Lady Meilin is seduced by her green tea brother-in-law everyday-Chapter 416: Real and fake horses in a race.

The vacation was paused on the day of the Sydney Cup. Thousands descended on the city like over caffeinated flies, filling the streets and venue. The event was always a spectacle when it came around. Floats in the city, flutes that made eardrums tremble, hats so wide that people had to duck and jump to avoid colliding. It had a richer history than the Vermillion derby, having existed for over a century.

This year, a change had been made. They were finally allowing smart tech and gadgets into the race so the spectacle had multiplied. Smart whips, smart saddles, smart helmets, smart glasses even the clothes on the riders bodies were installed with chips and their gloves had biometric sensors.

The crowd went wild as a steel horse was led out by a rider and taken to the starting line. Other riders started to sweat while officials went crazy. Yes, smart tech had been approved but nothing had been said about a smart horse with no physical flesh.

In the live crowd were those who were booing and Chi Lian was among them. Through her binoculars, she was watching Mei Mei, sitting on the back of her horse, head held high proudly. She did not show the nervousness of those around her.

Muyang was feeding his wife popcorn, one at a time while watching their daughter through smart glasses like many others in the crowd.

"She is not nervous. Why isn’t she sweating?" He asked.

Next to him, Prince Long Aotian said, "She is representing our empire so she cannot sweat or show fear. Even if we don’t win, we will do so with pride."

"She is not losing." Junjie, Mingzhe and Jingzhe said together.

The officials announced at that moment that the mechanical horse would be allowed to race.

"Boooooo....." Chi Lian screamed.

Jun Yi yawned, Rose woke up from her nap and other family members and friends snacked on different eatables in the snack baskets Madam Feng and Jingzhe had brought. The two had arrived this morning with goodies and emotional support.

Mingzhu was already clinging to her daddy, not letting him out of her sight for a single second. She had been telling him all about the things she had seen and done, repeating what she had shared over the phone already.

"We all know she is going to win." Jun Yi yawned again. "This is a two hour race, the Vermillion derby is a three hour race and it was more grueling than this one."

The map the riders would be following had already been shared on the official page of the Sydney Cup. The riders would start off on the race track and join an off beaten path on the city’s outskirts. They would ride through a park, navigate a pressure sensitive road, pass through a smart gate and dodge swinging confetti hammers.

The race began with the firing of a gun and off the horses went. The crowd roared, moving their bodies like they were surging forward with the horses. With the smart glasses, it was almost like they were the riders themselves out there on the tracks. They could hear the sound of horse hooves hitting the ground like thunder.

Thunder Muyang, the mechanical horse and a red mare that had black robot legs were in the lead, nose to nose.

Mei Mei was keeping an eye on Thunder’s stats that were available on her smart glasses. His heart rate was table, hydration was enough, hoof pressure was okay. His mood....he was slightly irritated. The arrow pointed to the right, sighting the source of his irritation. It was the mechanical horse.

"I am not too happy about it either buddy." She whispered.

Robot horse racing against real horses was unfair and wrong. She could understand the horse with robot legs but not the one which was a full machine.

As the horses landed on the off beaten path, there was a scream from behind. Something clicked and there was a small explosion.

"All that smart tech is already beginning to fall apart." A commentator said.

"That is to be expected." The other commentator said. "The obstacle course is not very tech friendly so they horses using technology must push themselves to keep up with the ordinary ones."

There was another scream from the back which came from a rider whose horse saw a rat and freaked out! It jumped into a hedge and the rider fell off the back.

"Ooh.." The commentators groaned. "That rat is going to return to his friends and tell them he took down a horse and they will not believe it."

Along the path, they discovered ten roads leading in different directions. Only one was the true path and the others were not real.

"Number six." C4 told Mei Mei.

She led the horse in that direction without hesitating and to her surprise, mechanical horse followed her.

"Damn it!" She whispered. She was now leading but her choice had resulted in every rider that could see her following her path. She had saved them minutes of contemplating and a premature end of their journey in the race.

She was not the only one feeling unhappy about the followers, Chi Lian was also cursing. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

The horses entered a park and things took a crazy turn. It was not empty like they had assumed, there were dogs and children!!

Riders panicked and horses floundered not to run over children. Two riders fell off their horses and the mechanical one fell into a fountain and started twitching.

Horses were running around like confused toddlers in a ballerina class. Children were crying, parents were screaming and dogs were barking loudly.

"They seem to have taken a wrong path." A commentator said.

Some people were already blaming Mei Mei in the crowd. After all, she chose the path. She was just as confused as everyone else and they were entering the second hour of the race.

"They are not real." C4 told Mei Mei.

Mei Mei hissed and rode forward with determination. The hooves of Thunder Muyang rode through dogs, squirrels kids...anything that appeared in front of her.

"Oh no." Jun Yi cried out.

"There is no blood idiot." Rose shouted.

Jun Yi opened her eyes, sighing like others that had been clueless. But then, Mei Mei slowed down as she met kangaroos.

"Why is she slowing down?" Jun Yi yelled. "Run them over?"

"They are real." Rose told her. "Aren’t you the animal rights champion?"

"Oh." She dampened her enthusiasm. "My bad."

Mei Mei’s obstacles were not just kangaroos but enthusiastic fans too whose cameras were giving off flashes that nearly blinded Thunder Muyang. His irritation surged to the maximum and she grew worried.