A fleeting glimpse, the character "媞" is pronounced halfway.
In the warm spring of March, a banquet of a hundred flowers is held in the royal garden.
Under the guise of flower viewing, it was in reality an unspoken social gathering of the sons of the capital's top noble families. Crown Prince Zhao Jingchen sat upright in the main seat, his face calm, but his eyes would occasionally sweep over his younger brother, Prince Yi Zhao Jingyi, who sat slouching and seemed to have the word "bored" etched on his forehead.
Zhao Jingyi had been dragged here by his elder brother, the Emperor. Dressed in his princely robes, which were loosely draped over his shoulders, he held a wine cup in his hand, idly swirling it. The garden was full of vibrant colors, but to him, the newly acquired myna bird was far more interesting. He was pondering what excuse to make to slip away when his gaze inadvertently swept over a cluster of magnolias in the distance, only to suddenly freeze.
Beneath the magnolia blossoms stood a young girl in a green dress.
With a slender figure and a cool, aloof air, she resembled a solitary orchid in a secluded valley, separated from the surrounding hustle and bustle by an invisible barrier. She turned slightly to the side, lowering her head to gently smell a magnolia blossom that was about to bloom, her profile as beautiful as a lady in an ancient painting.
Zhao Jingyi's heart skipped a beat for no reason, feeling that all the spring scenery in the garden had suddenly become her background. He was always a free spirit, so since he thought she was beautiful, he looked at her openly. His gaze slid from her cascading black hair to her slender neck, and finally landed on a white jade pendant hanging from her waist.
The jade pendant is warm and smooth, with exquisite carving, and it seems to have small characters engraved on it.
Zhao Jingyi, intrigued, squinted, relying on his excellent eyesight, and tried hard to decipher the small characters. The first was "Qin," oh, the name of the Qin family's Vice Minister of Rites. The second was "Yu," hmm, a name with "Yu" in it, quite elegant. The third character... the structure was a bit complicated, a "woman" on the left and a "is" on the right?
His mind raced, and he thought, "Add the radical for 'woman' to the character 'is,' isn't that simple? It's definitely 'is'! No doubt about it!"
So, this dashing and unrestrained young prince, in a moment of impulsiveness to attract the beauty's attention, raised his voice in what he thought was a charming and debonair tone, but in reality, it carried the frivolous air typical of a spoiled brat:
"Oh, whose daughter is this? What a unique name—Qin Yu Shi!"
His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for the girl under the magnolia tree to hear, and it also attracted several surprised glances from the surrounding area.
The girl in green turned her head in surprise at the sound. She had eyebrows like distant mountains and eyes like autumn water; indeed, she was an exceptionally beautiful woman. She looked at Zhao Jingyi, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes at first, then, as if she understood something, a very slight smile curved her lips, a smile carrying a hint of knowingness and a touch of mockery, her voice clear and crisp like the clinking of jade stones:
“Your Highness, the character ‘媞’ is pronounced ‘tí’ and means ‘beautiful and peaceful.’ To not even know the character ‘媞’ and yet come to strike up a conversation is rather…unseemly and a bit too hasty, isn’t it?”
Her tone was calm, even with a hint of a smile, but every word was clear, especially the last eight words, "unseemly and somewhat hasty," which were light and delicate, yet like a small needle, precisely piercing Zhao Xiaowangye's pitiful "cultural confidence."
A few suppressed snickers could be faintly heard from the surroundings.
This was the first time in Zhao Jingyi's life that he had been publicly "corrected" for being "uncultured" by a young woman, especially the very woman he had just admired. His nonchalant smile froze instantly, and his handsome face flushed crimson to his ears. He couldn't tell if it was embarrassment or anger.
"You...!" He instinctively wanted to retort, but after carefully considering the fact that the character "媞" was pronounced "提", he realized... it seemed... perhaps... he really had misread half of it? Now he was even more speechless, and after a long while, he could only squeeze out a sentence that had no intimidating power: "This king... this king is happy to pronounce it this way!"
Seeing this, Qin Yuti's smile deepened, but she ignored his sophistry. She simply gave a slight curtsy, turned around gracefully, and walked elegantly towards the other group of women, leaving him with an exceptionally refined back view.
Zhao Jingyi stood frozen in place, unsure whether to drink the glass of wine in his hand or put it down. He stared at the receding blue figure, feeling as if countless claws were scratching at his heart.
“Qin, Yu, Ti…” He gritted his teeth and silently but correctly pronounced the name, feeling the spot on his face where he had been “hit” still burning.
You wicked Qin Yuti! I'll remember you!
Prince Zhao had no desire to stay at the Hundred Flowers Banquet any longer. His mind was filled with that aloof figure and those words, spoken with a smile, "Inappropriate and somewhat hasty."
And so, the gears of fate began to turn slowly in this farcical "fate of a single word." A hilarious and chaotic drama between a "playboy" prince and a learned young lady was about to unfold.
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