The two Little Sheep disappeared before Bai Shan’s eyes. Even though he had seen it many tis, he couldn’t help but marvel silently. Then... he behaved very properly, neither holding Manbao’s hand nor bumping her shoulder as he usually did.
After waiting for a while, he asked, "Did Uncle Zhou leave?"
Manbao reached out to hold his hand, very happily saying, "He left."
Only then did Bai Shan shake her hand. He looked around and found that the scenery here was quite nice. A large field of grass lay ahead, covered in so yellow flowers, only as big as a pinky finger but nurous, making it quite pretty to look at.
So he pulled her down to sit on the grass and enjoy the breeze. "I heard that the grassland looks even better in the fall. Grass grows taller than Little Sheep, and when the wind blows, it looks like they’re dancing..."
Manbao’s eyes sparkled. "Let’s co back to see then."
Bai Shan smiled and nodded.
When Bai Erlang and the others rode over on horses to find them, they saw the two of them leaning their heads together, not knowing what they were talking about, and Zhou Man was laughing heartily at the sky.
Bai Erlang curled his lips, feeling disdainful, yet he still slowed his pace, allowing Liu Huan to accidentally overtake him and run to the front. He shouted, "Bai Shan, Zhou Man—"
The two people sitting shoulder to shoulder on the small hill looked back together.
Yin Huo: ...
He heard Zhou Liru muttering softly beside him, "Really silly!"
Yin Huo couldn’t help but turn to look at her. Zhou Liru sensed his gaze, turned her head to et his eyes with a sweet smile, then tugged her horse a bit to fall half a step behind him.
Yin Huo couldn’t help but laugh himself without even knowing why he was laughing.
Bai Erlang jumped off his horse, turning his head left and right. "I heard they caught three antelopes. Where are they?"
Liu Huan said, "We were just saying, last ti we didn’t get enough of the roast lamb."
Manbao: "... Let them go."
Even Yin Huo and Zhou Liru, who were leisurely riding up from behind, couldn’t help but look over in surprise. "Why?"
Manbao answered earnestly, "There was a mother sheep with two such small ones, a family of three so pitiful. How could you bear to eat them?"
Bai Erlang: "... How do you know they’re a family of three? Are herders so talented that they can target an entire family?"
How did Manbao know? Anyway, one mother and two Little Sheep must be a family, whether they were or not.
Bai Shan asked, "Why did you co?"
Bai Erlang gestured to the blazing sun in the sky. "We’ve all been waiting for you to have lunch. You still didn’t co back, and Mr. Zhuang and the others have already eaten, so we ca out to find you. We brought the food with us."
Daji and a few guards from the Yin Family were on horseback in the back. Seeing their young master beckoning, they rode forward, then began to unload the food boxes they carried.
Besides the food boxes, a guard was holding a roasted leg of lamb.
Manbao and Bai Shan were stunned.
Yin Huo explained, "The Tutu Tribe is very hospitable. They killed two sheep at noon, and this leg was specially reserved for us."
Despite raising cattle and sheep, they don’t slaughter lightly either. The herdsn usually eat millet and milk. When they say they eat a lot of at, it’s more compared to the ordinary people in the Central Plains.
Since it was spring, they wouldn’t easily kill sheep. Killing two sheep already shows great regard for Zhou Man and the others.
Manbao was indeed moved, looking at the still-steaming lamb leg with emotion.
A guard carved the leg of lamb for them.
Unlike in the capital, here there weren’t many formalities. Everyone just sat cross-legged on the grass. Daji and the others opened the food boxes. So there were no blankets, no cushions, and no brewed hot tea; not even bowls, only chopsticks. The food boxes contained pancakes and two dishes, not even any soup.
Everyone used their not-very-clean hands to pick up the bread and eat, gathering around to eat, but even Yin Huo found this al delicious.
Bai Erlang ate a piece of lamb and nodded. "Strange, it’s better than what we had in the tent just now. Does roast lamb need to be aired out before it’s more flavorful?"
Yin Huo couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Bai Shan said, "Indeed, the wind not only carries sand, but maybe also..."
Manbao stuffed a chopstick full of at into his mouth, "Shut up and eat."
So Bai Shan just ate the at without speaking.
After Zhou Liru had eaten and drunk her fill, she couldn’t help but prop herself up with both hands behind her, half-leaning back to look at the blue sky and sighing, "It’s really beautiful."
Everyone raised their heads too, propping themselves back, getting closer to the wind, and it seed the sky looked even bluer from this angle.
"Yes, it’s really beautiful."
Even Yin Huo couldn’t help but want to stay a few more days. He turned to ask Manbao, "How many days will we stay here?"
Manbao looked towards Zhou Liru.
Zhou Liru said, "Aynara is very smart; she’s getting the hang of it. Although she still can’t feel the pulse, she rembers the symptoms of smallpox clearly, much better than the other three."
Even though she kept repeating, the other three only rembered bits and pieces, and forgot after a while.
She knew that feeling. It was the sa when she recited textbooks and dical books, except they forgot even faster.
Manbao nodded, "It’s just one disease. It’s okay if they forget today. They are just knowledge points repeated daily, recite them until they get it. As for feeling the pulse, we’ll stay three more days. If she can get it, great. If not, let them rember and ponder it on their own later."
She estimated that with Aynara’s intelligence, four days should be enough to get started. It was just morizing one disease’s symptoms.
But...
Manbao cast her eyes downward in thought, then couldn’t help asking Bai Shan, "You said Aynara did sothing wrong. What mistake did she make?"
Bai Shan had just eaten and was feeling a little sleepy. He squinted slightly at the blue sky, just catching a glimpse of an eagle flapping its wings twice, then gliding towards them with its wings spread.
In a calm voice, he said, "I heard the herdsn say that this year during the first lunar month, many people in their tribe died. The shamans consulted the heavens, and the divine will declared that the people’s devotion to the spirits was lacking, so punishnt was bestowed upon the grasslands. To demonstrate sincerity, the Tutu Tribe offered up a boy to serve the gods."
Everyone was bewildered, taking a mont to process, "How did they serve?"
Only then did Bai Shan retract his gaze from the sky and look at them. "Only the gods know, but their thod of sending soone to the deities was cremation, setting up an altar and tying the person to it as an offering."
Manbao and the others: "!"
"It wasn’t just the Tutu Tribe. At that ti, there was also a Tutu Tribe near their settlent which offered up a girl, both tribes sacrificed together," Bai Shan explained. "The herdsn say the Tutu Tribe and the Tutu Tribe share the sa ancestors, so they have a good relationship and are considered brothers. The boy sacrificed by the Tutu Tribe was also Aynara’s brother. She opposed the sacrifice and even tried to secretly release her brother at night, but he was caught and brought back after not getting far."
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