s.h.i.+ Qingxue's words made everyone stunned, and they looked at her in puzzle.

s.h.i.+ Qingxue first used her right thumb and the strength between her thumb and her index finger to fix the position of the bow. Then she took a sharp arrow out of the carrier and set it on the string. Later, she bent her left index finger and middle finger. At last, she drew the bow.

s.h.i.+ Qingxue was going to shoot the arrow with her left hand!

Those people at present were startled again and looked at s.h.i.+ Qingxue in disbelief.

Qin Yanyan didn't believe that s.h.i.+ Qingxue had this skill. Moreover, her posture of holding the bow was even not standard. There was no way that she could shoot accurately.

s.h.i.+ Qingxue ignored Qin Yanyan's irony. She stared at the target with earnestness. However, at the moment when she just shot the arrow, her right hand suddenly shook. The arrow went out of its course and flew straight to Mo Junhao beside the target.

It was so sudden that there was no time for anyone to respond. Even Mo Junhao himself stood there in surprise without reaction.

Seeing that the sharp arrow was about to hit Mo Junhao, some people were so scared that they closed their eyes, for fear of witnessing such a b.l.o.o.d.y scene. But to everyone's surprise, the arrow didn't hit Mo Junhao, but slide away on the top of his head.

Mo Junhao could even feel the impact strength of the arrow when it touched his tuinga. This kind of thrill struggling on the edge of life made him sweat on his back. If he wasn't pretending to be strong, he might kneel on the ground shamefully right away, trembling.

It took a while for him to barely escape from the fear of death. As soon as he looked up, he met Qingxue's cold sight, and shook again. When he was about to observe it carefully, there was only anxiety and horror in Qingxue's eyes.

She ran to Mo Junhao with an anxious look, and asked him with concern, “It's all my fault. Is Your Highness okay?”

After Mo Junhao's fear, the anger in his heart rose up. But before he vented this anger, it was extinguished by the soft whispers of s.h.i.+ Qingxue.

After all, it was him who had insisted on staying next to the target. Who else could be blamed when the accident had happened? Besides, she had also apologized.

Mo Junhao said with a pale face that he was alright. But Qin Yanyan was not so easy to fool. When she gained back her consciousness, she pointed at s.h.i.+ Qingxue's nose and scolded, “s.h.i.+ Qingxue, what the h.e.l.l are you doing? If you had hurt Brother Hao, it wouldn't have been enough even if you die for a hundred times!”

s.h.i.+ Qingxue lowered her head and apologized anxiously, “I'm so sorry. My hand shook just now. I was really not meant to do it. I…”

At the end, she seemed to cry.

Ling Ruiyin was also taken aback before, but she had experienced much great storms, so she only took this as an accident.

After all, accidents would inevitably happen in such events like playing with knives and swords. She called Mo Junhao to her side with concern, “Junhao, are you hurt?”

Even though Mo Junhao was so scared that he almost peed in his pants, he could only act tough and said, “No, I'm fine. Don't blame Qingxue. She was not intentional.”

Since the victim had said so, Ling Ruiyin, who was unwilling to punish s.h.i.+ Qingxue, surely followed his words and regarded this thing as an accident and let it go. She also asked s.h.i.+ Qingxue, “Qingxue, does your hand really not matter? What about just quitting this compet.i.tion?”

s.h.i.+ Qingxue shook her head quickly, with helplessness in her voice, “Your Majesty, I know that I'm not doing well, but my grandfather taught me that once the bow is drawn, the arrow won't turn back. Since I promise to take part in this contest, I must finish it. I just wish His Highness to stay farther from the target. It won't be good if the accident happens again!”

Ling Ruiyin was pleased with Qingxue's persistence, and of course she agreed. Then she glanced at Mo Junhao, and criticized, “Junhao, you are not young. You should know that the arrow has no eyes. Xue shouldn't take all the blame for the accident just now. You should also reflect on yourself!”

At this moment, even if Mo Junhao was given limitless courage, he wouldn't dare to stand next to the target to seek death. But why did this sound so strange?

Mo Junhao was confused in his heart, and he looked up at s.h.i.+ Qingxue again. He always felt that Qingxue's reaction was a bit strange today.

However, Qingxue's face was as usual. She took the posture of shooting the arrow again. Then the second arrow flew out and it finally hit the target. Later the third arrow was closer to the bullseye that the previous one.

At this moment, the audience had calmed down and they were all watching the movements of s.h.i.+ Qingxue's hands intently, as if they felt amazed or disbelieving.

How could anyone be so great at archery when she was even shooting with her left hand?

And s.h.i.+ Qingxue's next performance made them so shocked that their jaws were about to fall to the ground.

The seven arrows left flew out one by one, faster than the previous one. They were all closer to the center than the previous one, and all in the yellow bullseye area.

All the seven arrows. .h.i.t the target!

Qin Yanyan saw it and her eyeb.a.l.l.s seemed about to fall. She shouted in shock, “This is impossible!”

Even Dong Shuang, who had served s.h.i.+ Qingxue since she was young, didn't expect that her master was so good at shooting with her left hand. But when she heard Qin Yanyan's words, she was mad like a rooster whose tail was stepped on and said angrily, “Everyone witnesses Sixth Lady's capability of archery. How is it impossible?”

Qin Yanyan didn't know what else she could say. So she only shook her head to deny, “Her right hand was injured, how could she shoot so well? Absolutely deceptive!”

Leng Jing couldn't bear it any more, and snorted angrily, “I just checked it. Except for the first arrow that missed the target, the other nine arrows were all on the target. And unfortunately, her grades were a bit better than yours.”

At this time, everyone also focused on the targets of the two people. Actually, as Leng Jing had said, although s.h.i.+ Qingxue also shot only seven arrows in the bullseye area, compared with Qin Yanyan's target, it was obvious that her grade was better.

The missed arrow didn't count, and the scores of s.h.i.+ Qingxue's other arrows really weren't lower than Qin Yanyan's.

Qin Yanyan used to plan to take this opportunity to humiliate s.h.i.+ Qingxue, but to her surprise, she failed to shame s.h.i.+ Qingxue but lost face instead. If others knew that she couldn't even beat someone with an injured finger, how could she have the face to brag about her archery skills?

“No, s.h.i.+ Qingxue, I think you simply embarra.s.sed me deliberately.” Qin Yanyan was not stupid. She didn't believe that things happened so coincidentally. They designed all these from the beginning and deliberately led her to fall into the trap.

s.h.i.+ Qingxue shrugged and looked innocent, “Yanyan, you think too much. No one can be certain with the scores. How can I embarra.s.s you deliberately?”

Qin Yanyan was about to refute, when she heard Qingxue saying coldly again, “If I really can embarra.s.s you and make the score of every arrow better than yours a little bit on purpose, then isn't my archery skill so exquisite that I can make the arrow hit wherever I want?

Does Yanyan mean this?”

Asking Qin Yanyan to admit that s.h.i.+ Qingxue was a little better than her was enough to make her uncomfortable. She wouldn't admit it even if she was killed.

But not admitting it meant that the arrows shot by s.h.i.+ Qingxue were exactly just a little better every time. It seemed that G.o.d wanted her to lose to s.h.i.+ Qingxue again and again!

Qin Yanyan showed grievance on her face. Her face turned red with anger, but she couldn't say a word to refute.

Chen Xiujiao, who had never spoken before, took her hand and comforted her softly, “Yanyan, there are always victory and failure in compet.i.tions. Don't care too much about it. It's good as long as you have done your best. You are better than that person without capability who wins by cheating.”

Qin Yanyan immediately understood her devious words, and turned her hatred to s.h.i.+ Baoning. If they were not misled by this woman, how could she compete with s.h.i.+ Qingxue in archery. If they had a painting contest, there was no way that s.h.i.+ Qingxue could beat her with the injured right hand!

She immediately reported to Ling Ruiyin, “Your Majesty, I got a message yesterday that someone had cheated in the painting contest at the Qiqiao Festival Banquet. It was a matter of great importance, so I didn't dare to deceive Your Majesty.”

Ling Ruiyin's eyebrows were raised, and her relieved expression suddenly became serious, “Who are you talking about? What exactly happened? Tell me quickly.”

Ling Ruiyin had always been upright, and she couldn't bear others cheating most. Qin Yanyan glanced at s.h.i.+ Baoning and s.h.i.+ Qingxue insidiously and repeated what s.h.i.+ Baoning had said yesterday right away.

s.h.i.+ Baoning didn't expect Qin Yanyan to be so shameless that she sold her. Seeing that Ling Ruiyin looked at her with angry eyes, she felt that all the blood in her body had flown away. She was so cold that she started to tremble.

She only heard Ling Ruiyin asked coldly, “Baoning, is Yanyan telling the truth?”

s.h.i.+ Baoning's lips s.h.i.+vered, but she couldn't even speak out a complete sentence. It seemed that she was with a guilty conscience.

“So, was 'Missing You' really not painted by you?” Ling Ruiyin's voice became a bit colder.

s.h.i.+ Baoning wanted to deny it, but many people heard it when she spoke yesterday. She thought Qin Yanyan wouldn't cause her trouble if she spent time fighting against s.h.i.+ Qingxue, so she didn't even think about the excuses. How could she deny it at this moment?

Helplessly, she subconsciously turned to s.h.i.+ Qingxue, but she just met her cold sight. Her heart trembled, and she was even more at a loss.

Yeah. How did she still have a face to ask s.h.i.+ Qingxue for help?

When s.h.i.+ Baoning thought that she was going to be finished, a clear voice suddenly sounded firmly, “Of course, 'Missing You' was painted by Sister Baoning.”

“Really?” Ling Ruiyin looked at s.h.i.+ Qingxue suspiciously. She remembered that during the compet.i.tion, Baoning had reported that her painting was lost, but then s.h.i.+ Baoning had handed in the painting again. So she thought that her painting was found and didn't mind this matter. It seemed not that simple at this moment.

s.h.i.+ Qingxue nodded quickly and said firmly, “Apart from her, who else has the ability to paint such a beautiful work?”

Ling Ruiyin frowned and asked, “Since this was the case, why did Baoning say those words to Yanyan?”

s.h.i.+ Qingxue paused, and she looked embarra.s.sed. Qin Yanyan quickly snorted, “You can't make it up anymore! Obviously you had used some tricks to deceive Her Majesty, and you didn't admit it! Huh!”

Ling Ruiyin also showed a bit more sternness on her face. She called s.h.i.+ Qingxue to her front and seriously said, “Xue, I want to hear your answer.”

“Ah! Well!” Others must think that Ling Ruiyin wanted to know the truth, but after s.h.i.+ Qingxue thought about it, she knew that Ling Ruiyin didn't want to investigate this matter at all. But she was just pushed to this point by Qin Yanyan, so she had to look into this matter.

s.h.i.+ Qingxue used to be guilt with lying to the Empress Dowager who had been spoiling her, but at this moment, she felt a lot easier.

However, s.h.i.+ Baoning had said it like an absolute truth. How could she make up for it?