"Today, Xiangjun's literary gathering will be testing calligraphy. If there are any young masters who wish to sign up, you can come here and extract a famous passage from this scroll.”
Then, Lee Xiangjun took out a scroll with only a dozen words written on it. It was a huge scroll, and she opened it up and showed it to everyone.
On the scroll were written: " It is not stained by mud, it is not evil after washing it, it is straight in the middle and straight outside, it does not spread or branch, the fragrance is far away and clearer, the pavilion is clean and planted, it can be seen from afar but not played with.”
Seeing that everyone was looking at her book, Lee Xiangjun smiled and said,""These words came from the essay 'On Loving Lotus' written by the extremely talented scholar He Shen Gongzi, whom I admire very much, at the Spring Breeze Courtyard's Chen Yuanyuan's poetry gathering.”
As she spoke, her eyes glanced at Heshen's table on the second floor.
Lee Xiangjun continued," He Shen gongzi is also here today. It is said that he has just made a bet with one of the Four Great Talents of Jiangnan, Mu Wenfu gongzi. Whoever loses will be banned from participating in the imperial examinations."
"And the bet they made was this literary gathering of mine.
"As everyone knows, besides composing poetry, Mu Wenfu's Young Master Mu is most skilled in calligraphy, while He Shen's Young Master is the first 'member' of this year's Imperial Examination. This gambling match between them must be extremely exciting. As for the outcome, we will wait and see tonight.”
On the second floor.
Qianlong patted Heshen's shoulder and said,""I'm talking to you! You can really meet your admirers everywhere.”
He Shen shook his head." I don't like this Lee Xiangjun. She's too materialistic. It's obvious that she's using my bet with Mu Wenfu as a tool to increase Apricot Blossom Tower's reputation."”
At this time, Cao Rui also gradually recovered from the shock of knowing Qianlong's identity. He had nothing to ask for peace. As the saying goes, if you don't have any desires, you will be firm. Therefore, he still smiled like before,"She's such a beautiful woman. Others don't even have the right to be treated as a tool by her.”
"Is Lee Xiangjun pretty?" Perhaps. Anyway, I don't think so."
He Shen's words made Cao Rui feel a little awkward for a moment. He said angrily,"You really don't understand."
He Shen ignored Cao Rui, because the next literary meeting had begun.
Those who started to participate in the cultural gathering were all ordinary scholars.
Perhaps it was because of He Shen and Mu Wenfu, these two great scholars were simply too famous. Today, they attracted many scholars who were attracted by their fame to participate in this calligraphy competition.
Most of these scholars came from wealthy families. Naturally, they would not stop spending when they came to Apricot Blossom Tower. Many of them spent a lot of money to make the beauty smile. As a result, Apricot Blossom Tower also made a lot of money.
Although the calligraphy of the scholars who came to participate in the cultural gathering was not bad, it could only be considered good.
Compared to He Shen, it was like heaven and earth.
Two hours passed quickly. Finally, these people had finished competing and a tribute scholar from Zhili named "Li Lie" was decided.
With his calligraphy skills, he was no match for the famous Mu Wenfu, so he directly admitted defeat.
As a result, this literary meeting turned into a competition between He Shen and Mu Wenfu.
"You came first? Or should I go first?"
After Li Lie admitted defeat, Mu Wenfu, who had been waiting for a long time, stood up from his seat and looked at He Shen with battle intent in his eyes.
"It doesn't matter. If you're in a hurry, you can go first!”
He Shen spread his hands.
He didn't care about the order of who came first. Anyway, Mu Wenfu would lose, so it didn't matter who came first.
"Alright, since you don't mind, I'll go first.”
He Shen didn't matter, but Mu Wen Fu did.
He wanted to see the despair and fear on He Shen's face when he saw his calligraphy level. If He Shen couldn't stand the failure, it would be even better if he ran away.
He couldn't wait anymore. He wanted the same thing that had happened to him and made him lose face to happen to He Shen again. He wanted to ruin his reputation.
As he spoke, Mu Wenfu walked down to the hall on the first floor.
Seeing that Mu Wenfu, one of the two most famous scholars of the night, had finally appeared, Lee Xiangjun personally handed over a high-quality wolf-hair brush and started to grind the ink for Mu Wenfu.
These two people, at first glance, looked like talented scholars and beautiful women, but they actually had a feeling of adding fragrance to the ancient sleeves and playing the zither harmoniously.
"Who do you think will win this bet?”
"If it's a competition of poems, I would definitely think that He Shen would win. After all, he was able to do it, surpassing the ancients 'three steps to compose a poem. Furthermore, in the general exams, he wrote a famous poem like' Mobei Ci'. But if we're talking about calligraphy, I'm afraid Heshen is a little off.”
"That's right, I've never heard of him before. He Shen's calligraphy level shouldn't be that good. Heshen is most likely going to die this time."
……
When Mu Wenfu and He Shen's bet was about to begin, all the scholars in the Apricot Blossom Tower started discussing.
As everyone talked, no one was optimistic about He Shen.
This was because although Heshen was good at poetry, there had never been any news about his calligraphy skills.
Other than composing poems, Mu Wenfu was famous for his calligraphy.
"Heshen, you're going to lose."
"That's right, Heshen. In terms of calligraphy, you can't beat Brother Mu. I think you should stop wasting time and admit defeat.”
Among them, the ones who shouted the loudest were Yu Minzhong and Yi Yougong, who were with Mu Wenfu. They shouted that He Shen would lose.
When Mu Wenfu heard that almost everyone in Apricot Blossom Pavilion thought highly of him and felt that Heshen's calligraphy was inferior to his, a smug smile appeared in the corner of his eyes.
"Good luck, Young Master Mu. I also believe that you will win.”
Lee Xiangjun, who was standing beside Mu Wenfu, also looked at Sheng Lian and encouraged Mu Wenfu.
With a beauty beside him, Mu Wenfu's confidence was boosted to the extreme. He held a brush in his right hand and dipped it in ink before writing on the white paper on the table in front of him.
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