Her days in the palace awaiting selection were much better than Su Xinyi had imagined. After the discovery of the female corpse in the Xiao Jade Clear Pool, the Empress had not shown her face in the Merit Palace, but the daily assessments had not stopped.
Embroidery on the first day, calligraphy on the second, painting on the third, and on the fourth day, everyone in the Merit Palace played a game of chess to determine the winner.
Su Xinyi was slightly above average at playing chess, and she followed her family's instructions to be modest, so she deliberately lost to Zhu Chanyi during their match.
On the fifth day, they played the zither. This time, the event was presided over by Noble Consort Li. Su Xinyi always felt that there was something off about the way Noble Consort Li would look at her but couldn't quite put her finger on it. After pondering for a while, she decided to play the flute, a common instrument among villagers.
The cheerful, sonorous notes silenced the crowd.
