Inside the Jade Spring Pavilion, the desolation of the candle burning to ashes had not yet completely dissipated, and the smell of burnt paper ash and sighs still drifted in the air.
Xie An's hand had just withdrawn from Xu Qinghuan's palm, and the fish tally, which symbolized half of the Xie family's empire, was now heavily resting in Xu Qinghuan's hand.
The scholars around had just straightened their backs, preparing to use rhetorical words to congratulate this leader of the literary world.
Tap.
A very light, crisp sound.
The sound wasn't loud, but in the lingering atmosphere of this crowded hall, this single sound abruptly cut off all the clamor.
Dai Wenbo, who had just prepared to open his mouth to flatter, had his mouth half open, but forcefully didn't make a sound.
Everyone subconsciously looked towards the sound.
In the shadows of the main seat on the high platform, a young master who hadn't spoken much had been sitting there all along.
Previously, everyone only thought he was some noble youth from the capital, here to join in the fun.
At this moment, he was slowly placing a white jade wine cup on the table.
That was the source of the sound just now.
This person was wearing a dark purple brocade robe. The material didn't look conspicuous, but the dark light flowing when he moved showed it was the priceless Floating Light Brocade.
Hanging from his waist was an azure dragon jade pendant, incredibly old in its quality, with only one character carved on it: Xu.
He just sat there, with no intention of getting up, and didn't even raise his eyelids much, but his gaze pierced through the fireworks of this crowded hall and nailed straight onto Xu Qinghuan.
Zhao Tai, who had originally been sitting with his legs crossed watching the show, upon seeing this person make a move, stood up with a swoosh and retreated to the side with his hands down, not even daring to breathe loudly.
Even Xie An, whose face had just been written full of emotion, now had a few more traces of solemnity, and a trace of dread flashed through his cloudy old eyes.
The air pressure in the hall visibly dropped.
The young master finally opened his mouth, his voice gentle, with not the slightest hint of anger to be heard.
"From the Xu family of Jingzhao, Ping generation, named Pingwen."
As soon as these nine words came out, the scene instantly exploded.
The teacups in the hands of several elder family heads were shaking.
The Xu family of Jingzhao.
She quickly went through the genealogy of the powerful and noble in the Great Qian Dynasty in her mind, and her heart skipped a beat.
Xu Pingwen seemed very satisfied with this dead silence. He slightly tilted his head, and his gaze swirled around Xu Qinghuan's red dress.
"County Princess Xu's talent is absolutely stunning. The poem just now, 'Hard it is to meet, and hard to part,' truly breaks one's heart."
He had a smile on his lips, but his eyes were very cold.
"It's just that, this candle burning to ashes is a bit too miserable. Tonight is the auspicious day of the Little New Year. With both the Qinhuai River scenery and the bright moon in the sky, if we only leave behind a ground of desolation, wouldn't it be a disappointment to this beautiful scenery and good time?"
As he spoke, his fingers lightly tapped twice on the table.
"This young master has specially come to ask the County Princess for one last poem to conclude tonight. It must both suppress the talent filling this hall and wash clean the sorrow filling this city."
Xu Pingwen leaned forward slightly, and the oppressive aura of a superior rushed over.
"County Princess Xu, what do you think?"
These words sounded like a discussion, but in reality, it was a forced abdication.
If she couldn't compose it, or if what she composed didn't carry enough weight, then all the previous buildup would become a laughingstock.
Even whether this Hundred Flowers Pavilion could survive tonight in Jiangnan rested on this person's single thought.
Xu Qinghuan cursed profusely in her heart.
Are these powerful nobles all sick? Coming one after another, is there no end to it?
"System! Come out and work!"
She roared crazily in her heart.
"Don't give me those flashy but useless things. This time it's a tough opponent. Bring out the best you have at the bottom of the box! I want the kind that can slap his face swollen and make him never want to hear a poem again for the rest of his life!"
The system panel flashed blue light, and the mechanical voice was icy cold with no fluctuation.
"Retrieving the pinnacle of the literature library..."
"Retrieval complete. Recommendation: 'Spring River in the Flower Moon Night'."
Xu Qinghuan glanced at the introduction below: A single piece that suppresses the entire Tang Dynasty. Zhang Ruoxu shocked the past and present with this one piece. It contains the philosophy of heaven and earth, enough to shatter the worldview of mortals.
She looked at the price again.
One hundred thousand taels.
Xu Qinghuan's eyes went black, and she almost fainted on the spot.
One hundred thousand taels of silver!
The little fortune she had just earned would all have to be thrown in, not even leaving a single copper coin!
"Sys, you are robbing during a fire! Are you a vampire?!"
"Host, please note that the artistic conception of this poem is grand, involving the universe and space-time, so the copyright fee is extremely high. Expensive, naturally, has the reason for being expensive. Do you want to exchange?"
Xu Qinghuan glanced at Xu Pingwen opposite, who had an expression of having her completely figured out, and then glanced at the noble youths around waiting to see her make a joke.
If she swallowed this breath, she wouldn't be Xu Qinghuan.
"Exchange!"
She crushed her back molars in her heart, every word carrying hatred.
"Exchange for this old lady! Even if I go bankrupt today, I will let these country bumpkins know what a dimensional strike is!"
With a ding.
The account was cleared to zero.
The feeling of heartache was too real. Xu Qinghuan's face instantly turned pale white, and even her lips lost their color.
She took a deep breath, forcibly holding back the urge to clutch her chest, squat down, and cry out loud.
To cover up this pain, she violently turned around, waved her large sleeve, and didn't even dare to look at Xu Pingwen once.
"Since Young Master Xu wants to hear it, then this County Princess will let you hear enough."
Xu Qinghuan's voice trembled a bit; that was from the heartache of losing money.
But to others listening, this voice carried a sense of resoluteness and solemnity.
She walked step by step towards the terrace outside the Jade Spring Pavilion.
Li Sheng, carrying the empty box in his hand, followed behind with a bewildered face.
"Eldest Miss, the money... the money is all gone. Are we still burning?" Li Sheng lowered his voice and asked trembling.
Xu Qinghuan had her back to him, looking at the pitch-black river surface outside.
Perhaps even God felt that her one hundred thousand taels was spent too unjustly, as a crack suddenly opened in the originally heavy dark clouds.
A full moon hung abruptly over the Qinhuai River just like that.
The river water was instantly lit up, sparkling.
"Burn."
Xu Qinghuan looked at that moon, her eye sockets turning red.
"Burn all those IOUs that haven't been cashed yet! As long as it's paper with words on it, throw it all into the basin!"
Li Sheng didn't dare to ask more. He tremblingly took out a stack of IOUs from his bosom and set them on fire.
The firelight lit up again.
Xu Qinghuan leaned on the white marble railing, the river breeze messing up the gold buyao on her head, making a jingling sound.
She closed her eyes, and every word of that poem worth one hundred thousand taels surfaced in her mind.
"The spring river tide water... levels with the sea."
The first sentence came out.
The sound wasn't loud, but borrowing the river breeze, it was sent into the ears of everyone in the hall.
Xu Pingwen, who had originally been whispering, slightly paused his fingers holding the wine cup.
This opening... what a big tone.
Levels with the sea?
Is this trying to pull the vision straight from the petty sentiments of this Qinhuai River to the ten-thousand-mile sea territory?
Xu Qinghuan didn't stop. Her heart ached terribly, and she only wanted to quickly finish reciting and leave.
"The bright moon on the sea... rises together with the tide."
The second sentence followed closely.
Boom!
A huge picture scroll slowly unfolded before everyone's eyes.
There was no romantic love, no family or national grievances.
There was only that bright moon rising from the sea, accompanied by the tide, mighty and majestic, cleansing the human world.
"Sparkling and rippling along with the waves for thousands of miles, where on the spring river is there no bright moonlight!"
Xu Qinghuan's voice rose a few pitches.
The brazier in Li Sheng's hands was burning vigorously, reflecting upon her bright red dress and making it exceptionally striking by the cold, silent riverside.
The scholars in the hall had unconsciously stood up, craning their necks, speechless.
Such artistic conception... such spirit...
This was simply not something a mortal could write!
However, the true killing blow had just begun.
Looking at that solitary moon, Xu Qinghuan thought about how she had worked herself to the bone in this world for the system's mission, and how these hundred thousand taels of silver had just gone down the drain.
A sense of powerlessness welled up in her heart.
"Who by the riverside first saw the moon? In what year did the river moon first shine upon men?"
This question made all the great scholars in the hall tremble.
Xie An abruptly closed his eyes. The string of Buddhist prayer beads he had handled for twenty years snapped with a sharp crack.
The beads scattered all over the floor, but no one moved to pick them up.
This was questioning the heavens!
This was questioning the eternal, unchanging time, questioning this insignificant human life!
The smile on Xu Pingwen's face completely vanished.
The fingers gripping his wine cup turned pale, and for the first time, terror appeared in his eyes.
How was this a poem?
This was telling these self-proclaimed noble elites that in the face of time, their so-called powerful families and glory were absolutely nothing!
Xu Qinghuan did not care at all about what they were thinking.
Immersed in her own pain, her speaking speed grew faster and faster.
"Generations of men come and pass away endlessly, but the river moon looks the same year after year."
"I know not for whom the river moon waits, I only see the Yangtze River sending off its flowing waters."
Every single word struck heavily upon everyone's heart.
That sense of loneliness, so grand it induced despair, came crashing down overwhelmingly.
Xie Yunwan's ode to the snow from earlier seemed pitifully weak in front of this poem.
The paper in the brazier burned out.
Xu Qinghuan's money was gone, too.
Watching the very last spark extinguish, she slowly uttered the final two lines.
"I know not how many return riding the moonlight, the falling moon shakes with emotion, filling the river trees."
Her voice faded.
The wind stopped.
The entirety of Spring Jade Pavilion fell into a deathly silence.
No one cheered, no one clapped.
Everyone stared blankly at that red silhouette on the terrace.
They were truly stunned silly.
In the face of this masterpiece that could overshadow an entire era, any praise seemed pale, and any applause seemed superfluous.
Crack.
A crisp sound broke the dead silence.
The white jade wine cup in Xu Pingwen's hand was actually crushed to pieces by his bare grip.
The shards pierced his palm, and blood flowed down through his fingers, dripping onto the desk, but he remained completely oblivious.
He stared fixedly at Xu Qinghuan. The contempt in his eyes had long vanished, leaving only shock and dread.
This woman... absolutely cannot be spared!
If she were allowed to enter the imperial court, even as a woman, the literary world of the Great Qian Dynasty would likely have to change its surname to Xu!
On the terrace.
Xu Qinghuan turned around.
Her face was deathly pale; she was truly so heartbroken over her money that she was about to faint.
She did not even spare a glance at Xu Pingwen, nor did she look at those great scholars who had been shocked to their knees all over the floor.
Right now, she just wanted to go home.
She just wanted to find a secluded corner and cry for a while holding her empty chest.
"Li Sheng."
Xu Qinghuan waved her hand weakly, her voice utterly devoid of strength.
"Pack up... let's go."
After saying that, she lifted the hem of her skirt and walked outward with unsteady steps.
That appearance, however, fell into the eyes of the crowd and took on a completely different interpretation.
"That is the weakness of having exhausted one's heart's blood!"
"That is the arrogance of a banished immortal disdaining to associate with mortals!"
"She doesn't even give face to Young Master Xu, what remarkable strength of character!"
The crowd automatically parted to make a path, their eyes filled with awe.
Looking straight ahead, Xu Qinghuan drifted out of the doors of the Spring Jade Pavilion.
Even after that bright red silhouette disappeared into the night.
Still, no one in the hall dared to speak.
Xu Pingwen sat in the seat of honor, looking at the jade fragments on the floor, and did not move for a long time.
At this moment.
Dai Wenbo of the Yuelu Academy suddenly felt his knees give way, and he knelt down heavily toward the direction of the doorway.
Thud!
His forehead struck the floorboards, letting out a loud sound.
He lifted his head, his face covered in tear stains. His voice was hoarse, yet he used all the strength in his body to shout out a single sentence:
"After this night... there is no more poetry in the Great Qian!"
(Babies!! There is still one more chapter today!
I personally felt a bit sad writing today's final chapter, because I have truly poured so much of my heart and blood into this book! And also because of the love from so many of you babies!
I am very sorry for not updating for a day; I wanted to give you a surprise, so I went to polish the content (=m=)
I hope you will like it! Please ask for more updates! If the last chapter gets posted and we can reach ten thousand update requests tomorrow, I will explosively release fifteen chapters!!)
