Chapter 195 Song Xian's Accompany
Zhao Xiping carried the yellow sheep around the mountain and walked to the foot of the mountain. He put the sheep on the side of the road and ran up to pick up his wife and baby.
"What are you two talking about?" Zhao Xiping brushed off the dust on his body. Worried that the cub would feel uncomfortable, he took off his clothes that were stained with sheep blood and sheep smell.
"Come, let me hold you. Your mother is tired of holding you." He stretched out his hand.
The little cub jumped into his arms, kissed him for no reason, and looked flattering.
"What did you say to him? Did he praise me again?" Zhao Xiping was puzzled.
"No, I told him I was going on a long journey and left him at home with you." Sui Yu walked behind, holding the snake and the bow and arrow, and said, "His future happiness or misfortune depends on you. Of course he doesn't know how to please you."
Zhao Xiping didn't believe it, mainly because the kid couldn't understand what he was saying.
When they reached halfway up the mountain, Sui Yu took the child again, and Zhao Xiping walked behind, carrying the yellow sheep, the snake, and the bow and arrow.
It was already past noon when we got down the mountain. Sui Yu pointed to the sand dunes not far away and asked, "Son, do you want to go sandboarding?"
The boy's eyes moved, he smiled shyly, and nodded heavily.
Sui Yu immediately carried him over and picked up the sheepskin mat that had fallen sand on it. The mother and son climbed to the top of the sand dune, one step deep and one step shallow. The traces of sliding on the sand were already very shallow, and Sui Yu slid down again following the vague traces.
"Take off—"
The cub tried to open his eyes, but the sand hit his face and it hurt. He covered his eyes with his hands and peeked through his fingers.
After sliding to the bottom, Sui Yu didn't need to ask any more questions this time. She held the cub and climbed up the sand dune again, and slid down quickly again.
It took half a cup of tea to climb up the sand dune, and only the time to swallow saliva to slide down. Sui Yu was a little tired, but the little guy had just started to enjoy it, so she hugged him and continued to climb up.
After going back and forth dozens of times, Sui Yu was exhausted and gasping for breath. When she wanted to climb up the sand dune again with her cub in her arms, the child pulled her back and refused. He struggled to get down, but his feet sank into the fine sand and he pulled Sui Yu to prevent her from going up any further.
"Don't want to play anymore?" Sui Yu squatted down and asked.
The boy loosened one hand to wipe her sweat.
Sui Yu couldn't hold back her tears any longer. Before the tears fell, she hugged the child in her arms and wiped away the tears that had slid down her chin behind his back.
Zhao Xiping led the camel over. He watched from afar but did not get close. He looked into the distance, then lowered his head and rubbed the sand under his feet.
"mother?"
"Yeah." Sui Yu raised her head, swallowed the sourness that blocked her throat, cleared her throat, and then let go of the hand that was holding the child.
"Are you still playing? Your dad is here, let him hold you and play with you. He's very strong."
The boy held her face in his hands. He could clearly feel Sui Yu's sadness. The child was emotionally sensitive and also felt sad, and suddenly became unhappy.
Sui Yu waved to Zhao Xiping. She untied the rope around his legs and said, "Hold the cub and play with it."
"good."
Sui Yu stepped back and stood on the flat sand looking at them.
Zhao Xiping took a few big strides up the sand dune, and he slid down with the baby in his arms. Both father and son looked at the woman standing below.
"mother--"
The downward momentum stopped and the kid stopped playing. He struggled to get out of Zhao Xiping's arms, stepped on the soft sand, and walked towards Sui Yu step by step.
Zhao Xiping took off his shoes and poured out the sand, occasionally raising his eyelids to look at the child who was walking with one foot longer than the other. Compared with when he was just learning to walk, he was much more steady now. At least he was not in a hurry to take a step, but would only take the other leg after he had stood firmly.
Sui Yu squatted there waiting for him to come over. When he got closer, she smiled at him.
The kid suddenly became happy again, smiling with his eyes curved.
"Are you hungry? Let's go back and eat." Sui Yu hugged him, lifted his legs with one hand, took off his shoes and poured out the sand.
"Bite——" The kid pointed at the shoes and said that the shoes bit him.
After the sand was cleaned and the sand on his body was brushed off, Sui Yu put on his shoes. She took the cub for a few steps and asked, "Are you still biting?"
The kid looked confused. He took a few more steps and looked back.
"You won't bite me anymore, will you?" Sui Yu was amused by him. She picked him up and said, "I beat the bad guy who bit my cub to death."
The cub kissed her loudly.
"Let's go, it's time for us to go back." Sui Yu turned around.
Zhao Xiping stood up and followed, jokingly saying, "I thought you two had forgotten me."
"That won't happen." After saying that, Sui Yu felt the cub pulling at her clothes, which meant he wanted to drink milk. She immediately frowned and slapped his hand away.
The kid withdrew his hand dejectedly, lowered his head and said nothing.
"Let's go back and eat meat. Aunt Yin will definitely make you some stewed eggs and your favorite soup noodles." Sui Yu coaxed him again, "You are a big boy now. You should eat like Aunt Shui and Da Zhuang. They all need to eat. Eating can help them grow taller."
Zhao Xiping took the child and said, "Let me hold it."
The kid was listless until he entered the city. He returned to the guesthouse and ate half a bowl of soft noodles and a few mouthfuls of egg custard. He felt energetic only after he was full.
Sui Yu took him for a slow stroll for a while, and when he felt sleepy, Zhao Xiping carried him back to the house to sleep.
"Madam, I have bought six camel skins, which cost me four hundred and eighty coins." Zhang Shun came over to report the bill.
Sui Yu nodded. She went to look at camel hides. Camel hair is short and not very colorful, and its fur is mostly used to make winter shoes, so it's relatively cheap. She bought some to make tents for sleeping in the wild while traveling for business, or to set up a tent to shelter from the rain.
"Sew three camel hides together, making the stitches tighter." Sui Yu drew a pattern on the ground with a branch and said, "Just sew it according to this shape, leaving a gap for people to enter and exit."
"People coming in and out? Are we staying here?" Xiao Chunhong asked.
"Yes." Sui Yu nodded, "I'll leave this to you. I'm going to go around the city."
"Okay, don't worry, ma'am."
Sui Yu went to Song Xian's house. She originally just wanted to talk to Song Xian, but unexpectedly Song Xian handed her a parchment scroll.
"I asked my great-grandfather, and he's focused on raising camels. He probably won't be traveling around doing business like my ancestors did. This is useless to us, so you can take it." Song Xian looked a little lonely as she explained, "This is a road map my ancestors left behind. Most of it shows the areas outside the Great Wall. There are markings for the mountains and rivers they passed through. It's not easy for a woman like you to leave the Great Wall with slaves. Taking this may help you."
Sui Yu was silent for a moment. This was such a great gesture. She held the parchment scroll and said, "Thank you so much, Sister Song, you treat me with all your heart. I will remember this gesture."
Song Xian smiled and asked, "How are the preparations going?"
"I didn't prepare anything. It was hot after I entered the customs, and the furs here were hard to sell. So I simply exchanged them for two pieces of silk, brought a few boxes of money, and went there empty-handed to buy goods." Sui Yu explained frankly.
"What are you planning to buy?" Song Xian asked with great interest.
"Cloth, silk, a small amount of lacquerware, and tea, these are the items for now. As for the rest, we'll have to wait and see when we get there. Maybe we'll buy some medicinal herbs," said Sui Yu.
Song Xian nodded thoughtfully, and suddenly said, "I heard Chang'an is prosperous..."
"I've heard about it, so I want to go and see it. I heard from merchants that the skills of the Central Plains are very popular outside the Great Wall, so I plan to try my luck." Speaking of this, Sui Yu smiled, and she said with some longing: "I haven't been to Chang'an yet."
Song Xian had never been there either.
"Everything else is fine, I just can't bear to leave my child." Sui Yu felt depressed again. Zhao Xiping couldn't bear to leave her, so she couldn't confide in him. She could only come over and tell Song Xian, "Today, Zhao Xiping and I took the baby out of town to play. I was holding the baby while sandboarding, and he felt that I was tired, so he stopped playing and wiped my sweat. I cried at that time. He is too sensible. It would be better if he was disliked."
Song Xian smiled and said, "This time you leave, the little one will feel uncomfortable for a long time."
Sui Yu nodded and consoled herself, "It's bound to happen. He'll leave me when he grows up, and I'll be miserable then... Besides, I can't always be around him. I'm not abandoning him. I'll come back."
Song Xian lowered her eyes and said nothing for a while.
"I'll just treat it as a vacation. I've been with the cub every day since he was born, feeding, coaxing, and holding him. Now he can walk and eat, I've let Zhao Xiping take care of him alone for six months." Sui Yu rested her chin on her hand and said, "When he left home, the child was upside down day and night, crying for his father. He was so happy when he came back and found out, which made me suffer so much. Now he'll have a taste of what I felt back then."
Song Xian suddenly laughed, "Captain Zhao has treated you very well, why are you still fussing over this?"
"It's not a big deal." Sui Yu frowned slightly and shook his head, saying, "It's hard to say. I don't know how to put it. Anyway, if I can do it, he can do it too."
The two chatted until dark, and Sui Yu's frustration subsided a lot. She left the Song family, led Luotuo to the street to buy a can of wine. Since she had no money with her, she bought it on credit and would pay the bill next time she went to the city.
While riding a camel out of the city, Sui Yu suddenly heard Song Xian's voice. She turned around and saw that it was indeed Song Xian riding a camel chasing after her.
"Sister Yu, can you take me with you when you leave for Chang'an?" Song Xian shouted. "When I was young, I wanted to leave Dunhuang City, but my father stopped me. Now I have a family, a career, and money—things I lacked most when I was young. Now that I have the confidence, why not follow my heart for once?"
"Okay." Sui Yu agreed, "Let's go together. I'll take you to Chang'an."
"That's settled." Song Xian laughed. If she didn't have the courage to travel this time, she would never know what the scenery outside Dunhuang City was like, or what kind of people lived there.
When they returned to the guesthouse, Sui Liang suddenly jumped out and stopped her, "Sister, can I go with you?"
"Where are you going? This is our home. I'll be back soon." Sui Yu put her arm around the young man's shoulders and walked into the house, saying, "Your brother-in-law will definitely be worried if I leave. He'll feel more at ease if I leave you here."
"Having a cub isn't enough?" Sui Liang didn't believe her.
"Okay, I'm worried about your brother-in-law. If he leaves home for another mission, you'll have to worry about the little one and the business of the guesthouse." Sui Yu looked at Sui Liang and asked softly, "Are you worried about Dad? I'm going there to see him. If there's any trace left, I'll move his grave here."
Sui Liang fell silent. He still remembered that night, but his memory of that man's face was vague.
"Sister, do you still remember what Dad looks like?"
"You look like him. When you're in your thirties or forties, you might look like him."
Sui Liang said "Oh" and asked in a low voice: "Where is my aunt?"
"I look like her, but Liang'er, I can't help you find your aunt's bones."
"I know."
Sui Yu patted him and said, "In another ten years, you might be able to remember what your aunt looked like from my appearance."
There was a clattering sound of footsteps from inside the wall. Sui Yu and Sui Liang smiled at each other, pretending not to notice.
"Wow!" The kid poked his head out from under the door.
Sui Yu pretended to be startled and she grabbed the cub and tickled him.
"Mom - Oh! Hahaha... Mom... Uncle -" The kid was laughing so hard that he almost fell to the ground. He asked Sui Liang for help.
Sui Liang snatched his nephew away and ran into the house with him in his arms.
Sui Yu followed with a wine jar in his hand. Even though he hadn't drunk any of the wine yet, his steps looked as if he was drunk.
"Sister Song said she wanted to go to Chang'an with me." Sui Yu said to Zhao Xiping during the meal.
"That's great. She will also bring servants to protect herself. I feel relieved knowing you two are keeping each other company." The servants in Song Xian's family were inherited from her father. The servants were loyal, so Zhao Xiping felt much more at ease.
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