“ 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.
“Ah, Sir, I can tell from the first glance that you are some kind of big shot. Come, come, and have a look.” The shady young lad pulled ZiLi, who was walking by, towards him and patted a thin, extremely sluggish and disheveled grey horse beside him, while saying attentively, “Look at this stud horse, slender, with a blaze on its forehead and sharp eyes, moreover with a lot of energy for every day, so his ability to reproduce will certainly be successful――”
Black lines had appeared all over ZiLi’s face, This grey horse has clearly been used too excessively for breeding. He said to the horse dealer, “This is not the kind of horse I want to buy.”
“You don’t want to buy a stud horse? Then how about this gelding? Because it’s castrated, it is unlikely that it will be affected by the heat of a mare. In addition, it has well-developed limbs, is full of strength and energy, and is a hard-working horse that can carry more than a hundred catty 4 of cargo.
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!”
When he said that, ZiLi suddenly had a feeling of ‘Where hills bend, streams wind and the pathway seems to end, past dark willows and flowers in bloom lies another village’ 10 , and he stared at the horse dealer with an expression of ‘Why didn’t you tell me before?!’ and said, “Cut the crap, quickly take me to see it!”
When he arrived at the stable, he saw a young Hequ horse standing inside. ZiLi had also ridden horses before and because of his love for the sport, he was also very interested in horses, so he had collected a lot of information on the internet to study. Therefore, he naturally knew about this Hequ horse breed, which was famous since ancient times. But he had not expected that this era and place also had this 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!
“How much is it?”
“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!”
Witnessing the money transaction, the Hequ horse kicked with its hooves and let out a long neigh with great displeasure and walked about. Seeing this, ZiLi gently and cautiously leaned over, his black eyes looking with sincerity at the horse’s equally large jet-black eyes, and he gently comforted, “Good boy, don’t be afraid, I won’t hurt you.” The horse calmed down as if it had understood. ZiLi’s heart was overjoyed and slowly he raised his hand to touch the horse’s forehead. The horse obediently stayed still without giving a reaction, allowing ZiLi to touch it 12 .
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.
PreviousNext
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 (・∀ ・ ;)
Translation Notes
哥 – Gē – I am thinking that I might need to change this to ‘big brother’, but then I don’t know how I should translate the form of address the brothers use when they talk to ZiLi as I translated that as ‘big brother’ as well. So, maybe just ‘brother’, although a part is then lost in the translation. Finding fitting translations of these forms of address is really hard（ πーπ ）, please let me know if you have any suggestions. 大叔 – DàShū - Term used to address a man about the age of one’s father. Some horse terminology: Stallion is a male horse, Mare is a female horse, Stud horse is a male horse especially for breeding and a Gelding is a male horse that is castrated. 斤 – Jīn - About 0,5 kg or 1.1 pound. 小哥 – XiǎoGē – Little brother - Bro 黄婆卖瓜 – Huáng pó mài guā. – Probably a typing error as it probably should be: 王婆卖瓜 - Wáng pó mài guā. - Every potter praises his own pot. 1,5 km or 0.933 miles 千里马 – QiānLǐmǎ - Ten thousand mile horse 河曲 – HéQū – One of the most common and popular horse breeds from China and Tibet, which is mainly used as a saddle and pack horse. 山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村 - Shānchóngshuǐfù yí wú lù, liǔ àn huā míng yòu yī cūn. – These are lines from the poem ‘Touring Shanxi Village’ by the poet Lu You of the Song Dynasty. – When you are faced with hardships in your life and there seems to be no way out, if you approach the problem from a different perspective, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. – The full poem and translation can be found via this link . 狮子大开口 - Shīzi dà kāikǒu. – Literally in English: A lion opens its mouth wide. - Make an excessive demand. 抽水 – ChōuShuǐ – Literally in English: Pump the water. – Means something like: Take advantage of. 尺 – Chǐ – Chinese foot – 33,3 cm or 13.1 inch