Chapter 11 The Order to Break the Willow Branch
The second daughter, speaking on behalf of everyone, said, "It is better to obey than to be respectful."
With a wave of her hand, the eldest princess had several maids bring over writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones on trays.
Seeing the other three girls confidently grinding ink and wielding their brushes, Ruan Bi secretly groaned. Helpless, she desperately recalled the key points of poetry writing from her elementary school textbooks and racked her brains to come up with a poem. After finishing, she saw the three girls calmly sipping their tea, and her cheeks flushed slightly.
The maids came over again to collect the writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones, and presented the completed poem to the princess.
The eldest princess glanced at each poem, nodding slightly. While lacking originality, the poems were well-structured, elegant, and refreshing. The women of the Ruan family in Jingxi were indeed highly learned. Upon seeing Ruan Bi's poem, she couldn't help but smile, glancing at her and beckoning to Cui Jiu.
Cui Jiu leaned close to her ear, listened to what she had said, and then presented a cup of wine to Ruan Bi, saying, "Fifth Miss, this is a calming wine that the Princess has given you."
The other girls were surprised, looking at the princess and then at Ruan Bi.
Ruan Bi blushed slightly, stood up and bowed to the princess, saying, "This humble woman is unwell, I hope Your Highness will forgive me?"
The eldest princess waved her hand, inviting her to sit down, and said, "Fifth Miss, there's no need to be modest. Writing poetry is inherently difficult. Even great scholars have exhausted their minds and energy, let alone a young woman like you. Although your poems are not perfectly rhymed, they are full of natural inspiration and humor. No wonder Ziying took you as his disciple."
The second daughter, who was always proud of her talent, couldn't help but feel both jealous and curious when she heard the eldest princess say this. She asked, "I wonder what poem the fifth sister wrote?"
The eldest princess handed the poem from the Ruan family to Gu Jingyi and said, "Jingyi, read it aloud to everyone."
Gu Jingyi recited softly: "The sun shines on the open pavilion, I want to sit and forget myself, my spirit wanders in the vast emptiness, the cave opens. Suddenly I hear that the princess wants to compose a poem, and thunderbolts roll down from the clear sky."
The three girls burst into laughter.
After laughing, the second young lady said with a slight apology, "My fifth younger sister has no talent in composing poetry, and has offended the eldest princess's eyes and ears."
The eldest princess shook her head and said, "How could it offend my senses? Although the poem has flaws in its parallelism and tonal patterns, its theme is quite unique." She paused, then said seriously, "Everyone wants to transcend worldly concerns and achieve enlightenment, but it's not that easy. If the mind is not at peace, troubles will arise one after another. Therefore, Fifth Miss's poem is excellent. Cui Jiu, go and fetch five taels of gold as a reward for Fifth Miss."
The second daughter was rebuffed and felt extremely embarrassed.
Cui Jiu agreed and withdrew.
Ruan Bi was overjoyed. Five taels of gold were equivalent to fifty taels of silver, which was equivalent to the princess giving her 30,000 RMB at once.
People with connections are different; this trip was worthwhile, and we've escaped poverty and are on the road to a better life.
The eldest princess looked at Ruan Bi with admiration in her eyes and said, "It is rare for someone so young to have such insight into Taoism. I am very pleased."
These words struck the second young lady like a bolt from the blue. She was consumed by jealousy, but unable to vent it, she pretended to drink tea to conceal her embarrassment. Only after regaining her composure did she put down her teacup. The fourth young lady was also jealous, turning to look at Ruan Bi, wondering how Ruan Bi could be so lucky, finding joy in every person she met.
"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness." Ruan Bi was also a little uncomfortable. She knew very well that the poem was not very good. The reason why the princess liked it was mostly because the first line of the poem mentioned the Taoist concept of "separation from worldly affairs and sitting in oblivion," and the second line pointed out the difficulty of separation from worldly affairs and sitting in oblivion, which perfectly matched the princess's state of mind.
As noon approached, the heat gradually intensified.
The princess ordered her servants to hang curtains on the east, west, and south sides of the open pavilion, then placed ice basins in the four corners of the pavilion and commanded several maids to use large round fans to create a breeze. A gentle breeze stirred the curtains, making the outside scenery appear and disappear in the breeze, adding to the elegance. Inside the pavilion, it was unusually cool, like early autumn.
The princess then ordered the tea and fruit platters to be removed and replaced with rice, dishes, wine, and meat.
Just then, a maidservant rushed over and said, "Your Highness, the eldest young master has returned from the Imperial Academy."
The princess exclaimed in surprise, "Oh!" and said, "Why is he back today? Tell him to come here."
"Yes." The maid replied and quickly left.
The four girls looked at each other for a moment, not saying much. After a while, they heard light footsteps approaching, and they quickly lowered their heads and sat up straight.
The maid parted the curtain, and Gu Xiaobai strode in. He was taken aback when he saw the four girls, and his steps faltered slightly.
The eldest princess asked, "Why have you come back today?"
Gu Xiaobai said, "My cousin said that the Imperial Guards will be competing with newly recruited warriors this afternoon. I wanted to go watch, so I asked for leave to come back." The Imperial Guards are the regular army of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the emperor's guards, responsible for defending the capital and preparing for war. To maintain the vitality of the Imperial Guards, several times a year, brave and strong warriors are selected from all over the country to compete with the Imperial Guards in the capital, thus strengthening the army.
"Going to watch the martial arts competition again." The princess rolled her eyes at him, somewhat helplessly. She didn't like Gu Xiaobai's fondness for fighting, but he just wouldn't listen.
Gu Xiaobai smiled and changed the subject: "Grandma, what brings you to sit here today?"
“No one’s home on weekdays, so it’s boring to sit here alone. Today, the four young ladies from the Ruan family came to visit, and since the weather is nice, it’s quite enjoyable to chat and admire the scenery.” After a pause, the princess asked, “Have you eaten yet?”
Gu Xiaobai said, "Not yet. My mother went to the palace, and the servants in the manor didn't know I was back, so they didn't prepare any food for me. Grandma, is there anything good to eat here? I'm starving."
"Alright, let's eat here." The eldest princess clapped her hands again and said, "Make a seat for the eldest young master."
Two maids carried out a low table and placed it below the princess, then laid a mat on top of it.
Gu Xiaobai was about to sit down when the Princess pulled him back and said, "Don't sit down yet. Greet the four young ladies of the Ruan family first."
The four girls quickly stood up and bowed to him one by one, and he returned the bows to each of them.
The second young lady had long heard of his reputation for riding recklessly, injuring people, and causing trouble. She had always thought he was a reckless and arrogant young master. But when she saw him in person, she was surprised to find him tall and handsome, with an imposing presence, even more dashing than Xie Mingyue. Her heart pounded like a deer, and her cheeks flushed slightly.
After exchanging greetings, they sat down again.
At this moment, Cui Jiu returned. Seeing Gu Xiaobai there, he smiled and came over to greet her.
Seeing that he was holding three small golden cakes, Gu Xiaobai asked curiously, "What are you going to do with these?"
Cui Jiu said, "Just now, the four young ladies of the Ruan family composed poems, and the fifth young lady won. This was a reward from the eldest princess."
Gu Xiaobai glanced at Ruan Bi with surprise, as if to say, "So you can even write poetry?" "What kind of poetry?"
The eldest princess had someone hand the poem to Gu Xiaobai. He glanced at it and said disdainfully, "The parallelism and tonal patterns are all flawed. Can this be called a poem? It's obvious that you have no poetic talent whatsoever. That's why you reacted so dramatically when Grandma said you had to write a poem. And you even used 'Leaving the World and Forgetting the Dust' to please Grandma. It's just a clever trick..."
The second girl glanced at him sideways, feeling pleased, and thought he looked incredibly pleasing to the eye.
Ruan Bi cursed her bad luck, thinking that nothing good ever came of Gu Xiaobai.
“…In my opinion, this gold shouldn’t belong to her, but to the author of this poem.” Gu Xiaobai picked out one of the poems.
The eldest princess peeked out and saw that it was made by the second daughter. After thinking for a moment, she said, "I'll do as you say."
Cui Jiu then gave the gold to the second young lady, who accepted it with a smile. She glanced at Gu Xiaobai, her eyes sparkling like a pool of bright autumn water.
Gu Xiaobai looked at Ruan Bi and saw that her face was ashen and she remained unmoved, which made him feel even more annoyed. Little did he know that although Ruan Bi's face was calm, she had already been cutting him to pieces in her heart.
Once the food and wine were served, the maids filled everyone's cups with wine.
The eldest princess said, "I'm in a good mood today. Cui Jiu, go and break off a willow branch. Let's play a game of breaking branches. Whoever loses has to tell a joke. If they can't, they have to drink a cup of wine. If they tell a joke that doesn't make anyone laugh, they also have to drink a cup of wine."
What kind of "Broken Branch Order" is this? Can't we be less refined? Ruan Bi's head was spinning again.
The princess ordered her servants to put everyone's low tables together, and then ordered her maids to tie their eyes shut with handkerchiefs and beat the drum.
Ruan Bi suddenly realized that the "Broken Branch Order" was actually a game of passing a flower while beating a drum. She felt much more at ease, knowing that she could tell jokes.
Three drumbeats sounded, and the willow branch landed in Gu Xiaobai's hand. He thought for a moment and said, "I heard a joke the other day, and I'll tell it to you all. A scholar went to the capital to take the imperial examination. Although he was unlearned, his family was very wealthy, and he was very generous. A group of people flattered him and asked him to compose a poem. That day, it happened to be snowing, so he recited, shaking his head: 'Snow falls from the sky but not water, it turns into water when it falls to the ground. Turning into water is too much trouble, it would have been better if it had just fallen into the water in the first place.'"
The second young lady burst out laughing, and the maids also laughed. Gu Jingyi, the third young lady, and the fourth young lady joined in the laughter.
Ruan Bi frowned, thinking to herself, what's so funny? These people are obviously just sucking up to him.
The eldest princess also shook her head and said, "It's not funny, it's not funny."
Gu Xiaobai said, "I haven't finished yet." He glanced at Ruan Bi and said, "I originally thought there was no such scholar in the world. Today I learned that the scholar was Fifth Sister in disguise."
The eldest princess chuckled as well.
This made everyone laugh even harder, and they all looked at Ruan Bi.
Ruan Bi smiled appropriately, without a trace of anger or embarrassment, but glanced at Gu Xiaobai with icy eyes.
Gu Xiaobai felt a chill run down his spine from that look and began to feel a pang of regret.
This round was over, and the maid started beating the drum again. After two beats, the drum fell into Ruan Bi's hands.
"I'm not good at poetry or jokes, so I'll just have to make do with this one," Ruan Bi said. "There was a man who kept having the same dream, in which he always felt he had discovered a very important secret of the world, but he couldn't remember anything when he woke up. He was determined to uncover this secret, so he put paper and pen by his pillow. When he dreamed again, he would write down this world's secret in his half-awake state. The next day when he woke up, he saw the following written on the paper: 'The bigger the banana, the bigger the banana peel!'"
Everyone present burst into laughter, including Gu Xiaobai, and Gu Jingyi was so engrossed in the table that she couldn't straighten up.
Ruan Bi smiled faintly, though she wasn't happy inside. What she really wanted to say was that the paper said—Gu Xiaobai was a complete idiot. But in front of Princess Huiwen, she didn't have the courage. She didn't understand why Gu Xiaobai disliked her and always seemed to be picking on her.
But it doesn't matter, she dislikes him extremely much anyway.
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