The welcoming banquet was held on the largest Tage Platform in the inner courtyard. Based on experience, the people from the Upper Three Cities wouldn’t simply take their offerings and leave; they would surely bring some formidable duelists to demonstrate their prowess. Thus, the platform had no obstructions on all sides and even featured a small arena in the center for competitions.
The banquet hadn’t yet begun, and the guests from the Upper Three Cities hadn’t arrived, but the atmosphere was already tense. The nobles spoke in hushed tones, the palace servants moved about with extra caution, and even the birds perched on nearby branches seemed to stand straighter than usual.
Ming Yi followed a palace servant inside, but before reaching their destination, they were intercepted by a group of people.
“Send her away,” Ji Tianji said in a low voice, her words terse and to the point.
The palace servant hesitated, saying with difficulty, “She’s from Lord Ji’s household.”
“This is a welcoming banquet today, not some bustling market for sightseeing,” she sneered. “You’re going to let someone with no name or status sit at a place of honor? If the Grand Secretary takes offense later, are you going to offer your head to protect her?” She smoothed her sky-blue, rain-patterned pleated skirt, her demeanor imposing.
The servant, upon seeing this, quickly bowed and said, “It was this servant’s oversight. But this guest was sent by Lord Ji himself, so it wouldn’t be right to simply turn her away.”
Ji Tianji glanced at Ming Yi with a mocking smile. “Then lead her to sit behind that pond over there.”
There was a pond by the Tage Platform, far from the main seating area. It was surrounded by lush trees that occasionally dropped bird droppings and insects. Normally, no respectable guest would sit there; it was reserved for minor officials from various prefectures or commoner scholars.
Ming Yi looked at Ji Tianji’s raised chin, slightly confused, and glanced around. “Is this your home?”
What a display of authority.
Ji Tianji choked for a moment, then haughtily rolled her eyes. “I’m from the Yuan Shi Academy. Naturally, I’m here to oversee arrangements today, to prevent anyone from embarrassing our Muxing City.”
She looked Ming Yi up and down, noting her formal attire. Her expression grew even more scornful. “A mere dancer and you think you’re the mistress of the Ji household?”
Ming Yi looked down at herself following Ji Tianji’s gaze, then shrugged. “Lord Ji prepared these clothes and jewelry for me. I had no choice in the matter. Why don’t you ask him if he considers me the mistress of the Ji household?”
“You…” Ji Tianji wanted to lash out but held back after glancing around. She merely stretched her lips into a thin smile. “He will never consider you the mistress of the Ji household. You’re just a disposable plaything. I advise you to wake up to reality soon, or you’ll only end up hurting yourself.”
Ming Yi found this amusing. How could someone who sees others as playthings believe they would be treated any differently?
She brushed past the silent palace servant and walked directly towards Ji Bozai’s seat.
“Stop right there!” Ji Tianji rushed forward to grab her, her face stern. “We might overlook this on ordinary days, but do you understand what kind of occasion this is? How can you cause such a disturbance here?”
Ming Yi:?
Who’s causing a disturbance?
“You don’t understand Yuan Power dueling techniques. Sitting up there would only embarrass Lord Ji and our Muxing City,” she softened her expression, adopting a patient tone. “Go down, this isn’t a place for you to stay.”
“That’s right, why insist on sitting up there? If someone asks you a question later, you probably won’t be able to answer a single word,” the surrounding young ladies chimed in.
“You don’t think this welcoming banquet is just about sitting around, do you?”
“It’s not your fault that you can’t learn much about dueling due to your background, but if you’re so short-sighted, only caring about your face without considering Muxing City’s reputation, don’t blame us for being unkind.”
“The people from Chaoyang City love to challenge others. If Tianji sits up there, at least she can answer some questions from the ‘Duelist’s Compendium’. What can you do up there? It’ll be good if you don’t tremble.”
Ming Yi listened, bewildered. “Duelist’s Compendium?”
Ji Tianji shook her head disdainfully but decided to explain, “The ‘Duelist’s Compendium’ is a secret manual about dueling techniques and Yuan Power, written by a master from Chaoyang City. It’s profound and difficult to understand. Ordinary people can’t make sense of it.”
“Tianji, you’re too kind. Why explain this to her? Even if you put the book in front of her now, she wouldn’t understand a thing.”
“Well, we’ve all audited classes at the Yuan Shi Academy. We shouldn’t bully an ordinary woman like her.”
Ming Yi found this amusing and couldn’t help but ask, “Which chapter have your teachers covered so far?”
“Chapter Three,” Xiuyun at the back answered quickly, then realized something was off and looked at her strangely. “Have you read it too?”
“The ‘Duelist’s Compendium’ isn’t available anywhere else, only in the Yuan Shi Academies of each city. How could she have read it? She’s just putting on airs,” Ji Tianji waved dismissively with a sneer. She was about to make another cutting remark when she glanced outward and suddenly changed her demeanor. She curtsied to Ming Yi and softened her voice, “Please don’t make things difficult for this humble one, Lady Ji.”
Ming Yi raised an eyebrow and looked back. Sure enough, Ji Bozai was walking over with Liang Xiuyuan and others, engaged in conversation.
Ji Bozai was originally saying something to Liang Xiuyuan, but seeing the crowd gathered here, he paused in confusion. Liang Xiuyuan, however, seemed pleased and stepped forward to greet Ji Tianji.
But as soon as he approached, he sensed the tense atmosphere. “What’s going on here?”
Ji Tianji’s eyes reddened as she bowed to Ji Bozai. “It was this humble one’s oversight. I thought to sit with my lord to promptly inform you of the envoys’ preferences and weaknesses. Who knew Lady Ji would fly into a rage, thinking I had overstepped…”
She trailed off after these words, biting her lip in a show of enduring humiliation.
Ming Yi found this amusing, thinking to herself that this was a trick she knew too, but she was too lazy to use it now. After all, Ji Bozai was a smart man and wouldn’t be easily fooled…
“You do indeed know more than Ming Yi. It’s fine for you to sit beside me,” Ji Bozai said coolly.
Ming Yi’s smile froze slightly, and she looked up at him in bewilderment.
After not seeing him for a few days, he was still as elegant as ever, his crimson gauze robe making him appear like a pine growing in a secluded valley. However, his eyes never met hers, and his aura felt strangely unfamiliar.
“I have no wife, so naturally, she is not Lady Ji,” he said as he walked past them towards his seat. “She was originally brought to make up numbers. If there’s a dispute, just let her sit in the lower seats.”
Ming Yi’s heart sank, and she blinked uncomfortably.
What did he mean by that?
Yan Xiao and the others didn’t quite understand what had come over Ji Bozai either, but since he had already walked away, they couldn’t linger and followed him.
“With my lord’s words, I can rest easy now,” Ji Tianji said triumphantly. She turned back to look down at Ming Yi and said in a low voice, “The grudge from when you humiliated me on the street that day, consider it settled today.”
She paused, then smiled brightly. “And it was settled by my lord himself on my behalf.”