Chapter 19: Taming
Before transmigrating, Zhao An had ridden a bicycle, a motorcycle, and even a mutated beast, but he had never ridden a horse. All his memories of horse riding came from the original body, yet he showed no fear. He chose the tallest and strongest jujube-red horse and mounted it using the stirrup.
When he gripped the reins and looked down at Hu Sheng from his high vantage point, he saw a flash of amazement and appreciation in his gaze. This made him straighten his back even more, hoping to improve his image.
The two rode their horses, slowly making their way out of Changxi County. Zhao An, riding in front, finally couldn’t resist turning back to look at Hu Sheng. He had to admit, he looked very handsome on a horse.
“Let’s race and see who gets to Zhaojia Village first,” Zhao An said, then squeezed the horse’s belly with his legs, lightly flicked the whip, and galloped off first.
Naturally, Hu Sheng was not one to be outdone. He skillfully urged his horse to chase after him. Zhao An had only managed a lead of less than a hundred meters before he was caught up. Then, Hu Sheng overtook him and, on the speeding horse, turned his head to give him a brilliant smile. In the sunlight, his beautiful eyes shone like stars in the sky.
Then, after a turn, Hu Sheng’s figure disappeared from Zhao An’s sight. Zhao An, who had fallen far behind, quickly whipped the horse’s rump to increase its speed.
The two chased each other like this, and in less than a ke, they reached the boundary of Zhaojia Village. They stopped by a paddy field at the very edge. By this time, not only were the horses panting heavily, but Zhao An, who was riding a horse for the first time, was also panting, large beads of sweat dripping from his forehead. He rolled up his sleeves to wipe away the sweat and steadied his breathing before smiling at Hu Sheng. “We agreed on a race. Why did you let me win?” But there was no hint of complaint in his tone.
Hu Sheng just smiled and took out the water flask hanging from his saddle. “Have a drink of water first.”
Zhao An didn’t refuse. He was already dying of thirst. Because he drank too eagerly, a small stream of water flowed down his chin, along his neck, and into his collar.
He gulped down half the flask of water. When he looked up, he met Hu Sheng’s deepened gaze. The other man seemed to be pursing his lips. Zhao An quickly handed the flask over. “You must be thirsty too.”
Hu Sheng took the flask and gave Zhao An a meaningful look before he started to drink. Zhao An’s heart pounded wildly at his gaze. Could it be that Hu Sheng thinks I handed him the flask to deliberately set up an indirect kiss?
The principle of the ambiguous phase is to be unable to stop overthinking. Zhao An gently shook his head, hoping he could quickly return to normal.
Just then, a person came running hurriedly along the path by the field. Seeing Zhao An from a distance, he immediately cried out, “Young Master Zhao, hurry back! Something’s happened at your house!”
Zhao An was somewhat familiar with this person; it was Liu Huan’s youngest son, Liu Guijin. Zhao An knew he probably wouldn’t lie to him. He immediately rode his horse forward and asked, “What happened?”
Seeing Zhao An riding towards him, Liu Guijin immediately turned and ran back, explaining what had happened as he ran.
Not long after Zhao An had left this morning, Zhao Fuxiang had slipped into his house from the bamboo forest in the backyard and was bitten by the wolf. Zhao Fuxiang had run around the house and finally managed to escape by climbing over the wall, but his arm was bitten and his leg was broken. He could only lie on the ground, wailing in pain.
If it were just that, the other villagers wouldn’t have been so anxious. The main problem was that the wolf, having seen blood and been provoked, also began to howl wildly and kept clawing at Zhao An’s door. By the time the villagers, attracted by the howling, arrived at Zhao An’s house, they found that the wolf had already clawed a small hole in the door.
Everyone was shocked. The villagers were afraid that if the wolf escaped from Zhao’s house, it would bring disaster to the village. Someone took a hoe and tried to hit the wolf through the small hole, but unexpectedly, this only made the hole bigger, so that the wolf’s head could stick out and roar at the villagers outside.
If it weren’t for the two hunters in the village arriving in time, climbing onto Zhao An’s courtyard wall, and shooting two arrows at the wolf, injuring its paw and forcing it to hide behind the eaves, it would have probably broken through Zhao An’s door and run into the village long ago.
But the wolf was very cunning. The hunters only had three iron arrows that could cause real damage, besides the less lethal bamboo arrows. Apart from injuring its paw, they hadn’t been able to harm it any further.
The situation had reached a stalemate. Only then did Liu Huan remember to send his youngest son to the city to find Zhao An, the person responsible. Since he had been able to subdue the wolf on the mountain, he believed he should have a way to break the current deadlock.
By the time Liu Guijin finished explaining everything, they had already run to Zhao An’s doorstep. By now, his house was surrounded three layers deep by all the able-bodied men of the village. As for the old, weak, sick, and disabled, they had all been sent back home with their doors tightly shut to prevent any accidents if the wolf were to escape and harm them.
“Make way, make way! Young Master Zhao is back!” In fact, some villagers had already spotted Zhao An and Hu Sheng when they appeared on horseback, but Liu Guijin still shouted loudly.
The villagers’ attitude towards Zhao An was a mixture of respect and fear. Seeing him arrive, they immediately made way for him. Liu Huan also hurried over. “Young Master Zhao, can you climb over the wall first and subdue that wolf?”
He only dared to make such a request because he had seen how efficiently Zhao An had dealt with Zhao Tongming’s family.
But at least he had a pleading attitude, bowing to Zhao An as soon as he appeared. In contrast, Zhao Tongming, who was standing to the side with his other two sons, said through gritted teeth with a vicious expression, “You brought a wolf back to the village with ill intentions. This time, you must kill it, or the whole village will be harmed by you.”
Zhao An looked at Zhao Fuxiang, who was still lying on the ground, breathing painfully, and flew into a rage. “If it weren’t for thieves like him, who would want to keep a wolf at home? It seems my decision was right after all,” Zhao An retorted, not to be outdone.
But he also knew that now was not the time to get entangled with Zhao Tongming and his family. After dismounting, he was about to climb the wall into the courtyard. But unexpectedly, Hu Sheng was faster than him. He stepped on the saddle and had already leaped over Zhao An’s courtyard wall.
By the time Zhao An jumped onto the wall and used his hands to pull himself up, he saw that he had already knocked the wolf down with one punch.
After being knocked down, the wolf got up again and bared its teeth at Hu Sheng, only to receive another punch. When it got up again, it had stiffly started to wag its tail.
Zhao An was dumbfounded. He had thought this wolf was untamable, but it had submitted after just two hits. This made him reflect on whether his previous methods had been too gentle.
