"'A man must have integrity?'"
Zhao Wenyuan repeated the phrase, first puzzled, then almost bursting into laughter.
Nonsense!
What "integrity" could Gu Fangchen possibly have?
When it came to character, this man had spent years bullying men and harassing women, short of murder, there was hardly a single vice he hadn't committed. Even the children of Huangtian City knew the infamous name of this debauched heir.
As for learning, Gu Fangchen's chest was emptier than an unmarked scroll. He knew nothing of the literary Dao and had fainted three teachers from the academies with his ignorance.
Even Gu Youren, the Academy's first female instructor, had failed to teach him, how could others possibly succeed?
Zhao Wenyuan could guarantee that those four characters were just something Gu Fangchen had randomly asked someone to come up with for good luck, to pretend he was cultured at the Qionglin Banquet.
Could it be that this idiot had been provoked by Gu Yuandao's triple academic victory, too jealous to accept it, and came to play at being a scholar?
Zhao Wenyuan shook his head helplessly.
If it were anyone else, he'd think no one could be so stupid as to compete with the disciple of a Sage.
But because it was Gu Fangchen... somehow it all made sense.
Having spent so many years fooling around with Gu Fangchen, Zhao Wenyuan had long sensed that the Northern Garrison Prince's intentions weren't simple.
Now that Gu Yuandao had returned, his mind suddenly cleared, and he finally understood what exactly the Northern Garrison Prince had been plotting.
Given the current situation, the conclusion was clear, Gu Fangchen was finished!
Everyone knew the Northern Garrison Princess doted on her son to the point of obsession. Even if Gu Yuandao exposed Gu Fangchen's false identity, the princess would not easily abandon him.
But if he made a fool of himself at the Qionglin Banquet, with Gu Yuandao shining beside him for contrast, she would inevitably be disappointed, and if he offended the academies, that would be a death sentence.
That Gu Fangchen had still come here so publicly could only mean that the Northern Garrison Prince had deliberately allowed it.
The Martial Saint clearly intended to sever all ties!
Zhao Wenyuan felt Gu Fangchen's situation grow more pitiful by the moment.
He himself had feigned frivolity for the sake of hiding his sharpness. Toward Gu Fangchen's kind of brainless idiocy, he felt nothing but disdain.
Yet having known him for so long, Zhao Wenyuan also knew how things stood within the prince's household. The Northern Garrison Prince had deliberately shaped Gu Fangchen into this useless form.
Used to this degree, yet still unaware, only to be trampled into the mud in the end.
One could only say: pitiful people often bring pity upon themselves.
Zhao Wenyuan looked at him with sympathy, patted his shoulder, and glanced at the fan in his hand, saying softly,
"Next time, maybe have someone else write the words for you?"
Gu Fangchen: "..."
Typing on a keyboard for too long and not writing by hand, his calligraphy really was awful.
With a sharp flick, Gu Fangchen snapped the fan shut and tapped Zhao Wenyuan's chest with it, smiling faintly.
"I'll give you one more chance to organize your words properly."
Zhao Wenyuan immediately changed expression, straightened, and said solemnly,
"These characters are unconventional and sharp in style, unique and self-contained, no one could compare."
Gu Fangchen lifted his chin and walked ahead.
"Naturally."
Zhao Wenyuan followed after him and asked again,
"You still haven't answered me, what are you even doing here at the Qionglin Banquet? Where did you get your invitation?"
"If you can come, why can't I?"
Zhao Wenyuan curled his lip.
At least he was an eighth-rank cultivator of the Divine Path and had a minor position as a proofreader in the Ministry of Rites, barely enough to gain entrance to the banquet.
But Gu Fangchen? What qualification did he have?
Most likely he had begged a spare invitation from the Northern Garrison Princess.
Gu Fangchen said mysteriously,
"Actually, I found this invitation on the ground yesterday. Don't go spreading it around."
Zhao Wenyuan froze, then watched as Gu Fangchen pulled out a very elegant pale-green invitation and handed it to the guards standing at the entrance of Qionglin Garden.
Something was off about that color...
Zhao Wenyuan's first thought was that Gu Fangchen must be trying to pass off some other invitation as his own.
But then he denied it. Even Gu Fangchen couldn't possibly be that stupid.
Still, normal Qionglin Banquet invitations were always red and gold.
Why was this one green?
Wait, he remembered hearing a rumor that one special invitation was different.
A spark flashed through Zhao Wenyuan's mind as he noticed the faintly recessed yin-yang fish pattern on the surface of the card.
But that was, the Grandmaster's invitation!
His eyelids twitched as he quietly drew a deep breath.
No way...
Every year, the Grandmaster was indeed invited to the Qionglin Banquet, though he almost never attended.
That rumored invitation, said to be inlaid with yin-yang jade marrow, had never been seen by anyone.
And Gu Fangchen claimed,
He had picked it up?
Where could one possibly "pick up" the Grandmaster's invitation?
It wasn't like those discarded love letters tossed out by young ladies during the Lantern Festival!
"Gu Fangchen, that's not something to joke about!"
Zhao Wenyuan's face grew serious. He stepped forward quickly and caught the invitation in his hand.
He wasn't worried for Gu Fangchen's sake, but if Gu Fangchen offended the Grandmaster, the fallout might splash on him too.
But the guard at the gate did not take the invitation. Instead, he bowed respectfully and said,
"His Majesty has already ordered that if the Heir arrives, he is to enter directly, no invitation required."
Gu Fangchen raised an eyebrow.
So the one who had arranged for him to have the invitation... was actually Xu Fu?
The Grandmaster truly understood the art of the stick and the sweet date. Then, it seemed, the matter of the torn scripture was forgiven.
Probably.
Gu Fangchen pulled the invitation from Zhao Wenyuan's grasp, handed it back to the guard, and said cheerfully,
"If I have an invitation, I can't just not use it, can I?"
"Also, since this invitation belongs to the Grandmaster, that means I'm representing the Grandmaster himself. Go in and inform everyone to prepare for my arrival."
Gu Fangchen spoke with perfect confidence.
He knew the Qionglin Banquet's proceedings like the back of his hand, this was nothing but a social gathering for scholars and officials to display themselves and forge connections. When a great figure arrived, ceremony demanded they be received with full honors.
Sure enough, the guard gave no objection. He nodded, briefly inspected the invitation, and went in to announce it.
Only then did Zhao Wenyuan recover from his daze.
Wait a second, that invitation was real?!
"That's the Grandmaster's invitation!"
"Yes," said Gu Fangchen.
Zhao Wenyuan nearly choked.
That was for the Grandmaster, not for you, could you at least act a little less casual about it?
That Gu Fangchen could even get hold of such an invitation...
His talk of "finding it on the ground" was obviously nonsense, but how he had actually obtained it was a question full of intrigue.
Moreover, the Emperor himself had ordered that if Gu Fangchen arrived, he was to be admitted at once.
Today's Qionglin Banquet concerned the dispute over the heirship. If Gu Yuandao secured recognition, the entire political structure of the court would shift.
Why, then, had both the Yong'an Emperor and the Grandmaster changed their attitude toward Gu Fangchen at this precise moment?
Could it be...
That Gu Fangchen, too, had been concealing his brilliance all these years, an undercover piece laid by the Emperor and Grandmaster, now to be revealed and put into play?
Zhao Wenyuan couldn't help but glance again at the invitation in Gu Fangchen's hand.
Then he noticed something he hadn't before.
That invitation... seemed to be missing something?
"I remember the Grandmaster's invitation was supposed to be inlaid with one black and one white piece of yin-yang jade marrow, wasn't it?"
Zhao Wenyuan eyed the empty hollows on the invitation and twitched his lips.
"When you 'found' it, did it already look like that?"
Gu Fangchen nodded earnestly.
"Yes. No idea which heartless wretch stole the jade from the invitation, shameless, really."
"If I ever find out who it was, I'll personally report them to the Grandmaster and see them punished by law!"
Zhao Wenyuan: "..."
You were the one who pried the jade out, weren't you?
That behavior... was indeed just like Gu Fangchen.
Once again, Zhao Wenyuan began to doubt himself.
This heir's idiocy didn't seem feigned after all. Maybe it was those two, His Majesty and the Grandmaster, playing some deeper game.
The situation truly was growing murky...
He decided to watch and see.
Shaking his head, Zhao Wenyuan followed into Qionglin Garden, where young talents and literary masters had already gathered. Yet after just a few steps, something felt off.
He patted his robe and froze.
In his hand now lay two pieces of black and white jade marrow.
Exactly the ones that should have been embedded in the invitation.
Zhao Wenyuan: "..."