709: Men and Ducks Talking Past Each Other [Part 1 of 2]

Ning Yan looked at the branch pressed against her throat and sheathed her sword. "I lost. My lord's swordsmanship is superb; Yan is no match."

Shen Tang wore a small, smug smile.

She flourished the branch through a complicated sword flourish and said, "Everyone has their own specialty. Swordsmanship isn't exactly Tunan's forte."

Ning Yan shook her head with a smile, though there was a hint of bitterness in it.

She said helplessly, "My lord, that's not quite right."

Her swordsmanship had always been excellent. It was one of her greatest strengths.

Shen Tang asked, "What isn't right?"

"Everyone has their own specialty. Of the Six Arts of the Gentleman, swordsmanship was the one I specialized in. But it has indeed been many years since I took it seriously. It's easy to set aside, but hard to pick up again." Ning Yan lowered her eyes and caressed her sword, her gaze filled with deep affection, as if she were looking at a beloved she had been parted from for many years. Even her fingertips were tender and lingering. "Now that I'm cramming at the last minute, I don't know..."

Shen Tang truly hadn't known about this.

Actually, if she had asked Xu Xie, he might have told her that Ning Yan's swordsmanship had once dazzled the academy in her youth. Among all those students, few had been better than her; the handful who were had the advantages of literary energy tempering their bodies and greater age. But as Ning Yan grew older and gradually accepted that, as a woman, she was destined to be ordinary, she had begun to give up on herself subconsciously.

She had put her treasured sword away on a high shelf.

Only now and then, when the mood struck, would she practice with Yan An, and