bookrandom Chapter 203 Talent Competition
Chapter 203 Talent Competition
She stood up in what she thought was an elegant manner, with a smile on her face, and bowed to the Madam of the Censor who was sitting in the main seat: "I am honored to attend Miss Zhou's birthday party today. Why don't we all perform a little show to liven up the party?"
"That's a good suggestion. There's no point in just sitting there doing nothing."
"What are you going to perform?"
“I’m not prepared.”
"We are all ladies and ladies here, no one will laugh at us, good or bad, so we can just improvise."
Ladies, the conversation is very lively.
"That depends on what you ladies are good at. It can be music, chess, calligraphy, painting or poetry." Seeing that everyone agreed to her suggestion, Qiao Yueru looked at Li Xiaoxiao provocatively.
Li Xiaoxiao, who was eating with her head down, noticed someone was looking at her, and looked up to meet her eyes.
Although she didn't say anything, she was listening the whole time. She didn't expect Qiao Yueru to come up with this trick to deal with her. She was afraid that her wishful thinking was wrong. She responded to her with a contemptuous look. She originally wanted to keep a low profile, but it seems that this is not working.
Everyone was still discussing what performance to do, and didn't see Qiao Yueru and Li Xiaoxiao arguing with each other. However, Cheng Menggu noticed that Li Xiaoxiao was sitting next to her. She put the teacup in her hand to her lips and took a sip without showing any emotion.
I just don't know if that idiot Qiao Yueru can defeat Li Xiaoxiao, but she would be happy to see which side suffers in the end. She kept looking towards the entrance of the plum garden, wondering why she hasn't arrived yet.
Soon a young lady volunteered to step forward. She was the second daughter of the deputy envoy of the Ministry of Public Security. She had willow-shaped eyebrows, almond-shaped eyes, rosy lips, and was about fifteen or sixteen years old. She was very pretty.
"I am sorry to show my humility. Today I will play a song for everyone." The girl was pretty and had a nice voice. She bowed to everyone.
The censor's wife had ordered people to bring over the equipment needed for playing the zither, chess, calligraphy and painting. Everything was ready. The little girl handed the hot water bottle in her hand to the little maid next to her, sat down, held the zither with both hands, gently adjusted the tone, and then began to play.
Her fingers swirled nimbly on the surface of the piano, the sound of the piano was pleasant and melodious, the lingering sound of the piano slowly drifted away from her hands. She played a cheerful song, and the listeners were in a happy mood.
The song ended, leaving one with an endless aftertaste. Soon, another young lady took over. She liked painting, and she painted a picture of plum blossoms, which was exactly the scenery in the courtyard. The painting was exquisitely done, and the picture was lifelike and vivid, which won unanimous praise from everyone.
Then several young ladies performed their talents. Qiao Yueru kept staring at Li Xiaoxiao. Seeing that she was unmoved, she stood up and asked Li Xiaoxiao, "Young lady, everyone has performed their talents. What are you going to perform?"
Qiao Yueru asked innocently. After hearing what Qiao Yueru said, everyone followed her gaze and saw Li Xiaoxiao in the corner. They were immediately shocked. How could there be such a beautiful woman in the capital? Which family was this lady from? Why had they never seen her before?
But Qiao Yueru called her sister again, which made everyone even more confused. They all knew that Qiao Yueru was the only daughter in the family and her father was a fifth-rank official. Originally, she could not come to such a banquet, but Wang Qiuhuo had no daughter, so she would occasionally bring her along, and they naturally got to know each other over time.
Cheng Menggu stood up, coughed lightly, and introduced Li Xiaoxiao: "A few days ago, my husband's missing elder sister was found. Xiaoxiao is the eldest sister's daughter. Today I brought her to see the world."
In an instant, Li Xiaoxiao became the focus of the whole audience. She had to stand up and nod slightly to them as a greeting.
"Miss, we young ladies are good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and we have all performed them. You haven't told me what you are going to perform. Farming is not considered a talent." Qiao Yueru continued to pester and vaguely revealed her identity.
"Farming. Could it be that the daughter of the Marquis's Mansion was sold to the village? Then this girl must be from the village too."
"What a pity, she was so pretty."
"Just now I wanted to introduce him to my eldest nephew, but it seems that's not possible."
"Who said she wasn't? No matter how pretty she is, I would never agree to a young man in our family marrying a daughter from a farmer's family."
Although they spoke in a low voice, Li Xiaoxiao heard it clearly. She had no intention of explaining anything to them as she did not rely on them for food.
For a moment, Li Xiaoxiao became an outsider in everyone's eyes, as if she was a musty rag. Everyone wanted to stay away from her, and she became the target of public criticism.
Cheng Menggu sat upright. Although she was the one who brought the people here, she didn't say a word to defend them. She neither admitted nor denied their comments.
"Hehe." Li Xiaoxiao chuckled, looked around, and finally his eyes fell on Qiao Yueru's face, and he spoke playfully.
"You are right. My parents are farmers. They only know how to farm and can't do anything else. I didn't know how to do that before, but after coming to the capital, I happened to learn these things that young ladies in the boudoir learn for a few days, so I will show my ugliness today."
Li Xiaoxiao stood up slowly, with a graceful figure and a look of determination on her beautiful face. She walked to the center of the pavilion and saluted to the wife of the censor who was in front of her.
Then he looked straight at Qiao Yueru and said in a cold voice, "Sister Qiao, I see that all the young ladies have come on stage to perform, and it seems that only you and I are missing. How about this, the two of us can perform something different, what do you think?"
"Hmph, you said I should accompany you, how do you play it?" Qiao Yueru said firmly. She was very confident in her talent, and in order to climb up the social ladder, she studied music, chess, calligraphy and painting with great effort, so she agreed to Li Xiaoxiao's suggestion without hesitation.
"Sister Qiao is really straightforward. Let me tell you, we are officially competing against each other in four aspects: music, chess, calligraphy and painting. But in order to make the competition more fun, everyone present can place a bet on either you or me."
“This is fun, you can give it a try.”
"Yes, I want to place a bet too."
Seeing that all the young ladies were eager to try, the censor's wife was happy to see it happen, so she quickly told the housekeeper to bring pen and paper to write down the amount of silver each person had pledged.
Qiao Yueru has been a daughter of an official family since she was young. Although her rank is not high, she has learned everything she should learn and often visits the homes of other daughters of official families, so they naturally understand her level.
Li Xiaoxiao was different. She was the daughter of a farmer's family. She had probably never even seen one, let alone learn it. So there was no need to consider it at all. Qiao Yueru was bet on it.
Soon, the housekeeper wrote down the bets one by one. Looking at the empty piece of paper that belonged to her, Li Xiaoxiao smiled silently and took out ten taels of silver from her pocket to bet on herself to win.
Looking at another one that was full of records, the amounts were not small. I didn’t expect that the daughters of officials were so rich. It was a pity that all of them would be hers soon.
Before she could finish her joy, a female voice as sweet as an oriole rang out.