The small path still hadn’t changed. Yun Ye, Li Tai, Xinyue, Na Rimu all carried baskets of varying sizes on their backs. Li Rong also found himself a not-too-large bamboo basket to carry, dragging Yun Mu by the hand and walking very energetically.

Meng Lu sang songs while dragging a sled at the very front, followed by Meng Na—or perhaps she should now be called Wu Na, though she always objected to people calling her Wu Na. She remained brooding over the loss of her title as first beauty.

Meng Family Village was now very prosperous. They rarely went to the back mountain to pick bananas. The Yun family merchant caravan couldn’t transport away that many dried bananas either. Much of the time they could only watch the bananas rot on the ground—this was unavoidable.

The people of Meng Family Village also wouldn’t deliberately pick more. They believed this banana grove didn’t belong only to them, but also to the entire mountain. Wild beasts also needed food. When hungry, people from distant villages without provisions also needed to come pick bananas to satisfy their hunger. They were simply closest to the banana grove.

When Li Tai saw Meng Lu climb onto an elephant’s body and hang the sled’s tow rope on the elephant’s back, his face nearly twisted. In his view, that elephant need only lift one foot to trample Meng Lu into meat paste. This wasn’t like those elephants in the imperial garden draped in colorful silk, trained by humans since young and having long lost their wildness. These behemoths were truly wild elephants. Why could Meng Na cooing cause the elephant to press its face against the elephant’s trunk? And even let the elephant lift her with its trunk to travel?

Na Rimu was extremely envious. Just as she was about to go do the same, Xinyue’s sharp gaze forced her back. She obediently hung the basket on Wang Cai’s neck, lowered her head and tugged at Yun Ye’s lapel, planning to complain.

On Wang Cai’s back, Li Rong and Yun Mu were already riding. For the robust Wang Cai, this was almost no weight at all. Not daring to crowd forward near the elephants, it could only hide behind Yun Ye and secretly eat the dried provisions from the basket.

Li Tai’s guard captain was almost in tears. A group of elephants ahead, a herd of wild boars following behind, grunting and scurrying about chaotically. Several small ones were even under Wang Cai’s belly. Only when the old sow let out a cry did the piglets run back bouncing.

It was now sunrise. Not only were they rushing toward the banana grove, but monkeys were also leaping through trees running in the same direction. The people of Meng Family Village weren’t afraid at all. Several bare-bottomed children even threw stones at the monkeys, so the monkeys returned the favor by throwing wild fruit from the trees at those children.

Yun Ye watched and laughed. This was his old trick—now the children had all learned it. The people of Meng Family Village rarely went hunting in the mountains. Or rather, a group of women at most set traps to catch one or two wild chickens or rabbits. Having them deal with wild boars and such would be too much to ask.

Meng Lu showed off by jumping around on the elephants, leaping from one elephant to another. He especially stood on an elephant’s neck and smiled charmingly at Meng Na sitting on the elephant’s trunk. It seemed this fellow was striving to gain Meng Na’s favor.

“Husband, didn’t Meng Lu and Meng Na already marry and have a child? Why doesn’t Meng Na pay attention to Meng Lu?” Na Rimu quietly asked Yun Ye.

“This is their custom. Once the child is born, Meng Na becomes free and can be with whomever she wants. Meng Lu can now only temporarily stay at Meng Na’s home. If Meng Na tells him to get lost, he must get lost and become a wanderer.”

“Meng Lu is truly pitiful. Such a brave hero lives so miserably.” Na Rimu felt indignant on behalf of Meng Lu.

“I actually think this is very reasonable. Women being head of household is much better than men being head of household. Look, women by nature don’t have such strong aggression. Taking care of their own small family is the first priority. As for other matters, they generally won’t care too much. Just for this one point, you men should yield.” Because of her peculiar appearance, the village people didn’t dare get too close to Hipatia. She could only continue mixing with Yun Ye and Li Tai.

Whenever she spoke, Li Tai could always find reason to mock. Opening his mouth, he said: “The cosmic order of heaven, earth, and humanity has long been allocated. Why does someone who doesn’t plan to marry worry about such things?”

“That’s not necessarily so. Previously I didn’t marry because my health was poor. Now that my health is good, perhaps one day I’ll find someone pleasing to the eye and marry him. Rest assured, I’ll send you an invitation then. Remember to pick carefully when sending gifts—they must be generous.”

Li Tai immediately fell silent and strode forward in large steps. The anxious guard captain fearfully separated Li Tai from the elephants. Several times he nearly put his own foot under an elephant’s hoof.

With elephants everywhere, all beasts scattered. The lead single-tusked bull elephant flapped its fan-sized ears twice, raised its neck and trumpeted. A string of waves surged from the grass. Fierce beasts all ran far away, lest they provoke this elephant king with a very bad temper.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, what kingly bearing.” Li Tai planned to walk over for a king-to-king friendship, but Yun Ye grabbed him and said: “You can befriend any other elephant, but forget that one. A rhinoceros called the Black Demon King went to befriend the elephant king—the result was the rhinoceros horn became my family’s treasure. Don’t join the excitement. Look how well-behaved Wang Cai is, following behind me and never meddling. The dog Wang Cai also doesn’t dare crowd forward. Animals’ senses are most keen—they know going forward is dangerous.”

Rounding the foot of the mountain, the entire mountain valley appeared before everyone. Li Tai gasped and said: “Good heavens, the bananas here are almost enough for all of Chang’an to eat.”

Xinyue most loved seeing such scenes. She asked Meng Na beside her: “Did you all plant these? This is too much. The dried bananas the merchant caravan sends to Chang’an are very popular—two copper coins buy one catty.”

“We didn’t plant them. The heavenly god scattered the seeds. The heavenly god worried the mountain people wouldn’t have enough to eat, so he bestowed this banana grove upon us. Your man was the first to discover it. Have you thought it through yet? What kind of man do you plan to get tomorrow night?”

“Bah! You’re the shameless one randomly finding men. My family has only one man. Fine women are forcibly made to lose their reputation. If this were Chang’an, you’d all be drowned in pig cages.” Xinyue couldn’t stand Meng Na’s unrestrained outlook on life. Whenever Meng Na brought up this matter, she became anxious. Not only could such things not be spoken of, even hearing about them was sinful.

No matter how wealthy people are, seeing free food that can be picked at will makes their hearts soar. Just watching Li Tai crying out strangely and throwing himself into the banana grove, one knew how excited he was at this moment.

“Good heavens! So this is what banana trees look like—similar to plantains? Good fellow, this cluster must weigh at least sixty or seventy catties. We shouldn’t have carried baskets—we should have dragged a large cart here.”

“Stop embarrassing yourself. You’re Prince Wei. Losing composure over a few clusters of bananas at this moment is truly contemptible.” Hipatia found the longest single banana, cut it down with a small knife—about as thick as her arm and over a foot long—peeled it and prepared to eat.

They talked too much. Yun Ye didn’t plan to tell the country bumpkin Hipatia how uncomfortable eating green bananas was, especially single bananas. Eating now was no problem, but in a moment her mouth would be so astringent she couldn’t speak.

Li Tai was the same. The two ate bananas very happily.

From a large cluster of bananas, Yun Ye cut down the topmost row of bananas. Not only were they already yellow, two were already turning reddish. Xinyue and the others naturally wouldn’t rashly eat like Li Tai and Hipatia. When it came to food, listening to her husband was never wrong. In all of Great Tang, her husband was the best at eating.

So they habitually lined up in a queue waiting for their husband to give them theirs. Yun Ye gave each of them two, and gave the two red bananas to the children. The family of five sat on banana leaves, slowly eating bananas. Xinyue didn’t dare touch those banana trees at all, because her husband said banana trees had banana sap that couldn’t be washed off if it got on the body—it would take several days to fall off by itself. Na Rimu was even more unwilling to move. The dress she wore was new—damaging it would be a pity.

Li Tai found an even larger banana wanting to mock Yun Ye, but discovered his mouth seemed disobedient and couldn’t make sounds. He hurriedly pointed at his mouth, wanting Yun Ye to think of a solution.

“No way around it. It’ll be fine in two hours. Talk less. When eating bananas, you should also choose yellow ones. Hipatia will have the same problem as you. Remember to tell her in a bit—right now she’s eating happily.”

Xinyue and Na Rimu immediately covered their mouths and laughed wildly. Li Rong and Yun Mu also giggled. Li Tai angrily ordered the guard captain, who had similarly become mute, to bring water to rinse his mouth.

Yun Ye discovered the elephants also wouldn’t easily destroy banana trees. They just stood at the edge of the banana grove using their trunks to roll bananas to eat. Not picky—whether yellow or green, they stuffed everything into their mouths. What fell was naturally picked up by the wild boars. The most wasteful were actually this group of people. Liu Jinbao crazily cut bananas everywhere. Knowing he couldn’t carry them back, he still wouldn’t stop. Yun Ye scolded him severely—worse than wild boars.

Picnicking under blue sky and white clouds naturally had endless pleasure. Most importantly, without Li Tai and Hipatia’s arguing, people’s ears were much cleaner. Na Rimu jumped and bounced singing songs, the tune drawn out long. The “Meeting at the Aobao” Yun Ye taught her was sung by her with deep feeling and melodiousness. Yun Ye pillowed his head on Xinyue’s lap, staring blankly at the blue sky.

Li Tai hadn’t brought a woman and had no way to enjoy this kind of feeling. He could only order the guard captain to sit down and borrow his leg to pillow. Wang Cai ate a green banana itself, and its mouth still wasn’t right. Li Rong peeled the banana and bit by bit stuffed it into Wang Cai’s mouth. Just looking at Wang Cai’s drooling appearance, one knew it couldn’t taste anything.

Meng Na, bent over cutting bananas, heard Na Rimu singing and also began to sing. No one could understand it, but the song was even more melodious, like a clear spring flowing around the great mountain.

Birds stealing food in the banana grove were startled by the singing and flew up in chaos. At first just one or two, but soon more birds were startled. They flew up fluttering, circling the banana grove like dark clouds. Meng Lu shouted loudly, and those birds formed the shapes of various giant beasts in the air. Even sparrowhawks that most loved eating small birds flew far away, not daring to challenge their edge.