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Seeing that Mu Chongli was talking to an unfamiliar child, Cao Changkun was curious, finding it somewhat unusual. He observed Chu Xuyao for a while.

The child had a smart and cunning look on his face. With his big cat eyes, he looked very smart.

Why wasn’t such a bright child at their Imperial College?

Cao Changkun couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous.

Mu Chongli pointed at the couplets and asked Chu Xuyao, “Can you match them?”

Chu Xuyao shook his head but remained confident, “Not now, but I believe I can in the future.”

Mu Chongli smiled, “I believe in you too.”

Cao Changkun looked at the intelligent Chu Xuyao and could not help but say, “Would you like to study at our Imperial College? It’s much better than Yunfei School, and if you come, I’ll make sure to take special care of you.”

He said this partly because he genuinely thought Chu Xuyao was promising, but more so to embarrass Yunfei School, or rather, to embarrass Mu Chongli.

As soon as Mu Chongli heard this, he glared at Cao Changkun. “Are you undermining me right in front of me?”

Cao Changkun patted Mu Chongli’s shoulder with a smile. “Don’t get upset; he’s just a kid, asking won’t hurt.”

Fine, let’s see who ends up embarrassed. Mu Chongli patted Chu Xuyao on the back. “You tell him where you want to study.”

Chu Xuyao tilted his head, looked at the two, and asked Cao Changkun, “Sir, if I study at the Imperial College, can you guarantee that I’ll become the top scholar in the imperial examination?”

Uh…

Cao Changkun was momentarily stunned. He didn’t expect Chu Xuyao to ask such a tricky question. After a moment of thought, he replied, “Of course not. Success in the examination depends on your own efforts; others can’t help with that.”

Chu Xuyao said naively, “Sir, you said the Imperial College is better, so I thought I could become the top scholar if I study there.”

Cao Changkun quickly corrected himself, “I was just joking earlier; don’t take it seriously.”

Chu Xuyao nodded, “Oh.”

Everyone was astonished.

The kid appeared clever and indeed was clever!

Mu Chongli was satisfied to see Cao Changkun embarrassed, thinking that to undermine someone, one must be equipped. Otherwise, it’s self-inflicted humiliation.

However… the couplet had yet to be matched.

Meanwhile, in the Go competition area, there was some activity. Participants were gradually being eliminated, and those who remained sat in their seats, watching Chu Xuyao and Lin Jixian play.

Although the two kids’ Go skills weren’t exceptional, they had an unusual ability to attract everyone’s attention. After all, achieving two consecutive draws in a Go game was quite rare.

“Could it be another draw this time?”

“If it’s another draw, that would be the third one. How are they doing it?”

“I’m curious too. Any misstep could make the whole game irrecoverable. A game of chess has countless missteps. They aren’t deliberately avoiding them, are they?”

“They say Lin Jixian’s chess skills are slightly better, but Chu Xuyuan always manages to fill the gaps, creating the opportunity for a draw.”

“No way? How quick must his reactions be to do that?”

“I don’t know, but Chu Xuyuan did it.”

“Draw!” As everyone speculated, the sound of a chess piece landing crisply rang out, followed by Chu Xuyuan’s voice, light and joyful.

Lin Jixian pressed his hands on the table, staring at the board, quite displeased, “Chu Xuyuan…”

Chu Xuyuan asked calmly, “Yes? What can 1 do for you?”

“I will definitely win the next game,” Lin Jixian stared at Chu Xuyuan, determined.

“Win first, then speak.” In fact, Chu Xuyuan already felt quite satisfied with himself, as he initially thought he would be eliminated in the first round.

Lin Jixian snorted, “Don’t be arrogant!” With that, he pushed through the crowd and left somewhat irritably.

The next part of the competition was to be held the following day.

Chu Xuyuan approached Chu Qingzhi, in high spirits, “Fifth Sister, we can go home now.”

As he finished speaking, Chu Xuyao ran over, “Fifth Sister, they’ve reached a deadlock.” After saying this, he saw Chu Xuyuan, “Seventh Brother, is your match over?”

Chu Xuyuan nodded, “Yes, today’s match is over.” Then he asked, “What were you saying about a deadlock?”

Chu Xuyao pointed. “Over there, our school and the Imperial College are comparing in couplet matching. At the end of the competition, it’s very difficult for both sides to come up with the answer. They are both stumped.”

Chu Xuyuan looked over to see everyone deep in thought, seemingly facing a challenging task, “Let’s go have a look before we go home.”

They all walked over together.

Whoever could match these two couplets would definitely be famous among the students of the two academies.

However, after a while, there was still no progress.

Suddenly, Zhuang Yuyan approached the desk, took up a pen, and wrote, “Year’s end to year’s start, again and again, a cycle unending; the answer to Moon full above, half here below, each month repeating, blending.”

Everyone craned their necks to see…

As Zhuang Yuyan put down his pen, applause erupted around him, “The antithesis is extremely neat, using time against time, a great match, indeed!”

This small area became lively because of the couplet, and as some competitions had ended, people gathered around to see. Soon, the news of Zhuang Yuyan’s successful matching spread throughout the Imperial College.

In contrast to the students of Yunfei School, those from the Imperial College were not pleased, glaring at their rivals, showing their dissatisfaction.

Yan Jingkui sighed and shook his head helplessly, “Brother Zhuang, I admit you are better than me. Could you tell me the lower couplet?”

Zhuang Yuyan did not answer, as he also didn’t know it, “It’s late today. I’ll tell everyone the lower couplet tomorrow. If Brother Yan can match it tomorrow, we’ll consider it a draw, how does that sound?”

Originally, everyone thought Zhuang Yuyan was being pretentious, but once they heard it was beneficial to the Imperial College, no one said anything more and they all dispersed

On the way, Chu Xuyuan and Chu Xuyao were suddenly stopped by Qin Hechun and Lu Chaojian, “Xuyuan, Xuyao, there’s a gathering at the Tainan restetraunt for our school. 1 came specially to tell you.”

The two brothers looked at Chu Qingzhi.

Chu Qingzhi said, “You guys go ahead, I’ll have Third Brother come to pick you up later.”

Qin Hechun waved his hand, “No need, Miss Chu. After the meal, we’ll escort junior brothers home.”

Chu Qingzhi politely replied, “Then I’ll have to trouble you.”

“It’s no trouble, no trouble at all.”

Chu Xuyuan said, “Fifth Sister, Brother Jinghong, we’ll be leaving then.”

“Okay.”

Chu Qingzhi and Tang Jinghong watched them leave before continuing to walk back.

After a while, Ren Buqing quickly walked over with two soldiers. “General

Tang, I have something very important to tell you.”

“What is it?”

Ren Buqing said with some difficulty, “It’s not convenient here. Can 1 trouble General Tang to go to the Ministry of Justice with me?”

Tang Jinghong turned around and said to Chu Qingzhi, “Qingzhi, I’m going to the Ministry of Justice.”

Chu Qingzhi nodded. “Okay.”

Tang Jinghong left in a hurry with Ren Buqing.

So mysterious. What exactly happened? As she guessed, Chu Qingzhi slowly walked back..