Na Rimu smiled sweetly at Yun Ye, then looked at the blue sky, white clouds, and grasslands painted on cloth behind her. This was what Yun Ye had begged Lishi to spend three days painting. However, through this, Lishi also learned about the concept of proportion. As soon as he got the hang of it, he became extremely skilled. The grass up close, mountains in the distance, clouds in the sky—all were vividly lifelike.
After affectionately cuddling the lambs a few times and rubbing the sheepdog’s head, she pushed Wang Cai’s head out of the felt tent. Rolling twice on the soft carpet inside, she skillfully pinched out a piece of dried milk curd from the bottom of the pot. This was her home. Yun Ye had built this modest felt tent according to how she had described it to him.
She plucked a blade of grass from the ground, held it in her mouth, then spat it far away. This was real grass. Not a dream.
She ran out happily, welcoming Yun Ye and Xinyue into her felt tent, just like welcoming her beloved ones.
The two looked at each other and smiled, bending down to enter the felt tent. The lack of cow dung troubled Na Rimu greatly. Her guests had arrived, yet she had no hot milk to welcome them—truly too discourteous. Fortunately, Yun Ye solved this dilemma. He produced from behind him a small red clay stove that already had glowing red charcoal inside.
Na Rimu immediately became happy. She ladled fresh milk from a wooden bucket, put it in a pot over the fire, added butter and salt, and stirred. Then she slapped the back of her head, took out a small jar of tea leaves from a wooden case. This was what Yun Ye had taught her. Na Rimu loved drinking this butter tea very much—couldn’t go without it at every meal. It was just that tea leaves were too expensive. Other herders couldn’t drink it. Only she and Huan Niang drank a little at each meal.
The fragrance of butter drifted up. Xinyue looked like she was about to vomit—she couldn’t stand the smell of butter. Fortunately, Na Rimu considerately gave her a bowl of fresh milk, which saved her life.
Na Rimu’s butter tea was very similar to butter tea from later generations, just that one used water and the other used milk.
A small silver bowl engraved with flowers, birds, insects, and fish. The brown butter tea emanating rich fragrance was held before him by Na Rimu, just like a gentle wife serving her husband returned from a hundred battles.
Taking the silver bowl, Yun Ye dipped his finger in it and flicked it toward the sky—this counted as honoring the heavenly gods. Yun Ye smiled and sipped the hot butter tea in small mouthfuls.
After Na Rimu performed a deep bow to Yun Ye and Xinyue, she knelt on the ground and sang her favorite homecoming song.
“The eagle in the sky, oh, circled three times above the felt tent, oh, and won’t leave.”
“The horses on the grasslands, oh, ran three circles on the ground, oh, and won’t leave. Dear dear brother, oh, went to cut grass for three days, oh, and came back.”
While singing, she removed Yun Ye’s shoes. As for Xinyue, at this moment completely immersed in fantasy, Na Rimu wouldn’t pay attention to her.
Her melodious voice kept rising higher. The tenderness in her eyes seemed ready to overflow. A newly married woman who had anxiously waited three days revealed without reservation her feelings upon seeing her lover safely return home.
The charm of a Turkic woman was magnified to the extreme in this instant. Thinking of those rough and bold grassland men from later generations who sang call-and-response songs with their sweethearts, since Na Rimu had sung, Yun Ye had to respond, otherwise he would be considered heartless.
Holding the tea bowl, Yun Ye cleared his throat and also sang in a low voice.
“The distant green grass, oh, long and long. Brother cut grass, oh, three cartloads. A pack of wolves came, oh, many and many. Brother killed wolves, oh, three tridents. The wolf pelts stripped off, oh, soft and soft. Made clothes for little sister, oh, three pieces.”
Xinyue had never imagined that Yun Ye could actually sing, and quite well too. Seeing Na Rimu nestled in Yun Ye’s arms with such tender affection, her anger flared up from multiple sources. She, the legitimate wife of a marquis’s manor, was actually less cherished by her husband than a small concubine—this was intolerable!
Ancient evil mothers-in-law generally did wicked things like destroying beauty and breaking up lovers. Na Rimu had no mother-in-law but had a fierce legitimate senior wife sister. After getting knocked on the forehead several times, she finally emerged from the dreamlike sweet love.
Looking at Xinyue in confusion, Na Rimu suddenly began crying loudly, curling up in Yun Ye’s arms refusing to come out. In her dreams, Xinyue’s existence had never appeared.
“You can sing? Why have you never sung to me? No way—tonight you must also sing a love song to me. It has to be better than what you sang to Na Rimu.”
Yun Ye laughed heartily and said: “Tonight originally belongs to us three. If you want to sing, then sing. As long as you want to, I’ll definitely accompany you. This is an excellent day. From now on we’ll depend on each other. Grasping happy days is the right principle.”
Xinyue shyly lowered her head. Her usual bold and fierce manner was nowhere to be seen at this moment.
Na Rimu stopped crying, looking through tearful eyes at Yun Ye who was laughing very happily, somewhat not understanding. Love’s exclusivity left her at a loss for the moment.
Marrying multiple women was purely looking for trouble for oneself, unless you didn’t care about their feelings and just purely enjoyed physical pleasure. Being so heartless, naturally one could live in reckless abandon.
If you still held a shred of hope for obtaining a happy life, the best result was to marry just one. Yun Ye’s face smiled happily, but his heart had long become bitter as a gourd.
Satisfying one meant offending another, and there was no third path in this. Fence-sitters would only suffer more.
He didn’t dare imagine the terrible scene of Li Anlan getting involved. If that day came, he would decisively run away from home, taking Wang Cai to wander the ends of the earth.
Three people sat on the grass. Wang Cai lay behind Yun Ye. Ever since discovering wood ear mushrooms on the oak wood bar in the stable, Wang Cai’s happy life had returned. The money pouch under its neck was stuffed full of copper coins. Now the masters of the Yun family, whenever they had nothing to do, would stuff money into its pouch. Dan Ying’s weight loss plan for it once again declared failure.
Xinyue still couldn’t sing. She opened her mouth several times but couldn’t sing, causing Na Rimu to hide behind Yun Ye and snicker. As a result, Xinyue pulled her out and slapped her twice before letting go.
“Sing mountain songs, this side sings and that side responds, mountain songs are like spring river water…”
After singing only three lines, Xinyue slapped Yun Ye’s thigh, not letting him sing, stubbornly believing that a marquis singing like this was undignified. She was just like that—if she wasn’t happy, she wouldn’t let everyone else be happy either.
Na Rimu bounced back to the felt tent and brought down the pot from the stove. The mutton inside had already been cooked. Turkic people eating mutton only needed salt. But strangely, even just boiled in plain water, the cooked mutton was tender and delicious, far more delicious a hundred times than the delicacies prepared with spices in the imperial palace.
All were large chunks of mutton. Yun Ye and Na Rimu grabbed them in their hands, dipped them in salt, and ate them smacking their lips loudly. Just as they started smacking, they each got slapped by Xinyue. Which marquis and seventh-rank noblewoman would smack their lips while eating?
Eating without sound was like eating without salt—tasteless. Taking tiny bites, tearing tiny pieces—three people eating could create a ghostly atmosphere with a hint of cannibalism.
They would sleep here tonight. Yun Ye had originally planned to ease the family atmosphere, but contrary to his wishes, they were back to square one. Xinyue would die before giving up her noble status. Although she envied the harmonious rapport between Yun Ye and Na Rimu, she disdained lowering herself to sing common folk songs. Being able to sit with them on the grass eating mutton was already her greatest compromise.
Sleeping in the felt tent, Na Rimu seemed to have returned to the grasslands. The restless anxiety of recent days when she couldn’t sleep peacefully at night was gone. Yawning with her mouth open, she very much needed a good thorough sleep.
Smelling the scent of green grass, she quickly fell asleep. Of course, her idea of sleeping while hugging a lamb was forcefully suppressed by Xinyue.
Yun Ye lay on the green grass, his head pillowed on Xinyue’s plump thighs, feeling the movement of the fetus in her abdomen. He didn’t dare press down with full weight, afraid Xinyue would be uncomfortable.
Between husband and wife was very strange—all the words that should be said had long been said, leaving only wordless understanding. Xinyue boredly scratched at Yun Ye’s hair, giving him the feeling of one monkey trying to please another monkey.
“Seeing me and Na Rimu together makes you uncomfortable inside?” Yun Ye asked Xinyue. No need to hide things from her.
Xinyue proudly raised her head and said: “As if this concubine is a jealous shrew. I’ve read the ‘Rules for Women’—I’m not an illiterate foolish woman.”
Looking at the haughty Xinyue, he slapped her bottom: “You’re not a jealous wife? I’m about to walk along walls. Which marquis marrying a concubine is like being a thief? I’m the only one in all of Chang’an.”
“Then you’ve got it wrong. There’s also Lady Fang. Besides, didn’t Uncle Yuchi also refuse the beautiful concubine His Majesty sent? You don’t learn from good examples but insist on learning bad ones.”
Yun Ye had forgotten that he lived in the same era as the famous vinegar-drinking lady. She was a model for women. As for Yuchi Gong, he absolutely commanded respect.
“Though my wife is humble, we have shared poverty together for long. Though I am unlearned, I have heard that the ancients, when wealthy, do not abandon their wives. This is not what I wish.”
One sentence revealed a person’s character completely. Righteousness is often found among butchers and dog-slayers. In contrast were those hereditary nobles with households full of scheming wives and concubines.
Xinyue kissed Yun Ye’s face and said: “Our family is the cleanest household in Chang’an. At home this concubine throws little tantrums, and you just tolerate it all. You laugh off even my treasonous words. So, this concubine’s boldness is what you gave me—you’re the one who spoiled me. Rest assured, I can still accommodate younger sister Na Rimu. You only have this little hobby. At most, flirt with a certain princess. Marrying one nearly made you collapse. If you brought them home in droves like others, forget about this concubine—even you yourself probably couldn’t stand it. I most love this about you—treating everyone as human, treating everyone sincerely.”
“What nonsense. We’re not chickens to be herded in flocks.”
“This concubine has figured it out. You’re laying groundwork. Our family doesn’t have flourishing descendants. You’re using this method to build a foundation for the family. When the time comes, the children will each guard their own share, have their own family business. The child in my belly is the most blessed—he’ll inherit your title and pass the family business down generation by generation.”
“That’s it then. You’ve figured it out, so all the old foxes in Chang’an must understand completely. Even the Emperor is probably pondering this matter.”
“You’re overthinking. Whose family isn’t like this? Not just our family—even those imperial clan members are trying hard to spread out the family business. Can’t put all eggs in one basket—this is the great principle everyone follows. Our family still doesn’t amount to much. Compared to those great families constantly buying land, you’ve just earned a bit of pocket money.”
“These days, you’ve been hiding at home not going out. You don’t know about outside matters, don’t ask either. You only went for one day when the Crown Prince married. When Yiniang married, you only carried her out the door. It’s spread throughout the noble households that the Xueyantuo alliance failure was your doing, Tuyuhun submitting to our Great Tang was your work, even Liaodong came from your planning. This concubine’s face glows with pride when outside. Husband, what exactly are you hiding from? When we paid respects to Her Majesty the Empress, she even said not to hide at home. She said the Great Tang doesn’t have the saying of achievements threatening the master.”
Yun Ye sat up, closed his eyes and thought for a while, then said to Xinyue: “Your belly is getting bigger and bigger. In another two months you’ll give birth. These days don’t go out. Don’t accept anyone’s invitations. Our family will follow Li Jing’s example—close the door to guests, see no one.”