Chapter 40 Part 2

Pei Xiaoyuan’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t know what her intention was. Unsure of her meaning, he hesitated, still weighing whether or not to admit he had indeed been there. Before he could respond, she continued, “If you’ve been there, no matter what you saw, I tell you, it was all Yuwen family’s son being unreasonable and doing it on purpose. I have absolutely nothing to do with him.”

Pei Xiaoyuan didn’t expect her to take the initiative to talk to him about this. However, her explanation not only failed to relieve his worries, but also added some doubts to him.

He even wanted to take the opportunity to ask her how she and Yuwen Zhi met in the past.

Looking at how the two of them got along that night, even if Yuwen Zhi did it on purpose, he could tell that they were very familiar with each other. He wondered to what extent they had known each other in the past.

However, how could he ask this rashly with his identity? In silence, he suddenly thought that the son of the Yuwen family was the first person to know that she was a girl, and his mood immediately became worse.

At this moment, several horses came running from the opposite direction, interrupting his wild thoughts.

Two girls rode over from the opposite side. One had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and wore a yellow shirt and purple skirt, while the other had a pretty face and was dressed in red. Both of them were excellent riders, guiding their respective chestnut and white jade horses, racing side by side like the wind along the lakeside path.

The spirited horses were dressed in jade troughs and golden bridles, with carved saddles and brocade screens. The lake, emerald like jade, reflected their graceful figures. As the wind swept through, the flowing capes and ribbons of the girls swirled in the air. It was a beautiful scene that was so pleasing to the eyes.

Behind them, there was a thin boy who looked a little younger, riding a silver-grey horse that was too tall for him, and his riding skills were not as good as the two girls. Seeing that he was falling behind, he seemed a little anxious, but the silver-grey horse under him refused to obey his commands, stopping and starting in an unruly manner. Already slow, this only caused him to be left even further behind by the girls in front.

The two girls noticed and stopped by the road to wait for him. The girl in red urged him on while laughing at the boy being bullied by the animal, laughing so hard that she almost fell off her horse.

The girl in yellow frowned at the boy and kept giving him various instructions. The boy was rather flustered while the girl became more impatient. She turned her horse back to the boy and whipped the grey horse to urge him on.

“Hurry up!

“Brother, you are so timid and stupid, and you still want to learn horse riding from us?”

The silver-grey horse grunted twice and began to run, carrying the young man on its back.

The woman in red clapped and cheered: “Little Thirteen can ride a horse now! Little Thirteen can ride a horse now!”

The girl in yellow laughed loudly, apparently feeling very proud of the effect of her action.

But then, the two girls realized something was wrong.

The silver-grey horse had a fierce temperament. After feeling the pain, it lost its temper and tried to throw the person off its back while running. Although the boy’s riding skills were inexperienced, his balance was decent. At first, despite being jostled and swayed, he managed to tightly grip the horse’s belly with his legs, preventing himself from being thrown off immediately. When the horse got angry, it ran faster and faster, surpassing the girl in red in a blink of an eye and running wildly forward. The boy finally couldn’t hold on and during one of the horse’s powerful leaps, he was thrown off to the side, but one of his feet accidentally got caught in the stirrup ring, instantly hooking him in place.

Amid the screams of the two girls, he grabbed the reins and saddle with both hands and finally managed to hang himself on the side of silver-grey horse. However, as the horse galloped forward, his body swayed and it seemed that he could fall to the ground at any time.

If his hands could not hold on and his feet could not get out of the stirrups, he would fall headfirst to the ground and be dragged by the horse.

At this time, seven to eight people who looked like they were accompanying the group finally caught up from behind. Seeing this, they were horrified and urged their horses to chase after them.

The boy was none other than Prince Ning’s grandson, Prince Xin’an, Li Hui. The two girls, the one in red was the grand princess’s daughter, County Princess Danyang, Lu Wenjun, and the one in yellow urging her horse forward was Li Hui’s sister, County Princess Yucheng, Li Wanwan.

It turned out that because Li Hui was a posthumous child, he had been under the control of his widowed mother, Madam Xue, since he was a child. Not only was he not allowed to practice martial arts, he was not even allowed to ride a horse fast.

It was fine when he was a child, but now that he had grown up, not only the boys of the same age, but even his sister could do whatever they want, even good at activities like playing polo. Yet he could only read poetry and books all day long. This left him feeling disheartened and secretly longing to ride a swift horse and race through the fields.

Normally he had no chance, but today his grandfather, Prince Ning, held a banquet here and brought him over. Finally freed from the shackle of Madam Xue, and hearing that his sister agreed to teach him how to ride a horse, he was extremely happy, so he called Lu Wenjun, who was good friends with his sister, and planned to go out and play along the lakeside.

When he was choosing the horse just now, he originally wanted to ride his own mount, which was the horse that Madam Xue had personally chosen for him. It has a gentle temper and obeyed his orders. However, Lu Wenjun laughed at him, saying that he has no manliness and was not even as good as a young lady. Provoked into embarrassment until his cheeks turned red, he led out the most majestic silver-grey horse in the stable. The three of them planned to shake off their attendants and sneak out. However, he did not expect that his sister was also unreliable, and such an accident happened.

At this time, Li Wanwan, Lu Wenjun and their attendants were all chasing with all their might. Several of the guards finally got closer and tried to intercept the silver-grey horse, but not only did it fail, but it made the horse even more furious. It rushed off the road and ran wildly towards a piece of wilderness on the other side.

The attendants did not dare to shoot the horse, for fear of accidentally injuring Prince Xin’an, and even more afraid that the horse would fall to the ground after being shot by the arrow and crush people. They could only follow closely and wait for an opportunity to act.

Xuyu had already recognized this young man. He was Li Hui, whom she met outside Zanxing Nunnery that day.

In terms of seniority, she was still his aunt. Seeing him being carried down the road by the angry horse, running farther and farther away, with him hanging on the side of the horse’s belly, swinging up like a kite, she couldn’t help but tremble with fear, and subconsciously turned around and ran to her own horse, grabbed the reins, and was about to mount the horse to chase after him, when her wrist was grabbed by a strong hand.

She turned her head.

Pei Xiaoyuan stopped her and told her not to move. Before she could react, she saw him jump onto his horse and chase after the boy.

Li Hui closed his eyes and gripped the reins tightly, trying hard not to be thrown off the horse in the violent shaking.

The wind whistled in his ears as he felt his strength waning. His fingers ached with fatigue, and gradually, the life-saving reins in his hands began to slip, slick from the sweat in his palms.

What worse was that the silver-grey horse knew that he could not hold on any longer, so it shook him even harder on purpose, as if he would not stop until it threw him off.

The reins in Li Hui’s hand slipped out again.

He knew that he was about to lose the chance to catch it and might die here today. In despair, he suddenly heard the sound of galloping horse from behind, as if someone was catching up with him.

He forced his eyes open, turned his head and looked around in the bumpy ride, and found that there was indeed a rider catching up with him. He also heard the man shouting into the wind, “Prince Xin’an, hold on tight!” He became alert in an instance, gritted his teeth and tried hard to steady himself.

The man quickly rode his horse over, and when the two horses were moving side by side, he stepped on the stirrup and used the reaction force to leap up and land on the back of the silver-grey horse. After sitting down, he leaned over, grabbed Li Hui’s arm and pulled Li Hui onto the horse’s back.

Then he yanked the reins of the horse hard, forcing it to stop.

How could the silver-grey horse be so easily restrained? It neighed, raised its front hooves, raised its head high, and stood upright in the air, trying to make the people on its back slide off.

Pei Xiaoyuan scolded the animal angrily, clamped his legs around the horse’s belly, controlled the reins with one hand to steady his body, and with the other hand took out a small knife from the belt around his waist, turned it upside down, and fiercely hit the horse’s belly with the handle of the knife.

After just a few hits, the horse under his crotch could no longer bear the pain. It hissed miserably, lost its momentum and landed on all of its four hooves.

After the silver-grey horse became docile and stopped obediently, Pei Xiaoyuan put away his knife and dismounted. He also picked up Li Hui, who was still lying on the horse’s back, and put him on the ground.

Li Hui was still in shock at this time. With a pale face, he opened his eyes listlessly. He saw the person who had just saved him squatting beside him, lowering his head while asking him if he was injured.

At this time, several guards arrived and were relieved to see this.

They were all attendants of Li Hui, Li Wanwan, and Lu Wenjun. If anything happened to the Prince Xin’an today, they would be held responsible. Naturally, some of them recognized Pei Xiaoyuan and hurriedly dismounted to thank him.

Li Hui was still in a daze on the ground. Suddenly hearing Pei Xiaoyuan’s name, his eyes lit up and he came back to his senses. He rolled over and got up from the ground.

“Are you the Cavalry Captain Pei who made great achievements in the Western Territory three years ago?”

Seeing that Li Hui was unharmed and his attendants had arrived, Pei Xiaoyuan was about to leave when his sleeve was tugged. Turning around, he saw Li Hui staring at him with wide eyes, looking rather excited. Pei Xiaoyuan smiled, glanced at the silver-grey horse, and said, “Horses are intelligent. When you meet a fierce horse like this, no matter how scared you are, you mustn’t let it sense your fear. You have to be tougher than the horse, make it remember the pain, so that it will be tamed and listen to your commands.”

Li Hui’s eyes sparkled: “I’ll remember that. I’ll try again!”

At this time, many people came in a hurry on the road. It turned out that Prince Ning had been informed that his grandson was in danger. He was very anxious, so he interrupted the banquet and rode over himself. Now he saw that his grandson had been rescued by Pei Xiaoyuan and was safe and sound, he was very grateful. After dismounting, he didn’t even care about his position, and just walked up and held his hand tightly.

“Sure enough, it’s the son of the Pei family! You’ve saved my grandson, and I must properly thank you for this!”

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