Transmigrated into a vicious female supporting role, reborn as a hostage to the paranoid male protag

Su Yingxue caught a glimpse of Chu Xingchen's eyes for no apparent reason. Mo Yunsheng's smile was gentle and soft, like jade and the rising sun.

Jiu Xiangshi's eyes, which were cold and a little chilly, stared deeply at Su Yingxue, his face was cold and his eyes were burning.

Su Yingxue didn't know why, perhaps it was because Chu Xingchen's gaze on her was too scorching, or perhaps it was because she thought of the undisguised depth in his eyes last night. Su Yingxue, caught between the two gazes, felt a sense of emptiness in her heart for no reason.

What kind of Shura field is this?

For some reason, she was clearly following the system's requirements to conquer Mo Yunsheng, but facing Chu Xingchen's burning gaze, she always looked like a child who had done something wrong, feeling very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, Qin Dong's competition started soon. Situ Qingming pulled her out of the Shura field. When they reached the edge of the training ground, they managed to squeeze into a small space in a corner.

"Sister Axue, how come Brother Jiu is sitting with you today?" Situ Qingming looked at the two people sitting alone at the elegant table not far away and couldn't help asking, "The way Brother Jiu looks at you is so indescribable. I always feel like Sister Axue is hiding something from me."

"What can I hide from my sister?" Su Yingxue didn't want to look back. In the current situation, when Mo Yunsheng's favorability with her was gradually improving, she was afraid that Chu Xingchen would delay her progress.

Su Yingxue didn't know Chu Xingchen's mission here. She just ordered Taxue to check it out. Maybe there will be a reply soon.

For some reason, she always felt that the male protagonist was someone who could clearly distinguish between emotions, hatred, and great cause. She didn't believe that Chu Xingchen came because of Su Yingxue's poisoning, nor did she believe that Chu Xingchen had resolved the grudge in his heart.

Perhaps Chu Xingchen's rescue of her was part of a hidden game within the Great Sheng Dynasty. Su Yingxue didn't believe him, just as she didn't believe the man who killed her in the original novel would let her go so easily.

Qin Dong was the best of her secret guards. Su Yingxue suddenly wondered, if it was Qin Dong instead of Taxue who was guarding her last night, who would be the better one, Qin Dong or that Zhaoying?

After a round of competition, Qin Dong undoubtedly took fourth place. He remembered Su Yingxue's previous instructions to him: don't try to win first place, but stay in the top four.

Donald Qin finished fourth, undeterred. This way, they neither stood out nor remained low-key in the first round, bringing them closer to their overall goal.

As for horseback archery, that was a required course for secret guards, so Su Yingxue wasn't worried. It was just a formality.

However, Situ Qingming's words just now did remind her. Now Chu Xingchen was also at the banquet. She had given Mo Yunsheng a betrothal gift yesterday, so today she also needed to prepare betrothal gifts for the others.

Currently, Su Yingxue only has 10% favorability from Mo Yunsheng. Currently, Mo Yunsheng is still a nobody in the Great Sheng Dynasty.

Although the original novel was fine in the later part, Su Yingxue felt at this moment that the less attention she paid to him, the smoother it would be for him to take the imperial examination and become an official in the later part of his life.

Su Yingxue didn't want to expose Mo Yunsheng's edge to Chu Xingchen too early, because in the current situation, Chu Xingchen was the biggest variable for her.

At least she couldn't show her feelings for Mo Yunsheng openly like before. So just now, she quietly told Taxue to find a suitable lucky draw and prepare it.

It is so difficult to gain favorability, and Su Yingxue doesn't want to cause any more trouble.

The teams that made it through the first round of target shooting went straight into the arena to draw lots for their horses. Qin Dong came in fourth, but he drew a less-than-perfect old horse. This was unexpected.

In horseback archery, the bows and arrows provided in the hunting grounds were all uniformly distributed, but the horses were chosen by drawing lots. And in this kind of hunting, the more agile the horse, the better it was for hunting.

Now the horse Qin Dong drew was at the bottom, which was far beyond Su Yingxue's expectations. She was a little worried for a while whether Qin Dong could stay in the top five.

Looking at the other teams that advanced, Su Yingxue discovered that the first three teams that advanced had all picked top-notch horses. In this way, the advantages accumulated in the first round were likely to be tied in this round.

If I had known this earlier, I would have let Qin Dong win the first round and not been so conservative.

Now, their group seems to be in a very passive position.

At the same time, Qin Lan, who was sitting in the elegant room upstairs, was looking at the situation in front of her. Although their group had a lower score in the written test, her brother had just won the first place in the horseback archery competition, and now he had also won this excellent mount. The chances of winning the second round were also very high.

As the host of this event, the Qin family naturally has to get into the top three, preferably the first place, so as to firmly maintain the Qin family's position among the aristocratic families.

The original intention of the Plum Blossom Appreciation Banquet was to form a chain for the Qin family to make friends with aristocratic families, students, officials' families, noble ladies, powerful officials, and civil officials. As long as the Plum Blossom Appreciation Banquet continues year after year, the Qin family's influence on the officials and literary circles will continue year after year. Therefore, her father had already warned her brother and her not to be careless in this competition.

They had been training since childhood for the Qin family's Plum Blossom Appreciation Banquet competitions. No matter how many different rules there were, the core remained the same. Furthermore, the winner of the annual Plum Blossom Appreciation Banquet would meet with five nobles and great scholars for the final palace examination.

If one performs well in the palace examination, he will have a better chance of being recommended by all officials and will be more likely to be recommended by the emperor.

So from another perspective, the path to success for ordinary people from humble backgrounds is nothing more than the imperial examination. But for the aristocratic and powerful families, in addition to the imperial examination, the recommendation system is also a shortcut.

This plum blossom viewing banquet was the first time that her brother and she attended. It was also the one that her father wanted to train her brother for many years so that he could embark on a path to success in the political, academic and social circles of princes and noble ladies.

The horseback hunting expedition soon began. Unlike a fixed-point hunt, the hunting grounds were extensive, so bystanders could not see the entire area. The hunting grounds were huge, covering several hilltops, and there were many rare and exotic animals.

All rare and precious animals have corresponding points. Common prey has low points, while the more difficult and rare the prey is, the higher the points. Each contestant receives a bow and arrow with a unique number on the shaft and arrow.

In the hunting grounds, the Qin family would arrange guards to inspect at observation posts at regular intervals. If a contestant hunted prey, they would be identified by the observation post, and someone would be sent forward to collect the prey in a woven bag with a specific number. The points would be calculated in real time and fed back to the viewing platform until the end of the competition.

The second round of competition began for a long time, and the contestants galloped on their horses and soon disappeared from the sight of everyone in the hunting ground.

Su Yingxue and Situ Qingming sat together in the stands. Fortunately, the stands were divided into men's and women's seats. Su Yingxue felt much more relaxed because she didn't have to sit with Mo Yunsheng and Chu Xingchen.

She was a person who didn't like being suppressed. For some reason, with Chu Xingchen added to the group of four, the atmosphere became tense and very depressing.