Fengyu had to admit that Miss Ying didn't have the aloofness he had thought she had. After all, as a martial artist of the eighth stage, she should have some arrogance. Even if she didn't, she should keep her distance…
But ever since he corrected her poem, she seemed to have transformed, taking his words of fellow scholars seriously. Even the feeling of elegance gradually faded under the image of familiarity.
Just as he was thinking about this, he saw the servant who rushed away came back with a small scroll.
"Official Jie, last time you gave me extremely well-thought advice. May I be so shameless as to ask for advice again?"
"Why call it advice? Why is there shame? Miss Ying, we should just treat each other as fellow scholars!"
"Then I will indeed treat Official Jie as a fellow scholar!" Yueling was delighted, feeling like she had finally gained a peer in her scholarly studies!
She unfurled the scroll in front of Yunyin and showed him the content –
It was only a single line, yet Yunyin could feel the artistry behind it.
"Swimming in the morning river-"
A subtle image of a river in the morning sun appeared in front of his eyes, a river reminding him of his own hometown…
"What does Official Jie think?" Yueling asked.
"Please just call me Yunyin!" Yunyin corrected, feeling that the formal address was weird in such a friendly environment.
"Yunyin! Then you also call me Yueling." Naturally Yueling was delighted to do so.
"Mhm, then Yueling, this line is very good. It evokes an image of the river in the morning sun… what advice can I give?"
"Oh, the advice is actually about the next line. I have thought about it and think that the next line should be, 'Fins, gills and scales, the water is my home'… but I feel like this line doesn't quite fit in directly."
Yunyin looked at her with surprise - giving him two lines, which is already half a poem... if he stole it, what would she do?
Though since he had told her about the closeness they should treat each other with, he could only tell her about privacy another time.
He contemplated the two lines for several minutes before he told her his thoughts, "This line is perfectly well as it is. The issue is that the change of scenery is a bit abrupt.
Maybe add a line that allows the reader to submerge into the water, telling them that the swimmer in this poem is not a human but a water animal?"
Yueling's blue eyes lit up, inspiration appearing in her mind as she directly took the brush from her servant and drew on the scroll –
"In the soft morning sun, below the mirror of blue –
Swimming with glittering light, I observe the world for a single clue –
Fins, gills and scales, this is my home.
But master, when will you come?"
She completed the poem in a single sitting, her eyes still shining with insight and delight. To the side of the poem, she wrote several notes and ideas.
Only after several minutes passed by did she raise her head, only to see two people looked at her curiously.
"Father! Why didn't you tell me you came?"
"Haha, my dear Yueling is focusing on your scholarly arts, how can I disturb her? Can you let your father see what you wrote down?"
"No! It's not completed yet. Once I complete it and fuse it with my martial arts, I will show father.
Yunyin, I'll show it to you too! Thank you for your advice, it was very helpful."
"No problem. Then next time, maybe I'll have the chance to create another painting." Yunyin was quite surprised she was willing to show him her final work. Outside of special occasions, scholars only show their work to their closest friends.
Hearing the two call each other by a first name basis, Fuliang raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask. His expression… seemed even kinder.
"Then, let's serve the breakfast!" he said, calling for the servants to put away the scroll and serve the food.
Yunyin's internal thoughts were a mix of astonishment and confusion, yet his relaxed outer persona simply ate casually while chatting mostly with Yueling about various matters.
Fuliang waited for a moment of silence before he spoke up, "What do you think of the dismissal?"
The moment he said the last word, he felt an extremely hidden yet deadly killing intent emerge from Yunyin, but when Yunyin turned to him, everything disappeared.
"The harem's matters… it was the empress who didn't handle things well and allowed such a matter to spread to the court." Yunyin said seriously, but everyone who heard it and knew about the empress would know that this was a dig at the emperor.
After all, how could the empress allow such a thing to happen? Isn't it because the emperor is too wilful, not respecting the matriarch and trying to meddle into matters of the harem?
It's easy to see from this why the distinction between front yard and back yard are so serious in the imperial palace. Only by doing such a thing would the emperor be able to rule the country properly…
Fuliang looked seriously at Yunyin, the killing intent just now wasn't an imagination, he had clearly seen it, but for a moment, he didn't want to point it out. Instead, he switched the topic, "The southern province, Qingling… it's one of the four Spirit Provinces of our Ning Dynasty –
Northwestern Yueling, Southwestern Yangling, Southern Qingling and Eastern Heling.
Each of the spirit provinces has extremely important purposes in the dynasty."
"Yes, the four spirit provinces are great!" Yunyin agreed deeply, "I don't know if I mentioned it, but my Jie Clan and the county we have controlled are in the Qingling Province of the south!
The Qingling Province leads the three southern provinces to feed the whole dynasty. Just three provinces feed as many as 50% of the whole population!
Haha, naturally this is a bit exaggerated, but Qingling is indeed an extremely populous province, which is why there are so many counties!"