Chapter 24: Pleasantly Pretending to Make Waves at the Wedding

Xu Qianqian couldn't believe it even in her wildest dreams that tonight's groom was Shen Lang.

How could it be him? It's impossible, even if the sun rises in the west.

Who is Jin Mulan?! A goddess on high.

And Shen Lang? A person with intellectual disabilities, a waste who can't even dress properly.

Just two days ago, she had just expelled Shen Lang from the family and falsely accused him of theft.

How could a prestigious family like the Marquis House of Xuanwu pick such a wastrel as a son-in-law?

No, she couldn't accept this result at all.

Since you were driven out of our family, Shen Lang, you should be humble, preferably becoming a pile of shit on the ground, trampled by everyone.

And now you have married a woman even more beautiful and noble than me?

How is that possible?

Is God playing a joke on us?

Next to her, Zhang Jin could barely contain his jealousy.

Why him?

Even this stunning beauty, Jin Mulan, was not within his reach, and she married Shen Lang, this waste?

"Hahaha..."

Suddenly, Zhang Jin burst into laughter, and everyone turned to look at him.

Zhang Jin said, "Miss Jin Mulan, your wedding tonight is fake, it's all a conspiracy."

Jin Mulan coldly asked, "What do you mean?"

Zhang Jin pointed at Shen Lang and said, "Do you all know who this person is? His name is Shen Lang. After studying for ten years, he hasn't even learned a thousand words, and he was expelled from Han Shui Town Academy for stealing and harassing maids. How could a waste like him be seen by the Marquis House? How could Miss Jin Mulan see him? So this wedding is completely fake."

"Yes, yes!" The surrounding young talents couldn't help but shout.

They also thought it was fake; how could Miss Jin Mulan marry such garbage?

After taking the lead, Zhang Jin signaled to the crowd.

As the son of the governor, he couldn't personally confront Shen Lang, it would be too crude and vulgar.

In the crowd, a scholar stepped forward.

In a loud voice, he said, "I can prove this because I studied with him at Han Shui Town Academy, and Shen Lang is truly mentally challenged."

Shen Lang recognized this person, named Yan Xiong, as his classmate at Han Shui Town Academy.

In a critical moment, it's all about who you know, indeed.

Yan Xiong came from a poor family and was not originally qualified to attend tonight's wedding. But after passing the imperial examination and becoming a scholar, he gained the favor of the retired former lord of Xuanwu City, Zhang Boyan, and managed to attend the wedding by association.

At Han Shui Town Academy, Yan Xiong was a top student, while Shen Lang was a complete failure, not even worthy of a glance from him.

But he never expected that Shen Lang would end up as a son-in-law at the Marquis House of Xuanwu, marrying the princess Jin Mulan. This was unbearable for him.

So, forgetting his usual manners and responding to Zhang Jin's signal, he directly stepped forward.

Shen Lang stood up and calmly said, "Yan Xiong, you call me mentally challenged, do you have any evidence?"

"Haha," scholar Yan Xiong said, "After studying for ten years, you can't even recognize a thousand words; isn't that evidence? Here's the deal: I'll write a few words, and if you recognize them, I won't call you mentally challenged. If you don't, you are. How about that?"

Xu Qianqian wanted to speak up, but Shen Lang responded, "Deal!"

"Bring pen, ink, paper, and inkstone," scholar Yan Xiong said.

Initially, he was somewhat uneasy, knowing that this was the Marquis House and not a place for him to act presumptuously, but seeing the support from the crowd, Yan Xiong was no longer worried and only wanted to show off, preferably breaking up the marriage between Shen Lang and Jin Mulan.

The Marquis House was not willing to provide pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, but there were several sets among the registered gifts. Someone immediately brought them over.

Yan Xiong picked up the brush and wrote a few words on a large red paper.

The people gathered around to take a closer look, and they felt a chill down their spines. They looked at the words, feeling familiar but unable to recognize them.

The characters were extremely rare, even some of the literati present didn't recognize them, completely useless in their daily lives.

Even it can be said that, among ten scholars, eight of them can't recognize the three characters written by Yan Xiong.

It's really difficult.

"Just these three simple characters, if you recognize them, you are not a fool. If you don't recognize them, then admit that you are," Yan Xiong said smugly.

Mulan furrowed her brows as she glanced at the characters. She recognized them, although she had practiced martial arts, she had also read a lot, but these characters were extremely rare and hardly used. If it weren't for seeing them in a certain book by chance, she wouldn't recognize them at all.

Shen Lang stepped forward to take a look. The three characters were: 莪 (é), 玊 (shū), 丨(gǔn).

Indeed very difficult. Although he had a master's degree in medicine, he only recognized the first character, the other two were completely unfamiliar to him.

"Haha... you don't recognize them. Recognizing even one of these three characters is already impressive," the scholar Yan Xiong said. "Be honest and admit that you don't recognize them, acknowledge that you are intellectually disabled. After ten years of studying, you don't even recognize these three simple characters."

Many people present felt embarrassed. They had also studied for more than ten years, some even passed the scholar's examination, and there were even those who passed the imperial examination, yet they didn't recognize some of these characters.

Although Shen Lang didn't recognize them, he had brought an alien notebook with him when he crossed over. It contained various dictionaries and he easily looked them up.

Moreover, this alien notebook in his brain had become more advanced. Shen Lang only needed to glance with his eyes and almost immediately could obtain the answers, and many different answers at that.

At this moment, everyone was looking at Shen Lang, waiting for him to make a fool of himself.

Shen Lang said, "The first character, 莪 (é), is pronounced the same as 'goose,' it is a type of plant used in medicine, originating from the 'Classic of Poetry.' The poem goes: 'The thistles are lush and the 莪 grow there.'"

As soon as these words came out, Yan Xiong was slightly stunned. Although this character was the simplest, Shen Lang, this waste, shouldn't know it.

However, he was very confident that Shen Lang wouldn't know the next two characters.

Yet Shen Lang didn't pause at all, he continued, "The second character, 玊 (shū), can be read as 'sū', one meaning is flawed jade, and another is the meaning of a royal family."

Before Yan Xiong could react, Shen Lang continued without stopping, "This third character is indeed extremely rare and has many different pronunciations. The first pronunciation is 'shù', meaning upright. The second pronunciation is 'gǔn', which means to penetrate from top to bottom. The third pronunciation is 'tuì', which means to retreat. The fourth pronunciation is 'yī', an ancient family name originating from the ancient Jiang clan."

This world had experienced a destruction of history, and afterward unearthed many ancient Chinese books, thus regarding it as the enlightenment of civilization. As a result, many allusions came from these unearthed books, not belonging to the world's history, yet recorded and became part of history.

After saying that, Shen Lang turned to the scholar Yan Xiong and asked, "Did I say it correctly?"

Yan Xiong couldn't believe it as he looked at Shen Lang. He only knew two pronunciations of the last character, 'shù' and 'yī'. He didn't understand the remaining two.

Wasn't this Shen Lang a disabled person? He was incredibly foolish when he studied before, not even able to read the most common characters, let alone these extremely rare characters.

Shen Lang then said to Yan Xiong's teacher, the former Lord of Black Tortoise City, "Master Zhang, you are erudite and talented in both literary and military arts. Can you confirm if I pronounced these three characters correctly?"

The old city lord, with white hair and beard, glared fiercely at his disciple Yan Xiong, and said with a smile, "All are correct!"

When this was said, everyone was astonished.

Especially Zhang Jin and Xu Qianqian, they knew Shen Lang's true nature, especially Xu Qianqian, was well aware of how rare these three characters were. In particular, the last character, Xu Qianqian didn't know either, but Shen Lang, the intellectually disabled waste who didn't pass the enlightenment of reading for ten years, actually knew them?

How was that possible?

Shen Lang continued, "Yan Xiong, since we're playing with characters, let me write down a few characters for you to recognize, how about that?"

Scholar Yan Xiong sneered, "Just with you? What characters could I not recognize? Ridiculous!"

Shen Lang picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote down many characters.

龘靐我齉齾麤爩。

灪是驫饢籱癵爨。

厵麷傻钃讟虋纞。

龞齽齼逼黸麢鸘。

After writing them, Shen Lang asked, "Yan Xiong, which of these characters do you recognize? If you recognize more than four characters, I will admire you."

Scholar Yan Xiong looked at the dozens of characters, his eyes were about to bulge out, these... what kind of characters were these?

However, there were a few that he clearly recognized, and he couldn't help but blurt out, "I am... an idiot!"

...

Note: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone, I wish you all happiness and good health.