Allure of a Country Maiden-Chapter 253 - 251

It wasn’t just the scholars present whose faces were full of disbelief - the blow to Li Yunning was even greater.

Composing poetry off the cuff, answering the lantern riddles without a thought-- is this the gap between her and them?

The gap is as wide as a massive gulf, how can she possibly bridge it?

She excels in the Four Arts, yes, but such accomplishments seem like nothing before the wife of Rui’an County, akin to the difference between a child and the top scholar!

Moreover, she is excellent at both horse-riding and archery, a talent in both literature and martial arts.

Both literature and martial arts? The Sixth Prince is also recognized as such.

So this is the kind of woman he likes.

Li Yunning turned pale from the shock. Would learning them now be too late? As soon as she was on horseback, her body would tremble in fear.

She just stood there, staring absently at the two.

There were also many beautiful palace lanterns at the Rare Treasure Pavilion, and Jingrui and his brothers each managed to solve one or two of the lantern riddles.

"Miss Li, we’ll be on our way. Take your time." Xiao’er said to Li Yunning who was still in shock next to her before walking away.

As soon as they stepped out of the Rare Treasure Pavilion and passed by the toy store, they saw a crowd of people in front but decided not to go in.

They had already seen all the toys at home, so there was nothing new to see. As for the lantern riddles, they wouldn’t pass up the chance to solve those set by others.

Jingrui and his brothers spent all their time studying and preparing for the exams. If it weren’t for Xiao’er dragging them out, they would have preferred to stay at home.

Jinghao was even grouped with his older brothers despite his tender age.

Jingrui and Brother Ri admitted that they felt tremendous pressure. Having a sister who was this outstanding was already putting immense stress on their shoulders, and having a younger brother who was more accomplished than they were was just too much to swallow. Thus, the three of them gave it their all vying against each other.

Fortunately, the three of them had good mental strength, and their competition only brought them closer as brothers.

The three brothers began to compete to see who could solve more lantern riddles.

Before long, they had so many lanterns that they couldn’t carry them all. They decided to give them to some of the common children passing by.

Those children and their parents were illiterate, and even if they wanted to solve the riddles, they wouldn’t know where to start.

They could only look at those beautiful lanterns with envy.

The people on the street began to walk faster, and some of them even started pushing others.

"Hurry up, it’s about to start. If we miss it, we have to wait another year."

"Don’t push, I lost my shoe!"

"Why are you just standing there? You’re so annoying!"

"Ouch, who bumped into me!"

The pedestrians were all impatient and eager to move ahead.

"What’s going on? Is there an exciting performance ahead?" Xiao’er asked, observing the bustling crowd.

"They’re about to set off fireworks outside the city gate." Shangguan Xuanyi pulled Xiao’er in front of him, shielding her.

"Sister, I want to go see it again." Jinghao said to Xiao’er.

Xiao’er nodded.

Following the crowd, they arrived at the city gate, where people were bustling around.

Many soldiers were maintaining order as well.

Shangguan Xuanyi led the group to a corner of the city wall. The gatekeeper, seeing the Sixth Prince, quickly stepped aside and opened the gate for them to enter.

Standing on the high city wall and overlooking the dense crowd, it gave a sense of being atop the world, with everything looking small beneath.

The fireworks soon lit up the sky.

Xiao’er only glanced at them, then turned away. She had seen grander ones, and these were too sparse to pique her interest, not to mention that constantly looking up would give her a sore neck.

Xiao’er walked to the other side, casually observing the dense crowd below.

Then she saw Li Yunning standing below the city walls, talking to the soldier who had let them up earlier.

The soldier shook his head.

This person was really obsessively following them!

Li Yunning had made a complete turnaround in her attitude towards her, and she was not unaware of the reason.

How could Xiao’er genuinely engage with someone who approached her with a motive?

Ignoring her, feeling it was late, Xiao’er just thought to turn back and ask if they were ready to go.

But out of the corner of her eye, she saw a person standing in the window on the second floor of a shop, holding an arrow and aiming at the direction of the Jingrui brothers.

"Brother Ri, watch out!" Xiao’er lunged at Fang Wenri, and they both fell to the ground.

They narrowly avoided the arrow.

"Chase!" Shangguan Xuanyi commanded the general below the city with a grim face, while stepping forward to help Xiao’er up.

In fact, the moment the general saw this scene from the city, he had already sent people to chase him.

He thought the man was trying to assassinate the Sixth Prince.

Fortunately, the Sixth Prince was unharmed, otherwise he did not know if his own death could atone for it.

To prevent herself from landing entirely on Brother Ri, Xiao’er braced the ground with her hands as she fell, her left wrist was scraped raw from the friction.

Shangguan Xuanyi helped Xiao’er up, while the Jingrui brothers helped Brother Ri up.

"Sis, Brother Ri, are either of you hurt?" Yun’er had been watching the fireworks and only snapped back to reality when they fell.

"I’m fine! Brother Ri, are you hurt?"

Shangguan Xuanyi held Xiao’er’s injured hand tightly, bent down and gently touched her knees. Seeing that she did not involuntarily retract due to pain, he eased up a bit.

Shangguan Xuanyi’s face was terrifyingly dark at the moment, like a building enveloped by the gloomy clouds before a rainstorm.

The Jingrui siblings were scared to approach him.

"I’m fine. And you?" Brother Ri shook his head. Although he was at the bottom when they fell, the way he fell was different from Xiao’er’s. He felt a bit of pain in his body, but there were no external injuries.

Xiao’er was just about to say she was fine.

"Sis, your hand is bleeding!" Jinghao, with sharp eyes, noticed and shouted in shock.

"It’s a minor wound, no need to freak..." Xiao’er didn’t finish her sentence before Shangguan Xuanyi picked her up and started walking down.

There’s a lot of dust in the Imperial Capital. The ground was covered with dust and sand, which had filled her wound. It needed to be cleaned before being bandaged.

"Brother Shangguan, I didn’t hurt my foot, I can walk by myself." Xiao’er was startled when she was suddenly picked up.

Shangguan Xuanyi remained silent, his face grim, walking briskly.

The Jingrui trio had to jog to keep up.

Once they were down from the city wall, Shangguan Xuanyi ordered the soldiers to bring the medical box.

"It will hurt a bit, bear with it."

He then prepared to disinfect Xiao’er’s wound with alcohol, while also cleaning the mud around it.

This alcohol was produced from Xiao’er’s winery. She said it was to disinfect wounds, which reduces the likelihood of infection. Hence, the Imperial Court had purchased a lot of it for the soldiers’ use.

"Don’t disinfect the wound with alcohol, just clean the mud around it. I have medicine on me, it will heal quickly once I take it." Pouring alcohol on this wound would definitely be so painful she’d cry!

"Then take it already!" Shangguan Xuanyi said irritably.

Shangguan Xuanyi knew about her medicine. It was potent, and even though he wanted her to learn a lesson through pain, he was very careful when cleaning, trying to avoid touching the part where she was injured.