The Noble Woman's Guide On How to Tease One's Husband

71-75

Chapter 71 – Spring Hunting

Spring breeze once again drifts ashore on the green river where the grass grows, the warblers fly while fishes swim in the shallow depths, a scene that is full of vitality.

Every year this time Chu Sanghuai would go spring hunting in the getaway palace and this year was no exception. It also coincided with the turnover of the first batch of taxes to the national treasury and half was immediately allocated to the Department of Imperial Residence. Under such circumstances, the spring hunting event became even grander. Many important ministers and their dependents followed along too where myriads of glorious and luxurious carriages lined up for many miles.

It was Ye Xuan who brought the Ye family along in the past. Even though the family status was there, he was, after all a low-ranked official with not much sense of presence. But this year was different as Chu Sanghuai not only appointed Ye Huaili to escort him, Ye Huaiyang had to take part with Chu Jinglan and even Ye Huaixin who had only recently joined the royal court as an official went along with his teacher, Yue Ting which caused everyone to say the Ye family's stature is about to rise.

This, however, was not a good sign in the eyes of Chu Jinglan and Ye Huaiyang. Although Guanzhong side is now very peaceful as the generals under Ye Huaili are rigorous in governing the troops which would not prompt much trouble even if he was not around for a few months. Nevertheless, this move of Chu Sanghuai was somewhat really bizarre and aroused others' wariness to let a frontier general stay by his side without rhymes and reason.

As for the drama of disharmony between husband and wife, it is still ongoing as usual. It happened that Meng Chen had mentioned to Chu Jinglan about going out for some fun, so Chu Jinglan brought her along too. On one hand, it was for the sake of covering Ye Huaiyang while the other was to atone to her. Ye Huaiyang was well aware of all these, so she did not say anything.

In addition, Lu Heng followed too this time. Since Tang Qingfeng was not around, he made and put on a human skin-mask pretending to be Tang Qingfeng to escort the entourage. Even though he does not know martial arts, his height and figure are about the same hence it was indistinguishable.

As such, the whole group arrived at Boyang Palace after several days of trekking.

After Chu Sanghuai succeeded the throne, he has built many getaway palaces where each of which is more luxurious than this but in terms of hunting, this place is considered second to none. Halfway down the mountain from the getaway palace is the wide expanse of fertile grassland and mountain forest with lush vegetation where many rare and exotic beasts roam which is enough for hunting lovers to have lots of fun.

On the day of the roundup, the getaway palace became lively early in the morning. Many descendants of the noble families were already eager and impatient to go down the mountain that even Ye Huaili took Ye Huaixin to wait outside the imperial hunting ground yet only two people from Yu Lan Hall had dawdled to come out.

"Vomiting like this, you'd better not go today." Chu Jinglan looked at the pale looking Ye Huaiyang as he raised his hand to untie the girdle of his riding outfit, "I'm not going either and will stay here with you."

Ye Huaiyang held down his hand hurriedly and said, "I'm fine, just not acclimatized yet. Chu Sanghuai has summoned you to go, how can you resist the decree? Don't worry, I'll actually sit on the observation tower where you can see me whenever you turn around, okay?"

Eyebrows wrinkled tightly, Chu Jinglan only spoke after a long while, "If I come out and do not see you ..."

"Then you can smack my butt when you come back." Ye Huaiyang curled her lips and smiled then pulled him outside without listening to his protests.

Once the door opened, they were both stunned seeing Meng Chen dressed in a sturdy outfit. Only then did they remember she is also good at riding and archery. Perhaps she had waited a long time for Chu Jinglan to come out yet Ye Huaiyang seemed not to mind as she greeted her with a smile before she took the lead in spurring the horse and left. Meng Chen looked surreptitiously at the wilful elegant back and involuntary clenched her horse whip tightly.

When they arrived at the imperial hunting ground, Chu Jinglan and Meng Chen went over to the crowd while Ye Huaiyang went up to the observation tower on her own.