One day, Feng Sheng came over and wanted to take them to somewhere else. Upon hearing this, Jin Xiaoyu burst into laugher and said, “For real? Where are we going?”
Feng Sheng replied, “Tianshan tribe is far away from Baoning city. Those soldiers wouldn’t follow us there. Even if they do, it will be easy to hide ourselves. Plus, we have our men there.”
“Your men?” Jin Xiaoyu suddenly chuckled, “the Seventh King’s concubine? Or should I say… your lover.”
Feng Sheng was not used to this kind of tease, he just replied, “Just the Seventh King’s friends. They own business there.”
“Will it be boring?” Jin Xiaoyu asked again.
Feng Sheng answered honestly, “That depends on their arrangement. Over there… everyone has to work. But you will be a newly arrived guest, so you won’t have to work. Also, the Seventh King said that if you don’t feel comfortable living there, you are free to leave. The Seventh King will fund your trip. You had nothing to do with this matter, but you still chose to help me. Your are truly very chivalrous. Little Xun’s incident was caused by the imperial court. The Sixth King and the Seventh King are supposed to take care of Little Xun, as they are men of the imperial court.
Jin Xiaoyu thought for a moment and said, “I am worried if you just send Little Xun away like this. Plus, Little Xun will not be able to quickly adjust to the situation. What if he is not treated appropriately or someone dislikes him? Let me come along. I will take a look first.”
……
Tianshan tribe.
Xiao Tongshu and Jia Zhenbo had just returned from Baoning city.
It was evening and everyone was about to eat.
Everyone was still sharing the same pot of meal in the public yurt. Seeing them return, the women then went to get their dishes and chopsticks.
Squire Liu asked, “Why it costed you such a long time to return this time? Normally, it would only take two days to sell out the goods. This time it took four days. Was there any difficulty in selling the goods?”
“Not really!” Jia Zhenbo replied to his father-in-law, “The soldiers were trying to catch someone in the City. Everywhere was in strict control. The people were afraid of getting into trouble so they just stayed inside. That was why it took us longer time to finish our task.”
“Who do they want?” Squire Liu asked.
Jia Zhenbo said, “I’m not sure. It seems to be a child.”
Everyone was shocked. “Why would the imperial court want a child??”
“I also want to know why. But there was indeed someone coming to me with a portrait of a child, asking me if I had seen this child. That portrait was not even clearly depicted. I don’t even know the gender or age of the child. Doesn’t all the child look the same? Round face, big eyes. Don’t all the local children look like this?”
Squire Liu said, “In that case, they want a local child.”
Jia Zhenbo said while picking up the food with chopsticks, “I’m not sure about that. It’s just our business was influenced. But luckily, we sold it all out.”
Xiao Tongshu said, “Right! When we left the city, the soldiers also withdrew. Maybe they didn’t find the child they wanted.”
Everyone was puzzled about the reason of them wanting a child.
Some people guessed that the child might be for sacrifice. Some places had conservative thoughts, where there were still some witchcraft existing.
Someone else guessed that the child might have stolen something from some important people.
Their tribe’s information was not frequently updated. It was just like a fictitious land of peace, away from the turmoil of the world. No one knew what was happening outside.
Except Xiao Baoshan.
When he was in Beihui city, he heard that prime minister Xun and his grandson had escaped.
During this period of time, with the help of Divine Physician Yu, he slowly recalled things one after another. Of course he remembered Ye Xiaoxian, he could also recalled some other things.
This prime minister Xun, who he heard from the military, was an unique and outstanding minister who truly cared for the people. Xiao Baoshan heard more about him in Beihui city as well.
Altogether, he realized that the little child might be prime minister Xun’s grandson, while prime minister Xun was either gone or caught.
Everyone chatted for a while about the child but didn’t come to a conclusion. They gradually lost the interest for this topic and started talking about something else.
……
After dinner, the women went out to clean the dishes and chopsticks while the men surrounded the yurt and enjoyed their conversations.
Ye Xiaoxian didn’t have to clean the dishes and chopsticks, instead, she went to verify accounting record with Squire Liu.
Xiao Baoshan returned to his own yurt to rest.
Until today, he had been living alone.
Ever since he brought Ye Xiaoxian back from the horsing riding trip, they hadn’t said a few words.
However, as his memory was slowly recovering, previous things gradually became clearer and clearer. Little by little, like stones under water, slowly rising to the surface of the water. He also remembered that feeling.
He remembered that he had given her the divorcing letter. He had written that letter in a very cruel way, so that she would be disappointed enough to forget him.
Without any doubt, that letter hurt her very hard, even though his conscience didn’t want him to do so.
He still remembered their first time. After that, he took out a knife and asked her to kill him. Now he thought about it, how foolish he was. He even alienated her for a while because of the rules he had set.
She must have endured so much pain under such circumstances.
He blamed himself. The more he blamed himself, the more he denied himself.
Now that she ignored him, he thought that perhaps he really wasn’t her right one. All he could do was to hurt her.
Therefore, Xiao Baoshan didn’t behave like what he used to, hanging around Ye Xiaoxian all day. He was afraid she would be annoyed.
In the tribe, everyone was confused. Why did the two of them keep at a distance from each other again? Didn’t they go riding horses together? How come they were at odds with each other after riding?
……
Ye Xiaoxian and Squire Liu finished verifying the accounting record and went outside. It was already dark.
There was a candlelight in Xiao Baoshan’s yurt. Ye Xiaoxian paused for a moment, then she ignored it and returned to her own yurt.
In the past few days, she had been mad at him.
Of course, she didn’t know why she was in a sulk. Perhaps she was mad because he and Jin Xiaoyu shouldn’t have that kind of relationship, though she knew it wasn’t his fault. Men in this era were polygynous. There were even modern men cheated on their wives. Xiao Baoshan just committed a mistake that every man in this world would commit.
But she was still angry.
Was she possessive? Or was she selfish and not tolerant enough?
She didn’t know whether it was her problem or not.
Liu Qianqian once tried to persuade her not to be too stubborn. Women could throw a tantrum or make troubles out of nothing, but they couldn’t keep being unreasonable and at odds with the men all the time. Otherwise, the men would eventually lose patience and deny himself.
But Ye Xiaoxian couldn’t convince herself.
Over the past few days, Xiao Baoshan clearly didn’t dare to mess with her nor get close to her. Sometimes, when they encountered with each other, he would stare at her with a very affectionate gaze, but he didn’t dare to talk to her.
Every time when she saw his gaze, she would feel a little softer.
But as soon as she thought about their past, she would harden her heart again.
Li Hongmei also wanted to say something, but Li Hongmei was her mother-in-law and not her mother. She couldn’t always persuade Ye Xiaoxiao in the mother-in-law’s position, or else, Ye Xiaoxian would definitely be annoyed.
Therefore, everyone could just leave them alone to fix their own problem.
……
The next day, everyone saw a carriage coming from afar. It was Feng Sheng.
They thought the person sitting in the car was Li Chengru. But when they arrived, they found that it was Jin Xiaoyu followed by a seven or eight year old boy.
“Eh, isn’t this…” Xiao Tieshu recognized Jin Xiaoyu.
The others also had some impression of Jin Xiaoyu. After all, they had lived in Longmen Inn. It was just that some people could remember her and some couldn’t.
Liu Qianqian asked, “Jin… Xiaoyu, right? Didn’t you say that you would let go of Xiao Baoshan? Why would you come here? Do you want to be the homewrecker?”
Jin Xiaoyu on the other hand was also stunned when she saw Xiao Baoshan and Ye Xiaoxian.
Who would know that Xiao Baoshan and Ye Xiaoxian were here? If she knew, she would never come here.
People didn’t know why Liu Qianqian said this, so they asked her, “What is going on? Had she tried to break up Baoshan and Little Ye? How?”
Squire Liu reacted first and said, “Oh, didn’t you say that Baoshan almost married some other woman before? Would she be the woman?”
Liu Qianqian said angrily, “It’s her. She said she wouldn’t pester him anymore. Now here she is!”
Feng Sheng was also confused.
How would he know all this drama? He just simply wanted to send Jin Xiaoyu here. Who would know they were old acquaintances and there seemed to be some conflicts.
Jin Xiaoyu wanted to explain. But seeing there were so many of them, it would be beyond dispute, so she just couldn’t be bothered to explain for herself.
She glanced at Xiao Baoshan and then at Ye Xiaoxian.
Xiao Baoshan barely changed, he was still very calm. But he and Ye Xiaoxian were standing far away, they didn’t seem like a loving couple.
When Feng Sheng realized that everyone was blaming Jin Xiaoyu, he quickly helped Jin Xiaoyu out by saying, “I think there must be some misunderstanding. Why don’t we sit down and talk about it?”
……
People reluctantly entered the public yurt. Jin Xiaoyu took Little Xun’s hand and walked in as well.
Little Xun noticed everyone’s hostility toward Jin Xiaoyu and said to her, “Sister, don’t be afraid. If they don’t take us in, we will go somewhere else.”
Jin Xiaoyu was annoyed now so she replied, “Although the world is big, I’m afraid there’s no place for us to live.”
“But even so, I can’t let people give you any hard time.”
His words melted Jin Xiaoyu’s heart. She figured that it would be better to talk things through and explain everything. She couldn’t bear to see Little Xun have nowhere to go and spent his life hiding here and there.
So, just as everyone sat down, she made a statement first. “First of all, let me get things straight here. I don’t know that you will be here. Feng Sheng said that his friend was in this tribe and asked me to bring my brother over to join you, so I came here.”
Squire Liu asked, “But why would you need to join us? Isn’t your inn’s business good? ”
Feng Sheng said, “They were chased by their enemies, that’s why they escaped and tried to find place to hide.”
Liu Qianqian snorted and commented, “That’s because your inn is a gangster inn.”
Jin Xiaoyu didn’t want to quarrel with Liu Qianqian. Instead, she said bluntly, “No matter what the reason is, I’m not here for Xiao Baoshan. Although I’m not a good person, I do things frankly and straightforwardly. When I say I don’t want this man, I mean I don’t want this man. Even if he begs for it, I won’t take him. So please rest assured. Nothing will happen between us anymore.”
