After Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai passed two levels in a row, Xue Tui's attitude towards them was completely different from when they first arrived.
When Xue Tui looked at these two people now, not only did he no longer think that they were country bumpkins who had stumbled in by mistake, but he also felt that they looked a bit like martial arts rookies who came to pretend to be pigs and eat tigers.
In front of such a person, Xue Tui couldn't make the question too "ordinary", otherwise it would appear that he was not up to standard.
Yes, generally speaking, the content of the third level is that he, Xue Tui, will personally create a question and have a "literary battle" with the opponent; and the "literary battle" usually means writing a poem, playing a couplet, guessing a crossword puzzle, etc. .
It was precisely because Xue Tui was very good at this that he got the nickname "Little Dezu"; which means... that he has a bit of the charm of Yang Xiu and Yang Dezu.
But in fact, from this point, it is not difficult to see that Xue Tui has failed in the national examination for many years, so it is not unfair.
The "smartness" in him has never been true wisdom or talent...but the ability of a typical rotten scholar to show off his skills.
To sum it up in one sentence, it is only capable of writing and writing, but has no strategy to stabilize the country.
Therefore, being a guest in this non-returning building does not mean he has been wronged...because it is indeed more suitable for him to do this than to be an official.
At this moment, after Xue Tui invited Sun and Huang to sit down, he paced back and forth in the study with his hands behind his back.
Just now, he originally wanted to use the second level to catch the opponent off guard, but he didn't expect that Huang Donglai reported the correct answer in an instant, and instead caught him off guard.
Under this situation, Xue Tui could only think in a hurry and quickly think about the things to be tested in the third level...
“What should I do? Make my best pair?
"No...it's definitely too difficult to come up with a pair that can deal with the dead in such a short period of time. Ordinary pairs will certainly not be able to defeat them.
"How about... assign a theme and let them write a poem?
"No...it won't work. It's too easy to compose a poem. Even if they compose a limerick casually, as long as they can get the title right and the rhyme and rhyme are smooth, there won't be any big mistakes. I don't want to say anything more...because they have done the first two levels. It was too easy. If I were to find fault with some idealistic things in this third level, it would look like I was deliberately making things difficult for them.
"Well...how can we make them convinced that they have lost?"
Xue Tui thought a lot there, but his mind worked very quickly, so it didn't take long.
After a moment, he suddenly raised his head, a flash of light flashed in his eyes, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth...
Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai knew when they saw this guy's expression - It's over, this guy named Xue might have thought of some bad idea.
"Ha...You two gentlemen." The next second, Xue Tui came over with a smile on his face, raised his hand and saluted, and asked, "I wonder which of you will be responsible for the 'Yi Yan' of this third level?" answer?"
Sun and Huang looked at each other, and in the end... Huang Donglai naturally spoke: "I'll do it."
There is no way, you have to choose one of the two evils, and you have to choose the lesser. No matter how bad Huang Donglai is, he is still better than the illiterate Sun Yixie.
"Okay." Hearing this, Xue Tui nodded, sat down, shook his head and said, "I wonder if Mr. Huang has ever heard such a story..." He paused and began to recite, "Zheng Ren You and When placing the shoes, he first measures his feet, and then places them to sit. When he arrives at the market, he forgets to move them. After he has found the shoes, he says: "I forgot to hold them!" and goes back to take them. When he goes to the market, he forgets to move them. Then he couldn't do it. People said: 'Why not try it out?' He said: 'It is better to have faith than to have confidence.'"
Xue Tui just recited the original text of the story "Zheng Ren Buys Shoes" verbatim.
Huang Donglai...actually didn't understand it completely, but he roughly guessed what story the other party was telling from the few words he could understand, so he nodded somewhat vaguely and said, "Ah...I've heard it before."
Xue Tui smiled and said: "So, so what about this..." Then he recited the original texts of the two allusions "Mending the enemy after a lost sheep" and "Carving a boat to seek a sword" respectively.
Huang Donglai also said he knew.
At this point, Xue Tui felt that the groundwork was almost complete, so he spoke in a sinister tone: "Haha... Mr. Huang is indeed well-read, has a strong memory, and is knowledgeable, so I think... with Mr. Huang's knowledge, he will definitely be able to Tell me a fable that even Xue has never heard of?"
"Ah?" Huang Donglai was a little confused when he asked him this question. He instinctively looked embarrassed and said, "This..."
When Xue Tui saw the expression on the other person's face, he immediately showed a look of color on his face and pressed forward: "If Mr. Huang can say such a thing, this third level will be considered passed, but if he can't say it..."
This question of his is very bad.
From his point of view, based on the common sense of a scholar in the early dynasty, it is not difficult to write poems or essays... to them, this is a formulaic thing, just like those modern cartoonists who draw "books". It’s the same as a book. As long as you learn a few routines and pass the drawing skills, then the creation will be easy to do. Anyway, the readers don’t really care about the plot or the spiritual connotation. They mainly just look at the paintings.
However, it is not difficult to ask a person who studies eight-legged essay all day long to write a story, and it must be a fable that contains some profound thoughts and can illustrate philosophy. ...is simply impossible.
This one.
There is another two: Xue Tui is confident that with his talent and learning, there can be no fables and allusions in the world that he has not read; about the Warring States policy of Mencius and Han Feizi... you can look for it, just look for it, you can start with it, and he will It can be picked up immediately and memorized for you.
Therefore, the question he raised, at least in his own opinion... has no solution.
Unexpectedly, Huang Donglai only hesitated for a moment, and then continued in a very calm tone: "Okay, then I will tell you about the 'tortoise and the hare'."
"Ah?" Xue Tui was stunned. He never thought that the other party would actually answer.
However, after the initial surprise, he calmed down and told himself secretly: "It's okay... This kid probably wants to make up a... Huh, a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy who is still in his infancy, makes up on the fly, and can speak What's the reason for this?"
Then Huang Donglai told him the story of the tortoise and the hare in vernacular.
Xue Tui was shocked after hearing this.
After Huang Dong finished speaking, Xue Tui still sat there tasting it for a long time, like a child who had never heard of "The Tortoise and the Hare".
“Mr.
"Uh..." Xue Tui came back to his senses and muttered a little dullly, "May I ask...where did this allusion of Mr. Huang come from?"
Huang Donglai couldn't answer that this was a joke from "Aesop's Fables", so he curled his lips and said nonsense: "I made it up now." He also pretended to be very relaxed and added, "That's it." I can make up two stories in the blink of an eye. If you don’t believe me, how about I tell you about ‘The Three Little Pigs’ later?”
Now Xue Tui was dumbfounded. He quickly stood up and bowed his head: "Young master Huang is eight Dou tall, and his robe is only four times taller. Xue...oh no...student Xue Tui sits in a well and looks at the sky. He is really ashamed! He has done so many things before. If you have offended me, I hope you will forgive me."
"Oh! I just talked about the tortoise and the hare...what about it?" Sun Yixie was a little surprised when he saw the other party's reaction. He immediately complained, "Then if I give you a long stand-up comedy "One Piece"... "
"Hey! Hey! Brother Sun!" Huang Donglai quickly raised his voice, gently pushed Sun Yixie, and reminded, "There is not even storytelling in the world today, so don't make trouble!"
Sun Yixie smiled: "Hey~ I was just kidding, don't panic."
Xue Tui didn't understand what they said anyway. He just thought it was some kind of black joke between the two and didn't care.
Huang Donglai also quickly changed the topic and said to Xue Tui: "Mr. Xue, if that's the case, then we have passed the three levels of 'one product', 'one glance', and 'one word', right? Can we eat?"
"Oh! Yes!" Xue Tui was very respectful at this moment, as if he had met a master from outside the world. "Xue will make arrangements now. Please come with me... You are invited to sit here."
…………
To make a long story short, after about a cup of tea, Sun and Huang finally had the first batch of cold dishes served in a private room.
At this time, more than half an hour had passed since the moment they stepped into the gate of No Return Building.
In fact, it's not too late, it's just Haishi...According to the current time, it's not even half past ten in the evening, but the two of them are already starving.
The plate of fish that Sun Yi teased before was not large enough, so he gave more than half of it to Xue Tui, Yuan Fangzhi and other four people, resulting in them not having a few bites themselves; it can be said that... not only did it not serve as a "cushion" The effect of "belly" further stimulated the appetite of the two people.
Fortunately, they passed the second and third levels very quickly, and it only took more than ten minutes to complete them. So, before eleven o'clock, the two of them ate the dishes served in the Zhixian Pavilion kitchen.
The "Southern Cooking God" is also in a good mood today - frying, frying, deep-frying, stewing, sweet in the south, salty in the north, spicy in the east and sour in the west. Mr. Yuan has almost shown off all his special skills; anyway, Sun Yi Xie and Huang Dong Lai made it clear when they were seated that they would not be short of money, allowing them to do whatever they wanted and just serve the food quickly.
Of course, the dish "spring tide brings rain and comes late" is not on tonight's menu, because it is a seasonal dish in spring, and it is autumn now, so even if it is made reluctantly, it will not taste right.
Tonight, Yuan Fangzhi cooked a dish called "A Thousand Gold to Buy a Wall"; if "Spring Tide Brings Rain and Comes Late" was his Mahayana work when he was twenty-five, then this "A Thousand Gold to Buy a Wall" is Yuan Fangzhi's Proof that your cooking skills have reached perfection after the age of fifty-five.
Just putting this piece of tofu in your mouth will allow you to taste the debauchery and desolation of a generation, the talent and sadness of a beautiful woman... It's like you are that Gao Shi, that Du Fu, standing there, watching with your own eyes. A good story happened, but at the same time, you can vaguely detect the slightly sad ending of the story...
This night, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai were both drunk, because the food on the table was really good...the kind they had never tasted in their lives.
The service provided to the guests in private rooms at the No-Return Building is also very good. Before the two of them were drunk, Xue Tui had already come in and asked where the inn they were staying was so that he could send someone to take them away after they fell unconscious. go back.
As for the meal money for that night, Xue Tui didn't confiscate it. He just left a note in their inn room, telling them that the meal money had been charged to their account. They could find someone to deliver it to them when it's convenient for them, or maybe It’s okay to tie it up next time you come back.
This is about paying attention to...
If a guest refuses to pay afterward, that is the guest's problem, but the person who does not return to the building... will never go through the guest's belongings without the guest knowing, similar to "taking the meal money from the guest who is already unconscious." It is impossible for a waiter who does not return to the building to do such a thing. If someone does this, the boss will definitely not let him go, because this is not the problem of the guests, but the problem of not returning to the building. .
…………
The next day, when the sun rose three poles high, Huang Donglai woke up first - he had good internal skills.
When he woke up, he found that he was lying in Sun Yixie's room, with Brother Sun's trident lying beside the bed.
Huang Donglai endured a slight headache and recalled how he returned to the inn last night, and then thought to himself: "Oh... It must be that the guy who didn't return to the building got us into the wrong room when he carried us up, and threw Brother Sun into my room. Here, you left me here."
While he was thinking about it, he took out the chamber pot from under the bed for convenience. Then, he yawned, stretched, and prepared to go next door to wake up Sun Yixie.
Because he was carried back and thrown directly on the bed, he neither took off his clothes nor covered himself with a quilt that night; of course, in this season, he was a martial arts practitioner, so he would not catch a cold after sleeping like this for one night.
Huang Donglai walked to the door wearing wrinkled clothes that smelled of alcohol and opened the door casually.
Unexpectedly...at this moment, there was already someone waiting for him outside the door.
I saw that man, wearing all black even in broad daylight. He was tall and tall, with dark skin, eyebrows at the temples, a straight nose and a square mouth; and the biggest feature on his face was a pair of bright cows. His eyes seem to be staring at you all the time.
When Huang Donglai opened the door, this man was standing three feet away, staring at the door.
As soon as Huang Donglai appeared, the black-faced man cupped his fists and raised his hands to him, and said in a loud and stern voice: "Sun Yixie, I want to compete with you!"
