Ashes to Crown

Chapter 85: Chapter 45: Women (Part 3)

The sum was staggering!

Chu Tang looked at her and smiled helplessly. "No matter whose house I live in, or for how long, my surname is still Chu. When people talk about me, they’ll only ever call me a daughter of the Chu Family. The family’s business is my business. What else can I do but handle it?"

With that, she curtsied.

"You all have fun. I have to get back to my work."

After Chu Tang left, the girl was immediately scolded by the others.

"How could you be such a bully?" Qi Leyun said angrily. "Ah Tang is already in this situation, yet you still mock and bully her. What do you want from her? To disown her family and go die?"

The other girls also looked at her with displeasure and complaint. Someone shook their head. "Ah Lan, that was too harsh."

The girl grew flustered from the complaints. ’Chu Tang’s family background is weak, so she can be bullied at will. Making her angry has no consequences. But these other girls are different. If they get angry and ostracize me, my reputation in the Capital City will be ruined.’

"I didn’t mean anything by it," she could only admit her mistake. "I just wanted to eat snacks without paying."

Qi Leyun was so angry she threw her fan at her. "You’re pathetic!"

Chu Tang paid no attention to the girls’ argument. She didn’t care about being bullied; she was used to it. She knew her family’s weak background meant others could bully her freely, but it was for that very reason that she would also receive pity.

Compared to bullying, more people enjoyed bestowing favor.

So as long as she appeared pitiable at the right moment, she could make her bullies get bullied by others.

’These are all petty matters, games I’ve grown tired of. There’s something more fun to do now.’ Chu Tang walked back to the second floor of Tingyu Hall, where maids were organizing ledgers at a desk.

They were still Chu Ke’s maids—the same ones Chu Zhao had previously selected.

After Chu Tang took over, she didn’t replace them with her own maids.

She was here to work, not to show off her authority. ’They’re all family servants, what difference does it make who I use?’

"Let me see today’s ledgers," she said.

The maids immediately rose and brought them to her. Chu Tang flipped through them, scribbling and making notes with a brush as she went. The ornate window on the second floor was open, and the clamor of scholars drifted in from time to time.

’Sigh,’ Chu Tang thought. ’Chu Zhao is going to lose again. How pitiful.’

...

...

CLACK! A chess piece was slammed onto the board.

The middle-aged scholar across from her wore a cold sneer. "Miss Chu, you’ve lost."

Chu Zhao paid no mind to the scholar’s mocking expression. She leaned over slightly to look at the board for a moment, and after thinking it over and confirming there was no way to salvage the game, she nodded and bowed. "I have lost. You have won, sir. I am not your equal."

After saying this, she held out her hand. A maid at her side immediately handed her a slip of paper. She no longer had to write them on the spot; they were pre-printed and stamped with her seal. When she lost, she simply presented one. It was much less trouble than before.

The scholar took it, but instead of holding it up for everyone to see, he tore it to pieces in a few quick motions.

"I didn’t come here to participate in the literary gathering. I came here specifically to teach you a lesson," he said with a cold laugh. "You foolish little girl, you don’t know what’s good for you!"

With that, he flicked his sleeve and turned to leave.

The surrounding crowd burst into jeering laughter. This wasn’t the first time. Ever since Chu Zhao had arrogantly humiliated the scholars she defeated, she had been subjected to their own arrogant retaliation.

Chu Zhao remained expressionless, letting the scraps of paper fall around her. She walked to another table—she was competing against ten people at once, and it wasn’t over yet.

"Your move, sir," Chu Zhao said.

The young master sitting opposite her looked disdainful and placed a piece with casual ease. "Miss Chu, you’d best hurry up. I have an engagement with some friends and I’m in a rush to go drinking."

Chu Zhao didn’t speak. She focused, contemplated, and placed a piece.

For their match, servants displayed every move on a large board held high for all to see.

Seeing this move, a few of the girls grew anxious. "Oh no, oh no!" "That Chu Zhao, that’s not right, that’s not right."

One girl even slapped a gallery pillar in frustration. "Does Chu Zhao even know how to play chess?! She’s so stupid!"

Besides those eating snacks and watching the spectacle, many girls were seriously observing the competition. Most of them came from good families with deep scholarly traditions.

For example, the girl watching the chess match now, whose surname was Zhou, had elders in her family who were skilled at the game.

The other girls tried to placate Miss Zhou. "She can’t be compared to you." "If she loses, she loses. She’s the one who’ll be embarrassed."

Miss Zhou frowned. "She’s embarrassing herself, but she’s also embarrassing us."

Her words left the other girls a little confused. "What does it have to do with us?" "We’re not the ones competing."

Miss Zhou looked over at the platform. "Because she’s a woman, and so are we."

...

...

On the platform, the game indeed ended quickly. Chu Zhao had lost.

The young master across from her roared with laughter, even more outrageously than the previous winner. He didn’t even bother to take the slip of paper acknowledging her defeat.

"Daughter of the Chu Family, I came here just to beat you! This isn’t for the world to see, it’s so you alone will know how arrogant, ignorant, and unaware of your own limitations you are!" he said, pointing a finger at Chu Zhao. "A mere girl like you should just read a few books on female virtue and be done with it. How shameless to think you can look down on everyone after beating one man, to think no scholar in the world is your equal. How laughable for a little girl."

Chu Zhao’s expression remained calm as she let the torrent of insults wash over her.

The girls standing in the gallery fell silent, their faces alternating between red and white.

A mere girl.

A mere girl.

After finishing his tirade, the young master turned and began to stride away, but a delicate voice rang out from behind him.

"Sir, please wait a moment!"

The young master turned back, his thick brows raised. ’This Chu Family’s Daughter has already lost, does she dare debate me now?’ But he saw that Chu Zhao was also turning her head to look in the same direction.

In the gallery over there were many young ladies. They now looked nervous and uneasy, pulling one girl back, whose face was flushed red as if she were about to suffocate.

’What’s this?’

’Well, it’s not surprising.’ The young master reached up and lightly smoothed his sideburns. ’I am both talented and handsome; it’s only normal for these girls to be infatuated with me.’

’But of course, I’m not just anyone.’

"This is a place of competition," he said, his tone arrogant and distant. "It is not a playground for you ladies, and it is certainly not a place to select a husband."

Miss Zhou had called out on impulse and was already regretting it. But when she heard the young master say such a thing, her mind went blank with a buzz.

The meaning of his words was blunt, and not new. The Third Prince had previously berated the princesses, saying that when women attended literary gatherings, it was just to pick out a husband.

The Third Prince’s literary gathering was one thing; he was a Prince, and they didn’t dare object.

But for some random scholar in Chu Garden to dare humiliate them like this, when they hadn’t even done anything!

’This is infuriating!’

The girls beside her felt a powerful tug and could no longer hold her back, letting out a cry of alarm, "Ah Jiang!"

Miss Zhou, whose given name was Ah Jiang, charged out of the gallery like a young calf.

"You there, sir!" she shouted. "I am also a ’mere girl.’ Do you dare compete against me?"

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