Chapter 123 - She Outshined All the Beauties

Shen Ninghua directly agreed, but Chu Junyi’s heart instantly rose to his mouth. The ten maids looked slender, but their footsteps were light and they landed their feet on the ground without leaving any trace. That meant they were all proficient in martial arts. It would be better if they competed on other items, but the competition was just about dancing. Furthermore, the competition was held on a high arena. If someone intended to harm Shen Ninghua and deliberately pushed her off the arena, then she would be in danger.

Shen Ninghua did not seem to notice anything unusual. She continued to walk steadily onto the high arena. Today, her makeup was extremely exquisite. She wore a red robe, and her collar and sleeves were embroidered with golden lines. Every step she took seemed to glow with light that combined with her peerless beauty to stun many people below the arena.

Shen Ninghua stood still and turned to look in Chu Junyi’s direction. “I heard that Lord Chu is very good at playing the Guzheng. Could you be my accompanist?”

How could Chu Junyi refuse her? He took the Guzheng from the musician’s hand and jumped onto the arena with a flick of his sleeve. His movement was extremely agile, forming a sharp contrast with his previous step-by-step walk onto the arena. Immediately, Bu Jinglan’s expressions turned sullen. Chu Junyi had clearly pretended to be clumsy to conceal his real power before.

Chu Junyi walked up to Shen Ninghua and whispered to her, “Those women are good at martial arts. Be careful.”

Shen Ninghua smiled and secretly blinked her eyes. Bu Jinglan had come prepared this time and had specifically specified dancing as the item of competition, so he must be very confident. She had expected these maids to be unusual, and that was why she called Chu Junyi over. If anything really happened, he could protect her.

The ten women stepped onto the arena and stood opposite Shen Ninghua on the other side of the arena. Chu Junyi held the Guzheng. Rather than asking for a table to place the Guzheng on it, he directly sat on the ground not far from Shen Ninghua and placed the Guzheng on his lap. His hands moved and tunes flowed out. The sound of Guzheng was clear, and Chu Junyi’s performance added some coldness and solemnity to it.

The ten women from Great Yue signaled at each other with their eyes. The moment the music sounded, they spun around Shen Ninghua. They wore the traditional clothes of the Great Yue Kingdom, and their tight white dresses were tightly bound to their waists. However, the moment they raised their hands, they revealed the small slender waists that immediately attracted the attention of everyone below the arena.

Their dancing style was enchanting. With the sound of music, they twisted their waists and shook their shoulders, creating a dense atmosphere of beauty on the entire arena. The heartbeats of the men below the arena were like drumbeats. They stretched their necks and walked forward, wishing they could stick their eyes on the women’s bodies.

In an instant, Shen Ninghua’s figure was suppressed by the atmosphere these women had deliberately created.

Baili Anning clenched her fists below the arena. A trace of worry flashed through her eyes. After a long period of practice, these women had a tacit understanding between each other. Turning around, looking back, jumping forward…Every movement they performed completely displayed the unique Great Yue style.

This time, Ninghua had miscalculated. Fortunately, Chu Junyi had won the previous competition. Even if she lost, the result would not be too bad.

Many sober-minded Da’an officials secretly shook their heads in their hearts. There was probably no hope for this round.

Just as everyone was having different thoughts, a clear bell suddenly rang. The bell sound was not obvious in the accompaniment of Guzheng, but it clearly entered everyone’s ears, causing their minds to tremble. Many officials woke up from the spell and looked around for the source of the bell.

The commotion woke up quite a few people. After looking around for a while, they did not find any bell ringing. They were instantly puzzled.

Bu Jinglan frowned. This bell completely broke the atmosphere that had just been created on the arena!

Just as everyone was about to enjoy the dance on the high arena again, the bell rang again.

“Look, Prefectural Princess Zhaohua!”

On the arena, Shen Ninghua stood there solemnly. Her red dress was like a blazing fire. She held a folding fan high in her hand and the string of golden bells made of pure gold on her wrist was exceptionally conspicuous. Suddenly, she shook her sleeves and made a string of cold and pleasant bell sound. The accompanying Guzheng instantly changed the tune to fit in with the bell. The dancing of the ten Great Yue women instantly became disorderly. They hurriedly adjusted their footsteps to match the music. Some of them even deliberately changed their positions to block Shen Ninghua.

Shen Ninghua did not care about them at all. The folding fan in her hand opened with a whoosh. She rolled it up into a beautiful flower and jumped up with the tune.

In the beginning, her movements weren’t big, and because the surrounding women intentionally blocked her, people could only see her from time to time. However, this caused everyone below the arena to desire to see her more.

Slowly, the accompaniment of Guzheng and the bell sound were perfectly integrated, and the dance of the Great Yue women also unknowingly changed. Shen Ninghua gradually controlled the rhythm of the entire arena.

The folding fan in her hand was like a wisp of string. It was turning, swinging, opening, closing, twisting, circling and bending smoothly like the flying of a dragon or the dancing of a phoenix, which tightly gripped everyone’s heart.

A red dress, a folding fan, and a string of golden bells. She performed the most beautiful dance in front of everyone like a fairy. The women of the Great Yue Kingdom had long since become her foil, and everyone could only see the flash of red in their eyes. Their minds were fully activated, and they were unwilling to blink their eyes. That red dress was like a blazing flame that seemed to burn their eyeballs and burn all the way to the bottom of their hearts.

Chu Junyi almost forgot to play the Guzheng in his hands. He just subconsciously cooperated with the sound of the bell. His heart was beating like a drum, and his eardrums trembled. He wanted to hold the red figure in his arms, even if he would be burned by the blazing fire to ashes.

Shen Ninghua jumped up. Her dress and her sleeves all fluttered. She looked like a fairy from the Nine Heavens who was going to ascend the sky with the wind. The audience clenched their fists and wanted to reach out to touch her, but they were afraid of staining the dress and blaspheming the fairy, so they could only reluctantly fix their eyes on her.

Just as everyone almost couldn’t help shouting, a white figure bumped into the red figure, causing her to suddenly fall down the arena.

“Ah!”

“Heavens.”

“Fairy…”

While everyone wanted to furiously tear apart those white-clothed women, Chu Junyi had jumped down. He grabbed onto the flying sleeves and tightly hugged Shen Ninghua in his arms.

Chu Junyi panted heavily. When he saw Shen Ninghua falling off the arena, he was so scared that he forgot to breathe. “Ninghua…”

Shen Ninghua’s forehead was covered in sweat, but her eyes were as bright as flames. “I’m fine.”

When the two of them landed on the ground, Chu Junyi still felt a lingering fear in his heart. He would never let go of this girl!

Bu Jinglan held the wine cup in his hand again. However, this time, it was not because his people had lost, but because his people had almost injured Shen Ninghua. He only wanted to probe into Shen Ninghua when he came here, but now he really wanted to bring this girl back.

He stood up and was about to explain when Empress Zhao Huiying, who was sitting beside Baili Qingcang, suddenly threw the teacup in her hand to the ground.

Everyone was shocked and stood up to apologize.

Zhao Huiying’s face was filled with anger, and she said with deep fury, “Sixth Prince, the women you brought are truly bold. How dared they hurt Prefectural Princess Zhaohua in front of His Majesty and me? Do you really think you can be so presumptuous?”

The Crown Prince’s expression changed. Her Majesty never liked Shen Ninghua, so why would she openly defend her today?

Baili Qingcang, however, agreed with Zhao Huiying. He frowned and looked at Bu Jinglan below, waiting for his explanation.

Bu Jinglan immediately stepped forward and bowed to Zhao Huiying. “Please excuse me, Your Majesty. I will investigate this matter thoroughly and do justice to Prefectural Princess Zhaohua.”

Chu Junyi reluctantly let go of Shen Ninghua and forced himself to suppress the desire to hold her longer. He turned to look at Bu Jinglan, and his eyes were already filled with rage.

The ten maids on the arena were escorted over and they knelt on the ground. Their faces became pale as they waited for the verdict.

Zhao Huiying stepped forward, and her beautiful eyebrows were knitted together. “Justice? Heh, is there any need to investigate before doing justice? Let me ask you, who are those women?”

Bu Jinglan was shocked. “They are my maidservants.”

Zhao Huiying looked even angrier. “Maids? How dared you use your maids to compete with Prefectural Princess Zhaohua? What, did you think that the Great Yue Kingdom could look down on Da’an?”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Zhao Huiying continued, “Since you didn’t have this intention, then show me your attitude and kill these maids as an apology to Prefectural Princess Zhaohua.”

Bu Jinglan’s expression changed. He had painstakingly nurtured these women and was unwilling to lose any one of them. “Your Majesty, I will kill the girl who assaulted Prefectural Princess Zhaohua as an apology. The others…”

Zhao Huiying scolded angrily, “You just said that you didn’t look down on Da’an, but now you don’t even want to kill a few maids at my request. Then if you really married a woman from our country, wouldn’t you torture her to death?”

“No, Your Majesty…”

“Humph, there’s no need for you to explain anymore. Someone, take down those bold maids and punish them according to the charge of murdering the Prefectural Princess!” Zhao Huiying frowned and gave the order. Seeing that the maids were escorted down, her expression became better. She turned to Bu Jinglan, who wanted to continue arguing. “Sixth Prince, if your father is dissatisfied with my handling of the maids, you can ask him to write to me. I will personally explain it to him.”

“I don’t dare. They are just maids. Your Majesty is free to handle them in whichever way you like.”

Zhao Huiying smiled arrogantly. She got up and returned to her seat. The maids behind her were so frightened that they didn’t even dare to raise their heads.

Baili Jinchuan stared fixedly at Shen Ninghua and was extremely surprised in his heart. Although Her Majesty attached great importance to the rules of the Palace, she usually treated people very kindly. It was rare for her to be so furious. Now, she sternly scolded the Great Yue envoy for Shen Ninghua, whom she did not like very much. This was unusual! Although he did not understand why Her Majesty had done this, he had a faint intuition that all of this seemed to have something to do with Shen Ninghua.

Shen Ninghua was protected by Chu Junyi and was not hurt. At this moment, she stepped forward and bowed respectfully to Zhao Huiying. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”