Shen Biqian and Zi You were the same age. They were both fifteen. It should be time for her to get engaged, but she wasn’t good enough for a good match and too proud to settle for a bad one. Even Wei Mingrui of the Four Tyrants didn’t want her.
So, she was jealous of and hated Zi You. After she performed her Long Silk Dance, she immediately remembered Zi You and Shangguan Lingluo’s contest from that time.
She recalled that Zi You had given up the dance competition and instantly thought that Zi You’s dancing skills were certainly not as outstanding as her other talents. Perhaps she couldn’t even dance.
She was a military family’s descendant, so she probably knew how to wave a sword around and didn’t know something literary like dance. Otherwise, Zi You wouldn’t have performed a sword dance at the last Palace banquet.
Shen Biqian immediately knelt in front of the Emperor and said breathlessly, “Emperor…… Chennu heard that…… the National Guardian is very talented. Today is the celebration of the army…… returning victorious. Shouldn’t the National Guardian…… perform a dance too?”
Shen Biqian was petite. Now that she was breathless, she had a different kind of charm.
The Emperor immediately looked a little lecherously at her and nodded. “En. That’s not a bad suggestion. Let’s see if our National Guardian’s talents are really outstanding. You’er, come perform a dance. You don’t really know how to just wave a sword around, right? Show a softer dance and show off to these ladies!”
The Emperor thought wickedly, ‘You can’t possibly know how to do everything, right? If you can’t dance, then you’re finally revealing a flaw. Zhen will feel better and won’t feel that Zhen made a big loss handing a talented and beautiful treasure over to that idiot Shangguan LingRan.’
Zi You could see what he was thinking. She also noticed that a lot of furens and ladies in the palace hall were looking forward to her embarrassing herself so her limelight wouldn’t outshine them.
So, she gracefully bowed and said, “Yes. Chen will obey the Emperor’s decree. Chen will go prepare.”
“Go, go.” The Emperor was in a very good mood. His beloved consort Wu Jieyu’s death didn’t seem to have the slightest effect on him.
He was really heartless. He was even comparable to her slag father Mu YingRui! Zi You sneered to herself. She went out and called Jinling over to make preparations.
When Zi You came back, everyone froze in amazement again! She was wearing a pure white to bright red gradient dress. The top of the dress was snow-white. It gradually turned pink and then bright red. The skirt and cuffs on the long sleeves were as red as the pot of mandara flower that she gave the Emperor. She was bewitching.
Her long hair draped over her shoulders with only a bright red ribbon tying it. Her red lips were fiery and her eyes rippled.
After two palace maids moved a screen over and put down ink and paper, Zi You lightly floated over. Her jade sleeves seemed to be like a dragon emerging from the sea and dipping into the ink. Just as everyone was exclaiming in shock, Zi You pulled hard. When her ink-stained sleeves were pulled back, she quickly flipped into the air.
She flipped around twice in the air and waved her long sleeves. Her sleeves hit the paper hard. Her body fluttered. She was using her sleeves to write and paint on the paper! Vigorous and strong writing appeared on the paper. Every word was vigourous like pine and cypress. It didn’t lose out to words written out by hand.
