Lin Chaojing’s laughter rang out, "I’ve figured out who our friend behind the curtain is, it’s none other than the Princely Heir. How about this, Brother Wenzong, it’s only nine autumn-related poems after all. You and I, having shared classes with the Princely Heir for three years, let’s help him out. I’ll write four, you write five. Then we’ll act as if it was all written by them and take down that curtain."
Chen Wenzong hesitated, "This doesn’t seem proper."
Lin Chaojing smiled faintly, "Then I shall write all nine."
He rolled up his sleeves and summoned an attendant of the embroidery building to bring ink, brush, paper, and inkstone. With a single flourish of his brush, a poem was settled.
The crowd gathered around only to see that the opponent had composed nine poems in one go, as effortlessly as picking flowers on a whim.
Lin Chaojing handed the poems to the attendant, "Go and show these to Liu Xingshou. If they are acceptable, then we should also take down the Princely Heir’s curtain."
The attendant smiled, "There’s no need to show them to Liu Xingshou; even a maid as crude as I can recognize the excellence of these poems. I’ll remove the curtains right away."
Indeed, the three elegant seating areas had been veiled for quite some time, and the embroidery building was growing anxious.
However, upon hearing Ji’s exquisitely worded poems and seeing Bai Li’s swift and robust handwriting, the Princely Heir immediately protested, "Wait, we can write our own; don’t remove the curtain!"
But his objection came too late.
Layer after layer, the curtains were removed, revealing the three elegant seating areas to everyone’s view.
Liang Gou’er was guzzling down wine, already half-drunk; Liang Mao’er was gobbling dishes as if at a banquet.
Looking at She Dengke, Liu Quxing, and other Jianghu folks, their situation wasn’t much better, their table was a complete mess.
Chen Wenxiao burst into laughter, "What’s this, everyone has already started eating and drinking?"
Lin Chaojing sat solemnly behind his table with a serious expression, "It’s rare for Liu Xingshou to come to Luocheng City from the Qinhuai River. How disappointed she might be upon seeing that the literati of Luocheng behave in such a manner? Princely Heir, tonight is a gathering for men of letters; why bring these uncouth martial artists from Jianghu to the mix?"
The Princely Heir looked at Lin Chaojing, "I also wrote poems before coming up. What, if you can be here, my friends can’t be?"
Lin Chaojing shook his head, "It’s not that they can’t come, but rather that it’s not suitable for them. These Jianghu friends would do well to eat at roadside stalls or perambulate in Hongyi Lane, which suits their status... Coming here would be nothing short of a waste, wouldn’t it?"
The Princely Heir asked sternly, "Who ought to go to Hongyi Lane?"
"Of course, those crude individuals who seek fleeting pleasures."
The Princely Heir then asked with equal gravity, "Then who is suitable for Baiyi Lane?"
"Naturally, it’s those with education and standing, like you and me."
The Princely Heir slowly rose, and everyone thought he was so furious he might start a scuffle with Lin Chaojing, but instead he suddenly turned and apologized to She Dengke and the others with a bow, "My apologies, for my recklessness today I have exposed you all to this ignorant and arrogant lot. If Baiyi Lane is filled with such literati and scholars, then perhaps we should refrain from coming in the future. It’s one thing for me to be humiliated, but I was wrong to implicate my friends as well. Let’s go!"
Liang Gou’er was perplexed, "Princely Heir, where shall we go?"
The Princely Heir stood tall and laughed heartily, "Let’s go drink in Hongyi Lane!"
With those words, he briskly led the way downstairs.
Liang Gou’er and Liang Mao’er lifted Chen Ji’s bamboo chair and followed, the large group entering and exiting as one, not a hint of despondency about them, as gleeful as if heading to a wedding.
Bai Li sat behind the table, holding her brush, staring blankly as the crowd surged out.
She opened her mouth as if to speak but hesitated... She had only just finished transcribing Ji’s verses.
The Princely Heir called from the stairway, "Bai Li, we’re leaving!"
Bai Li was about to take the completed poem with her but, after a moment’s thought, placed the rolled-up poem back down and hurried after the others, "I’m coming, I’m coming!"
The second floor of the embroidery building quieted down once more. Chen Wenzong glared fiercely at Chen Wenxiao before rising and approaching the Princely Heir’s table to examine the freshly written poems.
But upon reading them, he was startled.
"Old vines on a dead tree, crows at dusk, a small bridge over flowing water before a household, ancient road and West Wind beside a thin horse, the setting sun sinks west, the heartbroken remain at the world’s end."
Not a single mention of autumn, yet the poems conveyed a feeling of the autumn wind’s bone-chilling desolation beneath the lonely bridge.