The Evil Emperor's Favorite: The Sickly and Poisonous Concubine Goes Crazy

Su Jingning tossed and turned all night and couldn't sleep, with the image of Gu Yan'an leaving with red eyes all he could think about.

When he left, his eyes were red with anger because of her. He must have been very angry.

The next morning, Emperor Zhou held a hunting ceremony in front of the hunting ground.

The accompanying civil and military officials, as well as the hunting participants, all stood on the field, while their families sat on the periphery to watch the ceremony.

Emperor Zhou left the Imperial Capital and handed over all the affairs of the capital to the Crown Prince, so there was no Crown Prince among the accompanying princes. I heard that this time, His Majesty also brought Consort Shu out of the palace.

Concubine Shu sat at the head of the official family viewing platform on the periphery, dressed elegantly and gracefully, and occasionally talked to the wife of Duke Qing who sat to the side below her.

The wife of the Duke of Zhenguo and the third wife of the Duke of Zhenguo sat on the other side, and next to them was the wife of Prime Minister Liu. The wives were all court ladies with first-rank imperial decrees, and their seats were second only to the Imperial Concubine Shu.

The wife of the Duke of Zhenguo, Shi, and the third wife, Liu, looked at the people in the hunting ground and finally found the child of the Duke of Zhenguo among the hunters.

Seeing that Liu was a little nervous, the wife of the Duke of Zhenguo held her hand and comforted her:

"Yuanyi, don't worry. The kids go to the battlefield all year round, so this little competition is nothing."

Yuanyi is the maiden name of the Third Madam. The Third Madam still frowned and spoke to the wife of the Duke of Zhenguo in a low voice:

"Sister-in-law, why should we worry about those brats? I am worried about Aning and Shu'er. You see, this Princess Xiliang is really something. Why does she suddenly want to participate in the hunting?"

The wife of the Duke of Zhenguo was very relieved:

"Don't worry, Shu'er and Ning'er are very smart. Although Ning'er is in poor health, she has been practicing martial arts with her brothers since she was a child. Besides, they have their brothers to protect them."

Su Jingning stood among the hunters and looked at Gu Yan'an, who was standing not far behind Emperor Zhou with a cold face. He looked cold and kept his distance. Su Jingning sighed silently in his heart and decided to go find him after the ceremony was over.

There were eighteen people in the Xiliang delegation, standing on the left side of the Great Zhou hunting participants. The leader was the Princess of Xiliang, who was dressed in red Xiliang clothing. Her waist and skirt were covered with golden bells, and the agate forehead ornament on her forehead was precious and gorgeous. She was arrogant and beautiful, a typical Xiliang beauty with thick eyebrows and big eyes. The Xiliang warriors standing behind her were all very strong and they were carefully selected. Even the two maids of the princess looked like martial artists.

Most of the hunters in the Great Zhou Dynasty were pampered young men and women. Even if they had been specially taught martial arts at home and knew some skills, they were certainly not as good as the Xiliang people who grew up on horseback when it came to riding and shooting. Su Jingning also saw Shen Zhiyi in the crowd. With her were several daughters of military commanders who were on good terms with the Qing government.

With the sound of a distant and loud horn, the hunt officially began.

Hunting in early spring is divided into five days.

The first two days were all spent hunting individually, and after the two days were over, they could exchange their catches for rewards from His Majesty. I heard that the winner of this year's hunting event would receive a scorching sun bow bestowed by His Majesty himself.

The next three days were a competition specially organized at the request of Princess Xiliang. Xiliang and Da Zhou were divided into two teams and spent three days hunting in Huoshan. On the third day, rewards were given according to the results.

Su Jingning had no interest in the competition of the previous two days. She had originally gone to look for Gu Yan'an as soon as the preparation ceremony was over. However, Emperor Zhou went into the mountains to hunt and asked Gu Yan'an to accompany him, so she didn't even get to see him.

The next day was the same. She went to Gu Yan'an's tent to look for him, but Mo You told her that Gu Yan'an had gone into the mountains and didn't know when he would come back. Su Jingning felt that he was deliberately avoiding her, so she had to go back first.

She just didn't believe that he could still hide from her tomorrow.

Early morning of the third day of hunting.

A ceremonial platform was set up in front of the hunting ground, with Emperor Zhou and Concubine Shu sitting on the high seats. Today they were going to reward those who had won the first prize in the hunting in the past two days.

After two days of hunting, the one who scored the most points was Princess Feng Ziyan of Xiliang. It was said that she killed two wild wolves by herself. The second place went to Princess Mu Xi of Xuyang. Prince Chen also worked very hard these two days and got third place.

Mu Xi was a disciple of Mo Linyuan Wu Men, and learned the way of swordsmanship, and was very good at swordsmanship. But Feng Ziyan was not only the Princess of Xiliang, but also a female general who led an army in Xiliang, so her experience was naturally much richer than Mu Xi. So Su Jingning was not surprised that the Princess of Xiliang won the first prize this time.

She was puzzled. Didn't Gu Yan'an go into the forest every day these past two days? Why wasn't he on the list? Didn't he hunt?

"Princess Zi Yan is indeed a heroic female general of Xiliang. This scorching sun bow belongs to the princess."

With a smile on his face, Emperor Zhou personally took down the exquisite Sun Bow, which was forged entirely with red iron, from the stage and gave it to Feng Ziyan.

"Zi Yan thanks His Majesty the Great Zhou. Your country's Princess Xuyang is also a talented woman who is as capable as any man."

Feng Ziyan took the Sun Bow and thanked him. She looked at Mu Xi again, her eyes full of admiration for a worthy opponent. Princess Xuyang was only five points behind her. She didn't expect the princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty to be so powerful.

"Princess Zi Yan, you are too kind."

Mu Xi held the sword and slowly saluted Feng Ziyan, full of heroism.

Prince Chen looked at Mu Xi calmly, with some reluctance in his eyes. If he could capture the wild boar, the first prize would be his.

“Hahahahahahaha, this girl can only make a few moves with the sword. She can't compare to Princess Zi Yan.” Emperor Zhou has always loved Mu Xi the most. When he heard Feng Zi Yan praising Mu Xi like this, his expression became even more delighted, and his words were full of pride.

"Okay, starting today is the contest between the Xiliang warriors and the Great Zhou. Are you ready, Princess?" Emperor Zhou asked Feng Zi Yan.

"Your Majesty, the warriors of Xiliang are ready to accept the challenge of the warriors of Great Zhou at any time."

Feng Ziyan replied straightforwardly, with confidence between her eyebrows. Her Xiliang warriors were carefully selected, and they had concealed their strength in the previous competitions. And these noble ladies and gentlemen of the Great Zhou were no match for her at all. Only the Su family, who were feared in the Western Territory, could compete with her people. But they seemed to have concealed their strength this time, so she had to be careful.

In the competitions two days before, the Duke of Zhenguo specifically reminded the young masters of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion not to show off too much, so they did not take the competition seriously.

"Okay, let's get started."

Including the princess, there were a total of eighteen people from Xiliang participating in the competition.

Therefore, the Great Zhou also sent eighteen people, including Princess Xuyang Mu Xi, Prince Chen Mu Heng, Gu Yan'an, the six sons of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion, Su Jingning, Su Luoshu, and several outstanding sons in the Imperial Capital. However, the appearance of Shen Zhiyi was somewhat unexpected.