"Move aside. Honor your wager - this prize is mine." Xiaoyao frowned.
"Your question just now doesn't count." The first talented scholar said coldly, while Han Qin nodded in agreement beside him.
"Why doesn't it count?" Xiaoyao asked calmly.
"Because that question was too indecent. Ask anyone here - who would agree to such a question?" The first talented scholar looked around.
He originally thought no one would agree to such a question. Even if they had no objections, no one would publicly say they agreed to such a question. However, he guessed wrong—
"I agree." Young Miss immediately shouted. She didn't care about all that - she only knew that Xiaoyao had won this time, which in her heart was equivalent to her winning.
Nangong Suxin and her sisters immediately distanced themselves from Young Miss, because they didn't want to be seen as the same type as Young Miss. Young Miss didn't care, but they did.
"..., I think most people wouldn't agree, except for some vulgar people." The first talented scholar changed his wording.
"Damn, what are you saying? Believe it or not, I'll tear down your platform." Young Miss roared from below and actually prepared to take action.
"Wait, Young Miss, don't tear it down. I'm still up here, and Third Miss is too..." Xiaoyao said, knowing Young Miss's temper. He felt his own weight might not be enough, so he included Third Miss.
"That pretty boy, watch where you walk." Young Miss held back and snorted coldly at the first talented scholar. This was naked threat.
"..."
"Alright, let's return to the main topic. You say my riddle is indecent, but I can only say your thoughts are too indecent. What's indecent about my riddle." Xiaoyao didn't plan to play around anymore and prepared to directly reveal the answer.
Actually, my answer is very pure, absolutely without any impurity. It's because your imagination is too impure.
"What's your answer?"
"You're really stupid enough. Black grape is black eyes, so little cherry..." Xiaoyao paused, seemingly deliberately keeping everyone in suspense.
Everyone anticipated the answer, looking at Xiaoyao. Come on, say it quickly...
"That's naturally red eyes. You all, what were you thinking... Really, too indecent..."
"Damn."
"Shameless."
"Despicable."
"Vile..."
"..."
Immediately, a chorus of curses erupted. Everyone was cursing Xiaoyao for being shameless, having led everyone into a trap, and now pointing at everyone as indecent.
"Puchi..."
Third Miss suddenly laughed, looking at Xiaoyao. She found this little servant very interesting, extremely interesting.
Han Qin and the first talented scholar's expressions were as wonderful as could be, because they already felt that they had been played by Xiaoyao like monkeys, made into a public laughingstock.
If their opponent had been Third Miss, they could have felt a bit better, though not much better. But now the one toying with them was Xiaoyao, which made them feel completely humiliated and thoroughly lose face.
They felt like they were being paraded naked through the streets, being pointed at and mocked.
"Wow, it's actually Haoran Melody..."
At this moment, everyone thought Xiaoyao really liked books, but soon everyone understood this wasn't the case, and they wanted to beat someone up.
"This can sell for three hundred taels. A rare book. I love it."
"..."
Now everyone understood why Xiaoyao liked rare and unique books - because these were all valuable items.
And now, Xiaoyao felt he should participate in this every year...
"Give it to me." Third Miss extended her hand.
"This... I have a share too..." Xiaoyao's good mood was gone because he discovered that Haoran Melody didn't belong to him alone.
"I'll give you three hundred taels." Third Miss said very straightforwardly. "Haoran Melody cannot be sold by you."
"Good." Xiaoyao agreed very readily.
"Third Sister, don't give him money. You have a share in this originally. Just give this guy a few taels of silver." Nangong Suxin jumped onto the platform and snatched the rare book from Xiaoyao's hands.
"Hey hey, Miss Nangong, you can't do this. I have at least half - one hundred fifty taels." Xiaoyao didn't try to snatch it back, just spoke. He wasn't afraid the Nangong family would renege, because then he would be even more shameless.
"You only answered a few questions at the end. Before that, Third Sister handled everything. By proportion, you get fifty taels at most." Nangong Suxin said with a smile. She wanted to tease Xiaoyao a bit, make things difficult for him.
To her, there wasn't much difference between fifty taels and one hundred fifty taels.
"Fine, give me fifty taels. But there's one condition - let me look at Haoran Melody once." Xiaoyao didn't mind either. To Xiaoyao, these fifty taels were free money. Getting a hundred taels less was completely no problem for him.
As long as it wasn't his own money being taken out, he completely didn't care how much free money he got.
"Huh?" Nangong Suxin was surprised by Xiaoyao's straightforwardness, and even more surprised that Xiaoyao wanted to look at Haoran Melody.
"You're just a little servant. Do you know music? Can you understand Haoran Melody?"
"Whether I know it or not isn't important. But I must look at this Haoran Melody. Something that came into my hands - if I don't look at it, that's too much of a loss." Xiaoyao said very seriously.
"..."
This guy won't even take this small loss.
"Never seen someone like you. Here." Nangong Suxin said irritably, then handed the rare book to Xiaoyao. She believed Xiaoyao wouldn't play tricks.
Although Xiaoyao had played tricks more than once, she always felt that Xiaoyao was at most clever, not one to break his word.
After Xiaoyao received Haoran Melody, he looked at it while coming down from the platform.
"..., where are you going?" Nangong Suxin asked. Was this guy really going to take the thing and run?
"Going down, of course. There's nothing to do now. Should I stand on the platform for people to gawk at like a monkey?" Xiaoyao replied irritably.
"That's right." Nangong Suxin nodded, then prepared to leave this stage with Third Miss.
"Third Miss, since you got Haoran Melody, could you perform a piece and let us appreciate Third Miss's musical skills?" Han Qin gritted her teeth and said.
"I don't know Haoran Melody..." Third Miss shook her head.
"It's very simple. You'll know it after looking once. I believe in Third Miss's artistic abilities." Han Qin said with a smile.
If you don't know it, then wait to be embarrassed. Anyway, I've lost all face today, so dragging you down too is fine. Who told you to be the legendary number one talented woman, and legend says you have a photographic memory and can learn any musical score after seeing it once. Han Qin thought with smile on her face.
"This..." Third Miss frowned. Other things were fine, but she heard that Haoran Melody itself wasn't really a musical score. Using a qin to perform it was quite difficult, but the other party now deliberately wanted her to use a qin to play it, and to play it right now.
This was making things difficult.
"This is too simple. Third Miss definitely knows it, but I believe something this simple doesn't need Third Miss to act. I can handle it." Xiaoyao came back.
Originally, if others were being made difficult for, he wouldn't care. But Third Miss had just stepped forward to help, so if he didn't return the favor, how could he face people in the future.
Everyone looked at Xiaoyao, and they all quieted down...
"You... haha..." Han Qin started laughing, laughing loudly.
After Han Qin laughed, others also followed suit, as if they had heard the funniest joke.
"What's wrong?" Xiaoyao was a bit puzzled. "What are you laughing at?"
"You're just a lowly servant. Look at your status - you actually spout nonsense here, saying you can play Haoran Melody." Han Qin laughed disdainfully. She absolutely didn't believe Xiaoyao could do it.
"Does knowing how to play have anything to do with status?" Xiaoyao asked.
"Even if it doesn't, you just looked at Haoran Melody. Can you immediately master it without a teacher?" Han Qin continued her disdain. Haoran Melody was absolutely high-difficulty music. She had experienced it - spending several days studying it deeply before barely managing to play it completely, just completely, far from mastery.
"Whether I can or not, just watch. You're stupid - that doesn't mean others are stupid. What you can't do doesn't mean I can't do it." Xiaoyao said carelessly.
"You... good, very good. Then let you try. I want to see exactly how you can do it." Han Qin was so angry she was almost dying.
"Then quickly prepare an instrument for me." Xiaoyao waved his hand.
"Instrument? You can play whatever I bring?" Han Qin couldn't help being sarcastic. If this were before, she would have considered Xiaoyao's words a slip of the tongue. Now she wished Xiaoyao would make more of a fool of himself.
"Basically all of them. Those I can't play, I believe you can't produce either." Xiaoyao said carelessly.
"..."
"What big words." Han Qin was even more disdainful.
Now everyone was even more certain of one thing - that Xiaoyao was bragging. He was just disrupting things, not letting Han Qin target Third Miss, and his purpose had been achieved.
"Little servant, thank you." Nangong Suxin also thought Xiaoyao was disrupting things, but even so, he was helping her Third Sister, so she should thank him.
"It's nothing. I'm not helping you. I'm helping Young Miss gain favor..." Xiaoyao said casually.
"You should tell your Young Miss to give up." Nangong Suxin said somewhat helplessly.
Xiaoyao smiled and said: "It's fine. Let her continue like this. Just don't treat her as that kind of person. Actually, she won't really do anything to Third Miss - at most just harass her a bit. With you watching, nothing will go wrong. This is pretty good - otherwise she'd bring disaster to other people."
"That's also true... wait, what do you mean by that last sentence?" Nangong Suxin originally agreed with Xiaoyao's viewpoint, at least the first part, but the last sentence made her feel there was a problem.
"Hehe, nothing, nothing..." Xiaoyao immediately shook his head, thinking to himself how he had let that slip.
Third Miss was ice-smart - how could she not understand the meaning of Xiaoyao's words? She looked at Xiaoyao with resentful eyes and said weakly: "Did you sell me out to protect others from being harmed by your Young Miss?"