It was the first time that Beichen took a close look at Yanyue. He had never noticed that her eyelashes were thick and long and framed each earth-hued irises perfectly like the moon bridge in his dream. And when she fluttered them unconsciously, a certain corner of his heart melt and became whipped by the enchanting and seductive tales that her eyes seemed to tell.
Her lips on the other hand were expressive of her various emotions. Sometimes, she would bite the corner of her lips to indicate stress, but beneath him, she would bite her lips when her whole body was a shipwreck of pleasure. He had an urge to immerse himself in those rosy lips that looked luscious and full of sweetness.
But he did not get to do that as the trumpet sound announcing the presence of the king and queen burst his bubble. He turned away and his heart that was beating in different verses rhythmically just now calmed down.
Meanwhile, Yanyue who was leaning towards Beichen did not receive an answer and settled on her seat comfortably. However, she already seemed to know what his answer would be and was not bothered by it much as she had already been over him. And there was no ounce of love for him left in her heart. The most prominent feeling that remained towards him was just a void of bitterness and stupidity and whole lot of vengeance.
The king and queen got out of the carriage side by side. They were both in their middle forties, but time did them justice because there were neither wrinkles around their eyes nor cheeks when they smiled at the crowd. The king had his hand rested behind the queen's back while the queen looked at the king with kind affection. In front of the public's eyes, they were a couple worthy of praise and love, and their compassion for the people was something of great feat during their rule.
Yanyue knew that the king and queen had a political marriage. However, it was later revealed that they married secretly for a long time and when it was brought to the surface, the fact that they had already had two children – Jinchen, who was the crown prince, and Beichen – was revealed shortly afterward.
Yanyue could tell that the king and queen loved each other very much based on the story, but whenever she saw the two together in real life, she could not help but imagine a different story told.
Even though the king was holding the queen, Yanyue noticed that he was careful as if there was a boundary between him and the queen. While the queen was smiling, her smile was distant and did not reach the corners of her ears. The whole picture of the couple together looked rather friendly and tamed as if they were actors acting under the spotlight.
And she could feel that kind of energy because she was a living example of such a plot line with Beichen.
The person next to her did not seem happy seeing his parents together. Yanyue noticed that he became stiff and his expression darkened as if there was a grudge towards the two most important figures in the festival.
Yanyue could understand why Beichen hated the king because after all the king had forced him to marry a person he did not love and tried to separate him and prevented him from assuming a legitimate position for his real love.
However, there was no reason for him to show hatred towards his mother. From what Yanyue gathered, the queen was a compassionate and sweet woman. She was a great mother who doted on her children a lot, especially Jason. Yanyue had always thought that perhaps there was not much affection shown towards Beichen or Jinchen in public because they were older, but perhaps there was a much more complicated explanation that Yanyue was not privy to yet. But, this would be another story for another time.
As of right now, Yanyue and Beichen would have to stand on ceremony and go to the race court to open the race after all the ministers and nobles arrived, which was about the time. So off they were escorted to the horses that were prepared for them standing and snorting on the dirt track.
To the right was Beichen's horse, Angel. She was a real hero – gigantic and strong, and adorned with color as white as the snow that came at the end of the year for a good fourth of the time it took the earth to make a full revolution around the sun.
Then, to the left was Sebastian. He was a real black-maned beauty and was spotless from top to bottom. If he was a human, he would be the definition of what a perfect model would have looked like.
From Shen Yanyue's memory in her, Sebastian was a horse gifted by Leela after the little six-year-old girl passed her horseback riding lesson. Since then, horseback riding had been her favorite pastime activity. For a shy little girl, it made sense to Yanyue that she would get along more with an animal than other children her age.
Yanyue went up to Sebastian and climbed on him with the help of the escort guards. Some struggles were met due to her pregnant stomach, but Sebastian remained calm and seemed to understand what was happening, so he knelt to make it a lot easier for Yanyue to get on his back.
Once Yanyue settled on Sebastian's back comfortably, they began moving along the track and parading. Beichen and Angel took the lead ahead of Yanyue and Sebastian. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
But when the journey around the track was almost finished, Sebastian suddenly snorted loud neighs and jerked backward with his front legs lifted into the air.
"Princess consort!" the guards on horses behind Yanyue yelled in a panic and rushed over to help. But it seemed too late.
The saddle shifted downward and Yanyue felt her body being yanked into the air, and she instantly wrapped her hand around her stomach to protect her baby. It was a weightless feeling and her heart shivered with fear due to the unexpected danger. Her voice was muted and she couldn't find a way to express her fright.
"I got you!"
Yanyue looked at the person in front of her and her heart stopped beating for a few seconds.
A scene from many moons ago flashed across her eyes.
"I got you!"
He held out his hand like a gift and grabbed onto her desperately, pulling her from the back of the rogue horse onto his.
She was panting heavily, but all she could hear while against the man's chest was the sound of his heart racing like bidi and ba-dam and ba-doom.
"Are you alright, my fair miss?"
The gentle voice removed her from her frozen state, and she watched her useless horse run off into the wilderness.
She looked up to see what was happening and finally registered that she was cuddled tightly by the waist in the young man's manly chest.
"You!" Lucianna gasped, her face glowed bright red from embarrassment and anger. "Let me go!"
Then, she backed away from the warmth in front of her, which made the young man slightly disappointed. But, he kept on a gentle smile as he watched Lucianna try to get down.
"Let me help you," Jun said and got off the horse easily in one move. He held out his hand again, but Lucianna did not care for his offer and turned her head arrogantly before she jumped down to the grassy terrain. She didn't need anyone's help.