The pre-hunt banquet was filled with singing and dancing, and the dishes were sumptuous, but Bai Heting barely ate a few bites.
Before the banquet began, when it was his turn to audience with the king, Bai Yi merely gave a cold and indifferent response of “Rise,” without even bothering to lift his eyelids. In contrast, it was the queen who smiled and greeted him with a few words.
He had already lost any desire to eat, and seeing Shao Yixiao when he went to visit Bai Jiashu only made his stomach churn even more.
Bai Jiashu was dining with Shao Yixiao in a private hall. When he saw him approach, Shao Yixiao turned his gaze toward him, casually squeezing the Omega seated in his arms, causing the Omega to let out a soft, whimpering moan.
He was not yet married, and bringing a lover to this kind of occasion was completely against protocol. However, since the Crown Prince said nothing, no one else would utter a word of criticism.
Bai Heting saluted Bai Jiashu and was about to leave.
“General Bai.” Shao Yixiao released the person in his arms, raised his wine glass, and made a gesture to detain him. “I almost forgot, General Bai cannot stand this sort of thing. I’ll penalize myself with a drink.” He tipped his head back and emptied the glass in one go, gestured for the eighteen- or nineteen-year-old Omega to leave, then instructed someone to pour him another drink. Raising his glass once more, he said, “Let me toast General Bai again.”
Bai Heting glanced at Bai Jiashu; the young crown prince already looked tipsy. Although Bai Jiashu possessed the noble status of a prince and had differentiated into an Alpha early on, his pheromones were of the most ordinary Tier 1. He had absolutely no interest in hunting and would merely ride inside a carriage each time just to put on a show; this time would clearly be no exception.
Standing upright at the entrance hall, Bai Heting spoke in a cool, detached voice, “We’re heading to the hunting grounds this afternoon. Drinking would be inconvenient.”
“It’s just a little bit of wine; it won’t affect General Bai’s performance in the hunting grounds.” Shao Yixiao turned halfway around and viciously kicked his attendant. “Are you blind? Go get a wine glass for the General already!”
“Heting.” Bai Jiashu also spoke up.
The two of them were the same age with Bai Jiashu born a few months later. He used to address him by his full name, but in recent years, he had dropped the surname.
“What are you doing out here all by yourself?” The crown prince took the wine glass handed over by the attendant, personally filled it to the brim for him, and waved him over. “Don’t be angry, come over and have a few drinks together.”
*
Bai Heting rode his horse forward along the densely vegetated mountain paths, still regretting having had those few drinks on an empty stomach at noon. Now that the alcohol was kicking in, he didn’t feel comfortable anywhere in his body.
His brows had been tightly furrowed the entire way. Just as Qiu Chen was about to advise him to take a break on the spot, Bai Heting suddenly reined in his horse and simultaneously made a gesture for everyone to be silent.
Deep within the forest, a stretch of tall grass rippled violently like a rushing tide before swiftly settling back into stillness.
Gazing into the distance, Bai Heting brushed a hand over the quiver at his waist and instructed Qiu Chen, “Take them and bring the equipment back to camp.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he forcefully kicked his horse’s flanks before galloping away and disappearing into the jungle.
This was also Qiu Chen’s first time participating in a royal hunting event hosted by the king alongside Bai Heting. Bai Heting had warned him beforehand that the guard detail didn’t need to do anything else besides follow from behind. Who would have thought that once they entered the hunting grounds, even following wouldn’t be necessary. Before he could speak to the others, a gust of wind whistled past his ears—
That Alpha had also galloped off in the direction Bai Heting had left.
Qiu Chen fell silent for a few seconds, then ordered two of them to catch up with the general, while the remaining two went with him to deliver the supplies to the camp.
*
Although the royal hunting grounds were located deep in the wilderness, they were overseen by dedicated personnel. Nobles customarily brought hunting falcons and hounds with them when they hunted, and in the past, a few even kept cheetahs for the sport. However, two years earlier, a serious incident occurred when a cheetah attacked and injured someone; and the victim happened to be the Chief Justice. The uproar was so great that the king had no choice but to issue an order banning anyone from bringing cheetahs into the hunting grounds ever again. He also commanded that the more aggressive wild animals in the area be hunted down and culled.
In the end, the only large animal commonly found here was deer, antelope, and wild boar.
Bai Heting parted the half meter-tall plants with his bare hands and pulled a wooden arrow stamped with his personal coat of arms out of the dirt.
Bringing a cheetah into the grounds was tantamount to openly defying a royal decree; no matter how high the reward, no one would be foolish enough to risk their own head.
Yet, on this semi-moist soil, there were clearly several plum-blossom-shaped footprints the size of an adult’s fist.
The tips of the claws were clearly visible; it was indeed a cheetah.
Although cheetahs possessed explosive power and incredible speed, they also had a fatal weakness that could not be ignored.
Their endurance was extremely poor.
Bai Heting remounted his horse; this wild leopard had finally piqued a bit of General Bai’s interest in the hunt.
*
Luo Congye kept his lips pressed into a stiff, straight line, while his handsome brows drooped low, leaving him looking thoroughly dispirited.
He seemed to have been born with just a bit more natural talent on horseback than others, having been lifted onto a horse by his mother at the age of three. Within the guard regiment, apart from the first six months after he enlisted, he had never been beaten by anyone in either horse racing or mounted archery.
However, riding a horse through a jungle was clearly a different story from galloping across flat ground. Although he had long known that General Bai’s horsemanship was superb, he hadn’t expected to be left in the dust in the blink of an eye. Luo Congye could only rely on a trace of faint, lingering pheromones to confirm the route forward.
The renovated royal hunting grounds spanned nearly ten million mu. He had been chasing after Bai Heting for quite a while now, and at this point, he could no longer tell where he was. The only certainty was that the red sun was slowly sinking ahead of him, meaning the west lay before him.
While Luo Congye was still feeling frustrated, a flock of birds in the forest suddenly took flight in panic. The rapid thunder of hoofbeats approached from the distance, and a white horse burst through the tall grass, galloping straight toward him.
It was moving too fast; Luo Congye didn’t even have time to discern whether it was Bai Heting’s mount.
But in the instant that horse swept past him, he saw it—or rather, he smelled it: a streak of fir-scented blood staining the snow-white mane.
T/N: I’m gonna update daily from now one ^^
