When the ancients wrote poems, they paid close attention to the changes in level and rhyme, because the rhyming words were usually placed at the end of each line of the poem, also known as the ‘ending rhyme’, and the finals of these ending rhymes should be similar or identical.
Su Shi’s poem, Yue Xingwen looked at the whole text, the last word of each of his lines, such as ‘between(jian)’, ‘still(huan)’, ‘boat(chuan)’, ‘view(guan)’, the ending rhyme was uniform ‘an’.
Since there was a fixed ending rhyme, it was not difficult to guess the vacant part.
Jiang Pingce was not surprised to hear Xingwen’s words, he knew that Xingwen liked to study poetry very much when he was in high school, and he also wrote a lot of ‘humorous poems’. Since Xingwen had an idea, he believed that Xingwen would definitely be able to find the right answer.
The two of them glanced at each other, and Jiang Pingce said encouragingly, “You try to guess first, and we’ll use the Hint Brush if you answer incorrectly. I don’t know if there are any more difficult questions in the future, and the number of uses of the brush can be saved.”
Yue Xingwen nodded. “I think so too.”
He looked at the gap in the answer box again and began to think line by line, sentence by sentence.
A young man delights in miracles and falls between the saddle and the horse.
Looking at the world, love this universe __.
Mountains and rivers can’t see __, Hao Ran then forgot to return.
Min river and Mount E are the first to see, and the sunny light is tired of the west __.
I can’t see it from afar, but I love it.
Heavy snow is not shin in winter, and there are many __ in summer and autumn.
Seeing this, Yue Xingwen said, “I can be sure in the sixth line, I should fill in the word ‘worms(yuan)’, there are many worms in summer and autumn, the word ‘虵’ with ‘蛇’ (snake) is homophonic, ‘worm’ is a polyphonic word, when reading wan, it refers to poisonous snakes, and in context, the meaning also makes sense.”
*I really don’t know what it is lol, just some chinese poems I don’t really know.
Ke Shaobin suddenly realized. “The meaning of the connection is that there are more poisonous snakes in summer and autumn, and the rhyme is also ‘an’, which is very easy to read, so this word must be right!”
Jiang Pingce took a step forward, picked up the brush and wrote down the word ‘worm’ in the blank space, and as soon as he finished writing, a green tick appeared next to this word, which meant that the answer was correct.
Yue Xingwe’s heart burned with confidence, he looked at the space above and said, “Emei is the first to see, and the sunny light is tired of the west ‘river(chuan)’, filling in the word ‘river’ here conforms to the rule of a high mountain against the west river.”
He looked at Jiang Pingce, who immediately filled in the blank space with the word ‘river’.
Yue Xingwen continued to analyze, “Facing the clouds on your back, put your hand down and caress the hundred ‘mountains(shan)’, the clouds versus the hundred mountains makes more sense to me; Facing the wind, tucking ‘sleeves(xiu)’, fluttering in the wind like a ‘immortal(xian), which is more in line with the artistic conception of the wide sleeves flying in the wind and fluttering like a immortal.”
With Yue Xingwen’s analysis, Jiang Pingce filled in more and more words in the blanks.
There were 10 blanks in the exam questions this time, and Yue Xingwen relied purely on analysis, and actually filled in 8 correctly!
The last two left, Yue Xingwen could not be sure, so he simply used the Hint Brush, after all, he was not Su Xun himself, he couldn’t reach the talent of a great writer, not to mention, he didn’t see the scene when Su Xun wrote the poem with his own eyes, in many places, he couldn’t fully understand what Su Xun wanted to express.
Even so, the students were already very impressed.
Ke Shaobin looked at Yue Xingwen with a smile and said, “Originally, I thought that I would have to rely on the Hint Brush for all 10, but it turned out that Xingwen guessed 8 correctly. If you had been born in ancient times, you would have been a great poet, or a scholar in the Imperial examination, who would be noticed by the Emperor, or fancy by the princess, and it would have been nice to be a prince consort.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Tef Wlcukfc mbeutfv jcv rjlv, “Vabq sbeg rabgs afiilcu, P vbc’a kjca ab ub yjmx ab jcmlfca alwfr.”
Ciatbeut mbecaifrr ajifcafv ojwber qfbqif fwfgufv lc atf jcmlfca ilafgjgs kbgiv, wbra bo atfw kfgf ecjyif ab gfjilhf atflg lvfjir jcv jwylalbcr, jcv kfgf ecgfmbuclhfv jcv vfqgfrrfv. Qtfgf kjr atfgf remt jc bqfc jcv ojlg rbmlfas jr lc atf wbvfgc kbgiv, ktfgf fnfgsbcf mbeiv ajxf mtjcmfr?
What was more, it was only in this enlightened age that it was possible for him to be with his beloved. Those famous people in ancient times, love was almost always tragic.
Yue Xingwen put away his thoughts and said with a smile, “Let’s continue everyone.”
The Su family of Su Shi, Su Zhe, and Su Xun, although the difficulty of the question was high, fortunately, they had followed Su Shi for such a long time, and the increased exploration was also very high. After answering the questions, the Exploration had become 80%.
But everyone realized that the library had once again dug a big hole for them—— There was no more road ahead, and no more mist around.
In other words—— the road was still impassable.
Ke Shaobin circled the courtyard and helplessly said, “No secret passageway was found in this courtyard, and there is no back or side door, so we can only return through the main door.”
When they went through the gate, the surrounding scene remained unchanged. Everyone stopped in front of the door, looking at the road they had just walked, and they were a little dazed for a moment.
Yue Xingwen guessed, “There might be a fork in the road somewhere that we missed.”
Jiang Pingce looked at him and said, “You mean, on the side of Song poems, there should also be a fork in the road like the Border Scenery and Idyllic Scenery just now, with Su Shi and Xin Qiji representing the Bold and Unrestrained group, and on the other side, the Graceful and Subdued group?”
Yue Xingwen nodded. “The Exploration is already 80%, the remaining area of the maze won’t be very large. At that time, the fork of Border Poetry and Idyllic appeared with Du Fu, both of which were important genres in poetry. The Song poem, as a matter of course, should also see the emergence of forks of the Bold and Unrestrained group and Graceful and Subdued group.”
Ke Shaobin asked seriously, “We followed Su Shi all the way, there is no fork in this road, and the end doesn’t make sense. Where is the fork?” He scratched his head and thought about it carefully, and suddenly his eyes lit up. “Could it be the lantern market?!”
Thinking back to the process of the entire maze, Yue Xingwen found that there were many ‘hidden paths’ in this maze, they got lost in the Idyllic Scenery at first, and finally found the ‘Nanshan’ from Tao Yuanming’s location, and unlocked Lu You though the poem ‘There is a way out; every cloud has a silver lining’, and opened the teleportation point.
Then they met Xin Qiji, who took them to the lantern market, and there was a similar bug situation of ‘no hint, no NPC’ again. Yue Xingwen deduced the location of the next NPC from Xin Qiji’s ‘Suddenly I turn around, and I see her there, where lights are dim and faint’ and successfully found Su Shi.
At that time, in order to save time, they traveled across the entire Lantern Festival Market, directly going to the shadows at the end to find a person, and did not carefully search for other NPCs and paths in the Lantern Market. In retrospect, the only thing that could have been missed along the way was the Lantern Market!
Thinking of this, Yue Xingwen made a decisive decision. “Go back to the Lantern Market.”
Qin Lu’s Plate Transportation skill was turned on again, bringing everyone back to the Lantern Market in just a few seconds.
Both Xin Qiji and Su Shi had disappeared, but the Lantern Market was more lively and prosperous, countless young men and women shuttled between the Lantern Market, several streets were hung with lanterns on both sides, some people were guessing lantern riddles, and laughter rang around from time to time.
Yue Xingwen took his teammates to shuttle around the Lantern Market, looking for every alley.
The maze exploration time was 8 hours, and now 6 hours had passed, and everyone had searched and looked around, but still hadn’t triggered the library’s prompt.
Liu Zhaoqing couldn’t help but complain, “We don’t know what this NPC looks like, how are we going to find it in a sea of people if we’re looking like headless flies like this?”
Yue Xingwen stopped and thought carefully in his mind.
When they first saw Su Shi in the dark, a prompt of ‘New Character Unlock’ automatically popped up above their head, meaning that as long as they were within a certain distance from the NPC, the library would unlock it. They hadn’t unlocked the next NPC yet, and they hadn’t found a fork in the road, so it was proof that they were going in the wrong direction.
The representatives of the Graceful and Subdued group included Li Yu, Liu Yong, Ouyang Xiu, Qin Guan, Li Qingzhao, etc. Among these people, if someone had also written words related to the Lantern Festival, was it easier to judge his location?
Thinking of this, Yue Xingwen’s mind flashed. “I know, it should be Ouyang Xiu, look for any willow trees nearby, the kind with more distinctive features.”
Everyone went looking for it immediately. After a while, Ke Shaobin shouted, “There is a willow tree in front, and there is a person standing under the tree.”
Yue Xingwen walked quickly in that direction, and saw a figure under the willow tree, and the person stood with his arms folded, his expression filled with sadness.
New Character Unlock: Ouyang Xiu
Courtesy name, Yongshu, known as a drunkard, was a well-known politician and writer in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Please continue to explore the maze by following Ouyang Xiu’s footsteps.
Yue Xingwen smiled slightly. “It’s really him!”
Looking up, a full moon was hanging right over the top of the willow tree, and the answer box popped up in front of Ouyang Xiu, and the test was the poem <Lantern Festival Night> by Ouyang Xiu.
“On the night of the Lantern Festival night of last year, the flower market was as bright as daylight. When the moon hung behind the willows, young people went out on dates under them.
On the Lantern Festival night of this year, the moon and the lanterns were the same. But I could not find last year’s date of mine, my sleeves of festival dress are wet with tears.”
Yue Xingwen quickly finished answering the question.
So far, he had finally figured out the routine of this ‘Poetry Maze’.
There were currently three modes to unlock the mist, the first was the circle of friends mode, such as Li Bai and Du Fu exchanging poems, and Li Bai led Du Fu out; Du Fu brought out his friends Wang Wei, Gao Shi, and Cen Shen, and Su Shi brought out his father Su Xun and his younger brother Su Zhe.
The second was the poetic artistic conception mode, such as the discovery of a new teleportation point in ‘Visit Shanxi Village’ and Xin Qiji’s ‘that person where lights are dim and faint’ to lead to Su Shi, also a poet of the Bold and Unrestrained group.
The third was the ‘scene’ mode, for example, Xin Qiji wrote a poem <Green Jadeite Bowl – On the First Night of a New Year> at the Lantern Festival, and Ouyang Xiu wrote a poem <Lantern Festival Night> at the Lantern Festival, the same scene, different expressions.
The same was true of finding Ouyang Xiu now.
Everyone followed Ouyang Xiu’s footsteps to continue to explore the maze. Ouyang Xiu’s question was not difficult, it didn’t take long for him to take everyone through a drizzly and low-hanging willow courtyard. The exam question was <Butterflies Chasing Flowers – How Deep is Courtyard>, which everyone knew by heart.
After answering Ouyang Xiu’s <Butterflies Chasing Flowers>, Liu Yong’s <Butterflies Chasing Flowers – Long I stand on a high-rise in the gentle breeze> appeared—— This wawa the fourth unlock mode, the same word.
“Long I stand on a high-rise in the gentle breeze, saddened is spring everywhere I see, the sky is vast yet overcast, all round is bleak.
In the remains of the day, in the hazy light the green of grass dims, against a rail I lean, yet who can through my quiescence my melancholy read.
I’d rather pretend to be a giddy eccentric looking to get tipsy, when there is wine, singing follows, yet bland would be such imposed recreation.
Becoming loose are my clothes yet I regret not, for I languish and suffer for her willingly.”
Liu Yong was followed by the Graceful and Subdued poet Yan Jidao <Butterflies Chasing Flowers – We Parted Drunk in the West Chamber>.
Ke Shaobin couldn’t help but say, “Is the library in love with <Butterflies Chasing Flowers>? Three consecutive Butterflies Chasing Flowers poems!”
Yue Xingwen said, “Use the same words to connect different people together, so that NPCs can connect one after another. This is the fourth way.”
Ke Shaobin was curious. “The three other types, are they family and friends, scenes, and artistics conceptions?”
Yue Xingwen gave him a thumbs up. “That’s right.”
After answering a few questions, the Exploration had reached 90%.
Then, around the corner, everyone encountered the only female NPC in this maze—— Li Qingzhao.
Several girls were so excited that they wanted to take a photo with Li Qingzhao, and Ke Shaobin once again became a reporter and let Xiao Tu take a picture of this scene. Li Qingzhao, the first female poet in ancient times, nodded her head towards everyone and slowly walked forward, and they immediately followed behind her.
The air was fresh after the rain, the begonia flowers in the yard were gorgeous, and the first exam question quickly popped up in front of everyone’s eyes——
<Ru Meng Ling – Last Night the Rain was Light, the Wind Fierce>
Last night the rain was light, the wind fierce, and deep sleep did not dispel the effects of wine.
When I ask the maid rolling up the curtains, she answers, The begonia blossoms look the same.
I cry, Can’t you see? Can’t you see? The green leaves are fresh but the red flowers are fading!”
This question was not difficult, one of Li Qingzhao’s representative works. She also had another <Ru Meng Ling> poem that was selected for a high school Literature book.
As soon as Yue Xingwen thought of this, he saw Li Qingzhao take them all the way to the lake, and then boarded a small boat, and another question popped up——
<Ru Meng Ling – One Dusk at the River Pavilion>
“Remembering that one dusk at the river pavilion, so inebriated that we couldn’t find the way home.
Boarding the returning dinghy after the gaiety, finding ourselves lost among the lotuses.
Rowing, rowing, our commotion startling a flock of waterfowls to flight.”
When Yue Xingwen wrote the answer to this poem, Li Qingzhao’s boat happened to row to the lotus pond, startling a large number of birds around. The crisp sound of birdsong rang in their ears, and as her boat rowed into the depths of the lotus pond, the surrounding white mist gradually dispersed to both sides.
Then, everyone saw a familiar figure——
At the moment the heavy mists were all dispersed, Li Qingzhao’s boat stayed at the place where Li Bai initially took the boat.
[Maze Exploration 100%]
[Unlock All Poems]
Li Bai and Li Qingzhao’s boat soon disappeared into the sky, and a staircase rose in the center of the lake. At the end of the staircase was a gate, which was the way out of the maze.
The NPCs created by the library were all fictional images, many of whom would never have met in history, but were strung together in this Poetry Maze.
The library seemed to be telling everyone in this way——
The precious texts they left behind were worthy of being reminiscent and cherished by future generations and passed on forever.
This was a great arc especially since it allowed us to slow down and really appreciate the book. I loved reading all the poems too! Thanks for translating!
Thanks for your hard work!
Thank you for your translation of this complicated arc 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
beuatiful. This was a great arc as it gave us all a breather and time to relax while still being so interesting.