Days In Quest Of Honor

Life with Royalty, End of Freedom (3)

The entire room became silent. All the scholars composed themselves and greeted their shizun.

" As you all know, the Crown Prince Xia Xiaowen along with Prince Xiao Huang will be returning back to the imperial capital tomorrow. A parade and a banquet will be held soon after. And the reason as to why you all are summoned...

There will be a tournament tomorrow. It was a sudden decision and it's well known that none of you will get any time to prepare. But as scholars it's your duty to we able to face any situation and tomorrow's tournament may decide a lot about you all. It might even end up as a selection to be a part of the Royal family."

On hearing the words , " selection to be a part of the Royal Family", many of the faces gleamed with joy. The sixth princess was said to be a beauty and it was time for her coming of age ceremony. Also the second Prince was yet to select his wife and concubine.

Han Baozhai just rolled her eyes after seeing the reactions...Clearly it was a bait to entertain them and also an invitation to get selected and losing your eternal freedom. So boring!

" The tournament is optional. And now coming to the main point. There will be four events... Poetry, Singing or playing of guqing, Swords fighting and Archery with horse riding."

Han Baozhai slowly mumbled,
" Swords fighting....Interesting..."

Li Hua heard her and faced her to speak, " So are you going to take part? But doesn't poetry suit you better as an author...no nevermind you are obviously great at martial arts too!

Han Baozhai blushed as she replied, " Anything but singing ah! And well you are a better poet and I can be a better author so it's a no no... What are you going to take part in?"

" Me? Ahh nothing, I dont want to waste my vacation and anyways there isn't wushu here... but...to be honest I can take poetry, maybe I can hit the jackpot of getting the invitation...hehe~ joking!"

" Ahh not you tooo! That's cheating on me then, ain't I, your beloved one!? Hmph!"

The stern and cold voice of the Shizun resounded once again as everyone finished discussing what to choose. The ones who backed away were comparatively less than what was expected. One by one then signed their names to their respective events. Each person could just take part in one of them.

Most of the girls signed in for poetry and singing along with a few boys. But nevertheless many others gave their names for archery and swords fighting too. Han Baozhai choose swords fighting whereas the master of all arts, Guizhong gave her name for archery. Honestly she could have simply won everything against who so ever might have been her opponent. And it was obvious that she would most probably be one of the candidates for the selection.

After all the hustle and bustle, Han Baozhai returned back to her home. Li Hua had already headed towards her own home before her.

After telling everything to her mother, Han Baozhai went to have some rest and then decided to start practicing. Such things were a piece of cake for her. As a professional swimmer and athlete in her teens of her previous life, it wasn't hard for her to master anything. And having nothing else to do in this ancient world she focused on martial arts.

Li Hua too was a professional in kendo in her past life so it wouldn't have been hard for her if there was any event of wushu or kendo.

It was as if these two were built perfectly to be transmigrants of this world.

**********

The next day arrived soon but Han Baozhai struggled to sleep the entire night due to her insomnia. The result of which she was overloaded with fatigue and was extremely drowsy.

She was already getting late and started to rush to reach the Imperial Palace so that she could at least observe a few matches before her own one. Minister Han was already in the court since early in the morning. Even her mother was very excited to meet her son after so many years and hence she too was busy enough to prepare things for welcoming him.

Han Baozhai got ready and started a mad dash. She showed her token at the gates and entered the Imperial Grounds.

As she was heading towards the venue she had to cross a bridge over a small lake. The scenic beauty there was beautiful with the koi fishes swimming in the lake and at times the arrival of cranes hunting for their prey. But today was different.

As she was running she saw a splash. And upon going up the bridge to see what happened, she felt her soul escaping her body. It was winter already and a kid had fallen into the lake. The depth there was no joke.

Han Baozhai having been a swimmer in her previous life jumped from her instinct. Her only thoughts were how could no one notice!

But what she didn't know was that this child was the 8th Prince who had come running to greet his older brothers.

Han Baozhai found it difficult to dive down because of the hanfu she was wearing. On top of that it was hard to have a streamlined body, do the dolphin kicks and see under water.

It took her some time to see that he had already reached a great depth. She rushed up to the surface, took and deep breath and went inside the chilling waters again.

On the other hand the First Prince and the Second Prince had already entered the Palace. And when they noticed the ruckus caused due to the missing 8th Prince they too couldn't help but panic. The First Prince along with the maids went towards the lake while the Second Prince and the General went towards the bamboo pavilion which was dense with bamboo trees.

Finally when the First Prince and the servants reached, they noticed numerous bubbles on the surface of the water.

And Splash! Came out a young woman from under the water. She took a deep breath and swimmed to the shore dragging something.

Finally with some help from the servants Han Baozhai along with the 8th Prince in her arms came out onto the shore.

She was out of breath and thought that it was almost the end of her. Even though she was a professional, the waters were chilling cold and on top of that her clothes were so much of a burden.

But right after catching her breath she looked around at the gaping people, some servants on the verge of crying due to fear, some staring at her and a handsome man with his mouth wide open.

Ignoring all their stares, she stated, " He...*huff* He ha s fainted and uhh...take him to the doctor be cause he i s freezing!"

Having said so she didn't care about anything nor the thanks. She did a few chest compressions and suddenly ran away from the scene. No one got to say anything and even if they did, she heard nothing.

All she knew was that she saved a life but would probably miss the event for which she came.