I Got Together with the Goddess [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 11

After consuming the Spirit Tooth Fruit, Jiang Yiqing discovered that the system had been correct; her spiritual power had been significantly enhanced.

She could now perceive the spiritual aura surrounding the Golden Immortal Auspicious Dew Cicadas from a great distance, and occasionally, she could even detect fragments hidden beneath the earth’s surface.

There were fragments of Emerald Rainbow Stone, Water Mirror Stone, and Red Cloud Stone. Although most were low-to-medium grade materials and rarely high-grade, their vibrant colors made them quite beautiful to look at.

With her enhanced spiritual power, Jiang Yiqing no longer needed to dig through the soil to collect stones from underground. She simply applied force with her palm against the surface, allowing her spiritual power to penetrate through the layers of earth down to the stones. The rocks were then directly attracted to the surface by her spiritual energy.

Jiang Yiqing hadn’t expected to possess such capability—or rather, to have it after eating the Spirit Tooth Fruit. Rare treasures were now at her fingertips, and she felt a bit embarrassed by her own good fortune.

Instead of selling the collected stones, Jiang Yiqing meticulously polished them into various shapes. She then used Celestial Silk purchased from the mall to string them together, creating bracelets which she gave to Madam Si, Zhi Gui, Zhi Li, and others. According to the system, bracelets made from these stones also possessed the power to ward off evil.

Jiang Yiqing had originally wanted to give one to Si Xuansu as well, but she had never seen Si Xuansu wear any jewelry. Furthermore, she hadn’t finished gathering a full set of high-grade materials yet, so she held off on the gift for now.

Everyone was delighted to receive her gifts, finding the stones exceptionally beautiful. Since each piece was unique, wearing them on their wrists improved their moods whenever they caught a glimpse while working.

Word soon spread through the manor. Everyone knew the young master-in-law could craft exquisite bracelets and give them freely to the servants, leading some to come to Jiang Yiqing specifically to ask for one.

However, those who came to ask were mostly senior maidservants, such as Si Bai, who served the Madam. They asked in a joking manner, but Jiang Yiqing granted every request.

She spent some time searching for stones, fortunately finding many beneath the General’s Manor. She gave each of them a string of beads, and in doing so, she won over the hearts of all the senior maidservants—or rather, she deepened her friendship with everyone.

Before she knew it, a month had passed since she married into the General’s Manor, and the day for the “Returning to the Bride’s Home” Gui Sheng visit had arrived.

Jiang Yiqing had almost forgotten about it until the day before the visit, when Si Xuansu said to her, “Yiqing, tomorrow is the day for the return visit. I’ve discussed it with my parents; we want to take you back to visit your father and mother-in-law.”

Jiang Yiqing remembered what Jiang Yifan had said—that the original owner’s parents’ son had eloped and their daughter had been sent to marry in his place. They likely felt terrible, and she felt she truly ought to visit them.

“Alright,” Jiang Yiqing agreed after some thought.

“We may have to wake up early tomorrow, so get some rest early today,” Si Xuansu said.

Jiang Yiqing nodded, but since it was still afternoon and she saw that Si Xuansu finally had some time off, she suggested a game of Cuju.

“Xuansu, the sky is clear and there’s a gentle breeze today. It’s perfect for Cuju. How about it? You should join in too.” Jiang Yiqing’s goal was to pull Si Xuansu into the game.

It would be fun! She admitted that while she wasn’t a child anymore, she still had a playful streak.

However, Si Xuansu didn’t mock her. Instead, her expression was entirely indulgent: “If you want to play Cuju that badly, then play. As for me…”

“Are you not going to participate?” Jiang Yiqing’s head dropped, looking listless when she saw her hesitation.

Si Xuansu looked at her and said, “I’ll be the referee.”

Referee? Although Jiang Yiqing wanted her to play, being the referee wasn’t bad; at least she hadn’t refused entirely.

“Great!”

Cuju was a popular leisure sport in this world, widely enjoyed among the nobility. However, the General’s Manor only had one young master, Si Xuansu, who had to go to the military every day, so Cuju rarely played. Hearing that Jiang Yiqing wanted to play, the manor’s servants were very enthusiastic.

The Cuju goal was different from a modern soccer goal. High up between two poles, there was a hole in the middle of a net, like a basket. The ball had to pass through this opening, called the “Eye of Elegance,” to score.

Jiang Yiqing had never played Cuju before, so she was very excited. She had good athletic reflexes and had played soccer in the past; she was curious to see if modern techniques would apply to ancient Cuju.

And this time, Si Xuansu was there too!

With Si Bai’s assistance, Jiang Yiqing divided the participants into two teams and explained the rules, familiarizing herself with the rules of this world in the process.

Si Bai didn’t want to play herself but offered to help maintain order. Jiang Yiqing thought Si Bai would make a fine referee, so she walked over to Si Xuansu, still determined to get her onto the field.

“Xuansu, look, Si Bai is doing a great job as referee. Why don’t you play too? Our team is very weak, and the guys on the other side are very strong. I have no confidence without you.” As a novice, she truly lacked confidence.

Sensing the distress signal in her eyes, Si Xuansu hesitated.

At that moment, Si Bai said with a smile from the side, “Young Master-in-law, you don’t know—if the Young Master joins this match, the outcome will be a foregone conclusion.”

Did that mean Si Xuansu was very good at Cuju?

Jiang Yiqing became even more expectant and said, “But I heard Xuansu doesn’t play Cuju often.”

“The Young Master simply lacks the time to play. Her skill level was very high when she was young; she even participated in a match before the Emperor and received a reward as the winning captain.”

Jiang Yiqing thought, the more you say, the more I look forward to it. She pressed her hands together and said to Xuansu, “Xuansu, I’m very weak. Please let me ride your coattails, otherwise, I’ll lose miserably and lose face. It’s fine if I lose my own face, but I can’t lose yours too.”

Hearing her speak so seriously, Si Xuansu’s expression turned solemn. She asked, “Do you truly want me to participate?”

Jiang Yiqing nodded vigorously. Truly! More real than real gold.

Si Xuansu held out a hand and asked, “Then where is my bead bracelet?”

Jiang Yiqing hadn’t expected Si Xuansu to care about that. Fortunately, she had finally finished collecting the high-quality stones. She took a bracelet with an exotic, shimmering luster out of her space and placed it in Si Xuansu’s hand, saying, “How could I forget you?”

“The Young Master-in-law is crafty! The bracelet given to the Young Master is even prettier than everyone else’s,” the crowd teased.

Si Xuansu put the bracelet on her wrist and then said with satisfaction, “Then I will participate.”

Si Xuansu took the Cuju attire from Si Bai and went to change.

The Cuju uniform of the General’s Manor consisted of a red and black interwoven top with a maple leaf pattern on the back, paired with culottes.

The two teams tied red and black cloth strips to their shoulders. Jiang Yiqing and Si Xuansu were on the Red Team, and after winning the coin toss, they took the kickoff.

The ball first went to Zhi Li’s feet. Before she could even kick it, someone from the Black Team closed in on her. In a panic, she passed the ball toward Jiang Yiqing and Si Xuansu. Jiang Yiqing received the ball but didn’t rush to score; since she wasn’t yet familiar with the feel of Cuju, she passed it to Si Xuansu.

Si Xuansu was very serious when playing Cuju. Jiang Yiqing saw that her expression didn’t slacken for a moment. Once she received the ball, she launched an attack. The Black Team members followed her closely, and as she prepared to kick, they swarmed her, attempting to intercept the ball in the air with various poses.

The ball glided in a low arc through the air, drilled through the gap between the defenders’ legs, then soared upward and accurately struck the distant Eye of Elegance!

Jiang Yiqing was stunned. What kind of technique was that? To be able to kick a ball on a trajectory that went from low to high—it was as if Si Xuansu had calculated the defenders’ movements perfectly. The ball passed through the only available gap and hit the mark precisely.

Jiang Yiqing couldn’t help but clap, and the people of the General’s Manor watching the match all joined in the applause.

Jiang Yiqing kept replaying the moment in her mind, the goddess’s posture as she struck the ball mid-air was too cool! Her hem flared out in the air like the leaf of a giant water lily, and her long legs beneath the trousers were full of tension. The frozen moment of the goal was simply impossible to look away from. It reminded Jiang Yiqing of the day they first met, when she had also noticed her legs.

No, she was admiring the goal, not looking at the legs.

Si Xuansu, however, didn’t show much joy after scoring. She accepted everyone’s applause calmly, walked over to Jiang Yiqing, and leaned intimately close to her ear, saying, “That pass just now was quite good.”

Eh, her pass was good. Jiang Yiqing had been very intentional with the pass, considering Si Xuansu’s offensive line and trying to avoid being noticed by the Black Team. Although the praise was well-deserved, hearing her say it made Jiang Yiqing feel incredibly happy.

“Was it?” Jiang Yiqing laughed shyly.

“Do you really not know how to play?” Si Xuansu asked with a look of doubt.

“This is my first time playing Cuju,” Jiang Yiqing said quickly, adding a silent explanation in her heart that soccer and Cuju were different.

After they scored, possession switched. It became the Black Team’s turn to attack. According to the rules, after the captain or vice-captain had a chance to score—regardless of whether they succeeded, possession would swap.

Jiang Yiqing was very active in defense. Although she wasn’t used to the high position of the goal, the defense wasn’t much different from what she remembered.

As the Black Team captain went for a goal, Jiang Yiqing leapt high and intercepted the ball in mid-air. Her figure seemed to freeze in time as everyone watched the scene tensely.

Her body tilted ninety degrees in the air, and as the ball touched her instep, it took a sharp turn, diverting the attack. In that instant, the chain tied around her ankle reflected the sun, emitting a dazzling light.

No one had ever seen such a defensive posture before; they only thought it was incredibly impressive, though a bit worrying.

Jiang Yiqing fell toward the ground, her arm landing first as she rolled once. Everyone rushed toward her, fearing she might have been injured.

Jiang Yiqing brushed off the grass clippings and stood up nimbly, smiling at them, “I’m perfectly fine.”

“Young Master-in-law, you lied to us! You’re pretending to be a novice, while we are real novices!” Hearing her words, everyone was relieved, though someone voiced a mock accusation.

“I really am playing Cuju for the first time; I’ve just practiced similar sports before,” Jiang Yiqing explained.

Possession swapped again, and this time Si Xuansu passed the ball. She sent it to Jiang Yiqing’s feet.

Jiang Yiqing was stunned for a moment and originally wanted to kick it back, but seeing that Si Xuansu was in a poor position, she immediately decided to go for the goal herself.

Presumably, the goddess had kicked her for that very reason, and she didn’t want to let her down.

She was going to score! She absolutely would, and no one could stop her!

Despite her high morale, Jiang Yiqing’s performance was exceptionally cautious. She feinted a pass, using a fake move to deceive a defender before darting past him and continuing forward.

The defender tried to catch up, but Jiang Yiqing feinted a pass again, fooling another person. That person’s expression was full of confusion at the end, not knowing how she could make such a fake move.

Jiang Yiqing bypassed the second person and reached the third. This person was wise. Jiang Yiqing made another fake move, and the person, thinking she was going to be in charge again, took a step back to guard her. Seeing him retreat, Jiang Yiqing delivered a volley that sent the ball soaring over his head toward the goal. The man was dumbfounded.

The ball spun rapidly in the high air and then plummeted, just grazing the top of the goal as it drilled inside.

At that moment, the anklet on her foot flashed again, so brightly that Si Xuansu watched it repeatedly, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Goal!” When the Red Team members saw the ball go in, they were overjoyed and shouted.

They all ran toward Jiang Yiqing, lifted her up, and threw her into the air. Jiang Yiqing’s heart was already racing, and the excitement nearly took her breath away.

Jiang Yiqing had found a bit of her soccer rhythm, and to some extent, the others had gone easy on her, allowing her to have her moment in the spotlight.

Seeing her so happy, Si Xuansu suddenly caught her, one hand hooking under her knees and the other supporting her waist, pulling her into her embrace.

The princess carry was too intimate. Jiang Yiqing’s face turned bright red as she tried to force a change of subject, saying with lingering excitement, “Put me down, I can still kick!”

Si Xuansu gazed at her quietly, but her eyes held a hint of something dangerous, making Jiang Yiqing’s heartbeat even more violently.

She suddenly felt a warmth on her ankle. Looking down, she saw Si Xuansu’s finger hooked around the chain tied to her foot.

She suddenly felt the atmosphere was incredibly ambiguous. Before she could say anything while looking into her eyes, Si Xuansu steadily placed her back on the grass.

“Young Master-in-law, those fake moves of yours were so treacherous!” someone shouted.

“…All is fair in war!” Jiang Yiqing cleared her throat before finding her voice. She said righteously, “Besides, as the vice-captain, can you really call it treacherous? I did it to make the team win.”

Afterward, under the brilliant performance of Jiang Yiqing and Si Xuansu, the Red Team utterly crushed the Black Team with a score of 7:1, thus winning the first Cuju tournament of the General’s Manor.