"Excellent archery!" Yu Huanshen cheered, waving his purple bamboo sachet. "Miss Bai's rapid-fire shooting is no less impressive than our village leader's!"
Bai Linxi's ears flushed red, but she turned to Jiang Yihuan and said sternly, "Third Young Master, you don't have to protect me. But when Songyi shot the tiger just now..." She glanced at the pale pink scar on Jiang Songyi's left arm, "It seems like an old injury has recurred."
Jiang Yihuan's throat choked. The scar, located exactly like his elder brother's arrow wound, was glaring in the morning light. He was about to speak when Jiang Songyi rode closer to the prince, her bare hands gently caressing the crescent pattern on the tiger cub in his arms—the orphan of the tigress she had shot in her previous life.
"Your Highness, beware of the miasma." Jiang Songyi handed over the handkerchief soaked in herbs, her fingertips carelessly brushing against the Buddhist beads. The burning pain of the loosening of the seal in her previous life suddenly hit her, and her hand trembled, causing the handkerchief to flutter into the forest.
As Xin Yidao leaned over to pick it up, the Buddhist beads suddenly tangled around the tassel of the sachet around Jiang Songyi's waist. As the two struggled, Su Sheng suddenly cried out, "Snake!" He shrank completely beneath the prince's cloak, the crimson brocade enveloping them both like a frightened quail.
Jiang Yihuan sneered and threw his dagger. With a flash of cold light, the venomous snake was pinned to the ancient pine tree. He crushed the snake's head with his boot: "Waste."
"The Third Young Master is so impressive!" Bai Linxi clapped his hands and chuckled, then turned and winked at Jiang Songyi. "There's a herd of deer in the mountain stream ahead. Shall we have a duel?"
Before Jiang Songyi could respond, a sudden gust of wind blew through the forest. Xin Yidao's Buddhist beads snapped on his wrist, sending the sandalwood beads tumbling to the ground. Jiang Songyi leaned over to pick them up, and suddenly saw the inscription of the mantra for the afterlife engraved on the beads was identical to the runes from his previous life's soul-locking chain.
"County Lady." The prince pressed his pale fingertips against the back of her hand. "Be careful."
Jiang Yihan looked at the two men's clasped hands and suddenly rode his horse in between them: "Since you want to compete, count me in." His black cloak swept across the prince's clothes, startling the young tiger so much that it bared its teeth and growled.
Jiang Jinzhao followed silently, his jade ring caressing the gilded wooden box. The white jade hairpin in the box was meant to be a pair with the one in his sister's hair, but now Jiang Songyi had discarded it like a worn-out shoe. He recalled Jiang Yuyao's birthday in his previous life, and how he had personally pinned the hairpin to his adopted sister's temples.
When they reached the mountain stream, Bai Linxi suddenly reined in her horse. "Songyi, look!" She pointed at the magnolia flowers blooming on the rock wall. "Does it look like the 'Nine Layers of Spring' you painted in your previous life?"
(End of this chapter)
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