Chapter 40: Arch Enemy

  The weather is fine, the sky is clear and blue after noon; the golden sun shines everywhere, warm and comfortable. It's already late spring, the flowers have withered and fallen, the spring scenery has disappeared, the green trees are in full bloom, and the cicadas are chirping all around.

  Chen Jiong and his nephew followed Li Yongrong to the gate of the Li mansion.

  At the gate, five people gathered, wearing headscarves, long boots and holding long-handled umbrellas. The handles of their umbrellas were curved like a crescent moon at the end, with intricate carvings on the body, which was called a "ball umbrella" or "Pu Zhang".

  Behind them were young grooms leading seven or eight fine horses.

  Li Yongrong introduced his friends to Chen Jing one by one: "Fan Naipeng, Zhou Xun, Xu Tianying, Wan Yuan, Bai Chenyu, they are all my brothers." Then he said to his friends again, "This is Chen Yang and I's second sister's younger brother; this is my nephew."

  "Which county is your sister's husband from?" Zhou Xun asked.

  Li Yongrong nodded.

  Zhou Xun couldn't help but feel envious, and said to Chen Jing: "Your brother passed the imperial examination, that's really impressive!" The Zhou family also wants to produce a scholar. Only scholars know how difficult it is to pass the imperial examination. This year, Zhou Xun is 21 years old, he has taken the exam three times, but hasn't even become a Tongsheng (a low-level degree holder).

  It's nothing to be ashamed of, cases like Zhou Xun's are quite common, most bookworms end up with this kind of fate.

  "Thank you." Chen Jing said.

  "Has your brother got in touch now?" Zhou Xun asked again.

  Since you know that Chen Jiong is a scholar and admire him, you must have also heard about his disappearance two years ago.

  "Not yet..." Chen Jiong said.

  Li Yongrong furrowed his brow and said to Zhou Xun, "No more idle talk, let's hurry up, the show is about to start!" He didn't like outsiders discussing his brother-in-law's disappearance.

  Mentioning this matter, the Li family is also worried.

  For decades, the Li family didn't even have a single xiucai descendant. Finally, they had a promising son-in-law, and the Li family had something to brag about. But then he went to Beijing for the imperial examination and there was no news from him at all.

  Li Erniang was Li Yongrong's closest sister, and her brother-in-law had gone missing. Li Yongrong was also worried about it and didn't like others to mention it, especially on a festive day like today.

  Everyone is friends, Li Yong Rong's intention, all can see clearly.

  Zhou Xun stood up straight and refused to discuss it further.

  Several people led the horses from the groom's hands and mounted them one by one.

  Chen Jiong's nephew Chen Wengong hastily ran to Li Yongrong's side, pulling on his sleeve and saying: "Eighth Uncle, why don't you take me horseback riding?"

  He loved horse riding, unfortunately there were no horses in Qi Wan Lane, and his mother didn't allow him to ride at such a young age.

  But Li Yongrong's horsemanship was superb and he could easily take him along.

  "Good!" Li Yong Rong smiled, and suddenly picked up Chen Wen Gong, putting him on the horse's back, which made Chen Wen Gong excitedly shout with joy, overjoyed beyond words.

  Everyone was amused by this child.

  Li Yongrong looked at Chen Jing again and said to the young servant: "Go get a horse carriage..."

  He knew Chen Jing was a bookworm and didn't ride horses.

  Chen Jiong smiled and said, "No need to bother, I'll ride a horse like you guys too."

  "It's no trouble, we have carriages ready at home." Li Yongrong said with a smile, fearing that Chen Jing would be too proud to ask for help. If you don't know how to ride, it's quite dangerous, and falling off can break your arms and legs.

  Everyone is only five or six years older than Chen Xuan, and they can be considered to be of the same age. Seeing that everyone else was riding horses, Chen Xuan himself sat in a carriage, probably because he was afraid of losing face.

  Li Yongrong gave a wink to the young servant, telling him to quickly go inside and bring out a horse carriage.

  He turned around, but saw Chen Jiong had already mounted his horse with swift and decisive movements.

  Li Yong Rong was slightly surprised.

  Chen Jiong took over the reins from his servant's hands and looked at Li Yongrong.

  Li Yongrong came back to his senses and smiled. Seeing Chen Xuan's action of mounting the horse, he was extremely familiar with it, and Li Yongrong didn't say anything else.

  Bai Chenyu led the way, everyone drove their horses and headed towards the stadium in the eastern suburbs.

  On the road, Li Yongrong's another friend Xu Tianying, and Chen Jiong walked side by side.

  Before they left the city, their horses did not dare to go too fast.

  Xu Tianying chatted with Chen Xuan and asked him: "Do you know how to play polo?"

  "Not very good..." Chen Jiong said.

  Polo, similar to horse hockey, is also a combination of equestrianism, golf and football. In his previous life, the only daughter of Chen Jing's second master liked to play, so the second master asked Chen Jing to accompany her for a while, and Chen Jing also learned some along with her.

  Even if he says it's not good, horizontally speaking. The people who play with them will always let them win, so they often win. Some people have also praised Chen Jing's ball skills as being good, whether it's true or flattering, Chen Jing doesn't know.

  He also watches professional games. His level is much worse than that of a professional player.

  So he didn't know what level he was at in the amateur circle and Chen Jing didn't dare be arrogant.

  And now this polo in this time and space is the earliest polo. Whether their technology is better or worse than later generations, Chen Jiong doesn't know, so it's hard to say "will".

  He just smiled awkwardly and said "not very good".

  "How many playgrounds are there in your county?" Xu Tianying asked Chen Jing again.

  "There are a few..." Chen Jiong said with a vague smile.

  In this era, polo was very popular because several generations of emperors liked it.

  In the early days, Taizu obtained the world and lived in peace, fearing that the soldiers and nobles would lose their edge. He said: "The capital is a stronghold, there is no place to conquer, if not for horseball, how can we practice martial arts?" Thus, he introduced horseball from the grassland nations.

  Early polo was used for physical exercise and was promoted in important places like Beijing.

  Raising fine horses and building polo fields were extremely costly, so ordinary people would not have played this new thing. Therefore, at the beginning, it was popular only among the military and nobility.

  Later, several generations of emperors of the Daliang Empire were all soccer fans.

  The emperor liked polo, and the people below worked hard to practice their ball skills in order to cater to the emperor's preferences, gradually forming a fashion trend. After nearly a hundred years of development, the world was at peace and prosperous, with a thriving economy, and more and more people raised horses and played polo.

  Later on, every year during the "Dragon Boat Festival, Ghost Festival and Double Ninth Festival" three festivals, it is necessary to worship heaven. After worshipping heaven, there must be a polo match, which has become a custom.

  Today is Dragon Boat Festival, also known as "Duanwu" festival.

  Such a popular sport, although Wangxian values literature highly, there should be several stadiums, right? Chen Jing wasn't quite sure, guessing in her heart, and replied to Xu Tianying like this.

  "We have only six people today. If someone gets injured by accident, can you help us out?" Xu Tianying asked Chen Jing with a smile.

  Polo matches require at least six players per team and a maximum of twelve players.

  In such an intense competition, it is common to get injured accidentally.

  "Me?" Chen Jiong asked back.

  In later polo matches, a team had at least four people, now it's at least six, which is slightly different. Li Yongrong and others went to play the game, but they didn't even bring substitutes...

  How ridiculous is this!

  "Right, aren't you familiar with it?" Xǔ Tiān Yīng said, "It's okay, Yǒng Róng and the others are skilled at playing ball, as long as you make up the numbers, it'll be fine..."

  Chen Jing finally made out the voice and couldn't help but laugh. He asked Xu Tianying, "Are you also just making up numbers?"

  Xu Tianying touched his nose and smiled, which was tantamount to admitting it.

  He has a gentle personality and likes quietness, not movement. However, after making friends with several people who like polo, he found that if he didn't learn it, they wouldn't get along well, and gradually drifted apart. Xu Tianying attaches great importance to friendship, so he gritted his teeth and learned a little bit.

  They originally had eight people. Two of them, the wife is from another place, today accompanied her wife back to her hometown "hide at noon", leaving only six people.

  If all eight were present, Xu Tianying would not have to play, because it is rare for someone to be injured and fall off the horse during each match. Polo tests horsemanship and ball skills, people who like to play polo are very good at horsemanship. Besides, if someone really gets hurt, there's another substitute.

  So, Xu Tianying followed them for several years, and the number of times he actually took the stage was very small. Today it finally came to him, and he had no bottom in his heart.

  Li Yongrong and the others were in high spirits. If Xu Tianying didn't do well, fell off her horse, and couldn't continue competing, Li Yongrong and the others wouldn't have a chance either. Xu Tianying was afraid of holding everyone back and spoiling their fun.

  Just then came Chen Jiong.

  Just now at the gate, I saw Chen Xuan's horse-riding movements were neat and beautiful, much better than Xu Tianying. Xu Tianying wanted to ask Chen Xuan if he could play polo. If Chen Xuan could, Xu Tianying would not have so much pressure on him, anyway, someone could replace him.

  He didn't finish speaking, but Chen Jing understood. Xu Tianying smiled and honestly said, "Actually not very good at it."

  Chen Jiong smiled: "I'm a bookworm, and I'm not good at..."

  Xu Tianying listened to this and looked at Chen Jing's thin shoulders and frail physique, feeling that it was also true.

  He is a weak and timid scholar.

  Xu Tianying sighed.

  It seems like there's no hope left.

  They chatted as they went and soon left the city behind them after the commotion had passed.

  Once they were out of the city, everyone's horse sped up a lot.

  Along the official road lined with willows, galloping horses advance. The warm breeze whispers softly in my ear, gently blowing up my sleeves.

  They soon arrived at a manor house.

  The sign above the gate reads "Wangping Ge Ball Court". Li Yongrong and others all dismounted, leading their horses through the gate.

  As soon as I entered the door, I saw that the ground was smooth and bright, as if it had been coated with a layer of oil. The polo field of this era has no lawn, so there will be no interesting events like spectators trampling the lawn before the game.

  As they entered the court, Li Yongrong handed Chen Wengong over to Chen Jing, smiling and saying: "Central government, you go sit in the arrow tower. When we win, we'll go drink good wine tonight!"

  "I'll have some wine too." Chen Wengong said immediately.

  Li Yongrong patted his nephew's head and smiled: "Alright!"

  He smiled, his eyes casually lifted, as if he saw something, and suddenly his face darkened.

  Everyone followed his gaze and saw a dozen or so young men wearing dark-colored brocade clothes, each leading a horse and holding a whip, walking towards this side.

  The leading man was tall and sturdy, with his head held high and chest out.

  Then they also saw Li Yong Rong.

  "Hmm, met again, defeated general?" The leading man walked a few steps forward and laughed, "Lao Li Ba, you're out to play again? What are you prepared to lose to me this time?"

  Li Yongrong's hand involuntarily clenched into a fist, his eyes slightly sunken, with a cold glint flashing at the bottom.

  The man who was first, looked very pleased with himself.

  He looked at Li Yongrong and his group with a proud gaze, while Li Yongrong's face suddenly turned unpleasant. It was clear that they had a long-standing grudge.