TFWYH – Chapter 645 The So-Called Noblewoman

Su Qing smilingly glanced at the Empress while admiring the older woman’s face struggling to maintain its smile. At the same time, she held onto the Emperor’s hand and coquettishly said,

“Your Majesty, everything this concubine has comes from you. Surely Your Majesty won’t blame this concubine? Though honestly, this concubine is reluctant to part with it too.”

The Emperor smiled and patted her hand, his tone gentle and his eyes filled with indulgence.

“I already said it before—since I gifted it to you, then it belongs to you. You may deal with it however you wish.”

How could he possibly not understand Su Qing’s little schemes?

It was merely a luminous pearl. If it made Su Qing happy, then so be it.

He owed Su Qing far too much already…

“This concubine knew Your Majesty treats this concubine the best!” Su Qing covered her lips with a light laugh before casting the Empress another meaningful glance.

Receiving that look, the Empress’s facial muscles twitched violently, nearly failing to maintain her composed expression.

Tang Wan, who witnessed everything: …

Women of the imperial harem really were exactly like those in television dramas—terrifying!

Every sentence was loaded with hidden barbs and traps. Even a punctuation mark seemed to carry deeper meaning.

How depressing!

If her beautiful husband became Emperor in the future, would she also have to deal with all this?

Tang Wan felt utterly troubled.

Very soon, Wan Zhenxiang and two palace maids brought out the treasures.

The Seven-Exquisite Ring was exquisitely crafted, brilliantly colored, and inlaid with warm white jade. One glance was enough to tell it was no ordinary object.

The Heavenly Silkworm Snow Satin shimmered beneath the lantern light, soft as silk and glowing with dazzling brilliance.

As for the Bright Moon Night Pearl, the moment the box was opened, its gentle radiance drew endless gasps of amazement from the officials.

Every one of these three treasures was priceless!

The noble daughters’ eyes gleamed with excitement, looking as though they wanted nothing more than to rush up and hug the treasures themselves.

Even Tang Wan could not help glancing several times at the Seven-Exquisite Ring.

The Empress stared at the Bright Moon Night Pearl for a while before forcefully suppressing her jealousy and smiling as she explained the competition rules.

There would be nine categories: music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, song, literature, dance, and performance.

In a moment, eunuchs would write the nine categories onto slips of paper, and one category would be randomly drawn each round as the competition subject.

The names of participating noble daughters would also be written on slips, with two contestants randomly selected each match.

Whoever remained victorious at the end would be the final winner.

Participants had to be noble ladies between twelve and twenty years old, including those who were exactly twenty.

The rules were simple.

The difficult part was standing out among so many noble daughters.

After finishing, the Empress glanced at the eager young ladies below and asked,

“Have all the young ladies understood the rules?”

Before anyone else could respond, a puzzled female voice suddenly rang out:

“Then can I participate too?”

Everyone followed the voice in shock.

If it wasn’t Tang Wan speaking, then who else could it be?

The corner of the Empress’s eye twitched violently as she forced herself to maintain a smile.

“Princess of Wengnai, this palace is referring to noble young ladies. Are you not already married?”

Tang Wan answered with complete seriousness:

“In reply to Your Majesty the Empress, doesn’t ‘noble lady’ simply refer to a woman of noble status? Not only am I the Princess of Wengnai personally titled by His Majesty, I am also the wife of Minister of Revenue Ling Yu. Surely with such status, this humble wife counts as noble, does she not?”

The Empress: …

The officials: …

That actually made so much sense they could not even refute it. What was happening here?

“Pfft—”

The Third Prince’s Consort below finally could not hold back and burst out laughing. Nodding enthusiastically, she chimed in:

“The Princess of Wengnai is absolutely correct, Mother Empress. Not only can the Princess participate, but this daughter-in-law is twenty years old this year as well, so apparently I qualify too!”

The moment the Third Prince’s Consort spoke, more than a dozen already-married officials’ wives immediately joined in.

“That’s right, Your Majesty the Empress. This humble wife is nineteen years old—I should qualify too!”

“And this humble wife as well! I’m twenty this year…”

“This humble wife is eighteen. So I can participate too, right?”

…