Chapter 332 — A New Song

"Yes, and I think it's quite scary. I don't know anything about throwing knives—what if I end up stabbing Yang Ce?" Lin Yanhe said right after.

Hearing Lin Yanhe's words, Chen Shutang nodded as well and said with some worry, "Yes, Yang Ce. You really need to be careful. Sister Lin's worry isn't unfounded—how would she even know how to throw a knife?"

"No problem. I'll give you a demonstration in a bit and you'll see." Yang Jiyan smiled, entirely unconcerned. "How about we try it right now?"

"Try how? You—" he said, "Come on, Zhiyun, you can throw the chopsticks now."

Lin Yanhe picked up a chopstick and held it in her hand, somewhat nervous. Although it was only a chopstick, she was still hesitant and timid. She made a couple of feinting motions but simply could not muster the courage to throw it.

"Mengyan, set an example for her." Yang Ce pointed at a chopstick and said to Chen Shutang.

"Me?" Chen Shutang hesitated as well. She picked up a chopstick, not quite daring to throw it. "I..."

"Just think about me being with Lan Ling behind your back, and you'll get angry." Seeing that Chen Shutang was also hesitating, Yang Ce said.

"Go to hell." Chen Shutang did, as expected, fling her chopsticks at him. "Since when am I that petty?"

Chen Shutang had thrown them carelessly, so of course there was no aim to speak of. By the trajectory of the chopsticks, they should have struck Yang Ce square in the chest. But Yang Ce merely crouched slightly and ducked his head, and the chopsticks, neither too high nor too low, landed dead center on the apple atop his head.

Thwack! Chen Shutang stared at Yang Ce in astonishment, and so did Lin Yanhe. "You can hit it even like that? Yang Ce, you really are something!"

"Which is exactly what I told you—nothing to worry about. Zhiyun, you try it too?" Yang Ce said with an easy grin.

"All right, then." Heartened by Chen Shutang's demonstration, Lin Yanhe picked up a chopstick and threw it at Yang Ce. She meant to aim for the apple on his head, but lacking any proper training, she sent it a little too far right. It looked certain to miss—until Yang Ce swayed to the right, and the chopstick buried itself in the apple.

"Feeling more confident now?" Yang Ce bent and picked up the chopsticks from the floor. This had been his plan from the start. Lin Yanhe might not know how to throw a knife, but that did not matter—so long as his own reflexes were quick enough. There was no need for her knives to find the apple on his head; he would bring the apple to meet her knives instead. "How about we switch to real knives and give it a try?"

"What, switch already?" Lin Yanhe might find Yang Ce's movements uncanny, but she was still timid. "Why don't we practice a bit more with the chopsticks first?"

"That works too. We'll practice with the chopsticks a while longer." Yang Ce was in no hurry. The arts festival was still several days away; there was no harm in warming up with chopsticks first.

Chopsticks carried no real threat, so Lin Yanhe no longer feared she might hurt Yang Ce. After a few throws her earlier nervousness vanished, and she found it rather fun. Chen Shutang, who had been eating honeydew melon off to the side, finished her fruit and joined Lin Yanhe in the fray.

Yet even with the two of them throwing together, Yang Ce handled it with ease, and not a single chopstick went astray. Yang Ce's dodges were wide and sweeping, but the apple on his head never once fell.

"I never imagined you were this good," Chen Shutang said with a sigh of admiration. "If you ever run out of food, you could always go perform in an acrobatics troupe."

"Sure—and the two of you can be my assistants. Beauties plus acrobatics? That's a guaranteed sellout!" Yang Ce said with a grin.

For a while they threw chopsticks amid laughter and chatter, but it was not long before Chen Shutang stopped playing fair and began to make mischief. When Lin Yanhe threw high, she threw low; when Lin Yanhe threw left, she threw right—until Yang Ce was driven to ever more extreme contortions.

"Chen Shutang, you're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" Yang Ce might not be tired, but being jerked around like this was starting to stoke his temper.

"What do you mean? Aren't we practicing knife throwing? I'm just helping Sister Lin practice too." Chen Shutang gazed at Yang Ce with an utterly innocent face.

"Then why do you always throw in the opposite direction from Zhiyun?" Yang Ce ground his teeth in frustration, yet one look at Chen Shutang's big, liquid eyes and his anger would not come.

"Do I? I can't read Sister Lin's mind, so maybe it's just coincidence?" Chen Shutang blinked and spread her hands, as if to say she had been wronged.

Yang Ce found her expression both infuriating and funny, and could only say, "Coincidence, is it? Once or twice I can accept, but let's see whether there are any more coincidences in a moment."

"Fine by me." And with that, Chen Shutang tossed another chopstick in the direction opposite to Lin Yanhe's.

At last Yang Ce's patience ran out. He seized Chen Shutang and the two of them scuffled together, and before long Lin Yanhe was drawn into it as well, until all three were tumbling on the bed in high spirits, the business of practicing knife throwing entirely forgotten.