On and off stage, everyone was frozen as if the entire scene was a painting.
The person who broke the painting was Cai Lin. He raised his hands and touched his left cheek. The arrow that just brushed past left a little trace of dark red blood behind.
Everyone was stupefied.
Shen Miao actually dared to shoot and not to let the arrow fall halfway nor purposely missed it way off. She shot it not far away nor near the fruit but just brushed it exactly past Cai Lin's cheek.
Cai Lin shouted out loudly, "Shen Miao, what are you doing?!" His voice hardly left when the second arrow was released, and it swept past, leaving a slight wind. It also precisely brushed past his right cheek, not even slanted a little. Cai Lin suddenly felt a burst of fiery pain in his right cheek, and when he raised his hands to touch, he was surprised to find that there was a trace of blood.
He has almost gone crazy. He stared at Shen Miao incredulous, and even Cai Dàrén also wanted to stop it, but Prince Yu of the First Rank was sitting near, so he did not dare to move.
Ren Wan Yun suddenly stood up, "Has Wǔ jiě'ér gone crazy? How could she dared to injure the shàoyé of the Cai family?"
"Your residence's Wǔ xiǎojiě is really powerful." Yi Fūrén pretended to be surprised, "How would an ordinary female have such courage? To injure the shàoyé of the Cai family, would not both Shen Lǎoyé, because of this, have poor relations with some colleagues?"
These words spoke into Ren Wan Yun's and Chen Rou Qiu's hearts. They were previously thinking that it was only Shen Miao making a fool of herself, and who knew that Shen Miao not only did not embarrassed herself, but she also injured Cai Lin. If the Cai family started to criticise Shen Residence because of this since the Cai family took the literary official route, wouldn't the two brothers, Shen Gui and Shen Wan, be any better after offending the Cai family? Thinking of this, Ren Wan Yun became incredibly anxious and wished to immediately drag Shen Miao to the Cai family to apologise. Just as she wanted to shout out to stop Shen Miao's actions, Chen Rou Qiu's hands pressed her down.
"Xiǎo shěnzi, what are you doing?" Ren Wan Yun spoke unhappily, "Just watch Wǔ jiě'ér causing trouble? Later, when Lǎoyé questions, who can take this responsibility?"
Chen Rou Qiu practically admired this Èr bǎisǎo. Her identity was much noble than Ren Wan Yun and self-boasted to be from a scholarly lineage. Thus, would not have performed such secular actions and naturally was not on board on Ren Wan Yun's idea of stopping this in front of everyone. She said, "Èr bǎisǎo's thoughts are not bad, but just now one would have also heard that even Yù Qīnwáng Diànxià had also spoken. Else, why would Cai Lǎoyé not say a single word till now and only watch his own son being injured? Even if Èr bǎisǎo speak, can it be decided? Instead, it is better to wait and see and if questions were asked, just take it as 'kids playing around'."
"Don't tell me that one can only just watch as it unfolds?" Ren Wan Yun's heart knew that Chen Rou Qiu's words were rational, but she could not help to worry, "If Wǔ jiě'ér does not know the severity of it and create a big mess? Life and death agreement is one thing, but Ding Capital City's rumours are another matter in itself."
"What is there to be afraid of? Did you not see how Wǔ jiě'ér shot?" Chen Rou Qiu laughed, "She obviously knows how to pull the bow and did it only to bring him down a peg and retaliate. But she should know the seriousness and propriety of the matter, else it would not be just a simple scratch of the cheeks." Chen Rou Qi sighed, "Anyhow, people would be offended and since that is the case, let nature take its course. If Wǔ jiě'ér is really ruthless, one would fear that she would bear a reputation of being vicious and malicious."
The sisters-in-law words were heard by the two sisters, Shen Qing and Shen Yue, without missing a single word. They were still young and do not understand things of the official circles; thus, they only heard the last sentence. Shen Yue looked at Shen Miao who was wearing a wide-sleeved dress and saw she was calm and composed today and had created a stir that was very hateful. She thought that if Shen Miao shot Cai Lin to death, it would be good. Then Shen Miao would have to pay for it with her life. With such a vicious person, who would dare to marry or get closer to her?
Now, this kind of scratch was only powerful but not vicious at all.
While thinking thoughts like this, something flashed across Shen Yue's eyes. The safety of Cai Lin, who single-heartedly made things difficult for Shen Miao because of her, had been thrown to the back of her mind as she wished for Cai Lin to use his own life to solidify Shen Miao's vicious reputation.
Although the audience below the stage was discussing, because of Prince Yu's face, they did not dare to speak out, even the husband and wife of Cai family was at the moment so anxious like their hearts were burning but could only watch their own son stand on the stage, becoming a target.
"Shen Miao, what exactly are you trying to do?" To shoot two arrows successively and scratch the cheeks, making the entire face burning up in pain, Cai Lin felt that other than anger towards Shen Miao, there was also a trace of fear. He suddenly discovered that there was nothing that Shen Miao didn't dare to do. She was evidently mad, she dared to do anything!
Even though there was a distance, Shen Miao's voice was a little vague and did not flow out to the audience but was enough to be transmitted to Cai Lin's ears. Her voice was light and flowy as if it came down from the clouds and made one not dare to look up.
She said, "Teaching you a lesson."
Suddenly, Shen Miao raised her voice, "There is still the last arrow!"
Everyone in the arena was staring straight at the arrow. Cai Lin's legs were almost soft, and he had to bite himself to not fall. As he saw Shen Miao's arrow was aimed at his head.
He was terrified, and that was a life fearing trauma of the Shen family. This kind of fear was so menacing that it grabbed all his attention at the moment. He really wanted to flee from this academy examination's stage, but Shen Miao's arrow was aimed at him as if it will chase him to the ends of the earth.
"Xiǎojiě of the Shen family is just too competitive." Even though the Dàréns at the male side of the banquet admired Shen Miao's calmness, they were also distraught by her current performance. One had to know that it was not a good thing for a female to be too competitive. Now she hangs onto Cai Lin and not let go, just to take the revenge of the provocation that Cai Lin gave to her. But Cai Lin did not create any harm to her, whereas Shen Miao was currently injuring Cai Lin's face. Even though males are not as pampered as females and it would not be any issues of having a scar, but to have it on one's face… It was after all, not good looking.
"This is then like General Shen's daughter." There were some who were cheering on Shen Miao, "If one only knows how to be bullied by others and not retaliate, then if General Shen knows, he would be so angry."
"But look at her now, the tip of the arrow is aiming straight at Cai Lin's head. This is an intent to end Cai Lin's life and is just too vicious."
Both Cai Lin's legs kept trembling as he viewed that purple-clad young female afar like the devil. Her looks were gentle, warm and beautiful, and her eyes were clear with some touches of naivety. But the actions that she took did not have any hesitation at all.
Shen Miao lightly said, "The third arrow."
Her hand loosen and the arrow projected forward as the sharp killing intent charged towards Cai Lin's forehead, frightening Cai Lin so much that he knelt down with a 'pu-tong' sound as he screams out, "Help!"
"Lin-er!" Cai Fūrén and Cai Dàrén simultaneously shouted out in shock.
Everyone stood up and stretched their necks to look at the situation on stage.
Cai Lin collapsed onto the ground, and there was that fruit rolling around with an arrow shot through, cleanly making a hole in it.