Chapter 103.1 – A Tiger’s Roar
Due to large influx of people and horses, the originally calm hunting ground became like water that fell into boiling oil1, with chickens flying and dogs jumping around1.
Qi Yang and Lu Qipei specifically searched for a place without a lot of people, and managed to gain a lot after a morning of work. And because Qi Yang wanted to compete with Nanping, the two of them almost didn’t let the accompanying attendants take action, and shot the preys with their own hands.
By the time noon was nearing, most of the arrows in their quivers had been shot, and everyone’s saddles were also full of prey.
Unfortunately, their luck was not very good. They hunted down some small things along the way, mostly mountain chickens and rabbits, two foxes, and a group of small wild boars. But other than that, they never encountered any precious prey.
Hunting was just like that, without meeting a suitable prey, one could not unleash their true abilities.
Lu Qipei sighed as she looked at the preys on the back of the attendants’ horses, and helplessly said to Qi Yang, “These things are not worth much, maybe they cannot match Nanping’s prince consort. Let’s go deeper into the forest again this afternoon to look for better prey, maybe we can find something.”
Qi Yang also had some disappointment in her eyes. She looked at the preys hanging from the attendants’ horses, looked up at the sky, and finally nodded in agreement with Lu Qipei’s proposal, “That’s fine. But it’s getting late now, so let’s not be too anxious. Let’s return to camp and have something to eat first. Besides, we never agreed to compare anything with Nanping, so these preys are enough to show her.”
After saying that, she pulled the reins and turned her horse’s head, trotting away outside towards the camping ground.
Lu Qipei naturally followed. Knowing that she was still feeling disappointed inside, she comforted Qi Yang while riding her horse, saying, “There’s a lot of people today, and most of the animals in the forest have been startled away. We were not lucky, and others might not have better luck either. Maybe they’ve had even less luck than us.”
Qi Yang couldn’t help but smile looking at how Lu Qipei was trying to persuade her so seriously. In just a few words, she already coaxed her back to a good mood.
The two rode their horses and walked in front, with the twenty to thirty attendants accompanying them following closely behind. As they walked, someone called out softly, “Your Highness, Prince Consort, there’s a rabbit hole here.”
Qi Yang had promised Lu Sheng to bring her a rabbit back, and Lu Qipei had also promised Qi Yang to help her catch the rabbit. But the wild rabbits in this mountain forest were not like those rabbits that were raised by people, who would foolishly let people catch them.
The two also met many rabbits along the way, but unfortunately, those little things were extremely sensitive and ran very fast. Even though the attendants tried to block and catch them, they never ended up succeeding. In the end, they could only leave make them stay still with an arrow.
Left with no other options, Qi Yang and Lu Qipei decided to simply dig out a rabbit nest at an attendant’s suggestion. However, rabbit nests were not so easy to find. Qi Yang was already prepared to go home and give Lu Sheng a piece of rabbit leather and a plate of rabbit meat dish.
They looked for a rabbit’s nest all morning and couldn’t find one, but unexpectedly found one on the way back.
Qi Yang immediately reined her horse when she heard that, and turned around, asking in surprise. “Have you found a rabbit hole? Where is it?”
The attendant who called out earlier quickly jumped off his horse and ran to a bush by the roadside, pointing to a dark hole on the ground covered by weeds. “Answering Your Highness, it’s here, this is the rabbit hole.”
The inconspicuous entrance was difficult to see when the attendants passed by. But it was not uncommon that subordinates would try to everything they can to fill their superiors’ demands. Just like this, the attendant discovered the rabbit hole, and was able to show his face in front of the Princess and the Prince Consort.
Sure enough, Qi Yang rode over enthusiastically. She looked at the dark hole entrance and asked a little doubtfully, “Is there really a rabbit inside? There’s only this hole, deep and small, how can we get them out?”
After saying that, she looked at the hole entrance and frowned, saying, “I heard that the cunning rabbit’s hole has three entrances. It shouldn’t be limited to just this one entrance.”
There was no need for Qi Yang to worry about these things. As a princess with a golden spoon in her mouth, she had naturally never done such a thing as digging a rabbit’s hole. But most of her attendants were commoners – what mischievous things had they not done when they were young?
There were quite a few people who knew how to dig a rabbit’s hole, and almost as soon as Qi Yang said that, many people came forward requesting the princess to give them her orders.
They were also helpless. Who knew that the Princess and the Prince Consort would showcase their skills all morning, and they never did anything other than picking up the prey and searching for arrows. If they wanted to get ahead, they could only rely on this rabbit now.
Qi Yang was getting a rather novel feeling, and waved her hand in agreement. “Go. If you can catch a live rabbit, you will be rewarded when we return.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the attendants became even more excited and didn’t need to be given further orders. They turned around and quickly got to work. After searching for a while, they found several other holes nearby as expected. Some of the more experienced people gave it a try and fortunately found that there were indeed some rabbits hidden inside.
What followed were easy – they dug a hole, lighted up a bunch of fireworks, then blew the smoke inside.
After a while, white smoke started emerging from the other holes. There were already people guarding around each entrance, ready to catch the rabbits directly once they were smoked out, which would be much easier than catching them in open space.
Qi Yang was excited to see it, and Lu Qipei had never seen such a scene before either. The young couple looked at the unique show from a distance.
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