3. Ride Together
◎Her horsemanship was taught by Xie Qi himself.◎
"presumptuous!"
With a crisp "pa" sound, the man with great martial arts skills received the slap in the face.
His head was forced to tilt to one side, and Xu Qinghe himself let out an uncontrollable cry of pain because of the pulling of the wound.
When she looked up again, her clear eyes had turned red and were covered with a thin layer of mist.
The man's fingertips on his knees couldn't help but tremble. He pursed his lips and finally returned to his original seat and sat down in silence.
He shouldn't have scared her like that.
He snapped the sticks in his hand and threw them all into the fire.
Xu Qinghe didn't know that the other party was blaming himself at the moment, and he just focused on covering his wound and adjusting his breathing.
For a moment, the only sound was the crackling of the fire burning the firewood.
After a while, the man opposite suddenly said, "I'm sorry for offending you just now. It was just a joke. Please don't take it seriously, my lady."
But the voice was extremely dull, and the emotion in his eyes just now did not seem like a joke.
At that moment, Xu Qinghe even suspected that perhaps the person behind the mask was someone she had offended in Beijing, and now he had finally found the opportunity to take revenge on her.
But it was obviously not the right time to reveal her identity. After she calmed down, she simply said, "My benefactor saved my life, and I shall certainly repay you. Please tell me what you truly desire, and I will do my best to fulfill your wish. As long as you keep your mouth shut about what happened today."
The other man threw a few more sticks into the fire and said, "Like you, I'm from Kyoto. I don't want to reveal the truth about my martial arts, so I won't tell anyone about it. You can rest assured. As for saving my life, it was just a small favor from me to accumulate good karma. You don't have to take it to heart."
"Princess, I wonder who you offended to cause them to send so many assassins to kill you."
Since he was from Kyoto, there were some things Xu Qinghe couldn't say much about. In the end, she only said vaguely: "Maybe it's the intrigues between the girls, or maybe there are some court struggles."
The man gave her a strange look.
Xu Qinghe pretended not to see it, but asked what he wanted to know: "Excuse me, sir, how far is this place from the city?"
Now that it was getting dark, the city gates must not have been locked yet. The most urgent thing was how to return to the city or even the palace as soon as possible.
The man looked up at her, knowing exactly what she suspected, and asked, "You want to go back to the city?"
Thinking about the distance he had traveled, he finally shook his head: "It's too far. Now that I don't have a horse, I can't get into the city in time."
Xu Qinghe frowned silently.
I can’t go back to the city, and I don’t know how things will develop tomorrow.
The princess of the current dynasty was kidnapped in broad daylight, and there must be no peace in the palace.
If he were to spend the night outside, there would surely be a lot of gossip in the capital.
She remained silent for a long time, and the man looked at her again and asked, "Do you really want to go back to the city?"
Xu Qinghe nodded.
I don’t really want to, but I have to go back to the city.
He stood up, brushed off the dust on his clothes, and after his Adam's apple rolled, he uttered only two words: "Wait."
Then he turned around and walked out of the cave without a trace.
He left cleanly and neatly, and Xu Qinghe had no choice. She could feel that this person had no ill will towards her.
She didn't dare go out alone, so she just moved closer to the fire, combed her messy long black hair with her fingers, tore a piece of cloth from her clothes, and simply tied her hair up.
After waiting for about half an hour, the man finally came back with a horse following him.
He came in and put out the fire, then looked at her and said, "Let's go."
Xu Qinghe pursed her lips, raised her head, and looked into the eyes beneath the mask: "Why are you helping me?"
First, he rescued her from the assassin's knife, and then took her to hide in the cave. Now, when she said she wanted to go back to the city, he went to great lengths to find a horse.
She felt that she did not have enough interests to make a stranger do this.
The man's thin lips were tightly pursed beneath his mask. After a moment's thought, he finally chose the most convincing answer: "The princess is beautiful. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her, so I tried my best to help her."
Xu Qinghe looked up at him, seemingly not believing it.
But the man obviously didn't want to dwell on it any longer, and only said, "Princess, don't you want to go back to the city? If you delay any longer, it will be difficult to return to the city even with a horse."
Of course Xu Qinghe wanted to.
She knew she couldn't get any more out of him, so she left the cave with him.
A tall and handsome brown horse stood on the ground, moving its legs and blowing air through its nose.
It can be seen that this is a good horse, not an ordinary horse he found at random.
She grew up in the war-torn southern border. Her parents and even the Xie brothers were all martial artists. Although Xu Qinghe had never learned martial arts systematically, she was no problem riding a horse.
She was injured, and although her movements when mounting the horse were a little deformed, she still managed to stumble and sit steadily on the saddle.
Looking at the person still standing on the ground, Xu Qinghe was about to say thank you when he suddenly saw the other person stretch out a long arm towards him, and in the blink of an eye he also got on the horse very easily.
"You..." She hesitated and wanted to ask, "What are you doing up here?"
"The princess is injured and moving too slowly. I'm afraid she won't be able to get back before the city gates are locked." The other party replied, then kicked the horse's belly and rode away.
In fact, Xu Qinghe was a very good horseman, and she was confident that she could return alone before the city gate was locked. However, if she kicked the man off the horse now, it would seem like kicking him when he was down, so she had no choice but to agree to ride together.
Xie Qi taught her horsemanship personally.
Although he was young at that time, Xu Qinghe was very envious of the sight of his brothers in the Xie family riding horses, and he kept asking his parents to learn how to do it.
It was no small matter for the only daughter of King Nan'an to learn horse riding. However, during that period, there were constant small-scale wars on the border, and the King and his wife of Nan'an were busy with military affairs. In the end, they simply threw the matter to the three young sons of the neighboring Xie family.
The Xie family has three sons. The eldest is twenty-one, the youngest is twenty-seven, and the youngest is Xie Qi, who is already fourteen years old.
Although the three sons are young, they all have positions in the army. Even the youngest, Xie Qi, is already a veteran on the battlefield.
At that time, the marriage between the two families had already been decided. How could the two elder brothers fight for this matter in front of their younger brother? In the end, the task was naturally handed over to Xie Qi.
Xu Qinghe was naturally very happy that Xie Qi came to teach her. She got up on time every day and went to the horse farm, never complaining about the hard work.
Xie Qi taught her in detail and very well, and she also studied diligently and seriously. In less than half a month, she could ride a horse and run on the racecourse like a veteran.
However, she didn't find out until later that the reason why Xie Qi was the only one who had time to teach her when everyone else was busy was not just because of their so-called in-law relationship, but because he was injured on the battlefield and his aunt Xie insisted that he come back to recuperate.
Unexpectedly, he taught her horse riding for a month without complaint, and during that time he hid his injury so that she was completely unaware of it.
"What is the princess thinking about?"
A questioning voice came from above her head. The unfamiliar breath made Xu Qinghe shrink her neck, and at the same time, her thoughts finally returned to normal.
She seemed to think of Xie Qi a little too often today.
"...Nothing, just wondering how far it is."
There was a vast expanse of land all around, and the city gate was nowhere to be seen. The horse was not moving fast, but the cold wind still made one feel quite stiff.
"Can you go faster?"
She wanted to return to the city quickly.
"Then sit tight."
The next moment, the horse beneath him galloped up, the wind whistled in his ears, and the scenery in front of him flew backwards.
She was held in the man's arms, and her movements inevitably bumped into his chest. Fortunately, her winter clothes were thick enough, which made her feel a little more secure when she was in close contact with the strange man.
After running for about two quarters of an hour, the shadow of the city gate could be seen in front of us.
At this moment, he suddenly reined in the horse, then turned over and got off the horse.
As his robe fluttered, Xu Qinghe wrinkled her nose and smelled something other than the smell of blood on him.
It is a sign of spring in the snow, a precious spice that is hard to come by even among the nobles in the capital.
"Princess, please walk alone on the road ahead."
She put her guess aside for the moment, nodded and said thank you.
When he drove his horse to the city gate, before he could speak to the gatekeeper to prove his identity, Xu Qinghe saw a canopy carriage at the door with a young woman standing in front of the carriage.
A light red jacket wrapped around her frail body, with an autumn blue long skirt underneath. She stood in the wind, looking elegant yet tender and vulnerable.
The visitor was none other than Princess Jing'an, the sixth daughter of Emperor Yongshun and the wife of Qi Sheng, the current deputy commander of the Imperial Guards.
Princess Jing'an had been waiting at the city gate for two quarters of an hour. Xu Qinghe had been kind to her since childhood, and she had always been on good terms with him. Today, she was waiting at her villa in the suburbs of Beijing to celebrate her birthday, but suddenly she received the news that the princess had been robbed in the street.
Princess Jing'an was extremely anxious and quickly asked her husband Qi Sheng for help, asking him to find the person.
Qi Sheng just said that it was his duty, then put on his official robe and entered the palace.
She and Qi Sheng were married off by the emperor's arrangement, and they had never met before. To be precise, their marriage was arranged by her father in order to win over the newly crowned martial arts champion.
Jing'an had no objection, but she was weak, and she heard that this martial arts champion was big, rough and rude, so she couldn't help feeling uneasy.
Later, after they got married, she found out that his partner was just taciturn, but he was very respectful to her in his behavior.
She waited anxiously in the house for an entire afternoon. After dusk, the nanny beside her suddenly knocked on the door and said that the gateman in the front yard had delivered a message that the princess had been found and would arrive at the city gate in half an hour.
Jing'an was too anxious to wait any longer, so she simply took her people to the city gate to wait, thinking that if the city gate was locked by then, she would be able to speak for Xu Qinghe who was late.
The winter wind was bitterly cold, so the maid found a bright red pepper-colored cloak from the carriage and gave it to her.
"Princess, why don't you get in the carriage and wait."
Jing'an shook her head. Instead of sitting in the carriage, she would rather walk around here.
"...Princess, look, isn't that the princess on that horse?"
Jing'an looked up and saw the slender figure on the horse. Who else could it be but Xu Qinghe?
"Qinghe!"
She opened her mouth to shout, but suddenly choked on a mouthful of cold air and started coughing violently.
The guards at the gate did not recognize Xu Qinghe, but Princess Jing'an had been waiting there for a long time, so they let him in.
Xu Qinghe immediately dismounted, handed the reins to a maid beside her, and stepped forward to help Jing'an into the carriage. He spoke with a hint of resentment, "You're not feeling well to begin with, so why do you have to guard the city gate?"
"I'm fine." Princess Jing'an shook her head and looked Xu Qinghe up and down again. "How are you? Are you injured in the sudden attack?"
Her hair bun was simple but neat, and her clothes were intact. Seeing this, Jing'an finally breathed a sigh of relief.
But when he looked again, he saw some red on Qinghe's chest.
"You're hurt!"
"It's okay, it's just a minor injury and it's been bandaged." Xu Qinghe comforted her.
But Jing'an didn't believe it. How could the wound on his chest be just a minor one?
Just as he was about to ask again, Xu Qinghe spoke first: "Why are you waiting at the city gate? Have you been waiting for a whole day?"
"No, I came here because you sent someone to the mansion half an hour ago to tell me that you would return to the city."
Xu Qinghe was slightly surprised. It turned out that the masked man had specially informed Jing'an of his news when he was looking for the horse.
It seems that he is not just a simple Kyoto person. She even knows who she is friends with in the capital and to whom she should pass on her news.
She pushed aside the curtain and looked outside the city gate. It was vast and boundless, but there was no one there.
He is gone.
She did not deny what Jing'an said, but urged: "The palace gates have not been locked yet, Jing'an, please take me into the palace quickly."
Unexpectedly, Princess Jing'an looked embarrassed:
"Qinghe, I'm afraid you won't be able to return to the palace tonight."
【Author’s words】
——
Corrected the ages of the Xie brothers
--
Bug fixing and plot modification
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
