Chapter 57: Brother, Did I Make Him Angry?

Chapter 57: Brother, Did I Make Him Angry?

His palm felt warm and tingling, and Li Zhiming felt a jolt of panic, as if his hair were about to stand on end, and he hurriedly pulled his hand back.

His gaze drifted away.

Unexpectedly, it met the Crown Prince's eyes in the distance.

The Crown Prince curled his lips into an unreadable smile.

Li Zhiming felt deeply uneasy and lowered his voice to remind Sang Yu, "It's about to start. Let's head over. Watch out for the Crown Prince—don't stir up trouble."

Sang Yu's voice was calm and steady, unusually gentle: "Alright, I'll listen to you."

The Emperor sat astride his horse, fully armed, with the Crown Prince mounting right behind him, looking quite dashing—indeed, just like the Emperor.

The other princes and sons of ministers also mounted their horses, one after another.

Li Zhiming had never ridden a horse before. He'd trained a bit back at the mansion, but training was nothing like the real thing—out here, he was facing an actual forest.

And this horse wasn't one of the well-trained steeds from the mansion; it was just a plain, ordinary horse.

Seeing him hesitate, reluctant to mount, the Crown Prince offered warm encouragement: "This horse is very gentle; there's no danger. A man's ambitions lie in all directions—no need to be nervous."

He said kind words, but to Li Zhiming, they sounded almost mocking.

He raised his head and clasped his hands in salute: "Thank you for the encouragement, Your Highness."

Maybe it was pride, but Li Zhiming swung himself onto the horse in a hurry, moving so hastily that he nearly tumbled off the back. Sang Yu caught him just in time, steadying him.

The two exchanged a look.

Sang Yu's eyes shifted slightly, his face as unmoved as a mountain in the wind—calm, clear, and utterly undisturbed, like a vast, still expanse of water.

General Lu Zhao was there too.

He should be called brother-in-law now.

He'd been called away earlier and had just come back. When he saw Li Zhiming nearly fall, he rushed forward at once, but was still a step behind Sang Yu.

"Brother, watch yourself."

"I'm fine."

Once ready, the Emperor looked back at the crowd and said in a deep voice: "My dear ministers, today's hunt is a chance for me to see your skills. You must give it everything you've got!"

"Yes!"

Everyone was fired up with enthusiasm, especially the princes.

This hunt wasn't just about sizing up the noble sons' abilities; it was also a key chance to gauge the princes' skill and strategic thinking in this arena.

Everyone understood this without needing to say it.

It was a fast track for aristocratic sons to climb the ranks, and even more so, a showdown between rival factions at court.

Li Zhiming didn't get any of that. Without the original owner's memories, he was an outsider, feeling a bit out of place, and genuinely thought this was just a regular hunt.

He had no idea why his father made such a big deal out of it.

At the Emperor's command, he charged ahead first, and the others spurred their horses into the forest after him, heading for their prey.

Lu Zhao and Sang Yu rode on either side of Li Zhiming, lagging far behind the others.

Li Zhiming turned to Lu Zhao: "General Lu, how's my little sister doing?"

She hadn't been back home in a while.

Lu Zhao gave a somewhat shy smile, his wheat-colored skin carrying the bold, rugged air of a martial man: "She's doing great. My wife said she'd come back to visit her father and brother in a few days."

"Good to hear, good to hear."

At that moment, he figured he must look like an old man fussing over his kids.

The two kept chatting, and the topics all revolved around Li Ruoyao, since they weren't all that familiar with each other, and she was the only thing they had in common to talk about.

Anything else wasn't really appropriate to bring up.

As the conversation was warming up, Sang Yu's face on the other side had turned as black as coal. He slowed his pace, putting distance between himself and the other two.

By the time Li Zhiming realized something was off, Sang Yu had already ridden off in another direction.

"Sang Yu?" he called out. No response.

Lu Zhao awkwardly scratched the back of his head: "Brother, did I make him mad? Let's hurry and catch up to him."

"Forget it, no need. Let's just do our own thing."

It was rare to have him not hovering around—it was way more relaxed. Why go chasing after him? Time to enjoy himself!

Li Zhiming was in high spirits, teaming up with Lu Zhao as they pushed deeper into the forest.

Lu Zhao was a general, skilled in martial arts, and seeing that Li Zhiming was unsteady on horseback, he patiently gave him a few pointers. It worked—at least he wouldn't fall off anymore.

"Lu Zhao, over there, over there!"

Li Zhiming pointed excitedly to the three o'clock direction, where a sika deer darted past, its patterned coat gorgeous.

Lu Zhao immediately nocked an arrow, took aim, and got ready.

Whoosh.

The deer dropped with a thud.

"You're so accurate, that's amazing! Let's go check it out."

The two dismounted to inspect.

The deer already had a wound on it—it seemed someone had spotted it first, but it had escaped, only to be caught by Lu Zhao by chance.

Poor deer.

Li Zhiming was thrilled, eager to try his hand at it, though the creature was quite large and a bit plump.

Time to test his strength.

"Brother, let me do it."

Lu Zhao, ever polite and thoughtful, stepped up to move the deer, and together they hauled it up onto the horse.

Neither had brought any servants, so they had to do it all themselves.

"Man, this thing's heavy, but at least we're not coming back empty-handed."

Lu Zhao wiped the sweat off his brow and grinned.

Li Zhiming handed him his own handkerchief: "Here, wipe your face. This is all thanks to you—with my aim, I probably couldn't have hit it even if it was right in front of me."

"Thanks, brother. You're way too modest."

"No, I'm just being honest. Come on, let's keep going and see if we can bag something even better."

The two chatted and laughed as they led their horses along, dappled sunlight filtering through the dense leaves and casting patterns on them, giving the scene a certain charm.

It made the two of them, walking side by side, look perfectly in sync.

The person spying on them accidentally stepped on a fallen branch, snapping it.

Lu Zhao whipped around, but all he saw were rustling trees and shifting shadows—no one there.

"What's wrong?"

"I keep feeling like someone's tailing us." Lu Zhao frowned, on high alert, and carefully scanned the area.

Sharp as he was, he couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary.

Li Zhiming patted his shoulder: "Relax, relax. It's probably just some animal—maybe it ran off, or someone passed by while hunting."

"Really?"

"Of course. It's safe here—who'd dare pull anything right under the emperor's nose?"

"That makes sense."

Lu Zhao relaxed and focused on tracking down prey.

Heh.

Turns out someone really did dare to pull something right under the emperor's nose—something so filthy it was an eyesore, like they didn't give a damn about this long-planned hunting trip.

And that someone was none other than the Crown Prince himself—the picture of dignity and propriety.

Li Zhiming and Lu Zhao's eyes went wide, and they instinctively backed up, ducking behind a thick tree.

The Crown Prince was disheveled, growling repeatedly, while the palace maids he had grabbed were crying and screaming, sprawled in various poses—lying, sitting, leaning—all without exception in disarray.

One of the maids was clinging to a tree trunk, weeping pitifully, with the Crown Prince pressed tightly against her from behind, pounding away relentlessly.