Chapter 98: Hello Chang’an
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Chapter 98: The General's Residence of the Cavalry Commander, Chang Suining
Chang Suining seemed not to notice Chang Miao, her gaze focused solely on the goal behind him. She weighed the ball she had just snatched from the three players in her hand, tossed it lightly upwards, and without hesitation, swung her stick to hit it.
She indeed aimed for the goal, but unfortunately, Chang Miao stood right in between her and the goal.
“Bang!”
The colorful ball slammed against the side of Chang Miao’s face, causing his head to jerk to one side as he let out a pained scream.
Suddenly, the surroundings fell silent.
Chang Miao trembled as he raised his hand to cover his throbbing, numb face, spitting out a mouthful of blood. He felt several teeth loosen, and upon spitting again, he found one of his teeth had come out along with the bloody spittle.
…His tooth!
Chang Miao's expression shifted, his eyes instantly blazing with rage.
“Do you not know the heights of heaven or the depths of the earth… daring to act so recklessly in front of me!” His cheek was swelling rapidly, and with blood frothing in his mouth, his speech was somewhat slurred, yet his anger surged uncontrollably: “I see you want to die!”
He had never suffered such a public humiliation before!
Moreover, the person who had humiliated him was someone he had never even seen before, a foolish being who had appeared out of nowhere!
In the Imperial academy, he recognized anyone of notable reputation or distinguished family background, and this stranger, clearly an inconsequential nobody, was not worthy of his regard!
The unprecedented humiliation had filled him with an overwhelming rage, and his sense of superiority, stemming from his elevated status, had stripped him of all caution—
For a moment, he even forgot he was on a competition field.
At this moment, he had only one thought in his mind—he had to vent this anger! He wanted to make the other party pay a hundredfold!
With bloodshot eyes, Chang Miao urged his horse and charged directly at Chang Suining.
There was no ball in front of him; the one that had hit his face had rolled away, as three of the four members of the yellow team had already fallen off their horses, leaving no one to compete for the ball in this chaotic scene.
Thus, if they had previously used the game as a pretense, Chang Miao was now blatantly intending to harm someone—
The referee was startled at the sight.
“You absolutely cannot harm your classmates on the field!”
“This is a violation of the competition rules!”
The spectators outside the arena immediately erupted in alarm.
However, Chang Miao was like a madman, completely deaf to the chaos around him. The ball stick in his hand was already swinging toward the “substitute boy.”
This swing was clearly aimed directly at the boy’s head; with such force, it would surely cause some serious injury.
Yet that “boy” showed no intention of dodging.
Some timid ladies averted their eyes, trembling and closing them tightly.
Cui Lang watched in horror, his pupils constricting.
Before, she hadn’t dodged when a horse charged at her, claiming she wanted to see if it hurt when Chang Miao's horse hit a person—
Now, she wouldn’t dodge as he swung his ball stick at her head; surely, she couldn't be trying to see if it hurt when the stick hit her head, could she?!
“Ancestor, you can't just try it like this!!” Cui Lang shouted in a trembling voice.
Testing it out like this could lead to death!
“Presumptuous!” At the same moment, Yao Yi, having recognized who the substitute boy was, sprang to his feet, his face tense and grave: “This Chang family young master is simply—”
His words halted, the remainder stuck in his throat.
In a moment of peril, everyone finally saw the “substitute boy” move.
The boy's horse remained still; he merely bent his upper body backward to evade the oncoming blow. Then, using his slender waist tied with blue ribbons as leverage, he swiftly pivoted to the right. As he half-raised himself, he quickly reached out and grasped the upper half of Chang Miao’s missed ball stick.
The boy's ponytail flew up and down with the movement, resembling a soft silk unfurling, like a flowing ink painting—
But the boy’s movement was anything but soft.
As he seized the ball stick, he straightened back up on the horse and forcefully pulled down on it, yanking Chang Miao off his horse!
“Thud!”
Chang Miao fell face-first to the ground, landing in the mud and unable to even cry out.
Countless eyes widened in shock around them.
“My son!” A woman’s sharp scream pierced the air, as if her soul were about to leave her body.
In the next moment, Chang Miao’s startled horse neighed loudly, rearing up as it stepped on the fallen Chang Miao, its panic causing it to gallop uncontrollably forward.
The Chang family matriarch, who had just begun to rush forward, felt her breath catch, unable to let out a single cry!
Chang Suining pulled on the reins to avoid the rampaging horse.
The horse was running wild, threatening to break through the arena's barriers and charge into the spectators.
People hurriedly scattered to avoid it.
“Whoa!”
Chang Suining shouted and urged her horse to chase after the out-of-control stallion.
However, halfway there, she noticed that someone was sitting steadily under the canopy that the horse was charging toward. She pulled back the reins and stopped.
With someone capable present, there was no need for her to exert herself further.
As she suddenly halted and sat quietly on her horse, her demeanor seemed to say, "It doesn't matter, Cui Jing will take action," while Cui Jing himself could only respond with silence.
Yao Yi exclaimed, “Not good, that horse is going to hurt someone!”
Yuan Xiang replied, “...Yes.”
Anyone with eyes could see what was about to happen.
“General...” Yuan Xiang was about to ask if his lord wanted him to subdue the mad horse when he saw a figure flash in front of him—
Following the movement, the young man leaped forward, the hem of his robe billowing as he jumped onto the horse’s back. With his long, calloused hands, he tightened the reins and forcibly pulled the horse into a half-rearing position before bringing it back down.
After several back-and-forth motions, the horse gradually calmed down and ceased its resistance.
The crowd let out a sigh of relief: “Thanks to General Cui!”
Yuan Xiang stepped forward.
Cui Jing dismounted, tossing the reins to Yuan Xiang: “Watch this horse closely.”
“Yes.”
Chang Suining also got off her horse.
The other three members of the blue team had dismounted and approached her. The boy with the surname Hu hurriedly asked, “Substitute, are you alright?”
Chang Suining, completely unscathed, nodded, “Of course.”
“What else would you expect? Even a blind person can see who is hurt and who isn’t.” Cui Lang said proudly, not caring about Chang Miao’s plight, and purposely called out to the referee: “The last round is over; our blue team has earned two flags. Does that mean we’ve won!”
With the victories from the previous two rounds, there was no doubt that they were the champions of this year’s polo match.
The prince's polo stick also belonged to them now.
Most importantly, Chang Miao had been beaten so badly that he couldn’t even get up, allowing them to vent their frustrations!
“You’ve seriously injured my son, and you still dare to claim victory!” Madam Chang’s lips trembled with anger as she knelt beside Chang Miao, assessing his condition. Seeing his face covered in blood, unable to move, she was filled with both heartache and fear: “My poor son!”
Tears fell from her eyes as she urged those nearby, “Quick, take him to the medical hall!”
“Do not move him recklessly—” Chang Miao’s father, Chang Tongchun, said in a deep voice, “Quickly, summon a physician!”
The horse’s hoof had stepped on his back, potentially injuring his spine; moving him carelessly would be a grave mistake.
Someone ran off to call for a physician.
In the aftermath of the chaos, the expressions of the people in the arena varied. Aside from the severely injured Chang Miao, the other three members of the yellow team also bore injuries.
Cui Lang, hands on his hips, looked smugly at the two referees: “Why haven’t you announced our victory yet? What are you waiting for!”
The two referees exchanged glances, one of them nodding. Just as he was about to speak, Madam Chang interrupted sharply—
She pointed at Chang Suining and said, “This person openly injured my son. Such a heinous act should be punished by the Imperial academy!”
With red-rimmed eyes, she looked towards Qiao Yang and others standing under the canopy: “If the Imperial academy covers for her, then let the authorities handle this matter!”
In any case, she could not allow her son to suffer this injustice!
Chang Suining spoke up in front of Qiao Yang, asking, “Which eye of yours saw me injuring your son?”
“You first repeatedly hit my Miao with the ball!”
Chang Suining replied calmly, “But I was always aiming for the goal; my intention was to score. It’s just unfortunate that your son, overly eager to win, insisted on using his body to block the ball. How could that be blamed on others?”
“You…” Chang Miao, half lying on Madam Chang, trembled with rage.
Damn it, he had insisted on using his own body to block the ball!
Cui Lang hastily chimed in, “This is a matter visible to all; we all saw it!”
Madam Chang gritted her teeth: “But it’s a fact that he deliberately threw my son off the horse!”
Chang Suining raised her brows: “He intended to harm me first. When the referee failed to stop him, I had no choice but to defend myself. He used his polo stick to injure me; when I seized his stick, what wrong did I do? He was the one who couldn’t stay on his horse and fell off; how can he blame that on me?”
Madam Chang’s expression changed repeatedly. Just as she was about to say something more, the “boy” spoke again: “As for who is the true perpetrator of harm, I believe everyone present can distinguish that—do you think it’s fair that just because he used the same method he employed against others on me, yet failed to injure me repeatedly, I should allow him to hurt me without defending myself and then be bitten back by the perpetrator?”
Cui Lang once again raised his voice in agreement: “Exactly! This is clearly the thief calling to catch the thief! Chang Miao blatantly attacked first; so many eyes witnessed it!”
But after observing Chang Miao and the three others with bruised faces, he fell momentarily silent.
While the words were strong, Madam Chang would refer to this as “a bit of self-defense”?
Cui Lang suddenly had a fresh understanding of what “a bit of self-defense” really meant.
Chang Suining, looking down from above, cast a glance at Chang Miao and his mother on the ground—this family was truly petty, delighting in bullying others, and when they were bested, they started to make a scene like children throwing a tantrum.
Chang Miao was angered by her gaze, attempting to rise with a desperate effort but ultimately failed to sit up.
Amid the surrounding clamor, a young man’s voice rang out—
“I also believe that this substitute has not violated the competition rules.” Cui Jing looked at Chang Suining and said.
Cui Lang was stunned for a moment, then a wave of indescribable emotion surged within him—his older brother was usually reticent, but he was willing to speak up now, which clearly indicated he was still on his side!
Yao Yi also said earnestly, “It was merely self-defense; what’s wrong with that?”
She frowned and looked towards Qiao Yang: “Master Qiao should also speak a word of justice—”
Qiao Yang: “?”
He was the father here, after all.
Could he really be biased against his own child?
The incident had happened so suddenly that he had been focused on questioning his son’s injuries and had just recognized Suining. He was still in shock and hadn’t had time to react.
How could Yao Yi’s tone imply that he was the outsider?
Hadn’t it already been stated that Yao Yi had accused the wrong person?
Qiao Yang felt puzzled for a moment and cleared his throat, about to speak up for justice when a voice interrupted him—
“Though this substitute’s actions cannot definitively be deemed as intentional harm, she has indeed violated the competition rules.”
Ming Luo looked at Chang Suining on the field and stated firmly.
Chang Suining turned to look at her.
As their gazes met, Ming Luo’s cold eyes held an evaluative glint: “When did the Imperial academy get a female student?”
She recognized Chang Suining as soon as she got off her horse and spoke.
If General Cui and the others hadn’t recognized her, she wouldn’t believe it for a second.
They were simply covering for the wayward Chang Suining.
This remark instantly caused an uproar around them.
“What…”
“That substitute is actually a girl?!”
Not only were the spectators stunned, but those on the field were also taken aback.
The boy with the surname Hu and Xi Zhiyuan were especially shocked, looking at Chang Suining in unison with countless other gazes.
Their substitute teammate was actually a girl!
Now that they took a closer look... it certainly seemed like it!
However, influenced by the subconscious notion that “substitutes must be male,” and due to her demeanor resembling that of a young man without a trace of feminine decorum, they had merely assumed she was a pretty boy!
Now that they were alerted, upon looking again, they realized she made no effort to conceal her identity at all!
“Cui Liulang, didn’t you say you recognized him… her?” the boy with the surname Hu asked in a lowered voice.
Cui Lang sighed: “I did recognize her.”
He just hadn’t specifically mentioned whether she was male or female.
However, now that Chang Suining's identity had been exposed, the prince’s polo stick might just slip through their fingers again.
“Disguising her identity as a woman and impersonating a male student to enter the competition, disrupting the polo match—” Ming Luo looked at Chang Suining with a stern gaze, judging, “This is the Imperial academy’s polo match, which has always been highly regarded by the sages. How could it be a place for you to act recklessly?”
“Miss Ming’s words are erroneous; when have I concealed my identity as a woman? Have I ever claimed to be a man?” Chang Suining stood in the arena with her hands clasped behind her back, her expression calm. “Moreover, I never impersonated anyone; I entered the match as myself. It’s just that none of you bothered to ask—”
Ming Luo couldn’t help but frown: “You…”
This was clearly a case of playing tricks!
Chang Suining showed no signs of distress.
She hadn’t hidden her identity cleverly at all; she hadn’t intended to conceal it. Being exposed was part of her plan, and her shameless remarks had been thought out long ago.
Many rules were inherently unfair; if the rules made no sense, why should she adhere to them?
In situations like this, strictly following the rules would only lead to being bullied.
“Who exactly are you?” Chang Miao, half collapsed on the ground, gritted his teeth and asked.
So not only had he been beaten, but he had also been beaten by a girl!
Under the gaze of the crowd, the person being questioned possessed a clean, confident demeanor that was balanced between a young girl and a young man, making it hard to look away.
At this moment, she casually replied, “Chang Suining of the Cavalry General’s Mansion.”
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(The end of this chapter)
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