Chapter 36: North and South

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  The previous two chapters have been revised, please take a look. If you have any opinions, feel free to mention them, thank you all for your encouragement.

  Old saying, recommendation, cough cough, reward, is there?

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  With Yiyun's sudden departure, there were only four people left in the house.

  Fu Jiong, Xiang Liang, Wei Zao, Feng Youli.

  Feng Youli looked at Wei Zuo with a cold smile on his face, as if he was playing with a mouse, full of mockery.

  Fu Yan pursed his lips, gritted his teeth, and blinked rapidly. He was finding it extremely hard to bear in his heart, if not for fear of being impolite, he would have rushed out and burst into laughter a long time ago.

  The little girl looked at the already formed carving, her eyes shining brightly, and she was thinking about how to get the young master to give this carving to her.

  He stared at the carved face, the blade extending the arc of his eyes, slowly sliding, and a little bit of debris gently rose and fell.

  His face twitched violently, he felt that he had used all his strength to throw a punch, but it hit the air, the stifling gas in his chest, suffocating him and making his face flush bright red.

  The surroundings were quiet, his words fell on deaf ears, Fu Yang looked up to study the beam structure, Xiao Yatou stared at Wei Zuo's hands with careful thoughts rolling, Wei Zuo's eyes were solemn and he was already unaware of his surroundings. No one paid attention to him, no one looked at him, and no one responded to his words.

  His face was burning with shame and embarrassment, making him furious.

  "Hmm hmm hmm! Good good good! You're good! Very good!"

  Sealed with courtesy, gritting his teeth, his mind was already unable to think, except for anger, anger, still anger.

  "Brother Wei, this couplet is very particular. According to its purpose, it can be divided into general couplets and special couplets; according to the number of words, it can be divided into short couplets, medium couplets, and long couplets; according to techniques, it can be divided into antithetical couplets, rhetorical couplets, and skillful couplets; according to its source, it can be divided into collected sentence couplets, collected character couplets, excerpted sentence couplets, and created couplets."

  Feng Youli suppressed his anger and stood in front of Wei Zuo with a didactic tone, gently swaying his feather fan.

  "Duizi also has different numbers of words, one word, two words, three words, four words, five words, and even ten or twenty. It is also divided into seasonal couplets, Chunlian (Spring Festival couplet), Xia Lian (Summer couplet), Qiu Lian (Autumn couplet), Dong Lian (Winter couplet)……" He didn't believe that Wei Zhao could endure it forever.

  Wei Zhuo held the already carved statue in his hand, listening to Feng Youli's speech with great interest. The profoundness of Chinese culture was something he had never experienced before. He used to only chase after those elusive numbers and aside from the mandatory Tang poems and Song lyrics in his textbooks, he knew little else. Now, as he listened to Feng Youli's words, he found it quite interesting and gained a lot from it.

  With a self-satisfied smile, he glanced at Wei Zhao's bewildered expression and continued with an air of superiority, "There are different types of couplets: antithetical, parallel, and tonal..."

  Wei Zao is very clever when interacting with people, handling various complicated things or data, he can handle them easily. However, for some reason, no matter how politely it's said, he listens to the front and forgets the back, listens to the back and forgets the front, and always can't remember.

  Wei Xiao shook his head in his heart, guessing that it might be because he had been too lazy recently and his memory was starting to degenerate.

  Fu Jiong listened with great interest, now he was numb to Feng Youwei's politeness due to his nervous breakdown. He rubbed his temples and sighed, some people were looking for death, and no one could stop them.

  "It's true that Wei Gongzi is not good at fighting." Suddenly, a clear and crisp voice rang out, and a figure in a green shirt appeared beside Wei Zhao.

  Wei Zhao raised her head and looked over, slightly stunned. Just then, she saw a faint mole at the corner of Yiyun's mouth, which added a subtle charm to her gentle and elegant demeanor, making her look enchanting and pure, giving people an instinctual urge.

  With a courteous bow, a flash of amusement in his eyes, he turned to face Yiyun with a gentle smile: "If that's the case, then I also can't force someone against their will."

  She held a package wrapped in yellow cloth strips in her hand, and her small eyes also showed confusion. Apparently, she didn't quite understand what had just happened after leaving.

  With a gentle smile, the enchanting one walked up to Wei Zhao's side, her slender hand like white porcelain jade picking up the brush, but suddenly turned her head and said to Xiangqiang with a smile: "You come write."

  Xiao Yatou was taken aback, seeing Wei Zhao nodding, and hastily made a sound of "oh", took over a piece of Xuan paper, still placed on the messy couplets of Yi Yun, grasped the brush and started writing.

  Two three four five, six seven eight nine ten

  He walked over with a polite face and no expression, took a quiet glance at Yiyun's peerless beauty, his throat moved slightly, and quickly dropped his gaze to the rice paper.

  He glanced at Wei Xiao's back, where his carving was, and smiled in his eyes. He softly said to Feng Youli, "Please write a concise and meaningful horizontal inscription."

  Feng Youli smiled and nodded, looking at the eight crooked characters written by Xiang Qiang. At first, he frowned, then suddenly looked stunned, feeling a bit strange, and looked at Xiang Qiang in surprise, carefully sizing him up.

  A couplet consisting entirely of numbers is not impossible, but it's not common either. This sentence, however, is a natural combination, extremely simple yet extremely bizarre.

  Feng Youli furrowed her brow and closed her eyes in deep thought.

  "Are you being concise?"

  "Nine cows and two tigers? No way!"

  "Double Tenth Day joy? No!"

  "Is something missing from the past? No!"

  "Missing one, less ten? Missing clothes, less food? Hmm, it's just like that!"

  Feng Youli, after all, was a talented young man with a good reputation in Jinling. In an instant, he thought of the horizontal inscription and picked up his brush to write on top of Xiangxiang's character: "Lacking clothes and food"

  After finishing writing, he put down his pen and smiled slightly at Wei Zhao: "What does Brother Wei think?"

  Wei Zhuo glanced over and immediately shook his head, saying: "Not concise enough."

  Originally trying to conceal his pride, Feng Youwei's expression stiffened as he looked at Wei Zuo's seemingly genuine face, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. With a sense of reluctance, he turned his head again to look at the mismatched couple, his eyes cold and sunk in thought.

  The little girl looked at Wei Zhao with a puzzled expression, gently tugging on his sleeve, her big eyes sparkling, meaning: 'Young master, didn't you write it this way too?'

  Wei Zhuo's eyes stared at Feng Youli, motionless and soundlessly placing his finger on his lips, making a low 'shh' sound.

  Although Xiangxiang didn't understand or had never seen this gesture, it didn't hinder her from understanding. Seeing Weizao's serious expression, she couldn't help but steal a sly smile, imitating Weizao, with a straight face, puffed out chest and narrowed eyes staring at Feng Youli.

  Her eyes sparkled as she blinked, and Wei Xiao found this action quite fascinating. The little girl's small eyes also opened wide, her mouth pursed, seemingly finding it rather amusing.

  Feng Youli furrowed his brow, thinking for half a day without coming up with a better horizontal inscription to reflect the original meaning and context of the couplet. He looked at Wei Zhao with a frown and said coldly: "I couldn't think of a more concise horizontal inscription, I wonder if Brother Wei can?"

  Fu Jiong also knew that Wei Xiao's horizontal inscription was actually "lack of clothes and food", at this time he couldn't help but wipe his sweat, worried that the teacher was afraid of losing face, stubbornly denying the couplet inscription, but now he couldn't find a more suitable one.

  Wei Zhao took in the expressions of everyone around him, smiled faintly, stood up, picked up his brush, and heavily wrote two characters on the clean xuan paper.

  North and South!

  Wei Zhao's brushwork is powerful and vigorous, with bold strokes that seem to dance across the page. At first glance, his characters exude a sense of majesty and grandeur that surpasses even the most elegant and refined writing.

  Sealed with a polite gaze, the two words stared at Wei Qiao, pondering for a moment, slightly furrowing his brow, but for a while, he couldn't see the reason, and his eyes flickered.

  She walked over, looking at the two big characters with a majestic aura, her beautiful eyes lit up, and then slightly furrowed her brow, pursing her cherry lips in thought. Before long, she suddenly laughed softly and said: "This horizontal inscription by Young Master Wei is indeed good, truly worthy of being the number one talented scholar of Jinling."

  Wei Zhuo caught sight of Yi Yun's delicate face with a hint of red, her charming and seductive smile, and couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.