This side quest actually has a time limit.
Xue Yao has been vaguely worried for many years that Long Ao Tian's cubs will be wasted by himself, and today he finally waited for the "Wasted Alert".
In the original story, the young Dragon Ao Tian was injured and must have been around eight years old.
Because of Xue Yao's intervention, the Third Prince no longer pays special attention to the Seventh Prince, and the schoolyard brawl never happened.
Moreover, the humiliation and cold eyes that the seventh prince had originally received from the age of six had never happened, and his childhood had been carefree.
Today's chubby little brat is still the same simple little fool, or at least that's what Xue Yao thinks.
It's dangerous to raise a cub like that.
Xue Yao might not be able to block all the storms in the future for the Seventh Prince.
If he is not careful, he will lose everything. If the Seventh Prince is not as capable as he was in the original story, Xue Yao's care will harm him.
Being in the middle of it and helpless, Xue Yao always thought that he would wait for his child to get a little older and then find another opportunity to experience it.
But in my father's eyes, the child was always too young, and tomorrow was another day, and so it has been put off until today.
How can this be?
Xue Yao lost interest in practicing archery, bid farewell to the Fifth Prince, and turned his head to secretly catch up with the little chubby boy, observing in secret along the way.
The only way at the moment was to take the fight into his own hands, Xue Yao planned to go through a few moves with the Seventh Prince in the name of martial arts sparring, finding the right moment to kick him in his acupoints and try to see if he could open up the Ren and Dudu Chakras.
Starting to look at the "opponent" - the little fat kid is now a head shorter than him and looks like he should be able to fight.
The Seventh Prince was only slightly taller than most children his age, but his strength and agility were already not to be underestimated.
Indeed, he couldn't delay any longer, when this Long Ao Tian developed and matured, even if he hadn't opened the second chakra, Xue Yao wouldn't be a match for him.
If you want to beat up a cub, you have to do it before it's too late.
Thus, Xue Yao quickly chased after him, silently following behind the Seventh Prince, always ready for a sneak attack.
The Seventh Prince kept walking in silence, not turning his head to look at the situation behind him, and after a few moments he stopped, knelt on one knee, and looked down to inspect the tracks left by the beasts in the grass.
Here's your chance!
Looking down at the cub's crouched back, Xue Yao slowly and silently raised his fist-
"It's a boar." The Seventh Prince suddenly spoke.
Xue Yao was so frightened that he hastily lowered his sinful paw and asked in astonishment, "You saw me?"
The Seventh Prince stuck an arrow in the beast's trail, leaving it as a marker, then stood up and turned to look at Xue Yao with an expressionless face.
It was clearly a look at a fool!
"How did Your Highness know I was following you?" Xue Yao had always been confident in her lithe stance!
The little fat cub had just been concentrating on searching for tracks and shouldn't have noticed him!
The Seventh Prince looked at him sideways with an expressionless face, "Yao Yao has been following His Highness, very well behaved."
Xue Yao: "......"
I'm not following you, okay?
That was a secret stalking just now!
"When did Your Highness discover me?" Xue Yao had trouble accepting it!
The Seventh Prince turned his head and pointed to a tree not far away and said, "Yao Yao."
With another gesture, he pointed to a location about thirty feet in front of the large tree and said, "Your Highness."
Xue Yao froze and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat after thinking about it!
When he had just caught up with the Seventh Prince, he was hiding behind that tree, and at that time, the Seventh Prince happened to be standing thirty feet away.
In other words, he had been discovered when he first started tracking the little fat cub!
Xue Yao froze.
There was the uneasy feeling of a hard-earned pup suddenly out of one's control.
"Yao Yao?" The Seventh Prince tilted his head to look at him, seemingly noticing that he looked different.
"Huh?" Xue Yao snapped back to his senses, eyeing the cubs who seemed to have become strangers.
"Do you want a wild boar?" The Seventh Prince lowered his head and kicked the arrow sticking in the ground, raised his eyes and hooked the corner of his mouth at Xue Yao, smugly grinning wickedly, "It's the Beast Road, the mud is freshly turned up, and the nest is within three miles."
Xue Yao had no hunting experience and didn't understand the reasoning behind the Seventh Prince's judgment that the wild boar was nearby, and only smiled casually, "Good, I haven't caught a wild boar yet."
The Seventh Prince immediately stepped forward and bowed his head at Xue Yao.
It's not a bow, it's a little chubby pup begging for encouragement and smooth fur.
There was already a tacit understanding between the two, Xue Yao immediately raised his hand and touched the back of His Highness's head, coaxing softly, "Your Highness is the best."
In the evening, Xue Yao and the two imperial princes carried hares and pheasants, and behind them, the two attendants also carried a wild boar, raising their eyebrows in triumph.
The group of companions only brought back a total of five small prey, and could only admit that they had lost the bet and gathered sixty taels of silver, and handed them over to the Fifth Prince in accordance with the rules.
The Fifth Prince generously gave all the silver to Xue Yao.
The faces of the chicken-and-egg chaperones were simply as if they had died.
Back at camp, a campfire was set up outside the tent.
Xue Yao followed the Seventh Prince to the fire and found that the Crown Prince in a white and gold riding suit was also sitting on the south side of the fire, "enjoying himself with the people."
Realizing that there was an empty seat beside the Crown Prince, Xue Yao wanted to shamelessly sneak over there, but the Second Prince raised his hand to greet him first: "Old Seven sit here!"
Knowing that his elder brother liked Lao Qi, the Second Prince would, at all times, make arrangements for his beloved brother.
When the Seventh Prince glanced at the side of his elder brother, there was only one empty seat.
His Highness didn't want to go over there and wanted to sit with Xue Yao.
"Come on!" The Second Prince beckoned impatiently.
The crown prince, on the contrary, did not even look at the seventh brother, his eyes downcast and calmly pounded the fire with a branch.
"Too crowded." The Seventh Prince was not happy to go over there and leisurely made his way to the empty seats on the west side.
"......" The Crown Prince couldn't calm down, glared and scolded sternly, "Come here!"
The Seventh Prince turned his head and headed for his big brother!
When it's time to concede, it's time to concede.
"Sit!" The Prince pointed with his chin-chin to the seat beside him.
The Seventh Prince immediately sat down weakly.
You can't say no to Big Brother's special seat for his little baby.
Xue Yao was envious and wanted to sit next to the crown prince as well.
A soft familiar voice suddenly came from beside me--
"Ayao, come sit here."
When Xue Yao turned his head, he saw the Sixth Prince smiling and narrowing his eyes as he patted the empty space beside him.
The flickering firelight softened in the Sixth Prince's lacquered eyes.
A few of the royal sons talked about the results of their hunting expedition.
After showing off his achievements, the Fifth Prince didn't forget to tell the story of Xue Yao's "100 shots, 100 misses" to make everyone happy.
Because of his good relationship with the three younger emperors, Xue Yao was not too polite with the two older emperors, and intentionally stunk up his face, making excuses for himself, "It's all because the bow is not good, if only I had a beautiful ox-horn bow like Your Highness', I would definitely be able to shoot right on target!"
"Bow feels aggrieved to hear it!" The Fifth Prince teased him.
Several emperors were overjoyed, except for the Seventh Prince, who was eager to eat the roasted suckling pig and got up to go to the barbecue table to look for the cook.
The Third Prince was talking with the Fourth Prince sitting by a secluded fire on the west side of the barbecue.
Close to the water, the first batch of roasted rabbit legs were already in the hands of the two emperors.
As the Seventh Prince approached the fire, he subconsciously looked to see if there was any roasted meat in the hands of his third and fourth brothers.
It was this look that coincided with hearing what Sango was saying--
The Third Prince ripped off a large piece of rabbit leg meat in one bite, mocking as he chewed, "What is that place in Ping Rong County? Father Emperor asked Big Brother to go there to try out the new government because he wanted to frustrate Big Brother and make him realize that he's just a straw man, don't think about all this nonsense all day long and wreak havoc on the people!"
The fourth prince smiled as usual and catered for two sentences, but still politely put forward his own ideas, "Big brother has considered this change of law quite thoroughly, Ping Rong County is a small place, and the resources given to him by father are quite sufficient, so maybe he can really develop."
"Development my ass!" The third prince slapped his face, "A nerd ruling the country is a laughing stock! He looks like a sage all day long, but he can only bluff the father emperor, among our brothers, the most useless is him, you wait and see, this time I must help him ...... oh!"
Before the Third Prince could finish, a figure suddenly sprang out beside him and knocked him over.
"How dare you!" The rabbit leg in his hand was squeezed off on the ground, and the Third Prince angrily tilted his head back to glare at the visitor, exclaiming, "Old Seven? What are you doing bumping into me!"
The Seventh Prince raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the distant grill, signaling that he was going to go get some meat to eat, and then without a word, he walked around Third Brother and prepared to leave.
"Stop!" The Third Prince used his big greasy hand to pull on the Seventh Prince's wrist and violently yanked it back, "You don't have eyes, do you? Two living people are sitting here and can't see, and you bumped into me? And you want to leave without apologizing? There are no rules!"
The Seventh Prince's waist was straight, and he stared at the Third Prince with downcast eyes and said coldly, "Master apologizes."
"Disrespectful! Is this your attitude of apologizing? You ......"
"Forget it ...... Third Brother, Old Seven is still young." Because Concubine Shio had favored Noble Lady Yi, the Fourth Prince wanted to help Old Seven out, and deliberately pointed to his temple, signaling that Old Seven was not in his right mind, so that the Third Prince would not bother with him.
"I had to teach him a lesson! Walking without looking! Not even apologizing for bumping into someone!" The Third Prince looked down at the rabbit leg on the ground that he had only taken a bite of, and immediately pointed at it and raised his head to reprimand, "Look at you look at you! The rabbit leg that was just roasted was knocked off by you! What should I do? Look at you ......"
The Seventh Prince "swoosh" bent down, picked up the rabbit leg on the ground, and violently shoved it into the Third Prince's mouth.
If you squeeze it out, you pick it up and put it back. What else can you do? Stupid.
"Ummm ......" The third prince, who was halfway through his sentence, was gagged by the rabbit leg covered in mud and dirt!
The Fourth Prince was caught off guard with a poof of laughter!
The Third Prince hastily spat out the rabbit's leg and spat out a mouthful of mud and dirt, and angrily got up to beat up his younger brother, only to find that Old Seven's little brat had already run away!
"Don't let me catch you kid!" The Third Prince was so angry that he stomped his feet!
*
After a long day of hunting and a campfire dinner, Xue Yao went back to his tent and fell asleep.
It didn't matter that the two companion readers living with him were red with anger, and they slept until dawn.
Early in the morning, a strange man's voice came from outside the tent.
"Is Eldest Xue here?"
After shouting three times in a row, Xue Yao woke up, dazedly put on his coat, and hurried out to see-
The visitor was an unfamiliar guard, holding a delicate ox-horn bow.
"You're looking for me?" Xue Yao looked at the strange man in wonder.
"Second Prince Xue Yao Xue?" The guard inquired resoundingly.
"That's exactly what I am."
The guard raised his hand with a swish and handed the bow to him, "His Highness ordered me to deliver this bow to you, excuse me."
He said and shoved his bow into Xue Yao's arms.
Xue Yao caught the bow in confusion and was just about to raise his head to inquire when the guard had already turned around and left at a fast pace.
"Eh!" Xue Yao looked down at the bow in his hand, it was actually made of the same material as the royals.
From His Highness?
Which one, Your Highness?
It's not that Xue Yao doesn't have confidence, although she has been raising her cubs for nine years, she is very sure that the seventh prince's little nerd won't give anything to others, and this "His Highness" is definitely not His Highness the seventh prince.
Who could have given him the bow? Why would they give him a bow?