Once she climbed down from the horse, the world suddenly seemed much shorter. The vast view that had stretched out before her from horseback appeared to fold back in an instant. With both feet firmly on the ground, Lin Wu felt strangely unreal.
“A Wu, you rode very well.” Shen Guanting took the reins from her, his voice sounding beside her ear and drawing her back to her senses. “Not many people can ride so steadily their first time.”
Lin Wu stroked Moonwhite’s neck. “That’s because Moonwhite has such a gentle temper and was willing to humor me.”
The moment she finished speaking, several children came bustling over.
Tigerhead called out to Shen Guanting, “Big Brother, why didn’t you make Elder Sister run just now? Like you do with us! The wind feels so good when you run!”
Lin Jing waved both his little hands and chanted, “Fly! Fly!”
“A Wu was riding for the first time. She needed to get steady before anything else. There’s no need to rush into running…” Shen Guanting’s expression remained composed, his voice gentle. He lifted his eyes to Lin Wu. “Haste makes waste. Don’t you agree, A Wu?”
Lin Wu felt there was something odd about those words, but there was nothing wrong with them on the surface, so she slowly nodded.
Sparrow looked from her elder brother to Lin Wu, then suddenly understood. “I know! Big Brother can only take children riding. He can’t take someone as grown-up as Elder Sister. Teacher said that a great teacher produces outstanding students. Big Brother, you’re a terrible teacher.”
Shen Guanting shrugged and admitted readily, “I’m indeed not much of a teacher.”
He turned to Lin Wu. “I only hope you won’t blame me, A Wu.”
Lin Wu shook her head with a smile. “I learned how to mount a horse today. I should be thanking you, Guanting.”
Shen Guanting said, “It’s a pity I didn’t get to let you ride at a run. Next time, then.”
“Exactly!” Having taken the opportunity to tease their elder brother, Sparrow and Tigerhead were both satisfied. Before long, they had forgotten all about it.
There were still plenty of fun things to do at the estate. Behind the riding grounds stood several straw targets, and the children had been thinking about trying archery all morning.
A few small bows had been set up beside the targets. Each was only as long as a child’s arm and very light. The children each took one, nocked their arrows, and drew the strings. They looked quite convincing at first glance.
Unfortunately, after the bows were drawn and aimed, the arrows fell to the ground long before reaching the targets.
Tigerhead, relying on his remarkable brute strength, managed to send one arrow wobbling crookedly into the edge of a target.
He immediately jumped up. “I hit it!”
Sparrow laughed at him from the side. “You call that a hit? Does the edge count?”
Shen Guanting glanced at the unsteady arrow. “It counts as having said hello to the target.”
Tigerhead gave a humph. “You can’t even hit the target, Second Sister.”
With that, he ran forward, picked up the small arrows scattered on the ground, and stamped back. The one lodged in the edge of the straw target was the only one he left behind, wobbling there all by itself.
Lin Jing stared enviously at that arrow. His little face grew taut as he drew his bow and let an arrow fly. It did not even brush the edge of the target. Undiscouraged, he reached for a second arrow.
Shen Guanting picked up a bow. It was lacquered black and looked quite plain.
He drew an arrow from the quiver at his back, opened his shoulders, and pulled the bowstring taut. The arrow shot from the bow with a sharp twang, followed by a dull thud.
The straw target jerked backward from the impact and toppled to the ground.
Tigerhead immediately began shouting, “Big Brother, why did you shoot my target?”
Then, unwilling to concede defeat, he added, “It must be because your bow is better! Our bows are all soft and floppy. They don’t have any strength at all!”
“Just now, you shot at my target with no accuracy whatsoever. Your aim was poor, though you certainly had plenty of strength.” Shen Guanting simply handed him the bow. “You try it.”
Tigerhead took the bow. It was not especially large or heavy, but it still stood nearly as tall as he did. He copied Shen Guanting’s movements and tried to draw the string, but his little face flushed bright red. The string did not move in the slightest, let alone slip into the arrow groove.
Sparrow watched anxiously from the side. “Let me try. I’m older than Tigerhead.”
She took the bow, drew a deep breath, and pulled with all her might. The string remained completely unmoved, as though it had grown there.
Tigerhead gloated beside her. “You can’t pull it either, Second Sister!”
Sparrow glared at him and tried again, but the result was the same.
Shen Guanting gave a soft laugh. “Weren’t you just complaining that your own bow was no good?”
His gaze swept over the children before finally settling on Lin Wu. “Would you like to try, A Wu?”
“Yes,” Lin Wu answered without hesitation.
She had a pretty good idea that she probably would not be able to draw it. But this was archery—who wouldn’t want to give it a try?
She took the bow. It was lighter than she had expected, which immediately gave her a little confidence.
Lin Wu drew a deep breath and used all her strength to pull the string. It did not move at all. She put even more force into it, and this time the string finally changed shape, bending the tiniest bit—only the tiniest bit.
She felt as though she was not pulling the bow; the bow was pulling her.
Lin Wu let go and shook her fingers, which had been rubbed red by the string. She looked at Shen Guanting. “This is an iron wire with absolutely no elasticity, isn’t it?”
Shen Guanting shook his head with a laugh and reached out to take the bow.
The moment it was in his hands, the bow became light and nimble again. He nocked an arrow, drew the string, and took aim in one smooth motion.
“This is an eight-dan bow. It’s not particularly heavy.” Shen Guanting spoke in an ordinary tone. “The Imperial Guards’ examination uses a bow of one dan and two shi.”
Lin Wu froze for a moment and began calculating rapidly.
Eight dan… That was roughly a hundred pounds.
No wonder she had been unable to draw it.
So archers were not at all as graceful and effortless as she had imagined. It was not enough to stand there steadily and release an arrow with elegance. Nor was accuracy the only thing that mattered. What they needed most was strength.
She looked at Shen Guanting again, and her gaze drifted involuntarily to his back. Beneath his fitted clothes, the contours of his shoulders and back hinted at the strength within. Earlier, she had been focused only on whether the arrows hit their targets. Now that she was looking at the man himself, she finally realized that his easy, fluid movements concealed astonishing power.
Shen Guanting, however, lowered his head to Lin Jing and softened his voice. “Archery looks simple enough: draw the bow, take aim, and release the arrow. But to truly master it, you need more than skill in your hands. If you lack strength, you can’t draw the bow fully. No matter how accurate your aim is, it won’t do you any good. But strength alone isn’t enough either. Being able to draw the bow is only the first step.”
He shifted his gaze away and drew the bow steadily. As he spoke, his arm did not tremble in the slightest.
“At the instant the bow is drawn to its full extent, your body is bearing nearly a hundred pounds of force. Yet you must stand as steady as a rock, with your eyes fixed precisely on your target.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the arrow struck the center of the target.
“You need strength, accuracy, and composure. An archer like that is also a formidable fighter at close quarters.”
Clearly, Senior Brother Shen had not forgotten the serious business of teaching his junior brother martial arts.
Lin Jing tilted his little head up to listen, then nodded with great force.
He understood now. Learning martial arts meant training until he became a strongman!
Lin Wu watched from the side with great interest. So this was what lessons between the two senior and junior brothers looked like. It was rather impressive. At that moment, she felt a little like a parent observing a teacher.
The teacher might not be charging a fee, but his skills were genuine, and he taught with great care. Not bad. Very good indeed.
Still, this masterclass obviously had not produced any immediate results. The children picked up their little bows and shot several more rounds. Their arms gradually grew tired, while their aim grew increasingly erratic.
Tigerhead was the first to put his bow away and run toward the edge of the woods. “I’m going to look for fish!”
Sparrow and Lin Jing also set down their bows and hurried after him.
Lin Wu and Shen Guanting followed leisurely behind.
“When you’re traveling, carriages, horses, boats, and ships are all secondary,” Shen Guanting remarked casually as he walked. “The hardest thing to guard against is bandits hiding in the mountains or on the water. You can run into them at any time, and they don’t care about reason. At times like that, what you rely on is the strength in your own body.”
Lin Wu gazed ahead and said softly, “The road is perilous, and traveling far is no easy feat.”
It wasn’t as though one could journey to distant places simply by having a carriage and horses or learning to ride. If one set off recklessly, one might not even make it to one’s destination before losing one’s life along the way.
The mountains rose and fell in the distance. The view was far more expansive than in the city, yet Lin Wu felt that it might be difficult for her to go much farther.
But these were thoughts she had no business entertaining for now. Her days were peaceful, and that alone was a rare blessing.
A short distance away, several children had already run to the edge of the pond. They chattered excitedly, pointing at the water, though no one knew what they had seen.
After watching the fish for a while, they ran to the edge of the woods to gather leaves and dry branches. Laifu scampered after them, darting into the undergrowth until his fur was covered with blades of grass.
Lin Wu found a clean patch of grass and sat down, watching the small figures dart in and out along the edge of the woods.
She did not know when Shen Guanting had come over, but he now sat down beside her, leaving some distance between them.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Clouds drifted slowly across the sky, their shadows passing gently over the two of them.
Tigerhead had somehow found a branch and was waving it about like a sword, shouting “Hah! Hah!” Sparrow stood beside him, loudly jeering.
Lin Jing had also carefully chosen a small branch and was copying his movements. He went through the motions again and again, surprisingly skillful for his age.
The children’s voices were clear and bright. Even from a distance, they were not at all grating. Instead, they only made the quiet around Lin Wu and Shen Guanting feel even more pronounced.
A gentle breeze brushed past, carrying the scent of grass and trees. Lin Wu felt her spirits lift somewhat.
This was rather nice. It was only a pity that they did not have a large estate of their own, so days of such comfort were few and far between. Today, they were merely enjoying the benefits of the Young Master Shen’s generosity.
Just as she was thinking this, a voice suddenly came from beside her.
“If A Wu likes it,” Shen Guanting said, stretching out on the grass with one arm beneath his head and gazing at the vast sky, “you can come whenever you like on your days off. The estate isn’t very large, but it’s more than enough for these little ones to run wild in.”
“There are several public gardens in Huzhou Prefecture as well. Some have mountains, some have water, and the scenery is quite lovely. The woods behind Ciyun Temple and the forests around Canglang Academy are both peaceful and safe.”
As he spoke, he himself could not explain why he had suddenly brought these things up. The Shuangmu Pastry Shop had only recently opened, yet he seemed to be encouraging her to take time off and shirk her duties.
He simply had the faint feeling that she ought to come out more often—to look at the mountains and the water. Perhaps then she would feel a little closer to Huzhou, rather than remaining like someone standing across the shore, gazing at the water from afar, never quite close and never quite distant.
Lin Wu smiled and turned her head toward him. “When it comes to wandering through mountains and rivers, no one is more experienced than Young Master Shen.”
Perhaps because there was no one else around, the young master seemed to be growing more carefree by the moment.
Shen Guanting smiled as well. “Wandering through mountains and rivers depends on who you’re with. If you can find a secluded place, stroll at your leisure, and take your time appreciating the scenery, then that’s what I’d call truly enjoying the mountains and water.”
He sat up and looked toward the three children and one dog darting about everywhere. “But if I’m with these little tyrants, it’s nothing but suffering. They may enjoy mountains and rivers, but I certainly can’t endure them.”
It seemed that, as the eldest son of the family, this Big Brother Shen had a great many complaints.
Lin Wu could only say, “Then I suppose it was hard on you to come along and suffer with us today.”
Shen Guanting leaned back into the grass, his voice lazy. “With A Wu sharing the burden today, it hardly counts as suffering.”
The sun climbed higher. Its rays grew hot against their skin, but not unpleasantly so. They were warm and soothing.
Lin Wu narrowed her eyes, then copied him and leaned back, lying down on the grass and letting the sunlight fall across her face and shoulders.
