Chapter 48
Chapter 48: Thoughtful
Tana was busy and hummed in agreement: “Take Duoduo with you and let her help brush away the snow.”
Never mind about being young—on the grasslands, as soon as you could walk, you had to start learning to do work.
The siblings happily agreed. After feeding the horses grass, they each carried baskets and took dung forks to set out.
By this time, the snow was falling heavily.
After a night, even this relatively sheltered area had snow that reached their knees, though it wasn’t as deep since it was somewhat protected from the wind.
Batu stepped deep into the snow with each step, ice fragments accumulating around the edges of his boot tops.
Xie Duoduo followed behind, standing on tiptoe to brush away the snow at the base of withered grass roots, revealing the hard-frozen cow dung underneath.
“Aha, over here!” Her eyes sparkled bright, her cloth gloves blackened from use.
“Good!” Batu quickly came back and brushed away a bit more to pick up the cow dung with his fork.
The cow dung was frozen hard as rocks. Some pieces were easy to pick up, some would roll around, and some were frozen together with grass roots.
Sometimes when Batu got impatient with the fork, he’d use his hands directly, scooping up the cow dung with his gloves and putting it in the basket.
His basket had a layer in it, while Xie Duoduo only had one small piece.
She was getting anxious.
Fortunately, they soon found an especially large piece.
“Wow.” Batu set his fork aside and used his hands to dig it out.
It took quite an effort to dig it out, and even he couldn’t help exclaiming: “So big!”
Xie Duoduo struggled to turn around, overjoyed: “Put it in mine!”
She wanted it put in her basket. Batu agreed and carefully carried it over to put it in her basket.
Unexpectedly, Xie Duoduo was dressed so thickly that she was already walking unsteadily, and now with this cow dung being so big and heavy, as soon as it went in her basket, it pulled her backward.
The basket cushioned her fall, and Xie Duoduo tumbled right over into the snow.
“Ah wu!” Xie Duoduo cried out in surprise, landing solidly in a snow pit.
Batu was frantic and quickly went to dig her out: “Duoduo, Duoduo!”
With great effort, he pulled her up, but as soon as she stood steady, she fell backward again.
Now Batu finally understood what the problem was. He dug the cow dung out and put it in his own basket.
He also patted the snow off Xie Duoduo before helping her stand steady.
Xie Duoduo looked longingly at his basket, extremely envious: “Wu… cow dung…”
She wanted it so badly… it was so big!
“You can’t carry it!” Batu said, looking up.
The next second, he burst into laughter: “Haha! Duoduo, you!”
Xie Duoduo looked at him blankly, not understanding what was so funny.
The truth was, from falling into the snow pit, she had snow all over her face that was half-melted, making her look like a spotted cat.
Not to mention she had a snowball hanging from the tip of her nose, which looked quite amusing.
“Haha, don’t move…” Batu still cared for her and wiped her clean before taking her hand to walk back: “We can’t go further ahead, okay?”
“Oh… won’t go.” Xie Duoduo obediently nodded but couldn’t help looking back.
Then she actually saw a herd of wild horses leap across the rushing river in the distance and gallop away: “Aha, aha!”
Batu was leading her along, thinking she’d spotted more cow dung, and tried to dissuade her: “We can’t, Duoduo, we can’t carry any more. We’ll come back to collect more after we empty our baskets at home…”
“Horses! Aha, horses!” Xie Duoduo was getting anxious.
“Hm?” Batu turned around and was stunned by the scene.
What a sight it was.
In the flying snow, hooves kicked up layers of white waves.
The formation stretched extremely long, led by a very strong white horse.
That horse was both beautiful and fast, like a thunderbolt splitting the sea of snow. Though it was the same color as the background, it was so brilliantly eye-catching.
They seemed to be galloping through a sea of clouds, disappearing from view in an instant.
Even after they disappeared, Batu and Duoduo stood there for a long time: “So amazing… ah…”
But soon, they saw a group of people.
“Hm?” Batu couldn’t see clearly and quickly pulled Xie Duoduo up the small hill.
Standing at the high point and looking out, they indeed saw that group of people had a bright red trail behind them.
This group was moving very slowly, and one person even fell right off his horse at the riverbank.
“He fell!” Batu thought about it and immediately ran back.
He ran into Tana right at home, and she quickly reached out to take his basket: “Why are you running so urgently? You can’t sweat in this weather—wipe yourself off quickly!”
Xie Duoduo’s little arms and legs had practically been dragged back by Batu.
She hadn’t seen enough yet and angrily complained to Tana: “Aha bad! He… dragged me!”
“That’s not right of you.” Xie Changqing was getting dressed and couldn’t help laughing when he heard: “Batu, you should walk slower. How could you drag Duoduo?”
Batu couldn’t be bothered with that and excitedly bounced onto the sleeping area: “Aha! I just saw the wild horse king!”
The wild horse king!?
Xie Changqing immediately perked up and turned to look at him: “Where did you see it? Did they really come this way?”
“Yes! I saw it clearly!” Batu gestured excitedly: “They were so fast, they jumped right over from the other side of the river!”
So amazing—they jumped so far!
Xie Changqing remembered that fleeting glimpse and couldn’t help smiling slightly: “Yes, it really is magnificent.”
It was the kind that among ten thousand horses, you’d only see it at first glance.
“Also, after the wild horse king and the others ran away, a group of people followed behind them. One of them fell off his horse and bled a lot!”
Hm? Xie Changqing finished tying his belt and suddenly looked at him: “Tell me in detail—what did that group of people look like?”
Batu blinked and thought: “Well… there were, one, two, three…”
He counted on his fingers, going through one hand and then the second: “…seven, eight, eight people total!”
Eight people. Xie Changqing nodded.
“Then the person who fell was very fat, and he had a red mark behind him—probably from bleeding.”
Very fat… Xie Changqing narrowed his eyes, looking thoughtful.
Generally speaking, people on the grasslands were either thin and weak or sturdy and strong.
For Batu to call someone fat, they had to at least have some standing in the pasture.
Like a pasture chief, a chief’s son, a manager, or… a veterinarian.
Thinking this, Xie Changqing couldn’t sit still: “No, I need to go find Uncle Qiaoba.”
“Hey, eat the meat first before you go!” Tana had just finished organizing the baskets and quickly stopped him: “I specially stewed it for you, and I added the grass fruit you gave me earlier. Smell how fragrant it is!”
She had cut skin-on mutton and also cooked beef—it was indeed very fragrant.
“I was thinking you probably won’t be home again tonight, so I cooked extra. If we don’t finish it, we’ll have it with flatbread tonight…”
Before Xie Changqing could respond, someone was already lifting the curtain outside: “Ho, I could smell the aroma from far away! Haha, seems like I came at just the right time!”
Qiaoba and Sangtu had just woken up and came straight here.
Following behind them was Hairilet carrying half a side of horse meat. Sangtu helped put the horse meat down: “Quick, look at this meat—substantial, right!? Haha.”