"Hey, Lin Li, let me quiz you. In Su Shi's River City: Hunting at Mizhou, what does 'yellow' mean in the line, 'Though old, I still indulge my youthful madness—yellow hound in my left hand, falcon in my right, brocade cap and fur coat, a thousand riders sweeping across the plain'?"
"A. A yellow dog."
"B. A brass sword."
"C. The spirit of charging straight at the Yellow Dragon."
"D. Su Shi's friend, Huang Tingjian."
On Friday after school, Qin Zeyu, who was walking side by side with Lin Li toward the school gate, looked at him and asked.
"This question's a little difficult."
Lin Li frowned slightly when he heard that and rubbed his chin. But that expression lasted only a second. The next moment, he met Qin Zeyu's gaze coldly, a trace of knowing disdain appearing in his eyes.
"The difficult part is that you... didn't include the correct answer among the options!!!"
"What—" Qin Zeyu dragged out his tone in cooperation. "Then tell me, what's the answer!"
"Heh, it's not like I didn't study this poem in middle school. My middle school teacher said long ago that 'yellow' is a phonetic loan for 'emperor,' meaning the emperor.
"This line expresses Su Shi's heroic desire to hold the emperor in his left hand, a falcon in his right, rush onto the battlefield, and walk the emperor in front of thousands of cavalrymen. Truly a model for our generation."
"Huh?"
"Hahahahaha—"
Qin Zeyu froze briefly before bursting into laughter.
He seriously suspected that if Lin Li had presided over the Crow Terrace Poetry Case, exile would have been out of the question. Su Shi would probably have had nine generations of his family executed.
Forget nine. Make it ten.
Even the ants' nest in his house would have been