The dragon boat team had already assembled and was waiting for the drumming to start. Those who opened betting stations, to add to the fun, were already causing a ruckus. Even the Emperor has placed his bets.

“Sister Yaoyao, who should we bet on?” Ah Yuan asked.

Ye Jiayao smiled knowingly at the silhouette of her fighter. “Do you really have to ask that?”

Initially, she planned to bet on the other two teams because their odd seemed great. However, now that her husband was competing, that was no longer an option. What sort of wife would she be if she doesn’t support him?

“Song Qi, place a bet of one thousand ounce of silver on the Heir-son Lord’s team.”

Song Qi laughingly answered, “Alright, I’ll go and do that now.”

“Wait!” Ah Yuan cried and shoved a handful of silver tickets to Song Qi. “I wanna bet five hundred ounce of silver too!”

Chunyu’s participation added much more excitement to the dragon boat competition.

After a loud drum beat, ten dragon boats shot out like an arrow. The crowd’s excitement was uncontrollable as they cheered and hollered for their respective teams.

Ah Yuan grabbed Ye Jiayao’s hand nervously. “Sister Yaoyao, where’s Brother Chunyu? Why can’t I see him?”

Ye Jiayao tried to shrug offe her nervousness as she comforted Ah Yuan.

“No, wait! I see him… eh? Fifth place!” Ah Yuan exclaimed disappointedly.

“Don’t worry, Ah Yuan. The competition has just started,” Ye Jiayao said without conviction. There were too many strong competitors! It’s an extremely tight race.

“Fourth place, fourth place…” Ah Yuan mumbled under her breath excitedly.

Halfway through the race, Chunyu’s dragon boat was still at the fourth place. However, Ye Jiayao realized that the contestants on Chunyu’s boat weren’t rowing quickly but rather, in a more powerful and well-controlled strikes.

It wasn’t long before Chunyu’s team started passing over the third boat, the second…

Chunyu’s dragon boat team matched the pace of the first boat. Everyone started to lose their cool, eagerly anticipating what the results would be.

The timer wasn’t really available in this era nor is the camera to capture or replay the moment, that’s why it was hard to know for certain who won. However, Chunyu’s team represents the royalty – who would dare announce that the royal team lost? Thus, for the first time in history, Jin Ling’s dragon boat race had a draw for the first place.

This result delighted the Emperor, as evidence by his smile as he handed out the reward to Chunyu and the other winners.

After he collected his reward, Chunyu squeezed his way through all the people who were congratulating him, and made his way to where Ye Jiayao was.

His smile was wide and his eyes were beaming with pride as he asked her, “How did you fare on the betting?”

Ye Jiayao proudly raised the two thousand ounces of silver ticket in her hand. “Thanks to you, I made a profit of one thousand ounce.”

“And I made five hundred ounce!” Ah Yuan said.

“That was a tight race. They almost had you!” Ye Jiayao told him.

Xia Chunyu scratched his nose uncomfortably and said, “Nah. I just wanted to surprise you.”

She wanted to call him out on his bullsh*it, but as there were other nobles and ladies around, she kept her mouth shut.

The Emperor finally stood up and started to make his way back to the palace.

“Why are you still here? The Emperor is leaving!” Ye Jiayao rushed.

Xia Chunyu shook his head. “The Emperor gave me a the rest of the day off because he liked my performance. I can come with you wherever you want to go.”

She turned to Ah Yuan and asked, “Ah Yuan, where do you want to go?”

Ah Yuan shook her head frantically. “No, no, I don’t want to intrude on you two!”

“Pshh!” Ye Jiayao waved her concern away. “You’re not intruding. How about we go to the City God Temple? I heard it’s lovely there.”

“I’ve been there before and I really didn’t like it. Too much people. Why don’t you two just head there on your own? I’m moving to the palace tomorrow and I need to pack.” She hurriedly waved goodbye to them and left. Little Jing had toured her around Jin Ling before and she knew that going around the city would just remind her more of him. She’d rather stay home than put herself through that torture.

Disheartened, Ye Jiayao watched Ah Yuan walk away. She wanted to hang out more with Ah Yuan because she knew that once she moved into the palace, especially once she becomes Princess Ah Yuan, they would see each other even less.

Xia Chunyu, seeing his wife’s mood plummet down, put an arm around her comfortingly. “Don’t worry about her, Yaoyao. She’ll be fine.”

“I know. I just pity her and I feel bad that I can’t help her,” Ye Jiayao mumbled.

“You have to let her get through this on her own. That’s life.”

The two walked on silently for quite some time before Ye Jiayao snapped out of her sadness. She turned to her husband and said, “Chunyu, I forgot to tell you, the Queen and Imperial Consort Shu gave me a reward.”

She showed him the jade bracelet on her wrist and the emerald ring wrapped in the handkerchief. “Chunyu, I’ve met the Queen a couple of times before, but she had never given me a reward. I don’t even know why Imperial Consort Shu gave me a reward just because of a few flower cookies! And this was all on top of the reward that the Emperor had already given me! I felt odd accepting it, but I had no other choice!” Ye Jiayao told him worriedly.

Xia Chunyu smiled at her reassuringly. “Just enjoy the rewards and stop overthinking. As long as you know that there’s only going to be one person on the throne, you’ll be fine.”

Ye Jiayao nodded in agreement.

“Alright then. Now, no more talk about other things. I rarely get to go out with you!” Xia Chunyu said, bumping her shoulders lightly.

“Alright, alright!” Ye Jiayao acquiesced. “What do you say we ditch the City God Temple? Why don’t you just come with me to the silk shop?”

“You want to buy some clothes? Okay.”

“No. I promised your sister I’d come up with some ideas for her embroidered square. I need to do some research to come up with a remedy!”

Xia Chunyu eyes were mischievous as he said, “Sure.”

The couple’s servants ended up carrying too many bags home.

On their way back home, Qiao Xi and Song Qi lagged behind the couple as they were ridden with many bags.

When Qiao Xi and Song Qi went back, they carried many things on their hand. Initially, they were to do some market research, however, as Chunyu felt that everything Yaoyao tried on was nice on her, he eventually bought all of them. In the end, he ended up buying a present for all the family members. After all, the reward today was rich.

The doorman saw that the Heir-son Lord and the wife of the second young master came back; they quickly reported that the reward from the palace had arrived. The lady asked for the Heir-son Lord and his wife to go to the main courtyard.

Ye Jiayao asked Song Qi and Qiao Xi to bring back the things as they made their way to find the lady.

You and the Old Duke Xia Zhuofeng was looking curiously at the shinny gold and blinking pearls on the table.

The second son’s wife only made some delicious food, how could she have received more reward than Chunyu.” You’s tone of voice was obviously not convinced.

“Chunyu won the dragon boat race based on his ability and his strengths, and earned face for the royalty.”

However, he only received three hundred ounce of gold in the end, his wife only made a little snack and she received a handful of pearls and five hundred ounce of gold. This was not fair.

The Old Duke laughed: “Look at you feeling uneven. His Majesty’s reward is based on his mood. When was there ever accuracy? Moreover, if the emperor were to reward Chunyu, he would have to reward the entire dragon boat team, if he only rewarded Chunyu’s wife, only one would benefit. Chunyu is the leader of the team, his reward cannot be too diffirent compare to the rest of the team, three hundred ounces of gold is considered a massive reward.”

Moreover, they are husband and wife, there’s no difference.”

You rolled her eyes at the Old Duke impatiently: “That’s why you men were said to be careless, how could this be the same? Chunyu had already been pampering Jinxuan if you were to let her be stronger than him, she would be too arrogant.”

The Old Duke looked and her and said speechlessly: “Didn’t I let you beat me all the time? I didn’t see that you grew a tail!”

Mother Sun couldn’t endure and laughed.

You was embarrassed. She stared at him: “How do you speak? Too childish.”

The Old Duke don’t think so: “How am I childish? I think that I’m right. As long as they are happy, no matter who’s the stronger one, it’s the same.”

You thought, it wasn’t the same, that’s my son, I gave birth to him and I raised him.

As they were speaking, the servants reported that the Heir-son Lord and his wife came back.

After the two of them saluted, the Old Duke said: “Chunyu, if I knew that you were going to compete, I would have gone. How could you have kept it as a secret.”

Xia Chunyu smiled: “Father said that you were sick, I was afraid that you might have gone and got into trouble, that’s why I kept it as a secret.”

The Old Duke smiled wryly: “Right, I’ll go next year then.”

“Second brother, second brother, how could you have kept it as a secret. You made me lost a bet, I not only didn’t gain anything I had lost money.” Chunli said while he walked in.

You frowned. She didn’t like how Chunli was acting.

“Wah… This much gold, did his majesty grant this?” Chunli was amazed by the gold on the table once he walked in.