Schemes of the Noble Households Chapter 10

The lotus leaves rested on the bank of the stream, and the water flowed over a few green grasses, swirling slightly.

The stream water is so clear that you can see the bottom. A few transparent little fish swim over and peck at the lotus leaves, which is quite interesting.

Adrian Huan sat on the futon, looked around, and finally picked up the wine cup.

A maid had already spread out the paper, rolled up her sleeves and ground ink, waiting for Adrian Huan to produce his masterpiece.

Since the beginning of Qushui Liushang, no good works have appeared. Adrian Huan was about to start writing, which immediately attracted a lot of attention.

A fifteen-year-old boy, dressed in a deep blue robe, sat by the stream, his eyebrows and eyes were picturesque, and he was pretty and quiet. A cinnabar mole on his forehead made him look even more extraordinary, like a phoenix.

Adrian Huan was sickly when he was young. After his enlightenment, he studied with his uncle in Kuaiji County and rarely appeared in Jiankang. Except for Xie Xuan and Wang Xianzhi who were traveling with him, the noble children present were not very clear about his identity.

On the contrary, Sebastian Huan was quite famous in Jiankang for his stupidity.

Seeing the two of them sitting together at this moment, thinking about the rumors before the Shangsi Festival, most people had guesses in their minds.

The nobles were waiting for Adrian Huan to write a poem, while Yu Youzhi and his ilk hoped that Adrian Huan would fail to write one and make a fool of himself in public. The girl in the pavilion asked her maid to lift up half of the veil, looked out at the shore, and occasionally uttered a cry of admiration.

Regardless of whether Adrian Huan was talented or not, his appearance and temperament alone were enough to win people's favor.

"Is this young man the fifth son of the Duke of Nanjun?"

"Looking at his age, he should be good."

"It is said that he once studied under the great scholar Zhou, and was described as 'superiorly intelligent' and 'a talented and beautiful jade'."

"really?"

Several ladies from the aristocratic families were whispering behind a screen, and they all told their servants to copy down Adrian Huan's poems and present them to the emperor as soon as they saw them.

The Yin family girl was also in the pavilion, but she was not liked by everyone. Even the Yin family's sixth daughter, who was quite talented and famous, was not treated as well as before.

It was said earlier that the Yin family's daughter was beautiful and graceful, with a bit of the style of a woman in the woods. Some people even mentioned that Yin's sixth daughter had the style of Xie Daoyun in her early years.

As a result, when Adrian Huan was injured, all the previous praises became a joke.

"How can such a girl be compared with the Xie girl!"

For the sake of her family, Xie Daoyuan was willing to marry Wang Ningzhi. Even though she was dissatisfied with her husband's pedantry, she was able to respect each other and maintain family harmony. She maintained the in-law relationship between the Wang and Xie families and fulfilled her responsibilities as a woman from aristocratic family, making her a role model for young ladies.

In comparison, what the Yin girl did was really disgraceful.

No matter how dissatisfied they were with Sebastian Huan, they should not have sat by and watched the son of the Yu family commit murder. Because of this incident, rumors arose, and even if Princess Nankang agreed not to send them to become nuns, the middle-ranking and above nobles in Jiankang would not easily marry them.

Why did the aristocratic families intermarry with each other?

The first is to consolidate the relationship between each other, and the second is to value the virtues of women.

Only a mistress with good moral character, elegance and intelligence can support the inner court of the nobles and educate talented and virtuous men and women. A woman like the Yin family's willful and reckless woman who brings trouble to the family will never be considered a good candidate for a legitimate wife.

Madam Yin Kang returned home from Huan Mansion and fell ill that day and has been bedridden ever since.

It's more of a mental illness than a physical weakness.

In any case, she was born into a middle-class aristocratic family and was taught poetry and literature since childhood. If something happened to the girl of the Yin family, people would suspect that she was not well-educated and her family would be implicated.

With such a reputation, it is not surprising that no one wants to talk to the Yin girl.

The former friends ignored them, and the Yin girls were embarrassed. In order to avoid being labeled as willful, they could not walk away, and they felt more and more like a heavy stone was pressing on their hearts, and they were extremely wronged.

As the wine was flowing in the winding stream, the girls' attention was attracted and the Yin girl could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Seeing the lotus leaf stop in front of Adrian Huan, the girls smiled and commented on this young man in the pavilion, mostly with words of praise. Yin Shi Liuniang clenched her sleeves tightly, thinking of the glimpse she had outside the window of Huan Mansion that day, and her eyes were filled with contempt.

Military strategists are so vulgar, how can they write good poems!

In fact, Adrian Huan did not have poetic talent, but he had a rich "reservoir of knowledge". Although people nowadays appreciate four-character poems more, the masterpieces of the immortal poets, the sage poets, the king of poets, and the Buddha poets, although with a new style, still have the opportunity to amaze the audience.

But should we do this?

Facing the spread of white paper, several ideas flashed through Adrian Huan's mind. He picked up the pen with one hand and placed it on the paper with his wrist suspended. His brows slightly furrowed, and the ink lingered for a long time.

Yu Xuan put down his wine cup and was about to speak, but heard a sneer from the other side: "How can a fool like you write a poem? It would be better for you to drink three cups of wine as punishment and leave the table with shame. Otherwise, you will waste the precious spring time by pretending to be righteous."

Adrian Huan raised his head and looked towards the other side of the river. He found that it was Yu Youzhi who spoke, and there was no surprise on his face.

What is meant to come will always come.

He had long thought that Yu Youzhi would not be honest or polite during the Shangsi Festival.

Sebastian Huan immediately became furious.

"Yu Youzhi, you are so unreasonable!"

Yu Youzhi thought Adrian Huan was unable to compose a poem and mocked him on the spot.

Seeing Sebastian Huan slamming the table and standing up, with the collar of his robe ripped open, his face flushed, veins bulging on his forehead, and a look of anger, he intended to provoke him to make a fool of himself in front of everyone, and his sarcastic words became even more poisonous.

"You idiot, you want to reason with me? Is it possible that you can talk smoothly?" He laughed loudly after saying this.

That’s not all, we also have to drag everyone present here into this.

"Can you ask everyone here, am I being unreasonable, or is your idiotic brother incompetent?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's faces changed slightly, and most of them were dissatisfied with Yu Youzhi.

During the Shangsi Festival, when wine was flowing down the river, Adrian Huan was not the only one who could not come up with a poem. In previous years, others were often punished with drinking. Yu Youzhi's words were too much of a blow, and even the young man who had come up with the poem looked unhappy.

Everyone says that the Huan family is arrogant, but this Yu family member is really arrogant. He ridiculed others in public and said such immoral things, which simply disgraced the Yu family!

As the saying goes, don't hit someone in the face, and don't expose someone's weaknesses when scolding them.

The aristocratic families have their own rules for doing things, and even if they cannot be humble gentlemen, they must be open and honest.

Sebastian Huan was indeed known as a fool, but the noble young man in Wuyi Lane rarely spoke ill of him. On the contrary, people like Yu Youzhi would think they had found the opponent's weakness and ridicule him every time they met him. Little did they know that he was the laughing stock in the eyes of others.

"you!"

Sebastian Huan was so angry that he picked up the wine cup and was about to throw it to the other side. Before he could move, Adrian Huan grabbed his elbow.

"Don't be fooled, brother. He is deliberately provoking you."

"Brother, let me go!" Sebastian Huan bit his cheek tightly, "I must teach him a lesson today!"

You can mock him, but you can never mock his brothers!

Even if he gets a bad reputation, he will get rid of this anger!

Adrian Huan couldn't stop him and could only wink at A Gu. At this moment, the strong servant who accompanied him came in handy.

I have to admire myself for being so foresighted.

Yu Youzhi still felt that it was not chaotic enough and continued to utter bad words. Xie Xuan came forward to stop him and pressed Yu Youzhi's shoulder with one hand, and the latter immediately turned pale.

Qin Jing put down his wine cup, picked up a sand apple, bit off half of it with a snap, and glanced at Yu Youzhi as if he was looking at a clown.

With such a character, is he worthy of being classified as a noble family?

"My cousin must be drunk. Please don't bother with him." Yu Xuan called the maidservant and asked her to go over to the river to watch over Yu Youzhi. "If my cousin is in trouble, I will take care of it for you."

"promise."

Adrian Huan nodded, he understood this. He even whispered in Sebastian Huan's ear: "Brother, if a dog bites you, no matter how angry you are, you can't bite it back."

Sebastian Huan was stunned. He loosened his strength in struggling and kicked over the wine bottle.

In the chaos, several maids had their skirts wet by the wine and had to retreat temporarily.

Adrian Huan bowed to Xie Xuan from a distance, without even looking at Yu You. Without the help of a maid, he spread out the paper himself and wrote down the four lines: "Spring is late, the flowers and trees are lush. The orioles are busy picking the flowers."

This poem is from "The Book of Songs·Xiaoya·Chu Che", which is a eulogy for spring.

"I am young and not as good at poetry as you are. I can only express my feelings by quoting ancient poems. I hope you will not laugh at me."

"This is against the rules. Rongdi must drink a penalty drink." Yu Xuan said immediately.

After his interruption, the atmosphere on the scene turned good again. Many nobles raised their glasses and asked Adrian Huan to drink a penalty drink with a smile.

"I will punish myself with three cups of wine."

Adrian Huan first picked up the wine cup and drank it all. Then he took another cup and drank it all on the spot. His movements were smooth and unrestrained.

After the three cups were drunk, everyone present applauded.

"good!"

Amid the laughter, the initial unhappiness instantly dissipated.

A noble young man glanced at Yu Youzhi, whose face was livid, and sneered, ignoring him. Even those who had agreed with him before turned their heads away, not wanting to have anything to do with him.

Adrian Huan did not write poetry, but his manners and speech were elegant and graceful, with the demeanor of a great man, and his bearing was half as great as Yu Youzhi's. Even if such a man had no talent, he was worth making friends with.

Besides, how could a man who was once praised by the great scholar Zhou be without talent?

It's the most ridiculous thing in the world!

The lotus leaf was pushed away from the shore and slowly floated towards the next young man from a noble family.

Adrian Huan did not write any new poems, so naturally they would not be copied. When Yu Xuan got the original text, he glanced at it and immediately felt less drunk.

"Brother Rong, which great scholar did you learn this calligraphy from?"

Wang Xianzhi was sitting on the left side of Yu Xuan. He turned around after hearing what was said. After just one glance, he immediately stood up and snatched Adrian Huan's calligraphy. He read it and praised: "The brushstrokes are strong, each word has bones, and the strokes are straight and beautiful. Good, very good!"

He was so eager to show his talent that he asked someone to spread out the brush and ink and wrote a poem on the spot. He then handed it to Adrian Huan and said with a smile: "This calligraphy is for Rong brother. Rong brother, please give me this one."

Adrian Huan held Wang Xianzhi's calligraphy and immediately felt as if he was hit by a gold brick. He felt dizzy and his eyes were full of Kong Fangxiong.

When he was young, he was forced by his grandfather to learn calligraphy. He practiced regular script for several years and could barely write well when he was older. Unexpectedly, he could catch the eye of a great talent like Wang Xianzhi.

Is this like planting flowers with care but having them not bloom, or planting willows by accident but having them grow into a shade?

If you think about it carefully, this is not difficult to understand.

Regular script originated from official script, which only appeared in the late Han Dynasty and gradually became the most popular style of calligraphy from the Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Adrian Huan's writing skills were not even one thousandth of Wang Xianzhi's, but his imitation of Liu style became a model for later generations. To have even a little bit of style was already a treasure in the eyes of someone like Wang Xianzhi.

The value lies not in "quality" but in "newness".

Wang Xianzhi obtained the treasure and admired it together with his brother, and refused to show it to others.

Xie Xuan and others couldn't resist their curiosity and went over to watch. Those who were good at calligraphy naturally nodded, while those who were not good at it just watched the fun.

Qin Jing looked at the ink on the paper, turned to Adrian Huan, who was still a little embarrassed, and his eyes lit up. It was rumored that except for Huan Mi, most of the children of the Huan family only knew military skills but not literature, which was probably a lie.

Adrian Huan felt a little uncomfortable after suddenly becoming the center of attention. In addition, he was drunk, so he simply excused himself to leave the table temporarily and was helped by a child to a secluded place to calm down.

Sebastian Huan didn't think too much about it. His previous anger and frustration were swept away, and he looked at the other side with pride. Seeing Yu Youzhi's face as black as the bottom of a pot, he drank several cups of wine in a row, and he felt very happy.

About two quarters of an hour later, the maid returned from changing clothes and sat down beside the low couch. Adrian Huan was a little late, and everyone thought he was drunk, so they didn't pay much attention to him.

Several gentlemen produced excellent works one after another. Adrian Huan felt relaxed and leaned on the edge of the couch in a daze. He broke off a piece of rice seed and almost poked it into his nostril.

I could drink quite a bit in my previous life, but I can't in this life.

Even though the alcohol content of the wine is not high, after three glasses of wine, people look double. Also, I have to think carefully about whether the words I wrote today will be exposed when I get home and how to explain them to others when they ask about it...

A Gu handed over the cloth and suddenly asked curiously, "My dear, where is your jade?"

Jade?

Adrian Huan subconsciously reached for his waist and looked down, only to find that the warm jade that was originally tied under his belt was nowhere to be seen.