Ye Xiande

Ye Xiande was the vice president of the Huaxia Poetry Association. He also held another position: researcher at the Ministry of Education's Institute of Applied Linguistics.

Lately, he had been worrying over the writing of elementary school Chinese textbooks. The current textbooks had been in use for many years.

Some were no longer suitable for modern teaching, while others had simply been used for too long. The Ministry of Education had already issued instructions to rewrite the textbooks.

As the person in charge of compiling the classical poetry textbooks for Chinese class, he was getting a bit of a headache. There were plenty of poems, but the more obscure ones were hard for students to understand and would only add to their burden.

But if the poems were too straightforward, they wouldn't inspire students to love classical poetry, which would hinder the development of the poetry world.

This world placed great importance on cultural education, and believed cultural interests and practical knowledge should go hand in hand.

For this project, the man in his sixties had been poring over ancient texts day and night, hoping to find a few poems that would work well in elementary school lessons.

"Grandpa, Grandpa, what are you doing?"

An impish girl of around eighteen dashed into Ye Xiande's study.

"Be good, Susu. Grandpa's looking for material. Don't disturb me. Come back a little later..."

But the girl wasn't having it. She puffed out her cheeks and said unhappily, "No! Grandpa, come play chess with me..."

The moment Ye Xiande heard her mention chess, he got a headache. His granddaughter was a phenomenal chess player. When he'd taught her at the age of ten, he could still guide her as her grandpa.

By the time she was twelve or thirteen, she could already match him move for move. Now, whenever they played, he lost more often than he won.

He'd played chess for half his life, yet he couldn't beat an eighteen-year-old girl. Where did that leave his dignity?

But she was his granddaughter, and he couldn't let her make a fuss. These days, if he managed to win even one game against her, he'd be happy for ages.

"Be good, Susu. Grandpa's looking through old books for poems to use in the textbooks. This is a top priority for the Ministry of Education. We can't take it lightly. Next time, I promise next time."

Ye Susu wasn't just a chess prodigy; she was also an anime-loving girl. She didn't believe a word of that "next time, I promise."

"No, Grandpa. It's just poetry, right? I'll give you a poem. You can play chess with me today, okay..."

Ye Susu wheedled.

"Hey! Don't make a fuss, Susu. Grandpa's really busy!"

Ye Xiande was getting a headache. His granddaughter was stubborn as a mule. He was already a little irritable, and if Ye Susu kept chattering in his ear, he'd probably get nothing done all day.

"Grandpa, I really do have a poem for you. If you don't believe me, I'll recite it!"

Ye Susu ignored the look on Ye Xiande's face and recited a poem without hesitation:

"Red beans grow in the southern land. How many sprigs will come with spring? I hope you gather many of them; they're the thing that best evokes longing."

"Well, Grandpa? Isn't this poem better than the ones you've been digging through for ages?"

At first, Ye Xiande had just let Ye Susu do as she pleased. But after hearing her recite the poem, he immediately looked up and asked, "Where did you hear this poem? How come Grandpa's never heard it before?"

"Oh, Grandpa, this poem's really popular online right now. This morning, the official media account of the Guangfu Poetry Association posted this year's ten best poems. It's already trending..."

"I keep telling you to get online, Grandpa. You're always holed up in your study with your old books, shutting yourself away and working in isolation. You're out of touch..."

The girl kept chattering beside him, but Ye Xiande no longer paid her any attention.

He murmured the poem about longing to himself. In an instant, he realized it was exactly the kind of poem he needed for the textbooks!

Although the poem's theme was longing, which could easily bring love to mind, Ye Xiande was the vice president of the Poetry Association and knew better.

This poem about longing wasn't just for romantic love. It could describe the longing between lovers, or between friends. Brilliant!

It was a Five-Character Quatrain, written in simple, clear language without losing its poetic atmosphere. It was perfect for an elementary school poetry textbook.

"Susu, you said this was one of the ten best poems at this year's Guangfu Poetry Competition?"

"Yep..."

"So it was written by someone living today? But this poem clearly has the spirit of the ancients..."

Ye Xiande was puzzled. People today could still write poetry like this? At first, he'd assumed the poem came from some ancient text, but the truth took him by surprise.

"I heard it was written by an online novelist. That novelist called Li Xiaoyao is so annoying! His novels make people cry their eyes out!"

Ye Susu complained indignantly. She was evidently one of the victims of Legend of Sword and Fairy, though she clearly admired the author's talent.

"So that's how it is..."

Ye Xiande burst out laughing. This poem was surely a good omen. It might even be remembered for generations. Most importantly, it had solved the problem that had been giving him a headache.

"No, I need to get in touch with that brat Li Xuexin. What an inconsiderate junior! He knew I'd been compiling textbooks lately, yet he came across such a good poem and didn't even recommend it to me..."

The poetry world was a fairly close-knit circle. Ye Xiande was the vice president of the Huaxia Poetry Association, while Li Xuexin was the president of the Guangfu Poetry Association.

Naturally, the two knew each other. Ye Xiande could even be considered Li Xuexin's teacher.

"Hello, Teacher. What's up?"

Li Xuexin was a little puzzled. Ye Xiande rarely contacted him of his own accord. Usually, Li Xuexin would get in touch when he had questions about poetry and wanted Ye Xiande's help refining his work.

"You brat, you came across a work like 'Longing' and didn't tell me? Didn't you know I've been compiling textbooks lately?"

Ye Xiande scolded Li Xuexin, sounding a little annoyed.

"Uh, Teacher, you can't blame me for that. I only saw the poem yesterday, and I'm still stunned by it..."

"That fellow Wang Weimin showed it to me. He said it was written by a young man with some connection to him. What, didn't Weimin tell you about it? I thought you knew."

Li Xuexin deftly passed the buck to Wang Weimin. They'd been classmates at university, and their friendship had lasted for over twenty years. They'd passed the blame back and forth plenty of times.

"What? You're saying a young man in his early twenties wrote this poem?"

Ye Xiande had stopped paying attention to Li Xuexin's attempt to shift the blame. The moment he learned the poem had been written by a young man, he fell into thought.

"Teacher? Teacher?"

Li Xuexin was secretly pleased. It seemed his teacher was just as stunned as he'd been. But his teacher had lived twenty years longer than he had, so this must have hit even harder. He hoped the old man could take it in stride...

"It's fine. Give me the young man's contact information. I'll go meet him sometime."

Though Ye Xiande was still a little dazed, the matter at hand came first.

"I don't know who the young man is either, but Weimin should know. Why don't you ask him, Teacher?"

Second update. I saw that quite a few readers don't like the poem-copying angle. To be honest, I don't like it much either, but there's nothing I can do—the outline was already written this way, and I've written too much to change it now.

And now for a little spoiler: this is only a side plot and won't take up too much space, so don't worry. This storyline will definitely be wrapped up properly in the end. You can try guessing how. I'll do my best to keep it from feeling awkward.

In fact, this book is still mainly about entertainment and everyday romance. I try to avoid showing off and crushing people, mostly because I'm not very good at writing that kind of thing.

Lastly, please vote Monthly Tickets, recommend the book, and add it to your collection. Thank you~