He’d always thought language was the best way to communicate. Only now did he discover that smiles were the best communication. You didn’t need to know what they were saying, nor did you need to mind that curious child tugging at your hair to look. As long as you wore a smile, there would be fragrant rice balls and sticky cakes. A big-eyed girl would give you a sweet fruit, then run away. Immediately some half-grown young fellow would bare his teeth and grin at you. Somewhat tipsy, patting the shoulder of a youth as sturdy as a calf, speaking nonsense—no problem, the older sisters in your village are yours, the younger sisters are yours too. If you like, those widows preparing to take me home to stay are also yours. This brother just wants a few more drinks.

Who knew what wine was in the black jar—sour, sweet, with quite an aftertaste. It just wasn’t very hygienic for a group of people to gather around one jar drinking through reed straws.

Who cares? “Drink today when there’s wine today”—who’s going to worry about tomorrow? After playing the con artist for several years, wasn’t he allowed to indulge once and do something real?

The bonfire reddened faces. The enormous moon also came out. The elder smiled kindly, patting Yun Ye’s shoulder from time to time, praising Wang Cai, who was competing to drink the wine, calling him a “fine horse.”

The girls formed a circle, dancing to the python-skin drum beats. Very simple—stomping feet, stepping forward, shaking heads. The young men spun around them in harmony, their wide pant legs filling with wind like two very thick radishes. Yun Ye called it the radish dance. Compared to this, Han men’s dances of twisting waists and flicking sleeves were simply unbearable to watch—those weren’t dances for men.

After two “yo-yo” calls, the girls loosened their hair and frantically shook their heads up and down. Their long hair was like wave after wave of ocean swells. The young men spun even more vigorously, leaping high and performing various moves in the air—skilled and graceful.

The old man stroked his beard and pointed at the moon, saying to Yun Ye, “Young master, why do you lower your head? Why do you furrow your brow? What a beautiful moon! Why don’t you go dance during moon worship? There are beautiful girls there.”

The other elders were also urging him. Several sturdy young fellows picked Yun Ye up and carried him away. A group of people bounced and jumped around him. It must be said, their dance was primitive and beautiful. Yun Ye tried hard to spin—not as high as them, not as graceful as them. He looked less like an eagle and more like a toad being tossed into the air.

Everyone was laughing. The young men laughed so hard they fell from mid-air. The girls laughed so hard they bent at the waist. The elders pounded the ground and spat out the wine from their mouths. Yun Ye was also laughing, spinning recklessly. When the last bit of strength was exhausted, he still lay on the ground laughing loudly. He even laughed until tears came out.

Kind-hearted girls helped him up, loudly reproaching the still-laughing young men. They even loosened Yun Ye’s hair and had him join them in the head-shaking dance.

His hair was just as long. Shaking it was quite vigorous. Left hand pulling one girl, right hand pulling another girl, with petty young men behind constantly squeezing and bumping. Stumbling through the dance naturally wouldn’t look good, but it was very satisfying.

When the drums stopped, the dancing stopped. Yun Ye wasn’t the only one who collapsed—many girls also sat slumped on the ground. The young men were drenched in sweat. The bold ones picked up girls and ran off…

The elders dragged Yun Ye back to his seat. The wine jar was immediately passed over. Taking large gulps of the wine, the liquid flowed like a trickling stream, moistening his heart and lungs.

The climax wouldn’t break. Just as breath became even, singing started again. Where there were mountains, singing was always distant and grand. The Xin Tian You of the northwest, the mountain-circling songs here—they were all the same. Without a good voice, you couldn’t sing out the mountain’s charm, the loess’s weight.

They say when the moon is full, people always get amorous, just as wolves like to howl at the moon. The girls’ voices were like warblers turning gracefully, like a hundred magpies singing together—crisp and melodious. The young men’s singing was powerful and high-pitched. The songs harmonized like warblers and great rocs flying together. The proud roc soaring straight up, and the gentle warbler unexpectedly able to accompany it.

In his dizzy daze, it came time for Yun Ye to sing. “Mountain-circling song”—from the name alone you knew everyone had to take turns singing, not one person less. He wanted to push out of it, continue playing dumb, but discovered the only target he could push forward, Wang Cai, was already lying on the ground with all four legs in the air, drunkenly acting up. No way out—not much better than when Dou Yanshan encountered the crocodile.

“Don’t ask me where I come from, my homeland is far away. Why wander, wander far away, wander…”

A low, mournful song rose. The threshing ground immediately quieted. They’d never had sad songs—only love and sweetness.

Yun Ye’s thoughts flew back to that prosperous era. The changes of years, the reversal of time, forced him to be human again, start from zero again. His pursued ideals hit walls everywhere. He was utterly incompatible with all of Great Tang. No matter how hard he tried, powerful worldly forces always brought him back to the starting point. Anger arose naturally and naturally entered his singing.

“Also, also, for the olive tree in my dreams, don’t ask me where I come from, my homeland is far away…” Yun Ye sang this line four or five times in succession until he choked up and couldn’t make a sound.

Kind people are always sentimental. The young men fell silent. The girls wept uncontrollably. The elders surrounded Yun Ye, comforting him in low voices. No one blamed him for ruining the moon worship gathering. No one showed him the slightest exclusion because he was a stranger.

A dark-skinned youth came up and spoke a long string of words. The old man said with a smile, “Meng Lu says you’re very pitiful. You can pursue Meng Na, but you must cheer up. A crying man can’t win Meng Na’s pursuit. Seize the opportunity—Meng Na is the most beautiful girl in the village.”

“Respected elder, please tell Meng Lu that a girl as beautiful as Meng Na can only be properly protected by a warrior like him. I am a coward, unqualified to pursue a beautiful girl.” Looking at the anxious youth apologizing to the girl with the most jewelry on her head, what else could Yun Ye say?

Hearing the elder’s translation, the young man obviously breathed a sigh of relief. Strange—the young man was fine, but the girl rushed up and kicked Yun Ye hard on the shin. It hurt. Since being kidnapped by Dou Yanshan to Nanzhao, his pain tolerance had greatly improved. Though he wanted to cry and shout—damn girl, your wooden-soled shoes kicking dry bone, who could stand it?—she must use this move often. The young man’s face was full of sympathy and some fear. His hand unconsciously touched his own shin. Clearly he’d taken his share of kicks.

No matter—just a little girl’s kick. This old man could take it! His face displayed the most gentle smile, only the corner of his eye twitched. The girl was furious. No one had ever fully withstood her kicks before. Seeing Yun Ye seemed to feel nothing, and mountain girls never believed in evil, so she kicked again…

Yun Ye with crippled legs was quickly carried back by the elders. As consolation, they stuffed the wine jar into his hands. Hugging it and drinking hard, the reed straw was too thin and unsatisfying. After the second kick, he crashed to the ground. The pain pierced his heart. Only a bastard would like such a girl. Full of resentment, Yun Ye could only sing loudly: “How to stop pain? Only Du Kang!”

When you drink too much painkiller, you end up looking like Wang Cai. The high bonfire went out, the ground bonfire also went out. The young men all ran off holding girls. A few old fellows and some middle-aged women shook their heads and used two stretchers to carry Yun Ye and Wang Cai back to the village…

Opening his eyes in the morning, both legs still transmitted piercing pain. Pulling up his pant leg to look, two places showed blackish bruises. That girl kicked too hard. Yesterday he’d just been modest—could it be that last night if he’d courageously held her in his arms and gone behind the hay pile, he could have avoided these two kicks?

No time to worry about much else. Finding some herbal medicine to treat it properly was the right path. Though not a serious injury, it really hurt!

Limping down from the bamboo house, Wang Cai lay in the hay pile still sleeping soundly, his thick lips constantly flipping, seemingly still savoring the taste of wine.

Patting Wang Cai once—for a horse to be this lazy was quite remarkable. It struggled to lift its head, half-squinting at Yun Ye, making a sound from its mouth, then flopping back down, even stuffing its ears into the dry hay pile.

Couldn’t count on it. He’d have to find herbal medicine himself. Before leaving the village, he saw the elder carrying a bamboo basket and holding a hoe, coming in from outside. Seeing Yun Ye, he laughed heartily and said, “Guest from afar, did you sleep well last night? Meng Na’s kicking is inherited from her mother. In my day, I took plenty of kicks. Haha, fortunately we have medicinal herbs here, otherwise it would hurt for several days.” As he spoke, he took a plant from the bamboo basket, complete with roots. Each plant grew three leaf stalks, each stalk bearing seven leaflets. If this wasn’t notoginseng, what else could it be? At least ten years old.

“Gold that can’t be exchanged” among medicinal herbs—for replenishing qi, ginseng was first; for replenishing blood, notoginseng was first. The main ingredient in Yunnan Baiyao. With this, recreating Baiyao in this world wouldn’t be far off.

“Elder, this is an extremely good medicinal herb. It has miraculous effects treating bruises and injuries. As long as there’s this medicinal herb here, the village’s days will be much better.”

The elder sighed and shook his head, saying, “Good days aren’t for us to decide, nor for you to decide. Our blessings alone aren’t enough. Our former king died of illness in Chang’an. The King of Light married his daughter to him and had a lovely young prince. But this princess doesn’t manage affairs. She’s handed everything over to the greedy Feng family to manage. Originally we had moon worship gatherings every month. Now they can only be held once every six months. Grain—they always want grain. This time the grain just came in and they took more than half. The village will go hungry. Everyone said before starving, let’s be happy one more time. That’s why we had this moon worship gathering.”

“I heard the Feng family is courting the princess, wanting to become the little prince’s father. Their three sons are competing to curry favor with the princess, wanting to become our king.”

“I heard the princess has many powerful warriors under her command. How could she allow them to be so presumptuous?”

“The princess’s subordinates took large ships and went to sea. Only two hundred warriors remain, so they don’t dare act.”

“Do you like the princess?”

“We do. Those powerful warriors burned, killed, and plundered across this land. It was the merciful princess who stopped them and sent them off to sea. Only then did we have peaceful days.”

“Elder, what if I told you you’ll soon have good days? Would you believe it or not?”