[Someday, I hope you will sing a song for me too. I wanted to hear you pour your heart out in music. And when that time comes, I will listen to you intently. No matter how impossible the things are, no matter how complicated the situation, your song will always remain in my heart.]

It was a memory that he owned a long time ago. And those words are just one of the few phrases that he can still remember.

The day started with an alarm from the sound of huge drums beating the world out of sleep. The sun has risen in a different kind of flavor, a good premonition of events that will happen sooner. The people of the higher realm woke up earlier than usual, preparing themselves for the procession of the trials.

Nine golden thrones are placed above the jade stairs when Yu XueQin a step higher than the rest. The leaders are already on their respective places watching the stage from above with clear sight. At the bottom of the jade stairs, a circular platform was erected decorated with white floorings and colorful flowers on the circumference.

The lower gods will be watching from the ground. The event will happen on the open court letting everyone to have a huge space enough to fit and to watch the event. The royal guards are arranging the lines for the commoners to avoid disruption and trouble on the way. The moment the clock strikes eight in the morning, the drummers ended their announcement in a bang, and everything went silent.

Zhong Song appeared on the circular platform carrying a scroll on his hand. He faced the emperor above and courted his greetings. The common people followed after him, greeting the emperor three times with a kowtow in every phrase. Yu XueQin only nodded in satisfaction letting Zhong Song to continue. The scholar cleared his throat as he opened the scroll on his hands.

"Greetings. The Final Trial for the Empress Position has come to place. Today, we will witness our two candidates their skills in poem reading and instrument playing. An Empress, who will serve as the Earth to our Sun, should be able to perform the said tasks with no difficulty and with profound mastery. The candidate who can show His Excellency their worth will take the right hand position and sit with him on the throne..."

The scholar added a few more words before starting the competition. The two candidates are staying on the sides hidden behind the jade screen of their vehicles. The red cart was obviously owned by the first concubine. Lou MuLan is confidently beaming behind the covers as if she already predicted the outcome of the contest.

On the other hand, Lang Yuan is trying to calm his nerves. This isn't the first time he needed to perform in front of the people. However, today's competition has poem reading. He might be confident in his math and musical skills, but reading is always his weakness. No matter how he much practice he have done when it comes to his complications he suddenly becomes wilted.

It's not that he can't understand the words properly. It was his brain that makes it unable to translate.

Zhong Song draws lots from a small chest. Reading the first performer, the scholar faced the red colored cart. The first one to perform today is Lou MuLan. Lang Yuan heaved a sigh of relief knowing that he still have time to spare. He decided to watch Lou MuLan's performance to know what he should also do once on stage.

The Jade screen from the red cart parted revealing a beautiful woman in her signature red robes. The lady has her face covered in a thin red net veil only covering half of her face highlighting her beautiful narrow eyes. She slowly rose up from her seat and exited the cart, awe-ing a lot of people. Indeed, Lou MuLan is worth for her position as the first concubine, or else this kind of beauty would be put to waste. 

The first concubine walked towards the center of the stage where a low table is already placed. There is a scroll on the table, while the instrument that she will be using was placed on a specialized stand beside the low table. Lou MuLan took her position in front of the low table facing the palace where the thrones are positioned.

Zhong Song waited for an incense stick to burn before announcing the start of Lou MuLan's performance. The Lady elegantly reaches out for the scroll to start her poem reading. Inscrolling the parchment paper, Lou MuLan hid the sinister smile she covered with the veil.

A few days ago, she uncovered a great weakness of Lang Yuan. It was just an accident but it made her gain an advantage. The poem reading was suggested by the Lou Minister. At that time, it was only JiDan who knows about Lang Yuan's dyslexia. Yu XueQin has still had no idea and just accepted the deal. After all, nobody dies in just by reading poems.

[A/N : Please refer to chapter 9.4]

Dyslexia - Lou MuLan has no idea what language or word it was, but she knows that it is a kind of 'sickness' that makes Lang Yuan unable to read the words correctly. Even if Lang Yuan is literate, but with this complication, he will never be able to read straight. The Lou Minister is also one of the officials who arranged the pieces for today's composition, and by the suggestion of his dear daughter, he chose a script that has words that is not only hard to pronounce but also too long for Lang Yuan to carry.

This is the reason why Lou MuLan has a lot of confidence for today's competition. Plus, not only did the scripts difficult, she also tampered Lang Yuan's zither. Now, not only will Lang Yuan unable to read the poem, he will also play a badly tuned music all thanks to Lou MuLan's schemes.

Lou MuLan did not stall time and started performing her tricks. The poem that she read was picked by his father. It was said as one of the most beautiful pieces in history telling a tale about a young maiden's forbidden love towards a man who was engaged to another woman.

Her tone was soft and gentle, narrating the words in its most proper pronunciation and intonation. Her voice isn't loud, or soft, enough for the people to hear and match the emotion the poem should portray. She started and finished the poem in clear voice, successfully integrating a flow of events to the minds of the people reading.

If a commoner would listen to the poem and have Lou MuLan perform it, no doubt the commoner will stand up and give the lady an ovation. However, if the writer who written the poem will listen to Lou MuLan, the writer will surely feel remorse. It's not because Lou MuLan did not only interpreted the poem wrong, it was also because the lady is not really absorbing the real meaning of the poem.

The common gods cheered for the lady, while the few connoisseur could only watch the lady unamused. Then the ministers call this first concubine as a refined lady? Forget it, ba! She's only showing off that she can read. All of the gods can read! What does it have anything to do with her a little acting and a little mastery?

After the poem reading, Lou MuLan moves towards the stand where a zither instrument was found. She will be playing the erhu. After getting the 'her' emotion from the poem, she decided to play a tune that matches the feeling to extend the earlier euphoria to the next level.

Fiddling the strings with mastery, Lou MuLan closed her eyes while playing, leading the bow stick to touch the strings and made it vibrate. There is a high and low tune, both mixing to create a rather sad atmosphere. It foretells about the young maiden's forlorn love, unable to be with the man that she loved the most. The sad music created another scene on the stage, picturing the image of that beautiful young maiden crying all night every day.

Lou MuLan's presentation ended with people crying. She was pleased by the reactions and kowtowed to show her respect and also saying that she is done. She was not allowed to look up so Lou MuLan didn't see the distorted faces of the world leaders. Why...? Why did he play a very sad song? It was clear that the story was never meant to be interpreted like that!

The lady in red robes returned to her cart and sat behind the screen door without seeing the real reaction of the people around her. It was taught to the younger generations that art represents the idea of a certain person. It exhibits what the person has on mind, what kind of heart that person has, and what intentions that person is thinking. By seeing how the shapes, the color, the music, an expert can easily detect the real thoughts of that person doing the art.

Let's just say that Lou MuLan's performance was excellent, yet, the emotion that she portrayed is pure hatred and greed. The minor gods might not be able to notice it but the world leaders and the other high-level dragons can easily see the blackened heart of the lady. It will only take her a little time before her heart will start to rot completely.

Now that the first performer is done, the second one who was residing the light blue cart came in view. The jade screen parted carefully, displaying the image of a youth clad in a white majestic robe with blue edges and embroided with cloud patterns. This clothing isn't a female one, much saying that Lang Yuan isn't really a woman from the start.

He gracefully took one foot outside and strode off elegantly towards the center of the stage. The weird ambience left by the first concubine suddenly shifted, from the sadness to an indescribable nobility. Lang Yuan isn't a noble by birth, like what the people inside the palace are, yet the way he brought his self just shows what kind of personality this person has. 

The people who was captivated by this youth from the first contest still has their expectations fulfilled. Lang Yuan did not pretend to be anybody. He was clear to his self that he was a human and inferior towards the said beings. That's why his respect is never fake.

Lang Yuan sat on the low table to recover his scroll. His zither instrument was also placed on the side. Inscrolling the paper, Lang Yuan seriously look at the script and silently reads it. The people waited in anticipation to know if the youth will be able to pass the poem reading.

A lot of the scholars never doubted Lang Yuan's ability. After he showed his ability in dealing math problems, reading a poem is much easier. However, despite this wonderful fact, Lang Yuan will also face another problem. That is his ability to interpret the poem like how the writer wanted to portray it.

Earlier, Lou MuLan failed to understand the real essence of her poem putting all her blubbering nonsense to waste. No matter how beautiful her words are, or how sweet her voice, her inability to comprehend shows how she belittles the author. She wasn't even close to the original intention.

Lang Yuan is a human so there's a high possibility that the poem that he will read is new to him. Much worst, because nobody knows that Lang Yuan is a transmigrator and not a resident from the lower realm, the youth has no idea what the essence the poem is saying.

The trials could simple say and analogous to the term of 'do what the romans do in Rome'.

While everyone is contemplating the pros and cons of the youth in today's trial, the subject his self was actually calm and resolute. When Lang Yuan opened the scroll, there was a hint of nervousness from his heart. His hands are actually trembling while cursing a few words on his head trying to calm his self.

One thing that he learned from therapy is that when he was to read and recite in front of people, he should have a calm and resolute heart. No matter what the people are thinking as long as he can get hold of his self, he can perform the task without fainting. Actually, if he will just pretend that he was only alone in the stage he might be able to pull it off.

The words slowly integrated inside his mind. Like the usual, his brain sends him the wrong signals making 'A' sound like 'O', or 'W' to 'M'. It will take him time before he can recognize the letter and form the word. The next problem would come to his mouth. Because the brain sends him the wrong signal, even though that he knows that it was pronounced as 'Table', his mouth will form another word and would say 'Cord'.

This time, the small frown from the youth's face was slightly visible. Lou MuLan, who was using her keen senses to detect the body rhythm of the youth, can tell the panic arising inside Lang Yuan. His heart rate is very fast and he is also profusely sweating. This only indicates that Lang Yuan finally fell down from the first place.

Well, that is true if what Lou MuLan interpreted as 'fast heart rate' is from nervousness. Little did she know that this fast heart beats are caused by a sudden excitement ignited inside Lang Yuan's heart.

The youth nodded after he read the whole poem. The people waited to hear him start reciting, however, Lang Yuan suddenly tossed the scroll aside and went to get his zither. This left the people astonished as to why Lang Yuan suddenly wanted to play his instrument.

Is he mad? Is he out of his mind?

But then, the people was once again surprised and look at Lang Yuan in a newer light when the youth started the most unique performance that they are lucky to witness in their whole lives.

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Yay! I updated!

Well.... I did say that there will be 3 Chapters left before pa pa pa but as I was counting the pending chapters it already exceeded five... 😅😅😅

So the pa pa pa scene will still take some time after a few more chapts 😅😅😅

I'm still uploading updates.