At this moment, the sound of drums suddenly rang out from outside, slow and steady as if building momentum.

Ren Yaoqi instinctively looked out the window and saw more than a dozen narrow dragon boats spread across the river surface. Each boat had two rows of about twenty people in various attire, and at the stern of each boat stood a person with a drum in front of them – the drumbeats were coming from these.

Xiao Jinglin also turned her head to glance: “It’s about to begin.”

Just then, Xiao Jingxi also sat down beside them, hearing this and smiling: “Wenting went down to the boat for the race to start.”

Ren Yaoqi and Xiao Jinglin turned back. Though they were in the boat cabin, they had an excellent view – they could see not only the river scene but also the high platform on the shore.

Indeed, Yun Wenting had already climbed onto the high platform and was standing behind Old Master Yun. Additionally, the family heads of the Su, Ren, and Han families were all standing there, all looking respectfully in a certain direction as if waiting for someone.

Ren Yaoqi’s heart stirred, and then she saw a tall, middle-aged man surrounded by several people ascending the high platform. This man had a serious and composed expression, with gentle features that carried the dignity of someone long in a position of authority. He wore a black robe embroidered with four-clawed dragon patterns. Seeing this attire, Ren Yaoqi could already guess this person’s identity – this was Prince Xiao Yan of Yanbei.

This was Ren Yaoqi’s first time seeing the legendary Prince of Yanbei, so she took a longer look. Xiao Jingxi and Xiao Jinglin didn’t resemble him much – they must take more after their mother.

“Brother, aren’t you going down?” Xiao Jinglin glanced at Xiao Jingxi and asked.

“I didn’t board at the same place as them, so they don’t know I’m here,” Xiao Jingxi replied with a smile playing at his lips.

The high platform was filled with men. When Ren Yaoqi looked toward those behind the Prince of Yanbei, her gaze paused slightly. Several people had come with the Prince of Yanbei, including Second Young Master Xiao Jingyue, whom they had encountered on the bridge earlier. Standing beside Xiao Jingyue was a delicate-featured youth of shorter stature. However, Ren Yaoqi recognized that this youth was a girl dressed as a man – this girl was precisely Miss Wu Yiyu from the Wu family, whom she had met once before.

Wu Yiyu had ascended the high platform with the people from the Yanbei Prince’s mansion, gazing at the river surface with some arrogance, a very reserved smile playing at her lips.

The Xiao siblings Jingxi and Jinglin had certainly also seen Wu Yiyu, but they showed no reaction, treating her just like Ren Yaoqi or anyone else on this boat – merely watching the excitement.

Old Master Su Chengyuan of the Su family presented a stick wrapped in red silk with both hands, which the Prince of Yanbei received with his right hand, weighing it casually.

Xiao Jingxi and Xiao Jinglin both stood up. Though Ren Yaoqi had never participated in a dragon boat race, she also stood up without hesitation. Everyone outside watched the Prince of Yanbei with respectful attention – no matter how noisy the scene had been before, it had all quieted down now.

The Prince of Yanbei walked to a bronze gong hanging in front of the high platform, raised his hand, and struck it hard. The loud gong sound with its echo resonated thunderously, seeming to ripple outward in substantial circles that could be heard across the entire river surface.

Almost simultaneously, the dozen or so dragon boats on the river began to move. The drumbeats on the dragon boats changed from slow to urgent, and with the drum rhythm, the dragon boats shot out like arrows, racing upstream. Thunderous cheers also erupted at this moment.

On the high platform, everyone surrounded the Prince of Yanbei as he went to sit in the main seat.

Xiao Jingxi and Xiao Jinglin sat back down, and Ren Yaoqi also took her seat. She happened to see on the high platform that Young Master Yun, who had originally been about to come down, was intercepted by Wu Yiyu in her male disguise. Ren Yaoqi couldn’t meddle in such affairs, so she pretended not to see anything and shifted her gaze to look at the river surface.

This large boat also began moving, though much slower than the dragon boats ahead, hanging far behind. Once the boat moved, the warm, moist breeze from the river surface became more noticeable, making one feel very comfortable.

Seeing Ren Yaoqi watching intently, Xiao Jingxi couldn’t help but smile and ask: “Who’s winning?”

The distance between the dragon boats and the large boat had already widened. Even straining to see, Ren Yaoqi’s eyesight couldn’t reach that far. Just as she was about to shake her head and say she didn’t know, Xiao Jinglin spoke up: “Currently, it looks like the Lei and Su families are in second place, with the Yun family in third.”

“The Lei family also has a boat?” Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but be startled.

Her question wasn’t meant to look down on the Lei family. Though the Ren family, because their main branch wasn’t in Yunyang City, only symbolically shared a dragon boat with other families each time. Even the Han family, though invited by the Su family to help organize this dragon boat race, had been in Yanzhou for less than a year and hadn’t had time to prepare their dragon boat, so they also shared a boat with a family surnamed Li.

Though she had never watched a dragon boat race before, she knew that Yanbei people were very particular about their dragon boats – they required many processes before officially entering the water, and it wouldn’t truly be launched without a year or two of preparation. That’s why she was so surprised.

Xiao Jingxi glanced at Ren Yaoqi and smiled: “The reason Yanbei’s dragon boat construction is so complex is actually because the dragon head crafting process is overly intricate. Though each family’s dragon boat hull is stored at the City God Temple outside the city, the dragon heads are kept by each family individually. When the Lei family migrated south, they took their dragon head with them, and it’s been well-maintained over these decades, so it could be launched this year.”

Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi was startled and also glanced at Xiao Jingxi, meeting his dark eyes filled with mirth. The sparkling waves on the river surface seemed to be reflected in those eyes – looking too long could dazzle one’s vision.

Ren Yaoqi instinctively shifted her gaze to the outside the window, but immediately felt something was strange. She unconsciously tilted her head slightly, her gaze seemingly falling on the river surface as the drumbeats from outside grew from distant to near – those dozen dragon boats were returning.

Suddenly, Ren Yaoqi realized what was wrong. When the Lei family fled south back then, taking ancestral tablets and family treasures was understandable, but why would they also bring the dragon boat head? This thing was quite large and extremely heavy – it would probably require an entire carriage dedicated just to carrying it.

She felt that the Lei family bringing out the dragon head at this time was trying to prove something. Prove what? Prove that their branch was the legitimate main lineage?

Ren Yaoqi felt it seemed like a show of false bravado.

“This Lei family… certainly has strong momentum,” Xiao Jinglin’s voice drew Ren Yaoqi’s attention back.

Hearing this, Ren Yaoqi instinctively looked toward Xiao Jingxi. Xiao Jingxi was smiling as he looked out the window, where the dozen dragon boats were just entering their field of vision. Besides the dragon boat bearing the Yanbei Prince’s mansion banner taking the lead, three other dragon boats were chasing each other closely behind it in a tight competition.

Somehow, Ren Yaoqi’s heart stirred, and she instinctively blurted out: “You want to use the Lei family?”