Chapter 143 — The Draw of Fifty-Four
CHAPTER 143
The Draw of Fifty-Four
The second draw went up under a yellow awning because the afternoon rain had begun.
Fifty-four names remained. Each had a fresh seal beside it, confirming that the first-round result had been entered and the candidate could still fight. The attendants carried the discarded first-round sheets away in a covered basket.
Shi Feng waited beside a stone pillar while Zhou Ke fastened the last corner. Rain rattled against the canvas above him. Duan Yichen arrived with his sabre wrapped in oiled cloth and water dripping off his nose.
“I chose the wrong gate,” Duan Yichen said.
“You found the board,” Shi Feng replied.
“After finding every puddle in Qingyun,” Duan Yichen said.
He shook the water from his sleeve and began reading. The crowd pushed closer before the attendant had stepped off his stool.
Shi Feng found Great Liang's crest in the third column.
Shi Feng against Sima Yu.
For a moment, the rest of the board stopped mattering.
He read the name once more, making sure there was no similar character mistaken in the rain-darkened light. There wasn't.
Duan Yichen saw where he looked.
“Your crown prince,” Duan Yichen said.
“Yes,” Shi Feng replied.
“Is that troublesome?” Duan Yichen asked.
“The platform will be simple,” Shi Feng said.
The trouble came from everything that had happened before they reached it.
The first shout came from the back of the crowd.
“Great Liang eats itself!”
“First place against third!”
“That leaves the veiled fairy to carry their banner!”
“Or the man who threw White Crane's disciple out in one turn!”
A kingdom officer tried to quiet the jokes. Nobody listened.
Sima Yu reached the awning from the covered passage. His attendants cleared no path for him inside the candidate area. He had to wait while a man carrying an umbrella argued about a Great Zhou pairing.
Then he saw the third column.
His expression didn't change immediately. Shi Feng watched the effort required to keep it that way.
The Crown Prince turned toward him.
“Brother Shi,” Sima Yu said. “An unfortunate draw for our kingdom.”
“Only one of us needs to lose,” Shi Feng replied.
The words were calm enough that several nearby candidates smiled. Sima Yu returned a smile of his own, too measured to be natural.
“Of course,” Sima Yu said. “We should speak before the match.”
“You can find me at the inn,” Shi Feng replied.
He didn't mind hearing what the prince thought could still be said. Listening wouldn't make the previous killing orders disappear.
Sima Yu nodded and moved away from the board. He stopped beneath the covered passage where the rain couldn't reach his robe.
Shi Feng saw his fingers press once against the ornament at his belt.
Ling Qingzhu read the draw after the main crowd thinned. Her white veil moved slightly with her breathing as she found Shi Feng's name.
She knew Sima Yu's anger. She also knew the prince had resources he didn't display in ordinary exchanges. Lu Yong's earlier rules had been clear. Officials would halt violations, and the platform barriers weren't decorations.
Shi Feng passed beside the awning on his way to the exit. Ling Qingzhu took one step toward him.
“Sima Yu won't fight cleanly if he's pressed,” Ling Qingzhu said.
“I know how he fights, Fairy Ling,” Shi Feng said evenly, and walked out through the gate before the next shower began.
Ling Qingzhu turned back to the board to read the time of her own match.
Sima Lan stood beneath the far end of the awning. She had arrived quietly enough that Shi Feng hadn't noticed her in the first crush of candidates.
The younger princess looked at her brother's pairing and smiled slightly.
Not a happy smile. More like the expression of someone who had finally seen a door open where she expected a wall.
A Moon Lake disciple beside her pointed to their own names. Sima Lan listened, nodded and said nothing about Great Liang.
Sima Yu saw the smile from the passage.
His jaw tightened.
Sima Lan left the Moon Lake disciple and crossed to the draw board. She read the third column once.
“My brother has never lost to anyone he thought beneath him; tomorrow will be a first,” Sima Lan said, loud enough for the awning.
Nobody laughed. Under the awning, candidates turned to see whether the prince would answer.
Sima Yu stayed beneath the covered passage and let the silence do it for him. Yu Cao's runner was already at the betting board with a wet brush, moving Great Liang's prince down out of the favourites.
At the inn, Kang Liu had moved the outdoor tables beneath the eaves. A travelling family huddled around one of them, counting the dry spaces left in their luggage.
Shi Feng helped the youngest child retrieve a shoe that had rolled under a bench. The boy took it without noticing the tournament plate on his bag.
That was pleasant.
Upstairs, Shi Feng laid his sword across the table and checked the new grip. The cloth sat firmly. The blade carried several small marks from the road, but nothing that would affect tomorrow's use.
Sima Yu was late Foundation Establishment. A better royal artifact might make his techniques sharper or conceal an attack from an awkward angle. It wouldn't close the distance between them.
Shi Feng didn't need to imagine a desperate battle to take him seriously as an enemy.
He remembered Guo Zhen's attempt to kill him. Cao Wenshu's attack. The later men sent to finish what earlier servants had failed to do.
A knock sounded below. Kang Liu spoke to someone at the entrance, then sent a runner up the stairs with a message.
The Crown Prince wished to visit after dinner.
Shi Feng set the sword down.
“Tell him he can come,” Shi Feng said.
The runner hurried away. Shi Feng closed his practice journal and put the medicine aside.
Tomorrow's draw had given him an opponent.
Tonight would tell him how much fear the prince could hide beneath the words Brother Shi.
He copied the match time from his plate onto the inn's message board. Kang Liu would know when to expect the room empty and when to keep callers downstairs. Then Shi Feng put the sword within reach and lay down. Staying awake to stare at the name wouldn't bring morning any sooner.