Watching the figure in hempen robes and a cloak drift away atop the red cloud.
Wuyan Lanzhu pouted. "What's with that? His Majesty the Emperor sends the tribes so many books every year. From the way you stumbled over your words, I've read far more books than you!"
Of course, she couldn't say that to her "benefactor"; she could only grumble about it in private.
"Ah!"
She took one more look at that retreating back, then dejectedly turned her horse around.
She murmured, "I was thinking, if you were handsome, I'd ask you—'I have cattle, sheep, horses, and pastures. Would you be willing to stay?' If you weren't handsome, I'd give you five cows... Ah, you just left like that. So were you handsome or not?"
As she spoke, she lightly slapped her own mouth. "Wuyan Lanzhu, Wuyan Lanzhu, how can you be so shallow?"
Then she broke into a radiant smile.
Her cattle, sheep, and pastures had all been spared. There was no need to worry about not finding a handsome man, and the future was as bright as the sky at this moment.
Jiang Wang had no idea he had avoided a "trial" of his appearance. He galloped across the endless grasslands, and both he and the chestnut horse were exhilarated.
Several more days passed like this.
Estimating that he was nearing the Supreme Royal Court, he casually found a herd of wild horses and set the chestnut horse free.
He even secretly watched the chestnut horse contend with the herd's stallion king, lending it a little "help" and witnessing its coronation before leisurely walking away with his staff.
Rain or shine, wind or snow—so long as one had the leisure, every day was a fine season.
He continued eastward. As the variegated pasturelands gradually returned