These words were very soft, but Wang Er heard them very clearly. However, he was also not angry.
As Mother would say, getting beaten means standing at attention.
If you can't come up with a proper response, then you just can't. Getting angry out of embarrassment will only make you look worse.
It was the turn of the students from Baichuan County to come up with the first line, and Wang Er used the surrounding mountain scenery to come up with a couplet. The other side quickly responded with a neat couplet.
In the next few rounds, the talented scholars from Yizhou Prefecture, led by Xu Youcai, came up with wonderful lines again and again, while Wang Er was unable to come up with a single response, and had several ink marks drawn on his face, which made the talented scholars from the other side burst into loud laughter.
Li Prefect saw this and was happy inside, while Song County Magistrate wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
Because when he tried to come up with responses to those first lines in his head, he also couldn't come up with a single one.
Are the talented scholars these days all so amazing?
"Brother Wang Er," Xu Youcai was in high spirits after scoring big today, "Do you still want to continue?"
"Yes."
"Your courage is admirable," Xu Youcai said with a hint of ridicule, "If you lose again, there will be no more space on your face for ink."
"I still want to continue," Wang Er really didn't want to admit defeat. He didn't believe he couldn't come up with a single response. "Brother Xu, please give the first line."
"Humph, fine, today I'll fulfill your wish," Xu Youcai pointed to a few birds flying in the nearby woods, "This time my theme will be birds."
After saying that, he swiftly wrote a big character: Western birds fly east, phoenixes find it hard to stand their ground everywhere.
As soon as this first line was read out, the faces of the students from Baichuan County grew even uglier, one after another.
This was no longer just a simple first line, it was very clearly an insult!
Baichuan County was west of Yizhou Prefecture.
The "western birds" in the line naturally referred to these students from Baichuan County, while the "phoenixes" metaphorically referred to the talented scholars from Yizhou Prefecture.
Which was lowly and which was noble required no further explanation.
Wang Er stared fixedly at Xu Youcai.
He had originally thought today's poetry gathering was just a friendly contest between talented scholars, and never expected Xu Youcai to so openly insult them.
"Prefect Li," the face of County Magistrate Song was also not very good, "Isn't this going a bit too far?"
"Not at all, not at all," Li Prefect laughed, "Young people are hot-blooded. You and I did even more outrageous things in our day. Today I naturally can't stop them."
Song County Magistrate was left speechless. He had indeed done such things when he was young, and had often won. So today he naturally could not object to stopping them.
He looked towards Wang Er.
Judging purely from the parallel couplet, this first line was not actually difficult to respond to. The difficulty lay in the momentum.
If the momentum of the second line could not match the first, it would be seen as a loss even if the couplet structure was neat.
"Wang Er," the county magistrate asked, "Do you have a good second line?"
"I..." Wang Er hesitated for a moment, then shook his head, "My lord, I... can't think of one."
"Hahaha..."
At this, Xu Youcai and his group directly burst into undisguised laughter.
"It seems there really is no talent in this impoverished place Baichuan County!"
Xu Youcai sneered at Wang Er, "Brother Wang, hurry up and draw on your face."
Wang Er picked up the brush, but still did not draw on his face.
In fact, he had already thought of a response to this couplet, but the second line was so overbearing that he absolutely didn't dare say it out loud. Because once he said it, not only would it anger the talented scholars of Yizhou Prefecture and change the nature of the poetry gathering, it might even anger Prefect Li.
So when the county magistrate had asked just now, he could only falsely claim that he couldn't think of a response.
"Useless," a student from Baichuan County behind him couldn't hold back any longer either, "Still called the top talent in Baichuan County, yet can't come up with a single response. Really losing face for our county!"
"What are you saying?" Song Zhe next to him said loudly, "If you can do it, why don't you respond?"
"If I could respond, would he still be number one?"
"Alright, stop arguing," the county magistrate said, "Let's continue."
When the county magistrate had spoken, everyone closed their mouths.
Just as Wang Er was about to draw the last stroke of ink on his face, he suddenly heard Zhang County Captain's voice, "Lady Li has arrived."
"Oh?" Li Prefect was a little surprised and laughed, "I've long heard that Lady Li is pure, virtuous and wise. Quickly invite her in!"
Li Yao briskly walked into the pavilion. Seeing the faces of Wang Er's group covered in ink while the talented scholars from Yizhou Prefecture had spotless faces, she knew what had happened.
They had lost quite badly it seemed.
But on second thought, that wasn't right either. It was just matching couplets. In the past, Song Zhe and Wang Er would often match couplets at home, and she would sometimes join them for fun and purposely make up lines that were extremely difficult, leaving Wang Er racking his brains over how to respond.
Even if they couldn't match the other side, Wang Er could have used some of the lines she had given him before. The other side should not have been able to respond either.
After paying her respects to the prefect and county magistrate, Zhang County Captain arranged a seat for her.
"Lady Li, don't tell me you also have an interest in poetry and literary arts?"
"My lord, I was just a village woman before, how could I know anything about poetry and literary arts?"
"Lady Li is too modest," Li Prefect said. "When your son was taking the imperial exams, he wrote 'Be the first to bear the worries of the world, and the last to enjoy its pleasures'. I heard from someone that this is something you often taught him. One who can come up with such lofty lines can hardly be just a village woman. Lady Li, you shouldn't hide your talents. Let this official witness your literary skills."
"I really don't know how."
In this area, Li Yao really had no interest.
She was originally just a village woman. Coming up with some small inventions could still be explained as a stroke of genius, but suddenly being skilled in composing poetry and couplets would inevitably raise suspicions.
The only reason she had rushed over was to see how Wang Er would deal with facing powerful opponents, and to cheer him on.
At this time, she saw the pile of first lines placed on the table. She asked Wang Er to pass them all to her to take a look.
After reading two or three, her brows knitted slightly.
These first lines were all very difficult to respond to.
Especially the first one, with its extremely clever palindrome structure.
Could these still young scholars really compose something like this on the spot?
When she saw the last couplet, her expression became even uglier.
This was outright insulting people!
Just as she was looking, Xu Youcai walked over, "Greetings to Lady Li."
"Mm."
"This morning at the city gate, I heard the Lady's speech. It was like thunder piercing my ears, utterly shocking!"
The talented scholars from Yizhou Prefecture had endured this with great difficulty.
This morning, they had of course also heard Li Yao's speech.
Now Xu Youcai was saying this right in front of her. His intentions were clearly not to compliment her.
To make things worse, Li Prefect was also present, so Li Yao could not lose her temper at him.
Wang Er's two fists were already clenched tightly.
This guy actually dared to publicly humiliate Mother?
If not for the presence of the prefect and county magistrate, he would have to let him taste the power of judo!
The complexion of County Magistrate Song changed slightly, and he was just about to rebuke them, but Li Yao just laughed and said, "I'm busy with many matters, so I didn't have time to prepare properly. Unlike you, who seem to have a lot of free time and prepared some things quite thoroughly."
After saying this, she tossed the sheets of paper in her hand onto the table. Her meaning was also very clear.
Those first lines were not thought up on the spot, but prepared in advance, perhaps even copied from somewhere.
Xu Youcai felt guilty, let out an awkward laugh, then quickly retreated. If they were really exposed, these people would completely lose face.
