Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The countless beautiful stars in the dark night sky made one’s heart tremble. The light silvery light splashed across the crescent-shaped sea below the mountain, reflecting the countless twinkling eyes. The grass by the lake was soft. The wind was gentle, like the quiet words of a person in a dream. Countless tents spread deep into the grasslands from around the crescent sea. The faint sparks of firelight reflected the stars in the sky, The herdsmen’s tents were dark and bathed in the light of the stars.
Fan Xian’s hand holding the round tube froze slightly as he watched without moving the movements by the King’s tent on the banks of the crescent sea. It was not until a long time later that he put down the round tube. Lowering his head and tucking in his knees, he sank deep into thought.
The Chief of the Western Hu walked into that small tent and didn’t come out for a long time. There were probably Hu tribe aces in the darkness around the tent acting as guards, but the entire system of defense seemed much more relaxed compared to usual. The Chief probably didn’t want the court’s aces to get too close to that tent.
Who lived in that small tent? Fan Xian pressed his dry lips together. His mood felt very low. This discovery was perhaps a bit strange, even stranger than his coincidental meeting with Wei Wucheng. Fan Xian did not suspect anything. It was impossible for the Hu people to imagine that someone could watch everything that was happening on the shores of the crescent sea from high up in the mountain.
This was not something humans were capable of. Science and technology were the foremost productive forces. Fan Xian’s finger gently stroked the round telescope as he licked his lips. He didn’t leave now. He waited silently until the Chief walked out from that tent.
The Chief wore a thin cloak. His knife was not at his side. After walking out from the tent, he turned his head and bowed slightly. Looking at his expression, it seemed that he didn’t want to leave.
A cold and mocking smile appeared on the corners of Fan Xian’s face.
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…
In the following days, all the trading companies from the Central Plain began to haggle about prices for the goods they had brought with the high ranking and noble people of the Western Hu’s court. In order to wait for the arrival of the people the two Virtuous Princes sent, they delayed for two days.
Naturally, the court expressed goodwill to the merchants for the goods they might import in the future, but this autumn was an exchange of a large number of luxury items. The Western Hu royalty and nobility had the most plentiful production of resources on the grasslands. They held countless amounts of gold and gemstones in their hands. They didn’t even blink when using them to buy luxury items from the Central Plain.
Even though this was so, it still took four to five days for the Central Plain’s merchants to sell all of their stored goods. During five days, Mu Feng’er represented the foremost trading company in Shazhou and got closer to the Hu people. He earned small amounts of money. After Fan Xian completed his responsibilities, he began to stroll around the crescent-shaped sea either watching or being watched with consideration by others.
Given his true identity, doing such a thing in the center of the Western Hu’s court was an arrogant and stupid decision.
His brows had been drawn closer together, while the tips of them had been glued upward a little. His complexion changed slightly, but the thing that had not changed was his handsome appearance. When he walked along the meadow and dunes by the crescent sea, he would always be greeted with countless heated and fiery gazes.
Although the Hu women were not as promiscuous as the Central Plain’s people vilified them to be, their attitude toward love and beautiful men was definitely more heated. If Fan Xian was able to show off the muscles hidden underneath his robe, he believed that this kind of warmth would be a like a fire in autumn, swallowing him whole.
However, he didn’t want to develop a story that could have no conclusion in the Hu tribe. He was strolling around the crescent sea only so that he could talk with Wei Wucheng. Whether or not the thought of attracting another person’s attention was hidden in his subconsciously, no one would know.
The conversations with Wei Wucheng were going well. This young man from Northern Qi had probably been on the grasslands for too long and had rarely met such a good conversation partner as Fan Xian. He came regularly to talk to him. Through a few days of conversation, Fan Xian gradually came to understand some things. However, in the last two days, Wei Wucheng became much more careful with his words, like he had received some kind of warning. At the same time, Fan Xian found that there were a few extra pairs of watching eyes around him.
Fortunately, it didn’t cause any major problems. The attention of the royalty and nobility in the King’s tent were still focused on the merchants and the power they represented. Fan Xian, a pretty boy in the eyes of the Hu people, did not attract too much attention. He continued to climb up the isolated mountain each night at the same time. Using the telescope, he watched everything that happened on the banks of the crescent-shaped sea.
It was not every night that the Chief would leave his tent and go to the small, tent but the frequency was particularly high. Fan Xian had long found out that the small tent behind the King’s tent was where a common Hu tribe servant girl lived. There was seemingly nothing strange about it.
What was strange was why the Chief would go there and the fact that Fan Xian and Mu Feng’er found it difficult to get near. In the darkness, there were many people protecting that small tent, separating it from the world on the bank of the crescent sea.
After watching four nights, Fan Xian believed more and more firmly in his deduction. However, he couldn’t help but mockingly think that this master of the grasslands was showing too much respect.
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The Chi Le plain,
Beneath the Yin Mountain,
The sky like a tent,
Covering the wilderness.
Boundless is the sky
Endless is the wilderness,
The grass bends before the wind, showing the cattle and sheep.
Where is Chi Le plain? Does the Yin Mountain refer to the mountain behind the sea?
Many of the tents near the court had dispersed. The area around the crescent sea became empty and quiet. The herdsmen who pursued the water plants each had their own places to go. Without the goods brought by the Central Plain’s merchants, the head of each tribe led their people home. To them, the draw of the court was far below that of the goods from the Central Plain.
Inside a quiet tent, Wei Wucheng, who had already been an auditor of the Western Hu court’s internal treasury for a year, held a piece of paper in his hands and asked a question to a colleague beside him. These people had already been in the grasslands for a year helping the Chief deal with political affairs and gathering intelligence reports. They had been of great help to the rise of the court. Presently, the Qing army’s autumn hunt had ended. The grasslands were preparing to welcome the arrival of winter. There were no great battle affairs to prepare, so Wei Wucheng fell back into his old habit.
“Do you still think you’re in Shangjing? Do you still think you can take part in the examinations?” One of his colleagues was clearly in a bad mood and asked mockingly. “All day, when there is nothing to do, your head is buried in that poem. Have a look where you are.”
Wei Wucheng didn’t get angry. He laughed and said, “This poem was given to me by a friend. It describes the scenery of the grasslands very well, which is why I memorized it. However, there are a couple of lines in here I don’t understand.”
These people savored it closely and found that this was indeed the case. The poem was simple but generous in its expression. It was not something just anyone could write.
This boundless sky and endless wilderness began to be memorized. Then, it reached the hands of the Hu people around the court and was translated in the Hu language. It began to be sung as Hu women swung their leather whips.
It did not spread far, but such a thing as a rumor was even more useful than a telescope. It was born with wings and even more miraculous than Ye Liuyun’s ability to be light of body.
A serving girl carrying a jug of sheep milk heard it as she passed by the tent. She stood outside the tent and gently put down the jug. Standing in a daze for a while, she wiped her palm, which was covered in milk, on her clothes.
That night, the Chief also heard this little poem. He didn’t think much of it. A powerful sovereign king had to think about too many things and did not believe that a little poem could bring any problems. He had entrusted the task to someone and casually asked a few questions. Learning that Wei Wucheng had heard it from the merchants, he didn’t think more about it.
The Central Plain merchants had already left the court three days ago. Was he going to chase them back because of a little poem?
The Chief did not put much attention on this matter. When he discovered the next day that the serving girl carrying the sheep milk jug had suddenly disappeared, he became angry. It was as if someone had dug out an important treasure from his heart.
Fortunately, the serving girl had left a letter. It urged him to be calm and said that she would return shortly. Only then did the Chief stop his thought of sending out riders to chase after the Central Plain merchants.
The autumn grass grew tall in the grasslands, covering the paths leading in all directions from the court. There were no roads on the grasslands. Wherever the horses trod the most, there was naturally a road.
From the court in the direction of Qingzhou, there was a large flat desert just over a day’s travel away. It was quiet. When the autumn sun dipped low, it was filled with a severe and murderous aura.
The woman wearing the clothing of a serving girl walked out from the tall grass. She looked at the young man across from her.
The young man had a smile on his face and deep disappointment in his eyes.
He looked at the girl he had not seen in three years. Her eyes were still as clear as lake water, maybe even clearer than the crescent sea. He looked at her hands placed on her waist and said, “You’ve gotten darker.”
Haitang Duoduo, who had disappeared for over two years, had become a common serving girl in the court of the Western Hu. She looked at Fan Xian but didn’t speak. No one knew what kind of words her clear eyes were saying soundlessly.
Fan Xian stared into her eyes and said, “I have been waiting here for you for two days… Or should I say, you’ve been waiting for me on the grasslands for two years?”
