What size do you require?" Master Zhou asked.
Zhang Ye not knowing it either, "Hmm, anything will do I guess."
Master Zhou was a left a little speechless, but still said, "How many words will there be?"
Zhang Ye answered, "I'm not too sure either. Let's just write and see how it goes."
Well, he was composing it on the spot after all, so how could he possibly know how many words there would be? So, Master Zhou instructed his disciples to go prepare and soon after, everything was ready.
Everyone stopped eating and went over to spectate.
"Let's go downstairs!"
"There's something exciting to watch again!"
"Wait for me, I'm coming too!"
People who were upstairs came down, many of which were family members and members of the association.
This time, it wasn't a match, but somehow, it felt more exciting than one. Everyone's soul was stirred. Su Na squeezed in front to find a spot near the happenings.
Chen Mo was waiting to see Zhang Ye make a fool of himself. His few disciple brothers thought so too, thinking, how a person without any preparation even write a folk song poem? A few hundred to thousands of words that he hadn’t even planned for? Wasn't this an immense joke!? And you even want to use it to tell a story? The ancient stories have already been written so much that people are sick of them!
Master Zhou stood in the innermost row.
Master Wei and Wu Zeqing were seated and watching.
All eyes were focused on Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye dabbed the brush in ink and then looked up to find Chen Mo. "Watch carefully and see what a folk song poem really looks like!" Saying this, he landed his brush and began describing it verbally.
"In ancient times, there was a girl named Mulan."
Girl?
Hua Mulan?
Didn't ancient styles of writing always write about men? Why are you writing a woman as the protagonist?
When Chen Mo and his fellow disciple brothers heard it, they sneered. Everyone else was dumbfounded. Their faces wore an expression of bewilderment and probably thought that Zhang Ye really was crazy. Not only did he want to compose a folk song poem on the spot, he was even going to use a woman as the main character? A story about getting married and teaching their children how to farm? What was there to write about?
"Tsiek tsiek and again tsiek tsiek,
Mulan weaves, facing the door. You don't hear the shuttle's sound,
You only hear Daughter's sighs."
When the first line was written, Su Na knew what she had to do. She walked and stood behind Zhang Ye. As he wrote another line, Su Na read it aloud so that everyone in the outer rows, who could not see, could hear it.
"Eh?"
"It's really about weaving and farming?"
"What's so interesting about the happenings of a household?"
"Quiet, don't disturb him. Let's keep watching on."
A few women and girls were discussing behind him.