"Your handwriting improved quite a lot. A lot of effort was put in recently, was it not?" said Teacher Shen. "I see that you are imitating the writing of 'Chang Ting'* by the Marquis of Order**- Gu Yun?"

*poem was written by Gu Yun, Chang Ting means 'a place where one can stop and rest'; what it probably means here is that he wrote this while he was resting at certain places

**安定侯 , Anding Hou, Gu Yun's title

Chang Geng: "Yes."

Shiliu, who was idling on the side, upon hearing this, immediately turned his head. A strange expression flashed across his face.

Teacher Shen did not look up: "The Marquis of Order took over the army at the age of fifteen; his first battle ended in glorious victory.

"He became the commander at age seventeen and went on the Western Expedition campaign under the Emperor's order. While passing through the outskirts of Xiliang, he saw the people's historical remnants from ancient times. He felt moved that the remains of former dynasties were still there, yet hundreds of years have already passed. With his emotions rising up, he wrote 'Chang Ting.'

"Writing it is one thing, but that sugar-coating bunch had to make a copy of it secretly and engraved it on a stone tablet -

"Thinking about it, Gu Yun was taught by the renowned scholar of the present time - Mo Sen, his words have a lot for one to learn from, just that when writing 'Chang Ting' he was still young, with youthful ambitions, unaware of the vastness of heaven and earth, his experience was yet up to par... If you want to practice calligraphy, there are plenty of ancient Notes for you to learn from, why must you choose the Note of someone from our present time?"

Chang Geng rolled up the papers that had been filled up with his calligraphy practice and stuffed them into the stove without hesitation:

"I heard people say, Black Eagles, Black Armors, Black Cavalries - the three major factions of the Black Iron Camp - in the hands of the previous Marquis, had silenced the Eighteen Barbarian tribes. Later he passed it on to the young Marquis; he made the Western Regions bow their heads. It's not that I liked his words. I just wanted to know, the hands that commanded the three Black Iron Camps: what does his handwriting look like?"

Teacher Shen unconsciously stirred around the pot with a spoon; his eyes seemed to have drifted somewhere far away. After a while, he slowly said:

"The Marquis of Order's surname is Gu, first name Yun, called Gu Zi Xi. He is the only son of the First Princess and the previous Marquis, and his parents passed away in his early childhood. He was pitied by the Emperor, got taken in by him, and was raised in the palace. He even gave him royal status.