Chapter 13
Chapter 13: Purple Alfalfa
“Hmm? What idea?” Qiaoba turned back to look at him.
Xie Changqing paused: “The Sixth Pasture here should be working in collusion with Chaolu.”
If they hadn’t already had this idea, Chaolu wouldn’t have immediately run away with his people the moment he discovered Xie Yu had fled.
You could imagine they’d been exchanging glances behind the scenes for who knows how long.
“Logically speaking, since all the pastures are the same, they have absolutely no need to take in so many people.” Xie Changqing pointed out the key issue: “Could it be that they… need something?”
Qiaoba really hadn’t thought about this question: “Hmm… let me think about it…”
Xie Changqing only shared his own thoughts. After all, he’d never dealt with the people from the Sixth Pasture and didn’t know what they were thinking.
He purely felt that with the same herding and the same lifestyle, under normal circumstances, a pasture of a certain scale definitely wouldn’t want to suddenly take in a whole bunch of people to divide their own interests.
After all, with more people, herding would have to go to more distant places, and the dangers would multiply.
This didn’t make sense!
Qiaoba fell into deep thought. After a long while, he suddenly looked up: “Hey? By the way, that medicine you mentioned earlier, how come I’ve never heard of it?”
Lamb dysentery was a fairly common condition, but he really hadn’t heard of that ivermectin or whatever albendazole.
“Oh, I was fooling him.” Xie Changqing laughed heartily and shook his head: “In fact, even streptomycin isn’t a medicine for treating lamb dysentery.”
If Mengen had guessed ivermectin, he would have said it should be albendazole.
If Mengen had said albendazole, he would have said it should be ivermectin.
He just hadn’t expected that Mengen wouldn’t argue and knew he wouldn’t make random nonsense.
“Haha! I knew it!” Qiaoba burst into laughter after hearing this and lightly punched him: “You little rascal!”
It was already getting late, so Xie Changqing didn’t delay any longer.
When he returned to the tent, he was surprised to find that Tana hadn’t gone to sleep yet.
She had laid out his bedding and asked him somewhat hesitantly: “Changqing, are you alright?”
“Ah?”
“It’s about your Abu…” Tana fidgeted with her hands, somewhat hesitant: “Actually, about him and Geerma… I knew about it before…”
But she had no choice. After all, Geerma was a widow—those with nothing to lose aren’t afraid of those who have something. And Tana had several children, with Changqing being a fool.
If she left Xie Yu, she wasn’t confident she could raise them to adulthood.
So she could only turn a blind eye, swallowing her broken teeth with blood…
Xie Changqing looked at her steadily, then sighed: “It’s good that he’s gone. From now on, we’ll live well and not worry about them.”
“Good.” Tana hesitated for a while, then said in a low voice: “If… if he wants to come back… you…”
“I won’t agree.” Xie Changqing answered without hesitation, then frowned: “Do you want him to come back?”
“No! Of course I don’t! I’m afraid you might miss him…” Tana, confirming that Xie Changqing had no such thoughts, was completely relieved: “Then let’s sleep early. We need to get up even earlier tomorrow!”
After all, in the past, Xie Changqing had particularly trusted, depended on, and even worshipped his Abu.
She was really worried that Xie Changqing would expect Xie Yu to return and their family would go back to the old days.
Back then, whatever little things they had in their hands, Xie Yu had to make the decisions, and his way of handling things was basically to sell everything.
All the family’s money was controlled by him, and any good things were sent to Geerma. They couldn’t eat their fill or dress warmly, barely managing to stay alive.
Compared to then, even though their family was now dirt poor, at least Batu and Duoduo could eat their fill.
Later, when they raised cattle and sheep, she could also get some fabric to make them two new sets of clothes…
Thinking this way, she felt these days were truly wonderful.
The next morning when Xie Changqing got up, the campfire had already died out.
The sheep’s milk was left for them, and everyone could drink hot sheep’s milk while eating flatbread before setting off.
“Everyone be careful today, time is tight. Batu, you little ones won’t ride horses—get directly on the ox cart.”
This was to prevent the young horses from getting too tired to keep up, which would slow down their progress.
Xie Changqing specially went to check on those ewes and lambs—they had all recovered their vitality.
Even the ewes were walking on their own now, no longer needing to ride in the ox cart.
The little sheep bleated with lively voices.
“They all ate grass this morning.” Sangtu walked to Xie Changqing’s side and said with a smile: “I think they all look pretty good.”
“Mm, they should be fine now.” Xie Changqing also felt relieved and mounted his horse.
Accompanied by several rising and falling long whistles, they set off in a grand procession.
They had traveled far before the sun even came up.
Xie Changqing felt refreshed. Anyway, Lightning ran fast, and when he encountered good medicinal herbs along the way, he would still dismount to pick them.
This Lightning was quite interesting too. When there were herbs that were good for horses, as soon as Xie Changqing dismounted, it would roll them up with its tongue and eat them.
At first, Xie Changqing thought it was an accident, but after three times in a row, he realized something was wrong.
“Good fellow, you’re specifically targeting what I’m picking?”
Looking at the bare grass stem in front of him, Xie Changqing couldn’t help but laugh.
Lightning snorted and pretended to know nothing.
“Alright, eat if you want to.” Xie Changqing looked—this was purple alfalfa.
This was a perennial leguminous forage crop with high protein content and rich in minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients.
Not only could it provide rich nutrition for horses, it also helped with muscle growth, bone development, and physical recovery, especially suitable for working horses or nursing mares.
No wonder Lightning kept wanting to eat it whenever it saw some. Xie Changqing had originally intended to pick it for future use anyway.
Each time he finished picking medicinal herbs, he would quickly ride to catch up.
Stopping and starting like this, Nuomin found it strange and eventually turned back: “What are you doing? I keep seeing you stop from time to time. Is Lightning unable to run?”
Lightning didn’t like hearing this!
It immediately stamped its feet, looking unhappy.
“Oh, no.” Xie Changqing put away the herbs he’d just picked and smiled: “I just happened to see these medicinal herbs, so I picked them along the way.”
Nuomin made an understanding sound, finding it quite novel: “Why don’t you ride in the ox cart?”
In the past, every time Xie Yu traveled for the seasonal migration, he rode in the ox cart, and he had to have his own cart, constantly making demands—so many requirements and so troublesome.
But Xie Changqing was completely different, which made Nuomin very curious.
“What’s so good about riding in that.” Xie Changqing had had enough of sitting. Now that he could finally run and jump, he wished he could stand and run every day.
Although the ox cart was pulled by horses, it actually wasn’t smooth when moving.
Sitting in it for a long time would make your bottom hurt just the same. Tana had padded Xie Duoduo’s seat with felt, but she still wrinkled her little face with a sickly expression.
When he had time later, Xie Changqing thought he should modify the ox cart too…
As he was pondering this, Nuomin stared at him for a while: “Your cloth bag can’t hold much. Do you want to weave baskets?”
“Hmm?” Xie Changqing was a bit confused, instinctively thinking of small back baskets.
A big man like him carrying a small back basket… that image would look somewhat unseemly, wouldn’t it?