Fang Yun accepted the invitation and looked it over, finding nothing unusual about it. It was identical to the Literary Assembly invitations he had received before, clearly not something Li Wenying had arranged specifically for him.
Feng Zimo, the Prefectural Courtyard Lord beside him, said, "Since Lord Li has invited you, there must be a deeper meaning behind it."
Yu Xingshu, however, said, "From what I know of Lord Li, those words 'try your best' were not his own intention. If Lord Li truly wanted you to go, he would have directly said he was inviting you. Since he had his attendant phrase it that way, I fear he was acting at someone else's request."
"Since Lord Li thinks so highly of it, then I'll go have a look," Fang Yun said. "But Lord Li only said I should go. He did not say I had to participate in the dragon boat race, did he?"
Everyone was startled. Feng Zimo smiled. "You are quite clever. Still, the prizes for the dragon boat race have never been small, and in recent years they have only grown greater. You had best participate."
"What prizes could there be?"
"In the past, the two kingdoms would each put up a Provincial Graduate literary treasure as the prize. This year, Lord Li added a piece of Dragonblood Ink, so Qing Kingdom naturally refused to show weakness. They actually brought out a Mountains-and-Rivers Go Board, then loudly mocked Lord Li for being stingy and demanded that Jade Sea City offer more treasures as prizes."
"A Mountains-and-Rivers Go Board? They are truly willing to part with it," Fang Yun said.
The Mountains-and-Rivers Go Board was made from an extremely rare strange stone found in Qing Kingdom. The stone's veins resembled the courses of mountains, rivers, and terrain.