Chapter 642 - Another Fall (2)

Chapter 642: Another Fall (2)
Royal Princess Duanjia looked around, and in the end, she dragged three young ladies into this.
One of them was Royal Prince Han’s wife, Royal Princess Xu, who had come from a military family. She had already given birth to a daughter, and happened to be nineteen this year, barely making it past the requirements. In comparison, the other side’s team was completely made up of royalty that had yet to marry, and the oldest was merely fifteen.
Next, Royal Princess Duanjia requested for Prince Luoyang’s second daughter, Feudal Princess Minghui, and Prince Qing’s granddaughter, Feudal Princess Xirou.
With that, there were now four people on the team including Duanjia.
However, there seemed to be no way for her to find her final team member.
There were still several ladies of suitable ages standing near Feudal Princess Anmin’s corner, but their statuses were too low, and they didn’t even possess any titles.
Right as Royal Princess Duanjia was starting to feel anxious, Royal Princess Nanzhang laughed out loud. “There’s no difficulty in this at all; isn’t Honoured Lady Jinyi a prime candidate? Duanjia, I see that you’re pretty close to Jinyi, so why is it that you somehow forgot about her at this time? Could it be that the two of you have fallen out with each other?”
Royal Princess Nanzhang truly had the gift of the gab. Now Chu Lian had no choice but to go. If she insisted on not participating, then there would probably be rumours of a falling out between her and Royal Princess Duanjia once the polo match ended.
Royal Princess Duanjia was angered by Royal Princess Nanzhang’s words. Her brows were tightly knit together, and she was about to argue with Nanzhang.
Chu Lian quickly tugged on her sleeves, and subtly shook her head at her. She then turned towards Royal Princess Nanzhang and Feudal Princess Anmin with a smile and said, “Since that’s the case, I’ll join in to fill the empty seat. However, I’ve never played polo, so please be gentle with me.”
“Our game is just for some entertainment; you’ll be fine as long as you can ride a horse, Honoured Lady Jinyi. The outcome doesn’t matter at all.” Feudal Princess Anmin’s smile was incredibly gentle.
Royal Princess Duanjia hadn’t thought that Chu Lian would really offer herself up and started getting a little antsy.
“Chu Liu, you fool! Can’t you tell that they were just trying to make you jump into a trap?!”
A furrow formed between Princess Wei’s brows. She was a wise person, and could obviously tell that Feudal Princess Anmin and the others were doing this on purpose.
However, just what were they trying to achieve?
“It’ll be fine, I’ll just be careful,” Chu Lian softly consoled Royal Princess Duanjia.
Royal Princess Duanjia pursed her lips, determination and vigor shining in her eyes.
She understood that the reason Chu Lian had agreed despite knowing it was a trap was all for her sake. As they were close sisters, Chu Lian didn’t want others to be making wild assumptions about their relationship and she didn’t want Duanjia’s honour to be sullied.
Since her childhood, Duanjia had never had a sister figure in her life. Whenever she attended banquets with her mother, she would witness girls from other families getting bullied, but there was always an older sister who would stand up for their little sisters.
Right now, Royal Princess Duanjia felt that Chu Lian was like her older sister.
This actually gave her a mysterious warmth inside.
Of course, Chu Lian didn’t notice this. She just did what she felt was right. She didn’t want to act as a coward just to survive.
She didn’t know that her nonchalant gesture had touched Royal Princess Duanjia and Princess Wei’s hearts.
Just like that, the lineup of both teams was already set.
The two teams entered their respective tents to prepare. They had to remove all of the hairpins in their hair along with the other accessories they were wearing, and they also had to choose a polo mallet and a horse suitable for them.
During the preparations, Royal Princess Duanjia made use of every second to explain the rules of polo to Chu Lian.
Chu Lian kept nodding as she listened. She had a great memory, and it wasn’t like she knew nothing at all about polo. After all, polo was still played in modern times; the rules here were simply a little different.
She was now good enough at riding, but she wasn’t expecting much from herself. She just had to make sure not to burden the team and keep herself safe, and everything else would be left to Royal Princess Duanjia.
Both Feudal Princess Minghui and Royal Princess Xu were adept at playing polo, while Royal Princess Duanjia was an amazing player. They had a good shot at winning.
Although there was quite a lot of time for them to prepare, it still passed very quickly for Chu Lian, who was still trying her best to commit the details of the game to memory.
Royal Princess Duanjia personally chose a horse and polo mallet for Chu Lian.
Very soon, the two teams entered the polo field, while Imperial Concubine Wei led the other ladies to a viewing platform.
All the members of Royal Princess Duanjia’s team had a scarlet-red cloth on their arms, while Feudal Princess Anmin’s side had tied a blue cloth on theirs.
The hunting grounds had its own referee. With a loud blow of the whistle, the competition officially began.
The polo ball was thrown up into the air. Royal Princess Duanjia twitched her reins, and her valiant white horse shot forward. When it arrived at the polo ball, it raised its hooves up high with a neigh. Royal Princess Duanjia lifted her hands up and stepped hard on the stirrups; this put her in a standing position with her butt floating above the saddle. Her arm was at a slight angle, and with a slight swing, she snatched the polo ball!
With this swing, the polo ball flew in Royal Princess Xu’s direction.
The ball was already gone by the time Feudal Princess Anmin arrived. Since she had missed the chance to possess the ball, she was now at a disadvantage.
Feudal Princess Anmin angrily bit her bottom lip and glared at Royal Princess Duanjia.
Royal Princess Duanjia sat back down on the saddle with her chin slightly raised, wearing a subtle smile as she glanced at Feudal Princess Anmin with disdain.
Chu Lian guarded the left side of the field, watching as Royal Princess Duanjia lead Feudal Princess Xirou in a charge towards the opponent’s side of the field.
The ladies raised their tender voices, constantly shouting out to each other, and the competition was abnormally fierce.