“I just bought two pots of yellow wine!”
A young man outside the arena raised two unopened pots of yellow wine and shouted.
He had originally planned to go home directly after watching this match.
Seeing that Yuan Deyou had agreed, Wan Yunting walked towards the young man and said with a smile, “Brother, how much are these two pots of yellow wine? I’ll transfer the money to you now.”
“It’s not much, just two hundred yuan. Here you go.”
The young man found his request to drink on the spot amusing and gave him the two pots of wine.
Wan Yunting took out his phone and transferred two hundred yuan to him. Then he opened a pot of yellow wine and prepared to drink. He immediately turned back to the other contestants and said, “Don’t just stand there, everyone. The competition has started. Don’t waste time.”
“Brother Yunting, don’t drink too much.”
Huang Yao Dong called out with a smile from the side. Wan Yunting took a sip of yellow wine from the pot and smiled at him, “Don’t you know my alcohol tolerance?”
“Haha, that’s true…”
Huang Yao Dong and Lin Yushu laughed. They had witnessed Wan Yunting’s incredible drinking capacity at the Purple Bamboo Garden last night. Seeing her man like this, Gu Luotang smiled and shook her head slightly, deciding not to bother with him.
Watching him drink cup after cup, all eyes in the venue focused on him. Huangfu Hongfang sneered disdainfully, “Just seeking attention.”
After speaking, he ignored Wan Yunting and began to write his work. This time, he truly adopted the cursive script…
Wan Yunting finished a pot of yellow wine and then opened another pot. The young scholars and ladies present were impressed, praising, “What great capacity…”
At this time, some people at the scene had already finished writing their works and submitted them. Ten minutes had passed, but Wan Yunting was still drinking his last pot of yellow wine, showing no intention of starting.
Meanwhile, Huangfu Hongfang and Ning Yuqing had also finished writing their works. They turned and looked at him, smiling, “What’s wrong, Mr. Wan? Do you want to get drunk and not write, forfeiting the competition?”
Wan Yunting, still drinking, gave him a glare and said with a smile, “What’s the rush? Isn’t there still time?”
Huangfu Hongfang checked his wristwatch and said with a smile, “There are only six minutes left. You’d better hurry.”
Gu Luotang, Huang Yao Dong, Zhao Yushi, and Lin Yushu had also finished their works. However, seeing that Wan Yunting had not started yet, they began to feel a little anxious.
“No more wine, but it’s still not quite right…”
Having drained the last drop of the second pot of yellow wine, Wan Yunting put down the pot, shook his head, and smiled. However, spurred by the alcohol, the excitement within him began to stir and surge. Finally, he closed his eyes…
“Hmm, why did he close his eyes?”
Seeing him finish drinking and not start writing, but instead close his eyes, made everyone present perplexed.
This scene also stirred the emotions of everyone in the venue. Gu Luotang and Huang Yao Dong began to look anxious, as only four minutes remained.
“What is this little Wan doing?”
On the judging panel, Fang Guowen and Hu Tianchi also became anxious, not knowing what Wan Yunting was up to.
Shen He and Liu Shuhuai exchanged glances, finding this contestant very interesting. Could it be that he just wanted to drink two pots of yellow wine at the scene and then give up the competition?
As the second hand of the large clock in the hall struck twelve, with only three minutes left, Wan Yunting suddenly opened his eyes wide, and a sharp aura erupted from his entire body…
Instantly, Huangfu Hongfang and Ning Yuqing in front of him were startled. They were so intimidated by Wan Yunting’s powerful presence that they couldn’t help but take two steps back, their eyes widening involuntarily, and even their breathing stopped. They looked at Wan Yunting in shock. He picked up the brush with his right hand, smoothed the Xuan paper on the table with his left hand, and began to wield the brush on the paper with the ease of a sharp long sword…
“The winds and clouds of the world arise from our generation, and once in the martial world, time rushes by. The glory of an empire is discussed in a smile, but life is nothing more than a drunken stupor. We ride with swords and horses, wielding ghostly rain, and white bones pile up like mountains, startling the birds into flight. Worldly affairs are like a tide, and people like water, only lamenting how few return from the martial world.”
Wan Yunting’s eyes were wide open. At this moment, he was filled with heroic spirit, and a murderous aura permeated the surroundings, making the supervising teachers tremble with fear. They stared at him dumbfounded, as if fearing he would turn the brush in his hand into a sword and stab them…
Even Shen He, Liu Shuhuai, Yuan Deyou, and the other judges on the judging panel couldn’t help but stare at Wan Yunting below with wide eyes. They clearly felt the sharp aura emanating from him, like a sharp long sword, piercing the hearts of everyone present, making them involuntarily hold their breath. The scene fell into silence…
As the second hand of the large clock in the hall reached twelve, the bell signaling the end of twenty minutes rang out. Simultaneously, Wan Yunting’s brush, like a long sword, completed the stroke of the last character. He held the brush in his right hand, suspended, and looked at his work, “Ren Wo Xing,” with a satisfied smile. He then turned to look at the supervising teacher standing beside him, who was still stunned and dazed, and asked with a smile, “I’m done. Did I run over time?”
The supervising teacher snapped back to reality, looked at the clock in the hall, and then shook his head at him, “You weren’t over time…”
At this moment, everyone in the venue came to their senses. The cameraman quickly grabbed his camera and began to focus on Wan Yunting’s work. As the cameraman saw his work, his face was filled with astonishment, and he couldn’t help but exclaim, “What bold calligraphy!”
Wan Yunting gave him a glare and said, “This is cursive script. If it’s not bold, how can it be called cursive script?”
“Yes, yes, yes, beautiful calligraphy, beautiful calligraphy…”
The cameraman nodded, so excited that his camera trembled. Although he didn’t understand calligraphy, seeing Wan Yunting’s “Ren Wo Xing” in cursive script, he couldn’t help but say, “It has a heroic martial world aura, making people’s blood boil…”
Seeing him like this, Wan Yunting nodded with a smile and said, “If you feel this way, it means I have successfully conveyed the mood and spirit within it.”
Even the supervising teacher who came to collect the works picked up Wan Yunting’s cursive script and felt the state of mind he was in when writing it.
That soaring ambition, overwhelming heroism, the enlightenment after a spiritual baptism, the lofty ideals, all were but passing clouds. Life was merely a drunken stupor, muddled and lost, a negativity towards the darkness and cruelty of the world, and his own lamentations for the world. Ultimately, he realized he was but a drop of water in the ocean, insignificant…
The initial aspirations were finally punctuated by Wan Yunting’s last line, lamenting how few return from the martial world.
This poem, “Ren Wo Xing,” also known as “Jiang Hu Xing,” is a poem from the movie “Swordsman II: The East Is Red.” It fully embodies the hero’s lament, making this poem widely circulated among martial arts fans.
The reason Wan Yunting chose this poem was that he happened to see the movie on TV the previous night at the hotel. As for the author of this poem, some say it was Tsui Hark, while others say it was written by Huang Yi.
But these no longer matter. Wan Yunting used the wine to enhance his spirits and expressed the heroic spirit of the martial world in this poem with his cursive script, making people feel as if they had entered a dreamlike martial world scene, making them the protagonist, with the ambition of entering the martial world and roaming the world with a sword.
Wan Yunting’s brush strokes were like a sword, and the brushwork in this work exuded a sharp and aggressive sword energy, making people captivated when looking at it for too long. It could even make people feel suffocated, as if their throats were being pierced by a sword…
With a thud, the supervising teacher holding Wan Yunting’s work was so frightened by the powerful sword energy contained in the calligraphy that his face turned pale. A strange hallucination appeared in his mind, as if his throat had been pierced by a sword. He slumped to the ground, and the calligraphy in his hands fluttered down to the ground…
Instantly, Huangfu Hongfang and Ning Yuqing couldn’t help but follow the work with their eyes. They were instantly stunned, their bodies stiff, their eyes wide open, deeply captivated by the sword energy and spirit emanating from Wan Yunting’s work. In their minds, they seemed to experience the same strange hallucination…
“What’s going on?”
Such a bizarre scene made the judges, including Shen He and Liu Shuhuai, exclaim in surprise. They looked at the supervising teacher, who had been scared into paralysis and was trembling all over, and at Huangfu Hongfang and Ning Yuqing, who were stiff, their eyes wide with terror and shock…
“Ah…!”
Suddenly, Ning Yuqing let out a strange cry, which jolted Huangfu Hongfang and the others awake. They involuntarily took a few steps back, their faces pale, cold sweat beading on their foreheads, and their eyes filled with terror and shock as they looked at the calligraphy on the ground. Huangfu Hongfang was terrified. He had just felt like his throat was being pierced by a sword, and he couldn’t move, which caused him to break out in a cold sweat…
Even Wan Yunting was confused by their actions. The others around them were whispering and discussing, thinking that Huangfu Hongfang and Ning Yuqing were being overly dramatic. It was just a piece of calligraphy; why were they acting as if they had seen a ghost?
The cameraman, disbelieving, went up to photograph Wan Yunting’s work on the ground. However, his eyes gradually became entranced, then his face turned pale, and his body began to tremble involuntarily. Finally, he let out a strange cry and slumped to the ground. The camera he was carrying slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground…
“Be careful…”
Wan Yunting, who had reacted, immediately rushed forward, grabbed the falling camera, and pulled the cameraman. Then the cameraman came back to his senses, his face filled with terror, and said, “You… how did you write this calligraphy? It feels so strange.”