Chapter 42 (The Challenges)
Jingyi wanted to come and tie Wangyi hair but Zhan Xian already took out the tie on his wrist and rushed forward and stand behind his beloved and begins to tie his hair, this is quite unusual for a prince to do it but Zhan Xian doesn't cares about protocol anymore, he just wanted to do something for Wangyi. The two ladies are definitely jealous and so are the older two princes.
However, Zhan Xian and Wangyi is just in their own world
"Wangyi, be careful, alright... I stand by if she is too aggressive, I will come in and will never allows her to injure you" Zhan Xian told Wangyi
Wangyi gives Zhan Xian a stern warning
"If the win and lost is not determine, you are forbiden to come in, my family Lan is in concern, you must promise me, after all, please have more confident in me" Wangyi told Zhan Xian and the hair is now neatly tied. Wangyi also shortened his hanful by pinning on side to the sash. She is now ready for combat. She graceful walks in the middle of the courtyard and smiles
"Please begin" Wangyi told Zhan Teng Teng
Looking at her, Wangyi decides to use the fighting style that her great grandfather teaches her, from the Zen Mountain, the style of reflecting the strength of the opponent by allowing her wrist to do the work. It doesn't matter how strong is her opponent, it is her skill to reflect the opponents strength and thus the harder the opponent hit her, the worst reflect Wangyi gives and the opponent will suffers more from her own hit. If it goes further the opponent can suffers internal injuries that can take up to a year for recovery.
Zang Teng Teng smirks at Wangyi and looking at the slim body of her opponent, she laughs at Wangyi
"Don't regret when you get hit, I am coming in full force" the proud Zang teng Teng told Wangyi
"The harder the better and we can finish this fast" Wangyi cutely smiles at her.
Then, Zang Teng Teng who is so angry with Wangyi's words, she moves forward and use her palm to form into a tight fist and aim straight for Wangyi's face, she hates that beautiful face so much that she wanted to destroy it, she uses 80 percent strength and usually with this amount of strength she can break the bones of Wangyi's delicate features. Wangyi say the fist coming straight for his face, she makes a twist and the fist landed on air as Wangyi's wrist is now reflecting that fist and the first somehow landed on Zang Teng Teng shoulder and she shouted
"Ahhhhh..." the shouts is so loud that everyone looks at her, because it is quite hilarious because her own fist is hitting her own shoulder and then she screams.
The emperor and his team are all clapping, especial Zhan Xian and he watch every move closely
But the cute ones like Zhan Ang and Ming Ming jumping up and down
"Nice one Wangyi, another one please" they both shouted with joy.
Zang Teng Teng feels the excruciating pain but she hold on to it and tries to straighten her body and her mind is in cloud and she didn't even see how Wangyi reflect her strength.
Zang Teng Teng moves forward and now she uses her legs to try and kick Wangyi, Wangyi did a skip and then using her slim legs to swirl her legs back from the right leg to the left leg and it is so painful that Zang Teng Teng couldn't holds herself and fall on her butt.
"Ahhhhh...." another loud screams from Zang Teng Teng
"Do you want to admit defeat" Wangyi asks and he is still standing strong with no injury at all.
Zang Teng Teng stands up straight and she bites her lip and looking at Zhan Xian, that handsome prince is her only chance to get marry and especially Zhan Xian is so good looking and being a Caifei is glorious and she didn't want to give up even her but, hands and legs is painful to the bones.
"C-come again" while she is talking she did a cheat attack toward Wangyi stomach.
Zhan Xian saw it and he yells
"Wangyi, careful" Wangyi is already alert but the scream of Zhan Xian warm his heart and the punch that airm at her stomach has been reflected by her wrist onto the own stomach of Zang Teng Teng and this time she fell face front and it is actually quite laughable.
The younger and brother and sister of the third prince has been highly entertained by Zang Teng Teng that they holds each other and laughs till their body bends forwards.
By now, Zang Teng Teng has to give up because there is no way she can stand up immediately.
The emperor immediately walks forward and pat Wangyi
"One point to Wangyi" and everyone keep quiet as Zang Teng Teng is now standing up with the help of the maid servants and her face look ugly like green and blue.
The empress is so angry that she exclaims loudly "Useless"
The younger and brother and sister of the third prince has been highly entertained by Zang Teng Teng that they holds each other and laughs till their body bends forwards.
By now, Zang Teng Teng has to give up because there is no way she can stand up immediately.
"One point to Wangyi" shouted the younger royal siblings excitedly repeating their father and everyone keep quiet as Zang Teng Teng is now standing up with the help of the maid servants and her face look ugly like green and blue. her dress at the back is now cover with dirt when she fell on her butt and her hair is now in a mess, and he looks untidy and messy with that heavy fall. All in all, she looks like a defeated animal and she has red eyes as well, for she never imagine a skinny and thin Wangyi is able to defeat her, she has train hard and she is more muscular than normal lady. Zang Teng Teng mind is in a daze and still could not understand how she is being defeated. The empress is so angry that she exclaims loudly "Useless"
Zhan Xian is so anxious and worry that he runs forward to Wangyi and turns him around
"Let me check if you have injuries" Zhan Xian was talking but his hands held in mid air because he was too anxious that he forgotten that it is not appropriate for him to check Wangyi and then the mid way hand landed on Wangyi's head and he pats her
"Well done" the praise with a sweet smile and full of admiration for Wangyi.
Jingyi saw that and he quickly runs forward
"Wangyi, let me check" Jingyi look around Wangyi and wangyi smiles
"I am alright, she couldn't even touch me. I reflected all her kicks and punches" Wangyi told them and Jingyi nods as he understand the technique but this kind of technique only Wangyi knows because her grand grand mother only allows Wangyi to learn. The other one that knows this technique is Cheng Ching as this is more for the milder gender, either a lady or a ger. It looks harmless but it is actually very dangerous.
Jingyi nods his head at zhan Xian and Zhan Xian sigh a relief and then Prince Zhan Ang and Ming Ming comes and congratulate Wangyi
"You are so clever" Zhan Ang tells Wangyi
"You kick ass" Princess Ming Ming tells Wangyi and the emperor and Concubine Ching rolls their big eyes, as Princess Ming Ming had actually speaks a swear words, she learnt a lot of those from her travels.
"Thank you" Wangyi tolrrd them
Then they heard the empress laughing and pretend to walk toward Wangyi. She looks at Wangyi and fakes her smiles
"Wow, it seems like the luck is all on your side" the empress told Wangyi, she is implying that Wangyi's win is based on her luck and not her skills.
Zhan Ang is a teenager and he couldn't stand it and so he mumbles loud enough for some to hear
"Ah... if it is luck, then why don't you try and fight with Wangyi, and see if it is luck that she wins" Zhan Ang pretends to mumble to himself and looking at the ground and then the sky. A teenager talking to the ground and the sky, no one can fault him.
The Empress pretends that she didn't hear but Wangyi speaks
"Well, if it is luck, then I thank the heaven that I am given such blessing to win, I feel sorry for Lady Zang then" Wangyi's answer to the empress is polite but it also means that even the heaven does not want the third prince to have concubines and that is why she wins.
Zhan Xian is so happy that he nods non-stops at Wangyi words. His wife is truly intelligent through and through.
The empress quickly flips her long sleeves and yells
"Let moves on to second challenges, this time, it will be chosen by Zhan Mei Mei" the empress points at Zhen Mei Mei and then she walks towards her and lower her mouth to her ears
"Don't embarrass me like that useless girl" the soft words is only for Zhen Mei Mei, it is soft but carries a lot of threat.
Zhen Mei Mie nods full of confident and then she told the empress
"I won't disappoint you, in the country of Wei, no one can defeat me in embroideries. Don't worry, she will not win this time round" Zhen Mei Mei told the empress.
With a sense of satisfaction, the empress then shouted at Zhen Mei Mei
"State your challenge"
Zhen Mei Mei walks to Zang Teng Teng who has sor butt, hands and feet but now she still managed to sit down on a chair and the servants has tidy up her look.
Zang Teng Teng knew their cooperations and imemdaitely she raise her head and answer Zhen Mei Mei before she was asked
"I gave up on this challenge" and the she smile painfully
By now, the emperor's family is aware of their evil cooperation and mainly due to the emperess and now this is not surprising at all and so they sneer.
However, that shameless Zhen Mei Mei just walks to Wangyi and smiles confidently at her
"I challenge you to embroidery" Zhen Mei Mei told Wangyi
Wangyi looks straight into her eyes with no fear at all
"Your challenge accepted" Wangyi told her and then nods her head
Of course, Zhan Xian is all worry and even cold sweat, he knew of Zhen Mei Mei, her father is an official in the court but then her mother's family is wealthy and they own many embroidery shops all over the Wei Country and of course her skills is well known in the country.
When Zhan Xian eyes caught Wangyi, Wangyi smiles and nods her head and mouthed to Zhan Xian "No worry". Zhan Xian tries to brave up as he really wanted to show Wangyi that he had fate in her and so he just nods his head.
"Bring out the embroidery set" the empress shouted happily
This a set of embroidery table has been set up. The fabric has been clipped onto the wide embroidery table with a large phoenix being drawn and tightened up by the embroidery table. The challenge is to sew the drawn phoenix with all the colourful threads provided.
Zhen Mei Mei walks onto her embroidery table and then turns to tell Wangyi
"My record for finishing this is in an hour, heh heh" Zhen Mei Mei wanted to intimidate Wangyi so that she will have butter fingers ad preformed horribily when she has fear.
Wangyi walks confidentially to the embroidery table and then smiles as he looks at the drawn phoenix
"Well, maybe today the record should be broken" he is looking at the embroidery table and speaks into thin air.
Zhen Mei Mei laughs heartily and then told Wangyi
"Yes, I hope to break my own record today" then she confidentially sit down on the stool beside the embroidery table.
Wangyi keeps quiet and then he sat down on ths stool next to the table too.
"One has to practise reserve and to speak only when the result is out" Wangyi looking at his embroidery table and speaks. Wangyi is tell Zhen Mei Mei that she has lost her humbleness and has no reserve for herself.
Zhen Mei Mie glares at Wangyi angrily and she already has been choked up in her chest, thus her fingers is a little shaky and now she tries to calm herself.
The Empress watches Zhen Mei Mie and wait for her to calm down and then she announces
"Challenge begins" as the evil sound of the empress has spoken, Zhen Mei Mie has already bury her head down to sew like a mad lady. Her sills is indeed good and her focus is strong.
While Wangyi, has very slim and nibble fingers, she picks up the needles and also begins, however, what others didn't know is the Wangyi wore his thread suit inside her hanful. The thread inside has already comes out and joins the needle that Wangyi is sewing, as soon as her needle starts on the drawn phoenix, there is a pair of extra thread following her needle and they sew onto it automatically with Wangyi using her inner qi to command it. It is not obvious to anyone as the thread just joins into the needle thread that Wangyi is holding. However, the thread from Wangyi suit has helps Wangyi to speed up three times more than anyone normal sewing and of course Wangyi is never slow on this, she master skills very easily since young.
Thus, when it is half an hour, already Wangyi has done three quarter of it and Zhen Mei Mei is only half done. The empress walks around and took a glance and she got so angry that she slams her butt onto the chair and breath heavily.
While the emperor cheer team are grinning happily at each others especially the two young siblings and they both pat their brother Zhan Xian to comfort and maybe more of congratulating him, thus making the empress even more agitated.
Before the hour hit, Wangyi already finishes and he stand up and smile
"I finished" then he stops but Zhen Mei Mei is still struggling because when she heard the empress angry breathing, her fingers tremble and thus she makes many mistakes and thus slow down her performances.
Zhen Mei Mei signs and then she got angry and walks towards Wangyi and wanted to lift up her sleeves and check for cheating but then Zhan Xian stops in front of Wangyi
"What do you want?" the angry tone of Zhan Xian echoed in the courtyard.
Zhen Mei Mei has always dreams of marrying the third prince and she doesn't care if she is the concubine as she hoping against hope that one day Zhan Xian will love her and now standing so close to the handsome prince, she trembles a little and seems speechless.
Wangyi smiles and looks at Zhen Mei Mei
"We did it in front of everyone, it is wise to admit defeat to ease off further embarrassment" Wangyi warns her sweetly.
Zhen Mei Mei took a stumble back and returns to her own seat with her head down and didn't dare to look at anyone till she heard the empress roars
"Another useless one!"
Zhan Xian immediately tells the empress
"Wangyi has won both of them and so he is the winner" Zhan Xian smiles happily at Wangyi and those worrying brows has now relax.
The empress then stand up and hope for the last chance
"Well, well, we should also gives Wangyi a chance to challenge the two ladies, how can we not allow Wangyi to show off her talent" the empress told everyone
Of course, everyone knows her scheme, she is still hoping that Wnagyi will lost the last challenge to the two noble ladies. Zhan Xian is so angry that he glares hard and his internal thoughts "Pei!, this old witch is still not satisfied".
Wangyi smiles at the empress and everyone, his smile is so beautiful that everyone in the count yard has been captivated and then he speaks
"Mmmmm...it will be fun then" Wangyi clasps her fair hands together and then looks at Zhan Xian with confident.
"I challenge you to cooking a fish here and not in the kitchen" Wangyi told the two defeated ladies
Both of them raise their ugly defeated face at Wangyi and hang their heads down worryingly
Wangyi continues
"Each of us will be given twigs and a raw fish with spices and our challenge is to cook the fish with it" Wangyi told them
Both of the ladies jumps up
"How do we cook with no stoves, huh, you must be joking" the two of them speaks angrily at Wangyi.
Wangyi looks at Zhan Xian and the third prince smiles happily at Wangyi and he knew what she is doing as Zhan Xian is the one that teaches him how to start the fire, there is a huge sense of happily and pride in that broad chest of Zhan Xian.
All the resources are ready and Wangyi picks a space for each of them.
The ladies are not allows to look at each other and how they do their cooking, thus in the court yard, they are all facing outside and not facing inside where they can see each other.
Two guards were on standby to make sure that they don't peep at each other. A pile of twigs, long and short, a raw fish and some spices were given to each of the candidates.
The two noble ladies looks at the given resources and frowns like a puzzle cat as they absolutely ha no idea what to do.
Each of them are now at their own space and the Empress sigh heavily and gave a angry announcement
"Begin!"
Wangyi quickly took the longer twigs and tie them up to make a little space to barbeque his raw fish and he begins to season the fish. After that Wangyi rubs the two twigs so hard that some smokes came out of it and then the fire started and Wangyi skilfully placed it under the holding and then starts to cook his fish
The younger siblings of Zhan Xian are so happy that they smiles and told their emperor father and mother
"The fire started, I wonder who teaches Wangyi" then they steals a glance at Zhan Xian who is now smiling gleefully like a proud peacock.
The fish is cooking steadily and the aroma of the fish spread through the whole court yard, tickling those sensitive noise making the reaction of their mouth feeling itchy, wanting a bite of the fish. The body begins to feel hungry because the stomach begins to drum slightly. All of them looks toward Wangyi and some looks at the other two and shakes their head.
Wangyi twist and turns the fish until it is full cooked and then he uses the sand to cover the fire while holding up his fish and announced
"I finish" Zhan Xian walks proudly to Wangyi and pat his head, full of adoration and admiration in his eyes.
"You are my champion" Zhan Xian told Wangyi softly and the cute Wangyi brushes slightly
At the other end, the royal sibling of han Xian is fighting who is going to have the first bite of the fish
"I am a girl, I bite first" Princess Ming Ming points to herself
"I am the youngest, you should left me have first" Zhan Ang told Mong Ming
Honestly, they are both so cute and so supportive but right now, they look like hungry ghost making the emperor and Ching;er laughs.
"This emperor will have it's first bite" the emperor stops the argument and both of them nod and giggles at each other. They fight and laughs and cry together.
Everyone walks around and saw that Zang Teng Teng is so frustrated that she chopped every twigs into tiny pieces and make into a bed for the raw fish.
Zhen Mei Mei doesn't know what to do and so she puts the fish at the bottom and bury it with all the twigs maybe thought she can make it cook when lightning strikes the twigs.
All in all, the younger two royal sibling laughs their head out while looking at the hilarious scene that they have to support each other when walk because their stomach aches from laughing.
The emperor walks down to Wangyi and took the fish and looks angrily at the empress, till the empress has no choice but to speak
"Wangyi wins and she have the final say as to whether the third prince can have caifei or not" the empress gutted her teeth angrily at the two stuid and useless ladies.
Wangyi then think and told everyone
"I will not decide" there is a flow of silence and stillness as they were all shocked by Wangyi, who wants to share their husband, as jealousy is the worst murders in the harem.
Then Wangyi turns to Zhan Xian
"I will leave it to the third prince to decide" Wangyi told everyone.
The emperor couldn't help but full of admiration for his future daughter-in-law, Lan Wangyi doesn't want to make the decision on various reasons. He could be testing the love of Zhan Xian, if Zhan Xian choose to have ceifei then Wangyi will know his heart and also if Zhan Xian refuses than the stand of their love to everyone is firm and there should be no further attempt to separate them. Those two ladies then can trash their hearts and dream of marrying the third prince into the rubbish bins.
Zhan Xian heart softens and tightens at the same time, full of surprise but love for Wangyi.
"I stand here firmly announce that there is only one Wangyi for me and no one else" the third prince states his affirmation and the two younger royal siblings shouted out loudly
"Yayyyy"
"Well done brother"
The empress is so angry that she couldn't even stand but her legs soften and she ell back into her seat and her face is so ugly that it looks like she aged a decade.
However, the emperor lift up the fish in his hand and then he announces
"The verdict is clear and Wangyi wins all. There should be no more further rubbish protocol to break their marriage and if I come to hear of it, it will be death sentence" the emperor announces it so loudly that actually everyone sort of trembles, the aura is dark and angry.
However, the emperor then looks at the cooked fish again and takes a bite and then ask Chinger to take a bite too and announces with joy
"Mmmmmm.....the fish is the best I ever eaten"
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