After Kang Xian's sudden shout, the venue immediately fell silent, and that Yu Zixing had studied under Kang Xian for a short period. Now seeing this notoriously strict teacher suddenly lose his temper for unknown reasons, he was startled and hurriedly lowered his head and cupped his hands: "Master Ming..."

Kang Xian was a master of Neo-Confucianism¹with a substantial background, and though he didn't have many disciples, most of those present knew his reputation clearly. His gaze swept across the entire venue before settling on Yu Zixing, appearing to merely be instructing his disciple: "Is this the kind of thing you can say carelessly!?"

After a moment of silence, Kang Xian put down his writing brush and looked over again: "Let me ask you—among today's hundreds of poems, if this poem were messy, unbearable to look at, completely worthless, what would you do?"

When he said this, Yu Zixing actually already understood the meaning, his body trembling as he bowed with a dry voice: "This disciple... this disciple would naturally set it aside and ignore it."

"Then... have you ever met this Ning Liheng before? Do you know him? Have you heard his name? Have you seen his appearance? Regarding his character, have any bad rumors about him reached your ears before?"

"This disciple... this disciple accepts the teaching."

This was enough, and Kang Xian smiled: "Since you understand the principle, sit down... Everyone, today's poetry gathering has produced many excellent works. I was just discussing with Old Qin—for example, Mingyi's poem..." He raised his voice and began commenting on the excellent works from the poetry gathering one by one, pointing out their highlights phrase by phrase. He was naturally erudite, and his commentary was deliberately expansive—not flattering, but truly speaking, these poems were indeed excellent, and even Yu Zixing's two poems received sufficiently high evaluation.

This speech took considerable time, and only at the end did Kang Xian place the sheet with Water Melody Prelude back on the table: "Now... everyone, please evaluate this Water Melody Prelude again. How is it?"

When he finished speaking, Cao Guan stood up from his seat: "Master Ming's wake-up call—this disciple accepts the teaching. Speaking shamefully, this poem is indeed exquisite, brilliantly written with profound artistic conception. This disciple falls far short, and I also harbored competitive thoughts earlier, only awakening after Master Ming's guidance. Today's poetry gathering is magnificent—to witness such excellent lines is truly fortunate, though everyone, I've just obtained a few lines I'd like to share for evaluation. Haha, though there are pearls and jade before us, everyone present has great talent. I wonder who would be willing to complete this poem for me? We mustn't disgrace our Zhishui Poetry Gathering's reputation."

When he finished speaking, Kang Xian laughed: "This is how a gentleman should be," and everyone also laughed, the atmosphere immediately becoming lively again. Someone laughed: "Zongchen, you dare speak wildly with just a few lines? I have a complete poem—the matter of saving face for the poetry gathering should fall to me."

Then came another fierce poetry competition as everyone was unwilling to lose ground, appearing even more enthusiastic than before. Kang Xian watched this scene, smiling as he raised his teacup to drink, while Old Qin beside him also smiled.

"Haha, why is Old Qin laughing?"

"Heh, what Master Ming has done isn't very kind. Normally, young friend Liheng merely wins a few games against you, yet you want to roast him over fire. Gentlemanly conduct—holding grudges isn't good. When we meet again in the future, he'll surely come to settle accounts with you."

Though he said this, Old Qin smiled happily, appearing only to look forward to watching the excitement. Originally, literature had no first place, and poetry evaluation had no standard—after reaching a certain height, people's opinions played a large part. Though this Water Melody Prelude was truly excellent, it couldn't really make everyone else "fall far short" or make "all other poems obsolete." However, Kang Xian's few words directly established a suggestion: When you see an excellent work you can't match, your first thought is actually to slander others' character—this isn't gentlemanly conduct.

Throughout the night on the Qinhuai, what spread wasn't just poetry, and when Kang Xian's lecture to everyone at the poetry gathering spread, the result was predictable. After Old Qin said this, Kang Xian's smile remained unchanged, still quite happy.

"Heh. This old man cherishes his talent and helps him become famous—if he sees me, he should rightfully be grateful to this old man. Old Qin, your thinking is rather petty, as they say, 'The gentleman is open and at ease, the petty man is anxious and worried.' Haha, one should be broad-minded."

The two hadn't personally witnessed how much talent Ning Yi had before this, but their evaluation was definitely not simple—now they were quite amazed by this poem, yet also somewhat understanding. As they joked here, an old man nearby also came over: "This Ning Liheng, could he be..." He had also gone to the riverside to play Go with Old Qin and had met Ning Yi once, knowing his surname was Ning, and now he guessed it. Pan Guangyan also walked over smiling, and hearing this, he laughed: "This Ning Yi, could he be with Master Ming..."

Kang Xian laughed heartily, saying quietly: "He's a young friend of mine, Master Qin's, and Master Du's. Regarding the poetry, I don't think it's fake. However, this person keeps a low profile, and being friends with him is like the friendship between gentlemen—as refreshing as water, not too involved. Please keep this secret, Crane Elder, and don't spread it too much."

Pan Guangyan suddenly understood and laughed.

"...So that's how it is."

If he could have foreseen everything that would successively occur in Jiangning city this night, perhaps Ning Yi wouldn't have sought modern feelings by having Xiao Chan learn to sing. Anyway, because of the cold, his thoughts were somewhat drowsy and mentally sluggish. He had never participated in these poetry gatherings, so naturally couldn't think of too much.

The time had passed midnight, and at this moment, Ning Yi was still sleeping, completely unaware of everything. The carriage traveled on streets where the excitement was gradually fading, still moving slowly, the crowds on the streets remaining packed and jubilant as firelight reflected into the carriage from outside. Su Tan'er looked at Xiao Chan before her, still holding the paper with Water Melody Prelude written on it. Xiao Chan lowered her head, blinking, not daring to speak, her lips pressed tightly together.

What happened tonight seemed bizarre even to her, and even now she felt somewhat confused. Just how much weight did the poem in her hand carry? Her appreciation of poetry couldn't reach the top level. Though she was shocked and amazed when first reading it, unable to believe she had received it from Xiao Chan's hands, later developments proved she had still underestimated this poem.

Being able to see Xue Jin's shocked and surprised expression after his malicious scheme was indeed happy. Later, when Puyang Yu and the invited masters came to speak with her, she also felt a certain valued feeling. As a merchant's daughter, she could understand the weight of this regard.

Everyone said merchants chased profit, their status always at society's bottom, and though money could solve many problems and raise status somewhat, various discrimination still existed. Every year during disasters big and small, they gave money and effort, often still unable to earn a good name. Grandfather spent large sums at the academy just wanting the Su family to produce a batch of scholars—even if throwing money at it, at least they could enter the scholar class. She had seen this urgent feeling since childhood.

The Puyang family was the same, having some results—spending great effort every year on this Puyuan Poetry Gathering, they now had certain achievements, considered to have one foot in the scholar class. But wanting the other foot up still had some distance, and when Puyuan Poetry Gathering was mentioned, people might first think of nouveau riche atmosphere. From their regard for this suddenly appearing poem, one could roughly understand this poem's merit, though... some people actually said this poem could even compare to Cao Guan's and Li Pin's—how was that possible?

Her level wasn't there—she only liked and admired poetry. Because of the distance, it felt like idol worship, and before marriage, she had attended other poetry gatherings a few times, seeing top scholars compose poems on the spot with commanding presence. She just felt the poems were good, and that feeling was truly captivating, with people like Cao Guan and Li Pin now being representatives of Jiangning scholars. Grandfather had thought about the family producing some talented scholars, but hadn't thought they could produce ones like them. And this poem in her hand... was brought out by Xiao Chan, supposedly written by her husband at home who clearly had no scholarly talent. He had clearly written things like "Three lotus float in emerald pond raft whereon lovely one thinks" before—such incomprehensible poetry—and now this one, though good, couldn't be like this. Or could it be... there was more to the story?

One side of her heart felt unsettled due to admiration for the scholarly halo and people like Cao Guan and Li Pin, but the merchant's other side remained clear-headed, able to handle everything unexpected openly and normally. Only after disembarking could she begin investigating everything in her confusion, and she looked at Xiao Chan, whose body seemed to have shrunk a size, for a moment, then smiled: "Was it really written by Young Master?" Regarding Xiao Chan, she naturally couldn't have any suspicious thoughts.

"Mm."

"Then... Xiao Chan, can you tell me everything that happened tonight between you and Young Master?"

"Oh."

Xiao Chan nodded, then began describing what happened after they left, first telling stories—Journey to the West's specific content was naturally glossed over in a few sentences, just saying it was about a demon monkey. Then singing, dancing, magic tricks and such.

"Look, look, it's done like this... first hide this bead in your hand..." Xiao Chan demonstrated the magic trick again. She had already failed when preparing to show off to her two sisters on the boat, and now failed again, becoming dejected, but after a moment, she still reached the part about singing and writing poetry.

"...Another way of singing?" Su Tan'er frowned.

"Mm, very nice sounding." Chan'er nodded, then said quietly: "Young Master told me not to sing it randomly outside, otherwise people would say Xiao Chan, a little maid, doesn't understand propriety for randomly changing tune pattern singing methods..."

Actually what others might say might not be "doesn't understand propriety"—Xiao Chan actually understood this too, but naturally had nothing to hide from her mistress. Not long after, at Su Tan'er's request, the little maid cleared her throat and began singing Water Melody Prelude word by word in the "new" singing method. The music sounded in the carriage, gracefully echoing.

When the music ended, Juan'er and Xing'er were still in a somewhat wooden, intoxicated state: "So beautiful..." while Su Tan'er leaned against the carriage wall in silence for a long time before asking: "Xiao Chan, you've been with Young Master the longest. What kind of person do you think... he really is..."

Xiao Chan thought for a long while: "Young Master, Young Master... Xiao Chan thinks Young Master isn't like a bookworm who only studies. He's... very witty, sometimes likes to joke, but gives a feeling of stability, as if nothing matters... But when he speaks, he's not like those masters either, without all those 'zhi hu zhe ye'²phrases, and then... um, then nothing else. Anyway, he seems different from what we heard before..."

Su Tan'er listened and nodded slightly.

Turning the corner ahead, the Su residence would arrive soon...

(End of Chapter)