Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Because they knew I had roped in Xie Jinghong as outside help, those rotten baskets of poetry were especially confident today. Not only did they stride into the teahouse with their chests puffed out, they even ran their mouths and added a new wager: whoever lost would have to lead the other side’s horses all the way back to their residence.

“…Let’s go home.”

After listening to Yan Fei relay this, I expressionlessly drew back the leg I had been about to step out of the carriage with and said to Xie Jinghong.

Yan Fei panicked. “Gunainai, you can go back if you want, but leave the old- I mean, Master Xie here!”

“I invited him. I’m not lending him out.”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! Even if we lose, we definitely won’t blame Master Xie for it.” Yan Wan came up and tugged at me. “What kind of people are we? Don’t you know us by now?”

I gave a cold chuckle. “It’s exactly because I know you that I’m even more worried.”

“…” Yan Wan rolled her eyes. “Fine, we’ll swear, all right? If we lose the poetry gathering and take it out on Master Xie, then… then may my face break out in pimples, and may every rare, out-of-print storybook my brother’s hiding be confiscated by Mother. Happy?”

“That’s more like it.”

Only then did I pull Xie Jinghong out of the carriage.

He looked at the hand I had used to grab his sleeve. His expression shifted slightly, but for once, he didn’t say anything about propriety or decorum. He simply let me pull him along.

It wasn’t until we entered the teahouse that I noticed, and I quickly let go.

It would be bad if he thought I was taking advantage of the favor my family had done his and pushing my luck.

Xie Jinghong lowered his eyes and glanced at his now-empty sleeve.

His brows seemed to darken a fraction.

“Outside help?”

From inside the tea pavilion came a sudden sneer. I recognized the voice as belonging to one of the noble scions who always followed Li Shixu around. “This poetry gathering is limited to those who have yet to come of age. In all of Shangjing, who else could possibly rival Brother Shixu? Did you really believe that good-for-nothing Yao Yao could find some poetic genius? They still haven’t shown up at this hour. In my opinion, they know they’re doomed to lose and are too afraid to show their faces!”

“Min Xuan, don’t say that.”

Chaoyun spoke gently. “What if Lady Yao herself comes to exchange verses with us? Grand Minister Yao’s household has produced three jinshi in one family. A tiger father will not have a dog daughter. Perhaps Lady Yao has merely been hiding her talents all this time.”

“Hiding her talents? Who? Yao Yao? That good-for-nothing probably doesn’t even know what hiding one’s talents means!”

The moment he finished, everyone burst into laughter.

Even that dog Feng Yusheng, who couldn’t tell good from bad if it bit him, laughed. I heard him!

I rolled up my sleeves, intending to use practical action to show them that while I might not know what hiding one’s talents meant, I definitely knew what beating them senseless meant.

But Xie Jinghong stepped around the painted screen before I could.

“X-Xie Zhaichang?”

Someone cried out in shock.

The laughter receded like a tide.

The entire teahouse fell dead silent.

I held my head high and chest out as I slipped out from behind Xie Jinghong.

With my chin tilted toward the ceiling, I let out a cold snort.

Our side had known long ago that Xie Jinghong was coming, so their expressions were nothing but smugness layered upon smugness. But the group led by Chaoyun and Li Shixu-oh, their faces were a sight to behold.

They might not have been crushed by Xie Jinghong in every possible way like us wastrel types had been, but anyone around the same age who had studied at the National Academy had lived under Xie Jinghong’s shadow.

Especially Li Shixu.

He and Xie Jinghong had entered the National Academy in the same year. Both came from illustrious families, and both had reputations as precocious prodigies. From the day they enrolled, they had practically been compared by everyone around them.

But of the Six Arts of a gentleman, there wasn’t a single one in which he could beat Xie Jinghong.

Very kindly, we gave him an elegant nickname.

Li the Second.

He himself wasn’t very fond of it.

He went to complain to the teacher.

As a result, every one of us was punished by copying the academy rules twice.

What a sore loser.

Behind my back, he mocked my family, saying that even if we offered a dowry stretching ten li, they still couldn’t marry me off.

I didn’t complain to the teacher.

I merely dumped a bucket of slop over him.

However, the Li Shixu of today no longer wore his emotions as openly as he had back then.

At the very least, after Min Xuan, his number one lackey, angrily spat, “What Zhaichang? He’s just a mud-legged peasant,” Li Shixu could still put on a fake smile and smooth things over.

Chaoyun beside him had a much livelier expression.

“Shock, panic, heartbreak…”

Expressionless, I shoved Yan Fei, who had been narrating beside my ear like a storyteller, farther away.

Thanks to him, Chaoyun couldn’t keep cycling through her expressions anymore either.

She called out haltingly, “Brother Jinghong…”

Xie Jinghong’s gaze did not linger on her.

As if he had not sensed the undercurrents surging through the teahouse at all, he merely raised his hands and gave everyone a meticulous salute.

“I am Xie Jinghong. At Lady Yao’s invitation, I have come to participate in this poetry gathering. Everyone, please.”