Dad, don't be greedy! My brother climbed into the emperor's bed, and I became famous overn

Wen Yanzhi called to the waiter, who led the group into a private room on the second floor.

The private room is semi-open, with a partially covered, light-transmitting straw curtain in front of the door.

It has a Zen-like quality.

Sitting in a private room by the window, you can clearly see the fighting ring downstairs and all the tables in the main hall.

Xiao Ye sat down by the window, while his thirty-odd followers were positioned in front of the private room, in the corridor, on the stairs, and in the lobby.

Such a grand display drew the attention of many guests at the banquet.

Whispers began to rise.

Everyone guessed that a high-ranking official from the imperial court had arrived.

In an instant, everyone was eager to show off their skills.

Gu Mingyue chose the tea table next door, sat by the window, and glanced across the lobby.

The Pei family group has arrived.

The young master of the Pei family and his sister sat at a table against the east wall.

The location was chosen very carefully.

Not too far, not too close, just within sight of them from all the private rooms.

A pot of wine and several plates of dried fruit were placed on the table.

The young master of the Pei family held a wine cup, his posture relaxed, as if he had come to relax.

But his gaze kept drifting towards Xiao Ye, a refined smile playing on his lips.

There was paper and pen in front of Miss Pei, and she was writing something with her head down.

Her posture while writing is very graceful.

The fingers holding the pen were long and slender, with a fair complexion and a slightly raised wrist, the pen moving at a steady pace.

Every stroke was written with ease, as if the writer had a plan in mind and didn't need to think at all.

This wasn't improvised.

This was prepared long ago.

Gu Mingyue could see it very clearly.

After she finished writing, she put down her pen, examined the paper for a moment, and handed it to the maid beside her.

The movements were fluid and seamless, without the slightest hesitation.

The maid took the paper, walked through the crowd, and handed it to the judge in front of the platform.

The judge unfolded it and took a look.

His eyebrows rose.

He turned the paper to the two judges beside him, and the three of them looked down at it for a moment before nodding in unison.

One of the judges even stood up and then sat down again.

"What a beautiful poem!"

The moment those two words were uttered, a buzz of discussion erupted in the hall.

Xiao Ye turned his head to look towards the main hall.

"Why!"

Gu Mingli wanted to call out to Xiao Ye, but it was too late.

"Holy shit!!!"

Gu Mingli shouted.

Xiao Ye shuddered in fright.

He turned back with a sinister look and stared at Gu Mingli.

"Who is 'Wo Cao'?"

Gu Mingyue: "..."

Gu Mingli: "..."

"It's just... the grass growing lush on the plain..."

Xiao Ye raised an eyebrow.

"Can you write poetry?"

Gu Mingli was stumped for half a second by the question.

He certainly can't write poetry.

But he had three hundred Tang poems in his head.

Each and every one of them is a masterpiece, refined through countless trials.

Any one of these poems could easily put all these scholars to shame.

Gu Mingli's lips slowly curled up.

"I know a little."

Xiao Ye leaned back in his chair, holding a teacup, his eyes clearly teasing.

"Then write one for me to see."

He had heard it from people in the Hanlin Academy.

Although Gu Mingli was the youngest top scholar in the Great Yong Dynasty, he was only good at studying by rote and was not good at poetry at all.

Gu Mingli narrowed his eyes as he watched the emperor's amused expression.

"You can write it."

He reached out and picked up a brush from the table, then dipped it in the inkstone.

"But we have to bet on something."

Xiao Ye raised an eyebrow. "What are we betting on?"

"If I win tonight's match, you can give me three days off when I get back."

Xiao Ye chuckled. "What if you lose?"

"If you lose, I'll make you copy folded paper for a month."

Xiao Ye put down his teacup and tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table.

"allow."

Gu Mingli's eyes lit up, and he rolled up his sleeves and spread out the Xuan paper.

The pen tip hovered above the paper, paused for a moment.

His gaze passed over the window bars and landed on the high platform in the center of the hall downstairs.

The poems hanging on the wall behind the stage were written in either elegant or neat handwriting, but the content...

He glanced at it twice and got a sense of what was going on.

These poems, if placed in the Tang or Song dynasties, wouldn't even qualify to be used as ink for Li Bai.

The pen touches the paper.

The ink spread out on the rice paper, and the lines of characters were neat and crisp.

Gu Mingli doesn't pay much attention to the twists and turns of his brushstrokes, but his writing is neat and clear.

After he finished writing, he blew on the paper, folded it up, and handed it to the waiter who was waiting next to him.

"Send it down."

The waiter took the paper and jogged downstairs.

Gu Mingyue sat at the next tea table and craned her neck to peek at what her brother had written.

The corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

Wow, they're unleashing a powerful move right from the start.

Down in the lobby, the judge took the paper, unfolded it, and took a look.

It's quiet now.

The three judges huddled together and stared at the paper for a long time.

The oldest among them, his fingers trembling slightly, held the paper up to the candlelight and looked at it again.

"this……"

He looked up and glanced towards the private room on the second floor.

"What a wonderful poem! Absolutely wonderful!"

"The ancients have long since ridden the yellow crane away, leaving only the Yellow Crane Tower behind."

"The Yellow Crane has flown away, never to return; the white clouds drift aimlessly for a thousand years."

"The trees of Hanyang stand clearly in the clear sky, and the fragrant grasses grow lush on Parrot Island."

"Where is my hometown as the sun sets? The misty waves on the river fill me with sorrow."

The buzzing in the hall suddenly intensified.

"Wow! What a beautiful poem!"

"Worthy of being the champion!"

Upon hearing the poem, the young master of the Pei family frowned.

The hand holding the wine glass paused for a moment.

He put down his cup, stood up, walked to the wall, and looked up at it for a moment.

The composure and confidence on his face faded.

Miss Pei also raised her head.

Her poem, which had just been praised as "a good poem" by the judge, has now been relegated to a corner.

Her fingers clenched tightly on the table.

The judge posted the poem on the wall.

The position was placed directly in the center, pushing the original seven-character quatrain to the side.

In a private room on the second floor.

Xiao Ye turned his gaze from the window and landed on Gu Mingli.

The way he looked at Gu Mingli changed.

I examined and appreciated it with a hint of surprise.

"Those people at the Hanlin Academy said you don't understand poetry?"

Gu Mingli shrugged.

"Because they haven't seen my interesting soul."

Xiao Ye chuckled with satisfaction, "You've got some skill."

Some people downstairs disagreed.

A scholar in a blue robe stood up and said loudly:

"I am not very skilled, but I would like to exchange skills with this gentleman!"

He picked up his pen and wrote a five-character quatrain, which he then handed to the judges' table.

The judge looked at it, nodded, and posted it on the wall.

However, its position is to the right of the one in the center, which is clearly a step below.

Gu Mingli leaned over the windowsill, glanced down, and chuckled.

He spread out another sheet of paper.

This time he wrote even faster, his pen flying across the paper, and handed it out before the ink was even dry.

My old friend bid farewell to the Yellow Crane Tower, setting sail for Yangzhou in the third month of spring. His lone sail disappears into the vast blue sky, leaving only the Yangtze River flowing to the horizon.

When the judge received the second song, his hands were shaking.

"It's him again?!"

The hall erupted in chaos.

Both poems are better than the last.

The first song could be said to have been carefully prepared, but the second song, with its speed, was clearly sung off the cuff.

Gu Mingli was feeling smug when a Barbie pink system notification suddenly popped up in front of him.

[Affection +1. Xiao Ye has developed a strong interest in your talent. Current Affection: -539]

Gu Mingli blinked and looked at the emperor with surprise.

Can writing poetry really increase your popularity?