In the garden of the princess's residence, the noble ladies from the capital all watched Jiang Yimian nervously, their hands tightly clasped together.
Worry and fear were evident on everyone's face.
Chen Feiyan, in particular, was practically begging for divine intervention, secretly praying in her heart that Jiang Yimian would definitely win.
Finally, still feeling uneasy, she stared at the sky with her round eyes and muttered softly, "If the princess wins, I will listen to my mother and go see that young master of the Wan family. I will never go against my mother again."
After saying that, he nodded heavily, looking as if he had made a great decision.
Jiang Yimian, however, remained calm and composed, showing no sign of worry about the competition. Instead, she appeared relaxed and at ease, standing out among the anxious crowd.
Especially the crabapple blossom hair ornament on her head, swaying gently in the breeze, attracted everyone's attention.
Abiya looked at her nonchalant attitude, snorted, raised her chin, and looked at the birds in the cages with a determined look in her eyes.
She wanted to show these noble ladies from the capital what the women of the grasslands were capable of.
Even those people who consider themselves the most capable cannot compare to her.
Seeing that the two were ready, Xie Yu raised his hand towards Granny Gui who was standing to the side.
Granny Gui immediately understood and said to the servants beside the cage, "The competition begins."
As soon as he finished speaking, the cage that had been tightly closed was immediately opened, and instantly, many birds flapped their wings and flew out of the cage, circling high into the sky.
In an instant, the already small birds became even smaller, flying continuously into the sky, making them difficult to see clearly.
Abiya quickly drew her bow and shot an arrow; with two "whoosh" sounds, two birds fell to the ground.
She just smiled and continued shooting at the next one.
Looking at Jiang Yimian next to her, she was calm and composed, showing no sign of anxiety. She pulled the bowstring a few times before nocking and shooting, which made everyone else anxious.
Seeing that Abiya had already shot down several birds while Jiang Yimian had only just begun to draw her bow, everyone became even more anxious.
"Princess, what's wrong? Why aren't you shooting arrows at those birds? If you don't shoot, they'll fly even further away."
"Yeah, I just saw that Abiya hit four or five of them."
"This is terrible. It seems the princess really doesn't know how to use a bow and arrow. I should have gone up myself; at least I could have shot an arrow."
Hearing this, Chen Feiyan couldn't help but worry, even though she trusted Jiang Yimian. She anxiously craned her neck to look in Jiang Yimian's direction.
Xue Lingyu was overjoyed and almost burst out laughing.
Let that little bitch Jiang brag. Now look what's happened. She probably won't be able to shoot down a single one. She'll get what's coming to her.
She was determined to publicize this little slut's shameful deeds to the people of the capital, ensuring she was utterly disgraced and hated by everyone.
Xie Yu couldn't help but feel anxious. Seeing Jiang Yimian slowly drawing her bow and aiming at the birds in the sky, but without any intention of shooting, he began to worry.
Unfortunately, the competition had already begun, so no matter how worried she was, she couldn't say anything and could only wait patiently.
Abiya felt as if she had returned to the time when she was riding and shooting on the grassland. She kept shooting arrows at the birds in the air. At first, she would have spent some time trying to aim at the birds that were circling in the air, but now she could aim quickly. Every arrow she shot would bring a bird down with it.
She glanced at Jiang Yimian with a hint of smugness, only to see that the other party finally drew his bow and shot, but barely managed to hit the bird.
Seeing how clumsy her opponent was, she felt even more smug, thinking that the outcome of the competition was already decided.
A hint of mockery crept into her smile. "If you can't shoot arrows, why show off? If you admit defeat from the start, I definitely won't make things difficult for you."
Jiang Yimian didn't even glance at her, and shot two more arrows into the air, both of which successfully carried birds down from the sky.
Abia simply snorted, "Nothing special."
However, the next second, Jiang Yimian took three arrows out of the quiver and nocked them on her bow.
She was taken aback, but then laughed out loud. Just as she was about to say a few more sarcastic remarks, the three arrows shot into the air at the same time.
Three "thud" sounds were heard as arrows pierced living creatures, and at that moment, the three arrows fell from the sky, each carrying a bird.
She felt like her eyes were playing tricks on her, and her face was filled with disbelief.
How is that possible? How could this person shoot three arrows at once and hit them all?
Even she couldn't guarantee that the force of shooting three arrows would be the same, let alone someone who was obviously not skilled with bows and arrows. She must have just gotten lucky.
Although others could not see it clearly, they could also see that the arrow fell to the ground at a significantly different speed than an ordinary arrow.
A few people were whispering among themselves, "Did you guys see that? The princess just shot three arrows at once, right? Did she hit any birds?"
"One of them must have hit the target. I saw that the arrow fell very fast, it was obviously weighed down by something heavy. I just don't know if all three arrows hit the target. That's great, Princess, you're really amazing!"
Abiya found the sounds of laughter and chatter grating. She gripped her bow and arrow tightly and sneered, "Stop with the fancy stuff. We're competing to see who can shoot the most birds. You're just lucky. Just you wait and see, I'll definitely beat you."
Jiang Yimian pretended not to hear her words, and instead demonstrated it to her again, drawing the bow, nocking three arrows, and shooting them directly into the air.
Instantly, three more birds were hit.
Abiya's eyes widened instantly, her face filled with anger. "You, you did it on purpose! You're obviously faking it because you can't shoot arrows!"
Jiang Yimian simply shrugged and said indifferently, "I never said I couldn't shoot arrows."
Abiya was so angry that she forgot to be surprised and quickly drew her bow and shot an arrow at the bird in the sky.
In an instant, most of the birds in the sky disappeared.
The two were working up a great deal of energy, and Chen Feiyan was so excited watching that she almost cheered for Jiang Yimian.
If she weren't afraid of making a noise that would scare away the birds, she would definitely have applauded for the princess.
Abiya was starting to feel the strain. It took a lot of effort to fully draw the bow each time. Although she could now nock three arrows at a time, she couldn't guarantee that every arrow would hit the target.
On the contrary, the three arrows made it even more difficult for her.
Jiang Yimian seemed to be able to do it very easily. At least for now, she could not see how tired the other party was, and even the control of the force of drawing the bow was extremely skillful.
The way the other person drew the bow was clearly not very skilled; it was obvious that they didn't handle a bow often. Yet, almost every arrow they shot hit a bird.
That's incredible accuracy. You absolutely can't achieve that level of accuracy without years of training. This guy was playing dumb from the start.
The thought of this possibility infuriated her. Gone was her previous contempt; instead, she fired arrows into the air even faster.
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