Song Dynasty Dreams: Marrying Zhao Pan’er at the beginning

Chapter 46 Disgrace to Literature

“Hasn’t he already won?”

“Why are they still competing?”

“Maybe Gao You just wants to crush General Wen Hu once more!”

“He’s really not giving him any face at all!”

“It’s not that he’s disrespectful, he’s just young and wants to give others more chances to compete!”

“But no matter how many chances he gives, the result doesn’t change!”

The crowd fell into silence. Gao You had good intentions, but to ordinary people, giving someone a second, third, or even an endless number of opportunities was just a way of stacking devastating defeats!

One by one, the spectators silently made up their minds to stay away from Gao You—just in case he ever kindly gave them an opportunity.

“I lost!”

Wen Hu emerged from the water once again and extended another olive branch.

“Gao You, join our Coastal Defense Army!”

“I’ll make you the chief swimming instructor!”

Gao You shook his head decisively.

“Not interested!”

“Sigh!”

Wen Hu let out a deep breath.

The next second, he perked up again and stared at Gao You.

“Then let’s go again!”

“I refuse to believe you’re not only fast but also have such incredible stamina!”

Gao You grinned—he was strong in all aspects!

The two began another race.

For the entire afternoon!

Wen Hu lost count of how many times he had been defeated. He was already completely exhausted, but Gao You still had energy left!

“I’m done swimming!”

Gao You climbed ashore, his stomach growling loudly. After swimming all afternoon, he was truly starving!

“Master Gao!”

A maid approached, carrying an exquisitely arranged plate of pastries. Wen Hu also climbed onto the shore, laughing as he called out to Gao You.

“Come have some roasted wild boar!”

“We caught it from the back mountain!”

“Pastries are for women!”

After such intense physical activity, pastries were far from enough. Gao You turned around and sat beside Wen Hu.

“Good brother!”

Wen Hu tore off a whole boar leg and handed it to Gao You. This rough way of eating was really not Gao You’s style. He instructed the maid to bring him a small knife and carefully sliced off the crispiest, most fragrant parts of the roast boar.

Then, he took out a bottle of seasoning from his system, which he had received as a sign-in reward the day before, and sprinkled it over the meat. As the golden, fragrant meat filled his plate, Wen Hu suddenly felt like the boar leg in his hand wasn’t so appealing anymore.

“Give me some!”

Gao You dodged Wen Hu’s reaching hand. “Roast your own!”

“You’re being stingy now? Eating all by yourself?”

Wen Hu looked at him in disbelief. Gao You casually stuck a slice of meat onto his knife and held it up to Wen Hu’s face.

A grown man being hand-fed?

Wen Hu found the thought hard to accept.

“Smells good, doesn’t it?” Gao You asked.

Wen Hu instinctively nodded.

“I think so too!”

And with that, Gao You promptly popped the meat into his own mouth. So it was just for him to take a whiff?

Wen Hu rolled his eyes in exasperation.

“You’re such a jerk!”

Still, he didn’t take it to heart and began reminiscing about childhood memories of catching fish.

______

After lunch, Wen Hu was summoned away by a heavily armored general. Gao You lay back on a recliner and quickly dozed off. Some time later, he was jolted awake, drenched in sweat. The afternoon sun was simply too hot!

“Master Gao!”

A soldier noticed him wake up and hurried over, handing him a command token.

“This is General Wen Hu’s token!”

“With this, you can enter and leave the water fortress freely!”

“The general said from today onward, you are his sworn brother. No matter what you need, just ask him!”

“As long as he can do it, he won’t refuse!”

Gao You stared at the token, a little surprised. So the guy who had been messing around with him all this time was actually the honorable General Wen Hu? But why did he want to make him his brother?

“Why?” Gao You asked the soldier in confusion.

The soldier smiled and explained.

“General Wen Hu said you’re the only scholar who respects military men!”

“As long as you don’t look down on him, he will always acknowledge you as his brother!”

Gao You knew that military officers had low status in the Song Dynasty. But he hadn’t expected Wen Hu to be so humble. He reached out, took the token, and tucked it into his robes. Seeing this, the soldier turned and left.

Gao You stood up and wiped the sweat off his body. He needed a bath. He walked over to the small lake and stripped off his shirt.

“Hold this!”

He tossed his clothes to the maid before diving headfirst into the water. Nearby, a group of scholars were composing poetry and exchanging verses. When they saw him jump in, they turned their noses up in disdain.

“What a disgrace to literature!”

Swimming, of all things. Gao You really didn’t understand what they were so disgusted about.

“What’s that?”

Suddenly, Gao You noticed a large hole at the bottom of the lake, big enough for a person to swim through. There shouldn’t be any large aquatic creatures in this mountain.

Confident in his skills, Gao You took a deep breath and dove straight into the hole. After swimming for about ten seconds, he was about to turn back when he saw a faint light in the distance. Curious, he sped up and swam towards it.

“Phew!”

Breaking through the water’s surface, he looked around. To his shock, he found himself inside a massive underground cave. In one corner of the cave, the pool he had emerged from glistened under the light. But what caught his attention was something else entirely. Not far away, stacked upon the dry land, were hundreds—no, thousands—of large chests.