Yao Yao felt that the bowl of mutton in her hand was much more fragrant than the bowl she had just honored Han Changmu.
Han Changmu couldn't stand it anymore, coughed slightly, took the bowl of mutton soup, put a few pieces of meat into Yao Yao's bowl.
Yao Yao looked at Han Changmu in surprise, his hands shaking a little.
Han Changmu coughed a few more times to cover up, and said expressionlessly: "I'll get angry if I eat too much mutton."
"..." Yao Yao was stunned.
What do you mean, getting angry? This kind of kid from a family who doesn't want to suffer in the world, do you know what it means to have sores and pus instead of suffering from poverty?
She's not afraid of getting angry, so just let the fire come more violently.
Just after eating a few mouthfuls, undisguised sounds of beatings and scoldings and extremely low cries came from the backyard.
This voice sounded particularly familiar, it was the shop owner and the woman.
Everyone was shocked. The mutton soup in their hands was no longer fragrant. They ate it in three mouthfuls, put down the bowl, turned around and ran to the backyard.
The one running at the front was Meng Ying, whose face turned grave.
Han Changmu ate the meat leisurely, drank the soup, wiped his mouth, then slowly walked to the backyard with his hands behind his back, following the crowd of spectators.
When everyone came over, the young woman huddled on the ground and shivered, covered in dust.
The tall shop owner had one foot on the woman and was cursing non-stop.
Seeing Wu Yangyang breaking into a group of people in the backyard, the owner of the shop was stunned, and hurriedly took his feet back, with an embarrassed smile on his face: "Oh, oh, why are you distinguished guests here at the back? The back is simple, but it's not This is where the distinguished guests stay, let’s go, I’ll bring a few jars of wine to the distinguished guests.”
These days, it’s rare for a man to make a move on a woman, when the couple is alone.
Men who are incompetent are the ones who behave in a den and beat women. This is something that everyone in the world has accepted by default.
But no matter how despised the matter is, it is still a household matter for the couple, and outsiders cannot say much about it.
Seeing that the woman had been relieved, Li Yushan looked at the owner of the shop with disdain, and continued what he said without a smile: "Let's go, let's go out to drink. I've had enough. I'll be on my way tomorrow." ."
The woman lay on the ground and couldn't get up after struggling for a long time.
Meng Ying felt heartbroken and couldn't help but stepped forward.
As soon as she took a step forward, the woman suddenly raised her head. Her eyes were red and moist, as if she had been beaten to tears by the owner of the shop. She looked at Meng Ying and shook her head gently.
Meng Ying froze on the spot, unable to move any further.
After being stunned for a long time, he turned around and walked away.
In an instant, all the people were gone, and only Yao Yao was left in the backyard.
She hurriedly ran over, helped the woman up, and saw that her fair face was covered with loess, but it could not hide her beautiful and charming appearance, and her eyebrows looked somewhat similar to Meng Ying's.
The shop owner changed his face and whispered with a smile: "This distinguished guest, the backyard is too dirty. You should go up front."
This soft-spoken and gentle look seemed like the ferocious look just now was just an illusion.
Yao Yao glanced at the shop owner briefly and smiled calmly as if nothing had happened: "Shop owner, my clothes are dirty. I want to borrow some clothes from my wife. I don't know if it's convenient."
As she spoke, she seemed to calmly hand the shop owner a couple of silver coins, but in fact, her heart felt as if she had been struck by lightning, and she was twitching in pain.
The shop owner weighed the money, his eyes narrowed into two slits when he smiled, and he nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, yes." He shouted to the woman in a low voice: "Why don't you take the distinguished guest to change clothes?"
The woman led Yao Yao into the dilapidated house obediently, rummaged through the cabinets and found a relatively clean and neat coarse cloth dress, and gave it to Yao Yao with her head lowered.
Yao Yao took it and put it on the kang. He didn't put it on, but just looked at the room silently.
The house looked dilapidated from the outside, but it was neatly tidied inside. There were green bricks on the dirt floor, but the bricks were old and had some cracks and missing corners.
A thick felt blanket was spread on the big kang under the window, an old kang table was placed in the middle, and a dark cabinet stood in the corner.
There were several large boxes placed against the wall on the other side. Except for the box where I was looking for clothes, the boxes next to them were all locked. It seemed that they contained something unusual.
There are two small huts and food tables in the empty space, and the huts are also covered with thick blankets.
These things are all pitch black and have no luster. They are all old objects that have aged well, but they can still be vaguely discerned with exquisite patterns and high-quality wood.
Sunlight filtered in through the window, and light dust lazily shuttled in the sunlight.
The window paper was newly pasted and glowed brightly white in the sunlight.
Yao Yao uncovered the thick felt pad and touched the big kang. The big kang was extremely warm, and the heat came out from the felt pad.
Although it gets cold early in the Hexi area, ordinary people's kangs are heated late. Most of them start to burn the kangs after the first snowfall.
One is that firewood is hard to come by, and the other is that people who have lived in Hexi for a long time are resistant to freezing.
There are few families who start burning the kang so early as here. Before winter, the kang is already burning so warmly during the day.
To use a popular saying from Yao Yao's previous life, what is a family? There is a mine at home.
She looked at the woman deeply and asked calmly: "Why did he hit you?"
The woman took a step back, shook her head, and remained silent.
Yao Yao persisted in asking: "I see you are not from Hexi. Where are you from and how did you end up here?"
The woman raised her head and glanced at Yao Yao in horror, then retreated to the corner, still closing her mouth tightly and refusing to speak.
Before entering this room, Yao Yao would have thought that this woman was frightened by the owner of the shop. But after entering this room, she realized that eyes can really be deceiving, and the truth may not be what she saw. As arrived.
Yao Yao didn't ask any more questions, changed into clean clothes and left the backyard.
It was already dark and the wind was getting very cold.
The escorts moved from the yard to the lobby. The lobby was not big, so it was quite crowded with so many people pouring in. The sounds of chatting, laughing and drinking could be heard high and low, making it very lively.
Han Changmu found a corner and sat down, carrying a pot of wine and drinking it himself, as if the bustle had nothing to do with him.
He looked around the lobby, but did not find the young man with an unusual expression. He poured a glass of wine and drank it. He felt that something might happen today.
Yao Yao changed into a coarse cloth dress, hung the washed beard to dry in the courtyard, wiped his hands and walked into the lobby, sat next to Han Changmu, and whispered: "The furnishings in the room are all old, but the window paper is new It's mushy, and the big kang is also very hot."
Han Changmu nodded and whispered: "It seems that the Hu man feels sorry for her."
Yao Yao shook his head: "More than that, when I was changing my clothes, I opened the cabinet and looked at it. There was only one quilt, and the cabinet was filled with women's dresses."
Han Changmu was silent: "Be alert tonight, I'm afraid something will happen."
Yao Yao also nodded in agreement.
The wind was strong at night, whining through the dry branches and making the window paper rattle.
The fire pit was cold and hard. Even though it was covered with a felt blanket, the cold breath still hit people.
Han Changmu wrapped himself tightly in the quilt and tossed and turned on the fire bed. He had something on his mind and never dared to sleep too deeply. In his light sleep, he heard the whistling of the wind mixed with the sound of heavy footsteps.
He opened the window and saw several bodyguards carrying fodder and going to the stables to feed the horses.
The night was dark and there was silence everywhere.
Under the moon-sparse sky, nothing else happened.
Han Changmu breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but suspect that he was overthinking.
After a night of silence, he woke up the next morning at dawn. Han Changmu went out with two huge dark circles under his eyes. He saw Yao Yao squatting on the ground, looking at something.
He walked over quietly and whispered behind Yao Yao: "Is there gold on the ground?"
Yao Yao was startled. He turned around and saw Han Changmu's dark circles under his eyes. He smiled and said, "I didn't see Jin Zi. I saw a panda."
Han Changmu frowned slightly: "What."
Yao Yao suddenly tightened his mouth.
Damn it, let it slip again.
She hurriedly pointed to the shallow footprints on the ground, frowned and said, "Sir, these are camel footprints."
Two lines of footprints as big as cattail leaf heads went away from the door of the inn, and slightly behind on the left and right sides, there were two lines of slightly smaller footprints.
Han Changmu knelt down, examined them carefully, nodded and said, "Yes, there are three camels, one big, two small, and they are walking outside the inn."
Yao Yao tilted his head and said attentively: "The wind was very strong last night, and it didn't stop until Yinchu. Look, sir, the traces of our visit last night have been covered by loess and sand, and only these few lines are left. Camel footprints, these three camels should have left shortly after Yinchu."
Han Changmu nodded: "It seems that there are no camels in the escort team."
"No." Yao Yao whispered: "This trip does not have to pass through a large sand moraine, it is all on the official road. Although the camels have better endurance, the horses are faster. Li Yushan wanted to go back quickly to avoid long nights and dreams. "
While the two were talking, the escorts all came out in twos and threes. They didn't notice the unusual footprints on the ground and stamped on them, making the yard messy.
Han Changmu looked around and wondered: "It's already dawn, why didn't I see the owner of the shop coming out to prepare the morning meal?"
"Yes, where is the person?" Yao Yao also searched for a long time, but did not see the man or the woman.
At this moment, Liu Yi put on his clothes and hurried to the courtyard, looked around, and said in a panic: "Have you seen Meng Ying?" He grabbed Li Yushan, his face was sweating in panic: "Li Headguard, have you seen Meng Ying?"
Li Yushan shook his head in confusion: "I didn't see it."
Liu Yi slapped his thigh heavily and shouted regretfully: "It's broken, it's broken, the child ran away. I just saw that his robes are gone."
Li Yushan hadn't come back to his senses yet, and said in a daze: "Run away, where did he go?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a shrill scream came from outside the inn, scaring everyone out of their wits.
