"You..." Hearing his words, Shuanghua got a bit anxious. Blushing, she took away the silk handkerchief from her nose to stop the bleeding and was about to step forward to hit him. Ji Feiyu quickly stepped in to stop her. "Shuanghua, don't listen to his nonsense. Maybe that person just likes you the way you are."
"Ling'er!" Hu Diehu was a bit taken aback and couldn't help calling her. But Ji Feiyu stood in front of Shuanghua and smiled at him. "Anyway, just be yourself."
Only then did Shuanghua sit back and give Hu Diehu a cold snort.
Hu Diehu also snorted back at her.
Seeing the two in a stalemate, Ji Feiyu patted Shuanghua's hand and changed the topic. "There have been guests in the palace these days. Don't run around. If you're really bored, come and find your aunt. You've just arrived in the imperial capital today. I'm sure you're tired. Go back and rest."
Seeing the tenderness in Ji Feiyu's eyes, Shuanghua stood up. "What about you, aunt?"
After being interrupted like this, Ji Feiyu had no mood for playing chess anymore. "I'll go back too. It's on the way anyway."
Hearing this, Hu Diehu couldn't help shouting, "Ling'er, are you just leaving like this? What about me?"
Hearing this, Ji Feiyu turned around and smiled at him. "You! Instead of wasting time arguing with a child, you'd better improve your chess skills. If you keep losing to me tomorrow, I won't come to play chess with you anymore."
"Ah? No, Ling'er..."
By the time Hu Diehu realized it, Ji Feiyu and Shuanghua had already walked out of his room.
Outside, the sky was still clear, tinged with the orange glow of the setting sun.
Just as Ji Feiyu was about to send Shuanghua back to the palace, she saw a large group of people passing by on the corridor. In the middle was a man in white, with an otherworldly figure. Who else could it be but that detestable White Sparrow?
Ji Feiyu didn't expect that after avoiding him all day, she would run into him near evening.
"Who is that..." Seeing Ji Feiyu standing still, Shuanghua couldn't help looking in the same direction.
Ji Feiyu was just thinking about whether to avoid him when she saw the White Sparrow chatting away in the middle, not even bothering to look to the side.
So all the scenarios she had imagined for their meeting were meaningless, because Ji Feiyu, who was at a moderate distance from him, would never have thought that in their reunion three years later, she would be ignored by him so grandly.
Shuanghua tugged at Ji Feiyu's clothes and said, "Is that the guest invited by the king? Why does he look so aloof?"
Ji Feiyu coughed twice to regain her senses and whispered, "This guy is no good. Stay away from him if you see him in the future."
Shuanghua looked at Ji Feiyu curiously. "Why?"
Ji Feiyu was too lazy to list this guy's misdeeds. She pulled Shuanghua towards her palace. "It's getting late. Let's go back early."
"Okay." Reluctantly, Shuanghua was pulled in the opposite direction of the White Sparrow by her, but she couldn't help looking back at him a few times, as if somewhat unwilling. Because she had never seen such a good - looking person before. He was even better - looking than her second brother!
...
That night, Ji Feiyu naturally didn't attend the magnificent welcome banquet. But Ran Wei was quite loyal and left the banquet halfway to chat with her.
Looking at the several snacks that Ran Wei had someone bring, Ji Feiyu smiled and pulled her to sit down.
"You're the best to me, Ran Wei. Only you still remember me at this time."
Ran Wei smiled. "Didn't you accompany me through the most difficult years? At that time, you invited me to the banquets many times, but I didn't go. Every time the banquet ended, you would bring me the pastries from the banquet. I've always remembered and been grateful."
Ji Feiyu said, "It's cold and heartless in the palace. I'm sure many maids didn't listen to you much at that time."
Ran Wei smiled calmly, as if it was a long - time - ago thing. "A friend in need is a friend indeed. I remember who was good to me at that time."
Afraid that she would think of the unhappy past again, Ji Feiyu quickly changed the topic. "By the way, what is the White Sparrow doing here this time?"
Ran Wei couldn't help chuckling. "He suffered a silent loss from my elder brother and came here to choose a horse."
"A silent loss?" Hearing this, Ji Feiyu suddenly became very interested, regardless of who caused this loss.
Ran Wei explained with a smile. "Haha, this silent loss originated from a horse - racing between the White Sparrow and my elder brother."
"Horse - racing?" No way. These two are so different. How could they race horses together?
Afraid that she was thinking wrong, Ji Feiyu asked cautiously, "Wait, Ran Wei, how many elder brothers do you have now?"
Ran Wei couldn't help coughing lightly. "I have quite a few elder brothers, but now I only recognize that one..."
"Okay, go on." Ji Feiyu didn't want to ask further.
Only then did Ran Wei say, "Actually, the horse - racing originated from the conflict between the court and the Jianghu. Since the two sides were at odds and often had group battles, as the leader of the martial arts world, the White Sparrow challenged my elder brother, saying that he would compete with him in three things casually. As long as he could win all of them, he would be willing to submit. It is said that his idea at that time was to compare appearance, intelligence, and martial arts... Because he was extremely confident in himself and thought that there must be something my elder brother couldn't match him in. As long as it wasn't a complete victory, he didn't have to abide by the agreement. But who would have thought that my elder brother proposed that the first thing to compare was the number of people he could mobilize, the second was the amount of money he could squander, and the third was the speed of horse - racing."
"Pfft..." Hearing this, Ji Feiyu couldn't help laughing. Maybe only that king could come up with such a comparison. The White Sparrow meant to compare personal abilities, so he naturally couldn't think that the king would mention things within the scope of his status. No matter how powerful a person was, he couldn't fight against a country. This was probably what the king wanted to tell the White Sparrow.
"... So for the previous items, the White Sparrow was so angry that he directly gave up and vowed to outperform him in riding skills. At first, when I heard him say this, I also believed that his riding skills should not be worse than my elder brother's. But I didn't expect that on the day of the competition, my elder brother directly led out Jingyun. So..."
So, he had a magnificent tragedy...
Hearing this, Ji Feiyu couldn't help laughing and thought that was really something.
After the palace - usurping battle that year, she didn't ride away Jingyun. Instead, she was directly rescued by Hu Diehu. Presumably, later Jingyun fell into Yong Yaxuan's hands. Although Jingyun never really liked to let men other than Yan Yan get close to it, after the battle with the wolf king, Yong Yaxuan tamed it in one morning. So it made sense for him to lead out Jingyun. It was just a pity that the White Sparrow didn't know that he had tamed Jingyun. Otherwise, how would he dare to compete with him in riding skills?
"So the White Sparrow said it was unfair, saying that horses vary in quality. If Jingyun was used, there was no need to compete. My elder brother said, 'Then you can also find a fine horse. I'll give you three months.' "
"So he came to Beihan..." Ji Feiyu couldn't help looking down on the White Sparrow a bit.
"Yes." Ran Wei nodded.
After getting confirmation, Ji Feiyu was even more speechless. Men really would do anything for a bit of face. This time, she was going to see if he could select a horse that could outperform Jingyun.