Chapter 661 Drawing Lots to Decide Who Performs First

The banquet had started. Unlike regular banquets, the guests were served fresh fruits, light dishes, and sweet fruit wine. Everything was meant to be mild-tasting.

A maid presented a small tube filled with many polished bamboo sticks. The sticks were beautiful because of their careful engravings of all sorts of flowers.

It went without saying that the tube of bamboo sticks was taken to Ning Xueyan first. The maid knelt respectfully in front of her, held the tube high, and waited for her to pick a stick. This meant that whether or not she wanted to perform, whether or not she was ready to perform, she would have to show the guests something after drawing a lot.

On the surface, this was a show of respect. In reality, they were forcing her to perform.

Ning Xueyan knew that Wu Yao wouldn’t give her a chance to reject performing. She could guess as much after experiencing their little scheme with the zither.

Thus, she smiled when the maid presented the bamboo tube. She grabbed the bamboo stick with a plum blossom craving and passed it to Linglong. Linglong looked at the number at the bottom of the stick and announced, “Ten.”

She was neither at the top or the bottom of the sequence. There were at least tens of young ladies present today. It was quite a good placement for her.

The maid retreated and handed the bamboo tube to Commandery Princess Muling, Ya Moqin, the rest of the unmarried ladies, as well as several young madams.

The married women in attendance were all young women. After all, the older ones wouldn’t bother attending such events for a literary reputation meant little to them.

After the maid finished deciding the sequence for the performances later, she retreated. Several maids appeared in her place, and in their hands were a tray each. Inside the tray was a brush, ink, and a stack of white paper for the poem-writing portion of the poetry exchange.

Some young ladies had brought their brush and ink with them, so they rejected the ones that Wu Yao prepared for them.

The maids presented the trays filled with brush, ink, and paper before they stepped aside and waited for the women to finish writing their poems.

Ning Xueyan took the inked brush from Lanning’s hand and discreetly looked around. Neither Commandery Princess Muling on her left nor Ya Moqin on the right were looking at her. This made her surroundings seem particularly quiet.

A few young ladies who knew each other were speaking in hushed voices, seemingly in a discussion. Wu Yao had also left her seat. It was as if everyone had selectively forgotten that the Crown Princess never studied much as a child and might not be able to write a poem at the moment.

If she could come up with a poem at a banquet like this, she would surely garner praise. But what if she couldn’t? She would be humiliated.

Ning Xueyan cast a discreet glance around her before she started writing. Even though Commandery Princess Muling couldn’t see what she was writing, she couldn’t help sneering on the inside at Ning Xueyan behaving like a scholar. “She sure knows how to put a front.”

She had investigated Lord Guardian’s Manor quite thoroughly recently. The Crown Princess was your typical case of an unlearned and uneducated person. Ning Xueyan had been living with her mother in semi-house arrest since young. There was no rumor about anyone teaching her. It would be surprising if she could write properly, never mind write a good poem.

Just having poor writing would be enough to ruin Ning Xueyan’s reputation.

The banquet guests were famous scholars or talented literati. The men might not be high-ranking officers but they were known for their honesty. They would surely criticize Ning Xueyan ruthlessly after seeing her poem. They wouldn’t spare her just because she was the Crown Princess.

Then, Ning Xueyan would slowly be revealed as the uneducated and unskilled person that she was.

Ning Xueyan quickly finished writing her poem. But instead of handing the paper to the awaiting maid, she handed it to Linglong. Linglong reached for the paper and folded it carefully, at just the right timing to block the prying gazes on Ning Xueyan from both sides.

When the two women stopped looking at her, Linglong quickly folded another paper with Ning Xueyan’s paper.

On the surface, she seemed to be holding a single piece of paper. However, if one were to unfold it, one would realize that there were two pieces and two poems…

Commandery Princess Muling and Ya Moqin curled their lips in disdain and turned their heads around. They thought for a moment before quickly writing down their poems. It wasn’t hard for young ladies who were well-educated since young to come up with a poem.

They might not necessarily impress with their poems, but they had the basics down at the very minimum.

The other maids had retreated after receiving their respective poems. Only the maid near Ning Xueyan was waiting anxiously. She knew Ning Xueyan’s status. Until Ning Xueyan said something, she wouldn’t dare to say anything. She continued to wait with the tray in hand.

Commandery Princess Muling, who had put the brush and pen aside, turned her head and grinned at Ning Xueyan. “Your Highness, have you finished your poem?”

“Yes.” Ning Xueyan nodded with a smile.

“If you’re done, why aren’t you handing it to the maid?” Commandery Princess Muling asked, sounding surprised.

“It’s not a very good poem. I can’t really bring myself to hand it over at the moment,” Ning Xueyan explained softly.

“But if you don’t hand your poem over, they can’t start the judging. You’re the most important guest today. Your poem should be the first thing that they review. If you’re the flower, we’re all just leaves to adorn you,” a smiling Ya Moqin couldn’t help but interject.

She exchanged a glance with Commandery Princess Muling. Both of them smiled in tacit understanding.

In their opinion, it was obvious that Ning Xueyan couldn’t produce a good poem and had just scrawled some nonsense on the paper. They were sure that Ning Xueyan was embarrassed to hand the paper over because her poem was horrible. Thus, Ya Moqin was determined to force Ning Xueyan to hand in her poem.

She made it sound as if the poem review couldn’t start until Ning Xueyan handed her work over.

Ning Xueyan nodded helplessly and asked Linglong to put the paper in the maid’s tray. Once the maid got the paper, she immediately went after her counterparts and headed to the men’s side so that the scholars could start the judging. They were the judges at the banquet today and shouldered the important responsibility of being honest.

One poem after another was passed over to the judges. The men gathered and began evaluating the poems.

The women’s poems covered a variety of themes. Most were decent but ordinary. None was truly remarkable. A few even had the judges shaking their heads.

One poem was particularly terrible. Not only was the poem unorderly, but the writing looked like it belonged to someone who hadn’t written much.

The terrible poem and handwriting made everyone shake their heads. Some began wondering which young lady wrote such a bad poem. Wasn’t she embarrassed to present this?

To think that she dared to attend such a banquet! Did she have no shame or did she look down on them? Did she want to provoke them?

Thus, they deliberately put the poem aside.

Before attending the banquet, Madam Wu Yao had told them that a few uneducated young ladies insisted on coming just because their families were powerful. These young ladies even forced Madam Wu Yao into inviting them. It went without saying that famous scholars like them looked down on such abuse of power.

They were sure that the poem belonged to one of these young ladies. It would have been fine if the poem didn’t reach them, but it did. So, they felt that there was no need to be polite. They swore on their reputation as famous scholars and the pillars of the politically neutral faction that they would ruthlessly criticize the shameless young lady later.

Then, they found a refreshing short poem. The beautiful piece of work swept their frustration away. They felt so comfortable reading the poem that it was as if they had drunk a mouthful of iced water on a hot day.

Naturally, the poem quickly garnered the judges’ approval. They thought that the writer of such a poem deserved the title of a talented and erudite noble lady.

Her plum calligraphy, in particular, made them nod and exclaim in admiration.

A few of them recited the poem several times. The more they read it, the more charming and meaningful the poem became.

The review of the poems came to a swift end. Three famous scholars, representing their counterparts, walked to the women’s side under Madam Wu Yao’s guidance. They informed the results to everyone present.

“There’s a poem here that I want to talk about. I don’t know who wrote it, but if I didn’t see it myself, I would have thought that it was a maid scribbling nonsense. Not only was the writing terrible, but there were no nuances to the poem whatsoever! How could this be called a poem? I’d never seen any woman write such a vulgar poem. I wonder which uneducated young lady here wrote it.”

It was no wonder that the men were famous scholars. They weren’t afraid that their words would offend people. They looked at the faces of the young ladies without emotion, looking completely impartial.

“Uneducated? Who among us has never been uneducated? How embarrassing! If you can’t write, you should have said so. Why write such a terrible poem? You’re embarrassing us too.” The young ladies didn’t know who the famous scholar was referring to, but a few of them began looking around in suspicion because of his words.

Thus, they began whispering and asking among themselves.

They didn’t come up with any answers. Most ladies would receive a few years of education, especially the ones present. All of them had been carefully educated by their families. There was no way that they wouldn’t write well.

Several discussions later, someone mentioned Ning Xueyan. Everyone turned to look at Ning Xueyan in suspicion. All of them seemed more educated and talented than the Crown Princess. Moreover, they had known each other since young and seen each other’s writing as well. Neither of them wrote poorly.

Of course, Ning Xueyan was the exception. It was said that Ning Xueyan didn’t receive any education when she was a child. She lived with her mother for most of her life and had never even met a decent teacher.

It seemed that the new Crown Princess was the one most likely to write poorly and come up with a terrible poem at the banquet.