Chapter 186
Chapter 186
“You’re awake?”
Jiang Yunsui slowly emerged from her daze and discovered several pretty heads gathered above her.
Their glittering silver ornaments were truly beautiful.
Her clear, innocent eyes remained clouded with confusion, yet one small hand reached for them before she could stop herself.
“Oh, she likes my headdress.”
“Ours are all almost the same. You’re just closer to her,” another girl immediately protested.
Jiang Yunsui’s gaze gradually cleared.
Who were all these people?!
Before her bewildered little mind could make sense of anything, someone pinched her plump cheek and gave it two squeezes.
“Wow, it really does feel wonderful! Auntie Huan didn’t lie to us.”
“She’s so pretty now that her face is clean. What a lovely little girl.”
“She’ll look even prettier in our clothes.”
The people surrounding Jiang Yunsui were all young women, none of them very old and every one of them beautiful.
“Little one, may we do your hair and change your clothes?”
Still thoroughly confused, Jiang Yunsui finally nodded.
After that, she became a doll for them to dress however they pleased.
They crowded around and braided her hair into many tiny plaits, decorating each one with a delicate silver bell.
Her Miao outfit was dark blue, with a large, beautiful silver chest ornament. They completed it with a pretty little silver cap and stacked her arms with silver bracelets, each embossed with a different pattern.
It was no exaggeration to say that every movement made her entire body jingle and sparkle.
It was a little noisy.
“Ah, I knew I had a good eye. She looks so much better in our clothes.”
Jiang Yunsui climbed down from the bed in sandals from the Miao stockade, jingling with every step.
She tipped up her clean, pretty face to look at the young women around her. Her eyes were large and bright, her pupils glossy black, and her lashes long and curled. The baby fat on her cheeks looked irresistibly soft.
Little Mushroom was certain she looked wonderful now.
She gave them a sweet, tender smile.
“So cute!”
Her cheeks were pinched again.
But the girls brought her food, so Little Mushroom eagerly offered her face to them.
Go ahead and pinch. They could pinch all they liked, as long as it did not hurt.
“Little Yunsui, what is it like outside?” one girl asked. Several of them sat close around Jiang Yunsui, their voices crisp and curious. “The clan leader told us that outsiders are fierce and dangerous. We’ve never left the stockade.”
Looking at them, Jiang Yunsui felt that they might be even more naive than she was.
“Mm-hm. There are terrible villains outside, but there are good people too.”
She spoke softly while gnawing on a pear.
“We came from Mobei. Very, very wicked Barbarians live on the grasslands beyond Mobei. They don’t farm. They always come steal our grain.”
“They eat people too…”
“There’s a war outside now. Lots of people have fled. We saw so many refugees on our journey…”
Jiang Yunsui spoke at her unhurried pace, telling them about things she had witnessed on the road. She even recounted how an eldest uncle’s family had stolen and sold their own niece to cannibals in exchange for five catties of coarse grain.
The young women had spent their entire lives in this remote mountain stockade and knew nothing of the wider world. They gasped again and again.
“Then the clan leader really wasn’t lying to us.”
“I wanted to sneak out of the mountains and look around, but now I don’t want to go at all.”
“Why are those people so wicked?”
“Because they’re villains!” Jiang Yunsui declared.
She finished the last bite of pear, leaving only a tiny core. Then she took a handkerchief from her little pouch and carefully wiped her hands clean.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo…”
“Woof, woof!”
Qianqian, Houhou, Zuozuo, and Youyou had arrived. Since Qianqian and Houhou could fly, they flapped ahead and reached her first.
“Qianqian! Houhou!”
The two roosters and two dogs immediately crowded around her, circling excitedly. The girls cried out as they were pushed aside.
Jiang Yunsui put on a stern little face and scolded the animals.
“Don’t shove the big sisters. Behave.”
The furry creatures did not listen. Instead, they jostled tiny Jiang Yunsui off her feet.
She lay there in mortified silence.
How embarrassing. Their owner could not control her enthusiastic dogs and roosters at all.
“I’m angry!”
Once Jiang Yunsui decided to be angry, she meant it. She gave a fierce little roar, folded her arms, puffed out her cheeks, and turned her back on them.
The young women who had retreated to the side could not stop looking at her.
Sure enough, a tiny, soft little girl was wonderfully easy to tease.
It did not take long for the large dogs and roosters to coax Jiang Yunsui out of her temper.
“Little Yunsui, did you raise all of them? I’ve never seen dogs this large.”
“That’s right! And your roosters are incredible. Even Blind Granny’s Gu insects are afraid of them.”
Jiang Yunsui stared blankly.
Huh? Had Qianqian and Houhou caused trouble while she was asleep?
“Jiang Yunsui.”
At the familiar voice, Jiang Yunsui pushed aside the dog blocking her view and poked out her exquisitely adorned little head.
It was Ji Yan’an and the others, all dressed in Miao clothing.
The men’s clothing was less ornate and colorful than the women’s, but it carried a mysterious air. Ji Yan’an was particularly handsome, with his naturally cool, snowlike bearing. The clothes suited him perfectly, making him look both elegant and enigmatic.
“Ji Yan’an!”
Jiang Yunsui jingled as she ran over like a delighted little rabbit.
“Look at me! Look at me! Don’t I look beautiful?”
The soft little girl spun several circles before Ji Yan’an, her skirt swaying around her.
She was beautiful and adorable, a precious little creature in anyone’s eyes.
But she spun too hard. When Jiang Yunsui stopped, her head swam and her feet staggered sideways. She nearly fell before Ji Yan’an caught her.
Unable to resist, he pinched her soft, clean cheek.
“So silly.”
She was the first person he had ever seen grow dizzy while showing off.
Jiang Yunsui steadied the cap on her head and gave him a foolish grin.
“You changed into their clothes too?”
“Mm. The clothes we brought need washing.”
He took Jiang Yunsui’s hand.
“You leave for Ailao Mountain the day after tomorrow.”
Jiang Yunsui nodded. “I know. Ji Yan’an, are you staying here for treatment? You have to listen to the doctor, eat lots, and sleep properly. If you can’t sleep, take a Sleepy Mushroom.”
Such a tiny child, yet she was worrying over a grown person’s affairs.
Strictly speaking, Ji Yan’an was not an adult either.
“I know.”
“Where are we going now?”
Ji Yan’an walked slowly, so Jiang Yunsui’s short legs could keep up if she took a few extra steps.
“To find Shen Qingzhu and his master.”
Shen Qingzhu’s master was a woman. By blood, she was actually Ji Yan’an’s maternal aunt.