Chen Yi chuckled silently and followed suit, keeping his mouth shut.
Elder Master Xiao's gaze naturally fell on him, but he didn't speak up to bail him out, letting Zhang Xuan continue.
"Speaking of which, the birthday congratulatory poem you wrote for me earlier was truly excellent," Zhang Xuan praised. "The handwriting is great, the wording is great—no worse than the one you wrote for Old Xiao.
"At the birthday banquet, when I took out that poem, you should have seen the eyes of those arrogant, pedantic scholars in Guangyue Prefecture. They wanted nothing more than to snatch it right out of my hands."
Zhang Xuan snorted, his tone disdainful. "It's not that I look down on them, but tied together, they wouldn't even be worth one strike from my hand."
"I..."
Seeing him getting more and more off-track, Elder Master Xiao raised a hand to interrupt him. "Have you no sense of shame? A dignified Duke, always talking about fighting and killing. How can you convince the masses?"
