Chapter 574. Cover Up (1/2)
The little black colt, who had just received the name of ‘Black Whirlwind’, soon became a frequent visitor at the stud farm’s courtyard. Xiaocao’s and Zhu Junyang’s people all knew that he was the son of Little Red and were very lenient towards him. The servants working there had already known that he was the most promising foal they had at the farm, but now they were even more caring around him.
The little fellow went in and out of the courtyard all of the time and he often headed into the inner courtyard’s makeshift pharmacy. In fact, he was almost there every day because he was gluttonous and knew that the back courtyard had delicious food. The food there was even more delicious than the extra snacks he was given at the stables.
Today, Yu Xiaocao was carrying a basket full of ‘bait’ that emitted the alluring fragrance of spiritual energy. As soon as she exited the inner courtyard, she encountered ‘Black Whirlwind’. The little colt’s dark eyes immediately lit up and he scrambled over, stretching out his mouth towards the contents of the basket——tasty snacks, he wanted some!
Yu Xiaocao pushed at the little fellow’s head but wasn’t able to push him away. This little guy was extremely shameless and knew everyone favored and pitied him. He knew how to sell his cuteness and used his large, limpid eyes to look anxiously at her, showing that he was feeling a bit aggrieved. His pitiful act instantly conquered Xiaocao.
She took out a piece of ‘bait’ that was about the size of a child’s fist and had Yingchun feed it to the little fellow. Yu Xiaocao lifted the basket and continued to walk in the direction of the stud farm. For the past few days, other than clinging onto her, Zhu Junyang spent the rest of his time at the stud farm, which clearly showed how much importance he placed on this farm.
Zhu Junyang was currently discussing matters with the veterinarian and helping the man inspect a horse. When he saw her come over, he fixed his clothing and took the basket from her hands while he quietly asked, “Do you have confidence in this ‘bait’?”
“Naturally! The Yu’s products are all top quality. In addition, I added some smoketree that the horses like and a few herbs to it that will increase the flavor of the smoketree to its peak. The horses in this paddock should all be able to smell this bait!” Yu Xiaocao knew that he was deliberately asked this question in front of the vet and the other grooms in the farm. She pretended to not notice that she had inadvertently leaked the ingredients of this bait.
When the vet and the grooms in the area saw that their master and future mistress weren’t trying to hide the contents of the bait from them, they felt incredibly gratified within their hearts. In their hearts, Royal Prince Yang had risen a few more levels.
Zhu Junyang transferred the basket in his hands to Commander Liu. He somewhat anxiously and emotionally shouted at one of his aides, “Zhang Qun, go experiment to see just how far this bait can attract horses. If there’s no problems with it, tomorrow we’ll start to capture some wild horses! That herd of wild horses has some great quality stallions in there. If we’re able to catch around seven to eight of them, then our stud farm won’t have to worry about having enough prime studs in the future!”
Yu Xiaocao stood at the side and faintly smiled as she watched them busting around. Then, she glanced at the stables behind them and noticed that there were three young horses that looked a bit listless. After looking at the clearly worried vet, she could easily tell that there was something wrong with these three horses. No wonder Zhu Junyang always ran here these past few days. He now regarded the stud farm with more importance than her. Yu Xiaocao didn’t want to admit that she felt a bit jealous about this.
She stepped closer to the stables and seemed to just idly stroll by the mangers. With her right arm, which had the multi-colored stone strung on it, she just seemed to barely pass by the fodder within those mangers. However, if someone was paying attention to the hay and oats inside them, they would have noticed that they now looked a bit more tender and appetizing!
“Your Highness, the stables are dirty, please stay away…” Commander Liu didn’t get to finish his sentence when Yu Xiaocao entered the stables. He watched as she used one hand to gently stroke one of the sick horses and had an expression full of pity on her face.
Zhu Junyang stepped forward and picked up a dipper full of water and held it in front of Yu Xiaocao. He gave her a meaningful glance and Yu Xiaocao seemed to understand his hint. She brushed her hand across the ladle and smiled brilliantly at him.
In other people’s eyes, the actions between the two seemed quite flirtatious in nature. The vet, who was a skinny old man, even deliberately turned his face away in an awkward manner. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the royal prince was offering the dipper full of water towards one of the sick horses and he reminded the prince, “Your Highness, this horse hasn’t eaten or drunken any water for the past three days…”
Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes widened in shock when he saw the sick horse, that almost couldn’t stand steady on its feet, energetically shove its mouth into the ladle. It guzzled the water down in one gulp. Ahem ahem! Wasn’t this slapping his own face ah? However, the awkward expression on the vet’s face also held a gratified smile. The fact that the horse was willing to drink water meant that its illness was taking a better turn.
Last year, when the stud farm was just being established, they invited Doctor Wang, who was a very famous veterinarian, to work there by offering him a lot of money. It could be said that he had been with the farm from its start and known what sort of difficulties it had gone through to get to its current expanse. Step by step, they had built up the farm with his help. Doctor Wang was able to recite the character quirks of every single horse living at the farm. In fact, every foal that he had helped to birth was like his own child and he cared for them very deeply.
Consequently, whenever any horse got ill, he was the most anxious out of all of them and did his very best to help them get better. If he came across any he couldn’t heal, he hurt the most out of everybody! This energetic little old man had no sons or daughters of his own and considered the stud farm to be his own home and the horses here to be his own children.
Thus, when these two horses revealed the signs of sickness, he spent a lot of time observing them, diagnosing them, treating them...if it was under ordinary circumstances, these horses should have at least stabilized and gotten slightly better. However, in front of Royal Prince Yang, he had failed! Not only did the original two horses not get better but there were also other horses now showing the signs of sickness.
Was it a contagious illness? Could it be...they had come across the hard to treat horse plague? How could it be ah? All of their symptoms were not related to the horse plague, but why weren't they getting better?