In the end, Ma Yitong steeled herself and exchanged numbers with the girl. To preserve her dignity, she kept a composed smile fixed on her face the entire time.

As the saying goes: smiling sweetly on the outside, cursing inwardly.

“Miss Ma is truly a talented young woman.”

“Even going last can’t dim her brilliance.”

Hearing the murmurs around her, Ma Yitong’s heart felt a fraction better. She looked up at Yan Qing, only to find her reading the poem drafts in her hand, seemingly indifferent to this whole interlude.

While the poetry competition continued on one side, Zhang Dun was breaking into a cold sweat. He couldn’t understand why his carefully arranged ‘accident’ had failed to happen, or which link in the plan had gone wrong.

“Mr. Zhang, is something the matter?” Liu Yin, standing beside him, suddenly asked.

Zhang Dun gave a start, his face draining white in an instant — but he quickly forced out a stiff smile. “No, nothing at all.”

“I noticed Mr. Zhang seemed distracted. I thought perhaps you had some difficulty.” Liu Yin’s eyes were deep as a valley. “But Mr. Zhang has put together quite a fine poetry gathering — the Marshal is sure to commend you for it.”

“Ha, I must trouble Captain Liu to put in a kind word on my behalf before the Marshal.”

Liu Yin was the Marshal’s personal bodyguard — the person who could get closest to the Marshal. Staying on good terms with him was never a bad idea.

“I hear the host of tonight’s evening river outing was Director Meng.”

“That’s right.” Zhang Dun nodded. “Director Meng is a rare talent — he arranges every affair in perfect order.”

“Indeed.” Liu Yin gave him a meaningful look, then turned away and said nothing more.

By now, inside, the poetry competition had reached the sixteenth contestant. At this point, all the ways to describe orchids had been thoroughly exhausted. When it finally came to Ma Yitong’s turn, she sat before the blank paper and found her mind equally blank.

She had always prided herself on being a talented young woman, yet she had never felt so utterly humiliated as she did now — in full view of everyone, sitting upright with her brush in hand, unable to write a single word.

With Yan Qing’s brilliant work going first, followed by nineteen other contestants each showing their best, even Ma Yitong with her title of talented young woman had, in the end, only so much talent.

She unconsciously glanced over at Yan Qing, only to see the other woman sitting perfectly upright and composed as bamboo, her elegant grace breathtakingly beautiful, those eyes like luminous glass beads glimmering with a faint, soft light.

Perhaps sensing Ma Yitong’s gaze, Yan Qing glanced back at her sideways — and the corners of that beautifully shaped mouth curved upward in a mocking smile.

That contemptuous smile snapped the taut string of Ma Yitong’s composure. She nearly shot to her feet in furious humiliation, and in her agitation she knocked over the inkwell with her hand.

“You did it on purpose — you must have done it on purpose!” Ma Yitong’s face contorted grotesquely, her eyes filled with a savage, vicious expression.

The entire room was stunned by this sudden outburst.

The hall fell into absolute silence. Ma Yitong then seemed to belatedly come back to herself. She looked anxiously around the gathering — from the Marshal to the ordinary audience members, every single person was wearing an expression of contempt.

Ma Yitong had never been treated this way in her life. From childhood, she had been raised and cultivated as a talented young woman — accomplished in zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. No matter whose daughter came before her, they always deferred to her humbly for guidance. She never imagined that today she would suffer such an unbearable humiliation.

“Isn’t she supposed to be magnanimous and modest?”

“Isn’t she supposed to be talented? After only a dozen or so poems, she’s already run out of inspiration? Exhausted already?”

“How laughable — can’t compose a poem and throws a tantrum instead. Now I know what a ‘talented young woman’ really looks like. Looks more to me like a ‘terrible young woman.'”

Ma Yitong listened to the whispers and jibes all around her, those voices and those eyes seeming to magnify infinitely before her. She felt as though she was about to collapse.

Ma Yitong shoved the paper and brush off the table with force, covered her face with her hands, and fled from the room.

Yan Qing watched the direction she had left, a subtle curve at the corner of her lips. When she turned her head back, she found herself meeting Shi Ting’s gaze. He gave her a slight nod.

“A small incident,” the host quickly stepped in to smooth things over. “The judges will now score each of our contestants. After the competition ends, there will also be several poetry performances for everyone to enjoy.”

The moment the host finished speaking, a thunderous boom suddenly erupted from outside. Everyone’s attention was instantly drawn outward, and they turned instinctively to look.

On the far bank of the Liao River, a crimson firework bloomed in the sky — and then another rose into the air, its brilliant multi-colored light instantly illuminating the wide expanse of the river surface.

The Marshal saw that everyone had risen and was looking outside, clearly captivated by the fireworks. After all, even during New Year’s in Shun Cheng, there had never been a display like this.

Not wanting to dampen anyone’s spirits, the Marshal rose with the guests’ seats and stepped outside. “Come, come, everyone — let’s watch the fireworks together.”

Seeing the Marshal be so considerate and approachable, the assembled literary men were greatly encouraged. Everyone streamed out of the pavilion to watch the fireworks on the opposite bank.

A crimson firework exploded over the river surface, its radiance filling Yan Qing’s eyes with light.

The fireworks of this era were nothing like the spectacular displays of the modern age, but to the people here they were an unprecedented feast for the senses.

Another firework burst open in the sky — and at that very same moment, the pavilion behind the crowd suddenly erupted in a ground-shaking crash. Someone cried out, “Something’s wrong — the pavilion has collapsed!”

As everyone spun around, they saw that the newly built pavilion had crashed to the ground in a heap, reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble.

But strangely, only the guests’ pavilion had fallen. The pavilion where the judges and contestants had been seated remained completely unharmed.

Zhang Dun saw this, and froze completely.

He had arranged for the pavilion to collapse — but it hadn’t happened during the time he had specified. Now the accident had still occurred, yet it wasn’t the pavilion he had planned, and it hadn’t happened at his planned time. When he looked clearly at which pavilion had come down, Zhang Dun was no longer capable of remaining composed.

“What happened?” The Marshal’s expression darkened as he stared at the stretch of wreckage and rubble before him. If it hadn’t been for this sudden, unexpected fireworks display, would he already be buried beneath that debris?

Shi Ting urgently called Liu Yin over. “Who was responsible for constructing this pavilion?”

“Zhang Dun.”

“Where is Zhang Dun?”

Zhang Dun emerged from his shock, dripping with cold sweat, and hurried over. “Marshal.”

“What is the meaning of this? Why did a perfectly good pavilion suddenly collapse?” The Marshal’s face was dark with fury. “If everyone hadn’t suddenly left the pavilion, how many people would you have had die for your incompetence?”

Zhang Dun was so terrified he couldn’t say a single word. He couldn’t understand how a carefully laid plan could have gone so completely against what he had arranged — and now, not only had he failed to accomplish what Meng Xiangcheng had ordered, the situation he’d created was beyond any one person’s power to remedy.

Shi Ting said, “Marshal, we should first disperse the crowd, then conduct an investigation of the key responsible parties and the scene.”

“Very well. I’ll leave this matter in your hands. Investigate it thoroughly and completely — not one person responsible is to be let off.”

The Marshal had come to the poetry gathering in high spirits, only to nearly be crushed to death under rubble. The feeling of plummeting from great heights into a deep abyss left him in a foul mood — and at the same time, he could vaguely detect the scent of a conspiracy.

There were three pavilions at the venue. Why had only the one he was sitting in collapsed, while the other two remained intact?

The scene was now in chaos, as the military police and the security detail organized the evacuation of the crowd. Yan Qing also moved with several other judges toward a safe location.

As the two of them brushed past each other, Shi Ting quietly squeezed her hand. Yan Qing’s lips curved faintly, and she glided away.

Once all the uninvolved parties had been evacuated, Shi Ting dispatched people to begin clearing the scene. The Marshal sat beneath a small canopy a short distance away, drinking tea as he waited for results.

About half an hour later, someone hurried to report that clues had been found.

“Someone removed several of the supporting beams,” Shi Ting said, stepping into the canopy. “The beams that were removed should have provided the main structural support. The remaining beams wouldn’t have caused an immediate collapse, but they wouldn’t have held for long — and what’s more, we found lead weights inside the pavilion. Because of these lead weights, the time the pavilion could remain standing was cut in half.”

“What about the other pavilions?”

“No such thing was found in either of them.”

The Marshal’s expression darkened. “It seems, then, that this pavilion was specifically built for me.”

As he said the final words, the Marshal’s expression had become utterly ferocious. “Bring both Zhang Dun and Meng Xiangchen here.”

Meng Xiangchen had been in charge of the main arrangements for this evening river outing. Although he wasn’t at the poetry gathering himself, he had people reporting back to him at all times on the situation there. When he heard that there had been a collapse at the poetry gathering venue, a thin, cold smile crossed his face.

Shi Ting had cost him a brother — so he would cost Shi Ting the woman he loved most.

True, doing this would implicate Zhang Dun somewhat, but with his own connections he could quickly ensure Zhang Dun suffered no lasting consequences. Besides, this was an accident — no one could possibly link it back to him. And even if Shi Ting suspected something, without evidence he couldn’t possibly come after him.

“Do we know the casualty count?” Meng Xiangchen asked a subordinate.

“Only that the pavilion collapsed. The death and injury numbers are not yet known, but given how severely it came down, anyone who was under it should be either dead or severely wounded.”

“Continue monitoring the situation over there and report back to me at once.”

The subordinate was just about to leave when another messenger appeared in the doorway.

“Director Meng, the Marshal would like you to come over.”

Meng Xiangchen thought: since the Marshal was still at the scene, the situation must be serious — perhaps, for example, his daughter-in-law had perished in the accident.

“Very well. I’ll go at once.”

When Meng Xiangchen arrived at the canopy where the Marshal was waiting, the first thing he saw was Zhang Dun kneeling on the ground.

The Marshal and Shi Ting sat on either side of the table, their eyes burning as they watched Meng Xiangchen enter hurriedly.

Meng Xiangchen put on an expression of feigned astonishment. “I only just heard — how could something like this have happened?”

“Director Meng, you were in charge of the entire evening river outing. Now the pavilion at the poetry gathering has suddenly collapsed. How do you explain this?” Shi Ting frowned, his tone severe.