84 The Arrow that Struck the Targe (2/2)

”Very nice of him to offer his help,” An Ning said.

”I thought so, too,” he said then smiled. ”But what are you really thinking?”

”I'm thinking about those Zhengyi scums. Have a very bad feeling about them.”

”Yi Hai checked. They already left the gates not too long ago.”

”Hmnn...”

”Come on, who says we can't play just because we're their majesties the emperor and empress? I know you've been dying to try the range. Let's get our bows and shoot, shall we?”

”This is abuse of power, you know,” An Ning said, smiling.

”I know. But doesn't it feel great?” Gu Sheng throw his head back and laughed.

Although the competition had ended and the names of the winners announced, everyone was reluctant to leave, still milling around gossiping about what happened with the Zhengyi team and how it ended badly for them. Banned for life from competing in the Battle of Talents. That was the worst thing that could happen to any aspiring athlete hoping to make a name for himself in the annual competition.

But that Chang Chang to attack Wang Sao like that. She was obviously insane and wanted to hit back at someone for her team losing the archery pennant. But then the empress could have locked her up and throw away the key but instead she remains free while poor Wang Sao is still fighting for his life. She was lucky to get away, the bitch.

The gossip went back and forth but gradually sputtered to a stop when people started noticing something different in the range. The emperor and empress stood there, bows in their hands, then firing at the target some seventy yards away.

The emperor was laughing, his shoulders convulsing with his mirth, as his arrow fell some distance away without even hitting the target. The empress shushed him loudly then fired but the arrow went the same path as the emperor's and missed.

Now their laughter rang loudly and made everyone who heard it break into a smile. Many wanted to walk closer and exchange a greeting or two with the happy young pair. Many wanted to but never really quite found the courage to intrude and break this lovely interlude.

For many of them, to see this human part of the usually somber and unnaturally mature emperor Gu Sheng was a revelation. To see him like this, being teased by a girl, teasing her back, laughing and giggling and simply behaving like any normal teen out on a date with a girl he obviously likes, even if that girl was his own stepmother, already gave them glimpse of the kind of ruler he would grow into as he matures into power over the years.

Some distance away, the kind of ruler Gu Sheng would eventually become did not interest a pair of stormy eyes that looked at the young man and the young girl as if he could literally fry them with the lethal heat oozing from his fiery orbs.

Out on the range, Gu Sheng was laughingly fitting his arrow to his bow and was getting ready to let it fly into the distance once again. Besides him, An Ning was smiling, looking at him with a gentle expression on her face.

Gu Sheng pulled the bow but before he could release the arrow on its hold, something wheezed past him, fast, sharp, and very lethal. The arrow landed straight and true on the target, then passed thru it almost without a trace and continued on its path until it reached the edge of the clearing and vanished into the trees beyond.