Chapter 281 A Rich Place
The peaches are not fully ripe yet, half green and half red. The fresh fragrance of the peaches is far greater than the sweet fragrance. The snap when breaking them off the branches, the crisp sound when biting them, and the crunching sound when chewing them, both the taste and the sound make people feel happy.
Sui Yu picked a bag of crisp peaches. She jumped down from the tree nimbly, threw a peach to her little sister, and then sat down in a place where flowers were blooming.
The little sister looked at the smiling person on the peach tree, then she walked to Sui Yu and sat down one step away.
"Don't you have peaches in the Han Dynasty?" asked the little sister.
"Yes, but the Han Dynasty has a vast territory and a large population, so most of the land and trees are owned by others, so we get excited when we see the wild fruit trees here," Sui Yu explained.
The little girl was confused. She could understand short Chinese sentences, but long ones would make her dizzy. However, she thought that a country that could weave satin and brocade couldn't be a poor place.
Song Xian and Lu Yaer also came down from the peach tree. They had had enough fun. The sadness on Lu Yaer's face had long disappeared. She sat next to little A'mei and asked questions curiously.
A bee flew over and stayed on the blooming pistil for a moment. The buzzing sound disappeared for a few moments, and as the bee took off, the buzzing sound came into my ears again.
After the bee flew away, Song Xian plucked the blooming red flower and pinned it to her temple, gazing at the vibrant meadow before her. Green grass interwoven with a riot of color, a carpet of vibrant flowers formed. The scent of grass and flowers filled her nostrils, and she felt the journey had been worth it. This truly was a perfect place to live, with its beautiful mountains, rivers, and scenery. Those who lived here could surely live to a hundred years old.
"This is such a great place." She couldn't help but sigh.
Sui Yu nodded. She picked a bunch of wild flowers and held them in her hand. The red and yellow bright colors stimulated her tired eyes, and her numb eyes gradually became brighter.
The sun came out, and a group of bleating lambs came running down the distant hillside. Perhaps they smelled the fragrance of peaches. A few lambs waded across the meadow as green as spring water, turned into a few small white dots and slowly approached.
"This is a lamb from Uncle Erhe's family. His family got more than 70 lambs this year," said the little sister.
Lu Yaer took out a crisp peach and came to the lamb, and she fed the lamb with the peach.
"Be careful it might bite your hand," Song Xian reminded.
The hot and wet sheep tongue licked her fingers. Lu Yaer dropped the peach and rubbed the saliva on her hand on the sheep with a smile.
"Don't you have any sheep?" asked the little sister. "I have forty-eight sheep."
"I don't have sheep at home, but I have camels. We have more than 700 camels." Lu Yaer heard her bragging and she was not willing to be outdone.
The little girl opened her mouth in shock.
Lu Yaer was happy, she turned her head and imitated the sound of a sheep.
A black-hoofed lamb walked up to Sui Yu, its watery eyes fixed on the peach in her hand. Sui Yu threw the peach to it, and it bleated twice, then immediately lowered its head and ate the peach, juicing it until it dripped with juice.
Seeing that it had finished eating, Sui Yu threw another peach to it. It was happy to eat and was not afraid of strangers. It lay directly beside Sui Yu's legs and ate the peach in big mouthfuls.
Sui Yu moved a little further away, then she lay down on the spot, closing her eyes and sleeping in the sun.
There were the sounds of insects and ants crawling in the grass, the rustle of wind in her ears, and the mingling of laughter and lambs not far away. White clouds drifted across the sky, and within her field of vision, overwhelmed grass stalks stood upright, only to bend back down again in the wind. After staring for so long, Sui Yu felt her eyes dry. She closed them, and the next moment, she fell asleep.
A lamb came over, looked at the person sleeping with his hands folded, quietly dragged away the bag of peaches, and the peaches in the bag rolled to the ground. Hearing footsteps coming again, the lamb cleverly bit a peach and ran away.
"Are you asleep?" Song Xian asked, "Sister Yu?"
No one responded. Song Xian picked up the peaches scattered on the ground and sat next to Sui Yu to watch.
About an hour later, Sui Yu suddenly heard a strange man's voice in her sleep. She couldn't understand the words, and she jolted awake. Opening her eyes, she saw a bird fly by, her vision obscured by lush green grass. She sat up and saw a burly man herding seven or eight lambs away. The lambs, their bellies bulging, walked restlessly, hopping and skipping.
Song Xian turned around and saw Sui Yu. She smiled and asked, "Awake? It seems you are tired. You woke up not long ago and you are sleepy again."
Sui Yu yawned and said, "This place is so relaxing."
"Get up when you wake up. It's almost noon and we should go back." Song Xian said.
Sui Yu responded, but was dazed for a while before he stood up with the cloth bag containing peaches and followed Song Xian back.
"Where is that little sister?" Sui Yu discovered that someone was missing.
"She went home to cook," Lu Yaer replied. "Aunt, guess how many cities there are in Dayuan? Over seventy."
"That little girl said that." Song Xian explained.
Sui Yu said, "Oh," and asked, "What else did you ask?"
"That's all. The little girl doesn't know much Chinese. I don't know if she really doesn't understand or is pretending. She only talks more when I mention buying her wine." Song Xian smiled and shook her head.
When we returned to the city, the sun was already high in the sky and the aroma of oil was rising from the chimneys of every household.
Most of the houses in Dayuan had no courtyards. In front of the door were tree stumps for tying livestock, and people and livestock lived together. Little A-mei was milking a ewe. When she saw Sui Yu and his group, she stood up and greeted them, "Why are you back so late?"
A fair-skinned woman in a headscarf stood up upon hearing the sound. Seeing that it was a Han Chinese passing by, she smiled and looked at him peacefully.
"They're so pretty," Green Bud muttered softly, "and they're so tall too."
"Sister Yu, have you noticed? The people of Dayuan and the people of Kucha look a bit similar." Song Xian said.
Sui Yu nodded. "Dayuan was originally developed and flourished by the Yuezhi people who migrated here. The Yuezhi people previously lived in the Hexi region, but were driven away by the Xiongnu. They first lived outside the Great Wall and later moved to Dayuan. Some of them must have stayed outside the Great Wall and did not follow their tribe to Dayuan."
"Why don't the people in Dunhuang look like people from Dayuan?" Lu Yaer asked. Before Sui Yu could answer, she remembered, "Aqiang looks very much like a foreigner."
"Master, you're back?" Xiao Chunhong came out after hearing the voice and said, "The meal is ready. I was just thinking about going to look for you."
"Where are you going to find them?" Sui Yu handed over the peach in his hand and said, "We went to pick peaches outside the city."
"I remember seeing it when we came here yesterday." Xiao Chunhong was filled with regret and shouted, "Master, why don't you take me with you? I want to go too."
"There will be many more opportunities like this in the future. I'll take you with me next time. Give this bag of peaches to Boss Xu and Boss Li. Have they come back?" Sui Yu asked.
Xiao Chunhong shook her head.
"Then let's eat first." Sui Yu said, "What did you cook?"
"Mutton stewed with rice," Xiao Chunhong replied, "Master, the mutton from Dayuan is delicious, fresh and tender, and it's very fragrant when boiled in water."
Sui Yu could imagine that the grass here was so fresh and tender, so the mutton must taste good.
Just as he was serving the bowls, the two leaders Xu and Li came back. Sui Yu took the bowls out and said, "We've prepared the meal. Would you like to eat here with me?"
"Okay, I have something to tell you." Boss Xu nodded.
"Xiao Chunhong, go and serve the rice." Sui Yu said, and when he turned around, he saw Zhao Qin eating with his hands, and the chopsticks given to him were nowhere to be seen.
"Don't be so surprised. This is how mutton stewed with rice tastes best," Zhao Qin said seriously. "This is how we eat it here."
"Then I'll try it later." Sui Yu said.
"Shopkeeper Yu, we'll probably be leaving for the next city tomorrow. The Parthian caravan left the day before yesterday, so we'd better catch up with them and trade their goods," said Xu Da, the head of the family. "Dayuan is a vast territory with many cities. It would take us half a year to conquer them all. So we'll either trade with the caravans or sell our goods to the local caravans, who will then sell the cloth to other cities. We'll buy the goods we want and then return home."
"I'll listen to you." Sui Yu said, "Thank you for your trouble."
Boss Xu waved his hand. "It's nothing. You just didn't understand it the first time you came here. You'll understand it the next time you come. The difficulty of a caravan is in the journey. As for trading, it's much simpler than traveling."
"There are also two Hakka families in this city that buy silk." Zhao Qin interrupted.
"I know. We asked the price, and it's a bit low." said Xu Dadang. "Let's go a little further."
Sui Yu discussed with them privately that when it came to buying information, the four parties would take turns paying, and the four parties would share the information to avoid wasting unnecessary money.
The caravan rested for another half day. The next day, the four caravans left the city and headed southwest again.
Little sister drove the flock of sheep to graze. She waved to Lu Yaer and watched the caravan go away. She took a big pair of scissors to shear the sheep.
There are cattle and sheep everywhere on the grassland. Far away from the city, the shadows of people and livestock disappear, but there are more traces of birds in the grass. Startled by the sound of camel bells, they take off and fly all over the sky with pollen and grass debris.
When the caravan crossed the river, the weeds fell to the ground. However, in just one night, the traces left on the grassland quickly disappeared. The broken weeds made room for new weeds to grow. In this free and uninhabited grassland, flowers and plants grew wildly.
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