Lin Feilu cleared her throat and sang in her pearly voice:
“For you, I wrack my brain to write the words
For you, I do the impossible
For you, I learn to play the zither and write lyrics
For you, I’m losing my mind.”
(T/N: Lyrics for contemporary Chinese song “为你写诗”/”I write poems for you” by Kenji Wu/Wu Ke Qun. “Zither” and “piano” can be used interchangeably depending on context.)
Song Jinglan: “…”
Lin Feilu: “…”
Awkward.
It’s time for her to stop her habit of teasing beautiful boys.
Song Jinglan froze for a while, then shook his head and smiled
He was always smiling, and Lin Feilu was used to seeing his smiles. But she felt that this time, his smile was different.
It seemed like that was warmth in his eyes now.
Now that school was on break, Lin Feilu did not have to wake up early to make sure Lin Jingyuan would not be late to school. Finally, she could enjoy rolling around under the warmth of her blanket.
The snow that had stopped for a few days was falling down again, however it was not as heavy as before. The snowstorm that Emperor Lin was worried about did not happen, thus he was in an elated mood. He even visited the Imperial Harem more often.
Recently, everyone in the Imperial Palace was busy as they were preparing for the banquet of the New Year Eve’s reunion banquet for the imperial family. The previous year-end banquet was a banquet for the Imperial Harem’s concubine. This reunion banquet on New Year’s Eve was a grand banquet for all the relatives of the imperial family.
Lin Feilu heard from Xiao Lan that there will be ninety-nine dishes at the reunion banquet. The ninety-nine dishes symbolizes a grand reunion, known as the Guiyi Banquet, and is a traditional event in the Great Lin Empire. Lin Feilu was just salivating over the thought of eating so many dishes.
It was such a pity that, due to her status, she was not allowed to attend the reunion banquet.
After a few days, the results for the year-end examination were released.
The imperial teachers selected ten poems from hundreds of poems and presented them to Emperor Lin, who would finally decide the best three.
The poems were written anonymously so that the inspectors would not know which student wrote which poems.
However, in previous years, it was always Lin Ting and Lin Qing who would win with their answers always in the top three.
After reading all ten poems, Emperor Lin did not hesitate to pick the one that depicted a young girl. He said to the imperial teacher, “This is extraordinary, it is worthy to be the best poem of all. Which of my princes wrote this?”
The imperial teacher looked through the roster and was a little surprised, “To answer Your Majesty, this poem was written by Song Jinglan, the prince of Song Empire.”
Emperor Lin was taken aback for a moment, then picked it up and read it again, “Prince Song? I remember that he was mediocre in his studies and had never produced any good works in previous years.” He looked a little deeper, “Bring his other eight poems and show them to me.”
The imperial teacher submitted eight other poems and replied, “It is strange to say, of the nine poems written by the Song Empire prince, the other eight are mediocre and fall into stereotypical metaphors. Only the poem about the girl is outstanding, and it is a genuine piece of work.”
After reading them one by one, Emperor Lin finally calmed down, and said quietly, “It looks like it was just a stroke of luck.” He pondered, “If this is the case, let’s put this poem in third place. Those who deserve to be rewarded must be rewarded, after all our Great Lin Empire must be graceful.”
The imperial teacher cordially responded, “Understood.”