Translator: Sweet Bun

Unedited

Ye Qingran was very happy to have Li Yun's agreement, and then he took her to the horse hurriedly. After looking up and down at her horse, he choked back his laugh and said, “Sure enough, it's sister Yue's style, and this horse is so…” Seeing Li Yun glare at him, he immediately swallowed the word “poor” but said, “This horse should be proud of being chosen by you.”

Li Yun looked up at the sky speechlessly: what a shameless man with a stomach full of lies.

“I've heard that sister Yue is very skilled at riding horses. Shall we have a compet.i.tion?” Ye Qingran walked up to his horse and released the reins. He turned over swiftly to mount the horse, the whole set of movements went as smooth as floating cloud and running water, looked so fascinating. After sitting fast on the horseback, Ye Qingran looked at Li Yun with high spirits.

"Why not?"Fortunately, Li Yun was not a coward in her previous life: the best way for her to relieve stress was to play. Automobile racing, horse racing, mountain climbing, diving, parachuting… She was experienced in numerous activities, riding a horse was definitely a piece of cake.

"Then what are your waiting for?" Ye Qingran urged with his eyes sparkling with excitement.

Li Yun reached to untie the reins, pulled apart the ornaments in front of the horse's head, and intimated Ye Qingran - tiptoed to float the body; after that she s.h.i.+fted like a touch of purple clouds pa.s.sing by, and in a twinkling of an eye, she was already sitting on the horse. Such skillful movements, although not as showy as Ye Qingran's, attracted the present people by the elegance, freshness and smoothness.

Everyone wondered why they had never found that Miss Qianyue was so beautiful before! Her beauty was no less than the Heavenly Saint's first beauty of prime minister's mansion, Miss Yuning. As for the movements to mount the horse, Miss Qianyue even did better than Miss Yuning. The disdain in their eyes dissipated a little.

“Good!” Ye Qingran complimented. Having observed the way she mounted the horse, he believed that her horsemans.h.i.+p was undoubtedly excellent.

Li Yun raised her eyebrows and wondered that if this feeling of light as a swallow came from martial arts. Then it would be splendid! She asked Ye Qingran, “Begin?”

“Go!” Ye Qingran also raised his eyebrows.

They whipped the horse at the same time, and the two horses dashed out like arrows from the strings. Li Yun regretted it as soon as she began. No matter how good her horsemans.h.i.+p was, she didn't know the way…

Li Yun was quite depressed: even if she was unwilling to give in, she could only slightly rein the horse and slow down a little to let Ye Qingran lead the way. Ye Qingran was in high spirits, so he didn't pay attention to Li Yun's subtle movements. In this way, these two horses ran back and forth from the palace gate to the street.

After turning left to leave the street leading to the palace, they broke into a busy main street. At this moment, this street was crowded with people. As if having not seen these civilians, Ye Qingran galloped across like a gust of wind. Although the crowd uttered exclamations, they all stood steadily, apparently getting no hurt.

Li Yun followed close to him. Looking at the flying figure on the horse in front of her, Li Yun gasped with admiration: excellent horsemans.h.i.+p! Nor did she rein in her horse, and as she was galloping through the crowd, she hurt no one as well.

Ye Qingran darted a glance at Li Yun and found she was only half a horse's head behind him, he was quite impressed. He had heard that this little girl was skilled at qinggong and horsemans.h.i.+p, but he didn't take that seriously. Now it seems that he was wrong, she deserved the reputation.

They left the busy main street and went a little further to enter a s.p.a.cious street. There were a lot of lofty mansions lining the road. Ye Qingran kept going whipping, pa.s.sed a number of mansions and stopped at the entrance of the Yun Royal family. He looked back at Li Yun and gave out a frank laugh, “Good job, little girl!”

If I know the way, I will definitely do better than you! Li Yun thought but smiled at him. She gazed around the Yun Royal family in front of her, the whole mansion looked solemn as the two tall iron gates were closed tightly, and the two stone lions in front of the gates were lifelike. The walls of the mansion were three feet high, so people outside couldn't see the inside. She clenched her hand on the reins and thought: hope I can get away with everything.

“That's the Yun Royal family from my memory. It hasn't changed at all in these years. I wonder if the people inside have changed." Ye Qingran looked at the mansion and sighed.

“Let's go inside, and then you'll see.” Li Yun spoke in a flat tone.

“You're right!” Ye Qingran nodded and shouted at the gate, “hey! Open the door for your Miss and me." His voice was so loud that even the people in the entire street could hear him.

Li Yun thought that it would be good for him to be a tenorist in modern times.

In a short while, the door opened and an old man in a grey robe came out. The old man was about fifty years old, but he walked steadily and briskly, obviously, he was a martial arts practicer. He was followed by a crowd of guards.

The old man got a waist tag of the Head Steward. Li Yun knew that there were house stewards in the ancient wealthy and powerful families, and this old man must be one of them. What's more, ordinary people won't be competent to be the Head Steward of the Yun Royal family, so it's natural for this old man to practice martial arts.

Seeing Li Yun sitting on the horse intact, the head steward's face was slightly relaxed and his eyes were full of joy. He looked to Ye Qingran on the horse and stunned, then he stretched his neck to search the long street with the eye behind them but found no more people, so he looked at Li Yun doubtfully.

“Old man Go, what are you looking for? I am not welcomed, am I?" Ye Qingran frowned discontentedly.

The steward immediately put on a smile and went to greet Ye Qingran, “Yun Meng pay respects to Young Lord. After seven years of studying in other places, Young Lord now look much more spirited and better than the past.”

“Hha, you are still good at flattering. So you are afraid that I might steal your crystal white jade pieces again, aren't you? Don't worry! I have got a good set now, which is much better than yours. I won't covet your treasure anymore." Ye Qingran laughed.

Yun Meng blushed and shook his head, “No, no, no. We just got the message from the palace that Prince Jing would return home with Miss, but it turned out to be Young Lord. So I am just surprised, not because I don't welcome Young Lord.

“Oh! You mean him? He's still playing Go with uncle Majesty at the palace. It's not a big deal to leave him behind. I haven't been in the capital for seven years and now I am not busy, so once I heard that elderly Lord is ill, I come to visit him immediately." Ye Qingran got off the horse and threw the reins to a guard. Then he spoke to Li Yun while walking through the gates, “Sister Yue, what are you waiting for? Come in now and be a good host."

Li Yun felt amused and dismounted as well, and a guard immediately came to take the reins from her hand.

“Congratulations on your safe return!” Yun Meng cupped his hands and bowed to Li Yun.

Li Yun nodded, but she did not know how to respond, so she simply followed Ye Qingran inside.

Yun Meng looked out again but still didn't see Rong Jing's trace. He said to the guard, “Keep the gates open, I'll accompany Young Lord and Miss to go in first. When Prince Jing comes, send someone to report to me immediately.”

“Yes, Head Steward!” All the guards answered in unison.

“What a different entertainment! Old man Go, are you waiting for the ‘Frail Beauty' to play Go with you, or are you thinking about marrying your daughter to him? Otherwise, why do you look up to him so much as if he is your ancestor?" Ye Qingran shot a glance at Yun Meng.

Li Yun couldn't help giggling: this guy is so mean. Hearing Ye Qingran called Yun Meng "old man Go" several times, she believed that Yun Meng must be a Go lover.

“Young Lord, I haven't offended you before, why talk such nonsense! Besides, I don't have any daughters to marry Prince Jing. Even if I have one, there are so many ladies who want to marry Prince Jing; my daughter cannot compete with them at all! Young Lord, don't make fun of me.” Yun Meng was very embarra.s.sed, “it's true that I love playing Go and am looking forward to playing it with Price Jing, but it's because elderly Lord instructed that we must entertain Prince Jing with attention, so we will behave like this…”

“Okay, grandpa Yun is too partial. Why isn't he happy to see me?” Ye Qingran groaned.

“My Young Lord, that's because elderly Lord didn't know that you would come too!” Yun Meng almost freaked out because of Ye Qingran. In front of this famous little devil, no matter what he said, he would be wrong.

“Then what are you dawdling about with? Go to report soon." Ye Qingran strode inside as if it was his mansion.

“Yes, I will go to report right now.” Yun Meng fastened his steps and went ahead of Ye Qingran.

Li Yun thought in a cold sweat: poor old man, now he's a fleet-footed runner made by Ye Qingran's simple words; I'd better not offend this little devil in the future.