Chapter 1 What are your works in these poems, brother-in-law?

"Brother-in-law, which of these poems are yours?" Tan Weishi asked with a chuckle, holding the super-thick book that was shamelessly plagiarized due to different time and space.

If the contents of this book were fully disclosed, it would be enough to shock the entire Chunnan literary circle for three to five years, enough to remove the label of Dongping being a cultural desert, even by Chunnan standards, and enough to make a dozen or so young Dongping scholars famous. However, until now, Tan Weishi had not made up her mind to disclose the contents of this book to even the most blindly obedient young scholars. Originally, this book was prepared for her use. Whether to use it and how to use it was up to her. Ye Tao, who didn't really support her using the contents of this book to cheat, personally wrote a passage in the introduction of this book. The general idea was that each place has different cultural development due to different environments. It is foolish to think that one's own culture is necessarily orthodox, to think that other places similar to one's own are inferior, and that those that are not similar are heretical and disturb education. Listening to both sides leads to enlightenment, and believing only one side leads to darkness applies not only to people and officialdom, but also to the field of culture.

Tan Weishi had also personally been to Benlang Plains, listened to the exciting hand drums, the romantic, tragic, and beautifully worded heroic epics, seen various paintings and sculptures in Dongping style, original Central Plains style, Yunzhou and northern tribal styles, Persian style, Frankish style, and Greek Roman style, and had also come into contact with a large number of local operas and performances that could only be described as simple due to her interest in drama… Tan Weishi's cultural vision was much broader than that of the Chunnan literati, especially those pedantic old men, and she was especially able to immediately understand the meaning of what Ye Tao said.

Moreover, after in-depth communication with famous Dongping literati and historians such as Huang Xuping, Tan Weishi also learned about the concerns of many Dongping literati, including Situ Huang Xuping: the comprehensive view that the prosperous cultural situation in Chunnan is the only standard actually poses a danger of negating the unique style of Dongping. Dongping and Chunnan are completely different, with different histories, different directions of development, and different folk customs. In fact, Huang Xuping and others believe that the Chunnan atmosphere of using culture to suppress martial arts and allowing people to become officials simply because they write flowery articles has actually caused the current weakness of Chunnan's military strength, the cowardice of generals, and the lack of professional knowledge and skills of officials. The various cultural institutions established by Dongping since decades ago by learning from Chunnan cannot be said to be without effect, but if they are developed one-sidedly, they will affect the development of Dongping, especially gradually weakening the rationality, bravery, upward spirit, and full of vitality of the Dongping people.

Being able to consider the factors of culture, national destiny, and politics together, being able to appreciate works of various styles, having different types of art categories for different audiences in the same region to learn from each other, and having rich experience in the operation of cultural and artistic projects, even if Tan Weishi traveled back in time now, as long as she had decent luck, Tan Weishi could become a famous art broker. But in this era, Tan Weishi had more doubts. These doubts made her constantly think and constantly write her thoughts into various articles. Now, she had accumulated a thick book, and many of the ideas and viewpoints in it had surpassed this era by a lot. Now, Tan Weishi felt that she should discuss and exchange her ideas with others, so she had the idea of publishing a book. But first, she wanted to know whether such a book was valuable and whether it could arouse the interest of others. Before handing the manuscript to the compilation room of Baowentang Bookstore, she still felt that it would be better to show the book to Ye Tao.

Tan Weishi was not worried that the book would be rejected by the compilation room of Baowentang Bookstore, which had extremely strict standards for publishing academic works. She was the princess of Dongping, and this status determined that such a thing would not happen. Not to mention that half of the people in the compilation room, from top to bottom, were recommended and promoted by her, and Shen Dan, the main person in charge of the compilation room, did not hesitate to deliberately find fault with Ye Tao for her sake. She was even less worried that no one would applaud after the book was printed. Now, she was the goddess in the hearts of Dongping young scholars. Even if she published a book with the content "You are a pig" repeated ten thousand times without punctuation, someone would still rack their brains to come up with various high-sounding explanations for her, saying that such a book was a rare masterpiece in ancient and modern times. As the status of the students Tan Weishi had funded over the years became higher and higher, this tendency to ignore her shortcomings and increasingly mythologize her would become more and more obvious. But what Tan Weishi needed at this moment was not flattery.

The problem was that the most ideal reader was Ye Tao, and when Tan Weishi thought of showing Ye Tao her various thoughts, even if they were all rigorous and rational ideas, she couldn't help but feel a little… a little like she wanted to prove something. In the thick pile of manuscripts she gave to Ye Tao to review, she deliberately夹 (jiā, slipped) in some other things, such as letters she was too embarrassed to send to Ye Tao and her sister, and some poems and lost verses she had casually scribbled. And she even chose a good time, holding the book full of magnificent works that Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had given her, supervising Ye Tao to read these things. She kept asking Ye Tao about the things in Ye Tao and Tan Weixin's "Selected Poems, Lyrics and Prose of Past Dynasties", which made Ye Tao not know what to do for a while.

"It's better for you not to know, or you can guess. Now, I hope you can send all these things out, one poem per person, to scare the Chunnan people. Then they will all have a byline, and everyone will know who did it. And it's great that you can let whoever you want do it," Ye Tao said with a wry smile.

"Hehe," Tan Weishi said easily, "Once people find out, it will be a big scandal. But, brother-in-law, what are you and my sister afraid of? Are you afraid of being too famous? Anyway, everyone knows that you are the number one craftsman in the world, and a general who is at least considered capable, a frontier official with beautiful thoughts, and a historian who has opened up a new era. Oh, and that Qunxue (group learning) must also be under your name. And my sister, everyone knows that there is no business that my sister can't do. Other businessmen only make money, but my sister is managing money itself. …Anyway, you are already so famous, what does it matter if you are a little more flamboyant? Why would you rather let others take this fame?"

"Except for being the number one craftsman in the world, I really don't care about the others… especially since I became the Yunzhou Pacification Commissioner, even taking the time to go to the workshop has to be timed. This time, His Majesty sent me to Chunnan, which at least seems to be fruitful. But when I return to Yunzhou, God knows what the workshops and the research institutes will be like. Besides, what can we do even if we become more famous? It can't make the world a better place," Ye Tao said self-deprecatingly.

"At least it hasn't gotten worse," Tan Weishi said with a chuckle.

"Those who know me say I am worried, those who do not know me ask what I seek…" Ye Tao sighed.

"Did you write this sentence in this book?" Tan Weishi gently pricked him at the opportune moment. Ye Tao could only smile wryly.

Tan Weishi looked at Ye Tao seriously and suddenly said slowly, "Father told me before this trip that when the Danyang Grand Theater is completed and during the celebration performance, he will let you bring a large group of people from Yunzhou to come."

Is it the cultivation of cultural identity? Ye Tao also looked at Tan Weishi seriously, looking at what may be the most professional cultural and artistic worker of this era, and said, "I will definitely come. I will also bring a lively program, okay?"

The smile on the corner of Tan Weishi's mouth did not increase or decrease by a single point. She continued, "Okay. Father also said that after that, I will go back to Yunzhou with you."

Ye Tao was stunned for a moment. So, this was what Tan Weishi wanted to say.

"Have you really… made up your mind?" Ye Tao said extremely gently. Ye Tao had also thought about this matter seriously, and had talked about it seriously with Tan Weixin, Dai Yun, Dai Qiuyan, and Sophie. It seemed that everyone was not opposed, although they could not be said to be very supportive, but at least they went with the flow, and felt that it was natural for the Lord to delay this matter, but it was equally reasonable to agree and acquiesce to it. In fact, everyone liked Tan Weishi very much, liked her special temperament of combining innocence and gentleness, slowly turning cleverness into rationality, and turning stubbornness into firmness. And Ye Tao also thought very clearly… anyway, he wouldn't suffer.

What he was worried about was Tan Weixin. Although Tan Weixin had actually been condoning and even encouraging things to develop in this direction, the most likely person to harbor resentment was still Tan Weixin. After all, this was someone from his time. He hoped that Tan Weixin really understood what was going to happen, rather than dealing with this matter with some kind of compensatory psychology. He didn't take Tan Weixin's so-called declaration of treating marriage and family as a business to equalize equity and increase her voice so seriously.

"Have you really made up your mind not to reject me?" Tan Weishi pursed her lips playfully. Her expression showed that she had indeed thought about it a lot and very thoroughly. That expression seemed to be saying that she wouldn't be surprised by any answer Ye Tao gave.

"Anyway…" Ye Tao curled his lips and said, "Anyway, I won't suffer."

Tan Weishi burst out laughing. "Brother-in-law, how can you say that?"

"Still calling me brother-in-law?" Suddenly, a voice came from beside them. Unknowingly, Dai Qiuyan had also come to their side. "Okay, you can call me sister now."

"You are obviously younger than me," Tan Weishi said with a frown.

"The calculation method is different now," Dai Qiuyan teased. Tan Weishi's face instantly turned red. How could this close friend who had grown up with her have such sharp words since she got married?

Ye Tao laughed and changed the subject, "By the way, I haven't asked yet. How did you get into a conflict with Consort Lian?"