Dream of the Red Chamber: Starting with a Chronicle of Tragic Love

Cloud Tower on the Huai River.

Fourth floor.

The clouds gathered, swaying and dancing in the wind.

In the center of the gauze curtain, on the white jade bed, a beautiful woman lies horizontally.

A light blue, gold-flecked gauze dress encircles her chest, tightly binding her large breasts; an indigo silk skirt is half-draped around her waist, partially concealing her figure, teasing her with its allure.

Indigo blue paints distant mountains like painted eyebrows, and crimson rouge adorns the begonia's lips.

Her slender, jade-like fingers were twirling a purple grape, placing it on her tongue and teasing it.

Suddenly, a young girl burst in, carrying a golden platter.

On the gold plate, piles of pale yellow paper lay like a mountain.

"Master Liu, Master Liu!"

"The men below have all handed in their papers! All the poems are here; please, Master Liu, take a look..."

Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly felt his belt tighten.

It turned out to be a beauty on the jade bed. She grabbed the girl's clothes and pulled her onto the jade bed.

The beauty pulled the girl into her arms, her gilded fingertips gently caressing the girl's chin, and a breath of cherry blossoms softly whispered in the girl's ear.

"Butterfly, how many times have I told you, just call her Sister Liu~"

"Also, these people in Jinling City can only be considered guests, not real men."

The girl's face was dazed, and her body was stiff.

His voice trembled.

It wasn't fear, but rather a sense of bewilderment and intoxication.

"Sister Liu... Sister Liu, Die'er knows..."

As she spoke, the girl slightly raised her head, her eyes filled with longing, to meet Liu Rushi's gaze...

A delicate finger was placed in front of her lips.

"Butterfly, reading through so many clichéd lines will take up a lot of time. Today... I can't play with you."

"How about this, I'll show you around and we can take a look at these terrible works, okay?"

"When we get back, we'll pick the best, richest, and most prestigious family from among these people, and then I'll take you with me to marry into that family."

"If you want to play, you have plenty of time..."

A hint of disappointment flashed in the girl's eyes, but she asked again.

"Sister Liu, didn't you used to say you wanted to marry a great hero or a great valiant man? Why are you now choosing the best, richest, and most noble family?"

Liu Rushi gave a soft "heh".

"Butterfly, in the Great Yi Dynasty, where are the great heroes and valiant warriors left?"

"Dead... all dead... those who aren't dead, their passion has probably been chilled even more by this pool of filth. Without passion, what kind of heroes are they?"

Butterfly seemed to understand, and said "Oh".

Liu Rushi gently kissed her ear tenderly, took her hand, and began to ponder the poems on the golden plate.

"Li Ao of Hedong... his father is a third-rank official in the court, and he is quite wealthy. But this poem... never mind, let's forget about it."

"The Jinling Qin Post... the wording is acceptable, but unfortunately the author was just a merchant... so I have to discard it."

"Jinling Xie Baoqin... I've never heard of this person before. Xie? Could he be a disciple of that 'Sick Fox Xie'? Judging from his writing style, he does have some of the old Xie's spirit back then... Not bad, not bad."

......

"A fortune of 100 billion in Jinling... Ha, so this is the infamous 'Cold-Blooded Young Master'..."

"The wording is excellent, and the family background... Although his parents were just merchants, his uncle was a high-ranking official of the second rank in the imperial court."

"Tsk tsk, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will be the champion of the literary examination."

After saying that, Liu Rushi stretched lazily.

"Butterfly, stop looking. The rest aren't from prominent families. What's the point of looking at them?"

But Die'er ignored everything, picked up three pieces of paper, and shoved them into Liu Rushi's hand.

"Alright, I'll go with your suggestion and look at this one next."

Liu Rushi chuckled, shook her head, and looked at the paper.

"Xue Pan... he's quite famous! I heard he's from the family of a Ziwei Sheren (a high-ranking official in the Imperial Secretariat), and he's known for his tyrannical and domineering ways, relying on his family's wealth."

「若要嫁与此人，只怕以后要大大地挨揍了。」

"Butterfly, this man is completely ignorant of literature. I rejected him without even glancing at him. Yet you made me..."

"Um?"

Before Liu Rushi could finish speaking, she suddenly caught sight of the words on the paper and was taken aback.

"This... how come the things on this paper are exactly the same as those of that 'Water-Cold Young Master'?"

"No...no, no, no, only the first part is the same. As for the second part..."

A glint of light flashed in Liu Rushi's eyes, but then a cloud of doubt suddenly filled them.

After a while, she gave Die'er a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Good butterfly, you've done a great job!"

-----------------

Cloud Tower on the Huai River.

layer.

Qian Qianyi sat upright at the table, his hands still buried under the table.

Beside him, the beauty's cheeks were burning and her eyes were glazed.

Seeing this, Xi Fengying scratched his head repeatedly, as if he had something to say but was afraid of disturbing his master's enjoyment.

After a long while, I finally couldn't resist.

"Young Master Qian, how can we use those three incomplete poems as a comparison?"

"You saw it yourself at Xue Dashan's place just now. That kid has already gone back to the building to participate in the competition!"

"Even with Hao and me helping to write the lyrics, how could the two of us possibly win against someone else's entire piece?"

Qian Qianyi rolled his eyes and glared at her.

"What are you afraid of?"

"Look what this is?"

As he spoke, Qian Qianyi pulled a slip of paper from his sleeve and waved it in front of the two of them.

Xi Fengying blushed as he accepted the gift, but after only a few glances, he was dumbfounded.

"This... in terms of word choice and sentence structure, Brother Hao and I are more than a hundred times inferior to this person."

"Young Master Qian, who exactly is this person?"

Qian Qianyi snorted coldly.

"Chongzheng Academy, student with stipend, Hong Chou."

"I don't need to explain the title of 'Student with Imperial Indemnity' to you anymore, do I?"

"I just received the first three stanzas of these poems, and immediately sent someone to Chongzheng Academy to ask Brother Hong to help me fill them in. You don't really think I'm relying on you two good-for-nothings, do you?"

Xi Fengying remained silent, wiped his sweat, and retreated dejectedly.

Qian Qianyi was already quite talented, and Hong Chou, as a student of Chongzheng Academy, was an outstanding student among the academy's students.

With these two working together, there will be no danger.

-----------------

Three quarters of an hour later.

With a blush on her face, Die'er ran down from the fourth floor of the Huai Shang Yun Lou.

There were still some lipstick marks on her face that hadn't been wiped off. It was unclear whether she had forgotten to remove them or if someone had left them there as a prank.

"Gentlemen, Master Liu has read all of the submitted poems."

"Today, there are a total of 366 participants, divided into 210 groups. Each group consists of 10 small groups, so 21 people will be selected from the written test to advance to the next round of the martial arts test."

"Next is the list of those selected for this written test."

"Twentieth place. Li Ao from Hedong, Young Master Li."

"Nineteenth place. Jiangnan..."

......

"Second place. Xie Baoqin from the Xie family of Jinling, Miss Xie..."

Butterfly's eyes looked somewhat unnatural.

But she also knew that the Great Yi Dynasty had no shortage of people who liked to play pranks.

"First place..."

Qian Qianyi's face lit up with smugness.

Given his lyrics and status, it was absolutely impossible for him not to be selected.

Now that they've been selected, the list is almost finished, with only the first place yet to be announced.

So, the result is obvious...

He looked in Xue Pan's direction.

He stretched out his right hand, jabbed his thumb downwards with force, and his face was full of provocation.

Xue Pan glared at him resentfully, but he also knew that Qian Qianyi's talent far surpassed that of ordinary scholars.

He sighed helplessly and looked at Jiao Si.

"Brother Jiao, it seems that your talent is only good for writing some silly poems. But when it comes to comparing yourself to others in a formal setting, you're still lacking."

"It's fate that we've met today. If you encounter any difficulties in the future, you can come to the Xue family to find me."

"It's getting late, and I can't climb the social ladder by marrying into the Liu family. I should enjoy myself while I can and..."

Before he could finish speaking, Jiao Si interrupted him.

"Brother Xue, didn't you wonder why, when it was said that the rankings would be announced through twenty-one people, the last person was actually the twentieth?"

Oh?

I really hadn't thought of that...

Just as I was wondering, I heard Xiaodie say something else.

"First place: Qian Qianyi of Jinling; Xue Pan of Jinling."

......

"No, that's impossible!"

"Tell everyone, I need to verify the words!"