Bai Ruozhu stood up under everyone's watchful eyes and said to the young lady who nominated her, "The poetry competition is for you unmarried ladies to participate in; I, as a married woman, should not embarrass myself."
Her words were not too direct, but everyone understood immediately, and many recalled that poetry competitions were indeed for unmarried ladies. Asking a married woman to compose poetry was not quite proper, was it?
The young lady's eyes flickered with vexation, regretting that Bai Ruozhu hadn't taken the bait, but she still said unwillingly, "Rules are not set in stone. Madam Jiang is so modest—is it because she is too shy to compose poetry in front of others?"
Look, that's almost like saying outright that she is uneducated and doesn't even know how to write poetry.
