Fo Lanying and Yizi both looked at Bai Ruozhu, faces filled with smiles. The young girl imdiately understood and looked at Bai Ruozhu excitedly, saying, "You must be Lord Bai. You defeated Samurai Xinye, I’ve never seen soone as formidable as you!"
Bai Ruozhu saw her joyfully jumping even in wooden clogs and couldn’t help but laugh along.
However, the girl’s maid seed a bit concerned, and cautiously reminded her in Fusang Language, causing the girl to smile awkwardly and then stand up straight.
It seed that the maid reminded her to be mindful of her image, as today was the Tangfen Poetry Contest, where attending girls represented their family’s image.
"Yes, I am Bai Ruozhu. How should I address you?" Bai Ruozhu quite liked this sincere young lady.
The girl smiled adorably, "My na is Fangzi. If I had known Lord Bai was coming, I would have learned to write poetry better."
She tilted her head and made a troubled expression, "But it’s a sha I am really bad at writing poetry."
"It’s okay, the important thing is to participate." Bai Ruozhu laughed and comforted her.
"Huh?" Fangzi clearly didn’t understand.
Fo Lanying laughed and explained to her, "It ans the enjoynt is in the process of participating, winning or losing doesn’t matter."
"Yes, exactly, that’s the idea," Fangzi laughed.
The four of them chatted and walked forward, but attracted the side glances of a few Fusang girls not far away.
Probably due to the requirents of the poetry contest, although they spoke awkwardly, they still used Chinese.
"The daughter of upstarts can’t hold the stage; she doesn’t even see where she is, just shouting loudly, it’s really embarrassing."
"Yes, and hanging out with all sorts of people, not following rules at all."
"Forget it, don’t say anymore, maybe later they won’t even be able to get inside."
Bai Ruozhu curled her lips, sure enough, there was no shortage of gossip-loving won anywhere.
Fangzi’s face turned green and red. She wanted to retort, but thinking about how she indeed lost her composure just now and was reminded by her maid, she felt bad arguing with them, so she just lowered her head gloomily.
Fo Lanying was a bit irritated, secretly glared at the woman who spoke most sharply, and that woman exclaid, covered her head, and fell to the ground.
The female companions and maids beside her cried out in surprise, and upon seeing her, with a poor posture ended up flat on the ground, it was simply a face-down fall.
"Hui Zi, how are you?" The female companion beside urgently squatted down to help her, and the maid quickly lent a hand, barely managing to help the woman up.
The woman probably fell dazed, and only cried out loud after coming to her senses, losing all image as she cried, with her face bruised and swollen, her hair bun ssy, and the dust on her face mixed with tears turned into mud.
"Just now, my head was in pain, who hit on the head?" Cried the woman called Hui Zi.
The companion beside hurriedly checked her head, but found nothing, not even a swollen area.
Hui Zi herself touched it, suddenly finding it no longer painful, yet earlier she nearly fainted from the pain and fell headfirst.
At that mont, many girls ca over to inquire, as everyone knew each other, and it wouldn’t be right to ignore it. But seeing Hui Zi’s current state, they couldn’t help but want to laugh, restrained by courtesy, each having to stifle their laughter, which was so hard to do.
Bai Ruozhu and her group didn’t care much and laughed secretly, bypassing Hui Zi and her group, continuing to move forward.
Fangzi also wanted to laugh, but she peeked at Bai Ruozhu and the three of them, wondering how could Hui Zi have fallen so coincidentally, could it be related to them?
However, Fangzi being a clever girl, saw Bai Ruozhu and her group not ntioning it, dared not to speculate wildly, and acted as if she knew nothing.
Behind them, Hui Zi also realized she had beco a spectacle to the onlookers, rushed to her feet, tidied her hair, wiped her face with a handkerchief, and had the maid clean off the dust from her clothes.
"Hui Zi, how’s your injury? Should you return ho first?" The female companion asked with concern.
"No way, since I’ve co, how could I leave halfway, I’ll just go like this." Hui Zi said sowhat stubbornly.
"But..." The female companion saw her determined attitude and could only shut her mouth, "Then rest inside first, I’ll find so ointnt for you."
The speaking girl seed very attentive to her, taking the maid and quickly leaving.
Bai Ruozhu and her group hadn’t gone far and clearly heard what followed. She was quite impressed by Hui Zi’s resilience, thinking if in the Capital City among aristocratic girls, fell nose bruised and swollen, they would definitely hide, fearing face loss.
Soon, Bai Ruozhu and her group reached the entrance. When Bai Ruozhu took out the invitation card, the person in charge imdiately showed a respectful expression.
"Lord Bai, your timing is perfect. This way, please, today we will be counting on you." The manager’s Chinese was excellent.
Bai Ruozhu nodded, "You are too kind."
The won behind noticed the manager’s respect for Bai Ruozhu and beca curious about Bai Ruozhu’s identity. One of the won softly said, "That’s Lord Bai from Zhongyuan’s Danliang Country, heard she’s our judge today."
The won exclaid in surprise, and Hui Zi’s group turned exceptionally ugly.
Especially Hui Zi, feeling annoyed for inadvertently offending the judge, but given the situation, she could only accept it.
Only...
Hui Zi looked at Fangzi, deliberately saying, "Why is Fangzi cozying up to the judge, does she want to score high later?"
Others hearing this started quietly discussing, pointing at Fangzi’s back.
Fangzi couldn’t help but hear these words, feeling a bit upset, but still straightened her back and walked in.
Bai Ruozhu quietly observed the young girl’s expression. She wasn’t showing an enduring attitude or hiding after being spoken to, instead, she was calm and composed, making Bai Ruozhu have more appreciation for her.
"How did you offend them?" Fo Lanying asked curiously.
Fangzi showed so dejection, "They used to be my friends, and we were on good terms, but..."
The ti was still early, and Bai Ruozhu wanted to understand more about Fusang Capital aristocratic girls, thinking she might find clues about Diao Bin, so she found a place to sit down and asked Fangzi to explain.
"I know talking behind soone’s back isn’t right, but I’ve been holding this for so long and feel wronged." Fangzi thought for a while and continued.
"We used to be on great terms, but we all centered around Hui Zi, who is strong-minded, and born into nobility, so we all liked to be close to her. During this year’s Flower Viewing eting, traditionally, girls from the Capital can bring their own flowers to compete, while others vote for participating flowers, choosing the prettiest..."
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