At this moment, Tarico announced that the next horsemanship and archery competition would start. The contestants were Xiao Baoshan, Qian Qi and Li Chengru.
When the three of them went to the field, they immediately attracted all the attention.
Li Chengru was handsome, famous for his sofisticated horsemanship. The audience was looking forward to his performance.
Qian Qi was a general. He rode on a huge horse with sharp eyes. His demeanor was not inferior to that of Li Chengru.
As for Xiao Baoshan, people had been used to his low-key reservation. Now when they saw him riding on a horse, they seemed to see a different man.
He gazed with his deep eyes at the target in middle distance, knowing his goal well.
He was calm before the competition started. Once it commenced, he galloped like an arrow out of the bow. His horsemanship was excellent, and he rode steadily on the horse, as fast as lightning.
The audience didn’t even see how he shot the arrow out and hit his target.
According to the rules, they could interfere with their opponents in the competition. After Qian Qi shot an arrow, he went to stop Xiao Baoshan, who fought back. The two of them fought on horses.
Li Chengru took this opportunity and shot an arrow.
In the second round, the three of them fought fiercely against each other, which frightened the audience, who was afraid that one of them would fall off the horse and get trampled.
After the second round, their strength was gradually known. The audience saw who got the upper hand and who was weaker.
Even Ye Xiaoxian, who knew nothing about horsemanship,
was able to see it.
She thought that Xiao Baoshan was the best.
She had always known that Xiao Baoshan’s martial arts were excellent, but she never expected that he had been hiding his strength before. His real power was many times stronger than what she had seen before.
She clenched her fists tightly, worrying about Xiao Baoshan.
The Xiao Family as well as the Liu Family had known Xiao Baoshan was a general, but they were not aware of his strength. Today, they were awed by his incredible power.
When they looked at him, they seemed to see a mighty force.
Li Chengru had high martial arts and his horsemanship was not bad, but he was a prince after all, who had never been to the battlefield and tampered by the war. Therefore his strengh and endurance were inferior to Xiao Baoshan and Qian Qi, and he was the first one who lost the competition.
Xiao Baoshan and Qian Qi were still in fierce competition, trying to stop each other. Their horses were galloping fast, and it seemed the two men were going to fall off most of the time, but they managed to get back to the horse at the last minute.
Tarico was awed by the competition. He thought Xiao Baoshan was far better than him.
He turned around to see if Jin Xiaoyu was watching the competition, and he suddenly froze.
The look in her eyes…
She stared at Xiao Baoshan without blinking. There was not only awe in her eyes as a spectator, but also the confidence in Xiao Baoshan’s strength and deliberated reservation.
She was suppressing her feelings.
Tarico instantly understood.
That was why she sat on the sand dune and stared into vacancy in the desert. That was why she said she would think of someone when looking at the starry sky. That was why she seemed to have something on her mind.
It turned out that all the women that he liked took a fancy to Xiao Baoshan.
However, he could only admit his failure, because he was not the rival of Xiao Baoshan.
Tarico laughed at himself.
He was asking for the moon.
…
The three of them competed for a long time until it got dark. Even though Qian Qi and Li Chengru joined hands, Xiao Baoshan won.
Li Chengru thought he was inferior, and Qian Qi accepted his defeat readily.
It was dinner time.
That day, they slaughtered a sheep and stewed three big pots of mutton, which was shared by several tables.
Everyone praised Xiao Baoshan’s high martial arts, saying that they had misjudged him. They didn’t know he was so powerful, now they were convinced that he was indeed a general.
Xiao Baoshan regained his calm reservation, smiling faintly.
Later on, Squire Liu joked with Ye Xiaoxian, “little Ye, I think you have to hurry up. Baoshan has shown his strength this afternoon. I’m afraid that other girls take a fancy to him. If you don’t restore your relationship, there will be more girls coming here.”
Ye Xiaoxian said stubbornly, “I don’t care. Anyway, he doesn’t have a wife now, and I am divorced. If he likes any girl, he can just bring her back. Besides, I’m not bad, okay? I have many admirers.”
Squire Liu then said to Xiao Baoshan, “Baoshan, you are such a tough guy,
How could you fail to win back your wife? I say, don’t play cat and mouse with little Ye. Just tie her back to your room.”
Everyone laughed.
Xiao Baoshan finally spoke, “little Ye blames me for divorcing her, asking me to give her a grand wedding, which requires a large sedan chair carried by eight people. When I finish my work, I’ll pick a good day and marry her again.”
His words surprised everyone, who applauded.
Ye Xiaoxian didn’t expect Xiao Baoshan to say this in front of so many people, blushing. “Did I promise to marry you again?”
“You promised,” Xiao Baoshan said firmly.
Ye Xiaoxian didn’t know what to say. She only said shyly, “How annoying.”
She seemed to be rejecting, but everyone knew that was her way of saying yes, so they cheered again.
Squire Liu said, “There is no sedan chair in the tribe, as we don’t need it for wedding. Dawu, take your woodmen tomorrow and cut some wood, with which you make a sedan chair. Nail it hard, and we might need it for future weddings in the tribe.”
Ye Xiaoxian asked, “Why do you start making the arrangement?”
Squire Liu said, “Well, it’s better sooner than later. Why do you postpone? The earlier your fix this, the better.”
Li Hongmei echoed, “That’s right.There was no celebration when little Ye married Baoshan. This time, not only will she have the sedan, but also a proper wedding gown and jewels. We need to prepare the wedding gown as well.”
“We will slaughter eight sheep and invite everyone we know to the party.”
“…”
Ye Xiaoxian fell silent shyly, glaring at Xiao Baoshan from time to time.
Xiao Baoshan kept looking at her smilingly, and there was no one else in his eyes.
Jin Xiaoyu was there. She listened to the cheerings and watched Xiao Baoshan look at Little Ye with affection. Back then, when Jin Xiaoyu forced him to marry her, he had never looked at her like this.
She was completely defeated.
She smiled and cheered along with the others, but her heart was bleeding.
Li Chengru also looked at the couple.
He had an indescribable feeling about little Ye. It was much closer than friendship, but a little less than love. He had thought of marrying her at the spur of the moment if she couldn’t see Xiao Baoshan again.
At least, she was an excellent cook.
However, he found that she didn’t love him. Although she claimed that she had no feelings for Xiao Baoshan, he could tell that she had been hoping Xiao Baoshan would come back.
Therefore, he quickly dropped the idea and became her partner in work, making money together.
Now that Little Ye got together with Xiao Baoshan, he was very happy for her.
After they stopped cheering, Li Chengru said, “Remember to inform me of the wedding day, and I will prepare a big gift for you.”
There was another round of cheers.
“Your Highness, I guess your gift must be very generous, right?” Squire Liu asked.
Li Chengru said, “Of course. I don’t have many friends, and little Ye is one of them. I hope she could marry a good man and lead a good life.”
Ye Xiaoxian said, “I’m honored.”
Li Chengru picked up his glass and proposed a toast, “I wish you a long and happy marriage.”
Everyone accordingly toasted.
…
After dinner, everyone returned to their yurt.
Some people were immersed in excitement, such as Li Hongmei and Xiao Baozhu. In Li Hongmei’s heart, only little Ye could be her daughter-in-law. Now that the young couple got together and they would have a wedding, Li Hongmei didn’t want to sleep, and she even wanted to have a few more drinks.
Jin Xiaoyu also wanted a drink.
After she returned to her yurt, she had been moody.
However, she couldn’t find a reason to drink.
After Xiao Baoshan left Longmen Inn, she had been drinking for him for a long time. Was she gonna get drunk for him again?
She had told herself long ago that she had to move on. Was she failing again?
She could only try her best to calm down and soothe herself, drifting off to sleep.
‘Xiao Baoshan, I wish you happiness.’
…
The next day.
Li Chengru and Qian Qi set off for Baoning city early in the morning. They took Xiao Baofeng with them as well. It was time for him to go back to school.
Li Chengru again stressed that he must be informed of the wedding day, and he would defintely come for the celebration.
Everyone assured him that no one here treated him as an outsider.
After seeing Li Chengru off, Squire Liu planned to arrange for Ye Xiaoxian’s marriage. He was good at things like this, and he would definitely put everything in order.
Just as he was about to take out a pen and paper and make a plan, his servant A’Wu rushed in, saying, “Master, bad news. The old man of the Xiao family seems to be dying.”
The old man of the Xiao family naturally was Old Mr. Xiao.
Old Mr. Xiao was a gluttonous and lazy guy. When others were working hard, he hid in the yurt every day, warming himself up next to the hibachi. Sometimes he complained about the coldness, sometimes he said he was hungry. In addition, he ate much more than others.
On the day of the festival, there were of three roasted whole lamb. He alone ate a roasted lamb leg and didn’t share with others.
People at his age should be respected by the young people, who failed to respect him because of the way he behaved. They all called him Old Geezer Xiao behind his back.
Last night, he didn’t feel excited when Xiao Baoshan said he was going to marry little Ye. He only cared about the lamb, and he got drunk. Xiao Baocheng helped him go back to the yurt at night.
Perhaps because he ate too much at his age, Old Mr. Xiao didn’t get up today. When Xiao Baocheng went to wake him up, he found something was wrong, as there was no response.