Princess Mu hesitated for a moment.

In ordinary gatherings, it was perfectly normal for young ladies to gather together and display their talents. The ladies and madams from various residences would take such opportunities to observe which family’s daughters had good temperaments and which were clever and capable—everyone found such occasions quite delightful.

However, this time was different. Once it involved competition between two countries, things became far from simple.

As Princess Mu hosted the female guests’ side of the banquet, if something went wrong, she would certainly be blamed by Prince Mu.

Throughout most of history, Xijiang had paid tribute to the Great Liang. If she agreed to compete and Great Liang’s noble daughters lost, it would be utterly humiliating. But if they bullied the Xijiang Princess too severely, that wouldn’t be appropriate either.

No matter what, this was a difficult situation.

Seeing Princess Mu hesitate, the Xijiang Princess raised her eyebrows with a smile: “Of course, if Your Highness has a poor tolerance for alcohol, just pretend I never mentioned it.”

This was a tactful way of mocking Great Liang for not daring to compete.

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately stirred up indignation among Great Liang’s noble daughters.

“What’s wrong with the Princess? Our Great Liang has a long and profound cultural heritage—are we afraid to compete in talents with little Xijiang?”

“Exactly! Could we be inferior to Xijiang’s noble daughters? For the Princess to hesitate at such a moment is truly puzzling…”

Although the noble daughters’ discussions were quiet, scattered phrases still reached Princess Mu’s ears.

Princess Mu maintained a gracious smile on her face: “Since the Princess has such refined interest, as the host, I should naturally oblige.”

Only then did Great Liang’s noble daughters nod and smile.

The Princess should have said this from the beginning—there was no need to dampen their prestige.

“I wonder which talent the Princess would like to compete in?” Princess Mu gave the choice to the Xijiang Princess, a gesture that fully displayed Great Liang’s magnanimity and could be considered a recovery of some ground.

The Xijiang Princess smiled charmingly: “Why don’t we draw lots? Music, chess, calligraphy, painting, singing, dancing, flower arrangement, tea ceremony, pitch-pot, archery—whatever we draw, that’s what we’ll compete in.”

Princess Mu felt increasingly heavy-hearted.

Xijiang had always looked up to Great Liang as their teacher in these areas, yet this Xijiang Princess’s tone was far too confident.

What exactly was she relying on?

At this point, regardless of Princess Mu’s inner thoughts, the competition between both sides was inevitable.

“Very well, let’s do as the Princess suggests.” Princess Mu instructed a maid to bring a lot of tubes. “The Princess has come from afar as our guest, so please draw the first lot.”

The Xijiang Princess took the ivory carved lot tube, casually shook it, and a flower lot fell out.

The Xijiang Princess extended her slender jade hand, painted with rouge, to pick up the flower lot. After glancing at it, she couldn’t help but smile: “It’s pitch-pot.”

Pitch-pot?

The noble daughters looked at each other, all feeling this was ominous.

If they were competing in music, chess, calligraphy, or painting, several outstanding young ladies from the Fushan Society were present today and would certainly not fear these Xijiang people. But when it came to pitch-pot, they could only think of one person: Jiang Shiran.

As the daughter of the Jinlin Guards’ commander, Jiang Shiran excelled at pitch-pot and archery, which was why she had joined Fushan Society and become one of its vice presidents.

Unfortunately, Miss Jiang had died in an accident. Apart from Miss Jiang, they hadn’t heard of any other family’s daughter being skilled in this area.

“How shall we compete, Your Highness?”

Princess Mu smiled: “Since the Princess drew the first lot, please tell us how to compete.”

The Xijiang Princess pondered briefly, her dark eyebrows relaxing: “Your Highness, what do you think of this: we establish several categories, and each side sends out one person to begin competing. When one person fails, everyone on her side must drink a cup of wine as punishment, then another person takes the stage. Each side sends out six people total. The winner can continue competing, while the loser steps down and cannot compete again. Whichever side runs out of competitors loses completely, and then we’ll draw lots to start a new talent competition.”

Princess Mu found nothing improper about this and, after pondering, asked: “Do these six people need to be selected in advance?”

The Xijiang Princess’s beautiful eyes swept over Great Liang’s noble daughters’ faces as she smiled: “I don’t think so. This is just banquet entertainment—everyone should have a chance to participate. Of course, if Your Highness wants to select people in advance, that’s fine too.”

Princess Mu smiled and naturally wouldn’t select people in advance.

Currently, their side had no idea about the Xijiang people’s capabilities—selecting people in advance would be too passive.

“Then let’s begin, or the wine will get cold.”

“Good.”

The Xijiang Princess turned her head and called out, “Yingna, you go first.”

Following the Xijiang Princess’s words, a Xijiang girl with an elaborate high hairstyle stepped forward.

The Xijiang Princess introduced: “Yingna is my uncle’s daughter, a county princess of our Xijiang. I wonder which noble daughter from your esteemed country would be willing to compete with her?”

The noble daughters couldn’t help but look toward Lan Xinong.

Regardless of their dissatisfaction with Lan Xinong’s arrogance, when it came to competing in talents, they instinctively looked to the Fushan Society for leadership.

Seeing this, Princess Mu curved her lips in a smile: “At my age, I’m completely clueless about which young ladies excel at what. Miss Lan, why don’t you suggest the competitors? I’ve heard that your Fushan Society has many talented young ladies.”

“Fushan Society?” the Xijiang Princess suddenly spoke up. Seeing everyone look at her, she explained: “I’ve heard my sister-in-law mention the great reputation of your country’s Fushan Society. She said Fushan Society gathers Great Liang’s most talented noble daughters and is a place Great Liang’s noble daughters aspire to join.”

The Xijiang Princess’s sister-in-law was the Sixth Princess who had married into Xijiang over two years ago and was now the Xijiang Queen.

Hearing the Xijiang Princess’s words, Great Liang’s noble daughters secretly frowned.

This Princess certainly knew how to talk—putting such a big hat on them meant that if their side lost later, they would lose face completely.

The Xijiang Princess ignored the changing expressions of Great Liang’s noble daughters, maintaining an innocent smile: “After hearing my sister-in-law’s words, I’ve long admired your country’s Fushan Society. Today I can finally witness it myself.”

“So much nonsense.” A cold voice rang out.

The Xijiang Princess was startled and looked toward the sound.

Lan Xinong expressionlessly scolded a maid serving tea: “I told you to serve tea, and you should just serve the same tea as before. Why are you asking me whether I want black tea or green tea? Where does all this nonsense come from?”

The noble daughters understood that Lan Xinong was pointing at the mulberry tree while cursing the locust, and they all lowered their heads to hide their smiles.

The Xijiang Princess naturally understood Lan Xinong’s meaning, but since the other party hadn’t spoken directly, she couldn’t pursue it. She simply smiled: “Then let’s begin the competition.”

Lan Xinong looked at Xu Jinghong and the others, her gaze finally settling on a slightly dark-skinned girl: “Miss Xiao, you go first for this round.”

Xiao Wanling was the daughter of Deputy Commander Xiao Qiang of Jianan, and her pitch-pot skills were only slightly inferior to Jiang Shiran’s.

Lan Xinong’s thinking was very clear—they absolutely could not lose momentum in this first round. Pushing forward their strongest competitor, whether they won or lost would depend on their abilities. If Xiao Wanling couldn’t win, sending out several more people would only result in losing face, so it would be better to simply concede and start the next round.

The named Xiao Wanling stepped forward and stood facing the Xijiang County Princess Yingna, and the pitch-pot competition began.