The frost season had passed, and it was already early winter when they played polo.

Speaking of this skill of polo, it originally flourished in military camps, being a game of hitting balls with mallets while on horseback. It had gradually become popular among nobles and wealthy families since the previous dynasty.

Because the Wei Kingdom valued martial prowess, polo was even more sought after in the north. In the Xiao Liang dynasty, it was more like an amusing pastime among nobles, something for entertainment. Young masters from aristocratic families, besides visiting courtesans, drinking, and taking Five Stones Powder, mostly took pleasure in this activity, making it a rare healthy interest.

There were several polo fields in Jiankang City. The largest and best was built by the Han family. According to rumors, it was because General Han was passionate about polo that he specifically cleared land near his residence to build a field. He built it with great care, and contemporaries praised it: “The field is entirely new, swept completely clean, appearing level as a whetstone from afar, looking like a mirror from below. Even the slightest dewdrop can be heard, and the finest dust flying cannot be seen.”

Since this field was built, General Han often came down to play polo, and all the Han family children shared this interest.

This gathering was organized by the Han brothers.

When the Qi family arrived, everyone else was already there. A match had even been completed on the field—it was the Han Feiyu and Han Feichi brothers who had just played two-on-two against the Fourth Prince and Fu Zhuo.

Han Feichi was the first to spot them, waving his mallet from afar and calling Qi Ying “Second Brother,” with faint white breath visible from his mouth and nose. His elder brother beside him was both annoyed and amused, not understanding why his younger brother was so fond of following Qi Second around, never showing such enthusiasm even toward him, his legitimate elder brother.

He laughingly scolded Han Feichi: “If I’d known you liked their family so much, father and mother should have thrown you over there to be raised when you were small, saving us from getting angry with you every day at home.”

This was meant as teasing, but his second brother was utterly shameless. Upon hearing this, not only was he not embarrassed, but he even enthusiastically replied “that would be wonderful.” After a pause, he added very seriously: “No, no, that wouldn’t work. Uncle Qi is too strict with his sons—I couldn’t bear it. Besides, I don’t particularly like their whole family, just Second Brother alone.”

One sentence gave Han Feiyu another headache.

The Fourth Prince and Fu Zhuo couldn’t help but laugh and tease him a few sentences, and during their banter, the Qi family approached.

Everyone had come today—not only Qi Yun and Qi Ying, but they had also brought Qi Ning and Qi Le along. The Qi family were all blessed with good looks; all four young masters had distinguished bearing, and arriving on horseback today made them appear even more heroic.

Actually, speaking strictly, for an occasion like today’s, it wasn’t appropriate for Qi Ning and Qi Le, being sons of concubines, to come along. However, the Qi family had relatively liberal household rules and didn’t mistreat concubine-born sons. Qi Yun and Qi Ying were both brothers who looked after their younger siblings, often taking the two youngest out to see the world since long ago, so others no longer found this strange.

After the two groups greeted each other, Xiao Ziheng sat on his horse, still holding his mallet. Though the weather had been cold since winter began, he still had a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. His peach blossom eyes were full of satisfied laughter as he said to the Qi family: “Your family certainly makes a grand entrance, keeping this prince waiting!”

Though he said this, his expression showed no blame whatsoever—anyone could hear it was a joke.

Qi Yun cupped his hands and replied with a laugh: “It’s my fault. We shouldn’t have been late, but this morning when we were leaving, Hui’er took a tumble and wouldn’t stop crying. I had to comfort the child, which delayed us.”

Han Feiyu laughingly joined in: “We were thinking of imposing a heavy penalty, but since it was for looking after my little niece, we’ll forgive you today.”

Fu Zhuo laughed heartily: “Boheng, how can you be so partial to family over reason? You’re keeping a completely muddled account.”

Everyone laughed at this, and the atmosphere became quite cheerful.

Qi Yun looked back at the impressively maintained polo field, feeling somewhat eager to try. Turning back, he said: “On this field, what’s all this talk of family and reason? Just play a match—and let’s agree, whoever loses has to host today!”

Fu Zhuo had the closest relationship with Qi Yun and immediately retorted: “The Right Vice Minister has quite a bold tone! Are you assuming that because we just played a match and are tired, your family can easily win?”

Qi Yun laughed loudly and replied: “I wasn’t being thoughtful enough—we’ve just arrived too. Why don’t we all go down and rest first, then play a match after we’ve rested properly?”

This suggestion was appropriate, and everyone agreed. The young masters rode their horses to the field’s edge, dismounted while servants led the horses away, then all took seats under the ornate pavilion at the field’s side.

Only upon approaching closely did they see that two people were already seated under the pavilion: Fourth Prince’s Consort Fu Rong and Sixth Princess Xiao Ziyu.

Qi Yun was stunned upon seeing them, thinking that Fu Zhuo hadn’t mentioned there would be female family members when he invited him. Now that two women had suddenly appeared, it inevitably surprised him.

Having female family members would have been fine, but there was also the Sixth Princess, which made things even more difficult.

Qi Yun knew his second brother had absolutely no romantic feelings for this princess, yet this princess was deeply infatuated and always sought opportunities to be near Jingchen. Although Jingchen never said anything, how could he, as elder brother, not know his younger brother’s difficulties?

He instinctively turned to look at Qi Ying and saw his brother also looking back at him. Though there was no dissatisfaction on his face, his eyes seemed to be asking why the Sixth Princess was here.

This naturally made Qi Yun feel even more sorry for him. He couldn’t help but turn to look at his classmate, but Young Master Fu sat there completely unperturbed, not even looking at him, clearly taking an unreasonable attitude of “so what if I’m matchmaking between your brother and my sister-in-law’s younger sister?” It was truly infuriating.

However, no matter how infuriating this was, it wouldn’t do to show it now. For the sake of appearances, Qi Yun had to suppress his emotions and join everyone in greeting the Fourth Prince’s Consort and the Sixth Princess.

Xiao Ziheng took his seat first, then invited all the aristocratic young masters to sit. While drinking the wine Fu Rong handed to his lips, he lounged sideways and smiled: “Speaking of it, since Rong’er married out, we’ve rarely gathered so completely. Sitting together like this today has something of the flavor of our youth.”

The Fourth Prince had taken on many duties from his imperial father in recent years and was very likely to assume the position of heir apparent. He could no longer be considered inexperienced in affairs of state. He had gradually developed proper bearing in court and enjoyed considerable popular support. However, in private he still maintained this dissolute appearance, always reminding people of his youthful wildness.

His words were skillfully chosen, using references to their youthful friendships to dissolve the current slight awkwardness and discomfort—quite a clever method. However, whether this method would work still depended on the attitude of the person involved.

Qi Ying was that person involved.

Who among them couldn’t see that today’s affair was the Fourth Prince matchmaking for his sister? Except for the Qi family, the rest were all secretly watching the excitement, thinking that whether this succeeded or failed, anything involving Qi Second would make for good theater.

How could Qi Ying not see his old friends’ intentions to watch the excitement? Naturally, he had to pick up the conversational thread the Fourth Prince offered: “Your Highness speaks truly—today is indeed rare.”

When he said this, he showed no particular expression, but at least he had spoken, so the situation was smoothed over. Xiao Ziyu, sitting not far from him, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Today was actually her idea—she had begged her fourth brother to bring her along.

She knew Qi Ying had been somewhat avoiding her. If he knew in advance she would be here today, he probably wouldn’t have accepted the invitation. So she deliberately asked Brother Fu to help her conceal this, finally managing to meet with him.

Seeing him once was very difficult. The last time was at his birthday celebration, and nearly two months had passed since then. He would never take the initiative to see her, so what could she do? She could only rack her brains to find ways to run out of the palace to find him.

She didn’t want to be so embarrassing, so forward, but… she really liked him intensely. After all these years, her feelings hadn’t diminished at all—she even liked him more intensely than when she was just a little girl. She was helpless about it.

She urgently needed to see him, first because of longing, and second because her third brother had sought her out recently.

He told her he had seen Qi Ying taking his little lover to Qixia Temple.

His little lover—that little girl she had seen at the flower festival three years ago, Fang Jun.

She had always known that little girl had been staying at Brother Jingchen’s private residence these three years, but she could only tacitly permit it without doing anything else. First, she was the orphaned daughter of Brother Jingchen’s benefactor, occupying that title, so she couldn’t casually move against her. Second, if she acted against her, Brother Jingchen would become angry and treat her coldly as he had at the flower festival three years ago.

She couldn’t bear that, so she could only choose to endure.

Her fourth brother had always consoled her, telling her she needed to learn to be magnanimous and tolerant. After all, someone like Qi Ying could naturally have three wives and four concubines—it was perfectly normal. Even if they married later and he became her prince consort, he would inevitably stray. Men were all like that.

Given Xiao Ziyu’s early temperament, she absolutely couldn’t have tolerated such things happening to her. But she had liked Qi Ying too long and with so little dignity that over time she had lost her temper. She even began to think her fourth brother was right—look, wasn’t fourth brother the same way? Even after marrying his principal consort, he had taken three concubines in two years, quite the libertine.

But so what? He merely treated those women as insignificant playthings. The one he truly respected and cared for was still Fu Rong.

Xiao Ziyu had gained some understanding. She felt she could reluctantly tolerate having one or two women staying by Qi Ying’s side to serve him, as long as he married her. Everything else was unimportant.

—But this didn’t mean she could tolerate someone appearing openly by his side.

Fang Jun? What was she? A parentless orphan, a beggar dependent on others’ charity. She would find her too lowly even to carry her shoes, so why should she be able to receive Brother Jingchen’s special attention?

Xiao Ziyu didn’t want to admit it, but she was indeed panicking—from the first moment she saw that little girl, she had felt vaguely panicked, and this panic had become even stronger after third brother told her about the Qixia Temple incident.

She was very afraid that Brother Jingchen would truly fall for someone else and therefore be unwilling to marry her—she was so afraid she couldn’t help but personally run out of the palace to find him and confirm.

She was thinking distractedly, and when she came back to her senses, the men’s conversation had wandered far. She listened carefully for a moment and realized they were discussing next year’s spring examinations.

Han Feichi was speaking.

This young master of the Han family had never cared about serious matters like the imperial examinations, but now he was enthusiastically discussing the spring examinations with others, saying quite dejectedly: “Damn it! If I’d known early on that this year’s chief examiner for the spring examinations would be Second Brother, I would have taken the exam long ago!”

Fu Zhuo laughingly asked: “What, waiting to pull strings with your Second Brother?”

This was obviously teasing: the legitimate son of the Han family head could have pulled strings long ago—why wait for Qi Second to preside over the examination? Everyone knew this young master of the Han family inexplicably liked following Qi Second around since childhood. He said this now simply because he felt the spring examinations were related to his Second Brother, so he wanted to get involved.

This made his elder brother half-dead with anger again.

Han Feiyu almost wanted to crack open his younger brother’s skull to see what rubbish was stuffed inside. He angrily said: “I’ve long told you to study diligently and properly take the examinations for official rank, but you! Last time at the provincial examination, you handed in a blank paper! This year you don’t even have the qualifications to participate in the spring examinations. The Han family has been completely disgraced by you!”

This torrent of harsh scolding had no effect on Han Feichi, who maintained his devil-may-care attitude. This former child prodigy of the Han family was now impervious to reason, listening to no one.

Han Feiyu grew tired of scolding and was too lazy to bother with this hopeless case anymore. He sighed deeply, then turned to ask the two youngest Qi sons: “Jingan and Jingkang will be taking the spring examinations this year, right?”

Author’s Note: The quote “The field is entirely new, swept completely clean, appearing level as a whetstone from afar, looking like a mirror from below. Even the slightest dewdrop can be heard, and the finest dust flying cannot be seen” is from Yan Kuan’s “Imperial Hot Springs Polo Rhapsody.”

This chapter has quite an impact on the male and female leads’ emotional storyline, but I believe all antagonists are essentially meant to assist the main couple. (Also, thank you to the angels who commented, voted, and nourished with nutrients~ Thank you, thank you!)