Princess, something terrible has happened! The prince consort has attempted suicide again!

The front hall of the Tang Mansion.

The atmosphere in the huge hall was extremely oppressive at this moment.

The servants in the mansion stood respectfully to the side, not daring to breathe loudly.

Seated in the main seat was a long-bearded man, with a refined demeanor yet exuding an air of authority.

He was the Imperial Tutor of Dongling, the foremost figure in the literary world.

Tang Wenyuan!

At this moment, he frowned deeply, constantly stroking his long beard, lost in thought.

A man sat to his lower left, leisurely sipping his tea, a stark contrast to the tense and pained Tang Wenyuan.

He is Chen Jinlin, the dean of Bailu Academy.

In the center of the front hall, there is a long table with a couplet on it and incense for keeping track of time next to it.

As the incense was about to burn out, Chen Jinlin put down his teacup and broke the silence, "Brother Tang, the incense stick will be burning for almost a minute. Have you thought of a matching line?"

Tang Wenyuan glanced at the incense sticks on the table, which were only half-burnt, and felt extremely anxious.

He said firmly, "What's the rush? Can't you see I'm thinking about it?"

"Then, Brother Tang, please continue."

Chen Jinlin sneered inwardly, knowing from Tang Wenyuan's expression that he couldn't come up with a matching line.

Keep your mouth shut for now, but wait until the time comes and see how arrogant you can be.

The hall fell silent once again.

The incense on the table burned slowly, and Tang Wenyuan was so anxious that cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The more anxious he became, the less clueless he became. This second line was so difficult to come up with that it was almost impossible to do so within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Am I really going to be defeated by this guy today?

Tang Wenyuan was filled with resentment. He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white and his nails almost dug into his flesh.

Chen Jinlin put down his teacup again, stood up, and said, "Brother Tang, it's time."

Tang Wenyuan loosened his fists and resignedly closed his eyes.

Lost!

Upon seeing this, Chen Jinlin couldn't help but throw his head back and burst into laughter.

"Brother Tang, since you can't answer the question, you'll have to relinquish this honor of being the best in the literary world. Also, you can no longer interfere with your daughter's marriage to my son."

After saying these words, he felt an unprecedented joy.

The two had been rivals for most of their lives, with Chen Jinlin always being the one who was suppressed, and he had long harbored resentment in his heart.

Today I finally felt triumphant, and the knot in my heart that had been tied up for so many years was finally untied. I feel several years younger, and my mind is incredibly clear.

Just as Tang Wenyuan was about to respond, Yue'er rushed in.

"Sir, yes...yes..."

She was so out of breath from running that she couldn't even speak properly for a moment.

"What do you mean? Explain yourself," Tang Wenyuan said.

Yue'er took a deep breath and whispered a few words in Tang Wenyuan's ear.

Then she handed him the pair of cards.

Tang Wenyuan opened it and was suddenly jolted.

His face immediately lit up with joy, and he burst into laughter, "Good! Good! Good!"

Chen Jinlin said with a half-smile, "Brother Tang, why are you so happy? Why don't you tell me and share your thoughts?"

Tang Wenyuan put away the paper, his smile equally forced, and said, "Brother Chen, I have the second line."

"Oh?"

Chen Jinlin was taken aback upon hearing this.

He glanced at Yue'er casually and guessed what she had brought.

However, he was very confident in his second line of the couplet. Although the girl from the Tang family was a famous talented woman, she was far inferior to her father.

Even Tang Wenyuan was helpless, how could she possibly compete?

He was probably desperate and just wrote down a random second line to get by.

So Chen Jinlin wasn't worried and maintained his smile, saying, "In that case, Brother Tang, write it down so I can take a look. Let's make it clear beforehand, if it's just something made up, I won't acknowledge it."

Tang Wenyuan said calmly, "Brother Chen, I have a suggestion."

"What suggestion?"

"We agreed before that if I could answer the question correctly, the marriage between our two families would be called off. But if I can't answer it, not only will I have to fulfill the marriage agreement, but I will also have to make a wedding dress for you."

Tang Wenyuan shook his head slightly, "Now that I think about it, this competition was really unfair to me."

"So what do you want?"

Tang Wenyuan said solemnly, "I will respond with the second line: You resign from your position as the headmaster of Bailu Academy and hand over the academy to me for management."

Chen Jinlin immediately frowned and said, "Your appetite is far too big."

"If you want to climb over me to get to the top, you must pay the price. If you don't dare, then pretend today's events never happened."

Chen Jinlin frowned slightly.

This old guy wanted to make me back down, probably because he couldn't come up with a decent second line, so he said that on purpose.

However, since he dared to say that, we must be wary.

To be on the safe side, Chen Jinlin added a condition: "I can agree to your request, but your matching couplet must be better than mine, otherwise there's no point in discussing it."

He was also trying to scare Tang Wenyuan, guessing that he definitely wouldn't dare to agree.

But Tang Wenyuan smiled and, without the slightest hesitation, loudly declared, "Alright! I agree."

Chen Jinlin felt a chill run down his spine.

He agreed so readily, could it be that he really has a brilliant second line?

impossible!

I don't know how much effort I put into coming up with this first line of the couplet.

If you want to come up with a better matching line in such a short time, you can't find one in the entire Dongling Kingdom.

But Chen Jinlin felt a vague unease in his heart.

But now that things had come to this, he couldn't back down, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "Then give me your matching line."

Tang Wenyuan didn't waste any more words. He got up, walked to the table, rolled up his sleeves, and wrote down:

Smoke rises from the eaves, obscuring the swallows' eyes!

Chen Jinlin took a closer look and was immediately shocked, frozen on the spot.

Actually!

They actually managed to come up with a solution.

Not only that, but it is even more exquisite and evocative than his own first line.

If you replace it with the first line, then your own couplet wouldn't even qualify as a well-structured second line.

This...this is impossible!

When did the Tang family's daughter acquire such great talent?

"Brother Chen, what do you think?"

When Tang Wenyuan's voice came, Chen Jinlin finally came to his senses.

He glared, gritted his teeth, and forced out, "This isn't your idea, it doesn't count!"

Tang Wenyuan's face turned cold. "Chen Jinlin, don't forget what you just said. You said that as long as anyone in my Tang family could come up with a matching couplet, I would win. This couplet is indeed not my work, but it was written by my daughter. According to the rules, you have lost."

"you……"

Chen Jinlin opened his mouth, but was speechless.

He was too confident in his first line of the couplet, which is why he set this rule.

The purpose was to showcase his talent and to better suppress the entire Tang family.

However, he ended up shooting himself in the foot, so angry that his face turned red and his chest heaved as if he might faint at any moment.

"It's getting late, so I won't keep you any longer, Brother Chen. Remember to take good care of the academy when you get back."

Tang Wenyuan coldly ordered, "Show the guests out!"

Chen Jinlin lost both his wife and his army, utterly humiliated. He dared not linger any longer and could only slink away in disgrace.

Tang Wenyuan breathed a sigh of relief and immediately rushed to his beloved daughter's residence.

Upon entering the room, she saw her daughter in the same room with a strange man, and the joy on her face instantly turned into shock.

When Tang Wan saw her father arrive, she knew the matter should be resolved.

She was about to step forward to introduce Zhang Xiaomeng when Tang Wenyuan shouted urgently, "Guards! Arrest him!"