A Delightful Display of Swagger and Face-Slapping at the Wedding

Xu Qianqian had never imagined, even in her dreams, that tonight's groom would be Shen Lang.

How could it possibly be him? Not even if the sun rose in the west!

Who was Jin MuLan?! A Goddess standing high above all.

And who was Shen Lang? A dim-witted fool with something wrong with his mind, a useless wretch who could not even dress himself properly.

What was more, just the day before yesterday, she had personally thrown Shen Lang out of the house and framed him for theft.

How could a household as exalted as Xuanwu Earl's Manor possibly choose such a wastrel as a live-in son-in-law?

No, she simply could not accept this outcome.

Since Shen Lang had been driven out by her family, he should have humbled himself into the dust, preferably becoming a pile of rotten shit on the ground for everyone to trample.

And now he was marrying a woman even more beautiful and noble than she was? How was that possible?

Was Heaven playing some kind of joke?

Beside her, Zhang Jin was so jealous he was practically coughing blood.

Why?!

Even he, Zhang Jin, had never dared to covet a peerless beauty like Jin MuLan, yet she was marrying trash like Shen Lang?

"Hahahaha..."

Zhang Jin suddenly burst into loud laughter, and everyone could not help turning to look at him.

Zhang Jin said, "Miss Jin MuLan, this wedding of yours is fake. It is nothing but a conspiracy."

Jin MuLan said coldly, "What makes you say that?"

Pointing at Shen Lang, Zhang Jin said, "Do you all know who this man is? His name is Shen Lang. After ten years of studying, he had not even learned a thousand characters and was thrown out of Hanshui Town Academy. After marrying into the Xu Family, he was driven out for stealing property and molesting maids. How could the Earl's Manor possibly think highly of such trash? How could Miss Jin MuLan possibly think highly of him? Therefore, this wedding is completely fake."

"Right, right!" the talented young men around them could not help shouting.

They also felt it had to be fake. How could Miss Jin MuLan marry such garbage?

After Zhang Jin took the lead, he shot a meaningful glance into the crowd.

After all, he was the Prefect's son. It would have been far too crude and beneath him to personally descend into a brawl with Shen Lang.

A Scholar emerged from the crowd.

In a ringing voice, he declared, "I can prove this best, because I once studied with him at Hanshui Town Academy. Shen Lang is a brain-dead idiot."

Shen Lang recognized this man. His name was Yan Xiong, and he had indeed been Shen Lang's classmate at Hanshui Town Academy.

Sure enough, the people who stepped forward to stab you in the back at the crucial moment were always acquaintances. Yan Xiong came from a poor family and originally was not qualified to attend tonight's wedding. But after passing the Scholar examination, he found himself a good teacher—the former Xuanwu City Lord Zhang Boyan, who had retired at home—and so he had followed him here.

Of course, he had not merely attached himself to Zhang Boyan. He had also latched onto Zhang Jin, and had barely managed to forge ties with the Prefect Zhang Family.

Back at Hanshui Town Academy, Yan Xiong had been the top student while Shen Lang had been the worst of the worst. He would not even spare Shen Lang a proper glance.

Yet he had never expected Shen Lang to marry into Xuanwu Earl's Manor, or to take Xuanwu City's Princess, Miss Jin MuLan, as his wife. How could he possibly bear that? In his momentary fury, he forgot all civility. Coupled with Zhang Jin's commanding glance, he immediately stepped forward.

Shen Lang stepped out and said blandly, "Yan Xiong, you say I'm brain-dead. Do you have any proof?"

"Ha!" Scholar Yan Xiong said. "You studied for ten years and could not even recognize a thousand characters. Is that not proof enough? How about this? I'll write several characters. If you recognize them, I will not call you brain-dead. But if you cannot, then you are. What do you say?"

Xu Qianqian was about to stop him, but Shen Lang agreed first. "Fine!"

"Bring brush, ink, paper, and inkstone," Scholar Yan Xiong ordered.

At first, he had been somewhat uneasy. This was the Earl's Manor, after all, not a place where a mere Scholar like him could act wildly, and his legs had even been trembling.

But now that he saw the crowd supporting him, surrounding him like stars around the moon, all his unease vanished. He only wanted to make a grand show of himself, preferably breaking apart Shen Lang and Jin MuLan's marriage on the spot.

Naturally, the Earl's Manor did not wish to provide brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. But several sets had been recorded among the gifts earlier, so someone immediately went to fetch them.

Yan Xiong picked up a brush and wrote several characters on red paper.

Everyone crowded forward to look, then felt a chill run down their backs as they secretly sucked in cold breaths.

The characters looked familiar, yet none of them could recognize them.

They were simply far too obscure. Forget the martial men present—even some educated men with scholarly titles did not recognize them. Who would deliberately learn such characters when they were completely useless?

One could even say that among ten Scholars, eight would be unable to recognize all three characters Yan Xiong had written.

They were truly too difficult.

"Just these three simple characters. If you can identify them, then you are not brain-dead. If you cannot, then admit that you are," Yan Xiong said smugly.

Jin MuLan glanced at them with her beautiful eyes and immediately frowned.

She naturally recognized these characters. Though she practiced martial arts, she had read many books. But these characters were simply too obscure. Unless one happened to have encountered them in a particular book, one would never know them, because they were virtually never used.

Shen Lang stepped forward and looked. The three characters were: artemisia, flawed jade, and a vertical stroke.

They really were difficult. Though he held a master's degree from medical university, he recognized only the first of the three. He did not know the latter two.

"Hahaha... You don't recognize them, do you? It would already be impressive if you recognized even one of these three characters," Scholar Yan Xiong said. "Honestly admit that you do not know them. Admit you are a dim-witted fool. You studied for ten years and still cannot recognize these three simple characters."

Many people present felt ashamed. They too had studied for more than ten years. Some had even passed the Scholar examination, and some had even become Recommended Men, yet they still did not know some of the characters here.

Although Shen Lang did not recognize them, the Alienware Laptop that had crossed over with him did. It contained every dictionary imaginable, and he found the answers effortlessly.

Moreover, the Alienware Laptop in his mind had now become even more advanced. Shen Lang merely needed to sweep his eyes over something, and he could obtain the answer almost instantly—indeed, many possible answers.

At that moment, everyone stared at Shen Lang, waiting for him to make a fool of himself.

Shen Lang said, "The first character is pronounced the same as 'goose.' It is a medicinal plant, and it appears in the Book of Songs, Lesser Odes. The verse says: 'Lush and green is the e, there in the hollow amid the hills.'"

Yan Xiong was slightly stunned when he heard this. This character was the easiest one, but useless trash like Shen Lang should not have recognized it.

Still, he was extremely confident that Shen Lang could not possibly know the next two.

Yet without pausing at all, Shen Lang continued, "The second character is pronounced 'su.' One meaning is flawed jade; another refers to a royal clan."

Before Yan Xiong could even register his shock, Shen Lang continued without pause. "The third character is indeed exceedingly rare, and it has many pronunciations. The first is shu, meaning vertical."

"The second is pronounced gun, meaning to run through from top to bottom."

"The third is pronounced tui, meaning to retreat."

"The fourth is pronounced yi. It is an ancient surname originating from the ancient Jiang Clan."

The history of this world had once been destroyed. Afterward, many ancient Chinese texts had been excavated, and they were treated as the enlightenment of civilization.

Thus, many allusions came from these excavated books. They were not part of this world's history, yet they were documented and had become history as well.

After finishing, Shen Lang turned to Scholar Yan Xiong and said, "Was I correct?"

Yan Xiong stared at Shen Lang in disbelief. He only knew two pronunciations for the final character—the homophones of shu and yi. He did not know the other two at all.

Was Shen Lang not supposed to be dim-witted? Back when they studied together, he had been unbelievably stupid. He could not even pronounce ordinary characters, much less such extraordinarily obscure ones.

Shen Lang turned to Yan Xiong's teacher, the former Xuanwu City Lord, and said, "Lord Zhang, you are learned and accomplished in both letters and arms. Were my readings of these three characters correct?"

The old City Lord, whose beard and hair were both white, shot his disciple Yan Xiong a fierce glare before smiling. "Every one of them was correct!"

The crowd was stunned.

Zhang Jin and Xu Qianqian especially could hardly believe it. Xu Qianqian knew better than anyone what Shen Lang was like.

She knew exactly how obscure those three characters were, especially the last one, which even she did not know. Yet Shen Lang, that dim-witted waste who had studied for ten years without even mastering basic literacy, knew it?

Th-this was impossible!

Shen Lang continued, "Yan Xiong, since we are playing a game of character recognition, how about I write some characters for you to identify as well?"

Scholar Yan Xiong sneered. "You? What character could there possibly be that I do not know? Ridiculous!"

Shen Lang picked up the brush, dipped it in ink, and directly wrote a whole string of characters.

A dragon in flight, thunderclaps, I, a nasal voice, jagged teeth, coarseness, and billowing smoke.

Surging waters, a stampede of horses, food sacks, bamboo baskets, convulsions, and stoves.

Sources, fried wheat, fools, hoes, slander, gates, and tangled silk.

Turtles, clenched teeth, aching teeth, pressure, black soil, antelopes, and eagles.

After writing them, Shen Lang asked, "Yan Xiong, which of these characters do you recognize? If you recognize more than four, I will concede to you."

Scholar Yan Xiong looked at the dozens of characters, and his eyes nearly went blurry. Wh-what kind of ghost characters were these?

Still, he recognized several of them clearly enough and blurted out, "I am stupid... asshole!"

Note: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone! Wishing you happiness, peace, and good health.