Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Eternal Blue Sky’s Protection
Looking at the little black horse before him, Xie Changqing’s temples twitched slightly.
Wasn’t this a bit too small?
“Try riding this one first.” Sangtu patted the horse and smiled: “You used to ride pony colts. If you can handle this horse… this horse will be yours from now on!”
In just a few words, he was essentially giving him the horse outright.
Xie Changqing thanked him and carefully climbed up.
At first he was somewhat nervous, but he quickly discovered that his body was familiar with the small horse.
Using his waist and legs to absorb the motion, holding the reins lightly in his palms without using too much force, lightly tapping the horse’s belly with his heels—the horse would slowly move forward.
Once he got used to the rhythm of the horse’s movement, Xie Changqing began to gradually increase speed.
Haierte raised his whip and ran happily around him: “Brother Changqing! Let me give you a whip, okay!”
It wasn’t far to begin with, and while walking would take a while, riding was really fast.
Soon, Xie Changqing could see Batu.
Batu stood on the small hill, gazing in their direction.
Seeing them from afar, Batu jumped up: “Eji, Eji! Aha is back!”
Tana immediately came out, just in time to see Xie Changqing dismounting.
She hurried forward two steps, looking him up and down with concern. After confirming he was alright, she let out a long breath of relief.
“How was it? Are they leaving for Aoter? I saw those people seemed to leave directly? What did Uncle Qiaoba say? You went to Sangtu’s house just now? Haierte came to get the medical kit—did something happen?”
A string of questions—if she hadn’t been unable to leave, she would have rushed to Sangtu’s house to find him long ago.
Xie Changqing tied the reins to the hitching post while patiently explaining: “Yes, we’re leaving for Aoter tomorrow. Chaolu and them went to the sixth pasture. I just went to Sangtu’s house…”
He briefly mentioned treating the lambs, and when she heard they’d be going to Aoter with Sangtu’s family, Tana’s tears suddenly streamed down.
Heaven knows, she’d tossed and turned all night unable to sleep, and today she was so anxious that cold sores appeared at the corners of her mouth.
Chaolu and the others had just left like that. Their family had nothing now—if no one took them along, they could only tough it out here.
Staying here meant certain death.
“Eternal Blue Sky’s protection… Eternal Blue Sky’s protection…” Tana wiped her tears, then looked at Haierte: “What’s this…”
“This is sheep’s milk for Brother Changqing!” Haierte set down the bucket happily: “Abu says Brother Changqing is our pasture’s veterinarian now!”
He gestured excitedly, telling Batu and the others how Xie Changqing had treated the little lamb.
Xie Changqing smiled and put things down, then tidied up the inside of the house a bit.
“I need to go to Uncle Sangtu’s house again later to check on the lamb’s condition…” Xie Changqing had specifically come back to tell Tana: “Uncle Qiaoba said we should spend tonight there and leave directly tomorrow.”
So he came back to help pack up the felt and put everything on the cart first.
If they waited until tomorrow morning, they definitely wouldn’t have enough time.
“Good, I’ve already packed everything up…” Tana had started getting nervous when she saw Chaolu and the others’ attitude that morning.
She hadn’t been idle at home either—she’d packed what needed packing, and some things hadn’t even been unpacked since yesterday.
The problem was their cart was too small. After loading everything, there was no room for people.
While they were busy, Uncle Sangtu rode over on horseback, leading several more horses pulling two carts.
With his help, their belongings suddenly seemed like nothing.
“I figured your cart wouldn’t fit everything.” Sangtu helped secure the items to prevent them from falling off, then looked at the old horse: “This horse of yours—sigh, its legs aren’t in good shape.”
It couldn’t run long distances. It was fine for pulling the cart normally, but people couldn’t ride it.
“When Xie Yu said the child was small, this horse was steady.” Tana spoke through gritted teeth, squeezing out a few words: “Don’t let me see him again!”
Otherwise, she’d flay him alive!
Xie Changqing put Xie Duoduo on the cart and mounted the small horse himself.
The group traveled together to the sound of clip-clopping hooves to Sangtu’s house.
Sangtu’s wife had already cleared a space: “We’re also sleeping in tents—everything else is packed. We saved you a bigger one.”
“Good, good, thank you so much…” Tana was already very grateful.
She quickly got settled, laid out the bedding, then went to help prepare dried provisions.
Since they were traveling together, all the inside and outside work had to be done together.
Xie Changqing and Sangtu went straight to the sheep pen.
“These two sheep are fine, but they’re not nursing either. That sheep that got the medicine has been lying there motionless…” Sangtu had been keeping an eye on them.
“Good, let me check.” Xie Changqing squatted down and gently placed his fingertips on the little lamb’s weak neck pulse.
The ground was covered with thick dry grass, and the little sheep lay motionless.
After a long while, he suddenly felt slight twitching in his palm—the little sheep tremblingly raised its front legs and expelled black-green waste onto the hay.
“Aha!” Sangtu’s eyes widened with delight: “Is this…?”
“Basically fine now.” Xie Changqing also breathed a long sigh of relief, nodding happily: “If it wants to eat, feed it some milk. If it won’t drink, that’s fine too. Tomorrow morning before we leave, I’ll give it another dose of medicine.”
The little lambs would also need to ride in the carts—all of this needed to be properly arranged.
After checking the ewes, Xie Changqing went with them to herd the other sheep.
Only then did he see the difference between them.
My goodness, so many sheep.
“These are all sheep, and over there are cattle and horses.” Sangtu called out while driving them.
Standing on the small hill, Xie Changqing watched Sangtu on horseback counting them one by one.
He was very envious: he wanted this many cattle and sheep, this many horses too!
No, even more!
“Hey~” A melodious voice rang out, and from afar, someone waved at him: “Changqing!”
It was Nuomin.
Xie Changqing was somewhat surprised and went to meet her.
“Whoa!” Nuomin rode up quickly, stopping less than two meters in front of him: “Changqing, Abu said to have you come to our house for dinner tonight! I brought you a horse!”
She raised her hand and tossed him the reins of another horse she’d been leading: “Here, catch!”
What made Xie Changqing laugh and cry was that this was also a pony colt.
It seemed his previous image of riding small horses had made too deep an impression on people.
Xie Changqing mounted and said somewhat helplessly: “Actually, I can ride big horses.”
“Ah…” Nuomin tilted her head to look at him, then suddenly burst into laughter: “That’s true! Your eji never let you ride big horses for safety. You used to like curling up in a ball—riding the small horse didn’t seem strange then, but looking now, it does seem really odd! Hahaha!”
He was tall and straight, now sitting properly on horseback, making the small horse look even more short and fat—it didn’t look like a horse, but more like a small cow or sheep.
The small horse said nothing, just clip-clopped forward.
“Haha, it looks even more like it when running!” Nuomin laughed until her sides hurt, her long braids swaying in the wind as she cracked her whip dashingly: “Come on! My family’s horse herd is just ahead—I’ll pick out a good one for you!”