The barbarian woman nodded furiously in answer and pulled Chu Lian to another side of the hollow in the hill.
When they turned out of the main area, there was another recess with a layer of dry grass on the ground. A few horses and goats were tied up inside.
The barbarian woman brought Chu Lian into the midst of the horses. She made some gestures at Chu Lian frantically. It took a long time for Chu Lian to finally understand what she meant.
She slowly asked, “Auntie, do you want me to wait for you here?”
Although the barbarian woman wasn’t very familiar with the official language of the Great Wu, it seemed like she could still understand some simple words.
The barbarian woman nodded in answer and pushed Chu Lian deeper into the herd of horses, using the larger horses to hide Chu Lian’s tiny little frame.
Once she had hidden Chu Lian, the barbarian woman quickly ran back to the tents. Luckily, the weather was terrible today and the temperatures outside were very low so no one was walking around.
When she walked over to the two tents, the barbarian woman paused in thought before gritting her teeth and entering Chu Lian’s tent. The moment she saw the three men and one woman unconscious in the tent, she was startled. An instant later, she gathered her courage and checked if they were still breathing. Once she confirmed that they were only unconscious, the barbarian woman’s eyes turned sharp. She took a sword from one of the men and slit the throats of all four of the kidnappers…
It was only when the thick-lipped woman took her last breath that the barbarian woman sat on the ground, panting in fear. However, there was no time to waste.
She forced herself up and walked over to the tent flap, first listening for any movement outside and confirming that there was no one there. Once she was sure that it was clear, she lifted the tent flap and walked out.
Chu Lian squatted amongst the horses for thirty minutes until the barbarian woman ran back over with two other people.
Chu Lian quickly went up to welcome them.
It was only when they got closer that she realised the barbarian woman was holding on to two boys.
The older one looked about seventeen or eighteen years old. The younger one was skinny and dark and looked about ten.
The barbarian woman spoke some gibberish to the older boy, who then nodded and looked at Chu Lian. “Miss, my Ah-ma says that we have to leave this place immediately. We’ll be in trouble if anyone finds out.”
While the older boy’s pronunciation wasn’t that accurate either, at least communication wouldn’t be a problem.
The four of them didn’t dare to stay for even a second longer there.
Since Chu Lian still didn’t know how to ride a horse, in the end, the two boys shared a mount while the barbarian woman and Chu Lian shared another.
The horses quickly vanished into the boundless horizon of the endless wind and snow. In just a few seconds, they could no longer be seen from the hill.
During their journey, Chu Lian got a rough understanding of the situation from the older boy.
The barbarian woman was called Urihan and the older boy was called Myeryen. The younger boy’s name was Narisong.
They were a family of mother and sons. The two boys were both sick and Narisong’s illness was bad enough that he had to drink medicine every day.
They had come from an ordinary family of herders. The boys’ father had passed away early on, so Urihan had raised them all by herself.
However, the boys had been afflicted with illness and life was hard for them. Even though Urihan knew that the two boys weren’t suffering from any major disease, they didn’t have the right medicine to treat their illnesses, so they had been suffering all this while.
They hadn’t been staying in the natural hollow of the hillside at first, but somewhere else.
Winter had come too abruptly this year. The snowstorms had crushed the tent they were living in and half of the goats that they depended on had frozen to death. In order to keep her sons alive, Urihan had brought her sons away to that hillside.
She had used their remaining goats to barter for their stay there. Urihan and her sons lived there for half a month before Chu Lian came by.
After listening to this, Chu Lian finally realised that the two tents on the hillside had been like an inn. The owner of the place rented out space to passersby. The leader of the kidnappers had given the owner of the tents a bag of something, like a fee for staying there.
Luckily, Urihan was a daughter of the grasslands. She had lived on the grasslands for decades. Even in the endless plains of winter, she could still determine which direction to head in.
Close to four hours after Chu Lian and Urihan had left, a small group of men on horses came to the hillside. The owner of the tents came out to welcome them with a smile, but was mercilessly kicked away.
The man on top of the horse looked down on the owner of the tent and barked out something harshly, causing the owner of the makeshift inn to scramble up from the ground, leading the newcomers to the tent that Chu Lian had stayed in.
“Sir, the people you’re looking for are here. This lowly one saw someone come out this morning to take some bags.”
The leader of the newly arrived party harrumphed and leaped off his horse. He strode over to the tent flap and was about to open it when the unmistakable metallic scent of blood hit his nose. The man’s expression changed and he ripped open the tent flap.
Four corpses laid inside the tent, the ground awash with their blood. Due to the low temperatures, the red liquid had already coagulated on the ground. There was no sign of Honoured Lady Jinyi in the tent.
TL Note: Urihan and Myeryen were previously translated as ‘Wulihan’ (乌丽罕) and ‘Muren’ (牧仁) in pinyin. I’ve changed it after doing more research on Mongolian names and converting the Chinese words to Mongolian. That sounds about right and much better than leaving their names in pinyin. As for Narisong (那日松), there was no good translation of his name available, so I kept it as is. Do let me know via Discord or @timebun on Disqus if you have a better idea of what their names should be!
