After transmigrating, I became a stepmother.

"Ahem, since that's the case, how does Your Highness Prince Su intend to set the rules for this second round of the competition?"

Emperor Sheng's expression remained calm and unchanging, making it impossible to discern what he was thinking.

His gaze narrowed slightly, but in an instant, the Crown Prince's handsome face returned. He cleared his throat and looked at Prince Su.

Prince Su couldn't stand the smug look on Sheng Guo's side and just wanted to move on to the next round as soon as possible. So he said directly, "If you say we'll follow your rules, then we'll follow your rules. Changing them is too much trouble, so let's just stick to the old rules!"

The person next to him opened their mouth, but in vain kept it closed.

Alas, forget it!

The Crown Prince also breathed a slight sigh of relief. The performance of the others had been evident to all, and he was really afraid that Prince Su would raise some objections, adding variables.

"Alright, let's begin."

With a slight gesture, a palace servant prepared the necessary chessboard.

The three chess sets were arranged in order, and the six people greeted each other and sat facing each other in pairs.

The Su brothers naturally took their seats in order, but Yang Bo and Li Xuan thought to themselves at the same time: With the chessboard placed so close together, it's easy to see the chessboards on the side, which might easily distract us. It's better to sit on the side!

Having fallen behind, Wen Tingzhu was left with only the middle position.

From this point on, the matchups for the second game were clear: Yang Bo and Su Zixiu were on the left, Li Xuan and Su Zizhi were on the right, and Wen Tingzhu and Su Ziqi were in the middle.

With the palace attendants chanting in response, the second round of the competition officially began.

As expected of the well-bred young masters they had carefully cultivated, their chess skills were naturally superb. A full incense stick's time passed, and the two sides were evenly matched, playing with ease.

They were focused on their game, but the onlookers were getting restless and started whispering among themselves, discussing who they thought was better.

However, as mentioned before, it is indeed remarkable that Wen Tingzhu, a poor scholar, could fight on equal terms with Su Ziqi, a renowned young master from a prestigious family.

Everyone present secretly glanced at Emperor Sheng, hoping to glean something from him, but Emperor Sheng remained as calm as ever.

Even so, their intuition told them that as long as Wen Tingzhu didn't make any major mistakes, he was likely to rise to prominence in the future.

I heard that he is not yet married. As a result, many people have started to have their eyes on him. Those who have daughters of marriageable age naturally want to marry him, and those who don't have nieces or grandnieces.

And so, another incense stick's time passed. In the back and forth, the chess pieces on the board had been picked up and put back countless times. At this point, the players were no longer as at ease as they had been at the beginning.

Yang Bo's forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat, but he didn't bother to wipe them away. His eyes were fixed on the chessboard in front of him, and his brows were furrowed.

On the other side, Li Xuan frowned deeply and it took him a long time to place a piece.

Of course, their opponents were not as fast as before, but compared to the two of them, Su Zixiu and Su Zizhi looked more composed.

Surprisingly, Wen Tingzhu and Su Ziqi in the middle seemed to be in a completely different situation from the two groups next to them. Wen Tingzhu appeared to be the one with more ease, while Su Ziqi seemed to be struggling a lot, making each move very cautiously.

As everyone's curiosity was about to be exhausted, Prince Su took the lead and walked to the side of the group. Seeing this, the others disregarded everything else and followed suit.