Chapter 99 Mengqin Envoy

Chapter 99: The Mengqin Delegation

"Three years ago?" Cong Shuang waved a hand in front of Qin Jiao’s face.

Seeing that Qin Jiao didn't respond, Cong Shuang gave him a nudge.

"Ah? What? Oh, Sister Congshuang, it's nothing, really, I'm fine."

Qin Jiao's words came out jumbled. Cong Shuang frowned suspiciously and asked using hand signals, "You were just mumbling 'three years ago' over and over. What happened three years ago?"

When Cong Shuang entered the room, Qin Jiao was talking to himself in a low voice. She didn't catch anything else—just him going on about "three years ago."

"And who was that person who just left? That cloak was pretty scary."

Qin Jiao thought, scary as that was, it couldn't match how terrifying people could be.

"Sister Congshuang, I'll write a letter later. Could you take it to the prince's residence and give it to him directly?" Qin Jiao didn't answer Cong Shuang's question but changed the subject.

Seeing how serious he looked, Cong Shuang didn't press further and simply replied, "Mhm."

The next day, Cong Shuang personally took Qin Jiao's letter to the prince's residence. When she returned, she brought back a basket of drunken crabs and a reply from Xie Nai.

After sending Cong Shuang away, Qin Jiao unfolded the reply...

——

In no time, the heavy snow melted, and a thin layer of green spread across the ground. The colors of spring gradually took over the landscape.

In the fourth month, the foreign envoy Wu Fei arrived in the capital with his delegation.

The Ministry of Rites put together a thorough welcome ceremony. Everyone from the Mengqin tribe, including High Priest Wu Fei, acted sincere, like they really just came to wish Xie Xuanran a happy birthday. Everything was peaceful and uneventful, so the final ceremony went off without a hitch, more or less.

The delegation had been in the capital for about two weeks and was supposed to leave the next day, but High Priest Wu Fei had heard about the Tianyuan Dynasty's "Spring Hunt" custom and wanted to see it.

The Spring Hunt was one of the Tianyuan Dynasty's four seasonal hunts. Every year from March to May, the emperor would take the princes, nobles, and ministers out to the forest for a hunt. "Sou" meant "search"—they'd hunt non-breeding birds in spring to keep their numbers from exploding and damaging crops in summer.

This time, High Priest Wu Fei led the delegation to the capital, humbly following all the rules and formalities, as if seeking peace. Every Tianyuan emperor had governed by the motto "stop war, put people first," and most of the court and the people were in favor of peace when it came to foreign threats.

War hurts the people, and hurting the people hurts the country. After talking it over, Xie Xuanran and his ministers decided the Spring Hunt was a chance to intimidate Mengqin and show off Tianyuan's strength, while also mixing firmness with leniency to signal goodwill—a win-win.

Thus, the "Spring Hunt" at the northern suburb forest was decided. By custom, Tianyuan nobles, ministers, and scholars could all bring their families.

Qin Jiao was frail and no good at riding or archery, so he hadn't planned to go. But then Qin Yuanshan went and submitted his name along with Qin Ji, Qin Han, and Qin Chaole's to the Internal Affairs Department. In the end, Qin Jiao had no choice but to follow the Qin family to the northern suburb forest.

In April, the northern suburb forest was bustling with life. The distant mountains were thick with greenery, and a spring breeze brushed the flower clusters nearby. Occasionally, animals like red deer, roe deer, hares, and pheasants would startle and dart through the dense forest, causing cheers and gasps from the crowd.

Several teams of Imperial Guards patrolled back and forth around the forest, their eyes sharp and expressions vigilant. In the paddock to the right, rows of strong, spirited horses stamped and neighed.

"Today is really lively, almost like the New Year festivities!"

Jiang Qingrong was dressed in a black riding outfit embroidered with a bamboo pattern, looking sharp and full of energy.

At the moment, he was dragging Qin Jiao to watch the excitement in the crowd. Even though it was a hunt, lots of noble ladies, young misses, and bookish types who couldn't ride or shoot had also shown up. So a separate area had been set up at the northernmost part of the forest, with activities like chuiwan, cuju, archery, and pitch-pot for their entertainment.

"Qing Rong, I want to go over there and take a look."

Flags fluttered in the wind within the forest, and the lively drumbeats resounded to the heavens. Jiang Qingrong couldn't hear what Qin Jiao said at first, and only after asking again did he understand that Qin Jiao wanted to go to the archery area.

Jiang Qingrong took a glance and saw that there were indeed fewer people in the archery area, and Qin Ji and Qin Han were also there.

"Hey, your third brother is there too, and surprisingly he's practicing archery. Perfect, let's go over and see how his archery skills are."

Jiang Qingrong pulled Qin Jiao over. As soon as they stopped, loud cheers erupted from the crowd: "Great!" "Amazing!" "Young master's archery is truly excellent!"

Qin Jiao turned to look and saw the delicate Qin Chaole shoot another arrow, hitting the bullseye perfectly. The crowd burst into another round of admiration.

He didn't expect Qin Chaole to have such archery skills.

Just as Qin Jiao was thinking, a bow was handed directly to him.

"Brother, would you like to compete with me?" Qin Chaole smiled lightly at Qin Jiao.

"Thank you for the invitation, Third Brother, but no need." Qin Jiao waved his hand and did not take the bow.

Qin Chaole's face showed a gentle smile, but his words were sharp: "What's the matter, Brother, are you afraid? Afraid of losing to me?"

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