You might as well just say cough out as much money as you can! Was there any need to beat around the bush in such a long-winded manner? Qin Hu inwardly cursed, but was unable to do anything as the opposing side’s influence was stronger than his. As a Clan Leader, he had to endure being abused by a young teenager. How humiliating! Nonetheless, Qin Hu dared not show the slightest hint of unhappiness. This was because it really would not take much for Jun Xie to exterminate the Northern City Clan…
Wearing a smile on his face, Qin Hu promised that he would satisfy Third Young Master Jun. After having exhausted all his flattering words, Jun Xie waved him off, allowing him to pick up his son and leave in a disheartened manner.
“Pooh! What a mood breaker!” Tang Yuan fiercely spat out as he watched Qin Hu’s leaving back. “Third Young Master, the Gifted Scholar’s Feast will be held tomorrow evening in the centre Island of Moondrop Lake. Are you going? I heard that there will be a lot of new stuff!”
Traditionally, Tianxiang Kingdom will hold a Gifted Scholar’s Feast during the annual Autumn Festival. This feast would be held during the evening in the centre Island of Moondrop Lake. The Emperor would take this opportunity to have his ministers arrange for the first ten gifted scholars from the Wenxing Institute of Knowledge to appear. These ten individuals were in fact, the few handsome talents that were about to graduate and serve the royal court. Using this feast, their talents would be judged before being assigned to the appropriate positions. As such, this Gifted Scholar’s Autumn Festival Feast was no different from a platform for them to soar into the dragon’s gate.
A mere ten places were certainly not enough for the thousands of scholars. This situation would cause an intense competition to arise among the scholars of Wenxing Institute of Knowledge. This situation would also become the main focus of the masses. Even the great families would assign some men to attempt to approach these men into serving their family.
In addition, these gifted scholars were mostly bachelors with a very promising future. Thus, some young ladies from various noble families would desire to select their future husbands from amongst them. Naturally, many others would choose to join in as well.
With so many ladies from the noble families there, it was only natural for the debauchees like Tang Yuan and Jun Moxie to appear. In order to garner the attention of the beauties, they would end up competing with the gifted scholars in a battle of wit. However, each of these competitions would end with the debauchee side losing miserably. Such was the scenario each year. At the current, Tang Yuan asked with a look of excitement on his whole fat body, he obviously felt that this was an important matter. But, whether they would be able to win was not something they dared to declare. The only thing that could be said was that it does not look optimistic.
“Gifted Scholar’s Feast? Eldest Young Master Tang, just look at the two of us. Do we look like… gifted scholars?” Jun Xie rolled his eyes. “It would be more accurate to call us rapeseeds.”
[TL: The pinyin for “gifted scholars” (才子) is “cái zǐ”, while the pinyin for “rapeseed” (菜籽) is “cài zǐ”. The difference between them is the way of pronunciation. The pinyin for “fat seed” (肥籽) is “féi zǐ”.]
In his heart, Jun Xie had to restrain himself from saying: With my delicate features, it may not be too farfetched to be labelled a gifted scholar. But you my dear brother, even calling you a rapeseed is inappropriate. For you, it would be more fitting to call you a fat seed!
“Nonsense! What gifted scholars? They are just a bunch of pedantic men bent on making profit. Do you remember that Zhao Chengsong who caused me to lose face in front of Miss Li in last year’s Gifted Scholar’s Autumn Festival Feast? He was that one person who kept throwing various insults around. I immediately arranged for him to be employed by our Tang Family. All I needed to do was promise him a high position and big salary for him to run over. Do you know which department he is in now?” Tang Yuan said in a triumphant manner.