129 Not Outstanding
County Officer Zhang added, and when Dean Meng agreed, all the disciples started to show off.
Someone made the first couplet, whilst the other made the second. All the couplets needed to be related to Dragon Boat.
Some were excellent, which were spoken highly of by the others.
Couplets included “Wormgrass for the men, and rush grass for the Emperor.”
“Beautiful ladies among grass, pure-hearted scholars of poetry”.
“Dragon Boat day and pear flower, Summer morning and birds chirping.”
“…”
Hearing the couplets, Xie Jingrong believed that some were almost up to standard, so he made some remarks, causing them to want to make even more.
Shao Liulang had tried to make some couplets but none of them were good enough, failing to catch the attention of County Magistrate Qiao and Xie Jingrong.
He felt quite distressed.
But when he thought of how his cousin did not make any, he felt encouraged and less distressed.
Compared to Shao Yunduan, he was much better.
Motivated, Shao Liulang decided to scrape his brain to show his talent.
In fact, Shao Yunduan just did not want to make any couplets.
He did not like to stand out.
Also, Officer Qiao and Madame Qiao did not like him, and Madame Qiao held a grudge against him. In this case, he tried to keep a low-profile and stay away from the mess.
However, the more Shao Yunduan wanted to stay low-profile, the less he was able to.
When countered by Qiao Xuan, Qiao Wei had been holding a grudge against her sister and was trying her best to find a way to take revenge for the trap she herself had set .
She hated to be talked down to, so she decided to direct her grudge towards Shao Yunduan.
When all the disciples were competing among themselves, only Shao Yunduan stayed silent.
Qiao Wei, of course, did not know that Shao Yunduan was doing that on purpose. She thought that Shao Yunduan lacked the knowledge to make any couplets.
Therefore, she was going to humiliate this idiot in public.
That was like humiliating Qiao Xuan.
It would make her feel less annoyed.
Qiao Wei rolled her eyes, and whispered to her maid, Fendie next to her. The maid turned to Qiao Xuan, nodded and went to County Officer Zhang, passing on to him what Qiao Wei had said.
County Officer Zhang felt quite embarrassed.
He had no idea what was going on inside County Magistrate Qiao’s family, but listening to the task assigned, he could tell what was going on for real.
He had heard of how Elder Miss normally behaved.
The Elder Miss ordered her maid to pass on the message to him that he should come up with a difficult idea for the Second Miss’s husband to make a couplet, so that he could be humiliated.
It was such a stupid thing to do!
How could he humiliate a County Magistrate’s son-in-law?
The County Magistrate would lose his face if his son-in-law was embarrassed.
But if he did not obey Elder Miss’s order, this narrow-minded woman would tell Madame Qiao, who would ensure that his wife and daughter suffered greatly in the future.
Helplessly, County Officer Zhang still decided to do as instructed.
He chuckled and turned to Shao Yunduan. “Cultivated Talent Shao, you seem like a talented person, why don’t you make a couplet for us to read?”