Never mind, let me put my things on the horse first. I should have known not to take them down earlier. I thought there would be an assembly, but it seems I was overthinking it.

Of course, there were people gathering—those who knew each other were all talking in groups, just waiting for the guard troops to arrive so they could depart.

Guard troops were naturally necessary. The identities of these young masters and ladies were not simple. Any one of them could organize a guard troop for escort, not to mention with so many people together—they definitely needed to prepare strong escort personnel.

Fortunately, this event didn't have anyone making speeches or anything, otherwise Xiaoyao would have had to wait again. The organizers and leaders of this event were all from among these young masters and ladies. Perhaps they didn't have the ability to be competent, but this was also a form of training—it was a tradition.

"You, help this young lady carry her luggage!"

Just as Xiaoyao was about to mount his horse, a young lady with the demeanor of a wealthy daughter appeared, pointing at Xiaoyao. She took Xiaoyao for a servant, and regardless of whether he was her servant or not, he was still a servant. For her, having a servant carry something was perfectly natural.

Would Xiaoyao pay attention?

"Sure! I'll help you right away!" Xiaoyao nodded. It was just carrying luggage—not a big deal, just a small favor.

...

...

If the Young Miss were here, she would definitely kick Xiaoyao and tell him not to bother with such women. However, for Xiaoyao, this was just a small favor. If he got entangled with this wealthy young lady, it would actually be more troublesome.

When Xiaoyao was carrying the luggage, he just wanted to say to this wealthy young lady: Are you going on a spring outing or moving house? Why do you have so many large boxes of things? Of course, he didn't ask out loud.

Because Xiaoyao was carrying things, others didn't seem to call on him again. Generally, carriages were rarely transferred—most people had their own carriages. Only a few people who wanted to talk together would share a carriage.

The wealthy young lady who called Xiaoyao wasn't sharing with others either. She just had two carriages coming over. One was her own carriage that came first, while the luggage came with the second carriage specifically for delivering her luggage. She wasn't the only one doing this.

"Not bad, this is a reward from this young lady!" The wealthy young lady threw Xiaoyao a silver ingot worth at least three taels. Her generosity was quite extraordinary.

"Thank you for the reward, Miss!" Xiaoyao smiled, then mounted his horse and followed the carriages forward.

The destination of this spring outing was Yanhua Mountain to the south. Yanhua Mountain itself had beautiful scenery with strange peaks, odd rocks, streams, and waterfalls. Although it had no special features, it was not inferior to any other place.

Below Yanhua Mountain, there was also a plain. Now it was covered with rapeseed flowers everywhere, very beautiful, and was also an excellent scenic spot—a good place for spring outings.

This destination was chosen by this event's leaders. Among the leaders, there seemed to be members of the Luo family, though Xiaoyao didn't recognize them, and naturally they didn't recognize Xiaoyao either.

Apart from Third Master's family, the people in the Luo family who knew Xiaoyao could be counted on one hand. If it were in the past, Luo Junjie might have been among them and would definitely be an absolute leader, but Luo Junjie hadn't participated in recent years. He was getting older and it was somewhat inappropriate.

At the same time, many people opposed Luo Junjie's participation because he was too promiscuous, having harmed many innocent young ladies but taking no responsibility.

This activity originally had some nature of inter-family marriages and blind dates. Being promiscuous was fine, but one had to be responsible. Therefore, Luo Junjie wasn't very welcome.

"Beautiful scenery is everywhere. You don't necessarily need to go far—you can find beautiful places nearby."

After reaching the destination, Xiaoyao sighed with emotion upon seeing the endless rapeseed fields, the small rivers interspersed among them, and some small wooden bridges that decorated this land with extraordinary beauty.

Such beautiful places weren't particularly rare to see. Basically, every area had them nearby, which was why Xiaoyao felt so emotional.

Some people often travel far when going sightseeing, but in fact, the nearby scenery might be far superior to distant places. Tourism doesn't necessarily require going far—nearby places work too, just like this spring outing, which could also bring good moods.

"We've arrived. Let's travel light and have some servants go to the village ahead to prepare food!"

Soon, the organizers of this spring outing assigned tasks, leading the young masters and ladies through the rapeseed fields along the field paths. This was something they rarely experienced. Of course, these field paths were also the better ones—they wouldn't step on the inferior ones.

These young masters and ladies basically traveled light, bringing at most one or two servants. Xiaoyao could only lead his horse on foot. He hadn't brought servants, so he had to watch his own things.

Fortunately, there were quite a few servants now, so Xiaoyao didn't look that out of place. Otherwise, he would have been singled out for questioning by now.

"Let's fly kites!"

Some young ladies took out kites and began flying them in the fields. Flying kites was an important activity of spring outings, and in such an environment with good wind, flying kites seemed to be a natural game.

So one kite after another began rising into the sky. Some young masters tactfully joined their favored young ladies in flying kites, provided the wealthy young ladies didn't refuse.

The kites these young ladies brought out were basically exquisitely crafted.

"Indeed, spring outings are incomplete without kite flying. Fortunately, I also prepared materials to make a kite!" Xiaoyao also took out some bamboo strips and a piece of white paper, quickly constructing a kite. This kite was very ordinary—just a fish with a tail and a fish body, with no decorations on the white paper.

The most important thing about kites wasn't their appearance, but their ability to fly high in the sky. Look at my white fish—it can definitely fly the highest. Xiaoyao could make technical kites too, but those would be tiring to fly. Since he was just playing, why bother with complicated things?

"Whose kite is that? It's so ugly!"

When Xiaoyao's kite flew into the sky, some voices emerged, finding Xiaoyao's kite rather ugly. Compared to others, his was really too ordinary.

"Is that a squid?"

"No, it should be a cuttlefish!"

"Is there a difference?"

Actually, Xiaoyao's kite did look somewhat like that. His kite was a side view of a fish, standing vertically with a big head and two small tails...

"It's flying so high! It's already surpassed everyone and is still climbing!"

Soon, Xiaoyao's kite flew to the highest position, even surpassing everyone by a large margin, giving it a feeling of standing out from the crowd, though this crane was a bit ugly.

"Fly yours higher! How can such an ugly thing be above ours!"

The wealthy young ladies were somewhat unhappy. Xiaoyao's kite was really too ugly for them, and being suppressed by this kite made them very displeased.

You want to compete with me in kite flying? I'm also an expert!!

Xiaoyao easily accepted these people's challenges. One kite after another was defeated under his hands. They flew too high, the strings couldn't bear it, some had already broken, and some got tangled together.

"Damn it, whose kite is that exactly?!"

Those whose strings had broken and kites had fallen were very angry, wanting to find the owner of this simple kite. After searching for a while, they found Xiaoyao was the most suspicious.

Originally, people wouldn't have noticed this, but Xiaoyao's image was too prominent and incompatible with them, so they became suspicious. A servant was actually flying kites—who was his master?

At this point, everyone determined from Xiaoyao's clothing that he was just a servant. It wasn't that servants couldn't fly kites, but they usually helped their masters fly them. Otherwise, in such an occasion, who would allow a servant to fly kites alongside them?

"Boy, where is your master?" Several young masters approached Xiaoyao and asked coldly.

"Master? You mean my boss? She doesn't know where she is. A few months ago she seemed to be fighting a great battle on Tianfeng Grasslands, then later ran to Jiangling City to fight..." Xiaoyao replied. He was naturally talking about Guxing, and the places he mentioned were all places where battles had occurred recently.

"I'm asking where she is now!" The young masters were somewhat angry. They didn't care where Xiaoyao's boss had been before—they just needed her to appear now.

"I don't know. When she sends a letter in a few days, I'll ask," Xiaoyao replied, continuing to fly his kite.

"What do you mean by that? Isn't she here?" A young lady asked with some confusion, cleverly pointing out the key issue.

"Of course she's not here!" Xiaoyao replied directly.

"Then how are you here?" The young masters questioned. If there was no master, what was a servant doing here playing?

"I came for the spring outing. I had no choice—I didn't want to come but was forced, Anyway, it's just for fun. Don't mind me, you play your games, I'll play mine," Xiaoyao replied with a smile.

"I think this guy snuck in. There are many people who try to fish in troubled waters every time, all thinking they can get opportunities," a young lady frowned, looking at Xiaoyao with disgust. She had already categorized Xiaoyao as someone fishing in troubled waters.

"I think so too. This guy must be one of those toads wanting to eat swan meat," a young master also nodded in agreement.

After everyone unanimously determined that Xiaoyao had snuck in, they immediately had people drive him away. They were too lazy to do this themselves—they'd just have the guards do it.

This situation also attracted some people's attention. Among them, one person even recognized Xiaoyao, though only barely.

(End of Chapter)