What To Do if You’re the Villain and the Heroine Likes You

Flowers bloom like fire, and also like loneliness.

Taken from the poem ‘You Like Ballads’ by Gu Cheng, a representative of the Misty Poetry School.

As for who Gu Cheng is, I don’t think we need too much of an introduction, do we?

His masterpiece ‘A Generation’ – the night gave me black eyes, but I used them to find light. It can be said to have killed junior and senior high schoolers’ essays, and is also a modern poem that must be memorized by literary youths of all periods.

He Yunxiao is not very good at memorizing texts, but when it comes to pretending to be literary, He was the king of kings.

In his previous life, he had memorized modern poems like these, which were not inferior to ancient poems.

Although He Yunxiao’s original intention was to play a big in front of the odious Yang Zhe, no matter what the motive was, the artistic value of the verse itself could not be erased.

Flowers bloom like fire, and also like loneliness.

Four words in one sentence. Eight words forming a poem, simple words with an appalling meaning, meaningful, and timeless.

“Bravo!”

In the midst of the silence, Li Jin was the first to stand up and applaud.

When He Yunxiao saw Li Jin stand up, he was not surprised at all.

Although it was not long ago that Li Jin was still finding trouble with him at every turn, He Yunxiao had a very good impression of Li Jin.

In the original novel, Li Jin was a person whose reputation had always been okay. The reason for this was that this person was particularly simple. Of course, this is the term for high emotional intelligence.

His motive was always very simple, to get recognized in front of Yang Zhe.

Whether it was to uphold justice or to recite idioms by heart.

In fact, he just wanted to show off his power in front of Yang Zhe.

Right now, for example, while everyone was swooning over the poem, Li Jin was the first to stand up and shout, “Yes! What a great poem! What a great poem! It’s really well written.”

After saying this, he gave Yang Zhe a glance, saying, “Yang Zhe, this young man doesn’t know how to make people swoon, didn’t you think so?

Yang Zhe’s face was gloomy.

It wasn’t that he was provoked by Li Jin. It was just that he never expected that He Yunxiao could write a poem.

These eight words, not to mention anything else, were far above his own frontier poem in terms of brevity and substance alone.

The top scholar in arts, in a poetry session in a brothel, had lost to two pawns, one after another?

It could be said that he had lost face.

He Yunxiao looked at Yang Zhe’s gloomy face and didn’t let go of the opportunity to kick the dog in the face.

Being generous was what protagonists should do. Villains were never generous.

He laughed, “Yang Commander, what do you think of my poem, “Flowers Blossom Like Fire”?”

One could only say that Yang Zhe was worthy of being Yang Zhe, even though he was embarrassed in his heart, he still managed to do well on the surface.

He stood up in a dignified manner and said, “These eight words are wonderful, I can’t believe that Young Master He is also a gentleman.”

Although he did not say so explicitly, between the lines, he meant to mock He Yunxiao for being a goodfornothing fool.

He Yunxiao was naturally not willing to back down.

“Commander Yang is joking. The Commander is full of mundane affairs, wearing armour and kneeling in front of the palace, it is normal to be less civilised than us.”

The corners of Yang Zhe’s mouth twitched, but in his heart he was secretly surprised.

Who said that He Yunxiao was just arrogant and ignorant? His eloquence was even better than some court officials.

Since this was the case, Yang Zhe did not intend to be silent with He Yunxiao and flung out a big move on the spot.

He said, “Young master, your eight words, ‘Flowers bloom like fire, and also like loneliness.’, are really wonderful. It’s just that, since ancient times, there is no such thing as eight words to make a poem. Even for a four-word poem, one must write eight sentences before and after, filling thirty-two words.”

Yang Zhe looked at He Yunxiao with contempt. He did not believe that He Yunxiao was really talented.

He must have probably copied this amazing poem from somewhere, “The flower blooms like fire, but also like loneliness”, from some unknown talent.

With such confidence, Yang Zhe directly asked, “If Young master He really wants to compose a poem, please write out the context directly.”

In He Yunxiao’s eyes, Yang Zhe’s forced question was like sticking his face out and inviting himself to play music with his slap on his face.

That was really a strange request that he had never heard before.

With his hands behind his back and his chin raised at forty-five degrees, He Yunxiao spoke slowly, reciting Gu Cheng’s poem “You Like Songs” word by word.

“You like songs, child. This song is sung to you. This pretty honey-colored flame, blown again and again by autumn.

The mornings are clear as glass, with water shining on it. It’s not known at first, singing for you in the woods.

The trees that have sung have fallen.

Flowers bloom like fire, and also like loneliness.”

After He Yunxiao finished reading, silence fell over the room.

Tie Weiqi, Shen Kuan and the others didn’t dare to speak at all, as it was a bit embarrassing to be caught in full view of the crowd and not understand the words at all.

“Strange!” Li Jin scratched his head, “This poem is really strange, it doesn’t have any rhythm at all, and there are long and short lines, and it doesn’t match up before or after. The strangest thing is, I can understand every line, why is it that when put together, I can’t understand a single word?”

Li Jin’s words were indeed the voice of the vast majority of people.

Yang Zhe was even more straightforward and said, “I thought that Young master really had some knowledge. He composed a poem, but it turned out that the lips of a donkey don’t match the mouth of a horse.”

At first, Liu Feiyun was also shocked by He Yunxiao’s poem.

With such a martial arts genius as Chu Fan as a reference, if Chu Xiaoxiao’s literary level was unexpected, it was reasonable. Then, He Yunxiao’s literary level was completely unbelievable.

He had been a fool for so many years, and his image was as immovable as a mountain in people’s minds.

So, when He Yunxiao read out the entire poem, many people were relieved.

That’s it?

How can you call it a poem without rhythm?

How can you call it a poem without being elegant and meticulous?

Liu Feiyun laughed as he tapped his fan, “Brother Yang, please don’t try to push Young master around. In the words ‘Flowers bloom like fire, but also like loneliness’, is certainly not bad, so why bother with other words?”

Yang Zhe picked up Liu Feiyun’s words and said, “It’s me who overestimated He Yunxiao.”

At these words, the whole audience burst into laughter.

Indeed, such He Yunxiao only matched the image in people’s minds.

“Chen Zimo. If the first prize winner of the imperial examination is someone like Yang Zhe, who is just seeking fame, then let’s not take the examination.”

After this sentence, He Yunxiao did not say any more and sat down with relief.

Yang Zhe sneered, “He Yunxiao, don’t think that just because your father is a general that you can say anything you want.”

He Yunxiao said leisurely, “I am just writing poetry, how can I do anything wrong? Is it true that only you, Yang Zhe, can write poetry in the world and I, He Yunxiao, cannot?”

Yang Zhe said, “How can you call this a poem when it is like the words of a passer-by on the street?”

He Yunxiao said, “It has both poetic meaning and connotation, and everything should not be bound by the rules, so why can I not call it poetry?”

The two of them quarrelled, and no one dared to persuade them.

Liu Feiyun, who was in second place, threw a piece of paper onto Tie Weiqi’s table and gave him a look that indicated Li Jin.

The fourth Tie Weiqi then poked Shen Kuan, who was in fifth place, and gave him a sign for Li Jin.

Shen Kuan had no excuse but to say stiffly, “Young Master Li?”

Li Jin inclined his head and looked at Shen Kuan, “What for?”

Shen Kuan said, “Young Master Li, it’s not a good idea for these two to go on fighting, you should persuade them.”

Li Jin was not stupid, and said, “Why don’t you persuade?”

Shen Kuan said with a smile, “Young Master Li, you are the son of a second-ranking minister, the nephew of the current Empress Dowager and the nephew of the current Princess. There is no one of higher status than you right now. If Your Excellency does not maintain order in Yinjing, who will do so?”

Li Jin thought carefully, and it was indeed the case.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Immediately, he took on the grand task of upholding righteousness.

Resolutely rising, he said, “Stop arguing! What’s there to argue about? Today is the flower leader’s debut show, Du Huakui is here, does He Yunxiao’s poem count as a poem, just ask her?”

Yang Zhe looked at Li Jin and thought to himself that this fool had finally done something good.

Immediately following Li Jin’s words, he said, “He Yunxiao, do you dare to let sister Yinyun judge your poem?”