Chapter 64.1: Part 1: Two First Positions

"Second miss's name is first, the best in this examination. Congratulations Old Madam!"

The smile on Ji Shuran's face stiffened.

Jiang You Yao opened her mouth to speak, unable to endure and blurted out: "What did you say?"

Her voice was somewhat piercing and was panic-stricken.

"Probably misheard." Jiang Yu'e felt unbelievable from the bottom of her heart and shook her head. As if by doing this she could persuade herself and said: "You've certainly misheard......."

It's still Lu-shi who first reacted. Her smile immediately bloomed and she said: "If I didn't hear wrongly just now, Li-er is ranked first?" She shot a glance at Ji Shuran's frozen smile, a slight glee flashed in her heart.

Since an earlier time, she was already rather dissatisfied with Ji Shuran. Ji Shuran relied on the Vice Imperial Censor, Ji Yan Lin's promotion the past years and her weight had increasingly become bigger. Lu-shi was originally a proud person and couldn't stand Ji Shuran. Moreover, in every year's examination, Jiang You Yao's achievements became better which in turn made the two sons from the second branch seem mediocre. Nowadays, a Jiang Li came out, covering the sky with her attack, ferociously pressing down Ji Shuran's might. Naturally Lu-shi was glad to see it happen.

"I didn't expect Li-er to be someone with ability." Without hesitation, Lu-shi inserted a knife into Ji Shuran, "it's only been a while since she attends Ming Yi Hall and seemingly hasn't learned all these before. In my opinion, she deserves to be called elder brother's biological daughter, both have such remarkable literary talent, innately clever ah....."

Everytime she spoke a sentence, the bitter resentment in Jiang You Yao's heart increased. The anger from being surpassed by Jiang Yu'e, had now been completely shifted to Jiang Li. Jiang Yu'e is fine, but what could Jiang Li be considered as? She has just attended Ming Yi hall for a few days and couldn't be compared with the people. Might as well say she is no better than rubbish?

At this moment, Jiang Yu'e was also squeezing the handkerchief in her hand tightly. Just now her whole heart was still delighted, but now her head felt as if it had been poured with ice cold water. A bone chilling cold that penetrated her bone marrow in the middle of summer, making her fingertips feel slight chills. Aside from this, there's still a deep-rooted unwillingness.

The only thing she was proud of, the only thing that put Jiang Li under her feet, now is no more! Why?!

Old Madam Jiang merely glanced and understood, taking each person's appearance and manner in her sight. She said indifferently: "You see the results clearly, whether the second girl is really at the top of the list?"

"Indeed," that young servant said: "Old madam, please see the transcribed red notice. Second miss's calligraphy, mathematics and etiquette, each one comes first, there's no need to doubt her being at the top of the list!"

Jiang You Yao's body became soft and almost slid down.

......

In Fang Fei Garden, Jiang Li was in the middle of watching Tong'er looking after the plants and flowers.

"You are really not going?" Jiang Jing Rui was sitting on a chair, drinking tea while couldn't help urging Jiang Li: "You still have time to run away, at most people will mock you for going back on your words. If you really wait, later when you want to escape, you won't be able to escape anymore. Kneeling down and apologizing to Meng Hong Jin, you could be said to be ruined in this lifetime. In my opinion, anyway you are not a gentleman. Moreover, being a gentleman would also need to look at the situation. While the green hills last, there'll be wood to burn1, why should you make things difficult for yourself?"

Don't be fooled by Jiang Jing Rui's hedonistic appearance, he was meticulous when talking about this principle to soothe people that Jiang Li was almost persuaded by him. However, she merely glanced at him and said: "That is silver needle tea from Hunan, I only boiled a pot today. You are like a cow chewing on a peony2, next time don't come here to drink tea."

Jiang Jing Rui angrily slammed the tea cup: "Listen to you, are you really the young lady coming from our Jiang family? So thrifty, the daughters in our family indulge in drinking and live a life of luxury. Like this you are too boring!"

Footnotes:

1: Where there's life, there's hope 1.

2: Cannot appreciate good things 2.