In the silence, the appearance of the grass fruit was like a huge irony, reflecting Cai Lin's painted face, tears of fear, reflecting Shen Miao's calm and composed demeanor.
She put away her bow, bent down to pick up the grass fruit on the ground, glanced at Cai Lin, and suddenly smiled: "You lost."
She originally looked a bit delicate, but today from head to toe she seemed overly quiet, which made people overlook her age. Now with a gentle smile, she suddenly had a few touches of innocence. Everyone carefully examined her and felt that the original foolishness was not foolish at all, this little girl actually had bright eyes and white teeth, with a bit of elegant luxury.
Cai Lin couldn't say a word, his face still had the bloodstains from the wound he got earlier that hadn't been wiped clean yet, and tears kept falling down, spreading the bloodstains, making his whole face a mess of red and white. He looked disheveled and wretched. But at this moment, he didn't care about saving face anymore, he just stared at Shen Miao, his eyes filled with fear.
Shen Miao raised an eyebrow, seemingly finally knowing fear. It's good to be afraid, killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, from now on these snakes and insects around her will have to behave themselves.
The people below hurriedly helped Cai Lin, who was so scared that his legs were soft, down from the stage. The examiner responsible for verification walked to Shen Miao's side and asked in surprise, "Miss Shen, have you practiced shooting before?"
Not only must the aim be good, but the force of the bow cannot be relaxed. Shen Miao is a delicate and lovely little girl, yet she can shoot so skillfully, let alone the last arrow that everyone can see clearly, Cai Lin was so scared that he fell to the ground, while Shen Miao could still hit the grass fruit under Cai Lin's movement, which is not surprising.
Have you practiced? Shen Miao slightly tilted her head and fell into deep thought.
That was the first year she went to Qin as a hostage, and the royal family of Qin, whether it was the princess or the prince, loved to humiliate her. It seemed that watching this queen being insulted was a very interesting thing. Moreover, she couldn't even get angry because at that time Qin was lending troops to Mingqi.
Those princes and princesses invented a new game, which is the rule set by Cai Lin on the archery field today. Take turns to be the target. Those Qin royal family members would intentionally shoot her hair into disarray, shoot her clothes into shreds, and even "accidentally" injure her arms or neck while she was being the target. And she could only grit her teeth and endure it.
At that time, every night, she carefully set up a target in her own room and practiced diligently. She treated those targets as people who had hurt her, practicing seriously and shooting hard, finally achieving 100% accuracy.
When it was her turn to shoot arrows in broad daylight, she would still deliberately miss the target or fail to pull open the bow. No choice, a person under another's roof had to lower their head, she had to live to return to Ming Qi, so that she could see Wan Yu and Fu Ming.
That exhausting way of life continued for a whole year. Today, Cai Lin mentioned it again, and suddenly she was taken back to those humiliating days. In this life, she had no handle on anyone else's hands, so if she wanted to kill someone, she would just do it; if she wanted to shoot someone, she would just pull the trigger. No one could restrain her from living as she pleased. If anyone provoked her, she would fiercely retaliate. The Cai family dared to speak ill of Shen Xin? Let them be so scared that they shut their mouths!
This is what she should have done.
She smiled slightly: "I've seen you practicing diligently in the yard before, I've seen a lot of it, but I didn't expect that today's accidental hit would be so accurate."
The couple, Cai, was so angry that they almost fainted. Their own son used to be a first-class shooter, but today he didn't hit a single target and made a fool of himself in public. Shen Miao said that it was just her first time drawing the bow by relying on hearsay, yet she hit the grass fruit, what kind of nonsense is this?
"Clap, clap, clap." The crisp applause erupted, and the crowd turned around to see Prince Yu's relative clapping: "Indeed, it's not bad."
Shen Miao glanced at him, but didn't say a word.
The examiner said in a loud voice: "Is there anyone else who wants to challenge the first level of marksmanship?"
This round naturally won by Shen Miao, others can also come up to challenge Shen Miao. If no one challenges, Shen Miao is undoubtedly the champion.
Upon hearing this, Shen Yue's face suddenly turned ugly. In the first test, she was completely overshadowed by Shen Miao. She gazed at Fu Xiuyi from afar, who was talking to Zhou Wang and Jing Wang, clenching her fists tightly before releasing them. In her heart, she scolded that incompetent Cai Lin until he was covered in dog blood.
But the next moment, someone on the scene shouted: "I want to challenge Shen Miao!"
On the men's side, a young man stood up. He was only sixteen or seventeen years old, and he looked quite good, but unfortunately, his eyes revealed an unmistakable worldly cleverness, and even though his tone was humble, there was a sense of artificiality about him.
At a glance, Shen Miao knew who this person was. She couldn't help but feel amused as it turned out to be the illegitimate son of the Lin'an Marquis' residence, Xie Jingxuan's younger brother, Second Young Master Xie Changwu.
This person has no other skills, but is extremely smooth and skilled in flattering officials. He is particularly good at fawning and flattery. Later, when the Xie family fell from power, this pair of brothers and Fang Shi relied on the new emperor's sympathy for the Xie family to rise to prominence. Xie Changwu and his brother Xie Changchao even entered the imperial court as officials. At that time, she was very displeased with these two brothers because they were on the side of Madame Yuan and got along well with Fu Sheng, even often helping Fu Sheng suppress Fu Ming.
Shen Miao reminded Xie Jingxing to find an opportunity to get rid of his younger brother, also because he was still resentful about the things that happened in the past. These two cannot be left behind, leaving them is a grudge.
Now her enemy has not yet arrived, but this person has taken the initiative to come to the door. However, what is the reason? She took a look at Mr. Cai's position, Mr. Cai sank his face, and Xie Changchao seemed to comfort him.
It just so happens that the two Xie brothers have been trying to get a job under Cai Daoren, so they've been actively trying to befriend Cai Ling. Unfortunately, Cai Ling has always wanted to make friends with Xie Jinghang and ignored the two brothers. But isn't this a great opportunity now?
It was only at the end of last year that it became known that both Xie Changwu and Xie Changchao had entered the service of Imperial Censor Cai. Two years later, the Cai family was implicated in a corruption case and was completely destroyed.
Many things have changed, but many things remain unchanged. It seems that although changes have taken place, the outcome remains the same.
The two Xie brothers wanted to use this method to curry favor with the Cai family, but they had to let her take the blame.
Shen Miao was just about to respond when a voice suddenly appeared from the side.
That lazy voice, with an inexplicable sneer, said: "Normally at home you don't even practice with your brother, now you come to challenge Xiao Yu? Xie Changwu, you're getting more and more out of hand."
Xie Jinghang appeared on stage, he hugged his chest with a smile that was not quite a smile, looking at the two brothers who were suddenly stunned below, and smiled: "I'm here to challenge you two, how about it? Also let me discipline my younger brother, don't learn from bad people, and losing face by fighting with women has spread outside."
He looked at Shen Miao again and said, "You can go down now."
