Chapter 231
Chapter 231
Shen Qingzhu took Jiang Yunsui outside for a look. Forested mountains surrounded the estate; snow-sight grass was certain to grow there.
“Come. Let’s go back and tell the Young Master.”
Holding his hand, Jiang Yunsui skipped along on their return.
Finding Ji Yan’an was easy. The guards would stop neither Shen Qingzhu nor Jiang Yunsui.
Before this, Jiang Yunsui had simply not wanted to disturb him.
It was only a secret passage, and there was nothing valuable inside. She had not been in any hurry when she could not find him.
“A secret passage outside the city?”
“You found it?”
Jiang Yunsui puffed out her little chest. “Of course! I found it while playing hide-and-seek. After I hid there, Zuozuo searched for ages and couldn’t find me.”
She could not cheat when playing hide-and-seek with the animals, so she did not reduce her presence. She had to find genuinely hidden places instead.
The little girl was extremely competitive. If the weather had not been so cold, she would even have hidden in the water.
Dogs had keen noses, after all. They could find her easily in most places.
Ji Yan’an patted her head. “Well done. Is there anything you want?”
Hm? Was he offering her a reward?
Jiang Yunsui thought for a long while, then realized she lacked nothing.
“No.”
She had so much gold, silver, and jewelry that getting more no longer seemed interesting.
She ate the same food as Ji Yan’an, and sometimes ate even better than the Young Master himself.
As for clothes, Ji Yan’an had bought her so many pretty little dresses that she could not wear them all.
She was now a Little Mushroom who wanted for neither food nor clothing.
“Then remember the offer,” Ji Yan’an said. “Come to me when you think of something.”
“All right.”
“Ji Yan’an, can I leave the city with them? I want to play outside too.”
He considered it and nodded. “Go. Be careful.”
Jiang Yunsui happily left with Shen Qingzhu. With a little basket on her back, she followed the party outside.
The two dogs accompanied them, and Shen Qingzhu brought several skilled fighters. They traveled quietly to gather snow-sight grass.
The herb did grow in the woods, but it was scarce.
Jiang Yunsui had mainly come to play. At first, she earnestly searched for herbs, but before long, she was running everywhere with the two dogs.
She stamped footprints into the snow and built a snowman.
It rarely snowed in this region, even in winter. There was not enough to build a large one.
In the end, she found little snow-sight grass. She rode on Youyou’s back and tucked her half-frozen hands into the thick fur around his neck.
Warm at last.
They needed a great quantity of the herb. A single day’s harvest was nowhere near enough.
Jiang Yunsui could travel between the city and countryside whenever she wished, so she did not need to remain with Shen Qingzhu.
These past two days, she had acquired a new toy: a little cart.
It had no canopy and resembled an oversized stool with two wheels underneath.
Harness Zuozuo or Youyou to it, and she could sit on top and be pulled along effortlessly.
She had thought of a sled too.
There simply was not enough snow here.
In Mobei, a sled would have been useful.
Jiang Yunsui rode around the city in her cart for two days while Zuozuo and Youyou pulled her, successfully collecting envious looks from every child she passed.
Then she wanted to leave the city again.
She called Ji Si and had him take her precious little cart through the secret passage.
“Si Si, put the cart down and harness Youyou.”
The moment they left the little estate, Jiang Yunsui could not wait to arrange everything.
Youyou obediently waited.
Once he was harnessed, she climbed into her beloved cart.
“Let’s go, Youyou. We’ll find Liu Liu and help carry herbs.”
Shen Qingzhu was busy preparing medicine and processing snow-sight grass, so Ji Lu had taken over the gathering work.
Youyou held his head high and easily pulled the cart toward the woods.
It would be some time before the herbs were ready to carry back.
Jiang Yunsui played in the mountains with the two dogs and two enormous roosters.
But the roosters abandoned them to look for wives.
Not permanent wives, either. Any wild hen they fancied became a wife.
Among birds, the males were generally beautiful while the females were drab.
Some females chose mates by the beauty of their feathers, while others cared about fighting prowess.
As Nuqing Roosters, Jiang Yunsui’s two birds possessed the finest plumage imaginable. Their fighting ability needed no explanation.
They could even battle an eagle.
The wild roosters in these mountains were no match for Qianqian and Houhou.
After only two days roaming here, the two roosters had added nearly every hen nearby to their harems. The hens willingly followed them everywhere.
Today, Jiang Yunsui even witnessed a fine show.
An eagle spotted Qianqian and Houhou’s wives and selected one as prey.
It dove toward a small hen, claws outstretched.
Qianqian and Houhou were fiercely protective. Flapping their wings, they flew over to fight it.
Feathers instantly filled the air.
Jiang Yunsui watched excitedly. “Go, Qianqian! Go, Houhou! Peck it!”
The eagle truly could not defeat them. Qianqian and Houhou were larger, and they were Nuqing Roosters besides.
By the end, the eagle had nearly been plucked bare. It flew to a tree and shivered in the wind.
From the cold.
The weather was already freezing, and now its feathers were gone.
Qianqian and Houhou stared up at it proudly.
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!”
With several cries, they took flight.
That was right: Qianqian and Houhou could fly.
Their size prevented them from flying as high or far as an eagle, but they could indeed fly.
The eagle saw them coming and hurriedly flapped away.
Those two were not to be provoked.
Once the eagle fled, a flock of hens immediately surrounded Qianqian and Houhou.
Jiang Yunsui shook her head sagely.
“Zuozuo, Youyou, when are you going to find a wife and husband?”
The dogs glanced at her. She was awfully meddlesome for someone so young.
Fine. Jiang Yunsui had only asked in passing.
“There seems to be a cave over there. Let’s explore.”
Without realizing it, they had traveled rather far.
Qianqian and Houhou were still proudly showing off, so Jiang Yunsui decided to take Zuozuo and Youyou on an adventure.
She had already explored rabbit holes and snake holes.
The snake she dug out had still been hibernating, curled into a stiff ball. She had stuffed it back inside.
Little Mushroom was rather wicked sometimes.
Now she had discovered another hole. Excited, she ran over with a small stick.
“What kind of hole is this?”
She lay on the ground with her bottom in the air and poked around curiously.
After a long while, several enormous, well-fed rats rushed out.
Jiang Yunsui’s eyes went round.
Zuozuo and Youyou reacted swiftly. By the time she recovered, they had killed two exceptionally fat rats.
“How did rats get this big and fat?”
She had never seen anything like them.
They were not bamboo rats, either.
Jiang Yunsui prodded the bodies. Once she confirmed they looked like ordinary rats, she grew curious. What had they eaten to become so fat?