After saying that, he took Wang Manwen and Su Yueyue into the carriage. As the carriage passed in front of her, Su Mingyu keenly noticed the contempt and venom in Su Yueyue's eyes.
Just then, a rather plain - looking carriage stopped in front of her. Su Mingyu raised an eyebrow and saw that it was Gu Ruobai.
"It's a pity. If you had come a bit earlier, you could have seen Su Yueyue's jealous look."
Gu Ruobai gave her a calm smile. "I suddenly encountered some things and had to rearrange my schedule before coming."
Su Mingyu raised an eyebrow. "Alright, I'll forgive you then."
The carriage swayed all the way. Bored, Su Mingyu curiously asked about the Autumn Hunt. "The Autumn Hunt is held every year. Are there really that many animals in the royal forest?"
"Not all of them are native to the forest. Many are transferred from other places," Gu Ruobai put down the scroll in his hand. "But to add more fun to the Autumn Hunt, a fierce beast is released into the forest every year."
"If someone is lucky enough to hunt down this fierce beast, they will win the first place in that Autumn Hunt. Usually, the winner will be rewarded by the emperor."
"Sometimes it's a gold - crafted bow and arrow, sometimes a piece of land or a mansion. One can also make a request to the emperor himself, like my armory and military training ground."
So that's how it was. Su Mingyu let out a long "oh".
She thought that although Gu Ruobai had remarkable military achievements, he wasn't so audacious as to build an armory under the emperor's nose. Now she understood the reason.
But the greater the reward, the more puzzled Su Mingyu became. "But it's just an entertainment event. Why does the emperor offer such tempting rewards?"
"Because for the Autumn Hunt every year, the emperor invites not only our court officials but also the generals from Mongolia and the far - flung border areas," Gu Ruobai patiently explained to Su Mingyu. "So although it seems like an ordinary entertainment event, it actually concerns the honor of our dynasty. If there aren't one or two military generals in our royal family who can compete with the Mongolian and border generals, it will be a disgrace to the entire royal family."
So that's it. It seemed that the Autumn Hunt was actually a form of diplomatic means.
However, speaking of this, Su Mingyu glanced at Gu Ruobai's leg. "You've always been the representative of the royal family in previous years. But your leg is injured this year. Is there anyone else who can take your place?"
"Sure enough, you're my wife. You've hit the nail on the head," Gu Ruobai squinted and smiled. "As the saying goes, there's always a new talent emerging in our generation. It's my currently most favored younger brother, the King of Yu."
"I see," Su Mingyu nodded. Now she understood why the King of Yu insisted on marrying Su Yueyue only after the Autumn Hunt.
Su Mingyu squinted and smiled like a fox. "Do you think he has a chance of winning?"
Gu Ruobai looked at her deeply and then shook his head. "Let's not even mention that there's a Mongolian general named Tuoba Wuyi whose fighting strength is on par with mine. Even against you, he can't win."
Su Mingyu's eyes suddenly widened:!!
She hadn't even told him that she wanted to participate in this Autumn Hunt. How did he know?
Gu Ruobai seemed to see through what Su Mingyu was thinking. He looked at her half - smiling. "You deliberately asked me to take you horse - riding practice before, and today you're wearing men's clothes. It's not hard to guess what you're up to."
Su Mingyu pouted, looking a bit dejected. "I was going to surprise you."
"What kind of surprise?" Gu Ruobai looked at her curiously.
"You've always participated in the competition every year and won steadily," Su Mingyu sighed dejectedly. "Your leg is injured this year and you can't participate. People will surely gossip about you. I want to take your place in the competition to shut them up."
Although Gu Ruobai had guessed early on that Su Mingyu would participate in this Autumn Hunt, he thought she was just curious and wanted to have some fun.
But he never expected that Su Mingyu had been working hard on horseback shooting just to avenge him.
A dark corner deep in his heart seemed to be illuminated by sunlight. It was warm and tingling.
Gu Ruobai reached out his hand to caress Su Mingyu's face and gently rubbed it. Feeling the smooth touch under his hand, Gu Ruobai was a bit distracted. "Actually, I don't care about these vain honors."
Su Mingyu held Gu Ruobai's big, well - jointed hand with her backhand and looked at him with a pair of bright eyes. "I know you don't care, but I don't want you to be laughed at. This is my intention."
Looking at the seriousness in Su Mingyu's eyes, Gu Ruobai leaned over and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. Then he looked down at her. "You always surprise me."
Su Mingyu grinned. "If I win this time, that will be the real surprise."
Saying that, she bit her lower lip and looked at Gu Ruobai. "Do you know what the fierce beast for this Autumn Hunt is?"
"No," Gu Ruobai frowned. "The fierce beast is always arranged by the emperor himself. It won't be revealed until the last moment."
"The year before last, it was a leopard. Last year, it was a wild buffalo. This year... I don't know what it will be."
Su Mingyu let out an "oh". As long as it wasn't a bear, she didn't think it would be too difficult to deal with.
"Master, we're here," the coachman's voice sounded at this moment.
When Su Mingyu wheeled Gu Ruobai to the venue of the Autumn Hunt, she finally knew what real extravagance was.
It was a place that was only used once a year, yet it was built so grandly.
Not to mention how huge a project it was to level such a large area of land in the deep mountains.
Just the city walls made entirely of stones. She didn't know how much manpower it had taken to move such big stones into the mountains.
"Greetings to His Royal Highness, the King of Ruixian..." An official came up. Judging from his respectful attitude towards Gu Ruobai, it seemed that he had received Gu Ruobai's favor on weekdays.
However, Gu Ruobai didn't seem to be very close to him. He just nodded. "Since Lord Zhang is already here, I assume everyone has arrived, right?"
Lord Zhang nodded. "It's a pity that we won't be able to see His Royal Highness's heroic figure this year."
Gu Ruobai squinted his eyes. "I've won every year. Isn't it a different kind of experience for you to present the award to someone else this year?"
Lord Zhang nodded repeatedly. "That's true. Please come in, Your Royal Highness."
Following Gu Ruobai, Su Mingyu actually made her way to the front.
She looked around in surprise. The people around were all princes. It might not be appropriate for an outsider like her to sit among them, right?