Chapter 222 Taking the Wrong Road
When the caravan returned to Dunhuang with the waist drum, it was already the eighth day of May. Sui Yu and the caravan had already entered the mountains of Tianshan.
"In two days, we will return the same way." Song Xian sat on the rocks to catch her breath. She hadn't seen a single person along the way, and she didn't know if she would meet any herdsmen if she continued walking.
Sui Yu scooped up some water to wash his face. The valley was full of rocks, making it difficult for people to walk, and even more difficult for camels. If they were not careful, they would bump into their hooves and trip over their legs.
Zhang Shun wiped the blood off the camel's hoof and came over and said, "Master, why don't we rest here for a while?"
Sui Yu nodded and said, "That's fine. We're all tired."
The stones are piled up, so there is no need to dig a hole to build a stove. The iron pot is placed on the stone, and the firewood is piled between the two stones, making a perfect stove.
The smoke from wood rose up, and this deserted place was filled with the smell of fireworks. Sui Yu shook the water off his hands and walked up.
Xiao Chunhong saw it and got up to follow.
"Master, wait for me."
Sui Yu waved his hand and said, "Take a break. I'll go up and take a look."
Xiao Chunhong didn't stop and insisted on following.
The valley sloped upwards, with steep mountains on either side. Green grass and brightly colored flowers stretched all the way up the valley, like an endless green carpet. But Sui Yu had no time to admire the scenery. She lowered her head, paying attention to her feet, and advanced, taking one deep step and one shallow step, on the stones.
The voices faded away, and the only sound in the valley was the wind except for the sound of footsteps.
Suddenly, a clear bird call was heard in the distance, with a "whoosh" sound and a long lingering sound.
Sui Yu stopped, covered her forehead and looked up at the sky. The bird was so small in the blue sky that she couldn't tell whether it was a goshawk or not.
Xiao Chunhong approached breathlessly. She also looked up at the sky, but couldn't see anything after a long time.
"Birds are flying in the sky. We should be very small in their eyes. Will they regard us as prey?" Sui Yu asked with a smile.
"Uh..." Xiao Chunhong thought for a moment and said, "But I haven't heard of a bird catching a person."
"That's because the birds we've seen fly low, so they can see the situation on the ground clearly. There may be goshawks here, which fly very high." As he was speaking, another clear bird call was heard.
Sui Yu stopped chatting and continued to move forward with all his strength.
"Where do all these stones come from? Did the mountain collapse?" Xiao Chunhong's feet hurt from walking so much that she had worn out the soles of three pairs of shoes along the way.
Sui Yu didn't answer for a moment. After she stepped onto a knee-high stone, she turned around and looked down. The shadow of the caravan was no longer visible.
"This place may have been a high slope in the past, connected to the mountains on both sides. Later, there was an earthquake, and the middle collapsed, the mountain fell, the soil was washed away, and only rocks remained here," said Sui Yu.
After that, she continued walking forward.
"Master, are you leaving yet? The meal is ready."
"Go up a little further and see what's at the end."
Sui Yu and Xiao Chunhong were nowhere to be seen, and no one responded when she called out. Song Xian was worried, so she hurried on her way to catch up with the master and servant.
The camels were carrying heavy loads and moved slowly on the rocky beach. The camel caravan was moving very slowly. When it was half dark, they met the master and servant who were returning halfway.
"There should be an Eagle Mountain at the end of the valley." Sui Yu was tired and excited.
Song Xian was also tired. She sat down on a rock and asked, "What next? Do you still want to catch the eagle?"
"I don't have that ability, but since there is Eagle Mountain here, there should be grassland nearby." Sui Yu said.
Liu Yaer handed over the water bag. Sui Yu took it and took a big gulp. After quenching her thirst, she continued, "Eagles are like wolves. Where they roam, there must be prey. If there's less prey, they'll move their nests. So I concluded there must be herders grazing nearby."
"Then we'll go look for it tomorrow," Song Xian said. "Take a break tonight. We're exhausted."
"Okay." Sui Yu agreed readily.
It was midsummer, but the valley wasn't hot. A mountain breeze blew, and even sleeping on the rocks felt a bit chilly. Song Xian woke up from the cold, and she covered Sui Yu with another blanket. Sui Yu was truly exhausted today, sleeping soundly, and none of her body parts responded.
After sleeping on a rock for a night, Sui Yu woke up with pain all over his body. He suspected that his back was bruised.
"Is there another way to Wusun?" Song Xian asked. "Those warriors are truly remarkable. They crawl through the mountains and still have the energy to fight on the battlefield."
Sui Yu quite agreed.
"It would be great if peace could last forever," Song Xian added, "War is so deadly."
Sui Yu thought of Zhao Xiping. If there was another war, wouldn’t he have to go to the battlefield again?
A loud eagle cry echoed overhead, and everyone looked up. Sui Yu saw a large snow-white bird hovering in the sky above the valley.
The goshawk folded its wings and dived, landing on the top of a mountain on the east side of the valley. Only then did Sui Yu see its appearance clearly: sharp eyes, smooth body, sharp claws, and huge size. The way it stared at people made people feel creepy and scared.
"Master, does it regard us as prey?" Xiao Chunhong asked.
"I don't know either." Sui Yu saw Qingshan pull the rattan bow, and the next moment, the arrow flew out and the arrowhead pierced into the mountain wall. There was a muffled sound, and the goshawk on the top of the mountain didn't move at all.
"Keep going." Sui Yu said, "Don't worry about it. It's not stupid. It can't carry us away with its size."
The caravan left, and the goshawk took off. It cried again and quickly disappeared from sight.
After walking for another half a day, the valley came to an end. As Sui Yu expected, there was a grassland at the other end of the valley. The grassland was located between two mountains, and the cry of eagles could be heard from time to time on one of the mountains.
"I saw the herdsmen's houses." Song Xian shouted.
There are three wooden houses in the middle of the grassland. Two dead trees are buried outside the houses. Ropes are tied to the dead trees and clothes are hung out to dry. All the signs show that there are people living here.
The caravan took a short break, and Zhang Shun and Li Wu each took two people out to find a way downhill.
As dusk approached, the herdsmen returned from grazing. There were eight of them, three generations of a family, and they brought five ferocious big dogs with them. The dogs smelled a strange scent and barked at the caravan going downhill.
"What are you doing? How did you get here?" asked the middle-aged man.
The sky was dim and the distance was not close, so Sui Yu could not see his appearance clearly, but when she heard him speak Chinese, she was happy.
"Are you Han Chinese too?" she asked loudly.
Among three generations of grandparents and grandchildren, only the old man Jin Dashan is a pure Han Chinese.
"I haven't mentioned this name in over twenty years." Old Jin sat by the fire, cooking mutton, and asked, "Where are you from?"
"From Dunhuang," Sui Yu replied. "Have you always lived here?"
Dunhuang? Lao Jin repeated it silently, feeling unfamiliar. He continued to ask, "Is the Han Dynasty emperor still sitting on the high platform?"
Sui Yu nodded, "You haven't left since you came here?"
"What are you going out for? I'm fine here herding."
The mutton soup was ready, and Lao Jin asked everyone in the caravan to take their own bowls to serve it. He didn't have any extra bowls and chopsticks, and there were only two usable ceramic bowls. The rest were wooden bowls that he had polished himself.
Sui Yu drank some mutton soup, it was so delicious.
"How did you get here?" Song Xian asked.
"I escaped during the war," Lao Jin said bluntly. "I was fifteen when I fled to the Tianshan Mountains. I don't remember how old I am now, but it's probably been forty years."
"Isn't this the passage for caravans?" Sui Yu asked immediately.
"I don't quite understand what you're saying, but my family has lived on this grassland and hasn't seen outsiders for over a decade." Lao Jin continued to add water and chopped off another horse leg to stew. He glanced outside and saw twenty or thirty men guarding the area. It was too many people and a threat to his family. He spoke tentatively, "Let's leave tomorrow and head back. There's no way out here."
An old woman came in with a bag of goat's milk and poured it to Sui Yu and the others with a smile.
"Thank you." Sui Yu held her hand and said, "Please sit down and have something to eat."
The old woman waved her hand, put down the milk bag and went out again.
By the firelight, Sui Yu took a quick look around the cabin. Besides the bed on the rough logs, there was only a stove. The cabin was built of round, thick logs, like a fence, with serious drafts leaking through the gaps. In winter, they probably covered the wooden walls with sheepskin or horsehide to block the wind.
The living environment is simple and difficult, but the family is obviously content and lives a happy life.
Sui Yu remembered that when she was in Kucha, ceramic bowls and stoves were given as gifts when she bought silverware and pottery. She called Gan Da and Gan Er to bring a bucket of ceramic bowls over. Many of them were broken on the way, but there were still fifteen intact.
She gave these pottery bowls to Lao Jin's wife, Grandma Yali.
Grandma Yali brought her daughter-in-law to find Sui Yu at dawn. They wanted to buy her coarse cloth and blankets, as well as the iron pots and ceramic cauldrons used by the caravan for cooking.
"Do you have horses? You can exchange them with us." Sui Yu said.
There are only five horses on Lao Jin's pasture. He crossed three mountains to exchange them with herders from another pasture. They raised horses to chase eagles.
As he was speaking, an eagle swooped down and in the blink of an eye, it snatched away a stray lamb. Lao Jin's son chased after it, but the eagle had already flown halfway up the mountain and disappeared into the woods in an instant.
Old Jin looked very unhappy. He said to Sui Yu, "There were no eagles on this mountain at first. Then, one year, an eagle passed by and made it its home. The following spring, another eagle came. Now, every two years, they lay eggs, and this year another eagle hatched."
"Eagles are very smart. They will settle down in places where there are many preys," said Sui Yu.
The topic returned to the transaction. Sui Yu wanted the half-grown pony from Lao Jin's family and was willing to exchange it for two stoves, a clay pot, a piece of cloth and three blankets.
Lao Jin agreed. He asked his son to bring another horse, wanting to use the horse to exchange for a woman from Sui Yu to be his grandson's wife.
Sui Yu refused outright.
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