Gu Fei picked up a brush and wrote on the paper: "Ode to the White Begonia."
A pale spring beauty reflected on the grand gate,
Clustered stems like a basin overflowing with snow.
Like the bathing beauty, a shadow cast in ice,
Like the pained maiden, a soul carved from jade.
'In the book, this poem was written by Bao Yu,' she thought. 'I only changed the character for "autumn" to "spring." There's a second half to the poem, but it didn't fit the current scene, so I couldn't be bothered to write it. Half a poem by Mr. Cao is more than enough to save me from embarrassment.'
After she finished writing the poem and signed her name, a servant girl came over and collected it.
In a short while, the servant girl had collected a stack of poetry sheets. The Guardian Lady smiled and said, "Take them over there and ask the tutors from the academy to judge them."
The servant girl then took the stack of poetry sheets over.
