Chapter 5 of The Three Heroes of Shu in the First Volume: A Beautiful Woman's Continuous Laughter

  The next day, early in the morning, the streets were already crowded with people rushing to the Qingming water release scene. There was a lively atmosphere, full of joy and excitement. The water release ceremony had just ended, followed by a grand feast. At dusk, it was finally time for the most anticipated event - the Cuju competition.

  "This Jiangyan Qingming water release is really majestic, I've never seen it before. When I return to the palace, I'll definitely show off in front of my father, let's see how proud he can be in front of me. Hmph!" A lovely young girl, about seventeen years old, dressed in elegant clothes, stretched out her jade fingers on her delicate face and said with deep meaning.

  Not bad, this person is the current Princess Ning'an. In the palace, she was notorious for being overbearing and arrogant. Originally, Emperor Jiajing had two daughters before her, but they both died young, so he doted on this third princess even more, and even conferred upon her the title of Eldest Princess.

  I don't know what's going on with this Ning An princess, she's just the typical rebellious type. Born to be active, willful and unruly, it's already a well-known fact, but somehow, I don't even know since when, Ning An actually entered the Cuju stadium and sat in the first row, accompanied by that Bi girl called Xiao Xi.

  "Princess, speak softly, lest others hear and discover your true identity." Xiaoxi whispered into Ning An's ear.

  "Yes, yes. I was so excited that I almost forgot, fortunately Xiaoxi is clever." Ning An's mouth corners slightly curved upwards, and his face showed two small dimples, which were less domineering and more lovely than usual.

  "That woman is smiling foolishly at you." Zheng Yao, who was about ten meters away from the two of them, tilted his head to the right and saw that Ning An was currently gazing at Zhang Cheng with a smile on her face.

  "It's probably another infatuated woman." As for Zhang Cheng, this talented young man was naturally admired by women all over the world, and Yuan Haiyun was no exception.

  "Don't be kidding..." Zhang Cheng had just finished speaking, when he suddenly looked up and saw Ning An still smiling at him. He was taken aback, his whole body began to boil with rage, and his entire face turned red like Guan Gong's.

  "Princess, I think those three people..." Xiaoxi stared at the three of them and said.

  "It's him!" Ning An's memory wasn't particularly good, but he still vividly remembered the accident that happened when he first came here. Seeing Zheng Yao, he immediately thought of the fool who almost got hit by his horse carriage and said: "Isn't that guy the same idiot?"

  As she spoke, Ning An patted the dust off her clothes and rolled her eyes around in a circle, as if she had thought of some mischievous idea. She then pulled Xiao Xi along and walked towards Zheng Yao and the other two people.

  "Don't look at me with such impertinence, don't speak to me with such disrespect. You... you'd better not mock me anymore. Look, she... she seems to be coming over here." Although they all said he was a charming and talented young man, being stared at by a beautiful woman like this, plus having someone egging him on from the side, even Zhang Cheng couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed, his words starting to become hesitant and stuttering. Where was the confident and smooth-talking Zhang Cheng of old?

  "The lotus is clear and the water is shallow, how many charming ones are there? Suddenly thinking of the flying flowers and leaves. The beautiful woman is like a dream, her voice is like a zither string, the gentle green silk enters the heart's door." Zhang Cheng's brother said with a half-joking tone, only to see Zhang Cheng suddenly look embarrassed, shaking his head, which made everyone burst out laughing.

  "That's not right, I thought she was looking for you?" Yuan Haiyun said carefully, suddenly turning her head to Zheng Yao.

  "Haha, how is that possible! In terms of fame, I'm not as famous as Liu Yan; in terms of literary talent, I'm not as gifted as Zhang Cheng; and when it comes to skills, I'm even more inferior to your exceptional medical skills. How could that woman possibly be looking for me? Stop joking around, stop joking around." Zheng Yao had already completely forgotten about Ning An, so he naturally didn't think that Ning An knew him, and shook his head repeatedly as he spoke.

  Just as Zheng Yao finished speaking, Ning An and Xiao Xi had already walked up to them.

  At this time, Ning An suddenly slapped Zhang Yao's shoulder with one hand and deliberately raised his voice: "Hey, it's you!"

  Huh?

  Everyone, including Zheng Yao, was puzzled, what kind of play is this?

  While the crowd on the side looked at Zhēng Yáo with curiosity and suspicion, they also looked at the beautiful woman, thinking about what kind of relationship Zhēng Yáo had with this beauty.

  "Uh... Miss, I think you've mistaken me for someone else!"

  Zheng Yao was stunned for a moment, and it seemed as if he didn't recognize this woman at all.

  "What? You don't recognize me?" Ning An knew that Zheng Yao was ill, let alone now not recognizing him, even at the time, he didn't pay much attention, where did this recognition come from? So he wanted to intentionally tease Zheng Yao a bit.

  Zheng Yao was even more confused. How could he possibly know this woman? He scratched the back of his head and put on a silly expression, saying: "What are you talking about?"

  "Dummy, you really don't remember?" Ning An asked again with a very serious expression, as if she really knew Zheng Yao.

  "Miss, your words are really puzzling, I wonder if you can make it clearer to me? I'm a bit confused..."

  "Yeah, this kid has been with us for so many years and we've never seen him know any girls, let alone ones as beautiful as you." Yuan Haiyun was telling the truth, from the age of ten, Zheng You suddenly became stupid for no reason, and only woke up until recently. If he could recognize some beauties, that would be like the sun rising in the east.

  "Heh heh——" Ning An and Xiao Xi couldn't help but burst out laughing. Then she said: "It's just... it's just that... I was teasing you!"

  After finishing speaking, the two women burst out laughing again, as if they hadn't laughed in many years, and this time they must laugh enough to make up for it.

  "Miss, who is that?" Just as the beautiful woman was laughing very happily, a maidservant-like woman suddenly shouted out, and it could be seen that someone had already entered the polo field, apparently the match would start soon.

  "Ryōgen!! It's Ryōgen!!" Ning An became excited, covering her mouth with both hands and letting out a startled cry, almost shouting at the top of her lungs.

  "Isn't that an exaggeration! It's just Liu Yan, is it worth it?" Yuan Haiyun was somewhat disdainful, after all, Liu Yan represented the Héxī team, and she naturally felt uncomfortable.

  "Alright, you two should stop standing here and hurry up to participate in the activity. You'll be needed soon." Zheng Yao didn't want to bother with these foolish-looking women either, so he urged Zhang Cheng and Yuan Haiyun to hurry up.

  Neither of them said much more, as the match was urgent, so they immediately took off their outer garments and rushed onto the field. Leaving Zheng Yao alone sitting in his original position.

  "If it's alright with you, young master, we'll just sit down here then!" Ning An said, although she used a requesting tone, but had already sat down beside Zheng Yao.

  Zheng Yao could only smile faintly and say, "The two young ladies are really passionate!"

  However, once they sat down, Ning An and Xiao Xi completely ignored Zheng Yao and started talking to each other, saying things like "Liu Yan is so handsome", "Liu Yan must be the main character today", "Let's go find Liu Yan for an autograph later" and so on, totally acting like super fans.

  I couldn't help but feel emotional: this Liu Yan fan is really too powerful! (Liu powder: Liu Yan's fans, abbreviated.)

  "I'm telling you two ladies, isn't this a bit too much? If we're talking about Liu Yan's literary and martial arts skills, I completely agree. However, there's no need to be so fanatical, right? After all, as young ladies from good families, shouldn't you pay some attention to your image?" Zheng Yao said with some helplessness, the world is really going downhill, now even the fans have become so frenzied that they've arrived at his own doorstep.

  "Baa!"

  Ning An and Xiao Xi simultaneously made a ghostly face, turned their heads to look at Zheng Yao, then tilted their heads back and continued: "Liu Yan is the best! Liu Yan I love you!"

  ...... Yao was left speechless for a moment.

  "You're a man, how can you be so nagging! Alright, I'm not an unreasonable person either. Let's just say I'll try to control my emotions, that should be enough, right? If I didn't want to sit in the back, I wouldn't bother arguing with you." Ning An reluctantly stopped his frantic actions, after all, it was someone else's territory, so he said no more.

  "So good, so good! That's right, I saw the young lady dressed in luxury, she must not be an ordinary person, dare to ask the young lady's name?" Zheng Yao can be said to have made progress inch by inch, and as soon as the other party's attitude has slightly improved towards him, he starts to "shamelessly" ask for the other person's name.

  "Ning An, how about you?" Unexpectedly, Ning An was so generous and immediately reported her name, causing Zheng Yao to be taken aback. Was this woman teasing herself again?

  "My surname is Li, my name is He and I am also known as Zhengyao. My home is located at Jiang'an Bridge, where everyone calls me Li Zhengyao."

  Never mind all that, after all, I've been in the habit of being honest with people since childhood, and lying would make me blush, so Zheng Yao introduced himself truthfully.

  "Oh, I see. So that's why this name is quite interesting. By the way, aren't you an idiot? How come you're not stupid at all now?"

  Ning An is like that, speaking without considering the consequences, even in front of the emperor, it's whatever comes to mind, and the result always ends up with the emperor getting a headache.

  "Hmm..." Just then, his face suddenly looked a bit unsightly, but after thinking about it, he realized that what the other person said was also true. So, after calming down for a moment, he said: "Actually, I don't know why either. I heard them say that since I was startled by a horse carriage three years ago, I had been sleeping for three years. When I woke up, everything was fine."

  "What? Is this really happening?" Ning An and Xiao Xi stared at Zheng Yao with wide eyes.

  "Thousand truths and ten thousand certainties, dare not deceive." This is a genuine and serious way of speaking.

  "Haha, then shouldn't you be thanking me?" Ning An said with a stifled laugh.

  Zheng Yao didn't understand, seeing the two of them laughing so strangely, and thus said: "Then where does this come from?"

  "Didn't you know that the horse carriage is ours?" Ning An and Xiao Xi burst out laughing again, excitedly and proudly winking at Zheng Yao twice, as if they were telling him that they had accomplished a masterpiece.