Chapter 115

115 Being pretty is not enough. Being skilled is still lacking. You need a brain as well! Part II

“What about ‘my’ Qin Wang? Do you still want him?” Bai Yu pretended to emphasize her ownership of Ouyang Mingxian.

“Wangye is not yours!” Xu Peipei glared.

She shrugged. “Even if he’s not mine, do you still want him?”

“That’s none of your business!” Turning her face the other way, Xu Peipei snatched the cloth out of Bai Yu’s hands, then carried the water basin away with her.

Bai Yu raised an eyebrow at the woman who walked in and out of her Meihua residence as if it was her own home. Her eyes moved to her sleeping brother before turning to her friend, who was silently watching her and Xu Peipei’s conversation while sipping on his tea. Xu Luanle shrugged, acting innocent when stared at, and continued with his tea. Bai Yu sighed. She turned back to pull the blanket over her brother after she had finished washing his body.

“She has always wanted to be Meihua Lady. How come she declined the invitation this year?” Bai Yu questioned Xu Peipei’s decision. She was surprised when she first heard about it. Had she not been repeating so much that she would take Bai Yu’s title away from her?

“You’ve changed. Why can’t Pei-er change too?”

“That’s not the same thing.” She had changed because she had been transmigrated here. Xu Peipei could not possibly change for the same reason.

“Don’t think you can slack off just because I’m not competing this year, Miss Bai.” Her voice came before she appeared. Xu Peipei came back into the room again. “Come here. Let’s talk outside.”

.....

Bai Yu and Xu Luanle exchanged a glance. Xu Peipei glared at her for the second time today. “Hurry up! Don’t disturb the sleeping one.”

Bai Yu frowned as she studied the woman in green. It was the prominent curve in particular that drew her attention. Ah, she got carried away again.

“Are you going to stare at me all day?”

“Why don’t you ask your chest?”

“You!”

“Hahaha. Go, you two. Don’t make a ruckus here, sisters.”

Xu Luanle acted as a mediator this time. Bai Yu did not slack off because Xu Peipei and Yue Huiling did not participate in this year’s competition. It was because she had practiced until she was certain of her victory. Being pretty is not enough. Being skilled is still lacking. You need a brain as well!

While she was lounging around in her Meihua residence with the Xu siblings as her usual guests, Bai Yu had sent people to spy on the competition and find two women who had the potential to enter the final round. It would allow Bai Yu to study her opponents’ magic and abilities, and then she would be able to tailor her performance to ensure her victory.

It had been seven days since the qualifying round. Now, there were less than ten competitors left. One of them was Bai Hua. She showed her dancing skills in combination with her black-level magic, impressing both the citizens of the capital and travelers from afar.

Apart from the spectacle of beauties fighting each other with their magical abilities and impeccable manners, the story about Bai Hua competing to take the title from her older half-sister was also a hot topic in the current gossip. Some were true, while others were greatly exaggerated, with half of the stories coming from people who knew the facts and the other half from liars.

Bai Yu paid no attention to the people making comparisons between her and Bai Hua. She did not care how superior she was to that woman. The only thing that bothered her was how everyone agreed that the two misses from the Bai family were not on good terms.

It was true. Even without considering the bullying or the verbal attacks over the years, just looking at how a younger sister accepted an invitation to compete with her older sister was enough for everyone to see the nature of their relationship. Sometimes, Bai Yu could not fathom the logic in this heroine’s head. She knew that Bai Hua was a genius and she would not pass up an opportunity to prove herself. But did she not realize that she was trying to take away her sister’s possession?

Hmph! She was just like her mother. Bai Yu did not hate her, only pity her. It was already proven that fate would make Bai Hua the center of all attention, but Bai Yu would still let her taste her first defeat. She would teach her to know her place. Consider this a little revenge for everything she had done in both this life and the previous one.

Come to think of it, Bai Yu did not resent her that much. She only wanted to play around.

———————

The evaluation of Meihua Lady started with the invitation process. The eligible women must be from an aristocratic family or a wealthy merchant. Female royals would rarely accept the invitation, as they took pride in their own rank and felt no need to fight against commoners. Thus, the number of competitors each year was between fifty and sixty women.

The institute would select the noble ladies on the basis of the ‘Three Obediences, Four Virtues’ that the women of this era must follow. Furthermore, their body figures and blemishes were taken into consideration as well.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

These were the basic criteria that every woman of the time knew. Very few would be unqualified because of their reputation for being spoiled or wicked, which had been heard by others outside of their families. That was a reason why Bai Yu gave importance to her reputation during the period before the competition would begin. Her party had helped her greatly.

Then, in the qualifying round, all participants would display their skills in the four arts: qin, qi, shu, and hua. In other words, the qualified women would have to be skilled in guqin, chess, calligraphy, and painting, all without relying on magic. The experts in each branch of the arts would be the judges for this round.

Almost half of the participants would fail in this round since being skilled in all four arts was hard to achieve. Most would be particularly skilled in one of them. In the year that Bai Yu competed, she was renowned for her exceptional performance in all arts.

In the second round, the women would compete against each other in a match of two. Those with the same level of magic would perform a show to display their magic. The winner would be voted by the audience. Those who lost would be disqualified from the competition. In some years, two competitors in the same match were disqualified because the audience deemed their performance unsatisfactory.

From this round on, the institute was no longer the judge. The competitors would have to find a way to capture the audience’s attention and satisfy them since acceptance from the general citizens was crucial for the title.

This year, twelve women passed the third round. The rules were similar to the second round, though the competitors would have to change the type of performance they chose to display their magic power. In her year, Bai Yu had changed from playing the guqin to dancing, and she passed with overwhelming votes.

This year, Bai Hua passed the round by combining her black level magic with painting.

The next performance would remain the same, having the competitors change their performances until there were only two left to compete with Bai Yu, the current Meihua Lady, in the final round.

One of them was her half-sister, as she had expected. The next morning, Bai Yu would have to compete against a woman she did not care much about, and in the afternoon, it would be Bai Hua...her beloved half-sister.