Chapter Thirteen: The Youth's Journey

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  Chen Yi shifted his body and sat down in front of the desk with pen and ink, but he hesitated before picking up the pen. It wasn't that he didn't have confidence in his own calligraphy; two days ago on Mount Zhongnan, he had written some characters and found that his handwriting was quite good. In his previous life, he had practiced calligraphy since childhood, and his Yan-style script was pretty beautiful. After crossing over, it seemed to combine the instincts of his original body with the writing style of his previous life, making his handwriting a pleasure to behold. Although he wasn't clear about the level of his handwriting in this era, he still had some confidence in his own calligraphy. The reason he couldn't bring himself to write was that he was hesitant about whether or not to plagiarize famous poets' works.

  He wants to write poetry, but he can't come up with anything decent, or rather, even if he did manage to write something passable, it would be laughable to compare his work to that of famous Tang Dynasty poets, and even more so for someone who only became somewhat learned later in life.

  If you want to compete with others, you can only steal from others.

  Stealing others', the poem thought of may not necessarily be in line with the scene and emotions, it is easy to get through. This is the fundamental reason for Chen Yi's hesitation.

  Many people on the scene have handed over their written poems to the servant, and the servant has handed them over to Xu Zhu, who is coldly observing the situation of the people in the field. However, after reading it, Xu Zhu did not show too much unusual expression, and can only say that the presented poem was not surprising.

  The young master who stood out to recite poetry also paid attention to Xu Zhu's expression, and saw what he expected from the face of this shopkeeper. At that time, he was even more proud, looking at everyone in the field with a flying spirit, and from time to time, he and his companion friends flattered each other.

  There are always many people in this world who are annoying, and everyone has such experiences. Some people haven't even interacted or met before, but as soon as they see each other, they have a feeling of disgust. Chen Yi had this kind of feeling towards the arrogant young man on the court, and he really wanted to teach him a lesson, make him restrain himself, and not be so frivolous and arrogant, annoying people.

  Isn't this person proud of his poetry being exceptionally good? Then let's create a masterpiece that is several times better than his poem, humiliate him and make him know what it means to be inferior! With this in mind, Chen Yi no longer hesitated, and with a wave of his brush, he wrote down the famous work he had been thinking of:

  In Wu-ling's youthful years, he galloped east of Jin Market, with a silver saddle and white horse, amidst the spring breeze.

  The fallen flowers have been trampled away, where can I go for a stroll? Laughing, I enter the tavern of the barbarian queen.

  This is "Youth's Ramblings" written by Li Bai, a very famous poem. A carefree and arrogant young man returns from a stroll, playing and having fun, and then goes to the Huji Tavern to drink and enjoy himself, leaving people with endless fantasies. Chen Yi loves this poem very much, what it describes is almost the same as his experience today of coming here to broaden his horizons after playing around, it can be said that it is very fitting for the scene and emotions, he thought of this poem without much consideration, now he is sitting in the tavern, having just watched Huji's performance, he feels that no other poem is more suitable than this one for this kind of scenario!

  The poem is finished, and looking at the very neat handwriting, Chen Yi's original worries are completely gone. What's going through or not, any poem can be interpreted in different ways by different people, as long as it doesn't go off topic, you can always find a forced explanation! Thinking of this, Chen Yi's mouth corners couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smug smile. Having seen many crossers, those crossers would steal poems and plagiarize words, attributing famous works to themselves, whether it was to flirt with beauties or gain fame and fortune, they would stop at nothing! Crossing over to this era where Tang poetry is flourishing, but most of the famous poets have not yet been born, he can naturally steal those famous poems and use them as his own!

  Chen Yi also believed that, judging from what had just happened, most of the guests who came to consume here were bookworms or people who liked literature. The literary style couldn't be said to be good, but it wouldn't be too bad either. In the Tang Dynasty, people who liked literature still had basic judgments about a poem.

  On one side, Ning Qing stared intently at Chen Yi as he wrote with his brush, her big eyes filled with excitement. She was literate and had read a lot of poetry books, although she wasn't proficient in poetry, but she could understand the meaning of the poem that Chen Yi wrote. Just as Chen Yi finished writing the four lines of poetry, she also read it from beginning to end, feeling that these four lines were written in simple and easy-to-understand language, with a lot of aftertaste, much more enjoyable than the poem recited by that young nobleman who was standing on the stage just now, although his face was not bad-looking, but extremely annoying!

  "Ziying, this poem you wrote is really great!" Ningqing couldn't help but praise, her pretty face flushing with excitement.

  Chen Yi put down his pen, revealing a mysterious and unpredictable expression. He lowered his voice and said to Ning Qing: "Of course, the poems I write are not bad. Later, you will see more and even better poetry. Hehe, you will be very surprised..."

  "Really?" Ning Qing was overjoyed and couldn't quite believe it!

  "It's cooked... Hehe! Of course, it's true! You'll see later!" Chen Yi said with a sly smile, gesturing to the servant beside him to take the poem draft away.

  Ning Qing's face was slightly flushed as she stared steadily at Chen Yi, "Alright then, you can't go back on your word, if there's a good poem, you must let me see it first!"

  "This is natural!" Chen Yi nodded solemnly and turned his eyes to look at the servant handing the poem draft to Xu Zhu's hand.

  Xu Zhu took the poem draft and began to read it carelessly. Although he was a businessman, he was a man of great taste, with accomplishments in chess, music, calligraphy, and painting that were not inferior to others. As a result, he had been rewarded by his master and had done many things that people of his status should not have been able to do. He had been collecting poem drafts for several days, but hadn't seen anything particularly outstanding. The young nobleman who had just come in was extremely arrogant, and although his poetry was decent, Xu Zhu knew his identity and was clear that his master would not associate with him, so he more or less ignored him. Chen Yi's poem draft was one of the last ones to be submitted, and Xu Zhu had already given up hope of finding anything worthwhile, reading it with a nonchalant attitude.

  But at the sight of this, he was greatly surprised. Just like a quiet lake throwing down a big stone, splashing out a lot of water, Xu Zhu was attracted by this poem all of a sudden. The short four-line poem, with a young gentleman's bold, elegant, refreshing and true character jumping onto the paper, bringing beauty to tread on fallen flowers and returning, going to the wine house to drink and enjoy oneself. Looking at that young man who is laughing and drinking with the beautiful girl next to him, Xu Zhu couldn't help but sigh, isn't this child's behavior different from others reflected in this poem?

  "Gentlemen, I just saw a great poem and I'd like to recite it for everyone today. Please give me your feedback on whether this is a good piece of work!" Xu Zhu said with a smile as he rushed towards Chen Yi, who was looking at him. Then, in his magnetic voice, he loudly recited the poem "Youth's Journey", accompanied by some seemingly exaggerated but natural gestures and expressions.

  "What a great poem, what a great poem, an absolutely fantastic poem!" As soon as Xu Zhuo finished reciting the poem "Youth's Journey" presented by Chen Yi, someone immediately stood up to applaud! Chen Yi looked over and saw that it was a young man wearing white clothes sitting further away from him, whose face he couldn't see clearly.

  The meaning of these four lines of poetry is not profound, it only describes the scene of young people playing and having fun on a spring day, it's very easy to understand. Almost everyone in the audience understood its meaning after hearing this poem, more and more people stood up and applauded, many praised the excellence of this poem with enthusiastic language!

  The young nobleman who was standing on the field also heard this poem clearly and understood its meaning. His proud expression disappeared, his face became unnatural, and the companions who were cheering him up also lost their voices.

  "Gentlemen, you are absolutely right. I also think that this poem's charm far surpasses the works of other gentlemen. It should be today's best work!" Xu Zhu said with a smile, bowing to Chen Yi who had an excited look on his face. He then looked around at everyone in the room and asked: "Gentlemen, do you have any objections to my evaluation?"

  "No objections!" Someone immediately echoed, followed by more people expressing no objection!

  "Master Xu, I disagree with your judgment!" A companion of the young noble who had been acting arrogant earlier stood up and expressed his objection. "Just now, Master Wu's poem was far superior to that unknown person's poem in my opinion. If Master Xu thinks that 'Youthful Journey' is the best, then I think Master Wu's 'Spring Scenery' is even better than 'Youthful Journey'. The one who should be considered the best poet today is Master Wu, and the fine wine and beautiful woman should be given to him!"

  "The young master Wang is absolutely right!" Immediately, a companion followed and echoed, a young man with a greasy face, wearing slightly flashy clothes, with powder on his face, stepped out and said with a shake of his head: "I also think that the poem by Master Wu is better than 'The Young Man's Journey'!"

  After hearing the two men's conversation, Chen Yi understood one thing - that the arrogant young master was surnamed Wu. As soon as he heard this surname, he immediately thought of a certain female figure who dominated the Tang Dynasty and connected this young master with that woman. Looking at the Wu-surnamed young master's domineering expression, it really seemed to be the case. Thinking about this, Chen Yi felt a bit regretful - he shouldn't have gotten involved in this trouble, as people surnamed Wu were not someone he could afford to provoke now.

  Just as Chen Yi was regretting, someone stood up to speak for him. A white-clothed young man who sat farther away from him walked out of a package room with curtains and said loudly: "The words of Wang Gongzi and Li Gongzi are wrong. The poem written by Wu Gongzi is not bad, but compared to the 'Youthful Journey' just written by this Gongzi, it is inferior in both writing style and rhyme, whether it is good or bad can be evaluated by those who understand poetry, how can you change it with a few nonsense words? Hmph... The two poems are far apart!

  Although this person was dressed as a man, with a tall and masculine build, the voice sounded like a woman's. The humming at the end had an even more feminine tone. However, since they were far away, Chen Yi couldn't see their face clearly and couldn't tell if the one who stood up for justice was a man or a woman disguised as a man. From this person's words, it seemed that they knew the identities of those people who shouted just now, and looked down on them with disdain. Apparently, this was another person with an extraordinary identity.

  Chen Yi's heart, which had just been lifted, fell back down, and his curiosity arose. He knew that the Wu surname young master and others were dissatisfied with him, and he really wanted to know what they would do next. What he wanted to know even more was who that young master was, who had just stood up for him and spoken out in his defense, sounding like a woman!