Fortunate Young Gentleman

The main building of Tianranju is built on the water and covers a very large area. There are passages from all directions of the small lake leading to the main building.

After entering the main building, Tang Ning threw the sign to Xiao Jue, and soon a servant respectfully took them to a room upstairs.

When she came up, Tangning noticed that the crowd below was bustling and very lively, so she casually asked, "What are you doing down there?"

"The Lantern Festival Poetry Party." Xiao Jue said casually after sitting down: "In order to attract customers, Tiantianju holds a Lantern Festival Poetry Party every year on the Lantern Festival. The leader can win generous prizes. I don't know what this year's prize will be. Judging from their appearance, they should be quite thin..."

As soon as Xiao Jue finished speaking, a burst of noise suddenly came from outside the door.

At the entrance of the Accord, a waiter asked: "Two young gentlemen, there are already distinguished guests in this Accord. I will give you another room..."

A young man looked at him with a frown and asked, "We obviously came early, why didn't we let them change?"

Xiao Jue opened the door and walked out, asking: "What to change?"

"Young Master Xiao..." When he saw Xiao Yu coming out, the young man's expression changed slightly and he looked at the young man behind him.

The young man smiled, cupped his hands and said, "It's a misunderstanding. Since it's Young Master Xiao, we can just go somewhere else."

Tang Ning saw Xiao Jue stand up and walk out, then walked in again after a while, thinking that the matter had been resolved.

He asked casually: "What's going on?"

Xiao Jue waved his hand and said: "The young master of the Minister of Rites and the second young master of the Tang family are competing with us for positions. The second young master of the Tang family does not have such a big reputation, so it is better to ask his eldest brother to come. Ignore them and order the food first." Bar."

Tangning paused while flipping through the menu, then looked up at him: "Second Young Master of the Tang family?"

Xiao Jue nodded and said, "Tang Zhao is the son of Tang Qi, a native of Dongtai."

Tang Ning handed the menu to Xiao Jue, glanced outside the door, and said, "You come here often, please order."

After Xiao Jue ordered the food, he stood up and opened a window in the Accord. Standing in front of the window, he could see the situation below.

Countless people gathered in front of a high platform. There were many seats on the platform, and people were already taking them. In the middle were a few dancing women. After watching the dance in Hongxiu Pavilion, and looking at this ordinary dance, I always felt that I owed something.

In another pavilion.

After Liu Li sat down, he shook his head and said, "I don't know why Mr. Xiao is here to join in the fun. This location is far inferior to their place."

The young man behind him waved his hand and asked, "How did you go about the thing I asked you to do?"

Liu Li had a look of embarrassment on his face and said, "I don't know why, but my men lost the man yesterday, but don't worry, Er Shao, I have asked them to find him. There have been many people these two days. After the Lantern Festival, I will Let them go to the inns and ask."

Another young man in the Accord showed curiosity on his face and asked: "Who is the second young master looking for? Do you need my help?"

Liu Li looked at him, was startled for a moment, then patted his head and said, "Yes, I would have forgotten if you didn't tell me. Your father is the magistrate of Ping'an County, and this is your territory. It's not easy to find someone..." "

The young man looked at him and said, "Let's not mention this matter for now. Have you finished what I asked you to do?"

Liu Li patted his chest and said: "There are so many people in the capital. If you just throw a brick, you can hit two people who can write poems. I found someone to write the Shangyuan poems half a month ago. There are ten poems in total. The quality is outstanding." Excellent, and I also bribed a judge to ensure that we will only have three songs short of being selected. Don’t worry, no one can compete with us this time!”

Chang Yue said with some surprise: "Tianranju is really willing to give up this time. The leader of this poetry meeting can actually spend an hour with Miss Su Mei. I don't know how many people in the capital are looking forward to this opportunity. I'm afraid tonight will be A battle between dragons and tigers..."

Liu Li had a look of expectation on his face and said: "It is said that at this hour, I can still make some modest demands to Miss Su Mei. If I were me, I would ask her to play a piece for me. Her Xiao Sheng has a magical sound. I have long wanted to see what kind of magic voice it is, but unfortunately I have never had the chance..."

The young man looked at him and said, "If I can come out on top this time, I'll let you see it later."

"Then thank you in advance, Second Young Master..."

The main building of Tianranju has two floors. The loft upstairs and the lobby downstairs have completely different atmospheres.

Young officials gathered in groups around the table, looking at the high platform above and whispering.

"Brother Chen, how about the song you just played?"

"I'm afraid there's not much hope."

"Brother Chen, please be humble. You have been sculpting this poem for several months. How come there is no hope?"

"So what if I have been working on it for several months? The second son of the Tang family came up with ten songs at once. Three of the ten were selected, and they were all ranked at the top. How can this compare?"

A young man patted the table with a slightly angry expression: "Who doesn't know that they all bought their poems, and in order to get the top spot and win the chance to be alone with Miss Su Mei, they even did such a despicable thing? They can do it all, and as fellow scholars, I’m really ashamed of them!”

The person next to him shook his head and sighed: "Forget it, this kind of thing is not something we can participate in..."

In a pavilion upstairs, several richly dressed men were stunned for a long time after hearing the news brought by their servants from below.

"Is Tang Zhao ranked first?"

"That shameless Tang Zhao bought ten songs?"

"If he can compose a song, I will take his surname. Doesn't he have no shame at all?"

Several people in the capital have quite a background, and this time they came for Su Mei. Although they also bought two poems, they were all secretive, and they knew that this was a bit shameless.

But I didn't expect that there is no most shameless, only more shameless. Buying ten poems at a time, the second son of the Tang family is simply shameless to the extreme.

On the high platform, several old men also frowned.

They were invited to be the judges of the Lantern Festival Poetry Festival. Because everyone has different preferences, it is difficult to distinguish the poems. Their task is to select the ten best poems from all the poems tonight, and finally Miss Su Mei will personally select the one she thinks is the best.

Anyone whose poems are selected as the top ten has a chance. Of course, the more poems are included in the top ten, the greater the possibility of being selected by Miss Su Mei.

One of them stroked his long beard and said, "Second Young Master of the Tang Family, this time he is a little bit out of line..."

Another one shook his head and said, "He alone has three poems selected, which is a bit too blatant."

An old man in green raised his eyes and looked at the two of them, and said, "We just need to review the poems. We can't and dare not intervene in the matters above. Regardless of other things, these three poems are indeed qualified to be selected..."

Several people shook their heads and continued to look down at the poems handed over by everyone.

…

Xiao Jue was halfway through his meal when he went downstairs for a walk. When he came back and just sat down, he shook his head and said, “Tang Zhao is too shameless. He actually bought ten poems. It seems that he is determined to win the prize this time!”

Tang Ning put down his chopsticks, looked at him and asked, “Is the prize very generous this time?”

“More than generous, whoever wins the first prize this year will be proud of the whole capital.” Xiao Yu said with some regret, “If I had known that Tianranju would actually take this out as a prize, I would have bought twenty poems from him. It would be worth spending any money.”

He shook his head and said, “Where is Xiao Fu? Come and pour me some wine.”

“Okay.” A voice came from behind him.

Xiao Jue's face changed greatly, he turned around and glared at him, and shouted: "How many times have I told you not to stand behind me in the future? If you stand behind me again, I will break your legs!"

"I'm done eating, you guys eat slowly." Tang Ning wiped his mouth, stood up and walked to the window, sitting at a small table with pens, ink, paper and inkstone on the table. Sitting here, looking out the window, the high platform below is in full view, and the voices of people's discussions are also clearly audible.

"This time, I'm afraid that Master Tang Zhao will win the first prize."

"There's nothing I can do. Who can blame him for being rich and shameless?"

"It's like this every year. What's the point of Tianranju's Lantern Festival poetry meeting?"

...

"Tang Zhao."

This second young master of the Tang family should be the one who instigated the son of the Minister of Rites to make them run half of the capital in vain and deliberately disgust people. Tang Ning sighed lightly, then spread out a piece of paper and picked up a pen.

Enemies meet on a narrow road.

Who doesn't know how to disgust people?

Li Tianlan also stood up and left the table, standing beside him and watching.

A hint of light first appeared in her eyes.

Soon, the light turned into surprise.

Then, the surprise turned into shock.

After a while, the shock began to turn into numbness...

After an unknown amount of time, Tang Ning moved her wrist, waved to the servant standing beside Xiao Jue, and said, "Xiao Fu, come here."