Poetry, Painting, and Coordination

"Creak!"

The door of the room in the Firewood Courtyard opened, and Lin Ke emerged in a fresh set of clothes.

"Not bad, not bad!"

Standing in front of Lin Ke, Minister Qi's eyes lit up. "My eye is still pretty good. They're a little loose, but eat well and put on some weight, and you'll fill them out... yes, yes, that's more like it. You're half as handsome as I was in my youth. Not bad at all."

As he spoke, he tugged at Lin Ke's clothes, checking their fit.

Listening to Minister Qi boast about himself, Lin Ke grinned. "What do you mean, in your youth? You still look exceptionally handsome, sir. How could I possibly possess half your elegance? I doubt I have even the tiniest fraction."

Minister Qi lifted his brow at Lin Ke's praise and laughed heartily. "You silver-tongued rascal. Let's go."

"All right." Lin Ke touched the clothes he wore, feeling something rather special.

Yesterday, Minister Qi had ordered someone to use the measurements he had estimated by eye and make two sets of clothes for Lin Ke overnight.

When Lin Ke received them, he had put on a display of being overwhelmed with gratitude, acting out the emotion a lowborn commoner of Great Wei ought to feel upon receiving such clothes.

Of course, he truly was quite happy inside.

"Oh, please wait a moment, sir!" Just as Lin Ke was about to leave, he remembered something and stopped Minister Qi.

Minister Qi looked at him. "What is it?"

Lin Ke smiled apologetically, then walked over to the plum tree. First, he spread his arms and turned in a circle, showing off his new clothes as though displaying them to someone.

Then he knelt facing the mound of earth and kowtowed three times, his forehead striking the ground audibly, before rising.

Lin Ke returned to Minister Qi and smiled. "All done, Senior Qi."

"Good." Minister Qi nodded. "Then let's go."

With that, he waved his hand.

By the time Lin Ke could make out his surroundings, he and Minister Qi were standing in the street.

Though he had experienced it twice already, he still found these supernatural means wondrous beyond words.

He looked back.

Behind them stood the gates of the Lin Residence. Above them hung a plaque as wide as an outstretched arm, bearing the gilded words "Lin Residence" in upright regular script, every stroke precisely as it should be.

"Nothing worth looking at. Let's go."

Minister Qi spoke, then turned and strode away without waiting.

Lin Ke withdrew his gaze and followed, finally leaving the place where "Lin Ke" had lived in seclusion for so many years.

Along the way, Lin Ke asked Minister Qi questions from time to time.

"Sir, how should I address you?"

"Just call me Minister Qi."

"Oh, all right. Minister Qi, how are martial artists' cultivation realms divided?"

"You'll find out in time."

"Minister Qi, what realm are you in now?"

"Why do you have so many questions, brat?"

"Minister Qi..."

The two chatted as they walked, taking in the general sights of Capital City.

Capital City was enormous, naturally. After all, it was the Imperial Capital of the Great Wei Sacred Dynasty, beneath the sacred light, and its prosperity was no less than that of a twenty-first-century capital.

Lin Ke also asked Minister Qi why he had not simply flown him straight to their destination today.

At the time, Minister Qi had turned back and answered solemnly, "How could one behave in the capital region as though one were in one's own home? Wouldn't the skies above this vital heart of the nation be filled with people flying every which way?"

Lin Ke was speechless at this double standard. After all, Minister Qi had flown around more slickly than anyone before.

After that, Lin Ke gave up trying to memorize the route.

At first, he had still remembered how many turns they had made, how many intersections they had passed, and how many little alleys they had crossed.

But by the end, he could no longer remember how many turns or lanes they had taken. He only knew they had reached their destination.

"Is this the place?"

Once Minister Qi stopped, Lin Ke immediately looked down the nearest alley.

It was a very narrow alley with a few shops inside, though business did not seem particularly good.

At the mouth of the alley stood an "entertainment house."

In this world, entertainment houses, Tile Kilns, and pleasure houses were three different things, offering performances, bodies, and both performances and bodies, respectively.

What were they doing outside an entertainment house?

Looking at Minister Qi's back, Lin Ke's heart gave a jolt. Surely this old man wasn't going to...

Sensing Lin Ke's gaze, Minister Qi turned around and met his peculiar look. His eyelid twitched, and he scolded:

"Are you still half asleep, brat? Still dreaming? My monthly salary wouldn't cover a single drinking session with courtesans, and you expect me to treat you?"

"Heh heh." Even with his thoughts exposed, Lin Ke felt no embarrassment and merely grinned.

Minister Qi turned and glared at Lin Ke, then ignored him and strode into the alley.

The people along this street were scattered and sparse, clearly far fewer than on the streets they had just passed.

Moreover, Lin Ke had no idea what illusion Minister Qi had employed, but the people around them seemed unable to see them, passing shoulder to shoulder without noticing a thing.

They walked straight in without stopping at the courtyard entrance of any shop.

When they reached the innermost end, Minister Qi said, "Here we are. You'll live on this Chaoyang Street for the next year. How much you learn here will depend on you."

He glanced around and added, "Don't look down on people with servile status. Everyone here may seem ordinary, but they all have at least one skill of their own... oh, right, brat, you'll have to provide for yourself here!"

"Huh? Why?" Lin Ke asked.

Minister Qi gave him a teasing look. "Weren't you the one who said, 'Who wakes first from the great dream? All my life, I alone have known'? With such lofty words, surely you don't need an old man like me worrying about your eating, drinking, and bodily needs."

"All right, then." Hearing Minister Qi recite the lines describing Zhuge Liang, Lin Ke smiled awkwardly. "Uncle Qi, is there anything else I should watch out for?"

Uncle Qi!

Minister Qi this, Minister Qi that-how could that compare to the closeness of Uncle Qi?

If not for their difference in seniority, Lin Ke would have wanted to call him Brother Qi.

Minister Qi raised a hand and pointed to both sides of the street.

"I have a few rules. First: you must not leave this street. Within it, do whatever you like. Second: remember, here I'm merely a porter, not the Minister of Rites! If my identity is exposed, the peace here might well be shattered..."

With that, Minister Qi turned and said to Lin Ke, "Follow me. I'll take you to your lodgings."

At the end of the street, Minister Qi held his left hand behind his back and pointed with the other toward the courtyard on the right. "Everything's arranged for you. This courtyard is yours. Generous of me, isn't it?"

Without waiting for Lin Ke to speak, he strode toward the courtyard gate.

Naturally, Lin Ke followed with a skeptical look.

Minister Qi pushed open the gate himself but did not enter, apparently stunned for a moment by the sight inside.

Since his back was to Lin Ke, all Lin Ke saw was his brief pause.

But once the gate opened, Lin Ke froze too.

This was what he called having everything arranged?

The scene inside came into view through the open gate.

The courtyard was overgrown with weeds, some taller than a person...

Had no one told him otherwise, Lin Ke would have thought that fencing this place off and planting a few more trees would turn it into a small forest park.

Lin Ke was doubtful. "Uncle Qi, are you sure this isn't someone else's courtyard?"

It looked like an abandoned little courtyard that had gone untended for years.

Minister Qi waved a broad hand. "This is my courtyard. I'm a 'porter' with servile status, always traveling about for work. It's perfectly reasonable for my courtyard to be a little overgrown."

Reasonable, my ass. Fine, it actually was pretty reasonable... Lin Ke found himself at a loss for words.

A porter, put simply, was someone who carried loads.

Unloading cargo at docks, delivering parcels for people, and serving as sailors or boatmen on merchant ships all fell within the scope of a porter's work.

So did the work of some itinerant merchants with no fixed abode.

Still, Lin Ke stepped into the courtyard and surveyed this army of wooden generals and grassy soldiers, utterly helpless.

It was far too overgrown!

Seeing Lin Ke's expression, Minister Qi showed not a trace of embarrassment. "You'll live here. I'll have someone transplant the tree here in the next couple of days. As for everything else, handle it yourself!"

"Whoosh!"

"Don't~ for~get~ the~ con~test~"

With that, Minister Qi vanished, though Lin Ke could still hear his words echoing in his ears.

He certainly fled fast.

The entrance stood empty. Lin Ke turned to look at the two small rooms behind him.

There was no helping it. He would have to clean the place himself.

Lin Ke silently set his bundle on a rock beneath the eaves, took out his woodcutting blade, and began clearing weeds.

But as he bent down to weed, Lin Ke finally noticed something wrong:

"Wait, didn't Uncle Qi just say you couldn't fly around the capital region? Real slick!"

Before he finished speaking, a gentle breeze brushed his face.

Lin Ke immediately sensed disaster and was about to flee, but a hand had already pressed down on his shoulder.

"Ah, um, Uncle Qi, didn't you leave?" Lin Ke turned around.

Then he went flying and landed in the grass, baring his teeth in pain.

His body was sturdy enough, though. Apart from a sore backside, he was perfectly fine.

Where he had just been standing, Minister Qi, who had supposedly left, reappeared and dusted off his hands. "That feels much better."

Then Minister Qi said smugly, "I forgot to tell you. Before coming here, I settled things with the old man's side. Here's how it works: every contest covers literary, martial, and miscellaneous skills, but there's also a distinction between categories and topics."

"Categories and topics?" Hearing something important, Lin Ke immediately stood up.

"Right. This time, they choose the categories, and we choose the topics!" Minister Qi said:

"Literary categories include poetry, lyric verse, rhapsodies, expositions, debates, discourses, inscriptions, parallel prose, memorials, sacrificial texts, and so on. As for the topic, you can decide that yourself..."

"Martial categories include strength, speed, reflexes, physical coordination, endurance, and so on. These can be demonstrated through topics such as horseback riding, archery, sabers, swords, lances, spears, fists, kicks, Martial Path will, and comprehension..."

"Miscellaneous categories include music, board games, calligraphy, painting, and the like. You can even compete in Buddhist, Daoist, demonic, or fiendish arts, but this time the category has been set as painting. Painting topics would involve artistic conception, composition, brushwork, imagination, and such."

As he spoke, Minister Qi rubbed his chin and chuckled.

"And this time, the literary category is poetry. Within poetry, you can choose a topic-praising plum blossoms, praising spring, night, mountains, water, and so on."

"As for the martial category this time, it's physical coordination! To compete over whose body is better, you can choose topics such as archery, horseback riding, or pitch-pot."

"I've already told you the miscellaneous category. You'll have to think up the topic yourself as well..."

After Minister Qi explained for a while, Lin Ke finally understood.

Categories and topics!

In other words, literary, martial, and miscellaneous skills were like the three subjects of language, mathematics, and English in his previous life. Once the test subjects were established, the specific categories within them had to be set.

For instance, language had various categories such as reading comprehension, reciting poetry or lyric verse, and essay writing.

Qi Ye's side needed to decide this round's category-whether they would test essay writing or reading.

Lin Ke, meanwhile, would determine the specific test topic: if it was reading, would it involve an expository essay, an argumentative essay, or a narrative?

Once everything was settled, the contest would begin when the three-month period was up!

"So that's how it works!"

"Poetry, painting, and physical coordination..."