Daisy means Innocence and Loyal Love. Lily means pride and purity. Delphinium means boldness. And rose means love.

He remembered hearing those words but that was a long time ago. Lang Yuan only stared at the contents of the wooden box and did not move at all. The competition has already started. The concubines are either cutting or plucking the flowers. The spectators are watching carefully taking note who are doing great. Yet, the candidate himself is still, motionless.

Now, what should he do? He only had the worst kind of flowers and continuing on this contest will only bring him a few points. Peering over the wooden box, the flowers only exhibit a gloomy sight with the faintest scent. He thought of requesting a new set, but is that even allowed? The rules did not say anything about it so maybe he can actually request for a new set,

With the determination to do the task, Lang Yuan abruptly stands up from the low table. This sudden movement made all the attention towards him. Accidentally, Lang Yuan crushed his pinky toe finger to the leg of the table causing him to jerk in pain. This lead to a more serious domino effect - stepping on his own robes, falling down unto his butt, shook the table and the porcelain jar fell. Everything happened in a split second that nobody ever made a move to stop it from happening.

Silence. Silence flooded the entire area. All the eyes are watching the clumsy Empress Candidate as he yelp in pain. Zhong Song could have spared a laugh but the piercing glare of the emperor made him stop. He cleared his throat to waken up the people. The maids hurriedly helped Lang Yuan return to his position.

That... that was embarrassing ba! And my toe hurts! Lang Yuan cried in vain.

He returned to the kneel-sitting position in front of the low table with all the shards of the broken pot. He rather looks like a bullied puppy, his eyes red ready to cry. Now, he has no chance to ask a replacement for this. All he wanted to do from now is to dig a hole and burry himself. Maybe in that way he can become a flower or something.

The time is still running. The sand time has reached for the first hour of the day. The concubines are still doing the cutting and plucking, though some are already stuffing some soil to their pots. Lang Yuan is still looking at the mess that he created, devising a plan on how to create a proper hole for his burial.

Nah, just kidding. He's actually panicking inwardly while wearing a still composed face outwardly.

What should he do? Now he has three wooden boxes of faulty flowers, one broken porcelain pot, and other objects that he thought looked like useless objects in this contest. He had known from his world that flower arrangements are done on a greenish like sponge where the flowers will be placed. In this way, clumping the flowers would be easy and making shapes will be emphasized.

He could also do it with the soil though the porcelain pot is already broken...

Broken...?

The advantage that Lang Yuan can take in this world is his modern knowledge about things. In the future, whatever broken things can be fixed, and whatever objects can be used will be recycled. The innovation is what made the humans on the modern period advance, living in a rather comfortable life than the primitive times.

Now that he thought of it, getting broken pot isn't bad at all. He saw a miniature garden before from a magazine in the library. There is this DIY tutorial on how to treat the broken pots as an alternative decoration. Remembering the simple process, Lang Yuan started working. His hand move towards the shards carefully arranging them to size and uses.

Zhong Song had thought that Lang Yuan's win in this game would be forfeited. Not only Lang Yuan knows the basic, they didn't even made him practice to do any arrangement due to the bulk of learning that he should remember. Now, he was curious to what the youth will do with the defective object that he has on his hands.

The time continued. Some of the arrangements from the concubines side are now taking form. Lou MuLan isn't really good with flower arranging but at least her talent is qualified for an Empress. Her flower arrangement isn't looking bad, pouring white flowers that could mean innocence and a drop of red for bravery. She has been placing the flower inside the pot forming a circular shape. Actually, most of the concubines have the same form. This is due to the shape of pot that they have and the only place that can be inputted.

The only difference would be the used flowers, the color combination, the ferns and stalks, and the choice of elevation. Some made a flattened round arrangement, while the other made a standing round arrangement. All in all, the arrangements look pleasing to the eye completely matching the creator.

On the other hand, Lang Yuan is messing up with the shovel dumping soil inside the broken pot. The shards of the pot were arranged on the table in varying sides together with the flowers that he had cut earlier. This arrangement is different from what the people usually see so they are curious what this human is trying to do. Lang Yuan keep on stuffing soil until he reached the proper elevation.

If anyone from the modern world sees this, they will assume that Lang Yuan is just being creative. Creating something like this is common after all, what varies would be the talent of the person making and creating the design. For a spatial person like Lang Yuan, all he needed to do is to create the form in his mind and construct it. It is as if he has CAD installed in his mind forming the desired blueprint of the project. And once he is done, it will be his nimble hands that will do the job.

Though, this kind of design will be treated as a pioneering idea in this world. Nobody can guess what he was doing so they are just watching. The judges are even curious to what Lang Yuan will do with the object.

The sand from the sand time rested to a stop. The last grain fell to the top of the hill, signaling that the time is up. The concubines retreated their hands from the pots, lowering their heads. Lang Yuan did the same, glancing one final look, and lowered his head to show he is done. Zhong Song made the ending remarks telling the spectators to leave so the judges will be able to score the works without noise.

The arranged flowers are presented in a line. The Emperor watched as the five judges take a look in every arrangement, taking note about the language of flowers and so as the appearance. Most of the ladies received a good grade. After all, flower arrangement is a common thing amongst ladies. It would be weird if they can't do a work of art despite being an Imperial concubine.

Lou MuLan received the highest grade. Her red and white combination of flowers is pleasing to the eyes. Her arrangement of the additional leaves and ferns are also superb, adding points for aesthetics. The theme of the arrangement was also followed earning more positive points for her work.

The next concubines are also scored closer to Lou MuLan. The point difference is only few, with the second place only behind with three points. The judges carried out the best five amongst the concubines and written it down to a piece of paper. After finalizing their scores, they move to the last one where Lang Yuan's work was displayed.

New and different, the modern pot design of Lang Yuan earned quite a mystery from the judges.

The broken porcelain pot is only damaged to one part, leaving a few parts still surrounding the base. Lang Yuan stuffed some soil inside the broken pot until it matched the elevation of the pot, leaving the broken part in a slope. This slope is then decorated with a few pale stalks that resembled fat roots, and the shards of the pot forming stone stairs. The stairs was arranged in a way that a person can walk to the slope in a circular upward motion.

The flowers that Lang Yuan has are the worst set that he could get. However, the buds of the flowers accentuated the free space on the slope blending with the flowers having the smallest petals. The pale blue and violet succulents were then crowded to form crown-like structures as if they are blooming yet unmoving. The creeping vine that seems to be disturbing was added to the side of the pot forming a good curtain. Little yellow and blue flowers are added to the vines to at least give color to the pale grey-green combination.

Nobody can muster any words to describe this creation. The view is refreshing and pleasant to the eyes. Actually, this new view washed the common circular flower pattern that all of the concubines did. This one isn't circular, not the usual, yet the difference caused a lasting beauty. Like as what they described with the other concubines...

The creation matched their creator.

Lang Yuan also has the same aura - new and different. The mystery of his work matched his personality. The crimson irises that he has are almost the same with those still budding flowers, showing a hint of innocence. The blue and violet colored succulents give off the hint of shy bravery, to which Lang Yuan earnestly shows to them. The weird combination of uncommon flowers exhibits the mystery of creation.

And this mystery is almost beautiful.

The judges scored his work. Lang Yuan didn't see it but the smiles on their face showed a positive score. They retreated to their places beside the emperor. Zhong Song took the signal and ordered the concubines to leave the place to take their break while the second part of judging takes place. A line followed by the maids exited the hall with Lang Yuan on the very last.

Before he exited, he sneaked a peek on the throne seeing JiDan waving a hand at him. Lang Yuan smiled, feeling completed to see his son smiling. Then, his sight moved a bit upward seeing the emperor watching him with an intense gaze. There was a smirk on Yu XueQin lips. And somehow, those lips made provocative motion, licking his lips.

It was fast and slight so nobody could see it. But Lang Yuan who is watching him quickly lowered his head. The maid who is watching beside him noticed the Candidate Empress acting weird. So she asked...

"Lady Candidate, is there something wrong? Your face is red?"

Lang Yuan only shook his head. He hurried the maid as they returned to his room. Somehow, the embarrassment not only lasted earlier when he made the obvious fall. But also this time when the emperor made that gesture he remember something indecent.

Well, what he didn't see after he left is JiDan almost wanting to kill his father on the spot of stealing his spotlight again.

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Yay! I updated again.

Here's the picture of Lang Yuan's work. It doesn't actually match but closer to the image I'm imagining.