They've all become top scholars in the imperial examinations, and you're telling me this i

Chapter 15 When you reach the end of the watercourse, sit and watch the clouds rise.

The private room fell into a deathly silence!
The laughter and chatter at the table seemed to be abruptly cut off by an invisible hand!
The smiles on the guests' faces froze into masks.

The late-arriving scholar was panting heavily, his chest heaving violently, his voice trembling like rustling leaves in the autumn wind, yet the volume was extremely high.

"Yongxingfang! The Imperial Guards surrounding the Wei residence... have all withdrawn! They just left!"

A deathly silence spread, the air heavy as if filled with molten lead. His voice trembled so much it was almost incoherent, yet he roared out the next sentence with all his might, a thunderous roar echoing in everyone's ears.

"News just came from the palace! It's absolutely true! Wei Zheng! Wei Zheng, the Crown Prince's tutor! He's been... appointed as the Chief Clerk of the Imperial Household Department by the new Crown Prince!"

"Bang!"

A sharp, cracking sound suddenly rang out!
The celadon wine cup in Zhang Changling's hand flew out and slammed onto the table covered with delicacies. It rolled a few times before coming to a stop.

The color drained instantly from his face, leaving it deathly pale, like a freshly painted wall. His eyes were wide open.

Beside him, Zhou Ping, who had just been amusing himself by imitating a fisherman casting a net, still had his arm comically raised in the air. The lingering fawning and smug smile on his face had now completely frozen, making him look utterly stiff.

All the guests sitting around the table, whether raising their glasses in a toast or reaching for their chopsticks, were frozen in place as if nailed to the spot by invisible nails!
Something terrible has happened! Something big has occurred in Chang'an!

These newly appointed scholars, who had not yet been granted official positions, were most sensitive to matters of the imperial court.

Just moments ago they were certain that Wei Zheng was doomed, but now he has gone from being a tutor to Crown Prince Jiancheng to being appointed as the Chief Clerk of the Imperial Household by the King of Qin. This is definitely a major signal.

Things have gone beyond everyone's expectations!
The previously pervasive smell of alcohol and the smug heat of self-satisfaction collapsed and vanished in an instant!

"Go...go! Hurry...hurry up and go!"

Zhang Changling finally managed to squeeze out a dry, hoarse sound, like a broken gong.

At this point, who would have the mind to hold a banquet or maintain relationships?
At this time, getting firsthand information is the most practical thing to do!
A single useful piece of information could even determine their future official appointment!

The crowd behind him seemed to wake from a dream, and screams, shouts, the sound of tables and chairs colliding and overturning, and the sound of cups and plates shattering filled the air!
These newly appointed scholars jostled and pushed each other, stumbling and surging out of the private room.

Their faces were all deathly pale, and they exchanged bewildered glances, silently conveying the same thought: Wei Zheng was not only alive, but had been immediately promoted and given important responsibilities by the new crown prince!
What does this mean? How will the political situation change drastically? Most importantly, they were just upstairs, recklessly mocking Wei Zheng and Chen Guangrui, who was visiting Wei Zheng!
Did he know what happened in the private room just now? If he gains power, will he...?

In the suffocating silence, the waiter who had gone downstairs with the poem to ask the manager earlier hurriedly ran out from the kitchen, clutching the scroll tightly in his hand.

He ran on tiptoe, looking around as he went, shouting loudly.
"Scholar Chen! Scholar Chen, please wait! The shopkeeper has spoken! Your poem is truly excellent! It's more than enough to buy his 'Stone Frozen Spring' wine, which he's been aging for ten years! We'll serve you the wine right away..."

The shouting stopped abruptly, as if it had been cut off by a knife.

Xiao Er stood blankly in front of the seat where Chen Guangrui had just sat, now empty, completely dumbfounded.

In the main hall, the newly appointed scholars who had not yet left were all attracted by the shout, and their eyes turned to look in the direction of the sound.

"Waiter, tell me, who was eating here just now?"

"Scholar Chen! I know him!"

The waiter didn't hide anything, after all, he had just seen the newly crowned champion, which was an honor.

Everyone was momentarily stunned. Was Chen Guangrui here just now?

They looked at each other, but both saw confusion in their companion's eyes.

Everyone was drinking and making jokes, but no one noticed that Chen Guangrui was sitting outside their private room.

Does that mean that Chen Guangrui heard everything I just said?

Zhou Ping's face flushed red instantly. He had met Chen Guangrui before coming here, and now he was doing his best to mock him. He wondered how he would speak if they met again in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ping unconsciously gripped his sleeve, feeling somewhat at a loss.

Zhang Changling's expression remained unchanged, as if he had forgotten everything he had just said. Seeing the others looking at him, he quickly changed the subject.

"Waiter! Just now... just now I heard you say that Scholar Chen wrote a poem here? What kind of poem is it that your manager praises it so highly?" As soon as he said this, he attracted everyone's attention. After all, they were all scholars and were most fascinated by such verses.

Especially considering everyone's disparaging remarks just now, I'm even more curious about what kind of poetry Chen Guangrui could write.

At this moment, Zhou Ping had already taken the paper from the waiter's hand, his expression changed, but he didn't say anything.

Meanwhile, his classmate, growing impatient, snatched the paper and unfolded the rough hemp paper.

"cough…"

The scholar cleared his slightly dry throat, his gaze sweeping over the vigorous ink marks, and began to read:
Zhongnan Villa

In middle age I developed a fondness for Taoism, and in my later years I settled at the foot of the Southern Mountains. Whenever the mood strikes, I go alone, and the joys I experience are known only to myself.

The moment the poem was recited, the tense atmosphere in the private room seemed to ease slightly.

"Oh? Writing about reclusion in Zhongnan Mountain?"

One of the scholars muttered under his breath, his tone carrying a hint of deliberate "fairness," as if trying to find something ordinary in the poem to ease his earlier embarrassment.

"The writing is elegant, but this kind of leisurely work is nothing special."

Before he could finish speaking, his classmate beside him said a third sentence:

I happened to meet an old man in the woods, and we chatted and laughed without thinking of returning.

"Hmm," the person who had spoken earlier couldn't help but remark again, with a hint of feigned composure.

"This line is quite interesting: 'I met an old man in the woods by chance, and we chatted and laughed until we forgot to return home...' It shows that the top scholar still has some true interest in life. Perhaps he is feeling a bit weary and has developed the idea of ​​retiring from public life."

This statement seems to be an attempt to save face for both himself and everyone else:

Look, what Scholar Chen wrote was nothing more than a common sentiment of retiring to seclusion; there's nothing special about it.

The air seemed less heavy and suffocating, and everyone felt a little more at ease.

Since they've already decided to retire from public life, they surely won't mind what we just said.

The scholar reciting the poem seemed oblivious to the whispers around him, his fingers unconsciously moving downwards as he read the third couplet:
"When you reach the end of the watercourse."

His voice suddenly stopped!
"Where the water ends?" someone repeated unconsciously, their brows furrowing involuntarily. Those three words, like a cold drop of water, suddenly seeped into the atmosphere that had just begun to ease!
Immediately afterwards, the scholar took a deep breath, and with an almost unconscious solemnity, recited the last line:
Sit and watch the clouds rise.

boom!
It wasn't a sound, but it felt as if a thunderclap had exploded in the minds of every newly appointed scholar!

The scholar who had been trying to comment on "ordinary pleasures" just a second ago suddenly lost his composure, his mouth opened unconsciously, and he seemed frozen.

"When you reach the end of the watercourse!" These five words, like a sharp blade piercing the heart, brutally shattered the understanding they had so firmly held in the private room:
Where the watercourse ends, isn't that the very place where Chen Guangrui visited Wei Zheng and was deemed by everyone to be "unable to escape"?

Watching the clouds rise, doesn't this perfectly illustrate the astonishing reversal that led to the Imperial Guards being dismissed and Wei Zheng being promoted to the position of Registrar of the Imperial Household?!

These ten short characters are forged from cold iron! They are not a description of scenery, but a prophecy! And even more so, a mockery!
At that moment, the same image flashed through everyone's minds.

They had been hurling insults at each other in the private room, but Chen Guangrui completely ignored them outside, watching their antics as if they were clowns.

What a fine phrase, "sitting and watching the clouds rise." Now that the clouds have risen, he's sitting on the clouds, while what about us?
The scholars who passed the imperial examination in the ninth year of the Wude era had a vague feeling in their hearts.

Zhang Changling was terrified! Just moments before he had been so composed, but now he felt his face burning!
The words "there's no escape" were his resounding assertion just moments before. Now, however, they felt like the most vicious curse in the world, rebounding viciously back at him!

Zhou Ping stared blankly at the hemp paper, as if he were witnessing a trial whose ending was already predetermined.

Chen Guangrui had long since left, but this piece of paper and these two lines of poetry were like two silent slaps to the faces of the newly rich and powerful!
The entire second floor of the Eight Immortals Building fell into a deathly silence. The cicadas chirping outside the window now sounded particularly jarring. The previous lingering smell of sour wine, the noisy mess of broken dishes, and the awkward comments that were trying to cover up the truth were all washed away by these ten large, ink-stained characters, leaving only a cold blank space and a suffocating echo.

Chen Guangrui is gone. But the two lines of poetry he left behind have definitively sealed the fate of this confrontation.

(End of this chapter)