Chapter 8: The wind blows the grass low and you see the roasted lamb No.51 Exit
It's almost the end of autumn, but the midday sun is still warm.
Shaozi fell asleep in my arms. Recently, it has grown a little, and is as big as Baimao's palm. It can walk, and it runs around all day long, and falls from time to time. It is very cute.
I was wearing an inconspicuous blue-gray short-sleeved shirt, a navy blue two-purpose scarf, and a black saddle bag on my shoulders. I looked like a small vendor traveling inside and outside the pass. I sat in front of the Jingdu money box, holding a spoon, waiting for the white-haired man to take me out of the pass.
This is Wangbei Pass. Outside the pass is the vast grassland. The lives of the people on the border are not as tense and incompatible as the people inside the pass imagine. In fact, this kind of free trade on the border is almost unstoppable. Emperor Xi of the Later Ming Dynasty was more lenient in dealing with the northern border issue, so there is now a prosperous and lively scene in Jingdu with people of all kinds of clothes shuttling back and forth and goods from the north and south gathering. This small money box is crowded with several ethnic minorities wearing headscarves or rough silver ornaments and people from the inside of the pass wearing silk clothes.
This was the first time in two months that I had been separated from Baimao. I was a stranger, so I could walk through the city gate openly. But Baimao was the king of a foreign tribe after all, and he had a lot of political connections involved. It would be very troublesome to deal with him if he entered the country without the emperor's invitation. So when they entered the country, they came down from a cliff on the west side of Jingdu that only experts riding BMWs could pass through. It required high skills and accuracy, so Baimao naturally couldn't take a big man like me back in the same way. Last night, Yaksha brought a secret report, and Baimao was furious . This morning, he told me to wait here for someone to pick me up, and then he rode away first.
Seeing how angry he was, could it be that something went wrong in the royal family? I remember he said he had two older brothers. The Wind Chaser Clan didn't have an unreasonable system of primogeniture succession, and the throne was passed to the capable, so it was his turn as the third child. But the older brothers couldn't get away with it, so there were a lot of troubles. Alas... Baimao has a bad temper, I hope he doesn't mess up these relationships...
As I was thinking, I suddenly stopped! Wait, what does Baimao do to me? When did I start to care about him so much? ! Oh my God~~~ Zhao Minmin, what are you doing? ! Something is wrong! Something is wrong! I have been so wrong recently! Since that night on the cliff, I have become sentimental, started to raise a tiger to harm myself, and started to stop making progress... (You don’t have to blame yourself so much...) Didn’t I try every possible way to go home? ! Now Xiaotao has determined her own destination, Qingqing will take care of her in Changle Weiyangmen, Chaochao is entangled in his own love whirlpool, and Luocheng has given me something that is probably a Hun Tianzhu... The time is right, the place is right, and the people are right, and I have nothing to worry about. I should have gone to Master Mingjing to perform the rituals and chant the scriptures to go back! Why do I keep indulging myself and fooling around with Baimao? !
"What on earth am I doing~~~~~~~" He suddenly stood up and shouted to the sky!
"Yeah, I want to know too." A laughing voice came from behind me. I was startled and turned around quickly.
"Long time no see~ Um... Minmin?" The man with silver hair and honey skin, a horse robe and a scimitar turban, was a member of the Wind Chaser Tribe. He was handsome and a little thin, but he was quite tall with the genes of a northern man, and his smile was especially kind.
"You are..." The list in my mind quickly flipped, snap! Stop, no, go back two pages... here it is! "You are... the big guy who gave me chicken legs when the white-haired guy in the cave bullied me?!" I pointed at him in surprise!
"White hair...chicken leg..." His expression twitched a little, "Forget it...anyway, you still remember me...even if it's because of the chicken leg..."
"You look like the fourth brother, right? Did Baimao send you to pick me up?" I happily leaned over.
He smiled gently, placed his right hand on his left shoulder, bowed and saluted, and said: "I am Fujun of the Zhuifeng clan. Zuo, it was the young master who sent me to pick up the young lady. Minmin, just call me Zuo~"
"Azuku... I noticed that the names of you Wind Chasers all have only one character~"
"Yes, but the original names of the tribes are very long..."
"What is Fujun, Azu?"
"It's equivalent to a military advisor..."
The two of them chatted about this and that while leading their horses, they walked side by side towards the city gate... I seem to have forgotten the important matter again...-_-
I thought I could leave the country without any hindrance, but unexpectedly I encountered trouble!
It turned out that the big fox had long anticipated that I would go north with the young master of the Wind Chasing Clan. Although he could not control the way along the way, he set up obstacles at the last checkpoint that I had to pass.
"There's an order from above! Find a teenage girl named Zhao Minmin. Once found, immediately escort her back to the army!" The tanned city guard announced mechanically.
"Big brother," he stopped me behind him. Although he didn't expect this to happen, Ah Zuo's reaction was quite calm, worthy of being an assistant to the royal family. "I'm in the horse business. I was just about to go with me to the tribe to check out the goods. It's getting late and it's hard to travel. Please let me pass, big brother, the gatekeeper..."
"Are you in the horse business?" The dark-skinned gatekeeper seemed unconvinced. "How can a businessman be so delicate?"
"This is the youngest son of an old customer. It's his first time going out, and he's here with his elders to broaden his horizons so that he can take over the family business in the future. Even though he's spoiled and delicate, he's a real man, and has nothing to do with that Min girl! Big brother, the gatekeeper, please don't make things difficult for us. It's the middle of the day so I can go and you can rest..." Ah Zuo is really strong. He made up such a smooth and unprepared lie that I would have believed it if I wasn't the person involved!
"Oh... We also want to take a rest, but we are under great pressure. If we fail to do this well, we will lose our heads..." Although the gatekeeper slowed down his tone, he was very clear about the procedure, "You two should go to the city gate to check. Since he is a boy, he will come out in no time. It won't delay anything. But these days... there are quite a few women dressed as men..." He stared at me strangely while speaking.
This is really bad. If I continue to make excuses, it will arouse suspicion. But if I really check, not only will it reveal whether it is a boy or a girl, but I don’t know if they have a portrait here. Although the portrait is not like the person, the chance of being recognized is still very high... Ah Zuo was also a little embarrassed, so he just stopped me and stood still.
While the two sides were fighting, another group of people came out of the city. They were dressed in gorgeous clothes, riding tall horses, and must be people of status. The gatekeeper also hurriedly urged us to step aside to make way. There were so many people and it was a good opportunity to escape! Ah Zuo gave us a wink, and we pushed and squeezed while quietly trying to move out of the city. Unfortunately, the gatekeeper was very sharp! Seeing us slip away far away in the chaos, he hurriedly shouted: "Catch them! Don't let them run away!"
With this shout, not only the soldiers guarding the city, but also the nobles who were leaving the city noticed us! I cursed the nosy gatekeeper in my heart, and was surprised that these people in fine clothes and fine horses all had silver hair and honey skin. They were the Wind Chasers! Could they be white-haired people?
The leader, who was riding a bay horse, looked at us and paused when he saw Ah Zuo! The horse team stopped and the man rode towards us. Ah Zuo hesitated for a moment, then pulled me towards him, shouting, "Second Master! Second Master! Second Master, you have to make the decision for me!"
I was stunned. What was going on?
The gatekeeper was also stunned. Only Ah Zuo took a few quick steps and knelt down in front of the horse. He looked trembling as if he had done something wrong and was wronged. Without waiting for the man to say anything, he threw himself on the ground and shouted like a machine gun: "Second Master! I am incompetent. I can't even take the servant you ordered to find out! He is about to be taken away by the servants for a physical examination. How can you let others touch your people?! Please make the decision, Second Master!"
Everyone was stunned. Only the man on the horse stared at Ah Zuo on the ground and pondered for a while. Ah Zuo did not even raise his head. I just felt that there was a tense atmosphere spreading between the two men, which was only seen in business negotiations. Finally, the man said in a calm and deep voice: "Get up! Useless thing! Bring the people over here!"
Ah Zuo quickly got up, flattered, and while responding, he pushed me to the front of the tall, red horse, and then retreated to the group of people in an orderly manner. Before letting go of my arm, he whispered, "Cooperate with him."
I really want to ask who this guy is? How do you want me to cooperate? I felt a pain in my waist! I was forcibly pulled onto the horse by that man! The edge of the saddle was hitting my thigh, and his arms were tightly holding my waist like an iron hoop, pressing me against his chest. It was really uncomfortable! However, what was even more uncomfortable was that he actually lifted my chin with one hand in a frivolous tone, exhaled lightly, and gently rubbed the skin on my cheek with his lips and said: "As expected of a girl born and raised in the south, she is really delicate and pretty~"
Now even I can see that this is not the attitude towards an ordinary servant, it is clearly flirting with a male lover or a pedophile! Although I have met many perverts, I have never been taken advantage of by others. Even if I can't beat them, I have never given up resisting! But in this situation now, with Ah Zuo's previous instructions, I just can't get angry! I have to pretend to be submissive and snuggle in his arms obediently. I can only stare at the man's face with a little resentment, but I dare not be too obvious. After staring like this, I found that this man is actually quite good-looking, about 30 years old, handsome, although not as beautiful and handsome as Baimao, but also heroic... After thinking about it, I curled my lips in my heart, why do I always want to compare with Baimao?
While I was already off topic, the meticulous black-skinned gatekeeper stepped forward respectfully and cautiously and said, "Uh... that... I didn't know that this young man was Second Master's man. I'm sorry for the offense. I hope Second Master and this young man will forgive me!"
The Second Master nodded slightly to let it go, but the man next to the gatekeeper refused to do so. Just as he was about to step forward, he was stopped by the gatekeeper, who whispered, "The Second Master is here to negotiate with General Fan. How can we cause trouble at this critical moment?"
The man was not convinced and said, "But the man's words just now were really suspicious!"
The gatekeeper glanced at the Second Master and lowered his voice and said, "The business of trafficking in human beings from the interior of the country is illegal in itself, and it's not surprising that they tell lies... Stop making trouble." He spoke neither too loudly nor too softly, just enough for everyone present to hear. His implication was obvious. He was giving the Second Master a huge favor so that both sides would be able to talk to him, do things with him, and take care of him in the future.
The matter came to an end here, and the second master took me and a group of people and went out of the customs in a mighty manner.
Later that day.
Looking north to the pass.
A young man who looked like a general and was wearing silver soft armor was patrolling with steady steps while listening to the reports from the soldiers around him.
"The second prince of the Wind Chasing Tribe is leaving the city today?" The young man raised his eyebrows, his pair of dark and bright eyes like deep purple grapes sparkling, his straight nose and resolute mouth corners added a dash of heroic toughness to his slightly immature face, "It seems that he has already reached an agreement with General Fan... Don't worry about him while he is outside the city, but keep a close watch on him once he enters the city!"
"Yes!" The soldier straightened up and agreed loudly. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Deputy General Xiao, there is something I don't know whether I should tell you."
"explain."
"Today, Hei Pi and his men intercepted a person who looked like the girl that Your Highness was looking for, but the Second Prince took her away when he left the confinement."
"What?!" Deputy General Xiao suddenly stopped and turned around! "You found Minmin?! Why didn't you report it immediately?!"
The soldier was startled and quickly reported in a proper manner: "No, that's not the case! That person is a man, and he is the second prince's pedophile. Heipi and his men were afraid that this would cause trouble and affect the peace talks with the Wind Chasing Tribe , so they let him go."
"Pedophilia? Humph!" Deputy General Xiao seemed to be extremely disgusted with this, but considering the interests involved, Heipi's handling of the matter was appropriate. So he just looked at the grassland outside the pass and said silently: "The second prince is a powerful person. He is obviously not interested in men, but he uses pedophilia as an excuse to collect many strange people from inside and outside the pass to help him fight against the third prince. He is very cunning. But their infighting is a good thing for us in the Ming Dynasty..." Thinking of this, he laughed at himself again, "That's right, the second prince is the mortal enemy of the third prince, how could he help the third prince take Minmin out of the pass? I really miss her too much... I lost my composure..."
Looking outside the North Gate, the setting sun is all red.
