a long time before he reacted and hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "How dare I, how dare I? I don't care about anything else, I just hope I won't bring shame to my hometown."

He acted very modestly, but the others were immediately displeased upon hearing this.

"Wang Xiaoque, it's been a long time. You've become more and more arrogant. You don't even respect us senior brothers."

An older young man said angrily.

In fact, most of the participants were Wang Xi's former senior classmates.

Wang Xi spread his hands and laughed, "You talk as if I ever cared about you before." "You!"

"Wang Xiaoque, don't go too far."

"how?"

Li Jieman rushed forward and said, "Do you want to fight? We didn't get enough of a fight on the first night of the lunar new year."

"I'm not afraid of you."

Another person angrily smashed a cup, and the contestants from the Imperial College all stood up.

"come!"

Wang Shuang jumped forward.

The students from the nameless academy immediately gathered around.

The atmosphere immediately became tense and hostile.

After all, everyone is young and hot-blooded, and in this kind of situation, it just feels like something's missing if we don't have a fight.

Before they could exchange more than two words, they started rolling up their sleeves.

After all, they were old rivals. Back in the Imperial Academy, Wang Xi and his fellow students were somewhat wary of them. But at this moment, all they could say was, "Screw you! We've wanted to beat you up for a long time."

Chao Heng was inwardly groaning when he saw this. He was also a student at the Imperial Academy, but he was quick-witted and silently stood on the side of the international students.

"stop!"

Wu Chongwen and his group came over again.

"Wu Er, you've come at the right time. This kid is so arrogant. I was just about to teach them a lesson."

Upon hearing this, Wu Chongwen looked at Wang Xi again.

Wang Xi laughed and said, "I only asked Brother Chao if he was here to compete for second place. What business is it of theirs?"

"Having confidence is a good thing, but the problem is not having the ability."

Wu Chongwen smiled slightly.

Wang Xi chuckled and said, "That's hard to say; it mainly depends on who the opponent is."

"you!"

"All right!"

Wu Chongwen quickly grabbed the man and whispered, "They're deliberately causing trouble. If you argue with them, how will you watch them make a fool of themselves later? Besides, His Majesty is still up there."

After saying that, he turned to Wang Xi and the others and said, "His Majesty and the ministers are all up there now. If you really want to cause trouble, I won't stop you."

Wang Xi hurriedly said, "Don't wrong people. We came here to participate in the competition, not to cause trouble. Someone is deliberately targeting us. I was catching up with Brother Chao, and he didn't say anything. What are they shouting about? Do they think we're easy to bully?"

Chao Heng's head was huge.

Wu Chongwen said calmly, "Take care of yourself."

He then walked away with his head held high.

Dou E snorted, "Luckily we outnumbered them, otherwise we would have been bullied to death."

After a while, the competition was finally about to begin.

The first person to go on stage was Wu Chongwen. There was no other way; his father was the chief priest, so he was arranged to open the show.

He was dressed in a red robe, with a soft veil on his head, black boots on his feet, and a long sword in his hand. It must be admitted that the bloodline of the Wu family was quite good. He was a handsome man, which made the noble girls in the audience scream.

"Second Brother Wu".

"Second brother."

"Oh, so this is Brother Wu the Second, he's really handsome."

Li Longji looked him over for a moment and nodded, saying, "Master Wu, your second son is indeed handsome and talented, with the appearance of a top scholar."

Wu Jijiu was overjoyed, but said modestly, "Your Majesty flatters me. My son's knowledge is still somewhat lacking. Arranging for him to appear first was merely to set an example."

In fact, he knew that although Wu Chongwen had excellent grades, he was not a genius. In terms of poetry, he was just average and would not be able to get first place. That's why he arranged for him to go first and show his face in front of the emperor.

He always believed that his son was far superior to Wang Xi in every aspect, and he was very dissatisfied with why Li Longji preferred Wang Xi.

Dunshan also asked the Turkic prince, "Mi'er, what do you think of this child?"

The Turkic prince said dejectedly, "Uncle Dunshan, do you have to ask each person a question every time they come up?"

Before he could finish speaking, a chorus of hisses was heard.

The Turkic prince turned his head and saw a boy shaking his head and making "woo woo woo" noises. He laughed and said, "This person is completely different on and off stage."

Li Longji turned his head to look and immediately laughed and scolded, "These brats."

Wu Xin knew without looking who was shushing him, and immediately felt a headache coming on.

The students of the nameless academy, led by Wang Xi, were shaking their heads and booing wildly.

The "senior brothers" next to them all glared angrily, but there was nothing they could do about it.

One of them whispered, "Fine, you guys play like this. Let's see what we do when you go on stage later."

Wu Chongwen was unaffected. He waited until Wang Xi and the others had stopped breathing before signaling the musician to play.

As the music began, he brandished his longsword and chanted.

The Tang people valued both literature and martial arts; poetry and swordsmanship were the standard accessories for scholars.

However, since it is a singing competition, it usually does not select seven-character quatrains or five-character quatrains, but rather long narrative poems.

His elegant posture and deep voice immediately drew cheers from many.

Linghu Baodi suddenly squatted down and asked in a simple and honest voice, "Brother Que, Monk Nian, how is his poem? Will it win any prizes?"

".!"

After an awkward silence, Wang Xi scratched his forehead and said, "Baodi, don't ask such embarrassing questions next time."

Linghu Baodi asked, "Is it awkward?"

Li Jie said irritably, "How can it not be awkward? We don't even understand, how would we know if it's good or bad?"

Given Wang Xi's level of education, everything he heard sounded very good, but he had absolutely no ability to appreciate it.

In fact, apart from Huangfu Sengnian, everyone else was just like him.

After all, the male students of their nameless academy were all good-for-nothings. Since they left, there hadn't been any fights at the Imperial Academy for a long time.

"it is good!"

"That was fantastic!"

Suddenly, I heard people around me cheering.

The group turned around and saw that their junior sisters were also completely captivated by Wu Chongwen.

Li Jie angrily said, "Junior sisters, how can you cheer for the enemy?"

Linglong and the others glanced at it and immediately fell silent.

Wang Xi was filled with remorse. If he had known it would turn out like this, he wouldn't have cared about saving face. He would have copied down a few poems by Li Bai and Du Fu, and he would have slept with more than a dozen girls tonight.

What a loss! What a huge loss!

He felt like slapping himself.

(End of this chapter)