Chapter 18: A Concern
Lord Shen is not good at pleasing horses, but he has already mastered how to please girls.
For example, when he goes out, if a girl looks at him for a while, she will readily pay for everything, whether it is food, drink, rouge, powder, jewelry, hairpins, rings, or clothes. He will pay for it all.
But today's Miss Zhang is an exception.
When she came yesterday, she was rather shabby. Her old clothes were too old to be worn out, so Uncle Zhong sent two sets of men's shorts from the servants in the mansion to her. She dressed in a very decent way, not at all shy. Normal women need to put on makeup when they go out, but she didn't need to do that. She only showed her fair and clear face, her long black hair tied up high behind her head, and she didn't even have any jewelry on her. She was surprisingly neat and tidy.
Lord Shen followed her all the way and enthusiastically introduced the good places in the capital, such as viewing flowers in spring and plum blossoms in winter, religious activities that ladies must attend all year round, Taoist temples with strong incense, famous rouge and jewelry shops, which company's silk came from the south... There were so many things that were too numerous to mention.
Miss Zhang listened absent-mindedly and ignored the various shops on the road. She glanced at the lotus seed candy stall for a few more times. Lord Shen immediately offered to donate generously and almost bought out all the lotus seed candy on the stall, but was stopped by Miss Zhang.
She only took a small packet, threw one into her mouth, stuffed one into the mouth of the wild horse king, and touched its big head, asking: "Fu Yingjun, is it delicious?"
Lord Shen looked around: "Who is Fu Yingjun? Could it be this?"
Miss Zhang finally smiled faintly and asked, "Isn't it handsome?"
"...handsome." Lord Shen.
"Can Fu Yingjun's beauty be ranked among the top three in Beijing?"
Lord Shen: "..."
Shen Qian prides himself on being romantic, passionate and handsome, but his childhood friend Fu Chen has a cold personality and keeps strangers away. Not only is he favored by the Ninth Princess, he is also pursued by many noble ladies in the capital. Unexpectedly, he also became famous for raising a horse, which was named Fu Yingjun. It is really depressing.
"Miss Zhang, don't you want to buy some jewelry?" Lord Shen happened to pass by a jewelry shop. He refused to discuss the appearance of the Fu family, from the masters to the horses, and abruptly changed the subject.
"Thank you, but that's not necessary."
Lord Shen, who had walked through a sea of flowers without getting hurt, failed not only in trying to please the Wild Horse King in Fu Chen's mansion, but also in trying to please the little girl.
Tang Ying really took the Wild Horse King for a . They walked more than ten miles back and forth. She also let Fu Yingjun run freely in the wild for several laps before he reluctantly followed her back.
In the evening, when Fu Chen returned home, his good friend Shen Qian collapsed on the couch and complained to him: "Achen, do you know? Miss Zhang is not a woman at all!"
"Nonsense, is she a man?"
" No man can walk as fast as she can. Today I followed her to ride the horse, and we went out of the city and back. My legs were almost broken, but she didn't even frown. After returning home, she ran to the kitchen to build a stove in high spirits... Ah Chen, where did this freak come from?"
Fu Chen mocked his friend's physique: "I told you not to be too self-indulgent. You have a lot of concubines in your house and countless confidantes outside. You can't even compare to the physique of a little girl. How dare you come and complain?"
Lord Shen: "...How could I be inferior to the little girl?" In order to show that he was not exhausted, he forced himself to get up from the couch. However, he followed Fu Chen to the stable, saw the lively little girl, and retreated again.
After Tang Ying came back, she built a pancake oven with Fei Wenhai. After discussing dinner, she fetched two buckets of water for Fu Yingjun to take a bath before the sun set.
When Fu Chen and Shen Qian came over, they ran into her carrying a bucket of water in each hand. She came over briskly: "Sir..." She put down the bucket steadily, rolled up her sleeves to reveal two snow-white wrists, and began to brush the horse skillfully, which amazed Shen Qian.
Lord Shen complained in a low voice: "Look at her, does she look like a little girl?"
Tang Ying's hand brushing the horse paused for a second.
Fu Chen noticed the scars on her arm that Xiong Yu mentioned, and said inconspicuously: "Look at the girl, she is very skilled in tending the horse. Could it be that she has done this job before? I wonder where she is from?"
Tang Ying worked briskly, and after a while, he slowly said as if he had considered it carefully: "To be honest, my family is in Baicheng, and my father is a horse breeder. I have helped my father take care of horses since I was a child, so I am more familiar with it."
Tang Yao's warhorse was also a hot-tempered one, and was usually taken care of by the general himself, who rinsed and fed it, and took it out for a walk when there was no fighting. She grew up on Tang Yao's horse, and the horse was quite intelligent and very affectionate to the young master. Sometimes Tang Ying would rinse the horse for her father, or secretly bring sugar beans to feed the horse.
She had her back to Fu Chen, and she kept working, as if she was not affected at all by Fu Chen and Shen Qian who were watching.
Commander Fu seemed to be in a good mood to chat today, and immediately asked, "Why do you think of the capital city, young lady?"
The hand that was brushing the horse stopped, and the slender back seemed to be overwhelmed. After a while, she said, "In the Battle of White City, my family was destroyed and my loved ones died. I had no choice but to come to Beijing to seek survival." After that, she continued to bend down to scoop water to rinse the horse, and she quickened the speed of her work, and soon cleaned the Wild Horse King.
"So your family runs a horse farm?" Even though Shen Qian was a heartless man, he could still sense the sadness in her words. He hated to see a beautiful woman sad, so he quickly interrupted her, "Don't worry, young lady, stay here. Commander Fu's family may not be very wealthy, but he can still provide for two more mouths."
Fu Chen was not as sympathetic and gentle as Lord Shen, and was extremely stingy with words of comfort. He looked at the girl thoughtfully, thinking that she was hiding something on her mind at the moment, but he didn't expect that she would smile gratefully in the blink of an eye: "Thank you, my lord and Lord."
She quickly packed up the bucket and brush, and used a piece of cloth to wipe the wild horse king's mane: "It's cold now, don't get cold." She smiled shyly: "I haven't seen you give the wild horse king a name, so I gave him a name, Fu Yingjun, I wonder if you agree?"
Her eyes were as crystal clear as washed glass. The four words "family broken, loved ones gone, nowhere to go" floated lightly between her lips, but people who had not experienced it would never understand the unbearable pain. Combined with her skills and the fact that she came from the direction of Baicheng, Fu Chen had some vague guesses in his mind.
" Fu Yingjun?"
Tang Ying stroked the wild horse king's smooth mane, and said with a bit of fascination: "This is the second time I have seen such a majestic horse since I was a child."
Shen Qian always felt that Fu Chen had developed a bad habit after staying in the Cavalry Prohibition Bureau for too long. Even his casual chats with girls revealed the posture of a judge. In order to break this serious atmosphere, he racked his brains to think of topics.
"By the way, young lady, you are from Baicheng. Have you heard of Marshal Tang?"
Tang Ying's pupils shrank, but soon her expression returned to normal: "Marshal Tang's reputation is well-known to everyone in Baicheng, from the old ladies to the children."
Shen Qian said, "After Baicheng fell, the father and son of the Tang family died in the battle. I heard that the second prince went to Baicheng and brought back not only Miss Tang, but also Marshal Tang's horse. I heard that Marshal Tang's horse is a famous horse and is still kept in the second prince's mansion. But the second prince is very stingy and doesn't let us go to see it. He said that the horse is sad day and night and doesn't want to eat. The few people in the Imperial Horse Administration who can treat horse plague are about to move into the second prince's mansion, and even the imperial doctors go to the second prince's mansion every day to keep an eye on it."
"Are you talking about Tengyun?" Tang Ying asked excitedly.
"Yes, yes, that seems to be the name."
Fu Chen looked over with an inquiring look: "Miss Zhang seems to be very familiar with Marshal Tang's horse?"
"I'm just surprised." She put on her smiling face again, and explained with some emotion: "Your Excellency may not know, but my father is very good at raising horses. I once followed my father to the Tang Mansion to see the Marshal's mount. Tengyun is as hot-tempered as fire, and ordinary people are not allowed to get close to it."
Shen Qian spent his days leisurely and was most interested in this kind of gossip: "That's right. I heard that the second prince originally thought that since Teng Yun recognized his master, he would definitely let Miss Tang get close to him. Unexpectedly, Teng Yun didn't recognize any relatives and would even kick Miss Tang away. Miss Tang was weak to begin with. After visiting Teng Yun once, she fell ill again when she returned to her room. She had to consult doctors and get medicine for a long time. I didn't expect Miss Tang to be a sick beauty."
Fu Tan spoke at the right time: "I wonder if Miss Bai knows Miss Tang? Since you are both from Baicheng, Miss Bai has been to the Tang Mansion before. If you have time, why don't you go to the Second Prince's Mansion to talk to Miss Tang?"
Shen Qian turned around in shock to look at his childhood friend - when did this guy become so kind?
Is there a conspiracy?!
He stopped talking nonsense and kept his mouth shut.
Tang Ying showed an expression of someone who had been caught doing something bad: "To be honest, sir, I have had the honor of meeting Teng Yun twice, and it was also when I followed my father to deliver horses to the Tang Mansion, and... I was dressed as a worker. How could I meet Miss Tang?"
She obviously didn't want to continue this topic: "It's getting late. I've locked Fu Yingjun up in the pen and have to help in the kitchen. I won't accompany the Marquis and the adults."
Fu Chen nodded: "Go ahead."
When there were only two people left, Shen Qian couldn't help but teach Fu Chen a lesson: "Ah Chen, are you going to stay single forever? We were chatting peacefully, but I heard you want to dig up Miss Zhang's ancestors? You people in the Forbidden Cavalry Division are all sick. If you keep going like this, I think you can only get along with the Ninth Princess."
Everyone said that Princess Yuan Shu was favored and was the daughter of an imperial concubine. It was the good fortune of her ancestors that she could marry into such a wealthy family. However, Shen Qian knew that Fu Chen had no interest in the Ninth Princess.
Fu Chen evaded him without any guilt: "Didn't you say Miss Zhang was strange? I found out for you, so that you won't say something unreliable and hurt her feelings one day."
Shen Qian: "Well, don't smear me. You can't get away with it. Everyone knows that Commander Fu is famous for his cold face and hard heart. Whoever runs into you in the future will be unlucky. It will be unlucky to be your wife!"
Fu Chen walked forward with his hands behind his back : "That's better than you indulging yourself in sex so much that you can't even compare to a little girl, right? You should take it easy in the future. You should pay attention to maintenance when you are young."
Shen Qian yelled angrily: "Why don't you go with Miss Zhang when she goes for a horse ride some other day and see if she won't tire you to death?" Then he remembered Fu Chen's physique and shut up in dismay.
