Madam Yan's Matchmaking Pavilion for Men

72 A Hunt, Too Many Questions

The guests of the trip formed groups and then entered the forest one after the other. The emperor actually stayed at the camp, unwilling to step out of his tent again after he had announced the beginning of the first hunt.

Well, news of his argument with General Yu had already spread so nobody was too surprised at this. In fact, the guests were quite happy that he didn't come. Otherwise, they would really need to watch what they said and did so as to not become a scapegoat for him to vent his anger.

Zhang Shi Lan used the excuse that he didn't understand too much about hunting himself and asked Yu Huang Rong to take care of him on the grounds of their friendship. He even did so in front of several people to make sure that everybody would know that they had been together when the ambush happened.

The bystanders weren't able not to look. They watched as the General's expression that had still been stormy turned a bit better until he finally nodded his head. It truly made them feel that the relationship between the General and this young scholar was quite close. Seeing this, they couldn't help but inquire what was going on with this and finally, almost everybody knew that Yu Huang Rong had also visited the Academy a while ago together with Zhang Shi Lan. Ah, the fact that Zhang Shi Lan had been chosen to receive a position at the Academy was spread as well. All things considered, it could be said that their plan was well underway.

Thus the two of them entered the forest together, their thoughts on the future.

When they were a little further in the forest, Zhang Shi Lan held the reins of his horse and looked around warily. He couldn't help but give a light sigh. "I said that before to have a good excuse to speak to you but to be honest, it's not completely wrong. I really don't know much about hunting."

Yu Huang Rong reached over and patted his arm, the seemingly bad mood nowhere in sight. "Don't worry about it. Actually, if this was a real hunt, it would be enough if you just sat on the horse and followed me. I can hunt enough to make sure that the two of us won't lose face."

Zhang Shi Lan nodded his head. "That's good then. I don't want to make this even more difficult."

Yu Huang Rong shook his head. "You wouldn't. This is —" He suddenly stopped speaking and sat up straight, his brows furring together while his gaze darted around.

Zhang Shi Lan didn't dare to speak but couldn't help and lean forward, trying to get a clearer look at Yu Huang Rong's face. Had something happened? His expression really looked grave. "Huang Rong?"

Yu Huang Rong unsheathed his weapon and glanced at him. "They're here." He tightened his grip around his sword and steered his horse closer to Zhang Shi Lan. He could hardly believe that they were really there already. Who would've thought that they would act so soon? But, well, this was in line with giving Zhang Shi Lan a little more time to rest after this incident while the rumors spread. He probably shouldn't have been this surprised. Still, it made him feel a little ill at ease. Even if they were only pretending to get ambushed, the kind of feeling of several men closing in on them with the intent to kill wasn't nice at all.

A moment later, a few figures clad in black rushed at Yu Huang Rong with their weapons drawn.

Yu Huang Rong furrowed his brows and deflected a few of their blows, directing his horse in front of Zhang Shi Lan so nothing would happen to him. They didn't know if anybody was close by and had to make this look convincing.

Seeing that Yu Huang Rong was trying to shield Zhang Shi Lan behind him, the masked men seemed as if they wanted to take advantage of this. One of them rushed over to Zhang Shi Lan, pretending to want to kill him off so that Yu Huang Rong had to turn to the side.