I didn't know you were such a vampire

The news that Joya agreed to the Count Pesaro's invitation to ride a horse to visit Rome also reached Adriana's ears, so she sliced ​​the steak gracefully during lunch time, and at the same time told Joya, Miss Noble The precautions for horse riding are explained clearly one by one, and then the final summary is made:

"Remember, aristocratic ladies must ride sideways, which is a man's posture. You are a lady from a decent family who is about to marry, and straddling not only affects fertility, but is also very indecent. Hundreds of years ago, even He was convicted of 'obscenity and debauchery', you know, one of the crimes that Joan of Arc was accused of by the Inquisition was 'straddle'." Adriana took Joya's hand and said carefully, "You But don't straddle."

Qiao Ya nodded and said with a smile: "Of course I know. The equestrian master taught me to ride sideways. I never know how to ride astride."

After she answered in this way, Adriana nodded with a slightly relaxed expression, while Lucrecia sat on the other side finished drinking the vegetable soup, then smiled and said: "Joya has always been the one who doesn't let adults worry about it, Adriana, you can rest assured."

Adriana put down Joya's hand, leaned on her chair, and said with a frown: "I always feel that something is going to happen today. You know, although the Pope has made great efforts to improve the security of Rome after he ascended the throne, overall, Rome is still not a place of peace of mind."

Julia, who was sitting next to Lucrezia, said softly, "With Earl Pesaro and his personal guards accompanying me this time, everything will be fine."

"I hope so." Adriana forced a smile, then turned to look at Qiao Ya who was sitting on the other side.

Qiao Ya had just taken a sip of wine, and after receiving Adriana's gaze, she held the wine glass in one hand, pointed to the sky with the other, and said solemnly: "I swear to God, I will never straddle." After finishing speaking , and smiled at the other ladies at the dinner table. She, who has always kept few words at the dinner table, suddenly made such a gag, which eased the atmosphere a lot. Lucrecia and Julia laughed together, Adriana The frown also relaxed.

After lunch, Joya put on a dress specially designed for noble ladies to ride horses, accompanied by two foreign maids, walked through the long courtyard corridor of the Orsini Palace, and came to the Orsini Palace's Orsini Gate.

At this time, Count Pesaro and his party were already waiting there.

In the afternoon, it is the time when the sun shines the brightest throughout the day. The whole street is bathed in the summer sun without clouds, whether it is pedestrians, street bricks, or Sith not far away. The dome of the court church was covered with a layer of shining gold.

Count Pesaro was dressed more grandly than the previous nights, his hair was meticulously arranged, he was wearing a purple cloak behind him, and there was a particularly dazzling gold medal hanging on his chest.

When he saw Qiao Ya, his eyes were a little erratic, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he could see that he was a little nervous, and then he took a few steps forward. Qiao Ya also stretched out her right hand in a drooping pose, and he bent one knee Kneeling in a half-kneeling position, holding her outstretched right hand, kissed her fingertips lightly, and after a hand-kiss ceremony, she stood up straight, looked at Qiao Ya and said, "Miss Qiao Ya, please allow me to introduce These two horses."

Qiao Ya turned her attention to the two horses led by the guards behind him, and nodded.

Both Cesare and Juan liked to ride horses. Rodrigo specially bought several horses from Mantova, which is rich in fine horses, for them. He also sent a special person to Germany to find good-bred hounds.The two horses that Count Pesaro brought were also found from Mantua, one with a brown mane and one with a gray mane, and the one with the gray mane was a docile mare. A special side saddle for women's side riding was installed on the back, and Qiao Ya was helped to sit on the stirrup.

As Adriana said, women of this era rode sideways, with both legs placed on one side of the horse's back, generally towards the left.Horseback riding itself is a difficult noble sport. Even straddle riding is a test of a person's balance ability. When Cesare and Juan first learned to ride horses, they often fell off their horses, and the difficulty of sideriding It is much higher than straddle riding. Even with a special side saddle for side riding, it is still very dangerous when the range of motion is large.

However, this trip on horseback was just a horseback ride arranged by Count Pesaro. Two people rode horses, followed by six personal guards arranged by Count Pesaro, and walked slowly along the edge of the Tiber River. Then, while admiring the spring scenery of Rome, they began to chat with each other.

Qiao Ya hadn't stepped out of that room in the Orsini Palace for several months, and now she was riding a horse along the banks of the Tiber River, and she felt like she could see the light of day.

The warmer Tiber River is shimmering in spring, making the Romanesque buildings during the reflection period also sway.

"Pesaro doesn't have such a magnificent cityscape." Giovanni 552, Count of Pesaro, who was walking alongside her, said, while praising the architecture of Rome, he secretly glanced at Joya.

Qiao Ya caught his sight, but she didn't turn her head to look directly. She looked at the reflection on the Tiber River for a while, and then said: "I heard that the Count's current residence is only two streets away from Blooming Rose. "

Count Pesaro paused, and then immediately said: "I only found out after I moved in, but don't worry, Miss Qiaoya, I've never been there. After we get married, I will take you back to Pesaro. Although it is not as grand as Rome, it also has a very charming sea view, I think you will like it."

Qiao Ya smiled and nodded, and then said: "Let's run faster, let me introduce Rome to you."

After she finished speaking, before Earl Pesaro could reply, she shook the reins and trotted forward with the gray mane horse. Although her horse speeded up, she was still sitting sideways on the saddle. Count Pesaro looked admiring, and speeded up his horse to keep up with Joya.

"That's the ancient Roman Colosseum." Joya pointed to a direction across the river. Count Pesaro looked in the direction she pointed, and could only see layers of eaves, not the Colosseum at all. Outline.

Seeing his suspicious eyes, Qiao Ya smiled and said, "It's still some distance from the Tiber River, but the current Colosseum is no longer what it used to be."

Pesaro heard the words and said, "Why do you say that?"

Joya shook the reins and accelerated the speed of the gray-maned horse, saying: "When the Colosseum was built, the whole of Rome held a celebration ceremony for a whole hundred days. At that time, the Colosseum was still called the Arena. Some people call it the amphitheater, it is a place where ancient Roman gladiators fought wild beasts to entertain princes and nobles." She looked at Count Pesaro and said, "It was originally a public area of ​​ancient Rome. The last emperor of the Giulia-Claudian dynasty, the tyrant Nero, set fire to Rome in order to force the land to build his garden. The fire almost burned the city of Rome to ashes, and then Nero was able to live there On the ashes, a magnificent golden palace and a huge statue of himself were built."

"Of course I've heard of the fire of the tyrant Nero. After the fire, he started construction, regardless of the emptiness of the treasury, and even demolished the stones of the temple to build the 'Golden Palace'." Earl Pesaro nodded ,road.

Joya continued: "He put all the blame for the fire on the Christians, and massacred the Christians in Rome, including Peter and Paul, among the twelve disciples of Jesus. Then, on behalf of Giulia Crowe In order to separate from Nero’s tyranny, the Flavian dynasty, which rose from the Di dynasty, forced [-] Jewish captives to build the Colosseum on the spot. After the fall of the Roman Empire, Catholicism gradually prospered, because St. Peter and St. Paul He was killed here, and the Holy See banned all activities in the Colosseum. For hundreds of years, the Colosseum has become a place for homeless wanderers. The stone and bricks from the quarry were used to build the church and the Privy Council."

"Today's Colosseum is a residence, a blockhouse, and a quarry for the Holy See, so you can't see the magnificent Colosseum back then."

After hearing this, Count Pesaro blinked his eyes, sighed after a long time, and said, "It's really... embarrassing."

"History is like this." Qiao Ya bent down and reached out to pat the neck of the gray mane horse very gently. When she looked in the direction of the Colosseum, her eyes softened a little. Unexpectedly, after the Senate declared him an "enemy of the state", he could not find anyone to help him even if he wanted to commit suicide. And the Emperor Vespasian of the Flaviian dynasty also did not expect that he would be in Nero's gold in order to establish a virtuous government. The Colosseum, which was built on the site of the Palace, eventually became the quarry for the Christian Temple.”

She straightened up and looked at Pesaro: "So, power and wealth, there is really nothing that can last forever."

After hearing her finish, Count Pesaro praised: "I only heard that Miss Joya is weak and doesn't like to go out. I didn't expect Miss Joya to know so many things."

"It's because I'm weak and I don't like to go out, so I can only read some crooked books." Qiao Ya said.

"So it's because of reading the book that you have a different opinion from other Roman nobles?" Count Pesaro said, "Let's not talk about other Roman nobles, I think it's probably because your father heard You will probably be surprised by what you say."

Qiao Ya laughed: "So the count is surprised?"

"I'm a little surprised." Count Pesaro nodded.

The two let their horses trot, walked a long way along the Tiber River, and came to a poor settlement on the edge of Rome.Compared with the downtown area of ​​Rome, this place is a bit more crowded. There are cloth sheds set up between the ruined walls, and seven or eight people are crowded in each shed, either sitting or lying down.Ragged children roam the streets, along with human and livestock excrement.

Count Pesaro wrinkled his face when he passed this area. When he saw a ten-year-old dirty boy squatting to defecate on the side of the street, he made a disgusted expression, and then stared away. Qiao Ya, who was in front of him on the left, could see the hooves of the gray-maned horse from her skirt, for fear that the mud on the ground in the slums would splash on the gray-maned horse at the corner of Qiao Ya's skirt.

When Qiao Ya turned her head, she just saw his wrinkled face and said with a smile: "I accidentally went the wrong way just now, this is a poor area in Rome, and there are some people who moved from pagan areas, let's hurry up leave."

Count Pesaro hurriedly said: "Yes, yes, let's leave quickly."

Hearing what he said, Qiao Ya turned her head around, raised an arc where he couldn't see, clenched the whip in her hand, raised it high, and whipped it on the gray-maned horse's buttocks, and the gray-maned horse suffered from pain. With a neigh, she speeded up and rushed out from the middle of the street in the slums, causing people on both sides of the street to point at her back and curse.

Count Pesaro hadn’t ridden a horse properly during the past few days in Rome. It was a rare occasion when the horse’s hoof stepped out of the city of Rome, and he heard the neighing of the horse. His hand holding the whip was also a little itchy. When the guards arrived, they also rode out with Qiao Ya.

Outside the slums, there is the Tiber River that runs across the city of Rome. The wilderness in the suburbs lacks the traces of the artificial excavation of the river in the city. The sound made people's hearts gallop out like horseshoes.

Count Pesaro did not expect that Qiao Ya, who was riding in such a difficult posture as a side-riding horse, could run so fast. The competitive spirit of an adult man made him keep driving his mount, thinking that if he went faster, he would be able to overtake the running horse. Joya was in front of him.

But at this moment, Qiao Ya, who was sitting sideways on the saddle, shook a little.

Before Count Pesaro could react, he saw that Qiao Ya had let out a short exclamation, and she fell off the side saddle and rolled into the rapids of the Tiber River.

Count Pesaro's eyes widened at first, and then he immediately reined in the horse. He almost rolled out of the saddle, and then stumbled to the river.

The waves of the Tiber River above the wilderness are rolling, with a gesture of sweeping everything, and everything that falls into it is drawn into the depths of the underwater vortex.