Xiao Ruohai lowered his eyes to look at Bai Jinzhi, who was shorter than Bai Qingyan. Seeing the young lady’s reddened eyes, he softly consoled her: “The eldest miss has her judgment. Fourth Miss, please don’t worry.”
Bai Jinzhi was no stranger to iron sandbags—all the Bai family children had used them when practicing martial arts. But such heavy iron sandbags, Bai Jinzhi had never used before.
With her eldest sister’s weak constitution, could she endure it?!
End of the Yin hour.
Cold wind howled, and Baiwuo City began to have scattered snowflakes falling.
In the training ground, the flames in the high braziers swayed fiercely in the wind.
In the complete silence, the sound of arrows cutting through the air continuously rang out, falling, ringing out again, hitting the straw targets, then falling again.
Sweat dripped down from Bai Qingyan’s jaw drop by drop. Her chest and back were already soaked through, her entire person looking as if she had been pulled from water, steaming with heat in this bitterly cold night.
She adjusted her breathing, her calm gaze fixed unblinkingly on the red dot of the straw target under the firelight. Once again, she drew a full bow, tensing with all her strength, gritting her teeth to pull the bow to its limit. The bow wood made an extremely subtle sound.
Her mounted archery had all been taught by her father hand by hand. Father… was the unrivaled divine archer of Great Jin, and so was she!
Scattered snowflakes fell on her extremely long eyelashes. She released her grip…
“Swoosh—”
Xiao Ruohai couldn’t help but clench his fists, restraining his excited voice as he said: “Young Master, you hit it!”
Right in the bullseye!
Accuracy had always been Bai Qingyan’s confidence, but her strength was still severely lacking. After all, the distance to the straw target had been moved closer by Xiao Ruohai.
Bai Qingyan caught her breath and rested for a moment, then drew another feathered arrow from the quiver. Just as she nocked it… Her eyes darkened, and she suddenly turned around, holding nothing back, arrow pointing at the newcomer, the bow wood taut to the extreme and ready to release.
Less than ten zhang away, Xiao Rongyan stood in the wind and snow with only one guard, his calm dark eyes watching that slender figure whose posture in nocking and drawing the bow was extremely neat and beautiful.
The violently swaying firelight made her sharp, keen eyes flicker between bright and dark, with terrifying killing intent bursting forth in that instant, the arrow’s cold light fully apparent.
“Young Master Bai…” Xiao Rongyan bowed to Bai Qingyan from a distance.
She lowered her arrow: “Mr. Xiao is up quite early.”
Xiao Rongyan remained composed and slowly walked toward her, watching the sweat at her temples flow down the graceful curve of her slender neck and disappear into her collar. He averted his gaze and smiled gently: “May Mr. Xiao borrow a look at the Sun-Shooting Bow in Young Master Bai’s hands?”
She handed the Sun-Shooting Bow in her hands to Xiao Rongyan.
After examining the Sun-Shooting Bow carefully by firelight, Xiao Rongyan sighed: “This Sun-Shooting Bow was made by the late Grand Marshal and General Tang Yi of Great Yan. It was originally a fifteenth birthday gift from General Tang Yi to the eldest prince born to Empress Ji. The eldest prince abandoned it without use. I never expected this Sun-Shooting Bow would finally become famous in Young Master Bai’s hands. If General Tang Yi knew this from the underworld, he would surely be gratified.”
When Bai Qingyan had accompanied her grandfather on campaigns and earned the title of Young Marshal Bai, she was most famous for three things: the swift white horse Jifeng, the red-tasseled spear, and this Sun-Shooting Bow that never missed its mark.
However, Jifeng had died protecting its master, and both the red-tasseled spear and Sun-Shooting Bow had been put away after Bai Qingyan was injured.
Xiao Rongyan respectfully returned the Sun-Shooting Bow with both hands. She took it and handed it to Xiao Ruohai: “Did Mr. Xiao come because of what Xiao Si said yesterday?”
“Young Master Si’s intelligence exceeded Mr. Xiao’s expectations,” Xiao Rongyan said, his eyes showing gentle, light amusement. When speaking of Xiao Si, he seemed like an elder with a touch of gratified affection.
“Mr. Xiao has shown kindness to the Bai family. Xiao Si knows propriety.”
Xiao Rongyan turned back to look at the guard who had followed him. The guard bowed and retreated.
Seeing this, Bai Qingyan also turned and nodded to Xiao Ruohai, who also nodded and withdrew.
“Mr. Xiao may speak directly,” she said.
Xiao Rongyan looked at her with gentle, deep eyes, removed the cloak from his body and draped it over Bai Qingyan, lowering his head to help her tie the strings. His slightly callused fingertips brushed against her jaw. She instinctively pulled back, but saw that Xiao Rongyan was looking down with his eyelashes lowered, very focused, his movements gentle and soft.
“Mr. Xiao…”
She raised her hand to stop him, but was instinctively grasped by Xiao Rongyan.
Cold wind howled all around, snowflakes scattered about, firelight blazed brilliantly, and their two shadows swayed. In her ears remained only the sound of banners fluttering around the training ground.
To her surprise, she was already enveloped by an unfamiliar masculine scent—an elegant, restrained, and steady male fragrance in her nostrils, like agarwood yet somehow different.
She wanted to withdraw her hand, but her fingertips wrapped in Xiao Rongyan’s large hand couldn’t move an inch.
Their eyes met. The man’s features were as hard and angular as if carved by knife and axe, with deep-set eyelids and prominent brow bones that made his profile even more profound. In this flickering firelight of the night, he seemed to possess a steady charm that could topple all living beings.
Her ears burned hot, her breathing stalled for a moment, before she realized her arms had developed goosebumps.
If it weren’t for the fact that her face was already flushed red from practicing too long, she would certainly have shown her embarrassment now.
Xiao Rongyan watched her very quietly, firelight reflected in his dark pupils. There was no frivolity or libertinism, nor any intent to tease—his gaze was full of gentle kindness.
“Are you afraid of me?”
In Xiao Rongyan’s hoarse voice, some emotion was hidden that seemed ready to break free at any moment, but thinking of Great Yan’s current situation… it was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his head, and the burning color in his eyes sank to the bottom like falling into a valley.
Rather than saying she was afraid of him, wariness would be more accurate.
The impression this Great Yan Regent had left on her in her previous life was too deep. His methods could be called vicious. For Bai Qingyan, if he were an opponent… he would be the most worrying opponent, more threatening than ten Du Zhiweis combined.
She steadied her mind and answered frankly: “Men and women should maintain proper distance.”
Only then did Xiao Rongyan slowly release her fingertips, his mellow voice frank: “The goods I’m transporting are indeed not spices, but herbs, salt, and iron weapons.”
“Are they from the batch that Great Yan borrowed from Great Liang at high interest at the beginning of the year?” she reacted extremely quickly.
At the beginning of the year, floods and droughts had struck Great Yan fiercely, making the already impoverished Great Yan even worse off. Great Yan had sought aid from various countries… but only Great Liang, whose territory didn’t border theirs, was willing to lend to Great Yan at high interest.
Xiao Rongyan didn’t hide it and nodded: “The goods were originally being sent back to Great Yan via six routes. One route of grain, supplies, and weapons has already been intercepted by the Rong Di. Now, Great Yan is weak and cannot compete with the Rong Di. All countries are watching like tigers, wishing Great Yan would be destroyed so they could divide it up. That’s why Mr. Xiao had no choice but to combine the six routes into one, taking the risk to travel through Great Jin territory, with Mr. Xiao alone delivering them back.”
If it were ordinary times, it would be fine, but now with the tense war situation in Nan Jiang, food and grain were one thing… but weapons and salt-iron, which the government forbade common people and merchants from privately possessing, would be inspected more strictly the closer one got to Nan Jiang, making passage very difficult.
Xiao Rongyan wanted to borrow the Crown Prince’s influence, traveling with the army to deliver the grain, supplies, and weapons to Pingyang City, which bordered Great Yan.
What a scheme!