Great Tang Idyll Volume 02 Chapter 18
Volume 02 Chapter 18: Royal Mannerism Takes Winning and Losing Lightly
Right after the voice was heard, the children’s hands stopped moving and they all turned their heads to look over in the direction of the voice. They saw a little girl dressed in red with her Rubik’s cube raised up high in her hand. She waved her wrist around to show everyone that she solved all six faces.
A child’s mindset was not as good as that of an adult. When they saw that someone had finished solving the Rubik’s Cube and the first place title was gone, they couldn’t help but cry. They originally planned to solve some parts of the Rubik’s cube before the incense stick completely finished burning1, but now, all hope was gone.
The few children that were crying were all from outside the manor, and two of the children were from the Ge Manor. The children from the Zhang and Wang manors looked at the solved Rubik’s, and then turned back around and continued to play with the Rubik’s Cube in their hands as if the first place title was not taken yet.
After seeing this, the person who came with Li Xun frowned. If only some of the little children from the Zhang and Wang manors acted like this, it would be fine, but they all acted the same way. This meant that they learned about some particular thing.
"Good job. They lived up to being children from the Zhang and Wang manors. When others have reached the finished line already, they still continued to work hard. When it comes to solving Rubik’s cubes, first place can be won, but as for life, one should never give up until the moment of death. Xiao’bao, it seems that we have succeeded. Not only did we teach them knowledge, but also the principles of life."
Wang Juan was satisfied with how things turned out. These children made her feel that spending a lot of money on training them was not a failure. People who can endure loneliness and continue to work hard while watching others around them succeed are the most suitable people at survival.
Zhang Xiao’bao didn't say much. He nodded and continued to look down.
Li Xun took in a deep breath. He also did not drop the Rubik's Cube from his hand and he remained just as calm as before. His hands didn’t even shake. He knew that the title of first place was gone, but he couldn't act like those other children and stop too. If he did that, then it was not going to be as simple as losing. He had his own sense of glory.
When the incense stick was completely burned, all the children who were still working on their Rubik’s cubes stopped and placed it onto the table. Some only had one face solved, and some didn’t even have any faces solved. The one that was slightly better was Li Xun’s cube since it had four faces solved, and one of the other face had two rows solved and was only missing the middle row. Normally, he had never solved the cube to this degree before.
After Housekeeper Zhang made a signal, the servants handed out iron medals to each of the children. The medals had the children’s names written on it. There were medals prepared for those who gave up too, but those medals were not given to them.
Even if some of them have already solved two faces, they were still not given anything. Some of the adults who were watching were sensible enough to understand that the children who gave up were not even as good as children who still insist on trying despite not solving a single face.
The children, who were crying again now, were ignored and the second game proceeded to begin. The next competition was calligraphy. Li Xun was still as calm as before. When he started to write, his mind did not wander off. However, the other children, who were normally quite good at calligraphy, had lost a bit of their confidence because of the previous competition, so the quality of the characters they managed to write were not as good.
Liu Er, who won the first game, was also there writing. She had never learned to write before or even know how to read. At this time, her approach was simple, and that was to stand there and watch others write. In particular, she watched her benefactor.
What Li Xun studied was Wang Xi’zhi's2 way of writing. The tip of his brush moved fluidly, but at the same time, it was powerful and determined. At this moment, his entire mind was immersed in the writing, and he didn't notice that there was a little girl next to him watching.
Liu’er wanted to say hello to him, but when she saw her benefactor didn’t even look at her, she knew that it was not a good time to disturb him. The only thing she could do was keep watching. When she saw her benefactor had written twelve characters, she turned around and ran back to her own desk. While standing in front of her desk, she picked up her brush. She recalled the characters written by her benefactor, and began to write.
When the first character was written, the strokes were too thick, and when the second character was written, the strokes were too thin. When the third character was written, it was impossible to tell that it was a character at all. By the time the twelfth character was written, it was more like a painting. She somehow ended up drawing out the characters Li Xun had written, despite not even recognizing the characters.
After finishing writing out twelve characters, she ran over to look at Li Xun’s written characters again. She looked at a few characters, and then ran back to her own table to continue writing. A scholar, who was on good terms with Song Jing’gong, came closer to have a look. He shook his head after looking at each person. When he looked at the two children who were normally quite good at calligraphy, he shook his head and spoke to the person beside him, “Their mind and heart are not focused. Such a pity.”
When he walked over to where Li Xun was, he was taken aback for a while. He spoke to the person next to him, “I see some potential. Given a few more years of practice, he is comparable to those who have been practicing for ten years plus."
After Liu’er came over to watch Li Xun, they followed her back. They looked at the written characters in front of Liu'er and they were about to turn around and leave. This child did not know how to write and had no skills at all, but when they were just about to leave, he suddenly saw Liu’er write another character.
He had no choice but to stop in his tracks this time. He pulled on the person beside him who had already turned around to leave, “Brother Gao’peng, look at this child. Look from the beginning to the end."
After he said that, other people also became interested and turned around and looked at her characters again. Liu’er was concentrated at this moment so she was not distracted by them at all. She did not know that her benefactor was writing out the "Poems of King Teng’s Pavilion3". She was now writing the line, 'Objects change, stars move, how many years of passing autumn”.
A few of them stood there to watch her write. After the last ‘autumn’ character was written, Liu’er did not have a chance to run over to continue reading the benefactor's characters because the man who was referred to as Brother Gao Peng couldn't resist yelling out.
"Good! Well learned. From the first character, it can be seen that the little girl has never written a character before. By the time this ‘autumn’ character was written, her writing had become more elegant. Little girl, what's your name? How old are you this year? I intend to accept you as a disciple, are you willing?"
As he spoke on, he began to ask about her affairs and wanted to accept a disciple since she had a natural talent. Once he spoke out his thoughts, the other people were unaccepting of it. They all rushed to take her in as a disciple. This frightened Liu'er, and she left her spot to run over to Housekeeper Zhang. She only felt safe when she tugged on his sleeves.
The two guards, who were once standing beside Housekeeper Zhang, were now standing in front of them. One of the guards stood directly in front of Liu’er. The guards were instructed by the Young Master to take good care of this person.
At this moment, Li Xun had finished writing the last character. He put down his brush and he felt that his entire body was weak. He looked at his handwriting and smiled. He didn't know what was going on today---not only did he solve four faces instead of three, his writing was also better than before.
He rotated his wrist as he looked around, and he happened to see Liu'er hiding beside Housekeeper Zhang. The little girl no longer looked like the person that he once helped. Back then, Liu’er’s clothes were not good, and her body was thin and her face was sallow. Right now, she had a completely different appearance. Li Xun only remembered that little girl to be the first one who finished solving the Rubik’s cube just earlier.
With people protecting her, Liu'er was no longer scared. She blinked her big eyes and looked around everywhere. When she saw that her benefactor was also looking at her, she thought that her benefactor still remembered her. She pulled onto one of the guards and made her way to Li Xun. With a dull thud, she knelt down on the ground, "I, Liu'er, greets my benefactor. You’re really amazing; you know how to write so many words."
"Hurry, please get up. You are...?" Li Xun thought hard, but he still didn't figure out who this little girl was, and asked suspiciously.
"Benefactor, I am Liu'er. In front of the restaurant that day, you gave me and my family a lot of food and asked the restaurant to take care of us. Benefactor, you are a good person." Liu’er was feeling anxious when she learned that her benefactor didn't remember her anymore.
After she gave a reminder, Li Xun finally remembered that something like this did occur. Looking at her now, he knew that the restaurant was taking good care of her. The clothes she was wearing were made of silk, her shoes were made with satin, and her little cheeks were rosy looking.
He said a few more words quickly and he tried to comfort Liu'er. The second game just ended, and the third game started. Next was an intelligence test.
This time, more people were needed to help out in the competition. Every child has a person next to them to ask the questions. If the child can answer the question correctly, the person will ask the next question. If the child can't answer it, the person will tell the child what the correct answer is and then move on to the next question.
The children have never heard of these kinds of questions before. ‘Someone was washing clothes for a long time, but his clothes were still dirty, why?’ ‘The person was washing other people’s clothes.’
‘A thing has four legs, but it can’t walk, why? ’’Because it’s a table. ’
Questions like these were asked one after another. Most of the children were dumbfounded when presented with these questions. On normal days, they were never exposed to these things at all.
The most amazing one was Liu'er. After getting three questions wrong in a row, she finally understood how to answer these kinds of questions, and she was able to answer six of the last remaining seven questions correctly.
Li Xun also gained some experience after answering five questions incorrectly and he got three out of the remaining five questions correct. In the end, he ranked second among all of children. At the same time, he also felt that these kinds of questions were really fun, so he told his servants to immediately write down the questions so that he can ask others the same questions later on.
Liu’er had won two games already. Even if she doesn’t win the last one, she will not fail. The rest will depend on whether Li Xun can win the last round since he was first place in the calligraphy test just now.
The last round was a test on historical facts. Liu'er had learned a lot from her teacher. She was not given any hints before the test began, and the person who came up with the questions didn’t recognize her, so the fairness of competition was ensured.
This time, the children were not individually asked, but instead, it was a race to answer the questions. Whoever answered the question first will be awarded a point. There were a total of 20 questions, but if there was a tie, then the people who were tied will answer the extra questions until a winner can be decided.
At this time, Liu'er was finally able to demonstrate her high intelligence and her ability to react quickly. When she was learning this, she was also a quick learner. She answered five questions correctly in a row. When everyone looked at her in shock, she suddenly thought about her benefactor who tried to answer a few times, but she always beat him to it.
In order to repay her benefactor, she decided that she wouldn’t steal his chances to answer anymore. Li Xun began to do better in the later questions, and he managed to answer nine questions correctly. There were three questions left that no one answered, and three questions that were answered by three different children.
Just when Housekeeper Zhang was about to announce Li Wang’xun’s victory, Li Xun took the jade pendant off his body and said: "I... I have lost. Liu’er is the winner. Liu Er had let me win. Liu'er, take this. If you ever encounter something difficult in the future, take this to...to the Li Manor over there and ask them for help."
While saying the last few words, Li Xun had stuffed the jade pendant into Liu'er's hands. He found that Liu'er was indeed smart. He felt that helping her back then was worthwhile since she at least knew how to be grateful.
Just when he finished giving her the jade pendant and turned around to leave, Housekeeper Zhang came to the front. "Childe Li, my master would like to ask you something. It is something that concerns the people of the Great Tang."
Incense stick finish burning
Since incense sticks are all about the same length, and will take the same amount of time to burn, it is usually used as a way to measure time. It’s usage is just like an hourglass, but it measures only half an hour.
Wang Xi’zhi 王羲之
He is regarded as the greatest Chinese calligrapher in history.
Poems of King Teng’s Pavilion 滕王阁诗
This was a famous piece of literature written by Wang Bo during the early years of the Tang Dynasty.
I was planning to save this chapter for Monday, but since I'm done translating already, why make everyone wait even more? Thank you for waiting patiently and thank you for supporting me!
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