Chapter 259 Returning Home

A middle-aged man with a dark complexion approached. Sui Yu looked back warily. She looked at him and saw that he was a stranger. She nodded distantly, paid the bill and prepared to leave.

"Wait a moment." The man called to her impatiently. He ran to Sui Yu and asked helplessly, "Are you a woman? You're not a man, are you?"

"What are you doing?" Qingshan came back carrying the box of dried fish. He stood in front of the man and said, "Tell me what's going on."

"I'm Lao Shuan's son. My father was a ferryman here two years ago. He said he met a businesswoman who asked him to find out if there was any folk remedy for leg pain outside the Great Wall. Is that you?" The man took a step back and explained, "I mean no harm. I just thought this female shopkeeper looked a bit like the person my father was talking about, so I came over to ask."

Sui Yu remembered that this had happened. She stepped out from behind Qingshan and said, "It's me. We left the border last year, but we didn't meet any doctors outside the border, nor did we find any relevant folk remedies."

A look of disappointment appeared on the man's face. He forced a smile and said, "It's okay, I just came to ask."

After saying that, he was about to leave.

"Is uncle in good health?" Sui Yu asked.

The man shook his head and nodded again. "It's just the pain in my legs. It's better when the weather is sunny, but when it's cloudy and rainy, the pain is so severe that I can't eat or sleep. The pain is so severe that I want to chop my legs off. But it's okay. People in our industry all have this problem when they get older. It will pass after a while."

Sui Yu understood. Her grandmother also had rheumatism, and when the pain came, she couldn't sleep all night. Back then, she relied on the plasters her migrant parents bought for her during the holidays to ease the pain. She remembered that in the countryside, folk remedies for rheumatism mostly involved medicinal wines and the use of bee stings to ward off the cold, but she couldn't vouch for their effectiveness.

Seeing the man paddling the sheepskin raft to the middle of the river, Sui Yu and Qingshan also returned to the caravan.

"What's going on?" Song Xian asked.

"Do you remember the boatman who took us across the river two years ago? He's had cold legs from years of traveling on the river, and they hurt whenever the weather changes." Seeing Song Xian nod, Sui Yu continued, "Didn't I promise him I'd go outside the Great Wall to inquire about folk remedies? That man just now was his son, so he came over to ask."

"It's been two years. Do you still remember?" Song Xian asked. "If you're sick, go see a doctor. Ferrymen make a lot of money. It's not like they look down on doctors."

"Colds are difficult to cure," Old Chen continued. "I know someone who has this disease. All the doctors in Beijing have tried to treat him, but none of them could cure him."

"Is there any way to relieve the pain?" Sui Yu asked.

Elder Chen thought for a moment and said, "Drinking tiger bone wine might be of some use."

Sui Yu glanced around, pointed at Qingshan and said, "Go back and tell him, then catch up as soon as possible."

Qingshan responded, and he turned around and rode his camel towards the river.

"Tiger bone wine is not good, right?" Xiao Chunhong said.

"Whether it's good or not is not our concern." Sui Yu shook his head.

After passing through the mountains and forests and reaching the foot of Hongchiling Mountain, Qingshan caught up with us. "I told the man what I said, and he shook his head. He said they had never heard of this thing."

Sui Yu didn't respond. She looked at the peaks in front of her and said, "Let's go. After crossing this mountain, we will reach Hexi."

The familiar path was a breath of fresh air, and aside from Old Chen's curiosity, the others were unmoved. While Old Chen gazed at the clouds, the snow on the mountaintops, the soaring birds, and the climbing sheep, the servants gazed at the path beneath their feet and the grass growing in the cracks of the rocks: flowering wild leeks, yellowing wild garlic, radishes nibbled by rabbits, and so on. As they hurried along, they also dug for wild vegetables. In the gently sloping valleys, they picked wild vegetables on camelback, washing them in clear river water. At night, at rest, they stewed the wild garlic and shredded radishes with the tough, shredded wild boar meat. If it wasn't tender by night, it would surely be by morning, ensuring a satisfying meal.

As they climbed to the top of the mountain and crossed the valley, Chen Lao looked at the ochre-colored city wall standing in the distance and said, "Before Hexi was recovered, the boundary between our dynasty and the Xiongnu was Hongchiling."

Everyone was exhausted, but he was the only one riding on the camel easily without suffering the hardship of walking, so no one paid attention to his reminiscing about the past.

"Isn't this the road that the Champion Marquis took to attack the Huns?" Old Chen said to himself.

Sui Yu nodded.

"Did Marquis Bowang also take this route when he went on a diplomatic mission to the Western Regions?" he asked again.

Sui Yu shook his head, "It is said that it is not. That road is too long and the terrain is too steep. Few people use it now."

"Back then, we had to take a detour to avoid the Xiongnu." Old Chen sighed. "Luckily, I'm still able to traverse the same path that the Marquis of Guanjun traversed. While I'm still alive, I'll take a look at the four Hexi counties they've recaptured and governed for the Grand Marshal."

Sui Yu: ...

After two days of traveling, they passed a pass. Sui Yu and Song Xian took the "pass" documents and various deeds to check, while the servants carried money boxes to pay the toll.

"How much per person?" asked Mr. Chen.

"Besides the number of people, we also look at the quantity and type of goods." Sui Yu felt a little pained when he mentioned this. "It's not a lot per trip, but we pass through many cities, so the total amount is quite a lot. For a whole trip, it will cost about 5,000 coins."

"Do we still have to pay money at the end of the year?" asked Mr. Chen.

Sui Yu nodded, "The more you earn, the more you pay."

"Um... Master, did you not deduct the customs fee and the money from the money you distributed to us?" Xiao Chunhong approached and said in a low voice, "How about you deduct this part of the money?"

Sui Yu laughed, "Why? Do you think the money is too much?"

Xiao Chunhong nodded. They bought goods worth one hundred and twenty-three thousand yuan this time. They would make a lot of money next year. The money they would get was more than they could have dreamed of.

Sui Yu readily agreed. She didn't calculate the details the first time she divided the money because the servants didn't get much. After deducting the difference, each person received only three or four hundred coins, which wasn't impressive enough and wouldn't attract much attention. Six hundred coins, on the other hand, was just the right amount—not enough to buy a roll of silk, but enough to buy a roll of silk cloth and two rolls of coarse cloth. With that kind of calculation, anyone with a quick mind would probably want to buy silk cloth and coarse cloth from the Central Plains to trade outside the Great Wall. However, given her concerns, no one would bring it up. As a second best option, they could just pool the money together and hope she'd buy more goods and make more money.

As she expected, everything unfolded as she had anticipated. No one took the initial interest payment; everyone hoped to earn more money from it. With a bigger bait on the line, no one would give up, even if the money wasn't enough to escape slavery. With everyone counting on her to make a killing, who would still harbor the thought of betrayal? Sui Yu felt she had no worries.

After passing the pass, we will be out of the valley in another day. Next is the road down the mountain. Every step we take brings us closer to home. Both people and camels are more energetic.

When we reached the middle of the mountain, we met many caravans. The camel caravans formed a long dragon, shuttling through the winding mountains, and the sound of camel bells continued for a long time.

Seeing a familiar face, Sui Yu asked, "Why are you entering the customs so early this year?"

"There was a war going on outside the Great Wall, so I didn't dare go far. I returned after selling all my goods." The merchant, leading his camel, stopped to ask between conversations, "What's going on in Chang'an? I heard the Grand Marshal passed away?"

Sui Yu nodded.

"What will happen next year?" The merchant hesitated. He asked, "Manager Yu, will you still leave the country next year?"

"Of course." Sui Yu nodded. "This battle isn't even as big as the one we joined forces with Wusun to attack the Xiongnu a few years ago. Who knows, maybe by the end of the year, there will be peace outside the Great Wall."

"That's great." The merchant said with joy.

"Are you really going to leave the country?" the merchant who came later asked with a smile.

Sui Yu nodded, "I'm not afraid of war outside the Great Wall, I'm just afraid of unrest outside the Great Wall but no war."

This makes sense when you think about it carefully, and the merchants who heard it had different thoughts.

"By the way, if you guys are passing through Dunhuang, can you stay overnight at my guesthouse?" Sui Yu changed the subject, "How's my little one?"

"He's full of energy and spirits," the merchant said with a smile. "Go home soon! Your child is craning his neck every day, hoping you'll come back."

Sui Yu smiled when he heard this. Since the boy was in good spirits, it meant that Zhao Xiping did not go to the battlefield.

"With his father here, I'm not worried." Sui Yu tried again.

"That's right. Captain Zhao takes excellent care of the child."

After hearing this, Sui Yu was completely relieved. She said goodbye to the merchants and continued on her journey with the caravan.

After walking down the mountain for nine days, they entered Wuwei County to rest for a day and a night. After replenishing their food and fodder and preparing enough dry provisions, the caravan set off again.

On the way from Wuwei to Zhangye, they met a caravan every three or five miles. Most of them were acquaintances. Sui Yu and Song Xian were busy greeting each other along the way. The caravans coming and going exchanged news and the prices of their goods.

It was already September after we passed Zhangye. The rice fields along the road disappeared, and the crops in the fields turned into golden wheat and millet. Pheasants hid in the sorghum fields and clucked, while hares and field mice took advantage of the bright moonlit nights to swagger across the road.

"We can still catch up with wheat harvesting and bean picking when we go back," said Xiao Chunhong.

Sui Yu nodded, "I wonder if the little cub's father has bought slaves to farm the land."

"It doesn't matter whether we buy it or not. Once we go back, there will be no shortage of people in the fields." Xiao Chunhong stirred the meat porridge in the pot. The wild boar meat had been eaten long ago. The meat in the pot was the four birds and a fat rabbit shot this evening. After coming down from Hongchiling, there was no shortage of meat in the pot for every meal.

The sound of camel bells could be heard from the west; the returning caravans were still traveling overnight. Sui Yu rested his chin on his hand and said, "Business at the guesthouse may not be very good this winter. The caravans from outside the Great Wall have returned early, and the caravans from inside the Great Wall, having heard of the war outside, I wonder if they will still dare to come."

"It doesn't matter whether it's good or bad. You don't rely on the rent money from the guesthouse to make a living." Song Xian continued.

"Who would complain about having too much money?" Sui Yu smiled. "By the way, Sister Song, when we get to Jiuquan, I'm going to go back to my parents-in-law's house and pick them up to go to Dunhuang. Do you want to go ahead or wait for me in the city for a day?"

"I'm not in a hurry to go home. I'll wait for you in the city."

"OK."

Coincidentally, when Sui Yu's caravan entered Jiuquan County, they met a group of people from her husband's family. The autumn harvest was approaching, and Zhao's father and two sons came to the city to buy sickles. Zhao's mother and two daughters-in-law brought a group of grandchildren to the city to buy meat. The autumn harvest was hard work, and it was unbearable to do without meat.

Xiao Chunhong met someone at a meat stall. Seeing that the people around seemed to be familiar with Zhao's mother, she cleverly said, "Old lady, our master asked me to cut 20 kilograms of fat pork and said he wanted to send it to you. He was worried that the autumn harvest work would be hard and you would be exhausted. Look, which piece of meat do you want?"

In front of the neighbors, these words made Zhao's mother very proud.

After weighing out twenty kilograms of fat pork, Xiao Chunhong led a group of people from the Zhao family to find the caravan.

"Tsk tsk, my third sister-in-law has so many camels? One or two hundred, maybe?" Mrs. Zhao's eyes were sore.

"We only have about forty camels at home, and we rent forty or fifty. The other camels are not ours, but belong to Mr. Song," Xiao Chunhong explained.

When Liu Yaer saw the situation here, she hurried to tell Sui Yu. Sui Yu stood up to greet her. She called everyone one by one enthusiastically, even the six children, and then asked Xiao Chunhong to take a few children to buy candy, cakes and meat buns.

"Mom, I was originally planning to go back to the village to pick you and my dad up. What a coincidence, you and my dad should just come with us, so we don't have to keep the other caravan traveling with me waiting for a long time." Sui Yu said.

"That won't do, sister-in-law. We're busy with the autumn harvest at home." Mrs. Zhao's eyes fell on the servants and camels. She looked at her mother-in-law and said, "Sister-in-law, you have a lot of people. Why don't you stay at our house for a few days and help us finish harvesting the crops? Then we can go to Dunhuang together to help with the harvest."

Mother Zhao didn't say anything, as she couldn't make the decision for her daughter-in-law.

Sui Yu refused directly. "I am also anxious to go back to work in my fields. Moreover, I am even more anxious to see my child. I don't want to rest on the way. I just want to go home to see my husband and hold my child as soon as possible."

Mrs. Zhao: ...You are so bold. You are so eager to see a man...and you don’t feel ashamed at all.

"Mom, if the housework cannot be done without you two, why don't you stay at home for another month, and when the work in the fields is done, let your elder and second brothers take you there?" Sui Yu asked.

"With so many of us, a camel and a donkey, how far will we get? We'll just give up." Mrs. Zhao glanced at Sui Yu, then at the caravan behind her. She said sympathetically, "Mom and Dad are old and can't do much work. Forcing ourselves to work in the fields will only tire us out. It's not worth it. Mom, you and my dad should go with my third brother and his wife. The farm work is too busy, so we can hire two or three more people."

Second Sister Zhao opened her mouth to speak, but first Sister Zhao pinched her hard. She endured the pain and didn't say a word.

Mother Zhao agreed. "That's fine. Your father and I really can't do it anymore. You can hire someone, and your father and I will pay for it."

Every year when they went to Dunhuang, the third and fourth sons would give her money. Mother Zhao had a lot of money in her hands and spoke generously.

So the matter was settled. Mrs. Zhao Da dragged Mrs. Zhao Er to go to the blacksmith shop to find Mr. Zhao's father. On the way, the two sisters-in-law exchanged words with each other. Mrs. Zhao Da hoped that the third brother and his wife would support her child, so she naturally did not want to have any estrangement with Sui Yu. Mrs. Zhao Er was jealous of the good life of Sui Yu's family. She thought about it for half a year and dreamed of eating meat every meal and then roasting fire and listening to songs after eating and drinking.

After Zhao's father and his two sons left the blacksmith shop, Xiao Chunhong returned with her six children. Sui Yu took a piece of coarse cloth from the camel's back and handed it to Zhao's wife, saying, "Make new clothes for the children for the New Year. It's a token of my love for them, and their uncle."

"Hey, hey!" Mrs. Zhao was happy. She had done nothing wrong.

Then, Liu Yaer brought in four dried fish that were half a leg long and two small jars of honey. Sui Yu handed these things to Zhao Ersao and said, "Add a dish to the family. This honey is sweeter than malt sugar. It will make the children's mouths sweet during the New Year."

Now everyone was happy, and the children all looked at Aunt San as if she were the God of Wealth.

"Dad, Mom, don't go back to get winter clothes. I'll buy you new ones when we go to Dunhuang," said Sui Yu.

Zhao's father and mother were unwilling to do so. The two old people were helped onto the camel by the servants. They stood with their backs straight, shook their heads like rattles, and looked around for people they knew.

While Sui Yu was taking care of household affairs, Song Xian and his servants had already purchased dry food. Once things here were settled, the caravan immediately left the city.

Outside the city of Dunhuang, Zhao Xiping led a patrol on a chestnut horse. He looked far to the east and counted the days. He felt that Sui Yu would be back in the next few days.

"Boss, let's go somewhere else." The soldier said with a smile.

Zhao Xiping withdrew his gaze and said, "I'll go with you."

When the sun set below the horizon and the sky was filled with red clouds, the patrolmen were about to withdraw their troops and return to the city. At this time, the sound of camel bells could be heard in the wind.

Zhao Xiping's heart trembled, and in an instant, the palms holding the reins seemed to sweat. He had a premonition that the sound of camel bells this time meant Sui Yu had returned.

"You go back first." He gestured to his subordinates and said, "I'll wait a little longer."

When the sunset faded and the sky darkened, a camel caravan coming from the east approached the city gate with a cloud of dust more than ten feet high. As they got closer, Zhao Xiping recognized the people and drove his horse closer quickly.

"Your Captain Zhao is here to pick you up." Song Xian said with a smile.

Sui Yu saw it, and she laughed with her face covered. Looking at the man getting closer and closer, she said happily: "I'm leaving first, you guys go slower."

As she spoke, she shook the reins and drove the camel to a gallop.

"Captain Zhao, let's go home." She waved and shouted.

Zhao Xiping turned his horse around and ran side by side with the camel.

Led by Zhao Xiping, Sui Yu entered the city without registering. The two of them went in and out of the city, ran through houses and farmlands. When a guesthouse with smoke rising from chimneys appeared in front of them, the camel excitedly called "boo boo".

As night fell and darkness approached from the northeast, and the wilderness was about to be swallowed by darkness, torches were lit one after another in the guest houses and lights were also lit in the kitchen yard.

"Uncle, uncle, come quickly, I can't lift it anymore." The kid stood at the door carrying half a basket of eggs.

Sui Liang ran out and suddenly saw someone appearing outside the door. He shouted excitedly.

The boy turned around and saw a dusty woman looking at him with a smile on her face. He was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and started shouting excitedly, jumping and skipping over.

"Mom! You're back!"

"Yes, I'm back." Sui Yu hugged him and freed one hand to hold Sui Liang.