Chapter 163
Chapter 163
“You…”
Centurion Lin pointed at him, eyes wide.
Song Jin raised a brow. “What? Didn’t the little one tell you we’d come rescue her?”
She had, but Centurion Lin had never expected them to enter this way. It was certainly safest, though it required both the Barbarian language and altered faces. People from the Central Plains looked different from Barbarians, whose features were more foreign and whose skin was darker.
Song Jin touched his face. “This damned thing is uncomfortable. How is the little one?”
Centurion Lin relaxed slightly but stayed guarded. “Fine.”
Song Jin had removed half his disguise and now looked as if half his face were peeling off.
“Damn, it won’t stick back on. Lin Qi, was it? Help me before someone sees.”
Centurion Lin silently helped. How could this man seem reliable and unreliable at once?
Once the mask was fixed, Song Jin patted his shoulder. “You’re in good shape. Eating well lately? Relax, we’re allies. I admire how carefully you protect her. Go back before the Barbarians get suspicious.”
He left. He already knew where to seek Jiang Yunsui. Wherever she went, that gluttonous little thing never changed. Her ability to make people overlook her would be troublesome, though, and she would not recognize his disguised face.
He would simply try his luck.
“Achoo!”
Little Mushroom rubbed her nose, bewildered.
Where had she ended up now?
For days, Jiang Yunsui had done nothing but gather food and weapons. The armory held Barbarian weapons and captured ones piled in disorder. She took only smaller pieces, and the arrogant, careless guards noticed nothing.
Once Centurion Lin’s food stores were sufficient, she explored farther to expand her map.
Passing a training ground, she saw men fighting and hid in a haystack to watch.
Barbarians fought viciously, fists pounding flesh. Jiang Yunsui’s ears hurt from the blows, yet she wished they would fight harder and kill each other.
She had seen their darkest acts these past days. She could not bear their cooking and eating people. Better if such a people did not exist. If they invaded the Central Plains, the result would be hell on earth.
That made her even more enthusiastic about the rebellion.
Lost in thought, she failed to notice that the cart carrying her haystack had begun moving.
Jiang Yunsui was carried away with it.
She considered jumping off but wanted to know where it was going.
The driver dumped the entire haystack from the cart. Jiang Yunsui rolled several dizzy circles inside it.
“Ouch!”
Her head struck the ground. She cried out, then instantly covered her mouth.
“Who was that?!”
The Barbarian searched the hay, found nothing, and left, assuming he had misheard.
Most Barbarians fed their own horses. Horses were vital military assets, and they would never trust slaves with them. The heavily guarded stable’s location was kept secret in case slaves rebelled and rode away.
Hidden in the hay, Jiang Yunsui used fresh charcoal to add the route to the map she had drawn on animal hide.
Had they come from that direction? Was the stable here?
She scratched her cheek uncertainly. Drawing a map was too hard for a Little Mushroom only a few years old. Sniffling miserably, she added a rather abstract mark.
Rustle, rustle…
What was that?!
With grass sticking from her hair like a scruffy kitten, she looked up and found herself eye to eye with a horse.
She peeked outside and fed it a mushroom. It ate, licked her, then tried to lick her hair.
Jiang Yunsui pushed its face away, but it returned.
“Your drool stinks. Stop licking me. I’m not a kitty.”
It was petting her with its lips the way people petted cats.
The horse was tall and powerful, and there were so many others. The stable was enormous, full of well-fed horses. No wonder grassland people were said to live on horseback.
But riding them to rob others was wicked!
Then she remembered her problem: how would she return?
Climbing from the hay, she discovered several horses around her and Barbarians preparing feed nearby. She ducked beneath the horses for cover, but she was too short to see the distant tents.
She compared her short legs to the horses’ towering ones.
The gap between human and horse was enormous. When would she have long legs?
She decided to climb onto a horse somewhere quieter.
Before she could move, something caught her collar and lifted her into the air!
Her neck tightened. Mushroom was going to die!
She grabbed her collar and tugged it away from her neck, finally making enough room to breathe. Then a puff of warm breath brushed her from behind.
A horse!
Little Mushroom kicked silently in panic.
The horse was murdering Mushroom!