Chapter 28: This will fascinate you to death!
Ruan Yunsheng was slightly startled, "Really?"
She and Su Muyan are actually not familiar with each other.
But once, the wife of the Chief Censor held a banquet in her mansion, and she was invited to attend. She accidentally walked to a corner of the back garden, and saw Su Muyan shedding tears in front of a jade flute that was broken into two pieces.
Su Muyan obviously didn't expect to be caught. He hurriedly wiped away his tears, his face still red, but he still remembered to bow to her.
The boy was only thirteen or fourteen years old at the time, his eyes were red as if they were soaked in water, and he looked a bit pitiful.
A bit like Xie Yan, who was bullied by her when they were young.
She just thought that Su Muyan was feeling sorry for the jade flute. Remembering that there was a good one in the storeroom of the Marquis' Mansion, and since she was not good at playing the flute, she comforted him a little and said that she would give him a better one later, so he stopped crying.
She was engaged to Xie Huaiye at that time, and Su Muyan was just a younger brother in her eyes. Although the two of them were innocent, there was still a difference between men and women and they had to avoid suspicion.
So she used her third brother's name to ask the housekeeper to send someone to deliver the jade flute to Su Muyan.
But after that, the two rarely saw each other.
Su Muyan prayed for her, probably because of the jade flute?
Princess An smiled and said, "Ayan will be here today too. He will definitely be very happy to see you later!"
The two chatted for a while, and the maid quietly reminded, "Princess, it's almost time, the luncheon will begin soon."
Princess An nodded and went to the hall with Ruan Yunsheng.
It was still early after lunch, so the villa had prepared an elegant gathering for friends to gather over literature.
Prince An has always loved elegance and refinement, and such banquets are held in his palace all year round. Poetry, songs, calligraphy, painting, music, chess, stringed instruments, singing and dancing are all accepted. It has always been a grand event that the elegant scholars in the capital compete to attend.
Although Prince An was the eldest prince born to the Queen, he had leg problems that prevented him from attending court, so he had no chance of becoming emperor.
He was not good at walking and had difficulty going out, but he liked the hustle and bustle, so he often held various banquets and invited scholars and literati to come and get together.
When Ruan Yunsheng and Princess An moved to Yanchi Garden, most of the guests had already arrived.
Prince An sat in the main seat, with the two brothers Xie Yan and Xie Huaiye on his sides.
In the yard, rosewood tables and chairs were placed along the corridor, with tea cups and candied fruit plates on the tables. A few branches of red plum blossoms were inserted in a jade vase, which looked particularly elegant against the snow on the roof.
In the center of the courtyard, there is a round white jade platform.
The entire platform is made of white marble, the top is polished as smooth as a mirror, and the edge is carved with lotus patterns, which glows softly in the sunlight.
After everyone was seated, Prince An raised his hand and signaled his attendants to bring up a celadon basin containing precious green-calyx plum blossoms.
He said in a loud voice: "Today at the banquet, if you have the leisure time, you can come to the White Jade Platform and show off your talents. This king will use this as a prize and give it to the one with the best talent."
Everyone responded in agreement.
Not long after, a young man walked into the courtyard and recited a new poem of his own, which drew praise from everyone.
Immediately afterwards, a noble lady in a pink dress came on stage and played a piece of music called "Three Variations on Plum Blossoms".
For a moment, the sound of the piano's turning and plucking, the ups and downs of chanting, and the rhythm of the piano and poetry filled the whole courtyard.
If the man on stage is of the same age as Ruan Yunsheng, and has a good family background, character and appearance, Princess An will introduce him to Ruan Yunsheng in a low voice.
If she likes him, the princess will help to introduce him to her after the banquet.
Xie Yan's eyes fell on Ruan Yunsheng with restraint. Thinking of what Prince An had said before, he knew what Princess An's intention was.
A bitter feeling welled up in his heart. He wondered if any of these people here today could catch her eye.
Ruan Yunbo was also looking at the men present one by one. The more he looked, the tighter his brows furrowed, and he was full of dissatisfaction.
Although there are many young talents in the field, in his eyes, none of them is worthy of his sister.
Bai Ruowei sat in the ladies' section, watching everyone display their talents. She expressed admiration but felt disdain in her heart.
It's all clichés, nothing new!
Today, see how she stuns the audience!
Not only did she want to astound Prince Duan, she also wanted to make Ruan Yunbo regret missing out on such a talented and stunning woman like her!
If Ruan Yunbo wants to please her again in the future, it will not be as easy as before!
Bai Ruowei estimated the time in her mind and signaled Qiu Xin to bring the pipa she had prepared.
Sun Manying asked in surprise, "Ruowei, are you going to play the pipa on stage?"
She had invited Bai Ruowei to join her at previous banquets, but Bai Ruowei always refused on the grounds that she was not good at music. She didn't expect that she would go on stage to perform today.
Bai Ruowei smiled slightly, "I just played it on impulse. If I don't play well later, I hope Miss Sun won't laugh at me."
Sun Manying thought she was being modest and nodded, "Don't worry, I will definitely support you!"
Seeing Bai Ruowei walking up to the white jade platform with a pipa in her arms, Prince Duan looked over with interest.
Bai Ruowei is gentle, considerate, intelligent, and good at making perfumes. She is a rare confidante.
However, it was the first time he knew that Bai Ruowei was actually good at playing the pipa, which was beyond his expectation.
I wonder how many more surprises Bai Ruowei has waiting for him?
Ruan Yunbo frowned when he saw Bai Ruowei and looked away in disgust.
He did admire Bai Ruowei in the past, but now whenever he saw Bai Ruowei, he would think of her mean face in the teahouse that day.
If he didn't want to fight with a woman, he would have wanted to slap Bai Ruowei hard when she was rude to Shengsheng and even slandered the Marquis of Zhenguo Mansion.
But his good upbringing prevented him from doing anything physical with a woman.
But now he only felt disgust towards Bai Ruowei, and no longer had any of the admiration he had before for her.
Bai Ruowei walked onto the stage gracefully with light lotus steps.
She is actually not good at playing the pipa, but she knows so many modern pop songs. Wouldn’t it shock everyone if she picked out any one of them?
She has never shown off her unique talent before, just to make a splash!
She built up her momentum and a song "Yi Jian Mei" adapted by herself came out!
As soon as Bai Ruowei started singing, there was a moment of silence at the table.
Everyone showed surprise on their faces and looked towards the stage.
Seeing that all the guests were looking at her, Bai Ruowei felt secretly proud, as if she was at a concert.
She thought to herself: You are a bunch of country bumpkins who have never seen the world. Won’t you be charmed by today’s performance?
Soon, the young men gathered together and whispered to each other, while the ladies all looked confused and whispered:
"What song is Miss Bai singing? Why have I never heard it before?"
"The tune is so strange, I can't understand a word..."
"Although I haven't heard this strange piece of music before, Miss Bai's pipa playing is too perfunctory, isn't it?"
…
Bai Ruowei was still immersed in her singing: "Snowflakes are fluttering, the north wind is howling, and the world is vast..."
She sang more and more vigorously, and when she reached the end of the song with the notes rising, Ruan Yunsheng was drinking tea and accidentally choked.
Xie Yan's eyes were always on Ruan Yunsheng, and he glanced at Bai Ruowei unhappily when he saw this.
It's really sensational!
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