"Thank you." Jiang Songyi pinched the banknote between two fingers, shook it open, and held the watermark up to the sun.
Xia Yong leaned halfway over the stone table, his gold-embroidered cuffs stained with tea. "Who is the winner, County Lady?"
Su Sheng leaned against the crabapple tree, chewing a tender leaf. "Of course I'll bet on Yao Zhe." Spots of light filtered through the branches, falling on his loose collar. "Who doesn't know about the Jiang brothers' grudges?"
Jiang Yihuan, struggling with Yao Zhe, twitched his ears slightly, his brows furrowed in a frown. Bai Linxi peeked over, twisting her handkerchief. The mandarin ducks embroidered on the silk were wrinkled.
Jiang Songyi casually tossed the banknote into the betting pile, her agate bracelet jingling against the bluestone. "Bet on Jiang Yihuan."
"Huh?" Su Sheng almost bit his tongue, and the tea spilled onto his lapel.
Jiang Yihuan had just touched the tip of his toes on the branch of the plum tree when he stumbled, and Yao Zhe seized the opportunity to punch him in the face. A few plum blossoms, entangled in a black hairband, fell off, and his cheekbone immediately turned purple.
"Brother Jiang, you can get distracted?" Yao Zhe laughed ostentatiously while shaking his numb wrist, the jade hair crown hanging crookedly on his temples.
The crowd watching the excitement went wild. The green-feathered parrot in Ye Zhe's arms flapped its wings and imitated the voice: "Beat! Beat!" He stuffed a melon seed into the bird's beak and whistled in a discordant tone to cheer.
Jiang Yihuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his thumb and looked over at the crowd. Jiang Songyi was propping up her chin and talking to Xia Yong. The hem of her pomegranate-red skirt spread on the stone bench like a burning fire.
"What's wrong with the county lady..." Bai Linxi bit her lower lip and took a step closer, her embroidered shoes crushing the fallen flowers on the ground.
Su Sheng pushed away Xia Yong's hand from his shoulder, his silk shirt wrinkled like dried pickles. "Are you crazy? The other day you said you were going to chase him out with a broom!"
"Who's against money?" Jiang Songyi picked up a piece of walnut biscuit and broke it open, the crust flopping onto the stone table. "Yao Zhe's lower body is weak. The third move should have been for his knee." Her fingertips, stained with crumbs, gestured on the table. "He insisted on a head-on confrontation. He's already used up 70% of his internal energy."
Xia Yong's hand, clutching the jade token, paused in mid-air. The cloud pattern embroidered with gold thread shone brightly against the sun. "I've heard that the county lady is a disciple of the Tianji Pavilion. Today I finally get to see it for myself."
Suddenly, a burst of exclamations erupted from the crowd. Jiang Yihuan grabbed Yao Zhe's wrist, his boot sole rubbing against the cracks in the bricks as he spun around, throwing him hard to the ground. Yao Zhe's head thumped, his leather belt buckling at the buckle, but he still grinned through bloodied teeth, "That was a pleasure!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
