“Tighten the reins and keep strangling until it slows down” the man yelled again from behind.
I was scared to death by now, but I kept my hand on it and the horse slowed down a bit.
And then the man caught up to me. He rode the horse very close to me and yelled, “Give me the reins!”
I had only hope at this point, so I tossed him the reins. But the horse was running and I was too nervous, so he missed the reins I threw at him and they fell to the ground.
Now the horse was out of control, and it could really run at will.
But the black horse caught up with me again. The man on the horse suddenly leaped toward me, but he didn’t land on the horse, nor did he reach out and pull me, but from the side of the horse’s belly and dropped down heavily on the ground.
Though he fell to the ground, he tugged at the reins on the ground.
He stood on the ground and held the reins for dear life, and the horse couldn’t break free. Finally the horse stopped, puffed and panted, and then also hissed. I didn’t know what kind of emotion it was trying to express.
Then I heard a laugh. It was from the man lying on the ground pulling on the reins, “You really can’t ride, rookie!”
I ignored him, got off my horse, pointed at him and yelled at him, “Are you crazy? Why are you beating my horse?”
“It’s simply insulting to such a fine horse that you take your time riding it. How was I supposed to know that a person who rides such a fine horse is a rookie, I thought you were lying to me,” he laughed again.
“Nuts!” I was really angry and wanted to slap him a few times, but I knew that I couldn’t do this, so I just swore at him.
“Do you know who I am, and how dare you call me names like that? There’s no one here, and if you swear at me again, aren’t you afraid I’ll do something bad to you?” He smiled darkly.
The man was evil when he smiled darkly.
I saw that we had indeed run a little farther away from the rest area.
It wasn’t unreasonable for him to threaten me. At this point in time, I really would prefer not to mess with such a jerk, so I headed back. Since I was too scared to ride again, I had to walk back slowly.
“Ma’am, you don’t want your horse? Such a nice horse, and you just left it here?” He said behind him.
I ignored him and headed straight for the rest area.
But he soon followed me with his black horse in his left hand and my white horse in his right. He was very good at controlling the horses, and both horses kept their distance in his hands and followed him meekly.
“What’s your name, rookie?” He asked me.
I didn’t dare offend him now, but I didn’t want to talk to him either.
“You don’t know how to ride a horse, yet you ride such a good one? Is this your first time riding? I can teach you if you need.” He said again.
“No, thank you.” I responded coldly.
“I don’t charge you for it. It’s free.” He was thick-skinned and in hot pursuit.
The man was flippant with his words and manners, and I knew that he wasn’t a nice guy.
I decided not to mess with him. Since I couldn’t afford to mess with him, I had to avoid him.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” I didn’t expect him to ask explicitly.
“My kids are in elementary school.” I replied.
“You’re married? I like married women.” He smirked again.
The words were even more flippant, and I loathed him more and more. I quickened my pace. But as fast as I walked, so did he. He kept following me and kept saying frivolous things.
I didn’t pay any more attention to him. I was incapable of confronting him and he was a bad guy, so I had to endure for now.
I finally made it all the way to the service area and was greeted by a staff member who asked if I was enjoying my ride. I was in a terrible mood and ignored him directly and went straight to the changing room.
When I got changed and came out, I saw the person, Feng Shen, I was looking for in the rest area.
I had looked at his picture many times before coming here. His particular hairstyle was easily recognizable, after all, there weren’t many young people wearing this haircut in this era.
He was wearing a neat white shirt, carrying a backpack, and was ready to leave.
I wanted to go up to him and greet him, I but felt a little abrupt and was thinking of how to greet him normally and he saw me.
Then the next thing that happened was even more surprising, he walked over to me. I thought to myself, “Does he recognize me? Does he know that I came to the racecourse today to find him?”
He walked straight to me a meter away from me and suddenly stood still, “May I ask if you are Miss Yao?”
It seemed that I was really recognized by him. As such, I greeted him directly, “Hello, Mr. Shen.”
“It’s really you, Nala Yao!” He was suddenly filled with ecstasy and called me by name.
This made me even more surprised that he knew my name and called me by my first name so rudely. As a businessman who founded his own company, he should know it was rude to call people by their first names.
“I didn’t think you’d remember me, we haven’t seen each other for years, how are you?” He stepped a little closer, and this time I could see clearly that he was really surprised.
This meaning of his words was that he and I had met before and his memories of me were from before, not like I only knew him as a person after just reading about him.
“Back then you were the talented girl in our finance department. You got a perfect score in high math or whatever subject you were in, and the teacher was telling our class that our department had a genius girl who was excellent in math and physics. A group of us finally asked about your dormitory, and we collectively went downstairs to call your name. You guys didn’t like our noise, so you poured water on us from upstairs, remember? I was the most drenched, and then there were rumors that you were using foot-washing water. But I always thought it was just tap water. Because I’m sure people who can get a perfect score wouldn’t do such a thing as splashing people with foot-washing water.”
He actually laughed himself at the memory.
I did have some vague recollection of what he said, but I really can’t remember whether it was tap water or foot-washing water that was thrown at him.
I didn’t think I would ever splash anyone with foot-washing water, and besides, where would I get so much foot-washing water?
“You were good at that time, too, young and promising. I remember you being one of the main officers of the student union. We were all fans of yours.” I said with a smile.
He was even happier, “Really? Then why did you return me a blank when I sent you a message to confess back then? Then I asked my dorm buddies and they said that the messages means ‘ We have nothing to talk about ‘ and I was sad about it for a long time.”
Was there such a thing as this? I’d forgotten that.