Who says the prince is weak and can't take care of himself?

As the hour grew later, the rain continued incessantly, the sky remained gloomy, and there seemed not much difference between day and night.

Three eunuchs came to Qi Xiao's tent and brought him the meal His Majesty had bestowed upon him. Qi Xiao could not be negligent and went out to greet them, kneeling politely to express his gratitude: "Your Majesty, your son, bows to you."

After handing over the food box, the leading eunuch bowed respectfully to Qi Xiao and said, "Greetings to His Highness the Ninth Prince."

"Thank you for coming here in the rain."

"It is our duty to carry out errands for His Majesty. Your Highness is too polite."

"Since you are here, please come in and have some tea."

"Thank you, Your Highness, but we must return to report to His Majesty." The eunuch took out a small, exquisite box and presented it to Qi Xiao. "Your Highness, this contains the prize for this hunt. We wish Your Highness a successful start and may you take first place."

"Thank you."

Back in the tent, Lu Fangjin came out from the corner and grabbed the seat next to Qi Xiao. He sat upright and waited for Zong Sheng to serve the food.

There were only four of them in the tent, and there were no rules. Bai Xiqiao was Qi Xiao's senior brother, and Zong Sheng grew up with Qi Xiao. When there were no outside guests in the Prince Chu's Mansion, Zong Sheng had dinner at the same table with Qi Xiao, and Lu Fangjin just happened to sit around the same table.

Qi Xiao chuckled: "Oh, General Lu has been living an increasingly pampered life since returning to Yuanjing."

Lu Fangjin rolled his eyes at Qi Xiao, rolled up his sleeves, and helped Zong Sheng set the table. "Ninth Prince, please."

"You really came here to eat for free. Why did you make His Majesty angry? Can you not eat?"

Lu Fangjin waved his hand. "That has nothing to do with Your Majesty. It's just that your two brothers both hosted a banquet and sent me invitations. I was in a dilemma, so I had no choice but to come and hide with you."

"So you came here to harm me." Qi Xiao shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"No one knows I'm here, don't worry." Lu Fangjin was about to start eating when he saw the exquisite little box in Qi Xiao's hand and asked, "What's in it?"

"It's said to be the prize for this hunt."

Lu Fangjin reached out, took the small box, opened it, and looked at it. He said, "You don't understand again. The prize for each year's hunting is prepared early in the morning. Before the hunt begins, His Majesty will give a clue about the prize, which is a test. If you can't solve the question, there's no way you can win the prize. Let me see what the riddle is."

When the small box was opened, inside was a piece of wood carving, a bird's head. Judging from its shape and size, the complete bird should be missing two other parts, a body and a tail.

Bai Xiqiao was quite curious. He took the bird from Lu Fangjin's hand, took a look, and asked, "Looking at the beak, it's a night heron. But what's the point of giving it to only one?"

Qi Xiao had a guess as soon as he saw the wood carving: "What it means is that if you want to win the prize, you first need to find someone to form an alliance with and put together a complete wood carving."

Bai Xiqiao was puzzled and asked again, "That's not easy. There are three parts in total, so it shouldn't be difficult to put them together."

Lu Fangjin shook his head repeatedly, his face full of worry: "You don't understand. Given your prince's current condition, no one dares to form an alliance with him."

"Why? According to the results of the previous two days' competition, our Xiao'er has achieved great success. All ten of his men passed the first round with high scores. In terms of strength, no one can match them. If you want to hunt for prizes, are you stupid not to form an alliance with us?"

Lu Fangjin sighed loudly and snatched the wooden sculpture from Bai Xiqiao's hand. "How foolish! The court is now divided. Xiao'er won the emperor's favor as soon as he returned to Yuanjing. He stole the show in the first competition. What do the other two think? If your prince is willing to choose one of them to hunt for the prize for them, then it will be easy..."

"Impossible!" Bai Xiqiao interrupted Lu Fangjin directly.

“That’s why I say it’s difficult.”

Bai Xiqiao still frowned. "Many people passed the first round of the Baiyan Mountain Hunting Competition, and it wasn't just those two. How come no one is willing to form an alliance with us?"

Lu Fangjin sighed and shook his head, returning the small wooden sculpture to Qi Xiao. He took a sip of wine, whetting Bai Xiqiao's appetite before saying, "There are many winners, but not a single one dares to offend those two. Within the military, the Five Capitals, the Five City Guards, and the Imperial Guards may have their preferences, but they would never dare to openly side with a particular prince in front of His Majesty, so they will automatically group together. The other children of the aristocratic families, some with some with some with some, will be chosen for their strength. The others, knowing they can't win, don't dare to win, let alone ally with Xiao'er. Do you understand?"

"That...that..."

"Oh, that's not entirely true," Lu Fangjin suddenly thought of something and turned to Qi Xiao with a chuckle, "There's also the Zhou Kingdom's hostage, Young Master Tang Ling. Although he himself failed the first round of the competition, he still has three men under his command who are skilled in horse riding and archery, so they can still be used."

Qi Xiao had been silent the entire time, playing with the wood carving. He didn't pick up on Lu Fangjin's words, but instead said, "Since this wood carving is a puzzle, I don't think it's just a round number. There must be other clues on the wood carving. Otherwise, among the hundreds of night herons, any one of them could be the first one."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Lu Fangjin nodded, picked up his chopsticks and started eating. As he ate, he said, "If I had joined the hunt, I could at least help you secretly. Alas, it's a pity. Good luck to you."

Qi Xiao put the wood carving back into the small box and started eating. He had to think carefully about the hunting plan.

"That's right." Lu Fangjin suddenly put down his chopsticks.

"how?"

"What if Tang Ling also has a bird's head? What should I do?"

Qi Xiao rolled his eyes: "Eat yours."

While what Lu Fang said wasn't impossible, it wasn't what Qi Xiao was really worried about at the moment. He had never had much interest in hunting, and the first match was forced upon him. Now that he couldn't solve the wooden carving's trap, he didn't need to hunt for the prize. He didn't have to win.

What Qi Xiao couldn't figure out was why Lao Wu wanted to play chess with Tang Ling? He didn't say much after losing, but just left politely, as if he really just wanted to relieve Tang Ling's boredom?

"Lu Fangjin, how did you meet Lao Wu this afternoon?"

"Afternoon? Are you talking about when I came to apologize to Tang Ling?"

"Yes, how did you meet Lao Wu? And why did you come with him?"

"Why are you asking this?"

"I haven't heard that Lao Wu is good at chess."

"This..." Qi Xiao would not have thought about the details unless he asked Lu Fangjin. Now that he thought about it, he felt strange when he first met someone outside Tang Ling's tent, but there was no time to investigate further.

Qi Xiao took a sip of wine. Lao Wu had no intention of deliberately making things difficult for Tang Ling today. Although he tried hard to win the chess game, he was not unwilling to lose. It didn't seem like Tang Ling had offended Lao Wu or the young masters of the Qin and Lin families. It was really strange.

Lu Fangjin pondered for a long time, still baffled. He said, "The Fifth Prince has always been elegant, but his skill in playing the zither and chess is not as good as Qin Zhao's. Qin Zhao is quite skilled in chess and is deeply favored by His Majesty. Perhaps Qin Zhao couldn't persuade Tang Ling, so he borrowed the Fifth Prince's help?"

"If Qin Zhao just wanted to play chess, he could have borrowed Lao Wu's favor and sent someone to invite Tang Ling. Why would he condescend to come? Lao Wu said at the time that he was just a spectator... Where did he come from?"

Lu Fangjin was stunned and said in surprise, "When I met them, they were coming from... the direction of the Golden Tent!"

"..."

Lu Fangjin added, "Your Majesty is good at chess."