Can I sit in the front to learn

Just then, two herdsmen near Zhang Ziming rushed forward, grabbed the saddle, and brought the horse to a halt.

"Young man, if you don't know how to ride, you shouldn't mess around."

Liu Bo laughed heartily, "Lao Zhang, don't I know you? Since when did you know how to ride a horse? Don't mess around, otherwise, if you fall and end up half-crippled, we won't be able to explain it to Yixue later."

Zhang Ziming actually only barely knew a little bit. He thought it would be simple, but who knew the horse beneath him would completely ignore him and even intentionally scare him.

Swallowing hard with lingering fear, he put on a brave face and said, "Alright then, my horse is probably in a bad mood today. I won't torture it; I'll just amble along slowly~"

Meng Qianyu pulled Pan Ning over to a slightly higher grassy knoll to sit down and take photos, while the others continued riding.

Liu Bo accelerated once again, chasing after the distant, soon-to-disappear figures of Su Yang and Meng Wenzhou.

In the distance, Su Qingci clung tightly to Su Yang. She knew it would be fast, but she hadn't expected it to be this fast.

And it was exactly as Meng Qianyu had said, extremely bumpy.

She had a constant feeling that if she loosened her grip even slightly, she would be bounced right off the horse.

While steering the horse, Su Yang asked, "How does it feel?"

"Not... not bad!"

"Really?"

"Really~" Su Qingci shouted.

"That's good. Then let's speed up a bit more~"

"Even faster?!"

"Didn't you say it was not bad?"

"Uh... Brother Su Yang, I feel like I want to throw up~"

"What? Throw up? Are you getting motion sickness from the horse?"

"I think a little. How about we head back? I want to rest for a bit."

"Alright then." Su Yang had no choice but to turn the horse around, slow down, and ride back to the main group.

After dropping off the dizzy Su Qingci, he hopped onto Tang Ziyun's white horse.

"Hold tight, Little Tang~"

"Oh, okay. Is it going to be fast?"

"You'll know once we start charging."

"Hyah!"

After taking Tang Ziyun for a twenty-minute ride, Su Yang returned to the group and switched to Zhong Qing's horse.

The two of them got on horseback together and galloped away.

After taking several girls for rides in a row, Su Yang felt like a soulless horseback-riding machine.

However, it was completely different for Zhong Qing, as this was her first intimate contact with Su Yang in days.

She wrapped her arms around Su Yang, resting her head against his back with a smile on her face.

"How is it? The feeling of galloping on a horse is pretty great, right?" Su Yang asked with a smile.

"Mhm~" Zhong Qing replied softly.

Su Yang tilted his head to look back, only to see the wind blowing Zhong Qing's beautiful hair wildly. He could only see the top of her head.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing~ I'm just taking it all in."

"Then I'm speeding up!" Su Yang shouted loudly, "Hyah!" The horse beneath them stretched its four legs and broke into a wild sprint.

But no matter how fast the horse flew, Zhong Qing didn't talk as much as the other girls had.

She just lay quietly against Su Yang's back.

By now, Su Yang had ridden quite a distance with Zhong Qing; he couldn't even see the main group when he turned his head.

Just as they were about to return, Zhong Qing said softly, "Su Yang, can I sit in the front and learn a bit?"

"You want to sit in the front?"

"Mhm, the view is better from the front, and I can feel the rush of galloping much better."

"Sure, let's switch." Su Yang said, bringing the horse to a stop.

He then skillfully dismounted. After waiting for Zhong Qing to shift to the front, he grabbed the saddle and climbed back on.

Although it seemed like a simple change of positions, sitting in the front versus sitting in the back were two completely different experiences for Su Yang.

In the front, he was just a simple riding machine, but sitting in the back was a different story.

To be safe, he had to wrap his arms around Zhong Qing to grab the reins, which naturally made things a bit intimate and ambiguous.

"Uh, this is just needed for riding, don't mind it~" Su Yang tried his best to keep his body a slight distance away from Zhong Qing.

However, the saddle wasn't large, so with the two of them sitting together, they were inevitably pressed against each other.

Zhong Qing naturally didn't mind. She smiled and said, "Of course I don't mind~"

"That's good then~"

"Teach me how to make the horse speed up~"

"Okay, hold the reins and squeeze the horse's belly with your legs. If you want it to run faster, use a bit more force."

"Okay~" Zhong Qing followed his instructions. As she squeezed the horse's belly, she called out softly, "Hyah, hyah~"

The horse, which had been grazing with its head down, obediently started walking again.

As Su Yang held Zhong Qing, the gentle breeze carried the scent of her perfume into his nose.

Actually, over these past few rides, Su Yang had been able to smell a different scent on every girl he took along.

The fragrance each girl chose perfectly represented their individual styles.

If he were to distinguish the girls by their perfume, Pan Ning had a faint milky and woody scent, while Su Qingci had the elegant and sophisticated scent of cedar.

Tang Ziyun was a fresh and sweet citrus, and Zhong Qing was a passionate, fiery rose.

"I'm pushing hard, but it's not speeding up." Zhong Qing squeezed the horse's belly with her legs as hard as she could.

Su Yang laughed, "Then sit tight, I'll make it speed up."

"How?"

"Using the simplest method: a smack!" The moment Su Yang's words fell, he slapped the horse's rump with his palm.

The horse whinnied, lowered its head, and lunged forward. Sitting in the front, Zhong Qing instantly jolted backward, bumping into Su Yang's chest.

"I actually felt the pushback from the acceleration~"

"Exhilarating, right?"

"Exhilarating!" Zhong Qing laughed aloud.

Su Yang pulled the reins to steer as the two of them sped along on horseback.

"I'm so happy!!" Zhong Qing shouted with a brilliant smile.

Su Yang also had a smile on his face.

He had gone from a soulless riding machine to a wind-chasing youth holding a beautiful woman.

After riding continuously for over ten minutes, Su Yang prepared to head back toward the main group. The main reason was that Jiang Yuxin was still waiting for him.

She had already been waiting for about an hour, so it was about time to head back.

However, seemingly safe rides always have a way of encountering unexpected accidents at certain moments.

The horse beneath them was running at full speed. Everything was fine at first; when Su Yang told it to go left, it went left, and when he told it to go right, it went right.

But just as they were about to return, it stopped listening. It simply kept its head down and sprinted toward the distant Wuliang River.

Su Yang immediately realized something was wrong. He forcefully pulled the reins, trying to change the horse's direction.

But the horse ignored him completely and just kept charging straight for the riverbank.

"Damn it!"

"Something seems wrong with this horse!" Zhong Qing also noticed the change in the horse's behavior.

Su Yang comforted her, "Don't panic, I'm here."

As he spoke, he pulled hard on the reins again, trying to get the horse to turn left. This time, the horse shifted its direction slightly, but it was still heading for the river.

"Hey! You disobedient thing!!" Although Su Yang was skilled at riding, he wasn't familiar with a horse's habits.

He had no idea why the horse had suddenly become so stubborn.

Seeing that he couldn't change the horse's direction, and with the animal carrying them closer and closer to the river, even though falling into the water wouldn't be fatal...

...Su Yang still didn't want to get wet. Realizing that technique couldn't change the horse's course, he decided he had no choice but to use brute force to bring the horse to a dead stop.

"Sit tight!" Su Yang warned Zhong Qing in front of him before pulling back on the reins with all his might.

With a sharp neigh, the horse skidded to a sudden halt and reared up on its hind legs. In an instant, the two riders were thrown backward.

"Ah!" Zhong Qing screamed, falling back against Su Yang's chest.

Su Yang clamped down on the reins with a death grip to keep them from being thrown off.

The horse's violent thrashing was over in a flash. Its front hooves slammed back down, planting firmly on the dirt. Just as the two breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the beast had finally settled, it bolted into a wild gallop once again.

Fortunately, it did not charge toward the river this time. Instead, it veered off, sprinting wildly across the vast expanse of the grassland.

Barely a hundred or two meters into its sprint, the horse's front legs either tripped over something or suddenly gave out to a cramp. Whatever the cause, the beast stumbled hard.

Whoosh—

Its front legs buckled completely, and its massive, five-hundred-pound body plummeted toward the ground.

There was no time to think. Su Yang instinctively wrapped his arms tightly around Zhong Qing just as their forward momentum launched them both into the air.

"Ahhhhh!!" Zhong Qing shrieked in terror.

Holding her close, Su Yang twisted his body mid-air, positioning himself so his own back would take the brunt of the impact against the grass.

Thud!!

They slammed into the ground in the blink of an eye. The sheer force of the crash made Su Yang, still clutching Zhong Qing, bounce off the turf. Tangled together, they tumbled across the grass, rolling seven or eight times before finally coming to a halt.

When they finally stopped, Su Yang ended up sprawled directly on top of Zhong Qing. Their faces were mere inches apart, staring wide-eyed at each other.

Zhong Qing's eyes were perfectly round, her breathing ragged, and her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. This racing pulse was not from their intimate posture, but rather the lingering terror of the violent fall.

Yet, driven by some inexplicable impulse, she suddenly lifted her head and planted a kiss squarely on Su Yang's lips.

......