“All of you go elsewhere to find the leopard.”
“Yes.”
After entering the hunting field, Xia Hourui ordered the officials to disperse, leaving only ten people to follow him.
Xia Houmo and Xia Houkun followed Xia Hourui into the forest.
“Father, look, it’s a leopard!” Xia Houkun pointed forward. Xia Hourui followed his line of sight and saw a leopard creeping in the grass. Judging from the gesture of the leopard, it was also waiting for a hunting opportunity.
Xia Hourui stretched the bow in his hand to its utmost and aimed at the leopard which slowly looked towards him.
Just as the arrow in Xia Hourui’s hand was about to be shot, the leopard suddenly rushed deep into the forest.
“Hurry up! Disperse to encircle and catch it!” Xia Hourui was immediately interested and let everyone chase after the leopard.
Xia Houkun rushed to the front, appearing to be the most earnest one.
“Father, rest assured, I’ll drive it out!”
From beginning to end, Xia Houmo had always been following Xia Hourui to protect his safety.
Xia Hourui looked at Xia Houmo with a smile. “It’s rare for you to come out. You don’t have to stay with me. Get into the forest and help me catch the leopard.”
“I must protect your safety, father.”
Xia Hourui deliberately put on a sullen face. “Do as I said. No rebuttal. This is an imperial edict.”
Xia Houmo kept his countenance and rode his horse towards the forest.
Xia Hourui also went on searching for the leopard in high spirits.
Suddenly, a heavy wheeze came from the forest. Xia Hourui brightened up his eyes and asked the three guards behind him to slow down and move slowly towards the sound source.
The closer they went, the stronger the smell became.
“Your Majesty, it’s a black bear!”
A guard behind suddenly changed his face.
The beasts in this hunting field were all very wild, which were even more dangerous than the leopard.
“Your Majesty, be careful. Let me take a look first.”
However, their movements had alarmed the black bear in the forest.
Before Xia Hourui and others could retreat, a black bear roared and stood up, frightening their horses to death.
“Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor!”
Several men fell off from their horses and run away in panic. But how could they out-run the black bear?
“Hurry up! Take the Emperor away!”
A guard pulled out the sword in his hand to stop the black bear. However, the black bear was so hungry that it roared and slapped the guard.
“Ah!”
In an instant, the guard’s face was badly mutilated and blurred with flesh and blood; and even his eyes popped out.
Xia Hourui had also gone to battlefield before and was still calm at this time.
“Scatter in all directions!”
Another guard had sent a signal, so reinforcements would be here soon.
However, they didn’t expect there to be more than one black bear!
Seeing a black bear crawling out from the other side of the forest, Xia Hourui secretly regretted to have made Xia Houmo leave him.
“Hurry up! Protect the Emperor to climb up the tree!”
Two guards took Xia Hourui to a tree. Xia Hourui threw down the bow and arrow in his hand to climb up the tree. But how would the black bear give them such a chance?
The black bear ran out from behind with a roar and rushed towards Xia Hourui. It raised its paw high and hit towards Xia Hourui’s back.
“Father, be careful!”
Just at the very moment, a figure sprang out quickly and protected Xia Hourui from behind.
“Ah!”
The figure was slapped heavily on the ground.
Xia Hourui turned around and found the bear paw was coming again. Just as it was about to fall on Xia Hourui…
“Your Majesty!”
In a flash, the black bear was roaring in pain.
“Ouch!”
The black bear attacking Xia Hourui fell heavily to the ground, with a cold arrow in its paw.
Xia Houmo rushed over and kicked on the nose of another black bear. The black bear let out an angry roar and rushed towards Xia Houmo.
With a calm countenance, Xia Houmo stretched the bow in his hand to its utmost and shot the arrow when the black bear was within ten steps away from him. With a crisp sound of the air, the arrow was shot into the black bear’s third eye area.
The black bear which was as tall as one and a half man suddenly stiffened and fell to the ground.
“Protect the Emperor!”
A group of guards rushed over, encircled the two black bears, and poked them to death.
Xia Hourui also came down from the tree with the help of guards.
“Father, I’m late.”
With cold sweat on his forehead, Xia Hourui looked very pale but still calm after all.
“Hurry! Hurry to check Second Prince! How is he?”
Just now he saw it clearly that the person who protected him from the deadly bear paws was Xia Houkun.
The guard had gone to check on Xia Houkun’s injury. Xia Houkun was half lying on the ground with his back blurred with flesh and blood, and even his bones were exposed in some parts of his body.
Xia Hourui frowned, “Hurry! Send Second Prince out. Call the imperial doctors. Go!”
Looking at the dead black bears, Xia Houmo put on a stern and sullen look.
“Donglin.”
“Yes.”
“Go to check why these two black bears would appear here.”
The beasts in the hunting field were said to be unrestrained, but the Emperor was hunting here, after all, so everyone took it seriously not to let any beast get close to Xia Hourui. So the black bears must have been deliberately released.
Everyone was clear about this matter but wouldn’t reveal it straightforward.
The two black bears were so close to Xia Hourui, which was really suspicious.
Second Prince protected the Emperor from the bear paws and was badly injured, which soon spread among the people at the hunting party.
Seeing that Second Prince was lifted out, Concubine Qin was almost scared to death.
Due to this accident, the hunting party could only be temporarily suspended, and Second Prince would also be sent to the Imperial Villa for medical treatment.
Those who were willing to stay could continue hunting, and those who were tired could also go back to the villa with them.
With such an accident, nobody had the mood to go hunting. Even if they were unwilling to go back to the villa empty-handed, they dared not continue wandering in the hunting field.
Both Hehua and Xinche failed to enter the hunting field and could only wait in the shed. Seeing the people leaving one after another, they anxiously stretched their necks to look for their Madam and Miss.
“So strange! I find the people over there are all gone. Why haven’t the eldest Madam and the eldest Miss come out yet?”
“Let’s go to ask someone. I’m always a little worried.”
As soon as they walked out of the shed, Xinlan ran over breathlessly. “Oh no, the eldest Madam, the eldest Madam has disappeared!”
Upon hearing it, they suddenly put on a serious look. “Don’t worry, Xinlan. Finish your words.”
Xinlan took a breath and retold what happened before. “The eldest Madam was afraid that the injured person would be the eldest Miss, so she went to have a look with Taozhi. I was so late to get there that I couldn’t find the eldest Madam or the eldest Miss.”
“What, what shall we do?” Both Xinche and Hehua went pale after hearing this.
Hehua tried her best to stay calm and said, “Don’t worry! Now that they have disappeared, it’s of no help to be anxious. Xinche, you go to look for them with me. And Xin Lan, you go to ask if anyone has seen the eldest Madam.”
Xinlan and Xinche nodded. “Okay.”
As soon as Hehua and Xinche ran to the women’s hunting field, Xia Houyin and others rushed out on horses.
Xia Houyin grabbed an imperial guard with an anxious look and screamed in a shrill voice, “Oh no, Miss Su is taken away by the beast. Hurry, go and save her!”
Hearing this, Hehua and Xinche were so frightened that they were almost stumbled.
“What did you say?” There suddenly came a low voice.
Xia Houyin looked up and found Xia Houmo who had just come out of the hunting field on the other side.
“I said Su Muge was taken away by the beast, and I don’t know if she is dead or alive now…”
Xia Houmo suddenly tightened the reins in his hand. “Where did she disappear?”
“Just in the hunting field …”
Before Xia Houyin could finish, Xia Houmo had been out of her sight.
Xia Houmo rode into the hunting field and sent a signal into the sky. In a while, two figures appeared behind him.
“Where is she?”
The two men kneeled to confess. “Your Royal Highness, please forgive our incompetence. After following Miss Su into the hunting field, we suddenly got entangled by someone. After we got rid of him, Miss Su had disappeared.”
Xia Houmo narrowed his dark eyes and sensed a hint of danger.
“Send more men to find her!”
“Yes.”
When Xia Houmo rode his horse into the depths of the forest, a horse out of control suddenly rushed out.
Xia Houmo flew forward to stop the horse and found its eyes stabbed.
Xia Houmo fixed his sight on a small purse on the saddle. The purse was embroidered with an orchid. It was really Su Muge’s!
…
“Splash!” (The sound of water)
The biting chill made Su Muge wake up with a shock.
She opened her eyes weakly and felt the dim light still.
She pinched her finger pulp. Well, it was still painful.
It turned out that she was still alive…
In the wooden house, as soon as the man put the pill into her mouth, she knew she was in danger.
Because it was a highly toxic pill!
“Awake?”
Su Muge strenuously rolled her eyes and finally fixed her sight on the figure sitting on the chair with his back to her.
“Who are you?”
The man smiled in a low tone, seeming to think her question extremely stupid. “It doesn’t matter who I am. What matters is that you are still alive.”
Su Muge breathed weakly; after waking up, her sense of pain gradually awakened as well, making her too painful to speak.
“What do you want to do?”
“I heard that your medical skills are very excellent, so I wanted to see if you can also save yourself now that you can save others. The poison in your body would kill you after twenty hours. It’s up to you whether you can survive or not. Haha…”
After finishing his words, the man got up from the chair and slowly turned around.
Standing against the light, he gradually walked towards her. When Su Muge clearly saw his pair of shoes patterned with auspicious clouds and dragons, she was stunned and slowly looked up to see the man’s face hidden in his hood.
The man suddenly sneered and took off his hood to reveal the face inside.
At the sight of his appearance, Su Muge was so shocked that her pupils were suddenly enlarged and her body was stiffened!
“You…”
