Chapter Twenty

"Xiao Hei! Xiao Hei!" Zhou Yanqing kept trying to soothe the restless Xiao Hei, but to no avail.

For some reason, the little black dog beneath him suddenly stood up and let out a long hiss.

Even though Si Yanmo desperately held on to the reins, she was still thrown off, while Xiao Hei rode away.

The movement was so fast that Zhou Yanqing had no time to react. He worriedly helped Si Yanmo up and pulled her into his arms, asking, "Are you alright?"

Si Yanmo still dared not open her eyes, but desperately clung to his sleeve, her body trembling and her face pale.

"Don't be too nervous when mounting the horse. If you're nervous, it will be nervous too. Also, don't pull the reins too tight, or the horse will be uncomfortable..."

Zhou Yanqing patiently explained to her, but suddenly heard the person in his arms sobbing.

"You... what's wrong?" He had never seen Si Yanmo cry before, and was at a loss for words. "Did you hurt yourself?"

He frantically tried to check if the other person was injured, but Si Yanmo hugged him tightly, hiding in his arms and crying softly.

In my memory, Si Yanmo has always been calm and collected. Even when she was almost killed by spies at Wufeng Pass, she never cried.

Zhou Yanqing hugged the person in her arms tightly and patted her back gently again and again, "Don't be afraid, it's okay, I'm here."

After a long while, the crying gradually subsided, and he heard Si Yanmo sobbing as she softly explained, "When I was five years old, my parents took my sister and me to Qi Valley to visit my maternal grandfather, but we encountered bandits on the border of Nandu, and they kidnapped me. Fortunately, the government troops arrived in time, and the bandits, fearing they would be caught,... and..."

The woman became agitated again, gripping Zhou Yanqing's hand even tighter, tears streaming down her face. "They tied me...they tied me to a horse, made it run, and then drove off. I...I..."

She couldn't continue speaking. The shadow of her childhood once again haunted her mind, making her feel as if she had returned to that terrifying moment.

Zhou Yanqing had already guessed the ending from her few words.

If a horse is startled and no one stops it in time, Si Yanmo, who was only five years old at the time, would fall off the horse and might even be trampled.

Judging from how scared she is, the ending must be even more terrifying than the latter.

Si Yanmo was tossed about by that horse for half an hour, only daring to hold on tightly to the reins, her small hands becoming bloody and mangled, before she was finally thrown off the horse and rolled off the cliff.

When the soldiers found her, she was on the verge of death. It was only after her parents hired the best shaman in the city and burned incense at the Digu Temple for countless days that they managed to save her.

Since then, Si Yanmo has been afraid of horses and it has taken her a long time to dare to ride in a carriage. Her parents also felt sorry for her and never let their daughter leave Jinwu again.

It was after that they discovered that Si Yanmo's mind seemed to be stuck at the age of 5.

Zhou Yanqing reached out and wiped away the girl's tears.

He had always thought that a girl from a family like Si Yanmo's, who was loved by her parents, would not have experienced any major ups and downs growing up, at least not like him who often walked between life and death. But now he realized that he was wrong.

What secrets are hidden beneath this girl's usual fearlessness?

After a while, the "culprit" Xiao Hei ran back to the two of them.

Seeing that Si Yanmo was crying, it seemed to know that it was its fault, and it bent down and rubbed its head against the girl's hair.

Si Yanmo was still a little scared at first, but when she turned around, she seemed to sense its apology. She sniffed, stood up again, and mustered up her courage to pat Xiao Hei's head.

"It... is still quite obedient." Zhou Yanqing carefully tried to win over her mount.

Si Yanmo was amused by his words, turned around and stood to Xiao Hei's left, saying, "Let's try again."

"Actually, if you're scared, you can..."

He was interrupted by Si Yanmo before he could finish speaking. She forced a smile and said, "What can I do? Didn't you say that a shaman must know how to ride a horse?"

"But aren't you afraid?"

“But I want to be a shaman.” Si Yanmo’s eyes were full of determination as she said this.

Zhou Yanqing didn't know why she was so determined to become a shaman, but looking into the girl's eyes reminded him of himself years ago when he was determined to join the army.

He no longer shared his worries with her, but simply respected her, lifted her onto the horse, and then mounted himself to protect her from behind.

"Get used to the feeling of being on horseback first." He said, while having Si Yanmo hold the reins with him. "The reins are for controlling the horse. Don't pull them too tight, or the horse will feel uncomfortable and try to wrestle with you, which is why it threw you off just now..."

He carefully explained every characteristic of horses to her, which put Si Yanmo at ease. On the back of the horse, which she was afraid of, she gradually moved closer to him.

Zhou Yanqing noticed her movements, and unconsciously tightened his grip on the reins, the sweat on his palms being absorbed by the rough reins.

This caused Little Black to misunderstand, and it immediately stood up, its four hooves flying, and ran forward.

The sudden jolt startled Si Yanmo, causing her to close her eyes again. She heard a familiar voice beside her: "Lie down!"

Instead of stopping Xiao Hei, Zhou Yanqing seized the opportunity to let her get used to the rhythm of a horse running.

He shouted, "Lie down! When the horse charges forward, lie down on it and follow its rhythm so you won't fall off!"

Following his instructions, Si Yanmo bent down and lay face down, and the person behind her held her tightly around the waist.

She didn't know how far she had run, but the whistling wind still blew in her ears. She found that she had actually adapted to the bumpy ride little by little by following Xiao Hei's movements.

Si Yanmo boldly opened her eyes, only to see the forest rushing past her.

"Zhou Yanqing!" She didn't know what to say, she just wanted to call the name of the person behind her, as if that would put her at ease.

Zhou Yanqing thought she was scared again, so she comforted her, "It's okay, don't worry, I'm here, you won't fall!"

"I know!"

As dusk fell, the girl's voice blended into the whistling wind beside her ears.

The horses continued to run, but the shadows of my childhood gradually faded with the sound of their hooves, transforming into a feeling of excitement.

She was still afraid of horses, and her hands would still tremble uncontrollably when she was on horseback, but it seemed that as long as this person was behind her, she could believe that she wouldn't be thrown off like she did when she was a child...

——

The academy conducts weekly assessments, with the capable promoted and the incompetent demoted.

Si Yanmo not only had to prepare for the divination exam, but also had to deal with the monthly assessments.

She's been going back and forth between the divination hall, the horse farm, and the Prince of Qin's residence lately. Sometimes she's so tired that she can only rest in the carriage and has no energy to care about anything else.

So much so that even now, when she sleeps in the same room as Zhou Yanqing at night, and Sano calls her "sister" for the first time ever, she is completely dazed and doesn't remember anything except for schoolwork.

But the people in the divination academy were looking at her more and more strangely, always whispering when she walked by, and today, after the assessment, she caught them red-handed.

"I heard that the new diviner is the Princess Consort of Qin!"

A group of fortune tellers sat in the corridor, discussing amongst themselves.

"What Princess Consort of Qin! If she really is the Princess Consort of Qin, why would she be here giving us a lesson? At most, she's just an unfavored concubine." A disdainful male voice rang out.

Si Yanmo knew him; he was Wu Yanchen, who always came in last place in the Bu Academy's assessments and was rumored to be expelled from the academy after a few more attempts.

How dare he gossip like this?

They even said she was an unfavored concubine?

Don't these people know that Zhou Yanqing's household doesn't even have a maid?

Si Yanmo found it amusing. In order to avoid trouble and not wanting to use someone's power and be misunderstood, she did not deliberately reveal her identity when she entered the divination hall.

Anyway, since she and Zhou Yanqing got married in Nandu, few people in Qin knew about it, and even fewer had ever seen her.

She continued to use her pseudonym "Mo Li" from her fortune-telling days in Nandu to register at the fortune-telling academy.

As for her true identity, she didn't deliberately hide it. If she knew, she would tell him; if she didn't know, she would leave him alone.

She had told Zhou Yanqing a few days ago that she wanted to find a maid who knew martial arts, but she hadn't found one yet, and in their mouths she had already become a concubine.

Si Yanmo sighed, unable to resist eavesdropping on what other shocking things they might say.

"Could she be out of favor? But didn't they say she was personally sent by the King of Qin? If she wasn't favored, they wouldn't be so attentive!"

"Who knows? With such seductive skills, why not use them to seduce men instead of coming to the divination academy?" Wu Yanchen's face was filled with intense contempt.

"Isn't it inappropriate for you to talk about that kind of girl?" A male fortune teller in the crowd, dressed in plain blue-gray clothes and with somewhat effeminate features, weakly retorted.

Wu Yanchen's face became even more ferocious upon hearing this. "What's wrong with that? If she dares to do it, why is she afraid of what people will say? I think she's just using her looks to seduce men everywhere. I bet she didn't come to the brothel with any good intentions!"

"I think some people are just heartbroken that they're not women and don't have the chance to flirt with men, so they're just being sour here!" Si Yanmo walked out from behind the tree.

Originally, she didn't want to bother with such an incompetent man who spewed nonsense.

But if you tolerate it for a while, they will take an inch and then a mile; if you back down, you'll only get angrier the more you think about it!

If she doesn't tear this guy to pieces today, she's not a Si!

When the male fortune teller saw her approach, the disdain on his face instantly turned into guilt, but because there were other people around, he could only put on a brave face and say, "Am I wrong? Which one of you here didn't study hard for ten years to get into the fortune-telling academy? You, a woman, got in so easily. If you didn't seduce men, what did you do?"

"Oh? So you've studied so hard for ten years to get in, how come I've never seen you at the top of the list?" Si Yanmo tilted her head and asked, pretending to be serious.

Although she was admitted after Mo Wenzhong reported to the Ministry of Rites and underwent an additional examination, it was not unprecedented in the divination academy.

Some fortune tellers from other schools who want to join the fortune-telling academy do the same.

Moreover, the divination academy conducts weekly screening and assessments of diviners, and the bottom three diviners are eliminated and expelled from the academy. They either choose to do something else or take the exam again next year with all the other students.

Si Yanmo had been in the Divination Academy for two weeks. Although she wasn't at the top of the list during the assessment, she was still among the best. She was praised by the teachers and mentors of all the academies. On the contrary, the Divination Master in front of her always managed to stay in fourth place in every assessment.

Wu Yanchen was speechless for a moment after being confronted by her, but he still refused to admit his mistake. The people around him also awkwardly pretended that nothing had happened.

Si Yanmo didn't want to waste her breath. Zhou Yanqing had said he would teach her some martial arts today, so she decided not to waste her time on this kind of person.

She said calmly, "If you still think you're better than me, go ask Grand Tutor Mo, ask Zhang, the official in charge of rites at the Ministry of Rites, or if you're not afraid of death, you can ask the Prince of Qin. See if I'm more skilled in seduction or in divination." With that, she turned and left.

Wu Yanchen behind her still tried to appear calm, but in reality, her legs went weak when she mentioned the King of Qin.

How could he dare to actually ask?

At the right corner of the corridor, Qi Muchen stood alone and silently watched the whole process, holding a copy of Si Yanmo's test paper from yesterday. Every part of it was correct, but the final grade was only C.