"Young master! Since you understand the rules for entering through this gate, please go ahead!"
The gatekeeper gestured for Qing Mo to proceed. Beside him stood neat rows of writing desks, complete with the Four Treasures of the Study!
Hearing the gatekeeper's words, Qing Mo nodded slightly, then slowly approached an unoccupied desk. Brush in hand, he gazed at the paper before him, white as flawless jade!
The scholars and men of letters nearby also wanted to enter through this gate. When they saw someone else preparing to win passage with a display of literary talent!
Their curious gazes immediately converged on him!
"What's going on? Is he going to write or not? He's been standing there for over twenty breaths!"
"Perhaps he can't write anything and is afraid of embarrassing himself?"
"If he can't write anything, he should go to the other gate while he still can. Heavenly Billows Academy's rules cannot be broken, and the supremely sacred Confucian Way must never be insulted by someone without literary talent!"
"Even if he can't come up with some dazzling composition that shakes the world, he could at least write down a verse or passage of his own that he thinks is decent!"
"I thought we might see a wondrous brush bloom with literary brilliance this time. Who knew... alas...!"
Despite the endless chatter of the Confucian scholars around him, Qing Mo's delay, brush poised in hand, was not because he could not write. He simply could not decide what to write!
After all, his homeland's five thousand years of cultural heritage were no joke!
There were simply far too many fine poems, beautiful lyrics, and magnificent passages!
For a moment, Qing Mo found himself paralyzed by choice!
Besides, between fellow men of letters, how could this be called plagiarism?
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