Ch. 145 - The Dispute in the Luming Banquet

On the 16th of September, the Luming Banquet was held.

“Be noble and clean, and do not admire nobility…”

”Blowing the flute and drum, and the General are everywhere. Showing how nice I am, asking about my well-being”

In the cadence of chanting in the hall, Sun Shaozong suddenly found that sitting at the main table was not necessarily a good thing. It was embarrassing to start a conversation in front of hundreds of people!

Especially for others, there was no place to hide…

Fortunately, he was not that thin-skinned, otherwise, he would have been ashamed in the front row with people's surprised and disdainful eyes.

"After the starting ceremony, please take your seat!"

Fortunately, this poem was not very long. A moment later, with a shout, all the examiners took their seats, respectively.

"Sit down."

Zhang Qiu, the host of the examiner's ceremonial department, gave another order, and the people in the new Imperial Examination bowed with one voice. "Thank you for sitting down."

As a result, his status as a ”teacher” was formally established.

Sun Shaozong just sat down, and he hasn’t gotten over the embarrassment. He heard a loud voice saying, "Assistant Magistrate Sun, I just saw your lips tremble, but I didn't hear a word coming out. It should not be that you have never read the poem of "Luming" before, right?"

With this sound, all eyes were focused on Sun Shaozong.

Sigh~

Sure enough, it came.

Sun Shaozong sighed secretly. When he learned that he was assigned to the main table, the Deputy Chief of the Imperial Academy, Sun Yun was full of anger.

At that time, Sun Shaozong guessed that this guy might create trouble at the table, and now it seemed that he expected it right!

At this time, in addition to the Chief and Deputy Chief Examiners and Sun Shaozong, Jia Yucun and another official of the Ministry of Rites were also sitting at the table.

The official of the Ministry of Rites did not care. Jia Yucun, Sun Shaozong's boss, could not stand to be idle, neither feeling nor reasoning. He quickly smiled and took a glass of wine, saying, "Deputy Chief Sun, Shaozong was a Martial Scholar after all..."

However, Sun Yun didn't show any kindness. He interrupted him with a sneer and said, "Since he is a rascal who doesn't know poems, why is he at the main table at the Luming Banquet?!"

He has heard that the officials of the Imperial Academy were the most arrogant and they looked down on the local officials. Today, Sun Shaozong has finally seen it.

Although Sun Yun was the Inspector Examiner, his official rank was only of six-grade, and Jia Yucun was four levels higher than him!

Jia Yucun was certainly unhappy.

However, Sun Yun's words also expressed the feelings of many people, some even openly made a fuss.

And more people were eyeing them, waiting to see how Sun Shaozong would respond.

However, Sun Shaozong smiled and said, "Every man has his strong point, Deputy Chief Sun. I..."

"Hmph!"

Without waiting for him to finish, Sun Yun snorted and said scornfully, "If you go to the battlefield, there is still some truth in saying this. But at the Luming banquet, I really don't know what you are good at!"

"If you want to refute it with the Criminal Department, you don't need it. This banquet is a great event of our Confucianism. How can you judge by legalism?"

After saying that, he rolled up his sleeves and looked so disdainful that he just pointed at Sun Shaozong's nose and said, “Do you even deserve to be named Sun!”

In fact, the law was also one of the subjects that must be examined in the local examination. Sun Yun's words were obviously unreasonable, but who let this Luming Banquet be held in the place of the Imperial Examination?

The Second Child of Kong was supreme and had unshakable political correctness!

When the others heard what he said, they forced Sun Shaozong into a corner and sealed the “Criminal Department” stunt that Sun Shaozong relied on to become famous. They all felt that the situation was set and that Sun Shaozong must be unable to fight back.

However, Sun Shaozong still smiled, raised his glass to Sun Yun, and said calmly, "Although the Criminal Department is a path, it can let me see your shortcomings. Since everyone has shortcomings, why can't you and I sit at the same table?"

"Haha!"

Sun Yun heard and couldn't help smiling, and then he disdained it by saying, "It's ridiculous. What's my weakness? How can I be reduced to a situation with a rascal who doesn't know the teachings of saints?"

His words seemed to be dismissive, but in fact, he once again fixed the scope of the argument to ”Confucianism.” If Sun Shaozong attacked back by criticizing other things, he would fall into his trap.

He has to say that the Imperial Academy's Deputy Chief was not a fool, although he was proud of his talent and regarded things with contempt!

If it was another martial scholar, he’s afraid he’d be in a mess.

Unfortunately, the person he met was Sun Shaozong!

Sun Shaozong put his hands together and said with a smile, "I don't know the teachings of the saints, and you desecrate the teachings of the saints. Isn't that putting us in the same position?"

"Absurd!"

Hearing this, Sun Yun immediately sneered, "I have always been a clean man. How can I ever blaspheme the sage's teachings?! Sun Shaozong, if you don't explain yourself today, don't blame me for punishing you for the crime of slander!"

Everyone was also puzzled. They thought that the Assistant Prefectural Magistrate Sun was stupid. How could they know that he would reply by blaming the Deputy Chief Sun for blaspheming the saint's teaching? Was he a martial scholar who had never been educated?

"Hehe."

Sun Shaozong smiled and said loudly, "First of all, you have scratches on your chest, and there are more than one."

"Secondly, you had ink stains on your head. Although you had washed it carefully, there were still some remnants on your scalp."

"Thirdly, your knee was injured, so you reached out and kneaded several times after entering the door, but the injury did not affect your actions, which were obviously not very serious."

"Fourthly, there are many mosquito bites on you, obviously..."

"What nonsense this is!"

Before finishing the fourth saying, Sun Yun suddenly said, "How can these inexplicable things prove that I have desecrated the sage teachings?"

"Please calm down, Deputy Chief Sun. Listen to me carefully."

Sun Shaozong said carefully, "The marks on your chest should be caused by a woman's scratching when she was naked; knee injuries and mosquito bites were caused by kneeling outside the door for more than half an hour."

"It is speculated that yesterday, you had a war with your wife! Moreover, you have lost to the reasonings!"

"Absurd, this is ridiculous! What does my family have to do with this?!" Sun Yun was obviously a little angry and got up from the table and glared at Sun Shaozong.

But…

He seemed to be just over one meter six. After standing up, his vision was still the same height as Sun Shaozong's.

"It has nothing to do with me."

Sun Shaozong shrugged his shoulders. "You were naked and entangled with your wife, but your head was sprinkled with ink. I thought about it and thought that only after you returned to your mansion, you had annoyed your wife, who had been away for a long time, by having an affair with the servant girls in the study, who left these traces."

After a pause, he spread his hand and said, "Of course, if you were chased by your wife, naked, from the backyard to the study, it would be better if I inferred that there was a mistake in my sayings."

"You... You... You..."

Sun Yun did not know whether to be angry or shocked. He pointed to Sun Shaozong, but he was shaking like a sieve.

It’s just that…

This fellow was in a panic, but his eyes even showed some happiness.

"Hmm."

Sun Shaozong thought for a moment, and then suddenly said, "I'm sorry, it seems that I have made a mistake. It's not a servant girl who you had a time with, but a servant boy. You had done this passionate thing in your study, how dare you say that you didn't blaspheme the sage’s teachings?"

"You... You... You..."

Sun Yun has several ”you” characters in succession, and he looked like he had seen ghosts, but he obviously confessed already.

"Ha..."

"Haha..."

"Hahahaha..."

Next, he didn’t know which scholar couldn't help control their laughter, and then the others burst into laughter as well.

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