Chapter 92: Robbing a BBQ
Since Tang Ying came to Beijing, she has been troubled by many things. First, she was worried about her livelihood, and later she offended Princess Yuan Shu. By mistake, she was entered into the Forbidden Cavalry Division, which brought her into even greater trouble - she was targeted by the Grand Princess. After finally coming to the Hunting Palace, she could not have the leisure time to concentrate on playing, and she almost lost her life. She could only hide in the tent and lie there. She was very helpless.
It was a rare occasion for her to go out for fun, so she put everything else behind her and rode her horse into the depths of the jungle in high spirits.
Unfortunately, today is a sunny day, a good day for a date. Those dignified old ministers do not have to accompany the king, and they all stay in their residences to rest their old arms and legs, and chat about the past with their wives. On the contrary, the younger generation either bring their wives, or date the girls they like, or three or five young men accompany two or four young girls, and go into the woods with a few guards. They are ostensibly hunting, but in fact they are maintaining the relationship between husband and wife or taking the opportunity to get close to the girls they like. After Tang Ying rushed into the woods and ran into several groups of people in a row, a sentence suddenly popped up in her mind: Fighting to cross, fighting to cross, scaring away countless mandarin ducks.
She was helpless: "Why are they all coming out in groups?"
Lord Fu followed behind her and found it funny to see that every time she ran into young men or women, she would subconsciously ride her horse to a secluded place. She looked like a scoundrel, but she was surprisingly attentive in some aspects.
"On the last day, take the person you like out for a run and relax, which will make the trip to the hunting palace with His Majesty worthwhile." He said this to explain the "mandarin ducks" that Tang Ying had met , but after he said it, he was surprised to find that this statement seemed to provide a footnote to his own trip.
It was not known whether Tang Ying did not understand or acted dumb even if she understood. She whistled and went to a more remote place. Fu Yingjun followed her, shaking his head and wagging his tail, taking a series of frivolous steps.
Shen Qian and Prince Zhao followed all the way and also startled several pairs of "lovebirds". There was a young nobleman holding a little girl and teaching her how to shoot rabbits in the forest. The teacher was half-hearted and the student blushed. Even the wild trees and dry grass in winter were about to show pink bubbles. There was also a couple who took advantage of the deep forest and dense grass to ride on the same horse, shaking off the servants and whispering to each other, but were caught by two groups of people and horses.
Tang Ying and Fu Chen were "considerate" and turned their horses around and changed direction at a glance, not disturbing the sweet time of the young couple. However, Lord Shen was a mean-spirited person and started to say, "Jing Sanlang, you two don't say enough sweet things at home, but you have to run to the hunting ground in the middle of winter to get together with a horse. I feel sorry for your horse."
Jing Sanlang is the third grandson of Jing Huai. They have been married for almost half a month and they are childhood sweethearts. It is the time when they are in love. Shen Qian, who usually looks down on his promiscuous ways, has often rebuked him in person. Lord Shen will make amends whenever he gets the chance.
Prince Zhao was afraid that the world would not be in chaos. Anyway, he was a scoundrel who didn't care about knowing each other or not. He followed Shen Qian to tease him: "You people from Southern Qi don't care about etiquette after getting married. You move the fun of the boudoir to the wild."
Jing Sanlang considers himself a gentleman, but he is not like his grandfather Jing Huai who is good at smoothing things over, nor like Shen Qian and Zhao Shizi who have learned their accents from drinking and prostitution. The moment he opens his mouth, he exudes an air of asking for a beating, which makes him so irritated that he doesn't care about the embarrassment of his newlywed wife and draws his bow and arrow to shoot.
"Jing Sanlang, be graceful! Be graceful! Don't act like a reckless man in front of your wife and resort to violence when you can't argue with her..." Shen Qian rode his horse and ran away, and behind him, Prince Zhao and a group of guards rushed out. Jing Sanlang shot his arrow, but it didn't hit anyone and fell into the grass.
"You are an uneducated bastard who got the title by relying on the protection of his ancestors. How shameless!" Jing Sanlang wanted to spit on Shen Qian's smug face.
The two men are of similar age and were classmates. Just because old Marquis Shen was alive and enjoying life and made room for his son early on, Shen Qian, a poor student who only knew how to eat, drink and have fun, has a much higher status than him. It makes people feel unfair just thinking about it.
Shen Qian, however, did not think it was immoral to ruin the sweet time of a young couple. He rode out on his horse, leaving behind a string of loud laughter, and said to Zhao Shizi Kepu Jing Sanlang smugly: "That man is the third grandson of Zuo Xiang Jing Huai. He has almost become a nerd. He keeps talking about the words of sages. When he was studying, he loved to lecture people. Every time I hear him speak, I feel like he is going to spit out a pile of books as thick as bricks. It makes me dizzy. He is so annoying."
He was quite emotional: "I used to suspect that he would still treat his wife the same way after getting married, and secretly felt sorry for his wife's hard life. Now it seems that this guy has finally come to his senses after getting married, and actually brings his wife out to play."
Well, even childhood friend Fu Chen knows how to please little girls, so it’s no wonder that she became more smart after Sanlang got married.
Prince Zhao's eyes sparkled: "Brother Shen has been chasing Master Fu all the way. Could it be that he wants to catch up and disrupt their time alone?"
"Your Highness, you don't dare?" Shen Qian smiled slyly, "If you don't dare, stay here as soon as possible. I will go alone."
"Anyway, the Ninth Princess is not willing to go out with this prince, and I have nowhere to go, so I might as well follow Brother Shen." He did send someone to ask the Ninth Princess out early in the morning, but the person he sent did not see the Ninth Princess in person and was directly rejected by the maid beside her.
The two men had bad intentions and followed Fu Chen and Tang Ying into the dense forest, but they didn't know that another person, who was pretending to be hunting, also followed them. He was Wang Xian, the chief guard of the Grand Princess's mansion.
Tang Ying was sweating from riding a horse through the woods, and her pale cheeks were stained with a little red. She turned around and smiled, "Master Fu, why don't we have a competition? We have one hour to see who can shoot more prey?"
Fu Chen: "Can I ask for a prize if I win?"
Tang Ying stared at him defensively: "My lord, what are you planning?" She touched the pouch at her waist: "I am very poor. Besides, gambling with gold and silver is too vulgar. I think my lord would not look down on it."
"If I lose, I will dare to grant you one request. If you lose, will you dare to grant me one request?"
Tang Ying simply refused: "I dare not." Who knows if you will make some strange requests.
Fu Chen smiled helplessly: "Why don't you just do it." Just block all possibilities.
Tang Ying rode forward: "Master Fu, you underestimate me too much. I will not be provoked." She drew her bow and shot an arrow at the birds in the tree branches to open the curtain of the competition: "The competition has begun. Master, you are not short of prizes. It's just for fun."
The bird on the tree branch fell down. Fu Yingjun raised his hoof and ran over. He got close to smell the bird that had been pierced through the chest. The bird chirped twice and shook its head and tail excitedly.
What else could Fu Chen say?
Both of them were excellent archery and riding skills. The one hour that was originally scheduled passed by unknowingly. Tang Ying was having a great time and Fu Chen was reluctant to call for a stop, so the two of them kept going deeper into the woods. They played for almost two hours, and Shen Qian and Prince Zhao, who were chasing them, were exhausted and sweating.
Shen Qian complained as he ran: "Is Fu Chen crazy? To please a girl, he should get some rouge, powder, clothes and jewelry. At the very least, he should learn from others and ride in the woods together, talk and hold hands. Is he stupid? He took a little girl into the deep mountains and forests. He said he was going out hunting, but he really went out hunting?"
Didn't you see that the team of guards led by Prince Zhao returned with a full load without even shooting a single arrow? But it was all the result of chasing the two of them all the way and getting something for nothing.
Prince Zhao disagreed: "Brother Shen, is this what Master Fu calls "fawning over others?"
Lord Fu was not around, Shen Qian shouted, "Nonsense! Yingying is not in good health, I would let her rest well, why is she doing this in the middle of winter? She will be shaken apart after sitting on the horse for so long." He hadn't done high-intensity exercise for a long time, and he didn't expect to win the first prize when he accompanied the king into the forest to hunt, so he just paddled casually. After sitting on the horse for so long, half of his body was numb. Yingying, a frail little girl, could actually bear it, and it was really pitiful that she met the unromantic Fu Chen.
At this time, he felt that Jing Sanlang was smarter than Fu Chen.
Lord Fu was unaware of Shen Qian's many complaints. The two of them were carrying two full quivers. The hunting ground had been looted continuously by the crowd for several days, and the big guys had disappeared. The remaining small prey were highly alert and would hide when they heard the sound of horse hooves, which made hunting more difficult. However, Tang Ying was an accurate archer, and he had not hunted for a long time, so his hands were itching to go hunting. He was in high spirits and hunted many small animals such as rabbits and pheasants. Just for fun, he only picked up two or three rabbits and left the rest. He didn't know that Shen Qian and Prince Zhao were tracking him all the way. He met Lord Fu and they had a lot of fun.
Before they knew it, the sun had moved westward, and judging by the shadow it should have been past noon. They passed a creek, and Tang Ying jumped off her horse, scooped up some clear creek water, drank a few sips, washed her face, and suggested: "Sir, why don't we take a break here and roast two rabbits to eat." She smiled and said: "I hunted one more rabbit than you, sir, and I have no other request. I would like to trouble you to wash your hands and cook some soup and roast two rabbits for lunch, how about that?" The two of them argued the winner by counting, and Tang Ying was very happy that she won against Fu Chen.
Seeing that she was having a great time, Fu Chen's fleeting smile since they met seemed to have finally come to fruition. Seeing that she was genuinely happy, he couldn't help but feel better. He smiled and said, "How difficult is this? The rabbit I roast is a specialty of the Forbidden Cavalry Division. I'll let you see it today."
As expected, he untied two fat rabbits from the horse's back, skinned and gutted them, and cleaned them in the stream. Tang Ying had already picked up some dead branches and skillfully made a fire, waiting for the prey to be caught.
It was the first time for the two men to work together, and they actually had some tacit understanding. One of them cleaned up the prey while the other collected firewood and started a fire. When the smoke dissipated and the firewood was burning vigorously, Fu Chen's rabbit was also cleaned. He took salt from his pouch and sprinkled it on the rabbit, then put it on a tree branch and started to roast it.
The two men sat opposite each other, separated by a fire and roasting prey, with faint smiles on their faces. It was a rare relaxing leisure time for both of them.
Tang Ying's eyes were glued to the rabbit that Master Fu kept turning over and over. The roasting oil was dripping down, and the aroma of the meat gradually spread. When it was roasted until golden brown and fragrant, Master Fu smeared seasoning on the rabbit, handed a roasted rabbit to her, and said gently, "You eat first."
There was the sound of galloping horses behind them, and someone shouted, "Robbery! Put down the barbecue in your hands!"
