Chapter Fifty-Seven: It's Alright If You Don't Like It

  Shuǐ Yǔ Méng sat in front of the guzheng, her slender jade hands casually plucking the strings, and then began to play slowly. In an instant, a melodious guzheng sound filled the room, the melody was beautiful and moving, pleasant to hear.

  Wang Zhi was once again startled by the beautiful sound of the guqin, and Shui Yu Meng's performance was an ancient famous piece, "Mei Hua San Nong". Wang Zhi had heard this piece performed by masters from that era before, but he didn't expect Shui Yu Meng's skills to be comparable to those of the ancient masters.

  When the music ended, everyone in the room applauded and praised. Yang Yilong even smiled and said: "The water girl's piano skills have not been seen for a year, but they are more pure and perfect than before. It's really great, today is worth coming."

  Shui Yu Meng stood up and returned to his seat with a smile: "Thank you, Uncle Yang, for the compliment."

  "Now that we've had our tea and listened to the music, I wonder if Brother Wang would be willing to show off his skills and give us a treat." Chang Shu said with a smile.

  "Well then I'll just scribble something casually, don't laugh at my poor writing, everyone." Wang Zhi heard this and burst out laughing, standing up and walking to the desk on the side.

  "I'll go grind with Wang Xiaoge." Zhuge Ran also stood up and said.

  "Haha, Zhuge, I think you're not convinced by Wang Xiaoge's words." Chang Shu said with a smile.

  "Am I that kind of person?" Zhuge Ran cursed with a smile and walked over to help Wang Zhiyan grind, he was indeed somewhat dissatisfied.

  Wang Zhi randomly pulled out a brush from the pen holder, and upon closer inspection, he was shocked again. The brushes here were also top-quality wolf hair brushes. This Jiangnan Guild Hall was indeed not ordinary.

  Zhuge Yan ground the ink carefully, Wang Zhi picked up his brush and wrote quickly, what he wrote was a piece of cursive script.

  "With a long wind, the waves will be broken at times. Directly hanging cloud sails to cross the blue sea." Zhuge Ran looked at the two sentences of poetry written by Wang Zhi and recited softly, with a sharp light bursting out in his eyes.

  Several others had already gathered around, and upon seeing Wang Zhi's handwriting, they were all shocked. The last time they saw the prescription written by Wang Zhi, they were amazed, but that prescription was only mediocre, with thick penmanship being its only notable feature. Now, Wang Zhi's calligraphy had left several people aghast.

  Wang Zhi's calligraphy is absolutely extraordinary. He has seen many famous calligraphers' authentic works and then added his own unique style, after a long period of accumulation, he has now formed his own school, it can be said that this handwriting is absolutely one of the best in the world today.

  "Good calligraphy, flowing like clouds and water, as if it were naturally created by heaven. Wang Xiaoge's handwriting is absolutely unparalleled." Zhuge Ran carefully evaluated it and softly praised.

  "It's indeed a good piece of calligraphy, and it's not inferior to Wang Xizhi's wild cursive script." Kong Zehui also nodded in agreement.

  "I'm afraid I'll be laughed at, my humble skills are far from being worthy of this grand hall." Wang Zhi hastily said with humility.

  "Haha, no need to be humble, Wang Xiaoge. Your calligraphy is absolutely stunning and makes the others present feel ashamed. I didn't expect that despite your young age, your attainments in calligraphy are so remarkable. You're truly a formidable talent." Chang Shuping laughed and said. As a renowned painter of the contemporary era, although his calligraphy wasn't extremely famous, he also had very deep foundations, and his eyesight was naturally extraordinary.

  "Is there something wrong with Dr. Wang?" Several people finished speaking, and the water rain sprout on one side carefully looked at it for a while, but raised its head to ask King Zhi.

  "This, the Water Girl is indeed formidable." Wang Zhi said with a gentle smile. The two lines of poetry he wrote were from the first of Li Bai's three "Traveling is Hard" poems, written in the third year of Tianbao (744) when Li Bai left Chang'an. The first four lines of the poem describe how friends, out of deep friendship for Li Bai and regret at seeing such a genius abandoned, spared no expense to hold a grand farewell banquet for him.

  The poem uses "ice blocking the river" and "snow filling the mountain" to symbolize the difficulties and obstacles on the road of life, with a sense of metaphor. A person with great political ambitions, when summoned to enter the capital and fortunate enough to approach the emperor, was not used by the emperor and was "bestowed gold and sent back to the mountains", in disguise driven out of Chang'an. At this time, Li Bai's heart was filled with melancholy and his grand aspirations were unfulfilled. However, Li Bai was not a weak character, from "drawing sword and looking around" onwards, he showed that he would not be resigned to defeat, but would continue to pursue, until the end. The sentence "the long wind breaks the waves, there will be times when it hangs on the cloud sail and crosses the Changdao Strait" shows Li Bai's determination. He believed that one day he would achieve his ambitions and return triumphantly.

  Wang Zhi wrote these two lines of poetry not casually, but after a moment of contemplation while Zhuge Ran was grinding medicine. He was moved by the current state of traditional Chinese medicine and expressed his feelings in an indirect way, lamenting its decline on one hand, and also conveying his confidence and determination on the other. He believed that traditional Chinese medicine would one day rise again and achieve new glory.

  However, Wang Zhi's writing is powerful and he is good at controlling his emotions. It is generally difficult for people to discern the meaning behind his words, but unexpectedly, Shui Yu Meng saw through it.

  Everyone heard Wang Zhi and Shui Yu Meng's conversation, and then carefully looked at Wang Zhi's calligraphy again, only to exclaim in surprise. Earlier, several people thought that Wang Zhi was writing random sentences, but now with Shui Yu Meng's reminder, they took another look and were indeed able to see some of Wang Zhi's inner thoughts.

  "There's nothing, I'm just good at figuring out people's hearts. In fact, I didn't just rely on the words you wrote to see through it, but also combined with your expression and actions when writing earlier to make a judgment. If we really talk about calligraphy, I'm just an amateur." Water Rain Meng smiled and said, indeed, Wang Zhi had not intentionally shown anything earlier, but some subtle details would inevitably reveal themselves, and Water Rain Meng was judging from these.

  "Even so, it's still very impressive." Wang Zhi was thoroughly convinced by this girl. Having gone through a long period of time and being an internal martial arts expert, he had already mastered the control of his emotions and inner world, but unexpectedly, in front of this girl, he felt a sense of transparency, which made him feel uneasy. Therefore, Wang Zhi now had a feeling of reverence and caution towards Shui Yu Meng.

  Wang Zhi is distant and respectful towards Shui Yu Meng, but now Shui Yu Meng also doesn't have much good feelings towards Wang Zhi. He thinks that Wang Zhi is too arrogant, with a poem like "Long wind breaks the waves, sometimes hanging clouds to cross the blue sea", such grand words are not something that someone as young as you can casually use to describe yourself.

  After several people sat down again, Wang Zhi and Shui Yu Meng looked at each other with nothing to say, but in fact they were both deliberately keeping a distance from each other. Both of them were self-righteous people, so it was natural that sparks flew when they met for the first time, but these sparks were conflicting ones.

  "Does Wang Xiaoge have any difficulties that can be said, let's see if we can help." After sitting down, Zhuge Ran smiled and asked. He loved calligraphy very much and was also good at writing himself. Now seeing Wang Zhi's handwriting, he naturally felt delighted and had a good impression of Wang Zhi.

  "There's nothing to worry about, just some trivial matters in life that made you all laugh." Wang Zhi said with a smile, he was too foolish to say his concerns in front of everyone, although they were all well-cultivated people, but hearing him, a young man, talk nonsense about revitalizing traditional Chinese medicine would only make them sneer.

  "If there's anything difficult in the future, just speak up and we'll definitely help if we can." Zhuge Ran said with courtesy, although he saw that Wang Zhi was not telling the truth and didn't press for an answer.

  "It's okay, thank you for your concern." Wang Zhi smiled and thanked them. These people were all straightforward and down-to-earth, although they belonged to the cultural circle, but they didn't have the pedantry of cultural people, which suited Wang Zhi's taste.

  After a few people sat down and chatted for a while, it was already time to eat dinner. Chang Shu Ping, who is one of the people in charge of Jiangnan Club, naturally smiled and invited everyone to go eat.

  The dishes at Jiangnan Guild Hall are quite good, the chef is a descendant of the imperial chef of the Qing Dynasty. Several people had a lively discussion at the dinner table again. When Wang Zhi left Jiangnan Guild Hall, it was already 8 o'clock in the evening. Leaving with Wang Zhi were also Zhuge Ran and Shui Yu Meng.

  Wang Zhilai arrived in Jiangyuanhua's car, but Zhuge Ran didn't go home. He just took advantage of the evening to stroll along the West Lake and blew a whistle before leaving. At this time, only Shuimeng was left, and Jiangyuanhua naturally asked: "Miss Shui, how are you going back? Do you want me to send you on your way?"

  "Grandpa Jiang is being polite, I've already made an appointment with my friend and he'll be here to pick me up soon." Shui Yu Meng said politely, not even looking at Wang Zhi as she spoke. Wang Zhi was naturally delighted to have some free time and quietly waited on the side.

  "Then we'll go first, come visit me when you're free." Jiang Yuanhua said politely and got on the car with Wang Zhi.

  Sitting in the car, Wang Zhi couldn't help but curiously ask: "What is Shui Yu Meng's identity? I see you're also being quite polite to him?"

  "Haha, his background is not simple, are you moved?" Jiang Yuanhua smiled and said.

  "How can I put it? I don't like this girl, and in front of him, she has a transparent feeling." Wang Zhi frowned.

  "If you don't like her, that's fine. But if you do, it'll be troublesome. To be honest, I wouldn't have brought you here today if I knew she was coming." Jiang Yuanhua said seriously, speaking the truth. Shui Yu Meng's identity was not ordinary, and she was also very beautiful, with many young talents pursuing her in vain. If Wang Zhi had fallen for her too, he would feel guilty towards him.

  PS: Some book friends saw the female lead appear in the previous chapter and said that the two people before were a bit pitiful. Xiaoxiao could only say that everyone should continue reading, otherwise it would be meaningless. Almost all the characters who appeared in the book are useful, and Xiaoxiao wouldn't waste ink writing about someone like Zhang San or Li Si.