A Stolen Romance - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Spring Hunt

The end of March is when spring returns to the earth and the human world begins to blossom with peach blossoms.

The skies are high and the clouds are distant over the Nanhai hunting grounds. The grass and trees are lush, and the annual spring hunt is held as scheduled amidst the chirping of swallows and warblers, a scene of pristine clarity.

Shi Yuning watched the red-bronze tray being held up to her. Her eyelashes fluttered, casting a thin shadow in the soft sunlight that concealed the displeasure in her eyes.

“Miss Shi, please place the sachet you’re carrying onto the tray. It will be used as a prize for the archery competition that will follow.”

The palace maid holding the tray saw that Shi Yuning hadn’t moved for a while and guessed that she hadn’t heard her request, so she repeated it.

A look of frustration crossed Shi Yuning’s face. She hadn’t not heard it; she simply didn’t want to do it.

This was her first time participating in the spring hunt, and she knew nothing about these bothersome rules. She had only thought it was a hunting event and never imagined there would be so many other activities.

And all these activities had one purpose: to provide opportunities for unmarried men and women to interact.

The archery competition for the sachet was one of the main events.

First, the unmarried ladies participating in the spring hunt would each take a sachet from their person and hand it to the palace maids. The maids would then attach the name of the corresponding lady to it, and the sachet would be hung as a prize on a six-zhang-long red rope.

The two ends of the rope were hung on pillars that were one zhang tall.

The men participating in the archery competition had to stand behind a red-roped enclosure at the other end of the hunting grounds, nock their bows, and shoot their arrows.

Whoever shot down the prize first would get the corresponding sachet.

Not only that, but according to custom, they would also get to sit at the same table as the owner of the sachet during the evening’s bonfire barbecue feast.

This was a rare opportunity to get close to the woman of one’s fancy, and since it was an event hosted by the royal family, a slightly forward approach would not be frowned upon.

Therefore, the unmarried men and women who came to the spring hunt were all very excited about this event.

All, except for Shi Yuning.

She had no interest in any of the hypocritical, pretentious men in the capital.

If she had known about this beforehand, she would have at least prepared a sachet like the other ladies.

The sachets they had brought were truly exquisite, with complex designs and fine craftsmanship. Even the materials were either gold thread or silk from Hangzhou, shining brilliantly in the sunlight.

They were all brand new, clearly prepared specifically for today.

Shi Yuning looked down at the sachet she was wearing today. Her grandmother had given it to her before she came to the capital.

It was made of the most ordinary coarse fabric from the countryside, the embroidery thread was the most common silk, and the workmanship was average, with some misplaced stitches.

She had been wearing it for more than half a year, and the edges were a bit faded.

In the eyes of others, this might just be an old, worn-out sachet, a prize at best. But to Shi Yuning, it represented her grandmother’s care and her family’s affection.

“Miss Shi?”

The palace maid lingered by Shi Yuning’s side for a long time without moving. The people in the seats nearby all looked toward Shi Yuning, and the palace maid nervously reminded her again.

Shi Yuning saw the palace maid’s anxious face and noticed her body beginning to tremble, as if she were about to kneel.

She sighed deeply. Forget it, I’ll just ask for it back later.

Shi Yuning reluctantly untied the sachet from her waist and gently placed it on the tray the palace maid was holding.

The palace maid’s face was filled with gratitude and relief. She hurried away with the tray toward the Crown Princess, who was in the highest seat.

As the sachet moved, Shi Yuning’s gaze followed it to the head of the table.

For this year’s spring hunt, the Emperor was unwell, so he and the Empress were unable to attend. The Crown Prince was there in their stead.

The Crown Prince was also not in good health, so the spring hunt was entirely organized by the Crown Princess.

The Crown Princess, Xie Zhaoran, was from the Duke of Xie’s family, which had served three generations of emperors. Her family was prominent and loyal. Xie Zhaoran herself had been raised in the palace by her aunt, the Empress, since she was a child. Every movement she made exuded a royal air.

Today, she was not wearing a complicated palace gown but a crimson riding outfit. The style looked simple, yet it was impeccably tailored, making her appear slender with broad shoulders and a narrow waist.

Instead of the usual ribbon that women favored, a leather corset cinched her waist, making her posture look even more upright and elegant.

Her dark hair was tied up high without any adornment, giving her an air of clean, crisp heroism.

She watched with a solemn expression as the palace maids placed the collected sachets in front of her. According to the rules, she had to personally attach a name tag to each sachet before they were handed over to the palace maids to be hung as prizes.

Shi Yuning watched her slender fingers work, elegant but fast, as she tied the name tags onto the sachets one by one.

Her sachet was collected late and was placed last. She wondered if the sachets before hers had tired Xie Zhaoran out, because Shi Yuning felt that she took longer with hers than with the others.

Shi Yuning saw those slender, well-defined fingers wrap a red silk thread several times around her humble, gray sachet. She then pulled the other end of the thread through the wooden name tag and elegantly but decisively tied a knot.

And then she tied another knot.

Shi Yuning raised an eyebrow. She felt that the Crown Princess was being extra careful when tying the string on her sachet. She looked at her sachet with its faded edges and her eyes filled with a flash of understanding.

The Crown Princess must have thought her sachet looked the most worn out and was afraid of damaging it.

This person isn’t as cold as she appears.

Shi Yuning recalled the rumors she had heard when she first came to the capital, saying that Xie Zhaoran was arrogant and, because of her family background, looked down on everyone.

The rumors weren’t entirely baseless. During the month she was forced to learn palace etiquette, Xie Zhaoran always acted as if she didn’t see her.

Six months ago, the Crown Prince fell gravely ill. Xie Zhaoran was married into the Eastern Palace to bring good fortune, as requested by the royal family. Since then, she had never seen Xie Zhaoran again.

Seeing her again today, Xie Zhaoran felt a bit different. What exactly it was, Shi Yuning couldn’t quite put her finger on.

While she was thinking, Xie Zhaoran had already handed the items to the palace maids and announced the start of the event.

The already noisy hunting grounds erupted with cheers that pierced the clouds, becoming as lively as a pot of boiling water.

“Don’t anyone fight me for it, Miss Li’s sachet is mine!”

“You can’t say that. In the hunting grounds, it’s all about skill.”

“Exactly. Miss Li is the number one beauty in the capital. Why should she be yours?”

As soon as the prizes were hung, the most fiercely contested one was that of the Grand Tutor Li’s granddaughter. The young men jostled each other, eager to shoot down Miss Li’s sachet first.

Besides her prize, the sachet of the daughter of the Minister of War was also highly sought after. She was also a great beauty.

Their sachets were in the more central positions, so the men vying for them were all gathered in the middle section of the red line where the competition required them to stand.

Shi Yuning quickly realized that the sachets were all hung on the same rope.

The closer to the center, the more the rope would sway, making the difficulty higher.

So, they put the popular ladies’ sachets in the middle to increase the difficulty and make the event more entertaining.

Shi Yuning looked to both sides, trying to find where her sachet was hung. She looked in the left corner—it wasn’t there. Her eyes then shifted to the far right—it wasn’t there either.

She was a little curious and scanned from right to left. When she reached the exact center, she saw her inconspicuous, gray sachet swaying in the wind.

It was squeezed in between Miss Li’s and Miss Wang’s, right in the middle of everything.

Shi Yuning’s eyes widened in surprise, and she stood up from her seat. She stretched her neck to take a closer look. It really was her sachet.

What’s going on? Why is mine in the middle?

Shi Yuning turned her head to look at the highest seat. The Crown Princess was seated there, her gaze fixed on the distance. Shi Yuning followed her gaze, and it was right on the middle of the rope.

Shi Yuning was full of questions. Was this a coincidence, or was it a deliberate act by Xie Zhaoran?

Just then, Prince Yu, dressed in a riding and archery outfit, approached from the distance with a large, imposing group of people. They stopped precisely at the center of the red line.

The guards beside him pushed aside the people who were in the way in front of the red rope.

“Everyone, get away! Don’t disrupt Prince Yu’s archery.”

Shi Yuning’s heart sank. She had seen Prince Yu leave earlier and thought he wasn’t interested and had gone hunting on his own.

But now that he was in riding gear and holding a top-notch bow and arrow, it seemed he had prepared specifically and was determined to win.

“Brother Chen, that’s a superior bow. It seems Prince Yu came prepared today. I wonder which lady has caught his eye?”

The son of Minister Chen shouted, though his words didn’t convey much doubt.

With his intentional loud question, everyone’s eyes turned to Shi Yuning in unison.

The gossips had already started to cheer and jeer.

“Brother Chen, that’s an unnecessary question. Who in the capital doesn’t know that Prince Yu has set his sights on Miss Shi?”

Shi Yuning’s heart stopped. Her worst fear had come true.

Prince Yu stretched his arms and said arrogantly, “That’s right, I came for Miss Shi. If anyone wants to challenge me, I’ll give them three arrows’ head start.”

As he said this, his eyes were burning as he looked directly at Shi Yuning. His face was full of arrogance, as if he was certain no one would dare to compete with him.

And he was right.

As soon as he finished speaking, the people beside him all backed away.

“How could we dare? Besides, who are we to even think of Miss Shi?”

“Exactly. The Prince is mighty, and he is a worthy match for a martial family’s daughter like Miss Shi.”

“We are only fit to cheer on the Prince.”

Prince Yu smirked at Shi Yuning. “Miss Shi, I look forward to sharing a drink with you tonight.”

The expression on Shi Yuning’s face was frozen. She couldn’t stand Prince Yu’s self-important, flirtatious winking.

Whenever he made that face, his flat nose would twitch uncontrollably.

When Shi Yuning was in the countryside, she would see pigs’ noses twitch like that when they grunted while eating.

This Prince Yu was truly foolish and wicked. The Crown Prince had married into the Xie family, so he wanted to marry into the Shi family, which also commanded military power.

This simple-minded plan, where he pretended to have fallen for Shi Yuning and announced to the entire capital that he wanted to marry her and make her his Princess, was something only his stupid brain could come up with.

She quickly turned her gaze away, looking toward the gray sachet swaying in the wind.

Just thinking about it falling into Prince Yu’s hands made her feel as disgusted as if she had swallowed a bug.

Prince Yu was already full of confidence as he nocked and drew his bow, but he missed every single time.

“The wind is strong today. Let me get a feel for it. I am determined to have Miss Shi’s sachet today. I advise everyone to look for others’.”

When he said this, no one dared to question him about breaking the rules, and no one dared to argue.

A few nobles who had originally intended to use this opportunity to get to know Shi Yuning could only leave in disappointment to find other women who caught their eye.

Shi Yuning was so annoyed she almost laughed. Prince Yu was becoming more arrogant by the day.

The current Emperor of Da Ye had two sons: the eldest was named the Crown Prince, and the second was named Prince Yu. The Crown Prince had been frail since childhood and was often bedridden.

Last month, the Crown Prince had even fallen into a coma, and rumors were quietly spreading that he would not live past twenty.

The Crown Prince was currently nineteen.

With Prince Yu’s unstoppable momentum, everyone assumed that once the Crown Prince died, the position would go to Prince Yu.

Shi Yuning pouted. The current Emperor was a lifelong soldier, wise and mighty. How could he have a son who was a sickly weakling and another who was a pig-brained simpleton?

Prince Yu quickly used up all the arrows in his quiver.

The closest his arrow got was when the arrowhead barely grazed the sachet before falling. Shi Yuning watched, feeling anxious and frustrated.

She looked at the men around her, who were making excuses for Prince Yu, saying the wind was strong, the middle was swaying, and the difficulty was too high. She gave up on the idea of asking them to shoot down her sachet.

She only hoped that Prince Yu would eventually give up and have some self-awareness.

Prince Yu’s guards had already prepared a new, full quiver of arrows for him.

They even urged Prince Yu to move forward two or three steps. The red line that marked the rule had been pushed out in the middle, creating a hill-like curve.

He was cheating!

Shi Yuning had a new understanding of Prince Yu’s shamelessness.

This time, with the shorter distance, Prince Yu’s arrow grazed the hanging name tag and fell to the ground.

A guard beside him cheered, as if victory was within reach.

Shi Yuning lowered her head, looking for small stones to use as a concealed weapon. She wanted to throw a few at that pig’s brain to vent her anger.

As she looked up and stood, a red-fletched arrow shot past her with the force of a mountain-splitting wave.

With a swish, it flew over everyone’s heads and with a thunk, it lodged firmly into the name tag.

The immense momentum tore the string, and the red-fletched arrow, with the name tag attached, shot out seven or eight meters and pinned itself to the fence at the edge of the hunting grounds!

The red rope shook violently, and all the sachets trembled.

Even the red fletching of the arrow was still vibrating.

Only Shi Yuning’s sachet remained, pressed against the fence, still and suspended in the air.

Shi Yuning suddenly turned her head. In the soft sunlight, Xie Zhaoran, in her crimson riding outfit, was lowering her bow. Her dark eyes seemed to swirl with the low-hanging clouds in the sky, and she was looking straight at her.

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