Chapter 52: Magistrate Li (Part 1)

  Everyone laughed and teased him, but they couldn't say he was wrong either.

  This time, it didn't take long for Shen to remain silent. Lu Xianling smiled and said, "Now it's my turn. My riddle is 'round and round, connected and continuous, thousands and millions, thousands of difficulties and millions of difficulties'." He then loudly recited the eight lines he had thought of earlier: "The sun rises in the east, round and round; The colorful clouds in the sky, connected and continuous; The stars in the night sky, thousands and millions, Want to pick them down, thousands of difficulties and millions of difficulties."

  Magistrate Li stroked his beard thoughtfully for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands and laughed: "I've got it! Listen to me. 'The lotus flowers in the pond are round and round; The leaves under the lotus roots are connected one by one; When the lotus root is broken, there are countless threads; Using these threads to weave cloth is extremely difficult.' Everyone cheered, although this sentence was not as elegant as Magistrate Lü's, but it was clear that one was the questioner and the other was the respondent, and which one was more difficult was self-evident.

  This question is a bit difficult, and even Hou Xianzhang thought about it for half a day without coming up with an answer. He could only tap his chopsticks against the bowl, sighing: "I'm starving." Then he drank a cup of white wine.

  Silence was the last one, and he had already prepared his speech in his heart. He smiled at Magistrate Lü and said: "Four people sit together, round and round; Cups and chopsticks intersect, connected and continuous; Thousands of wine orders have been passed down, thousands and millions; Punish me to drink, a thousand difficulties and ten thousand hardships."

  "Hahaha……" Seeing Lü County's nose twisted, Li County burst out laughing and wiped away tears, patting the table: "You little scamp, you're quite cunning!" The winds of fortune changed, seeing 'Green Bean Fly' being bullied, Li County almost shouted out "Shenmo, I support you!"

  Silence dared to fight back because he had seen clearly that the two county magistrates seemed to have already become irreconcilable, and he himself unfortunately became the focal point of their struggle. Rather than being oppressed and suffering from both sides, it was better to make a clear stand and take advantage of the opportunity to publicly avenge his private grievances in the name of competing for honor with County Magistrate Wei and County Magistrate Xun.

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  Magistrate Lü, who had been hit by a blunt stick, took a long time to recover and, stroking his beard, said: "Shen Mo, do you dare to duel with me?"

  "As you wish." Shen Mo said with a faint smile.

  "Listen to my order!" Magistrate Lü slapped the table and glared, saying: "The first line is 'Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, shrimp eat water, water falls out stone.'" The four sentences are linked head and tail, and each one overcomes the previous one.

  "The brook returns to the river, the river returns to the sea, and the sea is boundless as the sky." Shen Mo smiled faintly. The four sentences are interconnected at the beginning and end, and each one gives birth to the next.

  "When water has worms it becomes murky, when water has fish it is fished; water, water, everywhere, rivers and lakes overflowing." Lu County Magistrate came up with another couplet.

  "The root of the tree is the base, the top of the tree is the end. Tree after tree, pine and cypress forest dense." Shen Mo's eyelids didn't blink as he replied, immediately earning a round of applause from County Magistrate Li.

  Lü County Magistrate suddenly smiled and said slowly: "Mo is a black dog, the dog's guts are enough to bark at adults!" This directly picked up the name Shen Mo to scold.

  "Ah! Dare to scold me as a dog?" Shen Mo originally still had some reserve, but now he was no longer polite, and coldly sneered: "Lü has two mouths, one mouth eating the common people!" He also took out a character from Lü County's name, scolding him for relying on his power to bully others, oppressing the common people!

  "Good!" County Magistrate Li shouted again in high spirits. He found that this Shen Mo was truly exceptional, no matter what couplet Zhang came up with, he could respond immediately, and he had really struck gold.

  The county magistrate Lü felt extremely humiliated and helplessly sighed, "With or without wood, it's all the same. Remove the wood from the chessboard, add a debt and it becomes deceitful. A fish swimming in shallow water is teased by shrimp, a tiger fallen on flat land is bullied by dogs." This was scolding Shen for being ignorant of good and evil, committing crimes against his superiors, like a worthless shrimp or dog.

  "Adults have said it again." Shen Mo's eyebrows rose, and he smiled: "With water, it's a stream; without water, it's a valley. If you take away the water from the stream, add a bird and it becomes a chicken. When circumstances favor it, a cat can be as fierce as a tiger, but when its feathers are ruffled, even a phoenix is not as good as a chicken!" He tactfully told County Magistrate Lü that a person's prestige comes from their position. If the two of them were to switch places, their prestige would also be reversed!

  "Good!" County Magistrate Li exclaimed excitedly, clapping his hands: "Well said!"

  Being perfectly matched, the Magistrate of Lü County had to drink three cups in a row and scratched his ears, saying: "In thirty days, there will be a day when you think of me every day, every day, 36,000 days in a hundred years."

  "The character for 'goods' has three mouths, it's better to open the mouth and pour another cup. Come on, have one more cup of wine." Shen Mo smiled silently and picked up another cup.

  Lü County Magistrate had to drink another cup, knowing that if he continued like this, he would surely die from drinking. He finally gave in and was about to admit defeat when a maid came down from the second floor of the painted barge, pretending to refill his wine, and secretly handed him a note.

  The county magistrate secretly unfolded the palm of his hand, and couldn't help but show a joyful expression. He chuckled and said: "Shen Mo, you are indeed an expert in this field, but I still have one more move. If you can counter it, then you win today!" Although they had just exchanged blows, he had actually already completely conceded defeat, but due to his proud nature, he simply refused to admit defeat.

  Feeling the other's attitude soften, Shen Mo naturally smiled and nodded: "Sir is indeed a high talent, I'm already at my wit's end, can only do my best."

  Magistrate Li also felt that he had won enough today, and chuckled: "The two of you are a match made in heaven, a perfect combination. I and County Magistrate Hou have truly feasted our eyes and broadened our horizons." County Magistrate Hou hastily nodded in agreement, saying: "It's really been too delightful."

  "Why don't we just consider this last pair a tie, and not bother with winning or losing?" County Magistrate Li continued with a smile: "Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature; what's the point of all this fuss?"

  "You're quite arrogant." County Magistrate Lü secretly grumbled in his heart, but he was also worried that if he lost again, he would really lose face. He could only force a smile and say: "Alright." Then he cleared his throat and said: "This time we'll have a Pagoda Word."

  "Is it a 'One Seven Command'?" Shen Mo smiled and asked. The "Jade Tower Verse", also known as the "One Seven Command". From one character to seven characters, each sentence is rhymed, or two sentences are stacked into one rhyme. Because the number of words in each sentence or every two sentences increases sequentially, it is shaped like a pagoda, hence the name.

  Since ancient times, people have only heard of someone writing treasure tower poems and treasure tower lyrics, but no one has ever heard of anyone using this pair of couplets. Why? Because it's too difficult, not only must you strictly adhere to the word count and rhyme scheme for each sentence, but also every sentence must match up with its counterpart, and after finishing all seven sentences, they still need to form a perfect poem... There are too many things to consider, often resulting in neglecting one aspect while focusing on another. No one has ever been heard of successfully completing it.

  Division line

  Chapter 1, today is the weekend, accompanied family members, after returning home found that we are already second on the new book list, can't help but feel a bit ashamed...... However, don't worry, there are still two chapters tonight. Everyone, keep voting to maintain our ranking!!!!!!