Lady Liu was chosen, and she looked as though her world had ended. Descended from a line of military commanders, she had married into a family of scholars but possessed little aptitude for the arts; her poetry and painting were, at best, mediocre. Driven to force a verse out, she looked at the Grand Princess’s furrowed brow and, before any criticism could be leveled at her, fainted from sheer terror. She had inherited her maternal family’s coarseness without any of their bravery.
Xie Mingyue suppressed a smile. Seeing the woman collapse, the Grand Princess spared a modicum of face and pointed toward Lady Yue instead. Recalling that Lady Yue suffered from a heart condition, Xie Mingyue, despite her delight at the Grand Princess settling the score for her, leaned in and whispered a reminder to prevent any incident that might tarnish the Grand Princess’s reputation.
At her nudge, the Grand Princess arched her delicate brows and, in an unprecedented move, allowed Lady Yue to sit back down. The high-born ladies present, who fancied themselves so refined, gasped in astonishment.
Chapter 74