Chapter 105.2 – Triumphant Smile
Having been exposed, Qi Yang turned her head around angrily, still maintaining her spoiled little girl act.
The Emperor had not seen her like this for a long time, and the smile in his eyes deepened. He repeated “all will be rewarded” twice and patted his daughter’s arm, but he was walking towards the bloody tiger corpse.
Thinking about the gory scene, Qi Yang instinctively pulled the Emperor back.
The Emperor seemed to understand her concerns and couldn’t help but smile, but his steps did not stop. He was old, but the things he had experienced in this life were far from comparable to Qi Yang. It was just a dead tiger; how could he be afraid?
He walked a few steps closer to the horse carrying the tiger, and the scene was indeed not pretty. The tiger was drenched in blood, and because it just died recently, blood was dripping down to the ground.
In particular was the tiger’s head – both of its eyes had been pierced, and looking at the empty hole made it even more terrifying. Many of the officials who followed the Emperor were civil officials, and they were taken aback by this scene.
The Emperor looked around the tiger with great interest, and finally pointed to its eyes and said, “These two eyes were shot by the Prince Consort, weren’t they? I heard that she was excellent in all of the Six Arts, her archery skills are pretty good.”
Lu Qipei remained calm without a single change of expression, showing a calmness that completely did not match her thin figure.
The Emperor gave a few more praise, then turned back around. When he did, his gaze was heavy. Unlike Qi Yang and the others who had never seen a tiger before, the Emperor had also hunted tigers when he was young. But this tiger was obviously bigger than the average tiger, almost 30% larger!
Was it really just an accident or coincidence that such a fierce tiger managed to evade the guards and enter the hunting ground!?
Although Qi Yang pretended to be calm in front of the Emperor, she was actually quite surprised by what happened today. Even though she had prepared for an unpeaceful hunting ground, she thought that there would be an assassin at most. She never expected to face a tiger.
More than twenty people were entangled with the fierce tiger for a while, and many were injured. If they had fewer people with them..
Qi Yang didn’t dare to think too deeply. She didn’t even dare to think about what the consequences would be if the Eldest Grandson hadn’t met them. The young boy died at the tiger’s mouth; the patrolling guards were arranged by the Crown Prince himself, but it failed his own son.
In private, the blow this would deal to the father, the Crown Prince, was obvious. And in public, the Crown Prince’s prestige among the officials would definitely suffer.
Fortunately, they ran into this scheme and nothing irreversible happened.
Qi Yang’s fingertips were still a bit cold, so Lu Qipei handed her a cup of hot tea and sat down next to her to comfort her, saying, “It’s okay. Fortunately, we ran into it. Next time, I’ll remind His Highness to be more careful.”
The warmth of the tea cup warmed Qi Yang’s somewhat chilly hands. She let out a long breath and took a sip from her tea cup before saying, “Guarding against thieves for a thousand days is also not a long-term solution.”
Lu Qipei smiled when she heard this and drank a cup of hot tea herself. “Your Highness, do you think the Crown Prince is someone who would just sit and wait to die?”
Of course not. Qi Yang had a lot of trust in her royal brother. But the Crown Prince found out about the matter too late, and he might not be able to deal with it in a short time. Plus, Xie Yuan was in Rong in the North. Even if the Crown Prince wanted to target his lead envoy, he would be powerless for a while.
The topic was too heavy to talk about, and in the end, for the sake of the atmosphere, the two of them simply didn’t mention it too much. They just planned to wait for the Crown Prince to return from the hunting ground and ask his opinion.
The Emperor had already ordered for meals to be prepared, and after the two of them returned to the tent to wash up and calm down, the palace servants brought their lunch.
The two of them had lunch, and when they went out of the camp, they saw people returning from the hunting ground one after the other.
Most people’s harvest was mediocre, and this included the princesses and prince consorts that made a bet this morning. The prey hanging on their attendants’ saddles right now were quite limited. The princesses were very dissatisfied with the sudden recall, obviously feeling that it had affected their performance.
Until they saw Qi Yang and Lu Qipei walking out of the tent…
Nanping had also returned, and her prince consort was really worthy of being a military general. Even though they were called back prematurely, they still returned with a full harvest. Right now, she was feeling a bit proud of her victory, and seeing Qi Yang who had returned early, she led her prince consort and rode forward.
She didn’t say anything, just riding her horse and dangling in front of Qi Yang, so she could see the two beautiful fox furs hanging behind her saddle, as well as the deer on her prince consort’s horse.
The hunting ground had been cleaned up by the Crown Prince this time, and almost all animals that could be called fierce beasts had been hunted and expelled in advance, so both fox and deer could be considered high-quality prey. Nanping’s prince consort was also very good at archery – both the foxes were shot at the eye. The wounds were very small, and their furs were intact. It was something very rare to see.
Nanping proudly came to show off, but no one else came near, instead standing far away to watch the excitement.
Qi Yang raised her eyebrows, but before she could say anything, she saw an attendant running over to ask her in a moderate voice, “Your Highness, all the other preys have been dealt with. For the tiger, I wonder how we should deal with it?”
The attendant’s arrival was too coincidental that Qi Yang instinctively turned her head to look at Lu Qipei, who gave her a slight wink.
A smile suddenly appeared in Qi Yang’s eyes, but she still pretended to act casually and said, “Handle it carefully. See if there’s any part that’s suitable to offer to His Majesty, then send the rest to the Eastern Palace.”
The attendant listened to the order and responded respectfully, then left calmly to complete the task.
Nanping and the others who heard the conversation widened their eyes in disbelief.
Author notes:
Nanping (shocked): No, I don’t believe it, it must be fake! This person has learned how to lie for the sake of face!
Qi Yang (humblebragging): If you don’t believe me, I can send you the head as a gift.
Lu Qipei (coughing lightly): Your Highness, don’t show off too much…
Qi Yang (touching her head with a smile): I’m not such a natural at this like you are.
