Jinyun Hall was filled with the sounds of chattering.

Young people were more eager to criticize; however they saw that Ning Yunzhao still hadn't said anything but was instead smiling.

"You don't think so?" asked a frowning companion.

"I don't think so," said Ning Yunzhao. "She believes in herself; you yourselves don't believe in yourselves, so instead you call her arrogant?"

The group was amazed.

"I know." A companion smiled, looking at Ning Yunzhao and at the girl present. "You two are alike."

Alike? Him and her?

Ning Yunzhao did not understand.

"You seem to be very low-profile, but your words and actions are always filled with pride, always looking like you're thinking 'This is as it should be'." The companion snorted teasingly. "This is what makes people the most annoyed."

Everyone laughed, Ning Yunzhao included.

"It isn't pride; it is the springtime of youth," he said.

The companions laughed again.

"You just boasted about yourself."

They laughed loudly, making the room bright with merriment. The recklessness and excitement of the youths were heightened.

This kind of recklessness and excitement came from having sincere self-confidence and skill that would not make people bored. It would just make people feel hot-blooded and fresh, like seeing the sunlight at dawn fall on the moonlit dew.

Ning Yunzhao watched the girl on stage, a smile upturning his lips.

While they were out laughing, agitation was running high at another place.

"Good."

There was a person who opened the window and gestured to the stage.

"I bet three hundred taels, for a sword [1]."

The people here had already lost their elegant manner to provocation, and one had opened the window himself and said the word 'bet'.

This was not a gambling parlor.

The director frowned slightly, and the servant in the room who was supposed to announce his bet for him finally came to and fl.u.s.teredly reiterated it.

The director was about to say something else when a mystifying female voice cut him off.

"Just three hundred taels, are you a beggar? If you don't have money, then don't play."

These words made the man who had just placed a bet very angry, and he inwardly cursed her. The atmosphere of the building became even more noisy.

The pitch-pot director rubbed his forehead.

Elegance. Elegance, pay attention to elegance.

He just wanted to push aside all the noisy questioning of this miss and their underlying meaning, but when he saw she was already holding two bamboo arrows and standing in front of the iron pot. She then casually tossed them. The two bamboo arrows pa.s.sed through the handle of the pot and rested against the body.

"Three hundred taels." She looked over to the side of the room where the bet had come from, then looked elsewhere else. "Next."

She pitched into the pot.

She said three hundred taels.

She said next.

Doing as she wishes, speaking so lightly.

For a moment, everyone was temporarily stunned. Like they were called beggars.

This was humiliating. This was provoking. This was arrogant.

The Jinyun Building temporarily froze, then voices shouted like thunder.

Seeing the curtains that had been opened and hearing the cacophony of sounds, the uniform voices of attendants laying bets, the director stood there, smiling bitterly.

Elegance, there was no elegance left at all.

The Jinyun Hall thundered so loudly that people standing far away or pa.s.sing through could hear the commotion. There were also people running towards the Jinyun Hall.

What had happened?

This house called the Jinyun Hall was originally the home of a marquis. After suffering a defeat, on the 3rd day of the 3rd month every person could come in and play, but there were some places that not everyone could enter.

For example, this Jinyun Hall.

How did such a refined and n.o.ble place like Jinyun Hall become so noisy?

More people who could not resist their curiosity poured in and stepped onto the stage to see the main hall crowded with people.

There were only a private boxes in the Jinyun Hall which were arranged tastefully. When did the corridor in the main hall become this full of people?

"Against the ears! Against the ears, five hundred taels!"

"Lotus horse! Lotus horse, seven hundred taels!"

"Dragon tail! Dragon tail, five hundred taels!"

Voices were crying out loudly one after the other, making the people who had just entered shocked.

"Did we go to the wrong place and enter a gambling parlor?"

"They had always been betting. These n.o.ble masters insisted on their posturing. It's good now; there was a young woman who made them drop their act."

"A young woman?"

"Yes, a young woman. The young woman said that she could throw whatever she wanted. Up until now she hasn't lost."

"Everyone is anxious; we cannot pressure that girl."

The first person asked and was given the whole story. More people asked for the whole story, and then it was recounted again and pa.s.sed around to more people. Then the voices of betting in the main hall got even more disordered.

Through the clamor, a girl's voice rang clear the moment after those bets were placed.

"Against the ears, five hundred taels."

"Lotus horse, seven hundred taels."

"Dragon tail, five hundred taels."

Standing at the forefront so she could be clearly seen, that girl was not just repeating the bets of the others, but rather was replying. After the bet was laid, she raised her arm and threw the arrow into the pot, her quickness and nimbleness making people flabbergasted.

She alone stood at the center of the stage, accompanied by the voices of people placing bets. One after the other, the bamboo arrows flew out of her hands so fast the surrounding people could not keep up with their cheers.

The scene was dazzling to the eye.

"This is just like the minstrel's tale of 'One man holding his own against ten thousand,'" someone muttered.

Fang Jinxiu and Jinchuan were just like the other people crowded at their windows' sides, cheering every time a bet was placed and Miss Jun would throw.

Fang Jinxiu had already stopped placing bets, and Jinchuan no longer tried to urge Miss Jun to stop.

This scene that was so nervous it made you laugh; they no longer cared about it. They did not know what they should do, only clenching their hands and cheering with the crowd so they could release a breath.

"Across the ears, ten taels," yelled someone through the clamor.

Fang Jinxiu made a 'peh' sound.

"Grow up! To have the nerve to place that bet." She cupped her hand around her mouth to yell outside.

Everybody was not unfamiliar to the voice. At this time, her peculiar jeering had never stopped.

Her voice fell when she saw Miss Jun raise her arm to throw the bamboo arrow balancing steadily across the two handles.

"Across the handles, ten taels," she said.

Fang Jinxiu then jeered.

"Grow up! Still no shame," she said. "Like she's never seen money."

Jinchuan covered up her smile.

"What the Third Miss said was not wrong, but did Old Lady not say that people good at business would always pay attention to money? A small amount of money is still money, you cannot waste," she said.

"She is not a business person," said Fang Jinxiu.

After she finished speaking she was stunned.

Right, Jun Zhenzhen, this dumb and stupid person, did not know the hards.h.i.+ps of life's daily necessities and looked down on silver and would not even waste her thoughts on wealth.

Was she doing this now because she was incited by Lin Jin'er?

Fang Jinxiu was silent.

"Third Miss, the young lady is now a part of our Fang family," Jinchuan spoke softly.

Wasn't what she was saying different from before?

This person, Jun Zhenzhen, was a family member to them?

Fang Jinxiu looked through the window at the girl standing on the stage and bit her lip, not saying anything.

But when Ning Yunyan saw the girl standing there, she could not help but bite her lower lip.

"I won't believe it, I won't believe it." Her eyes were red as she shouted. "What else is there? What else is there? Hurry up and think of what's the hardest. I will place a bet."

The girls in the room had alarmed expressions.

"Yanyan, you cannot make another bet," entreated one brave girl. "You have already lost too much; you cannot play anymore."

Moreover, she could not win against her.

Before it was said that she had just been lucky with her throws and bluffing, and as a result she made other people place bets. However, this no longer could be the reason.

Jun Zhenzhen had an absolute talent.

She had this talent? She still wasn't considered much.

Ning Yunyan looked at the girls before her, each of them without their arrogant appearance. Trembling with fear, they avoided her gaze like startled rabbits.

[1] A pitch-pot throw where the arrow goes through the pot handles.