Someone tossed a handkerchief to Fuyi, who deftly caught it, using it to wipe the sweat from her forehead. “Thank you for your kindness, ladies.”
The girl whose handkerchief was caught blushed deeply and hurriedly hid in the crowd, covering her face.
“Can’t you behave? You’re turning these poor girls into puddles,” Sui Anying muttered, handing Fuyi a water pouch. “Here, drink.”
“Is it sweet?” Fuyi pulled out the stopper and took a sip. “I knew it. Anying sure loves me.”
“Ha.” Sui Anying flipped out a round fan and started waving it at her. “Save your flirts. If Lin Xiaowu hears this, she’ll come after me again, insisting that she’s your number one.”
Looking guilty, Fuyi gulped down the water, darting glances around to ensure no one overheard. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief.
“You played the blue team so hard today. I bet Fatty Liu is so mad he’s lost his appetite,” Sui Anying remarked, her gaze flickering to the wreath perched on Ning Wangfei’s head. With a sly smile, she teased, “In the past, whenever you won a match, the wreath would always go to me or Lin Xiaowu. Now that you got yourself a new girl, you’ve already forgotten about us old ones?”
“Today’s Ning Wangfei’s first cuju match,” Fuyi replied, tugging at Sui Anying’s sleeve. “I’ll save the next wreath for you, I promise.”
Sui Anying tapped Fuyi’s forehead with her fan, “I’ll hold you to it,” she said before bowing to Ning Wangfei. “Wangfei, I’m just joking with Fuyi—please don’t take it seriously.”
Ning Wangfei smiled and shook her head, her hand gently resting on the wreath, which still carried traces of morning dew. “In my family, I’m ranked third among the sisters. My father named me Siyue. Fuyi, you may call me Sister Siyue in private.”
Fuyi froze briefly, then linked arms with Lu Siyue, leaning affectionately. “From the first moment I saw you, Sister, I thought you were as beautiful as the moon in the sky, just like your name. How about this—I’ll call you Wangfei in public and Sister in private?”1
Looking into Fuyi’s bright, sparkling eyes, Lu Siyue reached out to smooth a few stray locks of her hair. “Alright.”
“Yun Fuyi!” Fatty Liu shoved his way through the crowd, dragging a blue team player behind him. “Are you deliberately annoying me?”
“Winning and losing is normal in cuju,” Fuyi said, standing up from Lu Siyue’s side and tossing her braid behind her. “How does that count as annoying you? If the blue team lost so badly, that’s because you’re incompetent.”
“What the—!” The blue team player who came with Fatty Liu, clearly a young man from an official’s family, turned red with anger. “Yun Fuyi, your skill on the field is unmatched, but that doesn’t give you the right to insult us.”
“I know who you are—your father is the Censor-in-Chief,”2 Fuyi remarked, her expression softening slightly. “The blue team’s loss isn’t your fault.”
“What do you mean?” Fatty Liu looked suspiciously at Fuyi and the player. “Don’t tell me you threw the game for her?”
“Nonsense!” the player shouted angrily. “Why would I have any dealings with a useless idler like her?”
Hearing this, Sui Anying frowned, and even Fatty Liu’s expression soured.
“Don’t misunderstand,” Fuyi said nonchalantly. “I just heard that his family is a bit impoverished. Maybe their meals are too simple, so he doesn’t have enough energy during the match.” She pulled out the prize silver for the winning team and offered it to the player. “Take it home to improve your life a bit—don’t neglect yourself.”
“Yun Fuyi, I have no quarrel with you, so why humiliate me like this?!” The player slapped the silver away, furious. “The Yun family is a century-old noble family—how did it produce a daughter as disgraceful as you?”
Fuyi’s smile disappeared as she glanced at the silver on the ground. “Pick it up.”
“What did you say?” The player hesitated, a flicker of fear crossing his face as Fuyi’s expression darkened.
“I said, pick it up,” Fuyi repeated, her voice cold.
The player sneered. “A mere piece of silver isn’t worth me bending over.”
“The brocade robes you’re wearing are worth at least a hundred taels, and that jade pendant of yours is even more priceless. No wonder you disdain this bit of silver.” Fuyi kicked Fatty Liu’s shin. “You pick it up.”
“Why me?!” Fatty Liu grumbled, clutching his leg as he bent to retrieve the silver. “I-I’m not afraid of you—I just don’t want to argue.”
Fuyi took the silver from him without a word and turned back to the player. “It’s a pity that you’re nothing like your father. Your father is known for his frugality, unwilling to spend even three to five taels lightly, considering it extravagant. But you disregard ten taels as nothing and wear such luxurious clothing. Do you think this is fair to him?”
“When has my father ever said such things?” The player laughed. “With my family’s wealth, a few taels are nothing!”
“Really? I don’t believe it.” Fuyi looked him up and down. “Could it be that someone’s putting on airs, pretending to be wealthier than they are?”
“Yun Fuyi, it seems you have been living in poverty in Chongzhou for too long,” the player snapped impatiently. “No matter what you say today, I won’t let your insults slide.”
“Are you sure your father approved of such expensive brocade robes?” Fuyi tucked the silver into her pouch. “Fine, I apologize for my earlier remarks. But don’t puff yourself up in the future—your father has it hard enough.”
“I told you, this small amount of silver is nothing to my family!” the player shouted, exasperated. “Neither I nor my father cares about it—do you understand?!”
“Oh,” Fuyi drawled, her tone playful as she turned to the crowd. “You all heard him, didn’t you?”
The onlookers nodded in unison.
“What’s your point, Yun Fuyi?” Fatty Liu asked, baffled. “Why do you keep harping on about a few taels of silver?”
“You don’t know, do you?” Fuyi said, her face innocent but her words sharp. “Recently, the Censor-in-Chief told His Majesty that raising the pay for the frontier soldiers by three extra taels a year would make them develop extravagant habits. But now his son claims their family doesn’t care about such a small amount of silver. So… is the Censor-in-Chief deceiving the Emperor?”
“The Censor-in-Chief must lead a very frugal life, which explains why he’s so worried about the soldiers picking up extravagant habits,” Fuyi said, her eyes widening in exaggerated surprise. “That has to be it, right? If his family is found living in luxury, he’d be guilty of deceiving the Emperor. That’s a serious crime!”
“D-don’t slander us! My Zhang family has always been loyal to His Majesty—we would never deceive him!” The player turned pale, finally realizing the weight of her words.
“Everyone here heard what you just said,” Fuyi replied innocently, turning to Fatty Liu. “Didn’t you hear it too?”
Fatty Liu hesitated, feeling that something was off.
“I heard it,” Liu Zihe stepped forward from the crowd, bowing to Fuyi with a blushing face. “Miss Yun didn’t lie. Young Master Zhang did say those things.”
Fatty Liu: “…”
‘Cousin, why are you joining her to stir up trouble?!’
“I heard it too,” another voice declared.
Why is Your Highness here?! The crowd froze in shock when they saw the Prince descending the steps toward them. Before the others could react, the player dropped to his knees, trembling.
Fatty Liu glanced around in confusion. His cousin’s sudden interest in cuju had already been odd enough, but for the prince to appear at such a noisy venue—what brought him here?
< Previous | TOC | Advanced TOC | Next >
Author’s Note:
What brings His Highness to the noisy cuju field? Fuyi, of course!
Wants more chapters?
Click this page for the status of sponsored chapters.
Click this page for advanced chapters TOC.
- The name Siyue (似月) translates as ‘Like a moon.’ This phrase comes from an idiom that describes a woman’s outstanding appearance.
- Censor-in-chief (御史大夫) is the head of Censorate (御史台), a high-level supervisory agency in Imperial China. Their role is to monitor the behavior of the administrators at each level to prevent corruption and malfeasance, including even the imperial family members and the emperor himself. In C-novels, you typically find them admonishing and impeaching people.