Red Dust Daqian

We finally won two rounds and entered the finals. It would be a shame if we failed in the third round.

Shen Yue'er couldn't help but ask Shen Qianrou worriedly: "Miss, do you think Taoist Mu can still do it? He has created two amazing poems in a row. Can he continue to produce the third one? Taoist Mu, can he last so long today?" Shen Qianrou stared at Kazilan's big eyes at Shen Yue'er. The way this girl organized her language and what she said sounded weird.

The doubt flashed across her mind, and Shen Qianrou replied firmly: "Believe in Mr. Mumu, Mr. Mumu has always been very persistent. He definitely has this level. The reason why we have never seen Mr. Mumu compose poems before shows that he has been hiding his strength. He must have spent a lot of time studying in private. Maybe he has created many high-level poems and lyrics, but has never shown them to outsiders. Since he can easily come up with two popular poems, it should not be a problem for him to come up with a third one. Mr. Mumu, you can definitely do it."

Soon, Yuwen Zhonglan, the chief judge of the biennial Qixi Poetry Competition, announced the ultimate theme of the competition - Qixi Festival. There was no surprise, no novelty, and most people expected that after two rounds of competition and more than 20 themes, Qixi Festival had not appeared, so it must have been put in the final competition.

This theme rekindled hope in the hearts of those who were previously worried and thought they would not get a place. Because they had already anticipated this theme, many contestants probably had already prepared poems, whether they had spent a long time polishing their words and sentences, or had bought them at a high price, it was difficult to detect at this moment, and everyone was full of confidence.

This topic made Xiangcao, who knew Zhou Sen well, even more worried. What to do? Taoist priests don't celebrate the Qixi Festival. They haven't come down from the mountain for more than ten years, and they don't know about the Qixi Festival in the human world. How can Mumu create poems for the Qixi Festival? But it's not certain. No one has taught him to talk about love, but he naturally knows and is proficient in it!

The King of Chu thought that Ouyang Zongren had a better chance of winning, because he couldn't imagine how unorthodox a Taoist priest had to be to write about love on the Chinese Valentine's Day. Princess Wanning still believed that the Taoist priest would win, without any doubt. She didn't even look at his previous poems. Which one of them was about men and women, love? Unorthodox and talking about love might be commonplace for this Taoist priest, and the Chinese Valentine's Day was certainly no problem.

Shen Qianrou's girlish heart overflowed at this moment, and she sighed: "What kind of love poems will Mumu write about the Qixi Festival? Will he write about me?" Shen Yue'er was a little disappointed, and muttered vaguely: "Ah, anyway, it won't be mine."

When the Taoist priest talked about Qixi Festival, I guess all the audiences in the Hundred Flowers Garden were curious and wanted to see what Qixi Festival looked like in the eyes of a weird Taoist priest.

Now that the theme of poetry has been announced, many contestants are eager to try. 70 people are writing poems on the same theme at the same time, so it is easy to repeat. Since they have spent a lot of energy preparing in advance, it would be a waste of time if they are ranked inferior because of the repetition of poems. Adhering to the concept of first to come out has an advantage and later to come out has repeated, many contestants are not ready to continue polishing their poems, and they all go on stage to compose poems.

In a short while, more than 70 contestants rushed to the writing tables to submit their poems, which overwhelmed the judges. Unexpectedly, the organizers reserved two incense sticks of time for composition, but after only half an incense stick, almost all the contestants had finished their poems.

The judges were impatient, singing and reading the poems one by one. The well-prepared poems were indeed much more neat and antithetical, but the problem was that they were not original and had no highlights. Most of them were clichéd and stereotyped, and would not be very popular. Yu Wenzhonglan and other judges were disappointed when they saw so many clichéd poems. They had great expectations for the third round, but the level of the poems was not as good as the first two rounds. How could they accept this?

The audience at Baihua Garden couldn't help but question the standards of these scholars, but because of their status, they dared not speak out.

Looking at the contestants rushing forward, Zhou Sen sighed, this is not a poetry competition, it's just a vegetable market. At this moment, he had no intention of competing with this group of people. Anyway, once the poem he recited came out, it would shock the audience again. Why bother with this moment? It would be ugly to be crowded.

Seeing that Zhou Sen had no intention of going on stage to compose a poem, Li Qinwei walked up to Zhou Sen and kindly reminded him, "Master Zhang, haven't you finished your idea yet? Or are you waiting for something? If you don't seize the initiative and have more than 70 people on the same topic, it's easy to fall into repetition."

Zhou Sen said indifferently: "What's the use of repeating? Without popular lines, the artistic conception of the poem cannot resonate with people. What's the point of submitting it? It's meaningless if it doesn't win a place. Brother Li, if you have completed the idea, you can compose the poem first. I just talked nonsense, don't mind it." Li Qinwei was impressed by Zhou Sen's courage, but in front of so many talented people, he dared not be careless. Li Qinwei bowed and replied: "Indeed, someone has completed the idea, so I will go on stage to submit the poem first."

Li Qinwei squeezed onto the crowded writing table, picked up the brush, and wrote his own poem in a chic manner:

Thoughts on the Qixi Night

The stars twinkle like water in the night, and the longing lingers in my dreams.

The Milky Way is so far away that it’s hard to cross the love; the jade plate is hanging high that it’s hard to judge the feelings.

The weather is beautiful, the scenery is beautiful, and the people are still the same, but when I think of the past, tears well up on my cheeks.

I only hope we can meet tonight and spend a wonderful night together without separation.

Li Qinwei's "Thoughts on the Qixi Night" was a bright spot for the judges who were tired of seeing clichés. They were moved that they finally saw a decent poem, otherwise the third round of poetry competition would have become useless. Although this poem could not reach the level of Taoist Zhang's two poems, it was definitely much better than those stereotyped works just now.

After the judges finished reading Li Qinwei's poems, the audience cheered. Finally, a poem that was not free from clichés appeared. In comparison, the poems written by the selected scholars were nothing. In this way, Li Qinwei's poems temporarily ranked first. Yuwen Zhonglan has also been paying attention to Li Qinwei silently. Although he did not directly comment on Li Qinwei's poems this round, he was quite satisfied with Li Qinwei's performance in the three rounds of poems, just like a teacher's recognition of excellent students.

After listening to Li Qinwei's poems, Zhou Sen was also full of emotion: Li Qinwei is really good. From the first round to the second round, the third round, he can easily win every round. Now there are more than 60 people who have written poems on the same theme, and he can still rank first. His talent for poetry is quite good. This guy is also good at martial arts. He can be said to be a man of both civil and military talents. Moreover, this guy's character seems to be good too. He should be someone we can make close friends with.