Just as the leading Li Xiujian thought he could win this race, Lu Mingye, who had been following closely behind him, suddenly gave up the chase.
He reined in his horse and stopped.
Everyone was stunned.
Including Li Xiujian.
He looked back, puzzled, at Lu Mingye.
Lu Mingye did not look at him.
Instead, he flashed a brilliant smile towards a certain direction in the stands.
He dismounted, handed the reins to a groom who came running over, and then walked straight towards the stands.
He had forfeited the race.
Because he saw that the pretty girl he had invited seemed to be growing impatient.
For him, winning or losing a race was far less important than a date.
On the terrace, Lu Chengsi's expression finally showed a flicker of change.
The fingers holding the celadon teacup seemed to have whitened slightly from excessive force.
"Hahahaha!"
Li Hongji burst into loud laughter.
"Brother Chengsi, your son is quite the romantic!"
"Willing to forsake the crown for a beauty!"
"How interesting, how interesting!"
Just as everyone was captivated by Lu Mingye's antics, no one noticed that Mo Zhenbang, who had been lagging in last place, began to accelerate.
His horse had been held back at a controlled pace all along.
Its stamina had been preserved exceptionally well.
Now, he loosened the reins.
The chestnut steed, like a shell fired from a cannon, began a frantic pursuit.
By the time Li Xiujian snapped out of his distraction caused by Lu Mingye's spectacle, he heard the urgent sound of hoofbeats behind him.
He looked back, and his pupils contracted sharply.
Mo Zhenbang was less than fifty meters behind him.
And the distance was closing rapidly.
"Damn it!"
Li Xiujian cursed angrily, lashing his horse's back fiercely.
The black Arabian horse, stung by the pain, accelerated again.
But it had expended too much energy from the very start.
Its final sprint was already somewhat struggling.
The finish line was right there.
Forty meters.
Thirty meters.
Twenty meters.
Mo Zhenbang caught up.
The two horses were almost neck and neck.
Li Xiujian's face flushed crimson.
He absolutely could not lose!
Especially not to Mo Zhenbang!
At the very moment they were about to cross the finish line, Li Xiujian made an extremely covert move.
His whip was not aimed at his own horse.
Instead, with a flick of his wrist, the tip of the whip, like a venomous snake, silently grazed past the head of Mo Zhenbang's horse.
The startled chestnut warmblood jerked its head to the side.
Its speed faltered for an instant.
That instant was enough.
Li Xiujian's black horse crossed the finish line first.
He had won.
By only half a head's length.
He raised his arm high, declaring his victory to the entire field.
But the expected cheers did not rise from the stands.
Everyone's expression was somewhat subtle.
Many had seen what just happened.
Li Xiujian's win was not honorable.
Mo Zhenbang reined in his horse, stopping past the finish line.
He did not look at Li Xiujian.
He simply leaned down and gently patted his horse's neck, soothing it.
Li Xiujian rode over to him.
"Mo Zhenbang, you lost."
"The plot of land in the east of the city is mine."
Mo Zhenbang looked up.
His face remained calm.
"I only agreed to race you with you. When did I agree to a wager?"
"What did you say?"
Li Xiujian's eyes instantly turned dangerous.
"Are you going back on your word?"
Mo Zhenbang remained utterly unmoved, continuing calmly,
"Moreover, the ownership of a piece of land shouldn't be decided by a horse race."
"That would be too childish."
"You!"
Li Xiujian was furious.
He felt humiliated.
The victory he had worked so hard for, even resorting to underhanded tactics, was considered merely "childish" in the other's eyes.
Just as he was about to erupt, Lu Mingye walked over with the pretty girl.
"Alright, alright, Young Master Li, don't be angry,"
Lu Mingye said with a smile, trying to smooth things over.
"The three of us are spoken of together, yet today is the first time we've all gathered."
"How about this? Tonight, my treat, at Caesar's Palace!"
"The gathering of the three young masters of Jingzhou will surely make for a fine story."
He skillfully shifted the topic, trying to ease the tension.
Li Xiujian looked at him coldly.
"Not interested."
Then, ignoring everyone else, he turned his horse and headed straight for the exit.
Li Xiujian's blatant disregard left Lu Mingye somewhat embarrassed.
The farce thus came to an end.
Lu Mingye took the pretty girl and got into his newly bought Ferrari.
The roar of the sports car soon faded into the distance.
The equestrian club gradually returned to calm.
Mo Zhenbang led his horse, walking slowly back to the stables.
His father, Mo Jingsheng, was already standing there, though no one knew when he had arrived.
"Dad."
"Mm." Mo Jingsheng nodded.
He glanced at the chestnut horse.
"Good horse."
He then looked at his son.
"You did well too."
Mo Zhenbang said nothing.
"Sometimes, losing is better than winning,"
Mo Jingsheng said slowly.
A glimmer of understanding flashed in Mo Zhenbang's eyes.
"I understand."
Elsewhere.
Lu Chengsi stood on the terrace, watching his son's red Ferrari disappear in a cloud of dust.
His face was calm, his thoughts inscrutable.
Only, the aura around him grew colder and more forbidding.
His secretary behind him didn't dare to breathe too loudly.
Lu Chengsi stood there for a long time.
Until the setting sun stretched his shadow long.
He picked up his cell phone.
Dialed a number.
"Old Liu, help me arrange a meeting with Director Li from the National Development and Reform Commission."
"Tell him I'd like to personally report to him some... immature thoughts regarding the future industrial planning for the new eastern district."
The person on the other end of the line immediately agreed.
Lu Chengsi hung up.
His gaze once again turned towards the distance.
Victory or defeat on the racecourse truly didn't count for much.
The real game hadn't even begun yet.
He glanced at the seat where Li Hongji had been sitting earlier and recalled Mo Jingsheng's words, "They're all still just children."
A cold, sharp curve appeared at the corner of Lu Chengsi's mouth.
The farce at the equestrian club was like a stone thrown into water.
The ripples slowly spread within their respective families.
iemie, male, Race: Moon. Hobby: Collecting anomalies. At first, he thought he possessed two systems: the Crimson Rainbow Moon and the Clear Cold Frost Moon. One day, he discovered that he himself could also become a system for others, holding the chessboard of fate. The Eighth Epoch, also known as the Eternal Moon Epoch. Humans, witches, elves, bloodline descendants, specters, demons, and spirits together compose a new history. Walking the path on behalf of the moon, before he knew it, Chen Miemie's footsteps were followed by all manner of strange and wondrous anomalies. As time passed, many titles circulated about him—The King in Yellow, Lord of Anomalies, Heart of the Eternal Moon, and more. "Me? I'm just a traveler who enjoys collecting interesting creatures," Chen Miemie said.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
