Chapter 74 Part 2

Yuan Ci Xian was shocked by this blow, and retracted her neck. She felt slightly unstable under the numbness, cleared her throat, handed him a brocade handkerchief to signal him to wipe his hands, and said: “Okay, you can go back.”

Lu Shi Qing suddenly felt that the wound on his chest that had finally healed seemed to be in pain again, he gritted his teeth and said, “You won’t give me an explanation about that Xi Ju?” Did she want to piss him off?

Seeing that Lu Shi Qing was finally willing to put down his face and asked straightforwardly, Yuan Ci Xian turned her head and snickered, and decided not to embarrass him anymore, turned around and answered solemnly: “What can happen? He fell in front of my door, can I still go up to help him? His Majesty’s spies are nearby, I’m not stupid, okay?”

Lu Shi Qing knew that she wasn’t stupid, but he couldn’t stop his terrible imaginations, and came all the way here. One to prevent her from falling into Xi Ju’s tricks, and the other was to seek peace of mind.

He said “Oh” after hearing this, as if he believed what she said, and didn’t ask any more questions, then said, “Then I’m leaving, you go back and rest.”

At this time Yuan Ci Xian became soft-hearted, tugged at his sleeve, and said: “Wait, His Majesty gave some cherries, you take them to eat.”

Lu Shi Qing didn’t care about the food, he raised his eyebrows when he heard this: “Why don’t you eat it yourself?”

“Don’t mention it, the cherry pits gave me a toothache.”

After saying that, she pulled him to get the cherries, but just as she stepped into the small open-air courtyard, she saw a black shadow flash past, and then there was a “bang”, as if some pots and pans had been overturned. On the long table, the cherries on the plate rolled to the ground one by one. The next moment, the culprit, Xiao Hei came out from under the table, lay on all fours, and crouched in front of the two of them while shrinking its head, as if pleading guilty.

Lu Shi Qing stopped in shock, and quietly hid behind Yuan Ci Xian. This open-air courtyard was where he sat when he came to the banquet as Xu Shan. Fortunately, the weak and frail Jiang Bi Rou was still in the house at that time, so Yuan Yu didn’t allow Xiao Hei to run around. If it were change to now, with the dog’s keen sense of smell, he would have been recognized by Yuan Ci Xian ten thousand times.

Yuan Ci Xian didn’t know the twists and turns in his heart, only felt that her flesh hurt and her heart was bleeding, pointed to Xiao Hei and said: “You, now, immediately, at once, disappear from my eyes.”

Xiao Hei whimpered and ran away with its four legs.

Seeing her heartbroken look, Lu Shi Qing twitched the corners of his mouth: “Anyway, it’s not you who ate it, just treat it as I finished it. The fruit in Luoyang’s cherry grove is the same as this imperial tribute. When the season comes next year, I’ll ask someone to pick some.”

Yuan Ci Xian let out a dejected “hmm”, glanced at it and saw that there was still one cherry left on the plate, her eyes lit up immediately, she brought it over and said, “There is one more, you might as well eat it here.”

Lu Shi Qing choked. In fact, he really didn’t want to eat that much, but seeing that Yuan Ci Xian was willing to share with him what she cherished, he was naturally a little moved, so he took it and stuffed it into his mouth. Just as he was biting through the flesh, seeing her looking at him so earnestly, he suddenly felt an itch in his heart, then lowered his head and kissed her lips.

The kiss caught her off guard, Yuan Ci Xian immediately felt the sweet juice spill onto her lips, as if it was about to trickle down her chin. She subconsciously wanted to tell him to stop, but unexpectedly fell into his trap. As soon as her teeth were opened, a piece of fruit’s flesh was sent into her mouth.

Immediately afterwards, Lu Shi Qing let go of her lips, and sucked the juice that fell on her chin. Seeing she was dumbfounded, he explained very calmly: “Didn’t you afraid the pit will hurt your teeth?”

Yuan Ci Xian then realized that the fruit flesh in her mouth had been pitted.

However, this method of removing the pit and feeding the flesh was too unclean!

He can’t treat her like this just because she has no cleanliness obsession!

She wanted to dislike it, but she was too embarrassed to spit it out in front of him. She lost her face and bit the bullet and chewed the fruit flesh. After chewing, her expression suddenly changed, and she said in surprise, “Wait, what about the cherry pit?”

She didn’t see Lu Shi Qing spit it out.

Lu Shi Qing’s face also changed drastically, and he suddenly stretched out his hand to hold his throat.

He… he was so excited that he swallowed it…

Yuan Ci Xian heard that cherry pits were poisonous, so she immediately urged him to vomit, but seeing that he couldn’t vomit, she called Yuan Yu who had just finished bathing and beat him ruthlessly on the back.

Lu Shi Qing was tormented by the brother and sister until half of his life was almost gone. He thought that it wasn’t that the cherry pits that were poisonous, but the Yuan family. In the end, Jian Zhi who read some ancient books came to the rescue, saying that the cherry pit was indeed poisonous inside, but as long as it was not bitten, it would not be harmful.

Only then did Yuan Ci Xian skeptically let Lu Shi Qing go, and told him to call a doctor immediately if he felt any discomfort.

Lu Shi Qing reckoned that he might never touch a cherry again in his life.

Fortunately, as Jian Zhi said, Lu Shi Qing was fine, and in the afternoon of the next day, he dragged his body, which had been beaten sorely by Yuan Yu, to the Daming Palace for the martial arts competition.

The Crown prince of Nanzhao went to Chang’an as an envoy, so naturally a palace banquet could not be enough to entertain him. Today Emperor Huining ordered people to build an arena inside Ziyu Paviliona kind of pavilion for enjoying the cool, it draws mountain springs to flow down from the eaves of the pavilion, forming a screen made of water around it, and said that he would invite Xi Ju to have a look at the imperial wrestling team of the Zhou Palace. To put it bluntly, it was actually to display Great Zhou’s martial force.

Yuan Ci Xian guessed that the old emperor had a grudge because of what happened last night, so he invited her and her brother at the last moment, saying that they were invited as imperial clan relatives and let them watch, but in fact, he probably wanted to see whether Xi Ju and her Yuan family had some “sparks”.

When Lu Shi Qing arrived, Yuan Ci Xian was already chatting and joking with her brother inside the Ziyu Pavilion, when she saw him coming, she winked at him and sent an amorous glance over.

Because Shaohe State Princess was on the side, he suspected that she was deliberately flirting with him, but he didn’t refute her face, only bent the corner of his mouth towards her, sat down on his seat, and then nodded to the courtiers around him as a greeting.

After Emperor Huining took his seat, the contest began.

This Ziyu Pavilion was a good place to enjoy the cool in summer. The palace people took pains to bring water from the mountain spring to flow down from the eaves of the pavilion, paving four water curtains on all sides. The overhanging waves were like waterfalls, and sitting inside felt as cool and refreshing as being in autumn.

In the huge pavilion, the emperor sat at the top, and on his side was Empress Liang, while Xi Ju sat one level under him. Then below them were several imperial children including Zheng Zhuo, Shaohe, as well as the brother and sister of the Yuan family, and Lu Shi Qing and several other courtiers were at the outermost periphery.

In the middle of the arena, two shirtless men came up, and when the referee shouted the order, they fought together, fighting in full swing. When one threw down the other, Emperor Huining shouted “good”, then there was thunderous applause on all sides.

After a few rounds, Yuan Ci Xian really felt that she was applauding like a fool, but seeing that everyone was doing the same, even Lu Shi Qing smiled without battling an eye, so she could only endure and continue to clap her hands vigorously.

After several rounds, Emperor Huining finally called a halt, turned around and asked Xi Ju what he think.

Naturally, Xi Ju brought out the few beautiful Han words he had learned last night, but when asked if he wanted to send his guard for a friendly competition, he refused: “I am here this time, not for the sake of competing with Your Majesty, although martial arts fighting is fun, it will inevitably hurt the friendship, so it’s better not. But the grand event is rare, and I don’t want to ruin Your Majesty and everyone’s excitement, why don’t we change to a mild game.”

Emperor Huining raised his eyebrows with interest, motioning for him to speak.

“I heard that there is a game called catapult in Great Zhou, which is to use golden marbles and slingshots as instruments to shoot birds for fun. I have an idea — please send someone to collect miscellaneous birds, and hang a silk scroll around the neck of each bird. Some scroll are marked, and some are left blank, and then I and all the good shooters present will those shoot birds with slingshot, and compete to see who gets the most marked scroll.”

When he said until here, he smiled a little playfully: “In the end, the winner will be able to ask Your Majesty for a prize.”

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