Who Needs a CEO? I Choose Stardom

”Many of you may not know this, but our Mr. Chen is quite the... spirited artist. For our first question, Mr. Chen will be providing the clue. Will our two contestants please look at the big screen and guess the ancient poem based on his artwork? The requirement is to recite the entire poem from memory!”

Both contestants placed their hands on the buzzers, indicating they were ready.

”And now, let’s have Mr. Chen present the first question!”

Ni Bingyan stared intently at the screen. She watched as Mr. Chen first drew a kite.

Just as he was drawing the kite’s string, the buzzer went off.

Mr. Chen immediately stopped drawing.

”Bingyan figured it out that quickly?”

The host was quite surprised.

”Don’t you want to take another look? Mr. Chen has only just started drawing!”

Ni Bingyan hit the buzzer, her heart pounding, but she appeared perfectly calm on the outside. She recited directly, ”Grass grows long, warblers fly in the second-month sky, / Willows brush the banks, drunk in the spring mist. / Children returning early when school is done, / Hurry to fly their paper kites on the east wind.”

Mr. Chen had been rather cunning, starting his drawing based on the last line of the poem. But how many ancient poems even mentioned paper kites?

”It’s a paper kite. From the direction of the kite string, I made a bold guess that an east wind was blowing. Once you figure out the last line, you can figure out the whole poem. I just hope I’m right?”

”Congratulations! That is correct! One point for Ni Bingyan! And now, we’ll trouble Mr. Chen to give us a brief commentary.”

Mr. Chen put down his pen and said with a wide smile:

”’Grass grows long, warblers fly in the second-month sky...’ Children rushing home from school to fly their paper kites—what a lovely scene! When you read the whole poem, it feels like you’re right there. You can feel the gentle breeze on your nose, hear the children’s laughter, and see the beautiful rural spring scenery before you. You look up, and the paper kite is flying so high! You even get the illusion of seeing the children running too fast and wanting to tell them to slow down.”

”To be able to depict such a complex scene in just a few short lines... I have to say, Chinese poetry is incredible!”

”In my classes, I always tell my students that we need to have cultural confidence! That confidence is built on a foundation of understanding.”

”If we want to spread the culture of poetry, we must first have a deep understanding of it. And what’s the first step to understanding? Appreciation.”

”Personally, when I appreciate ancient poetry, I like to start with the visual imagery. Oftentimes, if you close your eyes and imagine the scene described in the poem, your experience of it will be much deeper. I highly recommend everyone give it a try. Everyone who has says it’s great!”

Mr. Chen was fair and plump and loved to smile. Whenever he spoke, he always liked to share an anecdote or two about his students. ’He must be really popular with his students at school.’

”’A mountain range from the front, a single peak from the side; its appearance changes from near and far, high and low.’ Our culture has a long and storied history, and our poetry comes in many forms. Likewise, there are many, many ways to appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chen, for your sincere sharing! I believe that with our collective efforts, more and more people will come to love poetry!”

The whole tone of the show was immediately elevated, and the audience erupted into another round of enthusiastic applause.

And with that, the first question was over.

The championship match consisted of nine questions in total. The first person to reach five points would be the winner of this round.

Ni Bingyan had secured one point. Cao Yongji was extremely nervous and immediately buzzed in for the second question, but he answered incorrectly, giving Ni Bingyan another point.

”The third question is a clue-based question. Please guess the identity of this poet based on the following four clues.”

The music in the studio grew tense. The host paused for a moment before revealing the first clue.

”He was a poet from the Early Tang dynasty, a native of Yiwu, Wuzhou.”

’Modern-day Yiwu is incredibly famous, but most people wouldn’t know which ancient poet’s hometown was there.’

Both contestants were afraid of buzzing in too early and handing a point to their opponent, so neither of them moved after the first clue.

”He was once falsely accused and imprisoned. After being pardoned, he was appointed to a local official post as the Linhai County Magistrate.”

Ni Bingyan immediately buzzed in. ”Luo Binwang! He had the nickname Luo Linhai! It’s because he once served as the Linhai County Magistrate!”

’She had just read about this last night!’

”Congratulations, that is correct!”

”Well, it seems even a difficult question like that can’t stump her.”

Ni Bingyan just smiled and said nothing.

’This is a knowledge-based show. She couldn’t pretend not to know the answer. If she messed up, wouldn’t she get absolutely roasted online?’

”We love poetry not just for the poems themselves, but also for the poets. Speaking of Luo Binwang, there are quite a few interesting stories about him. Would you all like to hear one?”

This time, the commentator, Teacher Xu, didn’t launch directly into his explanation. Instead, he started by asking the audience.

”We do!”

’Who doesn’t love a good story?’

Teacher Xu looked serious, but he was unexpectedly a bit of a gossip. Seeing that everyone wanted to hear, he tapped his knuckles on the table and asked the contestants on stage with a smile, ”When I say Luo Binwang, what’s the first thing that comes to mind for you two?”

Cao Yongji immediately answered, ”’Ode to the Goose’!”

Ni Bingyan, however, said, ”’A Denunciation of Wu’!”

The teacher smiled and waved his hand. ”’A Denunciation of Wu’ is too long; we don’t have enough time for that today. Let’s talk about ’Ode to the Goose’ instead!”

”Luo Binwang wrote this poem when he was just seven years old. It combines movement and stillness with rich color and atmosphere—a truly rare and wonderful piece! For many of our children, when they’re first introduced to poetry, this is one of the very first poems they learn, isn’t it?”

The audience below answered, ”Yes!” and he laughed. ”Me too, when I was a child.”

”At the same age, he was writing poems, while I could barely even memorize them. That’s why he was known far and wide as a child prodigy!”

The teacher was chattering away enthusiastically. He then asked the crowd again, ”Do you know why Luo Binwang was named Luo Binwang? And why his courtesy name, Guanguang, means ’to observe the glory’ and not just ’sightseeing’?”

’Each of the teachers had their own strengths; this one was particularly good at interacting with the audience.’

As soon as the words left his mouth, someone in the audience asked impatiently, ”Why is that?”

”His given name and courtesy name both come from the Guan hexagram in the *I Ching*. The line reads, ’Observe the glory of the nation; it is fitting to be a guest of the king.’ So what does that mean? It means, ’A virtuous lord should lead by example and pay homage to the Emperor.’ Isn’t that fascinating?”

’It was indeed fascinating.’

’But the more he explained, the more abstruse it got, and I was starting to get lost. What even *is* a Guan hexagram? It was all starting to sound like Greek to me...’

Seeing that if he were allowed to continue, the show would turn into an in-depth ancient culture lecture, Miss Dong quickly stepped forward to interrupt.

”Thank you, Teacher Xu, for that detailed explanation. We’ve certainly learned a lot more about Luo Binwang! Right now, our contestant Ni Bingyan has three points! What will happen next? Let’s wait and see!”

The host calmly plugged the show’s sponsors, and Ni Bingyan took the opportunity to have a sip of water.

With a huge lead and a solid foundation of knowledge, Ni Bingyan quickly won the next two points, smoothly becoming the champion of the round.

If anyone had suspected something fishy before, seeing her answer the questions on stage in front of everyone proved she couldn’t have done it without real skill. Now, the way everyone looked at her was completely different.

It was like if the top student in the class scored two points higher than last time—nobody would be surprised. But if the student in last place suddenly shot up to first place, it would absolutely blow everyone’s minds.

’Sigh. It’s a shame I signed an NDA. Otherwise, I’d totally post on my feed or make a Weibo post about this after the recording!’