Feng Qizheng picked himself up, brushed off the sand and gazed mournfully at his spilled fish soup. "Chief, what'd you kick me for? I'd barely had two sips of my fish soup, and now it's all spilled."

Pan Yucheng was completely speechless.

"You blockhead, what kind of nonsense are you spouting in front of Miss Xiao?"

"Chief, call me Feng the Great Brain. Call me a blockhead again and I'm through with you... What nonsense did I spout?" Feng Qizheng was thoroughly indignant. He turned to Ning Chen. "You tell me, is that a poem or not? Is it true to life or not?"

Ning Chen winced and didn't know what to say.

Feng Qizheng was instantly pleased with himself. "See that, Chief?" he crowed. "Even Ning Chen's got nothing to say. That proves my poem's really good. It's a masterpiece for the ages, no question.

I may not have piled on the fancy words, but this poem of mine is all about keeping it real.

Ning Chen, your turn... If you can't come up with one, I don't even want your hundred taels. Just hand over the title of the Great Xuan's immortal of poetry to me."

Ning Chen looked up at the bright moon and the glittering water and smiled. "Over the sea the bright moon rises; at the ends of the earth we share this moment..." (TL Note: The opening lines of "Gazing at the Moon, Thinking of One Far Away" by the Tang poet Zhang Jiuling, 678–740.)

Xiao Yanxi's lovely eyes lit up.

Pan Yucheng was full of praise. "What a poem..."

Then he looked at Ning Chen, waiting for the next two lines.

But Ning Chen froze.

The scenery had moved him, and the lines had simply slipped out.

The embarrassing part was that they were all he remembered... He'd forgotten the rest.

Xiao Yanxi asked eagerly, "Ning, dear, what comes after?"

Ning Chen gave a dry laugh. "Heh. What comes after got the Eunuch Quan treatment."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"It means... it's been cut off!"

Xiao Yanxi: "..."

Pan Yucheng was stunned…