Leaving Xiazhou City heading north, within less than an hour, the trees on both sides of the official road gradually thinned out. At so point, the trees beca sparse, and behind lay an endless grassland.
Occasionally, there were clusters of trees on the grassland, but so far no vast expanses of forest were seen.
Manbao and the others had been here before. In January, they pretended to hunt on the grassland to record a deer.
The official road beca narrower, but the grass was soft. The carriage still followed the road, but the horses preferred to run on the grass at the side.
Manbao saw this and enthusiastically invited Bai Shan, "Let’s go horseback riding together."
Bai Shan, who only wanted to take a nap, hesitated for a mont but still got off the carriage, took his Daoli from the guards by the side, and nodded at Manbao after mounting the horse.
Manbao also excitedly mounted Chiji, spurred his horse, and raced forward with Bai Shan.
Seeing this, Daji spurred his horse to follow, while the other guards, not following, continued to walk slowly with the convoy.
Bai Erlang was also sleepy, so he refused Liu Huan’s proposal to read together in the carriage, pulled the wooden chair out of the carriage, laid out the quilt inside, took out a pillow, placed it on, and slept.
Though the carriage wobbled and was a bit bumpy, once the body adapted to the swaying, you’d find it easier to sleep on the carriage than at ho.
Bai Erlang fell asleep shortly after lying down and started to snore.
The guard driving the carriage outside shook his head but drove the carriage more steadily.
Yin Huo was also sleepy. He wasn’t used to staying up late, but Bai Shan and the others had a lot to write and research, such as how Shantang Hall in Xiazhou City had been operating, how much money the governnt allocated monthly to Shantang Hall, how it was allocated, what extra sponsorships were given during festivals, and the approximate monthly expenditure of Shantang Hall...
All these needed to be investigated.
Fortunately, Yang Heshu was accommodating. They could access whatever materials and accounts they needed, and the manager of Shantang Hall didn’t dare to object, so they could easily obtain these account books.
Otherwise, it would take more effort to investigate, consuming more ti.
Even so, they were always staying up late these past two days, and they didn’t sleep well last night, so he lacked sleep now.
It was quite miraculous that he would lack sleep.
Yin Huo needed to sleep, so naturally, he couldn’t make the bed himself. He sat on the small stool at the carriage door while Changshou helped him by pulling down the chair above into a bench-like bed, making the bed and setting the pillow...
Changshou said, "Young Master, not to ntion, the Bai Family truly cherishes Young Master Bai. Who would have thought they could pull out a chair to make a bench? However, the carriage is still too short, and your legs can’t be stretched straight."
Yin Huo glanced at it and said, "It’s already quite good."
The interior of carriages at this ti, though differing in decorations and seats, mostly shared the sa structure.
There were usually three fixed long benches with no extra wooden supports on the sides, leaning against the windows and walls.
The central long bench, like a bed at ho, had a broader seat and a wooden back, covered with fur and decorations, making travel not too hard to endure.
So refined households had a fixed rack behind the wooden back, with locked drawers to store personal belongings.
Bai Shan’s carriage had this. The top two empty drawers were for quilts. Usually, the quilts were stored inside during the day, and lowering the wooden board secured them conveniently.
But the Bai Family’s carriage had a unique feature. The wooden back was quite high, and it could convert into a large, long bench bed by pulling up the wooden slats.
Not too tall people could lie diagonally with legs stretched out. People like Yin Huo and Bai Shan had to bend their legs slightly but found it more comfortable than regular carriages.
Yin Huo was close to Bai Shan and knew their family’s carriage had always been like this. Yin Li had spent a lot of money before they set out to make a carriage modeled after Bai Family’s. Moreover, because Yin Huo held a title and could use a two-horse carriage, it was wider than others, so the extended bench was longer.
Because Liu Huan had to leave in a hurry, his family’s best carriage wasn’t as good, so when needing to sleep in the carriage, he squeezed in with Yin Huo.
Yin Huo didn’t mind, for the carriage was wide enough for two people to sleep comfortably.
But naturally, one person was more comfortable. Yin Huo went to bed once Changshou arranged it, took off his shoes and socks, lay diagonally, covered himself with the quilt, and soon fell asleep watching the swaying roof.
Zhou Liru shared a carriage with Mr. Zhuang and was reading to him.
This was her new job. Manbao noticed her repeatedly flipping through so dical books, seemingly morizing them, yet she kept flipping through them with decreasing gains from review, so Manbao suggested she read other books to refresh her mind.
It happened that Mr. Zhuang’s eyesight wasn’t well, and it was difficult for him to read in the carriage, so Manbao had Zhou Liru read to Mr. Zhuang instead.
"It’s just right to learn so classics and histories from the master."
So Zhou Liru ca.
Mr. Zhuang initially wanted to find soone else, but seeing Manbao find him a dependable person in Zhou Liru, who was also well-behaved, he was content and listened to her reading with half-closed eyes.
"Giddyup—" Manbao leaned down, speeding past Bai Shan, spotting so wild sheep grazing in the field, and decided to chase them.
Bai Shan saw that she hadn’t deviated and followed to chase too.
Spring had arrived. The grassland was still chilly, but the snow on Xiazhou’s grassland had lted, and spring breezes blew, sprouting tender shoots that grew half a finger overnight. Wild sheep, surviving the winter cold, ca out to graze, fully alert. Upon hearing horse hooves, they perked up, glanced, and then ran off.
After crossing a hill, they saw their companions and called to scatter together, running wildly.
Manbao gave chase. Reaching the hilltop, she saw the scattering sheep flock and exclaid aloud, hesitating briefly, "Are these truly wild sheep and not the herd of so herdsman?"
Bai Shan quickly scanned around and decided, "It’s a flock of wild sheep, chase them—"
Daji also followed the two running.
Seeing them chasing that sheep steadfastly, he glanced back, helplessly keeping up.
Really now, why not choose a plumper sheep? They’ve picked one neither big nor fat to chase.
And still haven’t caught up yet...
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