Yuan Sikong originally slept in
the same room as Yuan Nanyu. In order to let him take care of his legs, he
moved to the guest room, but he still got up early every day to supervise his
reading.
However, after lying in bed for just a few days,
Yuan Nanyu became disobedient as if thorns were all over his body.
When he entered the room in the morning, Yuan
Sikong felt that something was wrong. Yuan Nanyu looked at him with shining
eyes and a meaningful smile at the corner of his mouth.
Yuan Sikong narrowed his eyes, "Whatever
you’re thinking of doing, it’s a no."
"You don't know what I want to do."
"Aren’t you thinking of going out?"
"No." Yuan Nanyu had a naughty smile on
his face, "I know what you've done." He cupped his hands in obeisance,
"Second brother, I'm really impressed!"
Yuan Sikong had nowhere to hide his shame and said
sullenly, "Father was caned twenty times because of me."
"Didn't father forgive you already?"
Yuan Nanyu used his buttocks to move to the edge of the bed, "Second
brother, tell me what the situation was like. Tell me from the beginning to the
end. Hurry up."
Yuan Sikong rolled his eyes and said solemnly,
"I am going to tell you today about the four 'hearts' that are often found
in people but not in the saints, which are Wuyi, Wu ...'"
"Second brother!" Yuan Nanyu acted
coquettishly and said, "I beg you, I'm bored to death, I'm really dying. I
can't move, no one plays with me, and you leave early and come home late
..." The more he talked, the more pitiful he became, and his little face
was crumbling.
Yuan Sikong sighed and said helplessly, "You
must know that this matter is second brother's big mistake. Even father was
dragged into it. It’s all thanks to King of Jingyuan's magnanimity. Otherwise, my
life would not have been spared. You should take this as a warning."
Yuan Nanyu nodded his head like pounding garlic
into pulp, "I understand, I understand."
Only then did Yuan Sikong tell Yuan Nanyu
everything that happened that day.
Yuan Nanyu listened with great interest, as if he
was listening to a story at a teahouse in the north of the city. When the
story got exciting, he even clapped and shouted, obviously not realizing the
seriousness of the matter at all, so Yuan Sikong had to aggravate his tone and
take the opportunity to educate him properly.
"Did King of Jingyuan really say that? He told
His Little Highness to run if he couldn't fight?"
"Yeah."
"Awesome, that's the demeanor of a great
general." Yuan Nanyu laughed playfully, "Then Little Highness should
be very furious. Is he going to let you off the hook just like this?"
Yuan Sikong thought of what happened yesterday,
couldn’t hold back, and let out a chuckle.
"What's wrong?" Yuan Nanyu had an
expectant look on his face.
Yuan Sikong blinked: "Yesterday, Little
Highness came to the horse farm and tried to nitpick me, but in the end
..."
After Yuan Nanyu heard this, the two of them burst
into laughter.
"Second brother, I really want to go to the
horse farm with you to have fun." Yuan Nanyu looked at his leg and pouted
in disappointment.
"You better recuperate properly. You are a
martial artist, so you better not leave any disability." Yuan Sikong said
seriously, "If you dare mess around, I will ignore you forever."
"Got it."
"Alright, let’s start reading."
"Ah ..."
"'Ah' what 'ah'? Daily morning lessons must
not be missed." Yuan Sikong coughed lightly, "There were four things
from which Confucius was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no
arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism…”
---
Half of the horses have been picked out for
Datong. Xu Hu and Yuan Sikong were both exhausted these past few days, plus the
gradually cold weather was making them feel lazy. Yuan Sikong was yawning as he
picked the horses.
Zhao Dayou leapt up from nowhere. When Yuan Sikong
saw him, he asked with curiosity, "Why has Uncle been at the horse farm
for the past few days?" Zhao Dayou's business was not just raising horses.
The stable was dirty and cold, so he didn't come here very often, but recently
he had been reporting for duty every day, just like them.
Zhao Dayou said helplessly, "Your Little Highness
is here again."
"Here again?" Yuan Sikong had a
headache when he heard about Feng Ye. Didn't he come here yesterday? Why is he
here today again?
Zhao Dayou smiled bitterly, "He said he
wanted to pick the horses himself." He was afraid that Feng Ye would have
another accident on his horse farm again, so how would he dare to stay at home
in peace?
As he was talking, he saw Feng Ye riding over on
his horse, followed by his guards.
The crowd knelt on the ground.
Feng Ye said in his delicate but arrogant voice,
"Get up."
Yuan Sikong glanced at Feng Ye secretly, knowing
that Feng Ye was most likely still coming for him. It seemed that this Little
Highness would not give up until he got that beating back from him.
"Yuan Sikong." Feng Ye called out.
As expected.
"I’m here."
"Teach me how to evaluate horses."
"Uh ..."
"What, am I making things difficult for
you?"
"No, no, it’s not difficult. It's my good
fortune to teach your Little Highness horse evaluation."
Feng Ye hummed lightly and dismounted from his
horse with the help of his guards, "Let's go." At the same time, he
turned his head and said to the guards, "Do not follow us."
Yuan Sikong eyed Xu Hu and Zhao Dayou, signaling
them to do their own stuff. If they were all around Feng Ye, they wouldn't be able
to do anything else.
"This way, Little Highness."
The two of them strolled to the stables. Feng Ye
couldn't help but wrinkle his nose. Although the stables were cleaned daily,
the smell of horse manure still shot up to the sky. He couldn't help but recall
yesterday's scene and glared at Yuan Sikong unhappily.
Yuan Sikong pretended not to see it and
introduced Feng Ye to their Liaodong horses.
"The first thing you need to know about horse
evaluation is what the horse is used for. Whether it is used for war, for
transporting goods, for pulling carts, or for riding. The requirements for each
type of use are different. Horse evaluation is strict and harsh, especially war
horses."
"Tell me how to evaluate a warhorse."
Yuan Sikong led Feng Ye into the stables,
pointing at the horses while telling him in detail. He listened carefully.
As they passed by one of the horses, it happened
to throw up its tail and Feng Ye's body happened to bump into it directly, so
he grabbed the horse's tail in disgust and flung it to one side with force.
Unexpectedly, the horse got agitated, raised up , and kicked its hind legs!
Quicker than words could tell, the horse's iron heel
came straight at Feng Ye's chest. Yuan Sikong's heart tensed. He didn't have
time to think about it, lunged at Feng Ye, and pinned the boy to the ground. The
horse's iron heel brushed against Yuan Sikong's back shoulder, which became hot
instantly.
Yuan Sikong's features were distorted by the
pain. He was huffing and puffing continuously, but he couldn't care less about
himself and hurried to check on Feng Ye: "Little Highness, are you alright
..."
Feng Ye sat up and saw Yuan Sikong's face was ghastly
pale: "What, what happened to you?"
"Nothing ..."
Feng Ye ripped open the back of his collar, saw
that his neck was all red, and also got nervous: "... Did it kick
you?"
"I'm fine, are you hurt?" Yuan Sikong
simply wanted to cry but had no tears. He always told himself to be smart and
cautious, so how come things went wrong again and again, and they were all
related to Feng Ye?
Could it be that the two of them had a clash in
destiny?
"No." Feng Ye said angrily, "This
damn horse ..."
"Don't blame it. It's just wild." Yuan
Sikong endured the pain and knelt on the ground, "Your Little Highness is
startled ..."
Feng Ye stood up and wanted to drag Yuan Sikong
up, "I'll call the doctor to take a look at you."
"Don't." Yuan Sikong said in a panic,
"I am fine."
Feng Ye said in a loud voice, "You were
kicked by the horse's iron heel, how can you be fine!?"
"I am really fine." Yuan Sikong
whispered, "Little Highness ... please don't tell anyone." If people
knew about it, he would be in an even more serious trouble. If he let Yuan Mao
down again, what face would he still have to stay in the Yuan family?
Feng Ye frowned and went behind Yuan Sikong to
tug at his clothes.
Yuan Sikong let out a soft hiss.
Feng Ye lightened his grip and opened Yuan
Sikong's collar, carefully examining the skin and feeling the bones with his
cold hands. It seemed that his bones were not hurt and only the large red
swelling on the white skin seemed to be a bit shocking.
Yuan Sikong was shaking in pain.
Feng Ye pursed his lips, moved closer, and blew
gently.
Yuan Sikong froze for a moment.
"Does it hurt?" Feng Ye asked.
"Uh ... it doesn't hurt much."
Feng Ye blew hard a few times, and Yuan Sikong
stiffened in place. He felt slightly touched.
Finally, Feng Ye stood up straight angrily,
"Are you sure you don't want to see a doctor?"
"There's really no need. Just recuperating
for a few days will be fine."
"... Get up then."
Yuan Sikong stood up from the ground.
"Don’t come for horse evaluation tomorrow. Go
home and rest."
"No, my father ordered me to work with Uncle
Xu to pick up two thousand warhorses for His Highness King of Jingyuan. Now I've
only finished half of them. I'm fine. I really don't need to rest."
"You ... you have something to do tomorrow."
Yuan Sikong was surprised: "Ah?"
"You will come to the posthouse to visit me tomorrow."
"What can I do for Your Little Highness?"
Feng Ye shouted, "Why do you ask so many
questions? Just come when I ask you to come!”
Yuan Sikong was forced to say, "Yes."
"I don’t want to evaluate horses anymore.
You accompany me back to the city."
"Caomin* still has ..."
"Don't address yourself as ‘caomin’ again.
It's annoying to hear it."
"... I still haven’t finished evaluating some
horses."
Feng Ye tilted his head to look at him. A pair of
eyes were mixed with domineering innocence: "You will do what I tell you to
do."
Yuan Sikong lowered his head: “Yes.”
----
Caomin*[草民]---(mentioned in chapter 4) Caomin is a form of addressing oneself who is inferior to someone else in terms of status. I used "I" in previous chapters for flow, but I have to use pinyin here because the next sentence wouldn't make sense if I used "I"
Edited on 28 Mar. 21 (Emzie)
Edited on 30 Jun. 21 (Ari)
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