Chapter 875 - 877 Stable and Calm, Far-sighted Planning_1
Bai Ruozhu’s heart skipped a beat, yet she quickly realized that participating in either archery or calligraphy wouldn’t make her stand out, much less hope for a ranking. Wouldn’t this just embarrass Achun and her second brother?
With that thought, she felt somewhat dejected, berating herself for not having worked to improve any particular skill since her transmigration. Even her best skills, medical skills and the Poison Scripture, were something she had learned in her past life and hadn’t made much progress in. Thinking about it made her feel ashamed; she had made money, but becoming lazy wouldn’t do—plus, she had promised to detoxify Chu Hai but had yet to figure out a complete method. Was she truly living too leisurely?
They say a woman tends to become lazy once pampered, which proved that she was leading a good life now, having a man she could rely on. But hadn’t she said she wanted to be his kapok tree, not a vine dependent on him? Had she forgotten?
Participating in a competition for the young had sparked in Bai Ruozhu a renewed zest for progress, which was a gain in itself.
The battles for the third and fourth places on stage had concluded, resulting in Baoqing Academy disciples’ victory, while Bai Zepei and Tang Feng were still in a deadlock. A large hanging cloth displayed the progress of each man’s moves for the audience to see, and on the other side, a recorder was keeping track of the game; the players were moving so swiftly that the recorder’s forehead had begun to bead with sweat.
Gazing at the large screen, Bai Ruozhu, who did not understand chess skill, asked Tu Ying, "Who do you think has the advantage?"
Furrowing her brows, Tu Ying said, "It’s a draw."
Bai Ruozhu could only settle her heart, fidgeting with the archery thimble Jiang Yichun had given her, while watching the game, awaiting the final result.
Another quarter of an hour passed before Tang Feng finally put down a chess piece he had picked up and sighed, "I lost."
Bai Zepei looked up at him, his eyes somewhat profound, and it was unclear what he was thinking. He did not respond to Tang Feng’s words.
Tang Feng stood to bow, and only then did Bai Zepei stand and return the gesture, saying indifferently, "Thanks for letting me win."
Below, a collective sigh filled the air, as the majority of the audience were locals from Jiangnan who greatly admired Tang Feng, so they were deeply disappointed with the outcome.
"If Tang Feng hadn’t taken that wrong step, he wouldn’t have lost the whole game. Alas." In the VIP seats not far away, a middle-aged man lamented.
"After all, it’s such a big competition, and it’s speed chess, to boot. Who can plan every move perfectly? We only noticed the problem with that one move at the end. We couldn’t see it coming at all. Still, that Bai Zepei is steady and calm, with long-term planning. A rare find indeed," stated a slightly older squire beside him.
"Regardless of who wins or loses, these young people today are really something. Look at the two on stage, one nineteen and the other eighteen. Truly young. We’re just old bones now," another person joked with a laugh, pulling everyone out of their disappointment over Tang Feng’s defeat.
Bai Ruozhu happened to overhear this conversation, realizing that these three knew their chess. She thought that Tang Feng had made an inopportune move earlier, which her second brother had capitalized on. Of course, she also felt proud that they praised her second brother as "steady and calm, with long-term planning."
On stage, Bai Zepei’s victory was announced. He and Tang Feng bowed to the judges and then walked down from the stage together, chatting along the way, seeming to find kinship in each other’s company.
The people from Beiyu Academy were thrilled by Bai Zepei’s victory. Not only had he won, but he had also defeated Tang Feng, the foremost of Jiangnan’s four great talents, which gave the people from Beiyu Academy an immense sense of pride, straightening their backs considerably. Only Dang Youshen was not too happy, but he did not dare speak further, having also participated in the chess skill competition and sadly placing only in the top sixteen—behind even Tu Ying.
Bai Ruozhu was also very excited, and said to her second brother, "I’m going to write a letter to father and mother right away to tell them the good news."
However, Bai Zepei seemed very indifferent, as if not too pleased, and said, "There’s no need to go out of your way to mention it."
"That’s true, there are still other competitions to come, and who knows, you might even take first place," Bai Ruozhu said happily.
Bai Zepei smiled but said nothing more, appearing somewhat listless. Thinking that her second brother was running out of energy again, Bai Ruozhu hurriedly said, "Second brother, take a good rest for a while. We are going to compete in mounted archery, and you need to conserve your energy for the calligraphy competition later."
Hearing Bai Ruozhu say this, no one dared to disturb Bai Zepei any further.
Bai Ruozhu, along with Tu Ying and Tu Bai, got up and headed towards the mounted archery competition. She was still waving her hand, which was adorned with a protective thumb ring, towards Jiang Yichun and Dengdeng, then revealed a radiant smile.
Seeing her smile so broad that all eight of her teeth were showing, a smile floated onto Jiang Yichun’s usually stern face. Little Dengdeng was much more enthusiastic than his father, waving his little hands vigorously towards his mother and making ’ah ah’ noises, clearly wanting to go play with her.
Not far away, Xu Panrui and others saw Bai Ruozhu’s smile and all glanced sideways. Xu Panrui said disdainfully, "As expected of someone from a lowly background, she doesn’t even know about not showing her teeth when smiling."
Miss Sun covered her mouth and giggled, "Exactly, they say she’s a fifth-rank imperial edict, but that’s just because she got married. For people like us, who wouldn’t have a higher status than her after marriage?"
Unfortunately, they were unaware that even in the Capital City it was no longer fashionable to smile without showing teeth. The aristocrats all had to show off a row of white teeth to prove their noble identity.
Bai Ruozhu, Tu Ying, and Tu Bai walked past, followed by two other individuals from the Baoqing Academy of Beiyu, one of whom was indeed Dang Youshen, and the other named Zheng Kangle. Both of them, like Dang Youshen, were born to aristocratic families; at this time, only aristocratic children could afford to practice mounted archery from a young age, ordinary families couldn’t even afford to buy a horse.
Looking at Bai Ruozhu, Dang Youshen had an expression of disdain as if Bai Ruozhu was merely making up the numbers. Bai Ruozhu pursed her lips, well, she was just making up the numbers as she had no specific goal in mind earlier, but now she did; she just needed to not lose to Dang Youshen. Thinking to herself, as a woman who could beat Dang Youshen, she would be metaphorically slapping his face, right?
"Brother, take it easy when it’s your turn," Tu Ying warned Tu Bai once more.
Tu Bai grimaced and said, "I know, you’re more nagging than mom. Be careful you don’t end up not getting married!"
Upon hearing that, Tu Ying seemed unconcerned and gave him a casual glance, without the ability to blush. However, Zheng Kangle, who had been staring at Tu Ying the entire time from behind, had a suspicious shade of pink creeping on his face.
Bai Ruozhu noticed quietly and chuckled to herself, Tu Ying indeed had quite the appeal to the opposite sex; not a few of the trainees in the team were interested in her, and even the soldiers led by Jiang Yichun would steal glances at her. If it were not for their regard for Tu Bai, likely many would pursue this beauty.
The mounted archery competition at the academy was not too difficult. First was shooting targets while standing, with the best shots being those that hit the center of the target most frequently. Then came shooting arrows while on horseback, where hitting the center of the target was still the best, but additional points were awarded if one could perform difficult maneuvers while shooting from horseback.
Bai Ruozhu was not adept at riding, so she planned to do her best when shooting arrows and then focus on hitting the targets steadily while on horseback, daring not to hope for more. Tu Ying, on the other hand, was already rubbing her hands together in eager anticipation, clearly planning to attempt some difficult maneuvers.