The water and stones are gurgling, the wind and bamboos are swallowed together, the furnace smoke is curling, and the grass and trees are in full bloom. The joy of the world's clear and vast joy is just like this. Alas! How can those who rush into the territory of fame and fortune and do not know how to retreat, it is easy to get this?

The above passage is written by Mi Fu. The "Preface to the Pictures of the Elegant Collection of Xiyuan" is Li Gonglin's paintings. However, Li Gonglin was only fifteen years old at this time, and the paintings of the plain paintings were not yet fully mature. Mi Fu was only thirteen years old and is still staying in his hometown in Xiangyang. Therefore, the "Preface to the Elegant Collection of Xiyuan" they collaborated with should be the Elegant Collection of Xiyuan held many years later. However, due to Zhao Yan's intervention, I wonder if they will have the opportunity to participate in the Elegant Collection of Xiyuan in the future?

Although the time is different, there is not much difference between the Xiyuan Elegant Collection that Zhao Yan saw and the Xiyuan Elegant Collection written by Li Gonglin and Mi Fu. I saw that opposite the stream, a group of scholars in secret shirts were in groups, writing poems, paintings, writing stones, reading books, or speaking scriptures. They looked extremely elegant and enjoying the joy of feasting.

In contrast, the nobles in the bamboo forest seemed a little vulgar. Just now, Zhao Yan only walked around and found that many nobles were either gambling or teasing uninvited women. What's more, some people approached the bamboo forest where women gathered, and then secretly looked at the girls in the bamboo forest. They were extremely vulgar in shape. Zhao Yan also despised these people very much. If you want to see it, just look openly. Why don't you even be a playboy? But what he didn't know was that he, Cao Song and Hu Yanping were also members of the army who peeped.

"San Ge'er, you see, those scholars are so sad that they are so sad to attend a party. They are so boring that they are doing some pretentious behaviors like poetry and paintings. I think we should not go!" Cao Song persuaded for the last time.

When the Xiyuan Elegant Festival was first held, the nobles and scholars were not as clear as they are now. They just like to play and don’t like the scholars. The scholars looked down on these noble children who were fighting for cocks all day long, and even had several conflicts. So the Xiyuan Elegant Festival held later was divided into two areas, and the scholars and noble children did not interfere with each other.

"We've all arrived here, so there's no point in going back. If you don't want to go, then stay here!" Zhao Yan said, raising his legs and going up the bridge to the opposite side.

However, before he could get to the bridge, Xue Ning'er stopped him with a smile and said, "The prince stays. Although this stream is small, it divides the Xiyuan Ya Ji into two parts. Generally speaking, the two sides do not interact with each other. However, some noble children hope to enter the scholars. However, according to the rules here, if you want to pass this bridge, you must write a poem called a crossing poem, and then chant high across this bridge, otherwise you cannot pass this bridge."

"Hey, the nobles go there to write poems. What should I do if the scholars on the other side want to come here?" Zhao Yan asked in surprise when he heard this. However, his words caused Xue Ning'er to laugh. At this time, Zhao Yan realized that most scholars who could participate in the Xiyuan Elegant Festival were noble people. In their opinion, mingling with the nobles who fought with the lackeys was simply a self-deprecating status and would never come here on their own initiative. On the contrary, some young people from aristocratic backgrounds wanted to get into the circle of scholars, such as Wang Shi, a typical representative.

In ancient Chinese history, scholars had the highest status in the Song Dynasty. Zhao Yan also knew a little about this. He nodded and asked, "I understand, who can write poetry?"

"I can't even recite poems!" Cao Song shook his head and said as soon as he heard Zhao Yanping's words. As for Hu Yanping, he immediately fell into a state of improperness when he heard the words "writing poems". It is estimated that even if he woke up, he could not write any poems. In this way, only Xue Ning'er, the best-in-law, was left.

"I can write a few poems, but I don't know if I can get the eyes of the prince?" Xue Ning'er saw Zhao Yan looking at her and immediately covered her mouth and smiled.

"Thank you for your help from Prime Minister Xue Xing. I am not sure of writing poetry, but I can't write poems that suit the situation at this time, which makes Xue Xing laugh!" Zhao Yan's words are not all lies. He did bring some classic poems from later generations. Unfortunately, these poems are either "green mountains and buildings outside the mountains" or "I never forget to tell my husband for family sacrifices". None of them is suitable for the situation. If I insist on memorizing them, it will only make people feel strange. When he showed off to Cao Ying last time, Cao Ying had already warned him not to recite poems randomly, so now he can only ask Xue Ning'er for help.

Xue Ning'er naturally didn't believe that a playboy like Zhao Yan would write any poems, but she smiled sweetly and said, "The prince is very talented, and I naturally know that as for the poems crossing the bridge, I should just leave them to me. But before writing the poem, I have a small request, please forgive me!"

"What are the requirements?" Zhao Yan was also quite surprised by Xue Ning'er's bold move. In theory, in his own identity, the other party actually made a request at this time, which was not something that an ordinary woman dared to say.

Xue Ning'er smiled again and said, "Actually, this matter is nothing to the prince. Last time, Cao Yanei brought some paintings from the prince. The style was very novel. The little girl liked it very much at first sight, so she wanted to ask the prince to agree and ask the painter from the prince's mansion to help the girl draw a portrait in the future."

Like Cao Song, Xue Ning'er thought that those paintings were painted by painters in Zhao Yan's mansion, and she never thought that Zhao Yan was the one who painted. When Zhao Yan heard this, she couldn't help but laugh and immediately agreed, "Okay, it's a good thing to exchange poetry for paintings!" After Zhao Yan said that, she glared at Cao Song fiercely. Without asking, it must be this kid who told Xue Ning'er about the things that were drawn from his mansion.

"Third brother, it's not what I told Xue Xingshou, but what he said to his third brother-in-law." Cao Song shouted injustice, but Hu Yanping was still in the trap and could not confront him at all. Zhao Yan was lazy to pursue such things again. Anyway, after today, everyone would know what they were drawn by their own hands.

Seeing Zhao Yan agreeing, Xue Ninger was also very happy. The reason why she kept paying attention to Zhao Yan just now was actually because she wanted Zhao Yan to agree to this matter. After all, the new paintings are in full swing now, and some people outside ask for paintings but are unavailable. If she could ask the mysterious painter to make a painting for herself at this time, she would definitely become famous because of this, and it would be possible that she would even surpass Yan Ruyu, who ranked first.

Zhao Yan, Xue Ning'er and others have been standing by the bridge for a while, and they have just made the move to go up the bridge, so they quickly attracted the attention of many people. The scholars across the bridge stopped pens and chess pieces and looked up at Zhao Yan. However, most of their eyes at Zhao Yan were a little contempt, but instead they looked at Xue Ning'er with admiration, but they turned to Zhao Yan and others with jealous eyes.

Compared with those hypocritical and jealous scholars, the ladies in the bamboo forest performed very consistently. They both disliked Zhao Yan and Xue Ning'er, and of course they were also curious why Zhao Yan came here? In fact, these ladies near the bridge mainly wanted to appreciate the elegant attitude of the scholars opposite. When they met someone they fell in love with at first sight, they might even ask the elders in the family to take the initiative to propose marriage. It can be said that it is another form of "catching son-in-law under the list".

Of course, not all the noble women who participated in the Xiyuan Elegant Festival came for those scholars, and some were to gather with a few good sisters. This part of the ladies were in the middle of the bamboo forest, such as the girls Zhao Yan saw when she passed through the bamboo forest just now.

On a gravel path in the bamboo forest, a girl in a pink skirt ran quickly panting and rushed into the pavilion at the end of the path and shouted loudly: "Ouyang... Sister Ouyang, that Zhao Yan actually wants to cross the bridge to go to Shizi. Now many people are going to watch the fun, let's go quickly too!"

When the girls in the pavilion heard this, they stood up in surprise, but the girl in the middle who was holding a brush in her hand snorted coldly and said, "What's so good about Zhao Yan's playboy?"

The girl who wrote was Ouyang Xiu's granddaughter whom Zhao Yan and Cao Song had discussed before. Her boudoir name was Ouyang Wanling. Because of the rumors outside, her innocence was damaged, so the one she hated the most was Zhao Yan. When she saw a woman like Zhao Yan and Xue Ning'er walking together and talking and laughing, she even wanted to kill the other party to relieve her hatred.

The girls in the pavilion were all Ouyang Wanling's good sisters. Seeing that she was unwilling to go, it was hard for everyone to leave her to watch the fun. However, after the girl in pink who ran over came over, she smiled and said, "Sister Ouyang, don't you like Zhao Yan the most? If you want to be a person like Zhao Yan, if you go to the scholar's side, you will definitely be ridiculed and even make a fool of yourself. Don't you want to see Zhao Yan's appearance of being ugly?"

When Ouyang Wanling heard the girl's words, hesitated for a while before finally putting down the pen in her hand and saying, "Okay, I want to see what good things would someone like Zhao Yan do when he goes there?"

Seeing Ouyang Wanling agree, the other girls also showed happy expressions. After all, women are born gossip animals. When they encounter such interesting things, they naturally want to take a look. The girl in pink even grabbed Ouyang Wanling and hurriedly walked towards the small bridge.
Chapter completed!