“ Elder brother 1 , he still hasn’t come out after such a long time. Has he left us behind?”
“Impossible! There’s no back door in this restaurant, and the two of us have four eyes on him. How can he get away unnoticed?”
“Pfft” an older man 2 passing by suddenly chuckled. Seeing the two brothers frowning at him at the same time, he gave a few fake coughs and walked away quickly. “Why did the walking posture of that person just now look familiar?”
“You thought so too?”
The two brothers touched the tip of their dirty nose at the same time and started to think, suddenly their hearts skipped a beat, they looked at each other with wide eyes and shouted, “After him――”
Having successfully passed the test in front of the two brats, ZiLi was now even more proud of his disguise skill, and with a flourish, he threw the bundle with his belongings over his shoulder and strode off to the horse market.
“Don’t walk by and miss out on the stallions, mares, stud horses and geldings 3 . Choose and take a pick, come, and have a look――” a horse dealer yelled with a hoarse voice.
Please read His Majesty's Hostage Chapter 41 on Project Bezemwagen :-)
“Hold on, hold on, young man 5 , I want to buy a saddle horse, a mount you can ride, you know? Not a stud horse or gelding!” ZiLi could not take it anymore, as the spittle was flying from the horse dealer’s mouth while he was praising his horses in an attempt to sell them 6 , and interrupted him. Before he could turn around, his sleeve was pulled again. No matter how good-tempered ZiLi was, he could not help but be annoyed now. I’m on the run, ah. The clock is ticking, but this horse dealer still wants to bother me and waste my time!
Just as he was about to get angry, the shady young lad started talking again, “Our horse market doesn’t sell saddle horses here. If you want to buy one, you have to go to the horse farm three li 7 outside the city.”
When ZiLi heard this, he became very anxious. The main reason why he had not just run away and come back here was to pick a fast horse 8 , so that he could get rid of the pursuing soldiers that the Emperor was likely to send after him. But now he was told that not only were there no fast horses here, there were also not even any ordinary saddle horses!
“However, Sir, you are really lucky. Just a few days ago, our boss brought a young horse back from the horse farm. Although it’s only three years old and has a strong temper, it is of the very famous Hequ 9 horse breed!”
Please read His Majesty's Hostage Chapter 41 on Project Bezemwagen :-)
Seeing people approaching, the Hequ horse immediately snorted warningly, and its dark and vivid eyes stared at them with both arrogance and some fear.
It was ZiLi’s first time seeing such a famous horse breed and he took a close look at it. The horse’s head was long and magnificent, its slightly raised bridge of its nose resembled the shape of a rabbit head, its neck was thick and broad, its torso was smooth, and its chest was deep and wide. Although its physique was not yet well developed, compared to other young horses it was already a big boy!
“Hehe, it’s not expensive, it’s only a hundred taels!” The horse dealer knew that ZiLi urgently needed a saddle horse, so he raised the price and asked for an unjustly large amount of money 11 .
The price was more than enough to buy a fully grown Hequ horse, but ZiLi really needed a horse urgently and could not delay any longer. It was now already nearly noon and the perverted Emperor had probably already found out about his escape. So, with no better option, ZiLi clenched his teeth and said, “Okay, it’s a deal!”
Please read His Majesty's Hostage Chapter 41 on Project Bezemwagen :-)
When the horse dealer saw this, he was surprised and asked, “Sir, are you a horse trainer? Normally it doesn’t let anyone get within five chi 13 , let alone pet it!”
ZiLi was even more pleased with himself when he heard that, but unexpectedly, as soon as those words had fallen, the Hequ horse turned its head and bit ZiLi’s hand.
“Ah――” ZiLi cried out, panicked and tried to pull his hand out but could not. He could only look at it miserably with eyes that started to water.
If ZiLi was not mistaken, he could swear to have seen a glint of jest and smugness pass through its eyes. Then it opened its mouth and let go of his hand.
ZiLi hurriedly withdrew his hand, which had come out completely intact and only covered in saliva, and stared angrily at the Hequ horse, which had resumed its haughtiness.
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Translator Notes
For some reason I felt some secondhand embaresment when ZiLi got bitten (^_^;)
On another note, this week is my favorite week of the year because the Eurovision Song Contest takes place this week.
Unfortunately, this will probably slow down the translation a bit (・∀ ・ ;)