The vermilion palaces are one after another, and the sunlight falls on the gentle faces of young people in the water pavilion through the silk curtains painted with swirling cloud patterns.
The young man was wearing a light-colored crane-patterned gown. After sitting at the table, his skin was as white as porcelain, his eyebrows were graceful and picturesque, and his thick and slender eyelashes wrapped around a pair of lustrous black eyes, which fell gently, casting two crescent-shaped shallow shadows on the straight bridge of his nose. The black hair was bundled into a bunch of jade belts, clinging to the soft silk brocade, along the shoulders and necks, all the way down to the waist.
The posture of the pine and the appearance of the crane are beautiful.
There was constant jubilation outside the waterside pavilion, but the young man turned a deaf ear to it, lowered his eyes, and focused on reading the scroll in his hand.
"Your Highness."
Counselors Gongsun Yang and Fan Zhou entered the water pavilion together.
Gongsun Yang said with a smile: "Today's banquet, celebrities and officials from all over the world are showing their talents, so why don't your highness go and have a look?"
Sitting behind the curtain was none other than Jiang Yun, the Crown Prince of Jiang Kingdom who was famous all over the world for his virtue and attracted countless followers. He is also one of the "Four Princes of the Southern Kingdom" who are well-known in the Jiangnan countries.
This time I came to Chen Country because I was invited by the Lord of Chen Country to participate in the annual Liushang Banquet.
This is a grand event for the six countries in the south of the Yangtze River. All the guests attending the banquet are dignitaries, celebrities and sons of nobles from the six countries. The main purpose is to communicate the feelings of the six countries in the south of the Yangtze River through the competition of the six arts, so that all countries can work together to resist the increasingly powerful Sui Kingdom in the north.
Jiang Yun had never been interested in such publicity, so he shook his head lightly.
Gongsun Yang and Fan Zhou secretly thought it was a pity.
The "Four Young Masters of the Southern Kingdom" are Wei Jun, the eldest son of the Wei Kingdom who is famous for "rong", Luo Fengjun, the eldest son of the Luo Kingdom, who is famous for "music", Chen Qi, the son of Chen Kingdom, who is famous for "literature", and Jiang Yun, the prince of Jiang Kingdom, who is famous for "virtue".
The six countries in the south of the Yangtze River, and the other five countries are all subordinate countries of Jiangnan.
The "Four Young Masters" were jointly recommended by celebrities from all over the world. Although the rankings are not in order, but with the other three Young Masters who are distinguished by their appearance, musical ability, and writing ability, the word "virtue" of His Royal Highness seems somewhat illusory. It seems that apart from moral character, there are no other talents that can be displayed.
As a loyal counselor, Gongsun Yang felt very sorry for his highness.
Because he knew that, apart from the well-known good morals, His Royal Highness's appearance, literary talent, and even musical talent were not inferior to the other three young masters at all.
Only because His Highness is low-key and others are too high-profile, and never show off the limelight at such important gatherings as the Liushang Banquet, he was only given a tepid "virtue" word!
There are even some good people who don't know the inside story, secretly claiming that His Highness, the title of "Master Virtue", is just added to make up for it because celebrities from all over the world don't want to directly touch the face of the suzerain state of Jiang Kingdom. If the fourth son really wants to talk about strength, he still has to look at the three sons Rong, Le and Wen.
Especially Luo Fengjun, son of music, and Chen Qi, son of Wen. If it is said that their beauty is due to the blessing of heaven, and it has an element of luck, then the wonderful music skills and exquisite writing all require real effort.
Comparing the two, it seems that His Royal Highness, the "Master Virtue", is more like adding to the numbers!
"The first place in the music competition, Luo Fengjun, the son of Luo Kingdom!"
With a report, cheers came from outside the water pavilion again.
According to the Six Arts of a Gentleman, there are six types of competitions in the Liucup Banquet. It can be said that there is no suspense for Luo Fengjun to win the first place in the "music category".
It's just that Luo Fengjun is aloof and arrogant, and he is the eldest son of the Luo Kingdom. Usually, these nobles and ministers want to hear him play a song, which is more difficult than reaching the sky, so even if they knew the result earlier, the guests were very excited.
Wei Gongsunyang whispered to Fan Zhou quietly: "I think His Highness plays the song "Indus Yin" better."
On the jade platform, Luo Fengjun dressed in white, stood up proudly holding the piano, and glanced casually around. In addition to his musical skills, his appearance is also very outstanding. To him, people's admiration and pursuit are as common as eating and drinking. He doesn't take it to heart, and he doesn't even bother to look at them. His gaze fell directly on the only water pavilion with a curtain hanging down, and asked with a smile: "I wonder what your highness thinks of Fengjun's song?"
The reviewers of the Liucup Banquet are composed of celebrities from all over the world. Jiang Yun, as the prince of the suzerain country, is also ranked as the fourth son with Luo Fengjun, so he is not among the reviewers. Luo Fengjun's rash question immediately attracted everyone's attention to the water pavilion where Jiang Yun was.
The silk curtain hangs down, and everyone can only see a vague shadow from the outside.
The hot-tempered Gongsun Yang frowned first. His Highness is the prince of the suzerain country, with a noble status. A mere son of a subordinate country dared to offend His Highness in public. It was extremely rude.
The second one who frowned was Jiang Yun.
He had tried his best to avoid getting involved in these boring fights, but he was dragged into them anyway.
This Lord Luofeng is well-known and has a high reputation among the countries in the south of the Yangtze River. As a virtuous prince, he cannot ignore it.
Gongsun Yang was about to scold him, but Jiang Yun raised his hand to stop him.
Jiang Yun put down the scroll, and answered concisely through the curtain: "Luo Shizi's song is so clear to the orphan's eyes and ears, it's like hearing fairy music, and the word "leader" is well-deserved."
Jiang Yun is proficient in music theory. When Luo Fengjun played just now, he naturally listened to the whole "Wutong Yin". From a professional point of view, Luo Fengjun's playing is indeed impeccable, even far better than many ancient music masters in the world.
It is a beautiful thing to get such an evaluation from the crown prince of the suzerain country.
Everyone in the stands immediately praised and flattered Mr. Luo Feng, and some even suggested that this matter be recorded as a beautiful story.
Unexpectedly, Luo Fengjun did not move, but still stared at the silk curtain hanging outside the waterside pavilion, and said: "I have heard that His Highness is also proficient in melody. He is a master of music. When he was eleven years old, he became famous in Jiangdu with the song "Phoenix Seeking the Phoenix". Today is a grand feast. Would Your Highness condescend to compete with Feng Jun?"
As soon as this remark came out, everyone was in an uproar.
For one thing, Jiang Yun is the crown prince of the suzerain country, and Luo Fengjun's repeated provocations are really the following offenses.
Second, for a long time, Jiang Yun has been almost a transparent person at the Liushang Banquet. Because of his frailty, quietness, and "no particularly outstanding talents", this His Highness stayed almost the entire time in the water pavilion with a windshield curtain, never participating in any competitions, and rarely showing up in front of people.
It is said that even among the guests of his sect, few of them have seen the real face of the prince.
Because of this, there were even rumors that the prince was too ugly to see others, so he didn't dare to show his true face, and could only rely on his so-called moral character to convince others, gaining a reputation as a virtuous corporal.
There are different speculations about the prince's refusal to show off his talent at the Liushang Banquet.
Some people say that the prince is really aloof from the world, acts low-key, and does not want to steal the limelight of the subordinate country. Others say that the prince is mediocre and has no talent at all. He is afraid of losing the game and being crushed by the subordinate country.
As for the fact that he played the famous "Phoenix Seeking the Phoenix" at the age of eleven, it was probably to build up his reputation and find someone to play it for him! The creator of "Phoenix Seeking Phoenix" is Qi Guoduanhou, but he is rated as a musical genius who is hard to come by in a century. Once the song "Phoenix Seeking Phoenix" came out, it attracted countless musicians to study and imitate, but after so many years, no one can perfectly present the essence of it. The only one who got a few points of true biography was Duan Hou's son, Qi Ziqi, the prince of Qi. How could a mere eleven-year-old play such a difficult song as "Feng Qiuhuang".
Luo Fengjun is a musical genius, and his musical talent is well known all over the world. Isn't it clear that he wants to disgrace that prince by provoking Jiang Yun, who is mediocre at this moment?
The ministers accompanying Luo Guo were startled at first, and hurriedly approached to dissuade them.
But Luo Fengjun obviously made up his mind, and he was not moved at all, and his eyes were still fixed on Jiang Yun. Gongsun Yang finally couldn't help but said angrily: "Luo Shizi, do you know what you are doing?"
Luo Fengjun Shi Shiran replied: "Naturally, I know that Fengjun has admired His Highness for a long time, and I have long wanted to find an opportunity to compete with His Highness. Fengjun knows that he is inferior and has no qualifications to challenge His Highness. However, the Liushang Banquet is a grand event for the six countries in the south of the Yangtze River. At the beginning of its establishment, it has established the rules of regardless of status, but only talent. Not worthy to compete with the suzerain country?"
Fan Zhou, who had a calm personality, also showed displeasure.
Xin Dao, what a eloquent Luo Fengjun, he actually used the name of Liushangyan to provoke His Highness. On the surface, the Liushang Banquet is a gathering of the six nations and a talent competition, but everyone knows that it is a banquet to maintain the alliance of nations in a greater sense. As the crown prince of the suzerain country, His Highness has the responsibility to maintain the alliance. If he rejects Luo Fengjun's request in public, it would be as if he really looked down on the subordinate countries, which would be extremely detrimental to the Six Nations Alliance.
But right now, the Sui Kingdom is preparing its troops and horses, eyeing a tiger...
Luo Fengjun's words aroused the concerns of many other subordinate countries, plus some spectators who had been curious about this mysterious Jiang country prince for a long time, but also wanted to use Luo Fengjun's hand to uncover the mystery of this prince and see how ugly this prince is.
After all, it was Mr. Luo Feng who stood out, and even if he really offended Jiang Guo in the end, he would not be able to offend anyone else.
The scene froze for a while, and just when Gongsun Yang and Fan Zhou were feeling overwhelmed, behind the curtain, the beautiful voice like jade falling into a clear spring sounded again:
"It's not as Mr. Luo said."
"It's Gu's lack of skill, the pentameter has degenerated, and he can't play any music for a long time."
"Admit defeat alone."
Gongsun Yang and Fan Zhou's expressions changed at the same time.
In front of so many subordinate countries in front of a large audience, His Highness directly conceded defeat to a son of a subordinate country, how unbecoming is that!
Other countries also looked different.
Unexpectedly, the prince of the Jiang Kingdom was as rumored, with mediocre aptitude and poor skills. Even Wei Yun, the son of Wei Guo, who is famous for his beauty, can also write good calligraphy and paint well.
Thinking about the ugly rumor, it is absolutely true!