Jing Yan asked Jiang Yuqing, "Do you want to learn martial arts?"
Jiang Yuqing shook her head, "I like it, but I may not be able to learn it. Because I have to learn medical skills from my master, and help my dad farm, I don't have that much time."
Tuanzi has a very clear plan for the future.
Besides, she herself is a cultivator, self-protection is enough. Whether or not to learn things like martial arts doesn't matter.
The Baoyue Building is a three-story brick and wood structure building.
On the first floor is a large circular stage in the middle, with tiered seats around it. Twenty years ago, the major academies in the capital jointly funded the construction for the Fuwei Academic Forum.
But the Fuwei Academic Forum is only held for three days a year, and sits empty for the rest of the time. This resulted in a huge waste of resources.
Later, a smart guy spotted the popularity, venue and feng shui here.
He bought it from the academy and turned it into an auction house, creating a unique business in the capital and made a fortune.
Also, when he bought it, Baoyue Building had signed contracts with major academies in the capital that from May 15th to May 18th each year, Baoyue Building would be vacated for the academies to hold the Fuwei Academic Forum.
It has been so for decades. It can be considered a win-win situation.
The first day was a cultural competition. The host was the Ritual Master Yan of the Imperial Academy.
Sitting on the stage was a row of five big shots, all famous scholars or big names in various fields in Da Xia.
The participating academy teams sat around the circular stage, competing in zither, chess, calligraphy and painting, poetry and lyrics. Each small event would decide the top three in the academies, and the prizes were generous.
Of course, if any of the guests present were dissatisfied, regardless of status, they could challenge any of the top three, and the challenged could not refuse.
If the challenge was successful, the challenger would immediately obtain the ranking and prize of the challenged. The inferior would have to give way to the superior.
This was also one of the biggest highlights of the Academic Forum.
The ancient talents on stage showed exceptional poem skills. Jiang Yuqing watched with great interest and didn't take her eyes off them.
When it came to the "poetry" event. The host hung a calligraphy piece covered in veil on the display stand, and then tore open the thick gauze covering it.
On the white paper was just the large character "grain".
Ritual Master Yan said, "As we all know, in the past two years, the Marquis of Qingzhou first grew sweet potatoes, which yielded thousands of catties per mu, and last year he grew rice that yielded seven to eight hundred catties per mu.
He made huge contributions to the increased grain production in Da Xia.
Today, let's take grain as the theme and ask for a poem within one stick of incense. Let's begin now!"
Sure enough, ancient talents were extremely skilled at poetry. In no time, several anonymous five-character quatrains, seven-syllable regulated verses or long poems were written on rice paper and handed over to the judging table.
After discussing among themselves for a while, the judges quickly determined the top three places.
But as with previous events, challengers soon appeared.
It's just that the level of these two challengers was not good enough, and they soon lost, arousing a round of friendly ridicule.
At this moment, a shrill female voice came from a box: "I remember that the Magistrate of Linghui County from the Qing Prefecture Marquis Mansion is very talented. Why don't you let her have a try?"
Jiang Yuqing recognized this voice. Damn it, it was that scammer Jing Rushi!
She was quite happy to hear her dad openly praised at first. Upon hearing this voice, the smile on Tuanzi's face froze immediately.
Then it gradually turned cold.
Everyone with a brain could tell what she was up to by saying this kind of thing in this kind of occasion. Jing Yan next to her also had a dark expression on his face.
Jiang Yuqing tapped her fingers on the table a few times, and frost quickly condensed in her eyes.
Did Jing Rushi not lose enough face last time and wanted to get humiliated again in public?
Since you are looking for death yourself, then I shall fulfill your wish.
Upon thinking so, she calmly got up and walked onto the balcony, opened the bead curtain facing the Canghe Prince Residence box and said loudly: "I definitely have no problem.
But Jing County Miss, why don't you challenge the senior brothers from the academies yourself, and let me do it instead?
Oh, I get it. Is it because you lost to me at Princess Ronghua's residence last time and feel unsatisfied, so you deliberately want me to compete with these extremely talented academy seniors and make me lose face in public.
But obviously, it was you who provoked me last time, yet you ended up losing all your valuable jewelry and ran away crying in the end. You can't blame me for that!"
"Hahahaha..." As soon as Jiang Yuqing finished speaking, the whole building burst into laughter immediately.
They had only come to attend a poetry meeting, and did not expect to get such a juicy gossip of a noble lady. It was truly an unexpected delight.
The little magistrate from the Marquis of Qing Prefecture was really...adorably blunt.
"Jiang Linghui, shut up! Stop talking nonsense, just say whether you dare to compete or not." Jing Rushi said angrily with shame.
Jiang Yuqing replied, "I just said I can do it. But I'd rather compete with you. I just wonder if you are wearing as much valuable jewelry today as last time."
The scene burst into laughter again, and the noble ladies present in particular laughed so hard they couldn't stand straight.
They thought to themselves that Jing Rushi was really an idiot this time, stripped bare for all to see.
"Miss Linghui, you still need to leave some leeway when dealing with people!" said an angry elderly male voice.
Jiang Yuqing guessed that it was probably Jing Rushi’s grandfather.
Before Jiang Yuqing could respond, Jing Yan took the lead and said, "Prince Canghe, if you have time to threaten others, why not spend more effort on managing your inferior descendants. What kind of occasion is this, yet you allow her to make troubles."
His tone was not loud, his voice slightly immature, yet very oppressive.
Prince Canghe seemed to recognize his voice and dared to make no more trouble.
Jiang Yuqing stepped forward, bowed deeply and said sincerely, "Learned scholars and teachers on stage, Master Yan, seniors from the academies, gentlemen in the audience. Linghui did not mean to disrupt the venue. I apologize to everyone."
She's young, and was deliberately provoked by others, yet sincerely apologized afterwards. She truly won the hearts of the people.
While the crowd expressed their understanding, they also expressed contempt for the real troublemaker.
The reputation of the Canghe Prince Residence in the capital, which was mediocre to begin with, fell to rock bottom after this incident.
When the inferior makes mistakes instead of reflecting on themselves, the seniors even openly threaten the victim. It is truly despicable, and people look down on such behavior.
Although there was a little interlude that provided some entertainment for the crowd, the competition had to go on.
Ritual Master Yan said, "Miss Linghui, do you still intend to accept the challenge as you said earlier?"
Tuanzi replied, "A gentleman's promise is a lifelong commitment. Of course I'll keep my word."
"Then who do you intend to challenge?"
"Then the first place." She shouted loudly again towards the challenged person, "I'm sorry brother who got the first place. I'm going to challenge you."
The challenged person also had the demeanor of a gentleman. He cupped a fist towards her and said, "Please teach me, my lady."
Seeing this, Ritual Master Yan said to Jiang Yuqing "That's settled then. My lady, please also write a poem about grain within one stick of incense!"
Jiang Yuqing said, "Sure. But I just started learning how to write, my handwriting is very ugly. May I recite it directly?"
Ritual Master Yan said, "Of course, this event is about poetry, not calligraphy."
Jiang Yuqing searched her belly for a while, and started shamelessly showing off again: "The first poem is called 'Lament for Farmers', working the fields under the scorching sun....
The second poem is called...just call it 'Farmer Family'. Calling the kids at midnight... The grains grow by themselves."
After she finished reciting, the whole venue was dead silent.
A few prominent scholars' breathing grew hurried.
The most prominent of them was the father of Ritual Master Yan, Imperial Tutor Yan.
Imperial Tutor Yan slowly got up with trembling steps and walked to the middle of the stage, asking Jiang Yuqing loudly, "Child, could you tell us how you came up with these two poems?"
Tuanzi said, "I didn't come up with them. I read them from some surviving fragments. My family farms, so we live in the countryside.
My grandpa gets up before dawn every day, then wakes my uncles up to go work in the fields together.
When my dad was at home, he would go with them too.
Before my dad passed the imperial exam, our family was very poor, having only one ox.
That ox had been kept for many years and was almost too old to walk. Grandpa felt bad for the ox, so he had my uncles and dad pull the plow and till the land."
When planting rice and other crops, there would be many weeds growing in the fields. When going to weed, sweat would drip down to the ground in strings. "
After hearing this, Grand Imperial Tutor sighed appreciatively three times before he finally spoke. He had thought that Jiang Yuqing only had a good memory, but did not expect that she was able to remember the poem so vividly because it was realistic enough.
Although not written by her, it was truly commendable for such a young child to be able to remember the poem and her family's farming matters so clearly.
There were sounds of discussion all around, saying, no wonder the Marquis of Qingzhou was not in the capital yet still held a place in the emperor's heart.
Look, though he was a Marquis and the old madame of the Marquis Manor, he still personally went into the fields to farm, which was why he could yield thousands of catties of sweet potatoes and almost eight hundred catties of rice per mu.
The Magistrate of Linghui County was still so young, yet she would also follow to the fields, and was able to remember everything she had personally experienced in her mind.
Even after going to the capital, she had apparently planted three thousand mu of high yield rice in the outskirts of the capital. What did inheriting the family business through integrity and knowledge mean? This was it!
Before the Minister of Rites could say anything, the student who was originally ranked first took the initiative to stand up and admit defeat, "The young county magistrate is extremely talented, this student admits his inferiority sincerely."
His gentlemanly grace had also won him much acclaim.
Jiang Yuqing scratched her head, somewhat uncertain as she asked Jing Yan, "Elder brother, should I be modest and decline the compliment?"
Jing Yan held in his laugh and nodded.
Because she stood at the outermost edge of the pavilion, her voice was quite loud when she asked her question, which sounded extremely tender and cute, making a large group of people laugh.
The Minister of Rites also heard it very clearly, and said with a smile, "Young County Magistrate Jiang, there's no need to be modest, quickly come over to collect your prize!"
"Alright alright, I'll head over now!" Since there was a prize to collect, Jiang Yuqing was naturally elated.
Guarded by little eunuchs dressed as attendant boys, she ran down the stairs pit-a-pat.
Between the high platform and the ground were over ten tall stair steps.
For someone with little short legs like Jiang Yuqing, it was very inconvenient.
Seeing her struggling to climb, one student could not bear to watch any further and took the initiative to carry her up onto the platform.
Tuanzi felt that this elder brother was practically an angel. Hence, she very politely thanked him. Not expecting the sudden thanks, the student's face turned red as he went back down.
The prize for the poetry segment was three rare ancient books.
For those scholars, it was impossible to measure the value of such books in monetary terms - true priceless treasures.
After collecting her prize, she passed one of the books to that student earlier.
Very seriously, she said, "Elder brother, this book is for you. They were originally yours to begin with. I stole what was rightfully yours by luck."
The first place he had rightfully earned with his own abilities, yet she had messed it all up.
Though it was not her intention, wrong was still wrong. She felt guilty.
If she did not do something about it, she would feel awful!
Originally, the scholar thought that he had unfortunately lost out to the three rare books, and did not expect there would actually be such a pleasant surprise.
He quickly bowed and expressed his thanks, carefully placed one book into the book box next to him, and said, "The young county magistrate is more capable than me, so the remaining two books are yours."
Tuanzi thought about it, then happily accepted them. She thanked him and said, "You're the best! Who knows, you may top the imperial examination next year."
The student cupped his fist towards her in salute and said, "Thank you, young county magistrate, for your auspicious words."
Jiang Yuqing hugged the remaining two rare books and happily returned to the second floor booth, and also passed one of the books to Jing Yan.
Jing Yan did not lack such things; in the end it was a show of her feelings, so he very delightedly accepted and put it away.
There was a one hour break during noon time for everyone to rest and have their meals. The civil competition with the other segments would continue in the afternoon. The day passed quite happily on the whole.
