"Do you like Qin Huairou?"
This was not surprising to Xia Shang. Qin Huairou's figure and appearance were impeccable, and she was also chivalrous and tender. It would be abnormal if no one liked her.
Xia Shang did not speak, but his eyes stayed on Ouyang Changhao, who was ten feet away, for a few more seconds.
At this time, many people were paying attention to Ouyang Changhao, and there were countless praises coming from all directions.
"Mr. Ouyang is indeed a descendant of a famous family, his knowledge is not inferior to his father!"
"Mr. Ouyang, why don't you take the imperial examination? With your ability, why worry about not having a good reputation?"
"Mr. Ouyang, your sentence just now, 'Ten fingers contain a thousand kinds of music, seven strings can play wonderful words' is really wonderful, and it describes the sound of Miss Xian'er's piano music vividly. I admire you!"
"Mr. Ouyang..."
"Mr. Ouyang..."
The flattery was endless, and Ouyang Changhao seemed to be often flattered like this. He remained calm and composed among the crowd, and returned the compliments one by one with a confident smile.
At this time, someone shouted, "I think everyone has seen the poetry contest, right? Why don't you announce the results?"
It was expected that Mr. Ouyang would win this round. Just as the girl on the stage was about to speak, the fat man rushed up, shook the pure gold pig card on his chest, raised his fat little hand, and whispered, "Wait a minute, everyone. I, Zhu Jindou, have another poem!"
"Zhu Jindou?"
"Who is Zhu Jindou?"
Looking at the fat man in the sky, the writers in the audience were confused. But some of the merchants around recognized him:
"Isn't this the son of the old Zhu family in the west of the city? How did he end up among those pedants?"
"The old Zhu family?"
"Don't you know? His father is the largest tenant in the Jiangnan area. He has properties in Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Xuzhou. He has thousands of acres of fertile land and countless livestock. His family business is bigger than countless wealthy merchants in Jiangnan. Did you see that pig sign? It's made of glazed gold, weighing three pounds and six taels, and it would be worth a thousand gold ingots."
"Wow! So rich? Why did that kid run to the group of literati? Is he going to write poetry?"
"It's a bit strange. I have some friendship with the Zhu family. I only heard that this kid is born stingy, but I haven't heard that he has knowledge of poetry. I guess he is just trying to attract attention."
Not to mention his identity, just looking at the fat boy's clothes, he doesn't look like someone who can write poetry.
"Go down quickly. With your money-grubbing body, you want to write better poems than Mr. Ouyang? I think you should spend more money to buy the guqin."
The little fat man retorted: "What are you yelling about? I haven't said anything yet. How do you know that my poems are not good?"
"Okay! We'll see what you can do."
"Listen carefully! Ahem..." The little fat man pretended to clear his throat, "The fairy sound falls from the sky, soothes people and makes them sleep. If you listen carefully, you don't know where it is. There is a pearl curtain every ten feet."
"The fairy sound falls from the sky, soothes people and makes them sleep. If you listen carefully, you don't know where it is. There is a pearl curtain every ten feet..."
It's just a poem. The people below couldn't help but repeat it softly. After tasting it carefully, they were speechless.
This poem really has some charm. It is really hard to tell which is better than Mr. Ouyang's poems. Maybe this poem is even better.
We are all discerning people, and it is easy to compare the quality of poems, but it is hard to believe that such poems come from the fat boy on the stage.
"Hey! How is it? How is my poem? What do you have to say?"
No one answered.
The fat boy looked at the girl on the stage, and the girl smiled gently.
"This Mr. Zhu's poems are also good. Whether Mr. Zhu's poems are better or Mr. Ouyang's poems are better, it depends on Miss Xian'er to judge personally. Everyone, please be patient, and I will go to listen to Miss Xian'er's opinion."
After that, the girl was about to leave the stage, but Ouyang Changhao put away his folding fan and walked over, saying in a low voice: "Wait!"
This is interesting!
The girl was also a little surprised: "Mr. Ouyang, what is this?"
"I have a few words to ask Mr. Zhu."
After all, the poem was not written by him, and Zhu Jindou felt a little guilty: "You...what else do you have to say? You can't afford to lose?"
"No, no, I just want to ask Mr. Zhu a few very simple questions. I wonder if Mr. Zhu would be so kind as to answer them?"
"Then...then ask."
"Is this poem really written by you?"
"Of course...who else could it be?"
"Oh? In this case, I guess you must have a very deep foundation in poetry, right?"
"Need I say more?"
"Excuse me, what kind of poetry did you write before?"
"Poetic style...this..." The fat boy only knew a few words, and had never heard of poetic style, so how could he know? When asked by the other party, he immediately broke out in a sweat.
"Sir, why are you so hesitant? Don't you know the most basic form of poetry?"
"I, I, I... Of course I know. But why should I tell you?"
At this point, Ouyang Changhao had made up his mind and sighed that what he thought was right. His eyes suddenly became stern, and he opened his folding fan and scolded: "Little Fatty, you are so bold! How can we, the literati, show off our prestige by borrowing other people's works in this elegant occasion! If you don't even know the most basic five-character quatrain, how can you write poetry? Do you think all the literati here are blind?"
"You, you, you... What do you mean? Don't talk nonsense?!"
" You are still stubborn! Do you dare to say that you wrote the poem just now? Well, if you have the ability, you can write another one. I will give you one stick of incense. If you can do it, I, Ouyang Changhao, will kowtow to you to apologize. If you can't do it..."
"Hey, hey, hey! Okay, okay, I admit it!" The little fat man couldn't stand the questioning, and pointed at Xia Shang with his head down, "The poem just now was written by Xia Chunqiu, and I gave him twenty taels of silver."
Not far away, Yazhi exclaimed in a low voice: "Oh no! How did he betray the young master? !"
Treating poems as a business, and in such an occasion, the literati present were a little annoyed.
"The poem is a good poem, but the person is not a good person!"
"Treating poems as a business is really insulting!"
"This Xia Chunqiu has a unique name, how can he be so mercenary?"
During the conversation, everyone's eyes fell on Xia Shang.
There were many people present, so inevitably some of them knew Xia Shang. When they saw Xia Shang's face, many people felt familiar, as if they had seen him somewhere, but they had never heard of the name "Xia Chunqiu".
"Xia Chunqiu?" The woman behind the bead curtain upstairs came out lightly, moved closer to the corridor, gently lifted the bead curtain and took a look, "Is this Xia Chunqiu who left after that incident? He looks handsome."
Others were still a little unsure about Xia Shang's identity, but when Ouyang Changhao locked his eyes on Xia Shang, his face changed instantly!
"Xia Shang!"
With a cry of surprise, everyone present reacted.
"It's Xia Shang!"
"It's really Xia Shang!"
"Xia Shang is not dead!"
The hall was in an uproar.
"Mom, is the 'Xia Shang' that everyone is talking about the dandy who bought the famous prostitute of Liuyue Tower for 100,000 gold but ended up ruining his family?" The eyes behind the pearl curtain were even more curious. Thinking of the previous poem and the rumors in Yangzhou, the corners of her mouth curled up, "I must ask him to come over and take a good look later."