Eternal Life: My Talent Increases by 1 Point Every Day

Chapter 267: Chapter 183: Let Me See

"Is that Fang Yue? It really is him!"

"What is he doing here? A lowly country bumpkin, a mere Martial Scholar... How could he possibly be here?"

At this moment, Wen Lan also saw him—Fang Yue, lost in the crowd, dressed plainly, with an ordinary, unremarkable appearance, looking like just another part of the background.

After all, even though this was just a matchmaking event for a branch of the Wen Family, every one of the talented young men who came to participate was an outstanding scion from one of the great Noble Families.

Only in a place like Yujing City could you gather so many young men who possessed status, Talent, and handsome looks. You would never find such a concentration of them in any other Prefecture Mansion of the Great Wei Dynasty.

But right now, in Wen Lan’s eyes, Fang Yue, mingling in this crowd, was like a stray dog that had wandered into a pack of tigers.

The sight was utterly bizarre.

’Wait, could it be that the person Third Uncle was talking about back then was actually Fang Yue?’

At the time, Wen Lan couldn’t believe it. But now, seeing Fang Yue right there in the crowd, how could she not know that the person her Third Uncle had spoken of was him?

’What’s so special about this Fang Yue? Isn’t he just a country bumpkin? Why would Third Uncle take a liking to him?’

Wen Lan looked him up and down, but she couldn’t see anything peculiar or outstanding about this Fang Yue.

’Could he really be extraordinary?’

The moment this thought arose—perhaps without Wen Lan herself even realizing it—her image, or rather, her impression of Fang Yue had already begun to change.

Meanwhile, behind several other bookshelves, other eligible young women from the Wen Family’s branch clans were also observing the talented young men in the center of the venue.

"Alright, time’s up. Let’s not waste any more words today. Starting with you, come up one by one and bring your poems over for me to have a look."

Wen Tailai spoke up as he saw the stick of incense had burned down completely.

No one present had any objection to Wen Tailai acting as the judge.

Don’t be fooled by Wen Tailai’s appearance; though he was built like a brick outhouse, with dark, rough skin, looking much like Li Kui...

...he was, in fact, a great contemporary scholar, whose literary style was considered unparalleled in his generation.

He had once served in the Great Wei royal court as a Hanlin Scholar, responsible for compiling the *Great Wei Martial Codex*.

Therefore, whether it was for his literary talent, his reputation, or his status, even the Patriarchs of the great Noble Families had to treat him with respect. Besides, he was the host of this event.

He was the one who held the ultimate authority here. So with him as the judge, who would be dissatisfied, and who would dare object?

Wen Tailai’s words fell, but for a moment, no one stepped forward.

The first one to go would be the "bird that sticks its head out," drawing the most attention.

If your poem was brilliant, you would immediately become the target of everyone else’s envy. But if your poem wasn’t brilliant, even if it was just average, you would be ridiculed by all.

Thus, unless you were either supremely confident or simply a fool, you wouldn’t dare to be the first to step forward.

"Please, Sir, take a look."

But Fang Yue felt no such hesitation. He walked right up and handed his finished poem to Wen Tailai.

He had made up his mind: start early, finish early.

It was already almost noon, and once he was done with this, he needed to hurry back for lunch.

As the saying goes: in literature, there is no first; in martial arts, there is no second.

Initially, Fang Yue, dressed plainly, had not stood out among the crowd of Noble Family Descendants. The others had glanced at him and simply dismissed him as a disciple from some declining Noble Family, not paying him any mind at all.

Even Wu Wende, who had asked Luo Wei to take action, was only aiming to eliminate some potential rivals. Fang Yue was just caught up in it by chance, an incidental target.

Wu Wende had never given someone like Fang Yue a second thought; he didn’t believe he was worthy of being his rival.

Noble Family Descendants were naturally aloof. Even though he was only from a branch family and wasn’t highly regarded within the Wu Family, the innate pride of his noble birth was something in his blood that could not be changed.

Seeing Fang Yue dare to be the first to submit a poem, it was only his awareness of the current social setting that stopped him from shouting a reprimand.

’Who is this person?’

’What’s his name? Which family is he from?’

’Why does he look so unfamiliar? It’s like I’ve never seen him before.’

At that moment, all sorts of thoughts like these were popping up in the minds of the other Noble Family Descendants.

Although these young men couldn’t speak their minds, the suspicion, contempt, and sneers in their eyes made it clear they were all looking forward to a good show.

Meanwhile, when Wen Tailai saw that the first person to present a poem was Fang Yue, he couldn’t help but nod slightly before his gaze fell upon the paper in his hand.

He saw that the characters on the paper were rather sloppy, barely even neat. It revealed that the writer’s calligraphy skills were very poor, about on par with a young child who had only attended a few years of private schooling.

Seeing this, Wen Tailai felt a little disappointed.

He had originally thought that since Fang Yue was an Inspector from the Observatory, and had reached the Qi Transformation Realm as a Qi Refiner at such a young age...

...and given his common background, he naturally wouldn’t have had sufficient resources. This indicated that Fang Yue possessed a resolute heart, exceptional Talent, and was sufficiently hard-working.

A simple background also meant his record was clean.

Coupled with the recommendation from an old friend, this was why Wen Tailai had regarded Fang Yue so highly.

It was for all these reasons that he had mentioned Fang Yue to Wen Lan. He simply didn’t want his own junior to miss out on a young man with such potential.