At Ning Chen’s words, every eye in the hall came to rest on Xu Shuhan.

The whole court, civil and military, had pinned its hopes on him.

Nobody expected the poem he had made to surpass this lyric of Ning Chen’s. So long as the gap was not too wide, they would not lose too badly.

The Prince Regent frowned. “Old Master Xu, let the marquis have a taste of the quality of our Wu immortal of poetry.”

He had invited so many venerable scholars and great classicists, and they had chewed on it for days… surely what they had polished could not be poor.

Even if it fell short of this lyric of Ning Chen’s, it would not leave Wu’s world of letters stripped of every shred of dignity.

Cold sweat stood out on Xu Shuhan’s forehead, and his back was soaked through.

Slowly he cupped his hands and bowed, and lowered the head he had held high from the moment he walked in. His voice came out hoarse and dry. “The marquis’s gift is great. This old man is the glimmer of a firefly. I have lost!”

Then he knelt, and said in shame, “Your Majesty, Prince Regent… this humble commoner’s learning is shallow and does not come to a ten-thousandth part of the marquis’s. I beg Your Majesty and the Prince Regent to forgive me. This humble commoner deserves to die!”

The officials, civil and military, were astonished at first, and then the pot boiled over.

This???

They wanted to swear out loud.

Beaten. Beaten into the ground.

He did not even have the courage to open his mouth.

After this battle, Wu’s world of letters would be stripped of every shred of dignity.

The Prince Regent’s face was so dark it was nearly dripping.

He had invited all those venerable scholars and great classicists, and they had polished the verse day and night… and in the end the man did not even have the courage to open his mouth. It was a monstrous humiliation, a slap across his face over and over.

The worst off, in truth, was Xu Shuhan. A lifetime’s good name destroyed in a single day; from now on he would be a laughingstock and nothing else.

And whether he lived was another question… Judging by the cold look in the Prince Regent’s eyes, he might well be killed the moment they got out of here.

Ning Chen clasped his hands behind his back, swept his eyes around the assembly, and said, “You gentlemen are welcome to try too… If any one of you can produce a poem or a lyric that beats mine, I’ll count myself the loser!”

You wanted to see me make a fool of myself? Come on then, all you garbage. I’ll take on ten at once — no, I’ll take on all of you… Ning Chen was cursing wildly inside his own head.

The faces of Wu’s officials, civil and military, flooded with blood.

Wu’s venerable scholars and great classicists did not have the courage to open their mouths… Now whoever opened his mouth would be bringing humiliation on himself.

Ning Chen’s gaze settled on the Prince Regent. “Why doesn’t the Prince Regent try?”

The muscles at the corner of the Prince Regent’s eye twitched. If he could do it, would he have needed to invite all those venerable scholars and great classicists?

These worthless creatures, several hundred years old between them… and they could not beat one raw boy.

He had the feeling now of a man who had picked up a stone and dropped it on his own foot.

Was this humiliating Ning Chen?

This was plainly making the man’s name for him.

The Prince Regent pressed down the anger in his heart and said heavily, “This prince is a military man. Poetry and lyrics are not what I am good at.”

Ning Chen snorted with laughter. “Then you’re a pretty ordinary sort of Prince Regent… Fighting a war takes brains too. How will you manage without reading?”

“Ah… men of my kind, with the strategy of letters and the tactics of arms, a talent fit to order the age, are simply too few. The great regret of my life is having no rival… At such a height the cold is more than one can bear. Life really is as lonely as snow.”

The faces of the whole court twitched, and they very nearly could not stop themselves from spitting in Ning Chen’s face.

Ning Chen looked at the Prince Regent, whose face was iron-gray and whose back teeth were all but ground to powder, and said kindly:

“Don’t be angry, Prince Regent. Everything I said is the plain truth… but I certainly did not mean to say you were garbage. I was only sighing over things. The Prince Regent is a big-hearted man and is hardly going to take it to heart, is he?”

“And what I said just now isn’t my own boasting. It was His Majesty the Emperor of our Great Xuan who said it… He called me a dashing young gallant, a pear tree in bloom pressing down the crabapple.”

The Prince Regent’s face was so dark it was nearly dripping.

All at once, somebody snorted with laughter.

Every eye in the hall came to rest on the woman emperor.

The Prince Regent’s face turned uglier still — uglier than if his own parents had died.

The woman emperor cleared her throat. “This is only meeting as friends in letters. There is no need to draw swords over it.”

Ning Chen was about to offer a courteous word or two. The woman emperor was carrying his child, after all, and that child would be Wu’s sovereign one day. That much face he could give her.

Otherwise, with his temper, he would not have rested until he had put the Prince Regent’s face on the ground and stamped it flat.

But before he could open his mouth, the Prince Regent got in first. “This prince said just now — this prince is not skilled in poetry and lyrics… These things are of the lower sort in the end. They will do for idling away an hour on moon and flowers, but on a battlefield they are not worth a damn.”

Ning Chen stared at the Prince Regent, and then suddenly smiled.

Prince Regent, oh, Prince Regent… You want to die. I’ll oblige you.

“I don’t agree with that, Prince Regent. How is study of the lower sort? Study opens the mind and brings sudden understanding; it teaches rites and ceremony and how to grasp what matters… If a man has not a drop of ink in him, does he not become an unlettered savage?”

“If the scholars of the world heard you say that, would it not turn their hearts cold?”

“Prince Regent, this marquis will give you a line:”

萬般皆下品，惟有讀書高！

All pursuits are of the lower sort; only study stands high.

Ning Chen said it with high principle and rousing passion.

The Prince Regent’s expression changed. He realized he had misspoken.

He glanced over the assembled ministers and found that the civil officials were not looking at all pleased.

The Prince Regent’s heart lurched. The brushes in those civil officials’ hands were not much inferior to swords… Their mouths and their brushes together could nail a man to the pillar of shame in history and leave him to stink for ten thousand years.

He would have liked to finish Ning Chen off then and there!

This reading of Ning Chen’s would very likely cost him the hearts of a great many men.

If the words got out, the scholars of the world would take up mouth and brush against him and curse his ancestors’ graves till they smoked.

“No — what this prince meant was—”

“The Prince Regent’s words were indeed one-sided. Study opens the mind and brings sudden understanding; it can master the art of war, it can govern a kingdom… How has it become something unfit to be brought out in company?”

“The scholars of the world spend ten years at a cold window… By speaking so, is the Prince Regent not saying that they have wasted their lives on useless labor?”

The Prince Regent wanted to explain, but the woman emperor spoke up suddenly and gave him no chance.

The Prince Regent held it in until his face was flooded with blood. He very nearly went berserk, and his back teeth were all but ground to powder!

Pan Yucheng glanced at Ning Chen, the corner of his mouth twitching faintly. He remembered Ning Chen saying, once before, that of all the useless things in the world, a scholar is the most useless.

And now it had turned into all pursuits are of the lower sort, only study stands high… Both the good word and the bad had been said by him.

The Prince Regent’s eyes were bitterly cold, and he stared hard at Ning Chen. “What this prince said just now was only a slip of the tongue. Anyone may misspeak… The marquis need not read so much into it.”

Ning Chen smiled. “The Prince Regent had better not explain. To explain is to cover up, and to cover up is to admit the fact… What comes out of a man’s mouth without thinking is very often what he truly believes.”

The Prince Regent shook with rage, both fists clenched and the knuckles white. He would have liked to tear Ning Chen apart alive.

He said, one word at a time, “It is said that Marquis Ning is accomplished in both letters and arms. This prince has now had a taste of the letters… I wonder whether the arms are anything more than show?”

Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly. The wretch was not finished yet.

“Does the Prince Regent want a taste of them?”

The Prince Regent waved a hand. “What is this prince’s standing? How could I trade blows in this court for entertainment?”

Then he called out toward the doors of the hall: “Mu Lei.”

As the Prince Regent’s voice fell, a man of about thirty, slender of build and dressed in light armor, came striding in from outside the hall.

Reaching them, he knelt. “Your orders, my prince.”

(End of Chapter 354)