Over the following days, Zhao Sui took Yao Lin and the two prince consorts to test the gunpowder’s power at outside mountain peaks, including the power variations caused by different amounts and different distances. Yao Huang and Li Fuwei taught the Eldest Princess and Second Princess how to shoot arrows in the Northern Park. When tired of shooting, the four women would go horse riding, boating on the lake, or climbing high to gaze into the distance.
The autumn weather was clear and refreshing. Yao Huang loved these carefree days so much that she even felt that as long as she could enjoy herself like this for several days each year, she could accept living in the imperial palace for the rest of the year.
Perhaps the imperial ancestor who decided to build the Northern Park traveling palace here had thought the same way?
After three days of learning archery, the Second Princess didn’t want to continue. She immediately wanted to try her hand at hunting in the enclosure.
The traveling palace specially raised a batch of game animals. When the masters wanted to hunt, they would send word down, and the imperial guards would first deploy a group of guards to patrol the hunting enclosure to ensure there were no fierce beasts that had wandered in on their own. Then the palace servants who raised the game would release the corresponding animals into the enclosure according to the masters’ requirements.
If it were just Yao Huang and Li Fuwei, Yao Huang would dare to release one or two wolves for excitement. But since she was bringing the Eldest Princess and Second Princess, Yao Huang prioritized safety, only having the palace servants release twenty rabbits, twenty pheasants, ten roe deer, and two half-grown female wild boars.
While the palace servants released the game animals inside, the four women watched at the entrance to the enclosure.
The Second Princess was somewhat disappointed: “Why aren’t there any foxes? Red foxes or white foxes would both work.”
Yao Huang: “…Releasing them is easy, but if we can’t hunt them down later, we’ll have to make the palace servants go in to catch them. We’re just satisfying an itch for fun—why trouble the palace servants?”
When hunters go hunting in the mountain forests, even just encountering a fox is cause for celebration. Being able to hunt one would be even better.
Now they were deliberately enclosing an area and releasing game animals into it. It wasn’t like the hunting competitions Emperor Yongchang held. Releasing ordinary game would satisfy their recreational needs. If they released foxes, they’d have to search all over the mountain for them. Yao Huang and Li Fuwei each had to guide a princess—accompanying them to hunt easily encountered rabbits and pheasants was fine. Foxes could be skipped.
After the game animals had all hidden in the low mountains in the middle of the enclosure, Yao Huang formed a group with the Second Princess, Li Fuwei formed a group with the Eldest Princess, and they set out with two guards each maintaining their distance.
At noon, the Crown Prince’s group returned from testing outside. Yao Lin and the others ate and rested at the outer court official residences while Zhao Sui entered the inner court alone.
Returning to Yunshan Hall, Zhao Sui first saw a pheasant trapped under a bamboo basket in the front courtyard. Disturbed by his and Qing Ai’s arrival, the pheasant listlessly flapped its wings twice.
At this moment, the Crown Prince Consort also ran over from the rear courtyard, saying excitedly: “Your Highness, guess what I hunted today?”
Zhao Sui looked again at that pheasant.
Yao Huang: “This one I hunted casually. There’s something even better.”
Zhao Sui: “A deer?”
Yao Huang: “Deer are too beautiful. I couldn’t bear to have anyone release deer inside.”
Zhao Sui then said: “Roe deer or wild boar?”
The Crown Prince Consort standing under the eaves instantly smiled especially brilliantly: “One of each!”
After pushing the Crown Prince inside, Yao Huang animatedly explained to the Crown Prince. At first, she had intended to focus on guiding the Second Princess, but the Second Princess’s accuracy was too poor. Unable to hit anything herself, she urged Yao Huang to quickly help. When Yao Huang hit the target, the Second Princess got as excited as if she’d shot it herself. After that, it became the Second Princess just riding her horse following Yao Huang, with Yao Huang pursuing and killing the game.
The enclosure was still quite large. The four women couldn’t surround the low mountain in a circle like the hundred-plus military officials from last year. The game had more places to hide, making it less easy for Yao Huang and the others to spot them. Li Fuwei, who had to divide her attention to look after the Eldest Princess, also only hunted three roe deer. The other wild boar had run off somewhere unknown. The Eldest Princess had good luck—with Li Fuwei’s assistance in driving the game, she shot a rabbit, exciting the Second Princess to declare she must shoot arrows herself next time.
Zhao Sui had long passed the age of getting excited about hunting, but he loved seeing the Crown Prince Consort’s exhilarated appearance.
“How did things go on Your Highness’s side?” After finishing her own account, Yao Huang turned to care about the heavy gunpowder testing.
Zhao Sui: “Today we selected a mountain peak with hard stone cliffs on one side. We used a hundred catties of heavy gunpowder three consecutive times, blasting out a mountain passage over three zhang deep and over one zhang high in total.”
Yao Huang said delightedly: “Doesn’t that mean exactly as Your Highness initially envisioned—in the future, heavy gunpowder can be used to dig mountains for mining or blast through mountains to create roads?”
Stone was so hard. A pit that could be blasted out with a hundred catties of heavy gunpowder might take one person a month to excavate manually, not even considering physical issues like back pain and hand numbness.
Zhao Sui nodded. With heavy gunpowder, many future construction projects could be accomplished with half the effort, or even make some projects previously thought impossible become reality.
Yao Huang could sense the Crown Prince’s grand ambitions. She too was happy that the Great Qi’s national strength could advance further.
But all that needed slow planning. What she should be happy about right now was that the Crown Prince had finally finished his work and could also properly enjoy himself at the Northern Park.
That evening, the Crown Prince hosted a banquet by the lake outside the traveling palace to reward the various officials and clerks from the gunpowder workshop who had accompanied them on this trip. They used the four roe deer the Crown Prince Consort and Li Fuwei had hunted during the day. Wild boar meat wasn’t suitable for roasting, so it was sent to the imperial guards to let the cooks there figure out how to make it tasty for the soldiers. As for the pheasant the Crown Prince Consort had personally hunted, it had already been stewed into chicken soup by the accompanying Gao Niangzi and distributed in bowls to the two princesses and Li Fuwei.
Having finished official business, the next morning, the Crown Prince couple invited the other three couples of imperial relatives to go to the hunting grounds together.
There were still one wild boar, six roe deer, and many rabbits and chickens in the hunting grounds—enough for eight people to hunt for fun.
This time they grouped by couples.
Although Zhao Sui carried a bow and arrows on his back, he wouldn’t take action. He only rode his horse to accompany the Crown Prince Consort in hunting.
The couple Yao Lin and Li Fuwei were both skilled at mounted archery. The Second Princess had Fan Ruochuan, who came from the military examination background, accompanying her. Only the Eldest Princess couple…
The Second Princess teased: “Today’s champion is still hard to say, but last place should undoubtedly belong to elder sister and brother-in-law.”
The Eldest Princess didn’t mind that her civil examination prince consort’s martial skills weren’t as good as others’. Yu Shen was also very modest and open-minded.
The warm-hearted Yao Lin looked at these people and suggested: “How about…”
Yao Huang had just noticed her brother’s gaze. She immediately interrupted what her brother seemed about to say—probably wanting to assign Li Fuwei to the Eldest Princess while he guided Yu Shen. She smiled and said: “Today’s autumn hunt is about returning with enjoyment. The amount of game is secondary. If everyone’s ready, shall we depart now?”
The Eldest Princess couple nodded. The Second Princess and her betrothed prince consort nodded. Li Fuwei nodded. Only Yao Lin still wondered whether they should look after Yu Shen, but no one paid attention to his hesitant expression. As the Crown Prince Consort and Crown Prince led the charge into the enclosure first, the two couples of the Eldest Princess and Second Princess immediately followed in pursuit.
Yao Lin looked at Li Fuwei: “Aren’t we taking too much advantage?”
Li Fuwei: “Then shall we hunt separately?”
After guiding the princess for three days, she had long wanted to hunt on her own.
Yao Lin understood the competitive intent in his wife’s eyes. His fighting spirit rose, and he smiled: “Good!”
Thus, before charging into the mountain forest, Yao Huang noticed her brother and sister-in-law galloping into the mountains in separate directions as if separated by a natural chasm…
Looking again at the handsome Crown Prince accompanying her, Yao Huang momentarily couldn’t tell whether her brother loved hunting too much and insisted on hunting alone, or whether her sister-in-law found her brother unlikeable and simply kicked him aside out of sight, out of mind.
However, the couple didn’t look like they’d become resentful spouses. Yao Huang didn’t let herself be distracted by them and focused on searching for game with the Crown Prince.
Zhao Sui was more familiar with this area and led the way. Yao Huang rode on horseback, closely scanning the surrounding bushes that might conceal game.
Discovering a gray rabbit that had been startled out by commotion elsewhere, Zhao Sui reined in his horse to look at the Crown Prince Consort, only to see she had already nocked an arrow and aimed at the rabbit’s position with one shot.
The arrow flew. Zhao Sui’s gaze remained on the Crown Prince Consort’s face, watching her first expectant then biting her lip in chagrin, immediately looking toward him.
Zhao Sui promptly lowered his eyes.
Seeing the Crown Prince show this cautious appearance as if afraid she’d be embarrassed and angry, Yao Huang laughed: “Missing is missing. I’m not a divine archer who hits every shot. If I were really that formidable, hunting would become boring instead.”
The more difficult it was to hit game, the happier one felt upon truly hitting it. His Highness the Crown Prince with his amazing archery skills had surely lost this kind of joy long ago.
“Let’s go find a roe deer. The bigger ones are easier to hit.” Urging her horse closer, Yao Huang patted His Highness the Crown Prince’s thigh, humming a tune as she went ahead.
Zhao Sui: “…”
Yao Huang’s luck wasn’t bad. About two quarters of an hour into the mountains, she spotted from afar a roe deer grazing under a tree.
Yao Huang quietly dismounted, signaling the Crown Prince to hide here and not move. While taking her bow, she quietly approached that roe deer. First she had to bring the roe deer into her shooting range, then the closer she could sneak, the easier it would be to succeed.
Zhao Sui just watched the Crown Prince Consort sometimes bending over and creeping along, sometimes hiding behind trees and carefully peeking at that roe deer. Every move was even more vivid and adorable than when she told stories.
Finally, the Crown Prince Consort successfully approached the roe deer. The distance was only about seventy paces.
When the Crown Prince Consort raised her bow and arrow to aim while the roe deer alertly pricked up its ears and turned to run, Zhao Sui unexpectedly felt, after a long absence, the excitement and flutter he had experienced when he first hunted as a youth.
This time, his gaze pursued the Crown Prince Consort’s arrow. When that arrow truly struck the roe deer’s left flank, Zhao Sui actually smiled too.
The Crown Prince smiled silently, while the forest rang with the Crown Prince Consort’s joyful shriek like birdsong. Zhao Sui watched the Crown Prince Consort jump up and down in place, wave at him, then run toward the roe deer.
Zhao Sui urged Jingwu to chase after the Crown Prince Consort. Just as he was about to remind the Crown Prince Consort not to get too close to the roe deer lest she be kicked, he saw a black-haired wild boar suddenly leap out from behind the bushes behind the roe deer, lowering its thick long snout and charging madly toward the Crown Prince Consort.
Zhao Sui’s heart stopped. He violently reined in his horse and drew an arrow.
Yao Huang was even more startled by this wild boar, which didn’t look scary from horseback but appeared imposingly fierce standing on the ground. The boar charged too fast—she had no time to nock an arrow. In that split second, Yao Huang turned and ran, using the fastest speed of her life to rush toward the Crown Prince who had arrows!
Ahead was the Crown Prince who had already drawn his arrow. Behind, the pig’s hooves pounding the ground grew closer and closer. Yao Huang cooperatively changed direction so the wild boar would follow her while exposing itself more to the Crown Prince’s arrow, then threw herself toward the right front on instinct.
The wild boar’s thick long snout brushed past the Crown Prince Consort’s hem as it charged through. At the same time, the Crown Prince’s arrow also deeply buried itself in its neck.
The wild boar tumbled headfirst to the ground ahead with its charging momentum, revealing the Crown Prince Consort’s back as she lay prone on the grass.
Yao Huang’s heart pounded like a drum. Her palms hurt, scraped by gravel. But looking at the wild boar fallen over there, she knew she was already safe.
Urgent hoofbeats sounded behind her. Yao Huang propped up her upper body, just about to sit up while turning to smile at the Crown Prince who was already close at hand, when she saw the Crown Prince leap down from his horse. When his feet touched the ground, he lurched violently forward, only his hands supporting the ground in time preventing him from falling face-first. But just this half-propped, half-kneeling posture burst into Yao Huang’s vision without warning, making her heart ache terribly.
This was the Crown Prince she’d been married to for three years without ever letting him fall or bump into anything. He was the disabled husband whose reserve and thin face she understood, so she actively cooperated to never let him appear awkward before her.
Did it hurt when he fell? Did the fall injure him?
These were the thoughts in Yao Huang’s head, but she still suppressed the impulse to run over and help the Crown Prince up. Taking advantage of the fact that the Crown Prince shouldn’t have seen her movement yet, she lay back down on the ground and called out loudly: “Ah, my waist hurts so much! Your Highness, come help me up quickly. I don’t think I can move!”
So she hadn’t turned her head at all. So she hadn’t seen anything!
Zhao Sui, kneeling with both knees and supporting himself with both hands, slowly raised his head. Looking at the Crown Prince Consort putting on an act over there, he suddenly smiled and turned to sit instead. Looking at the two legs before him, Zhao Sui calmly paused for a moment, then skillfully used both hands to slowly prop himself to the Crown Prince Consort’s side, propping all the way until the Crown Prince Consort could see his face.