Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 351 Brother-in-law, continue (6,000)
As Ziyu's voice gradually faded away, the painted boats in Qunyu Garden, the scholars on the shore, and the flower boats surrounding Qunyu Garden all gradually quieted down.

The first part is now complete!

Xue Yu closed her eyes and sighed softly.

Before the second stanza even appeared, he already knew he had lost.

Originally, he only noticed the beauty of the woman beside Song Yan and wanted to get to know her. He didn't take Song Yan seriously, as he didn't think the man had any innate nobility and probably wasn't an important person. However, when the woman completely ignored his own poems and asked Song Yan for them, he finally took Song Yan seriously for the first time. He felt that he was far superior to Song Yan in both appearance and inner temperament. Feeling resentful, he deliberately used words to provoke Song Yan and try to make him lose face in front of everyone.

But all these calculations ultimately came to naught.

The other scholars who had previously joined in the commotion were also speechless, their mouths agape. The entire hall was deathly silent.

Even the three proud courtesans stared wide-eyed at this moment.

The first stanza, viewed in isolation, merely describes the scenery and lacks depth in its theme. After all, Ningguo is currently weak, so scholars writing poetry and lyrics often prefer to imbue their works with a sense of patriotism and concern for the people. Whether or not they actually do anything practical for the country and its people is unimportant; what matters is that I am worried.

Poems that merely describe scenery are often looked down upon. But the key point is that the description of the scenery in the first stanza is simply too damn good. The technique is bold and unrestrained, like a strong wind and sturdy grass, clearly presenting the grand occasion of the Lantern Festival to everyone in a magnificent, splendid and splendid way.

On this night, dozens of flower boats, dozens of poetry gatherings, and hundreds of poems for the Lantern Festival all paled in comparison to this first verse.

The bright moon hangs high in the sky.

The surface of the Yi River was quiet, with only occasional ripples and splashes.

Song Yan paused, as if sensing something amiss in his surroundings. He looked up and met a series of gazes, some astonished, some admiring, and some jealous… Especially the group of young women from Qunyu Garden, whose eyes seemed to be shining. Song Yan felt a chill run down his spine, as if these women wanted to strip him naked and devour him.

As I said before, Luo Tianyi didn't understand poetry, but judging from the reactions of everyone around her, she roughly understood that her brother-in-law's poem was quite impressive... Moreover, it sounded strangely pleasant, though she felt a little unsatisfied.

Song Yan withdrew his gaze, his brush soaking in ink.

Just as he picked up his brush, preparing to finish the poem.

laugh.

The sound of air being torn apart suddenly rang out.

The next instant, under the bright moonlight, a dazzling, cold light streaked across the sky, like a falling meteor, heading straight for Song Yan's face.

That was... a crossbow bolt. It pierced through the gap between Xue Yuhe and the other scholar, and the gust of wind it generated even made both of them feel a stinging pain in their cheeks.

This all happened so fast.

Some of these young masters were skilled in martial arts, but none of them had time to react. They could only watch helplessly as the arrow drew closer and closer to Song Yan's face.

"Be careful……"

"Get away!"

Instinctively, someone shouted.

Song Yan, seemingly oblivious to the deadly danger, simply lowered his head, his wrist flicked slightly, and with a few swift strokes, the flowing calligraphy quickly appeared on the paper.

Xue Yu's eyes widened. He did envy Song Yan for having two stunning beauties by his side, and he did want Song Yan to lose face, but he never thought of taking his life... He subconsciously reached out his hand, but he couldn't touch anything.

In everyone's eyes, Song Yan had practically become a dead man.

At this crucial moment, a small, white hand quietly reached out from the side.

Amidst the horrified gazes of the crowd, and just as some were about to scream, the crossbow bolt stopped in mid-air, its tip only half a foot away from Song Yan's brow. Her small, pale hand grasped the arrow, preventing it from advancing even an inch further.

Hiss... In an instant, the scream he had prepared got stuck in his throat, it was incredibly uncomfortable; his horrified gaze turned into one of horror.

Grab the crossbow bolt with your hand?

real or fake?

Is this something a human can do?
Luo Tianyi withdrew her small hand, giving Ziyu a somewhat provocative look, probably saying, "I'm no worse than you." Unfortunately, Ziyu's gaze was entirely focused on Song Yan's calligraphy, completely oblivious to Luo Tianyi's provocation. She pursed her lips and looked at Song Yan:

"Brother-in-law, please continue."

These are the words my brother-in-law gave me, and they cannot be ruined by anyone.

"Young master, you should go into the cabin first. It's not safe here." Seeing Song Yan still writing furiously, Xue Yu frowned and kindly advised him. As soon as Xue Yu spoke, the surroundings quickly became restless. There was a constant rustling and whispering, and some people looked anxious, as if they were worried that they would be the next to be assassinated.

Song Yan smiled and said, "Don't panic."

The voice wasn't loud, but it had a strangely infectious quality.

On the painted boat, the noise gradually subsided, and people looked at Song Yan with a hint of admiration. He was the one who was assassinated, and the crossbow bolt had almost pierced his skull, yet he was so calm now, as if nothing had happened.

Putting everything else aside, this kind of unwavering composure is something that most people cannot possess.

"Do you know who it is?" Song Yan asked casually as he continued writing.

Such a leisurely attitude made the eyes of the scholars twitch. Good heavens, who doesn't concentrate on writing poetry and lyrics, wishing they could immerse themselves in their own world and not be disturbed by external things? But this guy is actually distracted and has time to chat with the people around him.

“I’m sorry, young master.” Ziyu shook her head: “The crossbow bolts came from the shore.”

"Unfortunately, there were too many people."

"But we don't know who did it."

Song Yan looked up at the shore, where a dense mass of heads stretched out like a cloud.

“Heh…” Song Yan’s gaze swept over the beautiful woman in the painted boat: “Then… let’s ignore her.”

Moths, snow willows, golden threads!
As Ziyu's gentle and moving voice rang out, the second half of the poem gradually appeared before the audience:

"Moths and willows, golden threads, laughter and fragrance lingering..."

"I searched for him a thousand times in the crowd..."

"Suddenly looking back, that person is there, in a dimly lit place."

The voice fell.

The Yi River fell into an eerie silence once more. After an unknown amount of time, someone finally sighed and exclaimed, "What beautiful words! What beautiful words!"

I want to praise it, but I don't know what words to use to describe it.

All the gazes directed at Song Yan were filled with indescribable emotions.

Is this person arrogant?

mad.

Extremely arrogant.

But they have the right to be arrogant.

The moment this poem was written, this young man was no longer arrogant and conceited, but rather a man of extraordinary talent, unparalleled in the world.

That's really awesome!

Xue Yu examined the words on the white paper again, seemingly unable to believe that someone from Ningguo… no, from the entire Central Plains could write such captivating lyrics. He sighed repeatedly, his eyes glazed over, as if in a dream. The first stanza of the poem depicted the magnificent and bustling scene of the Lantern Festival, while the second stanza portrayed the solitary pursuit of humanity amidst the vast sea of ​​people.

The extreme clamor of the first stanza serves as a stark contrast to the serene and aloof pursuit of the second stanza.

So what is this pursuit?
Is she a beautiful woman?

If she were a beautiful woman, she wouldn't be leaving with smiles and a lingering fragrance!

Some seemed to be thinking of Ningguo now, sighing softly, their eyes filled with struggle.

Someone seemed to be thinking of something else, their eyes filled with sadness.

A considerable amount of time passed before the young masters, including Xue Yu, finally managed to pull their gazes away and bowed respectfully to Song Yan. This young master might be a bit arrogant... but given his talent, minor flaws are perfectly acceptable.

After all, many great talents in ancient times had unique quirks. Some drank and ran naked, some were unkempt, and some acted like madmen. These were all normal and nothing to be ashamed of.

Song Yan didn't care what others thought. He picked up the Xuan paper and blew on the ink.

This one action instantly attracted everyone's attention.

Faintly, Song Yan could still hear the sound of someone swallowing saliva.

This poem, "Green Jade Table - Lantern Festival," is undoubtedly a timeless masterpiece. Original manuscripts of such poems and essays are extremely valuable for collectors; they could even be framed and hung in a study as a family heirloom. Imagine having such an original manuscript hanging in your study—how prestigious would that be if friends came to visit?
Even those three stunningly beautiful and proud courtesans were filled with envy. If they could get this poem from this young master, if... after searching high and low, they would suddenly find themselves in the dim light. Their value would increase tenfold in an instant!
However, looking at Ziyu beside Song Yan, he ultimately suppressed such thoughts.

Ziyu is not the most beautiful courtesan, but she can still control the most beautiful courtesans.

Unfortunately, Song Yan ignored the eager gazes around him and shoved the manuscript into Luo Tianyi's hands, prompting a chorus of sighs of regret from all around.

Luo Tianyi took it, a slight smile appearing on her face. She held it carefully, reluctant to roll it up, as the ink was still wet and the writing would probably become smudged if she rolled it up.

"Let's go, it's getting late," Song Yan said, stretching his arms.

Luo Tianyi nodded obediently.

Xue Yu and the others wanted to keep Song Yan to ask him about poetry, but Song Yan refused with the words, "Actually, I don't understand poetry." This remark drew a few eye rolls. How could someone who could write such a masterpiece not understand poetry?
With Ziyu in tow, the three disappeared into the crowd.

The scene continued until Song Yan and the other two could no longer be seen. Only then did Xue Yu turn her gaze away and sigh, "This young master really wasn't lying. With this 'Qing Yu An. Yuan Xi' preceding it, it's likely that writing Lantern Festival poems will be truly difficult in the future." "Hey, last year a freak appeared in Songzhou with a 'Lin Jiang Xian. After the Dream, the Pavilion is Locked High,' which made it difficult to write poems in the 'Lin Jiang Xian' style anymore. Now another freak has appeared, with 'Qing Yu An,' making it impossible to write Lantern Festival poems either."

Fortunately, there are only two geniuses like this.

If there were a few more geniuses, and if there were other ci poem titles, such as Butterfly Loves Flowers, Water Melody Song, Like a Dream, and Nian Nu Jiao, they too would have been immortal masterpieces...

Just thinking about that scene is enough to make one despair.

Xue Yu looked back at the Xuan paper in her hand. The words that were originally quite proud now looked terrible no matter how you looked at them.

affected and pretentious, feigning illness.

The more he looked at it, the more disgusted he became. With a casual toss, the pure white Xuan paper fell into the Yi River.

The black ink gradually dissolved in the river water.

A few voices of regret rippled through the crowd. To be honest, Xue Yu's Lantern Festival poem, though not as good as the young master's, was still a masterpiece, and it was a pity to lose it like that. But thinking of the magnificent scene of a thousand trees bursting with flowers in the east wind, and then of turning around to find that person standing there in the dim light, so aloof and cold, like an insurmountable mountain, it was not impossible to understand Xue Yu's feelings.

Just then, Xue Yu seemed to suddenly remember something and slapped his thigh: "Oh no, I completely forgot to ask that young master's name..."

He sounded very frustrated, and those around him sighed in dismay.

A timid, petite girl stepped forward; it was Xiao Ping: "I know, I know... I just heard them talking. They said that the poem 'Linjiang Xian' was also written by this young master, so he must be Song Yan, Young Master Song."

Everyone suddenly realized what was happening.

Surprisingly, I wasn't too surprised; in fact, I felt a little fortunate.

After all, there's one less genius of that caliber.

The quiet pleasure boat became lively again, and before long, the song "Qing Yu An" spread throughout Dongling. However, Song Yan was unaware of these things, and even if he did, he probably wouldn't care much. At this moment, accompanied by Zi Yu and Luo Tianyi, he was slowly walking towards the Fang family's residence.

"Tianyi, where's that crossbow bolt?"

Feeling a little smug, Luo Tianyi raised her hand and handed the crossbow bolt to Song Yan.

After a quick glance, Song Yan immediately concluded: "These are standard military crossbow bolts."

The standard-issue crossbows and bolts used in the military are completely different from those forged privately. Most importantly, every crossbow and bolt has a mark or even a serial number. On this particular bolt, the position of the serial number has been ground off, which was obviously intentional, to prevent the military from being traced back to the military if something unexpected happened.

"Is it Song Jing?" Ziyu thought for a moment and then asked.

She once wanted to deal with Song Yan, so she naturally knew a lot about Song Yan's situation. Of Yang Miaoqing's eight legitimate sons, only the third son, Song Jing, joined the military and is currently serving in the Imperial Guard. He is considered a promising young man, commanding three thousand soldiers under his command. At the same time, his personal martial arts skills are also quite impressive; he is a seventh-rank martial artist.

Song Yan shook his head and casually tossed the crossbow bolt aside. A crossbow bolt without any markings or numbers was worthless.

"It can't be Song Jing."

"Of Yang Miaoqing's remaining six sons, Song An is a merchant who travels in secrecy and should not be in Dongling at present."

"Song Lü was still studying in Songzhou."

"Currently, only Song Huai, Song Yi, Song Jing, and Song Zhe are located in Dongling. Among them, Song Jing has been staying in the military camp for a long time, so he may not be aware of what is happening here. Song Huai and Song Yi are hostile to me, but they do not intend to eliminate me immediately. The one who really wants to kill me is Song Zhe. But now, Song Zhe is dead, and Song Yi has lost an eye and half of his face, leaving his body crippled. He is probably receiving treatment now, so even if he wanted to deal with me, he wouldn't have the time."

"The only person who has the motive and the ability to kill me is Song Huai."

Ziyu nodded, feeling that Song Yan's analysis made a lot of sense.

Luo Tianyi remained silent. Analyzing these things was never her forte; she was better at finding the target and taking action to eliminate it.

"Perhaps because one of my brothers died and the other was injured, Song Huai harbored murderous intentions towards me. Or perhaps Song Huai realized that I wanted to eliminate the other brothers in the Song family, so he decided to strike first."

“However, Song Huai is just a scholar. It’s not that he’s powerless, but he’s far from being able to deal with me. Hiring an assassin might not be safe and could easily lead to betrayal. Most importantly, Yang Miaoqing is dead, and Song Hongtao has cut off their funding. He might not have enough money to hire an assassin. Therefore, the safest way is to find Song Jing.” Song Yan spoke eloquently.

Occasionally, when you look up at the sky, the bright moon hangs in the air, and its light falls down as if a layer of silver frost covers everyone's face.

Shining brightly.

"So, the assassin who just committed the crime was Song Jing, or one of his men?" Zi Yu said. "Should I make my move first and take Song Jing's head for you?"

Song Yan smiled and said, "That's unnecessary. Besides, I only analyzed that Song Huai might go to Song Jing to kill me, but I didn't say that the assassin tonight is Song Jing."

"Huh?" Ziyu asked, somewhat puzzled.

Song Yan shook his head: "The timing doesn't match."

"Our trip to the dungeon did take a while, but not too long."

"Although I did go shopping, it only took about an hour."

“Even if Song Huai wanted to kill me, his first target would definitely be Song Jincheng. Only after Song Jincheng refused would he go to Song Jing. All of this takes time. The Imperial Guards’ barracks are also quite far from here. Today is the Lantern Festival, and every street is extremely crowded. An hour is not enough for a round trip.”

"Moreover, the fact that they were able to lock onto me in such a dense crowd means that the assassin was likely watching us the whole time, but they didn't notice us because there were just too many people. Song Huai, on the other hand, didn't have that kind of time."

Song Yan explained that, in fact, with Zi Yu and Luo Tianyi's strength, it would be easy for them to notice if they were being followed. However, there were just too many people today, which severely affected even the perception of a ninth-rank martial artist. In particular, Zi Yu and her sister-in-law were very beautiful, so naturally, more eyes were drawn to them.

"The reason they used crossbows from the army was perhaps to make me suspect Song Jing."

Ziyu hummed in agreement, acknowledging the conclusion: "Does Young Master have anyone he suspects?"

“Those people from the Yang family, those from Bailu Academy, there should be some who want to kill me. There are also people from the Fang family who want to take my life, and Mei Zicong from the Mei family. As for who exactly they are, I can’t say.” Song Yan shrugged.

"So, what does the young master intend to do?"

“Since they intend to kill me and frame Song Jing, they certainly won’t only make this one move. If they can set up evidence to frame Song Jing, I wouldn’t mind playing along, since Song Jing will have to be dealt with sooner or later anyway.” After a pause, Song Yan spoke again: “The Hehuan Sect is quite adept at intelligence gathering, isn’t it?”

"indeed so."

"Could you help me investigate? Of course, it's okay if you don't want to."

Ziyu pursed his lips and finally agreed. After all, his life depended on Song Yan, and he simply couldn't refuse Song Yan's request.

Before I knew it, I was back at the Fang family home.

When the steward of the Fang family saw Ziyu, he did not ask her anything, but simply arranged an extra bedroom for her in the room on the other side of Song Yan's room.

Song Yan had no intention of having Ziyu stay with him in bed.

However, when he pushed open the door, he saw that there was another figure inside.

It's Luo Tianxuan.

A warm feeling welled up in Song Yan's heart.

Although he was also a little puzzled, when Luo Yuheng wanted Luo Tianxuan to come with him when they left Pingyang, Luo Tianxuan pushed Luo Tianyi to her side on the grounds that she had just recovered and was not suitable for long journeys.

The feeling was as if she wanted to deliberately bring herself and Luo Tianyi together, so that he and his sister-in-law could have time to spend together.

He didn't ask any further questions, but he knew that Tianxuan had been secretly following him all along.

Tianxuan smiled faintly, "Husband."

Without saying a word, Song Yan simply stepped forward and embraced that slender body.

The flickering candlelight illuminated Tianxuan's pretty face. So close, her face seemed even more beautiful. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, as if she were afraid, or perhaps longing. When their eyes met, she saw that her eyes were watery and full of charm.

After such a long time, Song Yan finally couldn't hold back any longer. He suddenly lowered his head and captured Luo Tianxuan's plump, cherry-like lips.

Even if there's something to say, let's wait until another day.

With a soft moan, a different melody filled the room.

……

These ancient houses naturally didn't have particularly good sound insulation.

Both Ziyu and Luo Tianyi could hear the faint sounds coming from either side of the bedroom.

Ziyu's eyes widened in disbelief. She had noticed earlier that there seemed to be some ambiguous relationship between Song Yan and Luo Tianyi.

But who would have thought that the two of them would be so bold?
Brother-in-law and sister-in-law, oh, that's...

They've gotten together?
Moreover, judging from the sound, this was clearly not the first time this had happened.

Bah, shameless scoundrels.

Unexpectedly, Luo Tianyi, who usually appears cold and aloof, has such a melodious and charming voice when she is in bed.

On the other side of the bedroom, Luo Tianyi looked sullen, his legs wrapped around the blanket, rolling around on the bed.

She was originally very happy to receive a poem from her brother-in-law.

But now, most of that joy has been dispelled.

When her sister delivered Ziyu to her brother-in-law, she already knew that such a beautiful woman would eventually be taken advantage of by her brother-in-law, but she never expected it to happen so quickly.

It's only the first night, and you can't resist anymore?
That awful brother-in-law.

(End of this chapter)