The Unmatched Couplets

There was another unmatched couplet: "Tune the qin to a new tune, tune tune tune, tune till the tune is wondrous."

Since the Merchant Alliance Headquarters' reception banquet, these three unmatched couplets had spread across the land, becoming so well known that even women and children knew of them.

Yet no one had expected the Heir of Prince Xiang to bring these two couplets out again at such a time. It was nothing short of reheating leftovers.

At first, everyone was in an uproar, and their hearts relaxed. But after a moment's thought, they realized there was a problem.

Of the three unmatched couplets, only the final one, the "tune" couplet, had been matched—after countless meetings and painstaking efforts by many talented scholars, and even then only barely.

The "smoke" couplet and the "Radical 'Bao Gai'" couplet had yet to be matched by anyone. Even awkward, imperfect attempts were few and far between.

The Heir of Prince Xiang was very pleased with the commotion he had caused. He strode around with his legs spread wide and said, "Gentlemen, surely this time you won't wrong me and accuse me of spouting nonsense again?"

Ye Piaoling gave a cold laugh. "Nonsense? You're not even fit to deceive the world and steal a reputation. Calling you a man of letters would be an insult to those words. You've taken the masterpieces of our Great Yue's Poet Immortal and Word Sage to make things difficult for our scholars. Do you even know how to write the word 'shame'? Shall I teach you?"

Ye Piaoling was the man whom Prince Pu'an Yi had dragged along that day to compete against Xu Yi, together with Gu Yunzhen, the Poetic Heart.

Because he had been there himself and understood the matter deeply, he had a particular feeling