Chapter 64
Chapter 64: I Want to Go Too!
Everyone turned back to see Hairile riding up: “Haierte—he can walk!”
Haierte felt his wound was much better and had been trying to get out of bed early that morning.
He discovered that as long as he didn’t put direct weight on his injured leg, just supporting himself lightly, walking was relatively easy and not too painful.
Hearing this, Xie Changqing was quite pleased: “You used the new ointment, right?”
“Yes.” Hairile nodded seriously: “The new ointment—they say it works very well.”
There was just one side effect: every time Suhe changed the dressing, it hurt so much he broke out in cold sweat.
After thinking, Hairile added: “But he says it’s better than yesterday—not as painful.”
As the wound healed, the thicker the scab became, the less it would hurt.
Xie Changqing wiped away his sweat cheerfully: “Good, let me practice a bit more, then we’ll go see together.”
So Hairile didn’t rush off but stood to the side watching.
After watching for a while, Aer arrived carrying a cloth sack.
“Well, quite a crowd here.” Aer climbed the slope and was surprised to see so many people.
Erise saw him and immediately grinned: “What’s this about, Aer?”
“Delivering jerky.” Aer looked up cheerfully at Xie Changqing: “Changqing, I came specially to bring you jerky.”
Although his cattle weren’t completely recovered yet, he’d followed Xie Changqing’s instructions and added grass powder to their water.
The cattle ate it enthusiastically, and their droppings were normal too.
Most importantly, they were much more spirited, mooing whenever they saw him, full of energy—nothing like their previous dying appearance.
Aer wasn’t the type to be ungrateful.
Knowing it was Xie Changqing’s efforts that helped, he’d carried over the full thirty pounds of jerky without shortchanging a bit.
Xie Changqing quickly thanked him and invited him inside to sit.
“I won’t sit, won’t sit.” Aer set down the jerky and waved his hands: “I still need to go back and chop grass powder. You all continue practicing.”
This trip was solely to deliver the jerky.
However, Xie Changqing immediately handed the jerky over to Sangtu.
“Hey! What’s this about!” Sangtu was startled.
Xie Changqing seriously pressed it into his hands, brooking no refusal: “This is what I owed you—it should go to you.”
Besides, Sangtu’s family was large, and these thirty pounds of jerky could substitute for quite a bit of food.
Even if their relationship was good, he couldn’t just rely on friendship without settling accounts.
“And my mother has been worrying about this constantly…” Xie Changqing looked toward Tana with a sudden smile: “From now on, we won’t owe each other anything and can live peacefully.”
Tana’s eyes filled with tears. Heaven knew she’d been calculating in her mind these past days.
She’d been wondering how to turn the cow they’d dragged back last time into jerky to repay Sangtu’s family.
Now it was settled—Xie Changqing was capable and had gotten thirty pounds of beef jerky.
Even Qiaoba helped persuade Sangtu to accept it: “Just take it. Changqing isn’t lacking for food.”
The main thing was not to have any lingering resentment.
“Alright then.” Sangtu slung the bag over his horse without being overly polite: “Next time we go catch the wild stallion, this’ll be our provisions, haha!”
That evening, Tana stewed another pot of beef and ladled a generous portion for Xie Changqing: “Here, eat more.”
As she served, she told Xie Changqing: “I also made you two pairs of hand warmers to take along.”
Hand warmers wore out easily, so you needed to have extras.
Besides that, she’d prepared plenty of provisions: “Take all the jerky from home with you—don’t go hungry, understand?”
Outside, it wasn’t easy to build fires. Unless you found a sheltered cave, you couldn’t even light a fire.
Not only that, Tana also explained many details about surviving in the wilderness.
Xie Changqing agreed to everything, listening and memorizing carefully.
“Aha!” Xie Duoduo grabbed his pants and tried hard to climb onto him: “I… want to go too!”
He scooped Xie Duoduo onto his lap and pinched her cheek: “That won’t work—it’s too dangerous. You can’t go.”
Batu rushed over and hugged his leg, looking up at him: “I want to go too!”
“You can’t either—you’re still too young.”
He’d just learned to mount a horse and could only ride small ponies—how could he possibly follow them to catch wild stallions?
Batu looked completely dejected and dispirited: “Oh…”
Patting his head, Xie Changqing smiled: “When you’re bigger, like Haierte and them, you probably can.”
“Mm-hmm!” Batu nodded vigorously, very happy: “I’ll shoot guns too later! Bang bang bang!”
He jumped down and imitated Xie Changqing’s movements, attacking frantically.
Xie Duoduo followed his example too, the sheep in the corner bleated softly, and the yurt was immediately filled with cheerful laughter.
After two days without snow, Xie Changqing’s lassoing technique had reached a decent level.
Sangtu even specially took time off from relieving Chagan to let him come teach Xie Changqing moving target shooting.
This was indeed quite difficult—Xie Changqing practiced for a long time and could only hit some slower-moving objects.
For the faster ones, he couldn’t keep up with the speed.
“This is normal. Practice slowly and you’ll get it.” Chagan comforted him: “Sometimes, you need the right moment.”
For instance, some people encountered wolf packs in the wild.
In life-or-death situations, they suddenly learned moving target shooting and hit every shot.
Xie Changqing nodded, not discouraged: “I’ll practice more.”
But there wasn’t much time for additional practice.
He went with Chagan to Sangtu’s house, just in time to see Haierte walking around the room.
Seeing him arrive, Haierte was excited: “Haha, I’m fine!”
“Not that fast.” Xie Changqing had him sit down to examine the wound.
“Really, I’m fine.” Haierte walked without even seeming to limp anymore, very smoothly: “Can I come with you all tomorrow?”
Xie Changqing looked at his wound—it really was much better.
The scab had grown together, and in some places was even starting to peel.
This medicine was indeed quite potent, but the results were really good.
Even Suhe’s wound had healed considerably.
The scab was hard and thick, with no signs of infection whatsoever.
Everything was moving in a positive direction, but Xie Changqing still firmly shook his head: “No, you need to rest and recover properly.”
Suhe nearby also struggled to sit up, looking at him hopefully: “Can I go back with this leg?”
“Not yet.” Xie Changqing also shook his head decisively: “But you can try getting up and moving around.”
Then he instructed Qiqige: “Continue changing the dressing on schedule, and remind them to move around more, but not to put weight directly on the injured legs.”
Qiqige nodded seriously, indicating she’d remembered: “How long will you be gone this time?”
Although she felt useful now, with Xie Changqing away, she still felt somewhat empty and afraid inside.
She looked toward Nomin with some nervousness: “Is Nomin going too?”
“Of course!” Nomin excitedly raised her gun, thrilled: “Look, my father gave this to me!”
This was her first time owning her own gun—she was just waiting to set off tomorrow to test its power!