Old Zhuang placed several large stones that had been used to support the cooking pot into the cave. The stones had been heated scorching hot by the flames, and the small earthen cave immediately became as warm as spring. Yun Ye and Gongshu Jia entered the cave and lay down on the prepared bedding. The bedding was covered with a thick layer of sheepskin. When people lay on it, they would sink deeply into the wool—even without covering themselves with blankets, they felt no cold.
Gongshu Jia moaned comfortably twice—extremely unpleasant to hear. He suddenly raised his head and asked Yun Ye: “When I go to the academy next year, will I have treatment like this?”
What a bumpkin—this was the contempt Yun Ye felt from the bottom of his heart. Scratching out a living from the fields his whole life, he had never enjoyed any of life’s pleasures.
“If this satisfies you, no problem. The academy will issue you one hundred sheepskins. You can wrap up your whole family without any problem.”
Gongshu Jia probably also felt this question was asked rather meanly and felt somewhat embarrassed.
“You’re already over fifty years old this year, so according to the academy’s rules, you’ll be allocated a three-story building with a courtyard below the size of one mu of land. Each month you’ll have a salary of eight strings of cash. You should know that even the Prime Minister’s stipend is only this much. You’ll also have a carriage and a horse. During holidays there will be other benefits. The furniture in the building is all ready-made—you only need to bring your luggage to move in. If you need servants, you’ll have to hire them yourself. The academy generally doesn’t approve of using household slaves, and mistreating household slaves is absolutely forbidden at the academy. Doing so will corrupt children. Whoever violates this will be immediately expelled from the academy. You must remember this.”
Yun Ye explained the academy’s benefits to Gongshu Jia once through, hoping he wouldn’t make mistakes. Li Gang might tolerate mediocre people but would never tolerate those with moral defects. Perhaps reading many books would change a person’s temperament. At least currently, he had not seen anyone extremely morally corrupt. Even Xu Jingzong never spoke a harsh word to the old servant who followed him. Li Gang and Master Yushan also showed extra care for the boys who attended to their daily needs, so the academy’s atmosphere was very peaceful.
Gongshu Jia pillowed his hands behind his head, staring blankly at the cave ceiling. Knowing he was immersed in the happy life about to come, Yun Ye didn’t disturb him. Rolling over, covering himself with a blanket, and choosing a comfortable position, he fell asleep before long.
He was awakened very early in the morning. The entire camp was in chaos—those lighting fires lit fires, those tending horses tended horses, and in the distance sentries were changing shifts. The wind had stopped, but snow began falling again. The snow wasn’t heavy, so traveling was still possible. It was just that the white expanse between heaven and earth made people randomly generate emotions.
Breakfast was thick porridge—the kind where chopsticks wouldn’t fall over if stuck in it. The locust powder had won everyone’s unanimous affection. Now if the food lacked that stuff, everyone was reluctant to pick up their chopsticks. Gou Zi called out “Uncle Old Zhuang” left and right diligently, just wanting to get a bit more locust powder to mix with his rice. Seeing he was still a child, Old Zhuang grabbed another large handful and put it in his bowl. Delighted, Gou Zi held his rice bowl and showed it off everywhere.
Gongshu Jia came out of the cave with dark circles under his eyes. He hadn’t slept much last night. One moment thinking about the Zuiyang Spring his old father loved to drink that he hadn’t bought many times, the next moment thinking about his old wife who had followed him for decades yet still didn’t have a decent piece of jewelry, and his little grandson wore around his neck a silver lock that he himself had worn back in the day—these feelings of guilt kept him sleepless all night. It sounded nice to say they were a thousand-year-old prominent family, but who knew of their困窘 state hidden in the wilderness, lacking clothes and short on food? Everyone talked about being content with poverty and adhering to principles, maintaining unwavering aspirations—easy to say, but unable to even fulfill filial piety toward one’s father, compassion for one’s wife, or love for one’s children—what was the point of talking about contentment with poverty and unwavering aspirations?
Returning to Chang’an would definitely change the family’s survival situation. The younger generation was already restless. The family’s inherited learning was almost impossible to pass down to the next generation. The descendants were all unwilling to learn. Learning a whole body of skills you couldn’t use was bad enough, but there was danger too. Since this was the case, safely taking it out to exchange for some silver would be good.
After breakfast, the convoy continued its journey. Only now everyone donned white hemp cloth, not even sparing the horses. A clumsy fat man arduously trudged through the snow, loading bundles of hemp cloth onto the sleds. Sweat streamed down from his broad forehead. “Old He? He Shao? How did he get here?”
“What are you doing coming to join this excitement? Don’t you know this place is full of barbarians everywhere? What if someone catches you to roast and eat you?” Yun Ye was furious beyond control. A fat man with zero combat ability running onto the grasslands—what madness was this?
“Brother’s life is already more than worth it. Do you know how much the goods shipped back to Chang’an before winter were worth? Six thousand strings of cash! Even if I die on the grasslands, I won’t have lost out. Brother never dreamed his whole body of fat could sell for so much money. With this money, supporting the family for decades is no problem. I know the root of my ability to get rich lies with you. Otherwise, even if brother wanted to sell this body of fat, there’d be nowhere to sell it, much less six thousand strings. You’ve already run to the grasslands—what does it matter if I follow you on this trip? Is my life worth more than yours? Besides, with me here, maybe we brothers can still find a place to make a little fortune.”
This was just a slippery character, so rich from making money he couldn’t find north anymore, and now he didn’t even care about his life. Nothing more to say—truly nothing more to say. Political books said that for three hundred percent profit, merchants would dare to kill, and for tenfold profit, they wouldn’t even want their own lives. He Shao was a living example!
“You’ve already gone mad. I can’t control you anymore. I’ll only tell you one thing—guard your little life well, don’t lose it, otherwise there’s no way to explain to your whole family.”
After saying this, Yun Ye sat in Gongshu Jia’s sled, preparing to continue the journey. Old He tied the hemp cloth securely with rope and, bringing a guard, also sat in a sled.
With a crack of the whip from the lead vehicle, the large force began to squirm, then gradually picked up speed. The Yun family guards in the very front scouted the path ahead, Old Niu’s personal guard captain brought up the rear, and the large convoy of sleds traveled in quite orderly fashion.
Having left Shuofang’s controlled area, everyone’s nerves were taut, fearing a large group of barbarians would emerge from some corner.
The barbarians Yun Ye was waiting for didn’t appear. They were currently hiding in earth lodges hugging sheep and learning from winter birds. Except for grassland nobles, on heavy snow days, herdsmen didn’t come out. Every winter, they needed to find a somewhat warm place for their cattle and sheep to winter. This place not only needed to be warm but also required abundant dry grass. In summer and autumn, they would deliberately leave a piece of pasture ungrazed, and when winter came, they would drive their cattle and sheep there to winter and wouldn’t easily leave, since after all, cattle and sheep were their lifeline.
Without nobles’ summons, they all scattered, taking the family as a unit. After all, one place’s pasture couldn’t support too many cattle and sheep.
There was some commotion ahead. Yun Ye looked up forward. Before long, Old Zhuang came to report, saying they had surrounded a flock of sheep and a herder, asking for instructions on whether to chop them down.
Riding his horse forward to look, he saw a short, stout shepherdess holding a wooden fork confronting the Yun family guards, occasionally glancing at the sheep scattering everywhere. The sheepskin coat on her body had already become shiny with grease, her hair had also clumped into felt patches, but her pitch-black eyes were full of stubbornness. She bared her teeth and made wolf-like sounds, trying to frighten those killers from the Yun family who had come down from the battlefield.
Several guards circled around her on horseback with smiles. She also turned following them, but after a few moves, she fell to the ground. Snow stuck all over her face, making her look even more bedraggled. One guard took out his war bow, nocked an arrow, and casually shot a sheep to the ground. The shepherdess howled and lunged toward the fallen sheep, holding the sheep’s head and blowing into its mouth, hoping to revive that pitiful sheep.
“My Lord, how about we snatch her and the sheep together? The young ones will have sheep to eat, and at night you’ll have someone to warm your bed.” Gou Zi emerged from who knows where, looking up with his head raised, very obsequiously offering suggestions to Yun Ye.
Looking at the shepherdess’s hair clumped into felt, then looking at her hands covered in fresh blood, especially as she was currently kissing the sheep, Yun Ye’s face turned green. How desperate would one have to be to be interested in such a woman?
Kicking Gou Zi aside with one foot—this bastard couldn’t learn anything good in the army. At such a young age, being a lackey was something he excelled at.
The sheep in the shepherdess’s arms finally stopped kicking, and its head also drooped down. The shepherdess pawed at it a few times. Seeing the sheep was dead, she suddenly jumped up and charged toward Yun Ye. She had figured out that among this group, Yun Ye’s armor was the most beautiful, so Yun Ye’s status was also the highest. For the sake of her sheep, she wanted to fight Yun Ye desperately. Before she could get close, Yun Ye was surrounded by guards protecting him. The quick-handed ones had already drawn their swords.
Gou Zi excitedly jumped out, threw away the knife in his hand, spread his arms to grapple with the shepherdess in hand-to-hand combat. The guards also heckled from the side. Gou Zi cupped his fists toward all directions in proper form. Who knew that woman would suddenly lunge over, grab Gou Zi’s legs, and throw him flat on his back? Then she sat on Gou Zi’s face with her bottom and bounced up and down several times. Watching this made Yun Ye and all the guards’ teeth ache.
Old Zhuang frowned, dismounted, and with one motion threw the shepherdess away. He pulled Gou Zi up. Gou Zi, dizzy and disoriented, barely managed to stand steady, shouting loudly to find the shepherdess and take revenge, but Old Zhuang threw him onto a sled.
Who knew if barbarian women’s brains had problems or not? Old Zhuang throwing her away meant letting her off, but she got up, wiped the snow from her face, and relentlessly charged at Old Zhuang again. Grabbing Old Zhuang’s arm, she bit down. In weather more than ten degrees below zero, Old Zhuang was covered in iron armor. The armor plates were colder than ice. Once her mouth went on, it couldn’t come off—stuck to it. The shepherdess didn’t dare struggle for fear of tearing off her tongue, just anxiously shedding tears.
Seeing the shepherdess finally settle down, Yun Ye looked around. Not a bad camping site. After soliciting Old Zhuang’s opinion, he decided to make camp and rest here. Wherever Old Zhuang went, the shepherdess followed. No choice—her mouth was still stuck to the iron armor.
The guards drove the scattered sheep back together. The sheep were very thin. It seemed they hadn’t gained enough autumn fat. Such a flock couldn’t survive the cold winter. This year’s winter had come early—for herdsmen, this was fatal. Without the flock, the whole family would starve to death. The great grasslands had no mercy and no miracles.
Old Zhuang removed the armor plate and poured warm water on it, finally freeing the shepherdess’s mouth from the armor plate. She stopped making trouble too, just crying continuously while looking at her flock, afraid these people would eat all her sheep.
Yun Ye still ordered all these sheep to be slaughtered. Right now, provisions were most precious. The auxiliary troops began to act. Smiling, they erected several frames. Using daggers, they stabbed the sheep to death one by one, then hung them on the frames. There weren’t many sheep—only twenty-one in total, including the one that had been shot to death. They quickly skinned the sheep, removed the internal organs, and the quick-handed ones had already begun roasting sheep on fires.
The shepherdess knew she couldn’t stop them. She lay face-up in the snow, her large eyes no longer holding a trace of vitality.