At the school square.
The woman from the Couplet Organization gave him a call.
"Hello, Teacher Zhang Ye. Where are you?"
"I'm already in. I'm at the preliminary round's square."
"Oh? Why don't I see you? Which one is you? "
"Aren't you wearing a long white dress? I see you. "
She was the only one present who had made a call. Zhang Ye looked for her and indeed, it was the woman from the Couplet Organization. "Hello."
The woman put down her cell phone and handed him a participant's pass. She said, "I'm sorry, Teacher Zhang. The staff there missed it. Now that I've found it, hurry up and participate. There's no need to register. Just answer the questions directly. Oh, I still have things to do, so I'll be leaving first."
"Thank you very much." Zhang Ye watched her leave.
Not far away, Hu Fei called out to him, "Did you get it?"
Zhang Ye acknowledged and went over to look at the preliminary round's questions.
There were three question boards in front of him. They were spaced ten meters apart. There were quite a number of people in front of each board. There were contestants and also spectators. Of course, there were not many contestants left. Many of them had finished answering the questions and passed the preliminaries. They had already entered the auditorium. There were only about twenty people who were still answering the questions. They were thinking hard about the questions on the boards. The questions did not seem easy.
Beside them were the rules of the preliminary round:
1: Contestants are to answer the questions according to the rules.
2: Only after the judges decide that you have passed.
3: There are only fifty questions. The number of people who can pass the preliminaries will not exceed fifty.
Xiao Lu exclaimed, "Only fifty questions? Aren't there about a hundred people participating this time? Does that mean that half of them will be eliminated? It's too cruel! "
Hou Ge said anxiously, "There's not enough time!"
Hou Di also pointed to the question board, "There are only two questions left on this board. Ah, that board is full. They have all been answered. The third board only has one question left!"
There were still three questions left. There were about twenty contestants who had not given up answering!
The remaining contestants felt that they could not answer, so they had gone to the audience stands to watch. They had automatically given up.
"Quick, quick, quick! Let's look at the questions! Hurry up! "Xiao Lu hurriedly said.
The fifty questions were all couplets. There were four words, five words, and seven words. Without exception, they were all couplets. The rules were very simple. There were many inkstones and brushes in front of the question board. As long as the contestant wrote the answer below the corresponding couplet, with the matching of the couplet and the matching of the meaning, they would pass. The three judges from the Writers' Association would then make the authoritative judgment. The judges were three old comrades. Two of them were old men, while the other was an old granny. Although Zhang Ye did not know them, he could tell that the other participants were very respectful towards them. He knew that the three of them were probably authoritative figures in the industry. At the very least, they were the cream of the crop in the field of couplets.
After calming himself down, Zhang Ye began to look at the questions.
Three …
Five …
Zhang Ye did a simple scan and realized that this world's couplets were the same as his world's. Heaven to Earth, Rain to Wind, Continent to Sky. There was no difference. However, he had never seen some of them before. Many of the couplets did not exist in Zhang Ye's world. Maybe Zhang Ye was ignorant or had forgotten. After all, he had never studied the culture of couplets.
Let's eat a Memory Search Capsule first!
Zhang Ye opened the game ring and looked at his Reputation. With the help of the public service advertisement yesterday, his total Reputation had slowly increased. It was not increasing fast, but after two days and one night, it finally reached 100,000 points. Zhang Ye clicked on the Merchant Shop to buy a Memory Search Capsule and swallowed it.
… …
Memories flashed.
Under the guidance of Zhang Ye's train of thought, time returned to the year 2011 of his world.
Back then, Zhang Ye had just entered university. He was focused on standing out and becoming famous. He had a very subjective sense of absorbing all information. One weekend, he had applied for a library card and went to Media College's library to read. In the beginning, he did not find the book he wanted to read. Hence, he casually flipped through it like he was looking for a needle in a haystack. In the end, he found a collection of couplets and an analysis of couplets right next to it.
Neither of the books were thick.
One page, ten pages, a hundred pages.
… …
Five minutes were up.
The Memory Search Period was over.
Zhang Ye slowly opened his eyes. Back then, he had casually and carelessly flipped through it, but now, with the Memory Search Period, his subconscious memory had been consolidated. Zhang Ye could remember every couplet clearly!
Following that, he looked at the fifty questions again!
Yun Jian something? No idea!
Flying Snow something? No idea!
Burning Vine something? Never seen it before!
After reading a lot, none of them appeared in Zhang Ye's world. He did not know where to start. But just when he thought that this world's couplets did not overlap with his world's, a couplet appeared in front of his eyes, followed by a second and a third!
There was really one! There was really one that he knew!
It was exactly the same as the couplets from his world!
For example, question 41. The first half was: Two Three Four Five.
It was unknown who had already matched the second half. The second half was: Six Seven Eight Nine.
This couplet looked a little silly and baffling, but there was actually a hidden meaning behind it. In Zhang Ye's memory search, there was a record of this couplet. In professional terms, this was a hidden couplet. Why did two Three Four Five have to match six Seven Eight Nine? Because in two Three Four Five Li, there was a lack of one, which also meant a lack of clothes. And in six Seven Eight Nine, there was a lack of ten, which also meant a lack of food. Lack of food and clothing — this was the hidden couplet.
This discovery made Zhang Ye very happy. After observing it as a whole, although the couplets from his world only took up about 20% to 30% of the fifty, this was enough to make Zhang Ye feel gratified. It meant that he still had a chance. It meant that the two worlds' works still overlapped, and there were quite a lot of overlaps. Actually, thinking about it, it was indeed true. It was a similar history, and some historical figures were the same. Even if it was modified by the game ring, the overall direction of the couplet culture would not deviate too much. It was not strange for the same couplet to appear.
Xiao Lu suddenly said, "Eh, I might be able to match this couplet. When I was an editor, I saw a similar one. I just need to make some changes. Morning snow … No, morning dew …"
Hou Ge urged, "Xiao Lu, you can do it. Hurry!"
"Don't worry, don't worry. I'm thinking!" Xiao Lu grabbed her hair.
"It can't be morning something, right? Wouldn't it be good to match the morning court?" Hou Di also helped to think.
It could be seen that they really wanted to help Zhang Ye enter the finals. They wanted to prevent the despicable people from the Beijing Writers' Association from using this opportunity to attack Zhang Ye's reputation in the literary circle.
But over there, a middle-aged contestant suddenly smacked himself in the head. He strode forward and picked up a brush. He wrote the answer to the couplet that Xiao Lu and Hou Di were considering. After he finished writing, he looked at the three judges and saw two of them nodding their heads. Only then did he laugh heartily. He passed!
Xiao Lu nearly died from anger, "It was snatched by someone!"
Hou Di said with pity, "We were just one step short. We almost figured it out!"
"There are only two questions left." Dafei reminded.
However, Hu Fei sighed and pointed, "There's only one left."
He saw an old acquaintance of Zhang Ye's had gone up without him knowing. He had picked up a brush and written the second half of the couplet. The handwriting was strong and beautiful. This person was Big Thunder, the poet from the Beijing Writers' Association. Seeing the judges pass, he smiled, "Thank you, Teachers."
The bald judge, an old man, looked at him and said, "Big Thunder, you were the runner-up of the last Beijing Couplet Competition. Why did you take so long?"
The second judge, the old granny, laughed, "Can't you tell? Big Thunder did not do the relatively easy questions, but chose one of the two most difficult questions. This is the pride of the previous runner-up. Hur Hur, but only Big Thunder has this standard. If he did not answer this question, probably no one else would be able to answer it. "
The third judge, an old man, said, "There's only one question left? Oh, I guessed it right. There really is only one question left. Old Man Qian, this question of yours is not something an average person can answer. It's only the preliminaries, and you already made it so difficult? Who can match it in such a short period of time? "
Elder Qian was the first judge of this competition. He was also the most experienced and the oldest. He stroked his beard, "This is a couplet competition. What's the point if it's not difficult?"
Big Thunder clearly knew them. Upon hearing this, he said, "The 50th question was set by Elder Qian? No wonder. I couldn't think of a second couplet even after thinking all day. I guess no one can match this couplet. Forget getting it right, even reading it would be a problem. Even an expert might not be able to read it correctly. "
Of course. Elder Qian was known as a genius in the industry. He was not from the Beijing Couplet Association, nor was he from the Beijing Writers' Association. He was a member of the China Writers' Association. He had a high reputation and was good at coming up with tricky questions. It was not only in the area of couplets. For this year's college entrance examination, he was also one of the question setters. The questions he gave were usually not meant to give people points, but to widen the gap between the top students and the bottom students.
Many of the contestants had given up. Among them, there was no lack of outstanding writers and university professors. But when faced with this question, and when they heard the conversation between Old Qian and Lei, everyone knew that they had no hope of entering the finals today. It was better to just be an audience.
Everyone had given up. Only Zhang Ye was still staring at the question. Furthermore, his eyes were blinking. There was no other reason. He had seen this couplet before!
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