Chapter 534. Pleasantly Surprised (1/2)
For the time being, Little Black decided to believe his ‘sincerity’. However, the wolf didn’t forget to bare his teeth at the youth one more time. Its meaning was very clear: ‘If you decide to play some tricks, just watch as I make you show your bare butt to everyone again!!’
With someone to help move the game, Little Black gleefully ran to the area where it had hidden its spoils and dragged out what it had caught one after another. There truly was a lot of game to be found at the hunting grounds. In a short period of time, the wolf was able to kill around a dozen prey.
Among them included a roebuck, a deer, and a roe deer. It also caught ferrets, red foxes, hazel grouses and other animals that were highly valued for their furs or delicate meat. It even had killed a giant elk that had to weigh around four to five hundred catties. Little Black was extremely strong to be able to drag over a piece of game that was even larger than it was.
When Little White got ‘the news’, it also hurried over to bring over what it had killed. Its haul was no smaller than Little Black’s and had about the same variety as its brother. However, Little White had an addition of a beautiful animal from the wild cat family——an Amur leopard.
From Ning Donghuan’s understanding of the Amur leopard, this creature had a very keen sense of smell, which helped it stalk its prey. It had four slender legs, razor sharp claws, and incredibly sharp teeth that were all used to strike its prey dead with one blow. Out of all of the animals in the kingdom, Amur leopards were considered one of the top three hunters. Let alone smaller prey, it routinely dined on larger, more dangerous animals like wild boars and black bears.
He would have never have expected that Little White, who he had determined to be a ‘proud and adorable pet’, actually had the ability to fight with an Amur leopard and even kill it without getting a single injury. Ning Donghuan’s understanding of the two wolves’ hunting ability had gone up another few notches.
By the afternoon, Ning Donghuan and his two hunting dogs had been downgraded to transporting game for the two wolves. Along with his two servants, they hauled the game on their shoulders before riding on their horses back. When he got back to the main campgrounds, he was simultaneously gratified and a bit at a loss when he saw that the pile of game in front of him was the largest of the lot. Unfortunately, more than half of the game wasn’t considered his, so he could only be happy for a short while.
Little Black and Little White appeared to blindly follow him from behind. In other people’s eyes, the procession was quite grand and impressive but Ning Donghuan knew that these two were only keeping a close eye on him. As soon as he showed a hint of trying to snatch away their game, they would start biting at his buttocks in revenge.
Therefore, as soon as Xiaocao appeared, Ning Donghuan hurriedly delivered these ‘hot potatoes’ to her, “Miss Xiaocao, this pile of game is all from the efforts of your two hunting dogs. This one is merely helping them bring them over for you. No need to thank me at all!”
The two of them sat in front of Xiaocao, one on the right and one on the left. Their azure blue eyes glittered with joy. Little Black looked especially happy as it used its paw to point at the wild boar that it had killed. The expression on its face clearly showed that it was asking for compliments. Xiaocao stood on her tiptoes and used her hands to stroke their heads before giving them each a large hug.
Out of all of the game here, she didn’t seem very interested in the largest ones – the wild boar and elk. As for the delicate looking hazel grouse, the sables and red foxes that had gleaming fur, she took a second look at those. Little Black seemed to have learned something from that first day as in the following days, it ended up killing many hazel grouses, sables, and red foxes.
Sable fur was a valuable type of pelt and was considered one of the three treasures of the northeast, along with ginseng and young deer antler. In some previous dynasties, only officials of a high enough rank were entitled to wear clothing made from sable fur to show their status. In fact, there was a saying about all of this: ‘First-ranked wears silver fox, second-ranked sable, third and fourth-ranked are allowed to wear common fox’. The meaning was very clear. Only second-ranked officials and above had the qualifications to wear sable fur. Fortunately, the current dynasty didn’t have such a custom. Otherwise, Xiaocao, who was only a sixth-ranked official, was quite a bit away from being able to wear sable fur.
Although red fox fur was not as famous and valuable as silver fox fur, it was brightly colored and was often liked by young maidens. Red foxes were a commonly seen creature in the northeast of the country and the red foxes in these areas had full thick pelts with gloriously colored fur. Therefore, by the time the hunt ended, Yu Xiaocao ended up with around thirty to forty red fox pelts in her luggage and had around a dozen sable pelts as well. The young maidens who were close to her, such as He Wanning, Royal Princess Minglan, Yuan Xueyan, Yu Wanqing and Li Mengru, all got a few red fox fur pelts from her. She gave some sable pelts to the empress, Princess Consort Jing, her godmother and mother. In the end, she only had enough furs left to make two sets of clothing for herself. Naturally, this was all in the future.
After checking the amount of game that each person who had participated on the first day had caught, as the master of Little Black and Little White, Yu Xiaocao had almost placed in the top three. If they had added on the tiger that the emperor had taken away from her, she absolutely would have placed in the top three and might have even been a contender for first place. Other than giving out the first three prizes, the emperor had also taken off a dragon-shaped jade pendant and given it to Yu Xiaocao, who had been looking at him in grievance this entire time.
The dragon-shaped jade pendant had been given to the emperor during his full moon ceremony [1] by the emperor emeritus. Seeing the jade pendant was akin to seeing the emperor himself. Whoever had this pendant, no matter what sort of crime he or she committed, it could all be forgiven. Thus, it was equivalent to the golden token that excused being sentenced to the death penalty. The people who had taken the first three positions in the hunting competition were very envious of this prize. However, when they found out that Official Yu had risked her life to save the eldest imperial prince, they had no objections to this anymore. After all, the court only had this one prince, so his safety was absolutely more important than a mere jade pendant.
After receiving the equivalent to the ‘golden token that saved one from the death penalty’ and the ‘sword that bestowed imperial power’, Yu Xiaocao suddenly felt that the tiger pelt was no longer as important as before. Her large pair of eyes crinkled up in a joyous smile and her whole face resembled a tiny squirrel who had just stolen a hazelnut.
A few chancellors at court, who were very good at toadying up for personal gain, looked at her now in a different light. They were all wondering if there were any suitable descendants at home who could possibly become a good marriage match for little Official Yu. After all, she was heavily favored by the emperor so it might not be a bad idea to make an alliance with her. Furthermore, those officials who claimed that Yu Xiaocao was a ‘woman who usurped authority’ were once again squarely slapped in the face by the sight of this little lass gaining more favor from the emperor through her own skills and efforts.
For the next following few days, the hunt continued with enthusiasm from all participants. The younger generation all did their best to fight over the first three places. It was normally hard to come by a chance to show their faces in front of the emperor.