“Since that’s the case, Your Highness—”

Xiao Wanling raised her voice to interrupt the Xijiang Princess: “No, I haven’t finished throwing.”

The field fell silent as the young lady in the center tried her best to straighten her back.

Even though the outcome was already decided, she couldn’t give up halfway.

“Continue then.” Princess Mu said gently.

This young lady was quite good. Unfortunately, she had encountered a pitch-pot master who was one in a thousand. Having achieved this result was already very good, even if Princess Mu wanted to blame her, she had no grounds to do so.

Xiao Wanling gritted her teeth and threw out her last arrow.

It hit!

The noble daughters couldn’t help but let out a low exclamation, followed by oppressive silence.

If only the seventh arrow had also hit—what a pity.

Xiao Wanling stared at the last arrow she had thrown, tears welling up in her eyes.

She had truly done her best. Seven hits out of eight throws—this was a record she had never achieved before when playing “horizontal ear.”

The Xijiang Princess curved her lips in a smile: “We were fortunate to win a round. Thank you for holding back.”

“The Princess is too modest. Competition relies on skill—there’s no such thing as holding back.”

The Xijiang Princess lifted the wine pot and personally filled Princess Mu’s cup, saying with apparent innocence: “It seems Your Highness has an excellent tolerance for alcohol.”

Princess Mu smiled with difficulty and drained her cup in one gulp.

When one person lost, everyone on their side had to drink penalty wine. The ladies from various residences and the noble daughters silently raised their cups, feeling that today’s wine was particularly bitter.

“Then let’s proceed to the third round.” Princess Mu placed her empty wine cup on the table and said flatly.

The outcome of the third round of pitch-pot seemed beyond doubt. She refused to believe that in talents like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, Great Liang’s noble daughters couldn’t surpass Xijiang’s noble daughters. The face lost now must be won back later!

This time it was Xiao Wanling’s turn to draw lots. By this point, she had passed the stage of nervousness and only felt numb. She reached deep into the ceramic jar, grabbed a paper ball, and handed it to the maid. When the maid opened the paper ball, her face showed surprise, and even her voice changed pitch: “Blind throwing.”

So-called blind throwing meant the thrower had their back to the pot when throwing arrows—it was the most difficult of all pitch-pot techniques.

Xiao Wanling could only smile bitterly.

Her luck was truly against the heavens—she had drawn blind throwing.

“Miss Xiao, please go first.” The Xijiang County Princess remained calm-faced.

Xiao Wanling turned her back, held the arrow for quite a while before raising her hand and throwing it out.

A crisp clang sounded, immediately followed by regretful sighs from Great Liang’s noble daughters.

Needless to say, this arrow had fallen outside.

Seeing this, the Xijiang County Princess curved the corners of her lips, turned her back to the pot, and threw the arrow backward.

“She hit it!” People outside the field exclaimed in amazement.

Xiao Wanling bit her lip and drew her second arrow.

The Xijiang County Princess suddenly spoke: “Miss Xiao need not continue throwing.”

At these words, all of Great Liang’s noble daughters, including Xiao Wanling, were stunned.

What did the Xijiang County Princess mean by this?

The Xijiang County Princess smiled: “Since Miss Xiao didn’t hit with her first arrow, there’s no need to waste time.”

With this explanation, everyone understood, and their gazes toward the Xijiang County Princess carried anger.

The Xijiang County Princess was being far too contemptuous.

“Yingna, throw quickly.” The Xijiang Princess said with a smile.

The Xijiang County Princess nodded and threw the arrows in her hand one after another. By the time she finished throwing her last arrow, she had hit eight out of eight throws.

“I lost.” After a long while, Xiao Wanling, pale-faced, bowed to the Xijiang County Princess and silently walked off the field.

“Let’s begin the second competition.” Princess Mu didn’t want this stifling feeling to continue, and directly drank a cup of wine.

The Xijiang Princess’s beautiful eyes turned: “Banquets must eventually end—we can’t let our competition continue indefinitely. What does Your Highness think of this: let’s adopt a best-of-five system. Best-of-three would have too few competition categories, which wouldn’t be quite appropriate.”

At this point, Princess Mu could no longer object.

Best-of-three was too disadvantageous for Great Liang. Great Liang had already lost one round—if they lost the second round, it would be completely over.

No matter how one looked at it, best-of-five was the best choice.

The Xijiang Princess was certain Princess Mu wouldn’t object, and smiled smugly to herself: Winning with just two rounds would be too boring—best-of-five would make these Great Liang people lose convincingly.

“This time, please let Your Highness draw the lot.”

Princess Mu forced a calm smile and shook the lot tube.

A flower lot fell out with the character “Dance” written on it.

Princess Mu’s expression changed slightly.

Although Great Liang didn’t consider singing and dancing lowly, noble daughters were expected to be “still as a maiden,” and very few practiced dancing intensively from childhood.

Speaking of which, Great Liang’s most famous dancer was none other than Consort Li, the Ninth Princess’s mother. But the Ninth Princess was sensitive about Consort Li’s background—despite having exquisite beauty and figure, she wouldn’t touch singing or dancing at all.

Princess Mu could hardly invite Consort Li to compete with Xijiang’s noble daughters—the Emperor would beat her to death for that.

Princess Mu felt bitter, and Great Liang’s noble daughters felt equally uncomfortable. Many couldn’t help but complain inwardly: Your Highness’s luck is too poor—why did she have to draw dancing of all things!

The dance competition, like pitch-pot, consisted of three rounds.

The first round would draw lots to determine what dance to perform, choosing from sword dance, Hu Xuan dance, drum dance, and other dances. Both sides would perform the same dance, with the superior one winning.

The second round would also involve drawing lots, but differently from the first—paper balls written with things like “spring flowers and autumn moon” or “butterflies and fireflies” would be placed in jars. If “butterfly” was drawn, then the dances performed by both sides must relate to butterflies.

The third round would have both sides perform their best dances, with the superior one winning.

Soon, the second competition began, but Lan Xinong and the others no longer had the heart to watch.

“Calculated planning against no preparation—we can’t win this round,” Su Luo Yi said bluntly.

It wasn’t that Great Liang had no outstanding dancers, but those girls weren’t at this banquet, while Xijiang had certainly brought their most outstanding dancers.

One side had carefully rehearsed while the other was completely unprepared for the banquet—how could Great Liang’s noble daughters possibly win?

Several of the girls were intelligent and perceptive, having already thought through all these complexities.

Precisely because they understood, they realized even more clearly that setting aside the second round, each of the remaining three rounds would be hard-fought battles.

Music, chess, calligraphy, painting—these categories, they were confident they wouldn’t lose, were they truly foolproof?

Zhu Yán spoke with a hoarse voice: “If… we lose this round too, we can only win the rest—we cannot lose.”

Needing to win three consecutive rounds after losing the first two, could they manage it?

“Music, chess, calligraphy, painting—whoever loses should leave Fushan Society,” Lan Xinong said word by word.

Su Luo Yi glanced at her coolly and sighed: “Let’s invite Miss Li.”

“Miss Li?” Lan Xinong frowned.

This name wasn’t unfamiliar—it was too familiar, becoming the subject of gossip every few days until her ears were callused from hearing it.

“Miss Li’s chess skills surpass mine by more than a little,” Su Luo Yi said frankly.

Zhu Yán immediately followed: “Miss Li’s calligraphy is better than mine. Everyone knows this—in all these years, Miss Li was the first to be summoned by the master of Shuying Convent for her calligraphy.”

“I have no objections,” Xu Jinghong said in her first sentence.

Lan Xinong pulled at the corners of her mouth: “Then what are we waiting for? Go invite her!”