"We don’t deliver, understaffed," the owner quickly replied. But in the next mont, he was slapped back by his wife, "Who says we don’t deliver? Why wouldn’t we? Madam, where do you need the delivery to? Our shop is small, and we have few people, so deliveries need to be arranged early."
The proprietress thought to herself, this old man is really foolish, there’s money to be made, yet he hesitates.
When Yang Chuxia heard the proprietress even recite a catchy rhy, she laughed, "If you can deliver now, I need six baskets of soup dumplings, five bowls of spicy soup, and so marinated eggs." After that, Yang Chuxia ordered so other snacks and gave the address.
She then said to Ye Zi’an, "We didn’t tell Lele and Yangyang that we were going out. If we don’t bring them sothing to eat, Yangyang will make a fuss with you later."
"That kid just needs a good tickling," Ye Zi’an said, his eyes brimming with laughter when talking about their two sons.
The proprietress, hearing that they were sons of the nobility, felt envious again. These days, the more sons one had, the more happiness it signified.
After leaving the snack shop, the carriage headed directly out of the city, and after driving for almost half an hour, it stopped.
"My dear, we’re here," Ye Zi’an lifted the carriage curtain to look outside, and he was very satisfied; it was indeed as he had imagined.
When he hopped down from the carriage, Yang Chuxia followed suit.
Ye Zi’an helplessly remarked, "My dear, you’ve deprived of a chance to show off."
"Haha, the entire day today is left for you to show off," Yang Chuxia laughed as she surveyed the surroundings. The white snow blanketed the area, with tall and upright pine trees sheathed in silver, spaced apart yet beautifully scattered.
Not far away was a lake with a small boat frozen onto it. A little further were rolling hills, where the trees should have been lush and green, but were now covered with a white blanket, so even adorned with cheeky balls of ice.
It was rare but occasionally wild animals could be seen running down from the mountains.
"What is this place?"
"The imperial hunting grounds," Ye Zi’an smiled, "I notified my cousin and the guards beforehand. We are already inside now."
"I see, no wonder there is ga here," Yang Chuxia said with a smile. "You should have told earlier. Had I known we were coming to the hunting grounds, we would have ridden horses and brought a couple of bows and arrows for hunting."
"What do you think this is?" Ye Zi’an replied with a smile, taking out a bow and arrows from the carriage. He continued, "As for the horses, the ones on the carriage will do. I’m not much of a hunter, so we can both ride together. One horse is enough."
"Are there any horses in the guardhouse?" Yang Chuxia asked. "If there are, we can borrow one from inside, send the coachman back with the carriage. It’s pointless for him to wait around here."
"Alright then, I’ll go borrow one. Just give a mont."
Soti later, Ye Zi’an ca leading a horse. After the coachman had left, he said, "Let’s head west in a bit. This morning, I didn’t check the almanac, and wouldn’t you know it, that Prince Le is also in the hunting grounds. Really, instead of spending New Year’s at ho, what’s he doing here?"
Ye Zi’an grumbled a few words, and Yang Chuxia couldn’t help but laugh. She thought to herself that he was one to talk; he also ca here himself.
"Co on, get up!" Ye Zi’an said as he mounted the horse, extending his hand to Yang Chuxia. With his help, she too was soon on the horse.
Together, they leisurely headed west. Whenever they encountered ga, Yang Chuxia would take a shot with her arrow.
"Isn’t it sowhat silly for us to co out hunting so early in the morning?" Yang Chuxia asked along the way.
"Well, since there’s soone else being silly with us, what’s there to worry about?" He was, of course, referring to the Second Prince who had recently been appointed as Prince Le. Besides, he didn’t have much interest in horseback riding or hunting anyway. He knew his wife enjoyed it and simply wanted to spend the limited days they had left together doing the things she liked.
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