On the sixth day of the journey, it was dark and gloomy early in the morning. Overnight, the wind had become much fiercer, carrying with it swirling grass and fine dust that blinded the eyes. Despite this, they had to ride against the wind and run around the cattle and sheep. By noon, the sky was so dim that it felt like dusk, and the procession stretched on endlessly. Without orders from the officials, no one dared to stop and rest.
Inside the Lele carts, Mi Niang sat with her children. They dared not open the doors or windows, and the dim light inside the Lele carts made the children fearful, causing them to cling even closer to her. This left her unable to tend to them properly and she could only speak softly to Qiqige and Jiya.
Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder startled the two children, who hurriedly clung to her, calling out for their mother.
“I’m here, don’t be afraid. It’s going to rain. Haven’t you seen rainy days before? Think about it, after the rain, there will be lots and lots of mushrooms growing in the grass. When the rain stops, I’ll take you to pick mushrooms, and your father can slaughter a chicken. We can stew the mushrooms with chicken legs. How does that sound?” With several more thunderclaps, rain began to fall from the dark clouds. Mi Niang felt the Lele carts stop, and amidst the sound of rain and wind, she heard voices, whistles, the cries of cattle and sheep, and the scattered sounds of hooves…
She tried to open the Lele carts window, but was pushed back by the chilly rainwater when she cracked it open. She could vaguely see the dogs running tirelessly in the wind and rain among the flock.
The sudden thunder scattered the sheep, causing them to run in all directions as if they had lost their souls. In that moment of chaos, Bahu rode his horse into the flock, calming down the lead sheep and gradually bringing the scattered flock back together under the chase of the dogs. Unexpectedly, ahead, the cattle and sheep of the Baoyin family had also gone into chaos, trampling each other and wailing in distress. Some of them even charged into Bahu’s horse and cattle, causing the sheep that had just been stabilized to scatter once again.
The torrential rain lasted for about half an hour, or maybe not even that long. Mi Niang sat in the dimly lit Lele carts, listening to the continuous cries of cattle and sheep outside, feeling that time was unbearable.
When the rain stopped and the dark clouds dispersed, the sky became brighter than it was in the morning. The wind hadn’t ceased, carrying moisture in the air. Mi Niang didn’t let the children out of the Lele carts, but she opened the window to let them stand up and see outside.
“I’m going to help your father. You two stay in the Lele carts and play,” Mi Niang said as she got out of the Lele carts, blocking the door from the outside.
Bahu stood drenched in the sheep flock, pulling the lead sheep. The lead sheep’s call could bring back the scattered flock. Xi Jil and his two servants were busy with the cattle, horses, and camels. About a dozen dogs, dripping with water, ran into the distance, driving the sheep that were dumbfounded on the hill back.
The rain-soaked ground was sticky under the hooves of the cattle and sheep. With mud on her feet, Mi Niang dragged the sheep lying on the grass to an open space. Most of them were trampled by cattle and horses, and some had broken legs from colliding with each other. The sheep continued to wail, and Mi Niang noticed two ewes bleeding profusely from their rear ends, indicating they had miscarried. There was nothing she could do, and Bahu couldn’t do anything either. He could only take a knife and slaughter the sheep that couldn’t get up after the flock had calmed down. Injured and sick sheep couldn’t survive the migration journey; they would die sooner or later, so it was better to end their suffering quickly.
A yamen runner rode up from the front, announcing as he rode, “We’re not going to continue today. Each household should count their own livestock. We’ll rest here tonight, and if it doesn’t rain, we’ll set off tomorrow morning.”
After the yamen runner left, Baoyin’s mother came with Baoyin to apologize. If it weren’t for the turmoil in their family’s cattle and sheep, they wouldn’t have disturbed Bahu’s livestock.
In such situations, there was nothing much to say; it couldn’t be avoided. After all, nobody did it on purpose, and nobody wanted such things to happen. Bahu looked at the eight sheep lying on the ground and sighed, “Forget it. They’ll all be slaughtered sooner or later. Let Baoyin stay in my house to help take care of Qiqige and Jiya. Mi Niang will deal with this sheep meat.”
“We’ll compensate you for your injured sheep,” Baoyin’s mother offered.
Bahu waved his hand, “Your family also has a lot of injured sheep this time, plus another eight from us. How do you plan to deal with it? We can’t eat them all, and selling them isn’t feasible either. Every household probably has injured sheep, and no one will buy them. They’ll just go bad and be wasted. At least my family still has about a dozen dogs. I’ll take this opportunity to reward them.”
For both families, eight sheep were neither here nor there. Baoyin’s family could afford the compensation, and Bahu’s family wasn’t lacking either. Accepting this compensation would also facilitate better relations between the two families in the future.
“If Baoyin’s father has some free time, let him come to my livestock and see if any of your cattle and sheep have mixed in. If he misses any, then I’ll benefit,” Bahu joked.
“That’s probably going to have to wait until tomorrow. Both he and my father-in-law went out on horseback, and there are a lot of sheep scattered from our family,” sighed Baoyin’s mother. She was about to leave after leaving Baoyin behind. Their family had over twenty sheep injured, and a cow had broken its leg.
Mi Niang wanted to put Baoyin in the carriage to accompany Qiqige and Jiya, but as soon as she opened the door, the two little ones were eager to get out. If they weren’t allowed to, they would cry and cling to her, refusing to let her go.
“There’s wind outside, you’ll catch a cold,” Mi Niang wanted to reason with them, but these two little rascals seemed to have cotton stuffed in their ears. When it came to catching a cold, she immediately turned around and shouted, “Bahu, don’t rush, first change your wet clothes, don’t catch a cold again.”
“I’ll chop up the sheep first and then change, so I don’t end up splattered with blood again when I change,” he replied, the sound of his chopping echoing loudly.
Ignoring the two children’s protests, Mi Niang pulled him away and shoved him back into the carriage. They had been pretending to cry before, but now their tears were genuine.
“Baoyin, you should also get inside, it’s getting dark and cold outside,” she said, taking off Baoyin’s shoes and carrying her into the carriage, closing the door mercilessly against the sound of wailing.
“What if I set up a felt blanket for the children to play in?” Bahu, hearing the children cry, felt both heartache and a headache. “The carriage is too small, and it’s uncomfortable for the children to be cooped up in it all day.”
“Are they going to sleep in the carriage or the felt blanket tonight?”
“You take the children to sleep in the carriage.” The ground under the carriage was dry, and setting up the felt blanket involved laying down a layer of cowhide and then padding it with two layers of felt, making it warm to sleep in at night.
“That’s fine then. It took so much effort to set up the felt blanket just to make them happy? Don’t spoil them too much, let them cry if they want to cry, so they don’t use crying to threaten people all the time.” As long as the children weren’t crying from hunger or pain, Mi Niang could bear to hear them cry. If they cried once and found it didn’t work, they’d think twice before crying again.
She moved the stove down and fetched water from the river, then scooped half a basket of cow dung from the last Lele carts. The rain came too suddenly, and Bahu and Xi Jil were not able to put on raincoats in time, so their hair and clothes were soaked. While their clothes could be changed for dry ones, their hair needed to be washed again with hot water.
While boiling water, Mi Niang put all the sheep intestines that Bahu had taken out into a basket and carried it to the riverbank, where she stood on a rock and washed the sheep dung away. The dung floated downstream with the river, and she brought it back to pour into a basin, sprinkling some wood ash and coarse salt to scrub it.
“Bahu, the water’s boiling. Go change your clothes, and when you’re done, wash your hair with hot water,” Mi Niang urged again.
“I still need to go count the sheep in a bit,” he replied.
“It’s not urgent. You can do it a bit later. Don’t dawdle. After you wash up, call Xi Jil and the others to come wash up too,” Mi Niang said, taking out two chunks of ginger, slicing them, and selecting some herbs to prevent colds. She added water and poured it into a copper pot, then brought the boiling water down and lifted the copper pot up.
When Bahu finished chopping the sheep and changed his clothes, the medicinal soup was also boiling. “Have a bowl of ginger soup first, drink it while it’s hot. You need to sweat it out.”
“Did you drink it?” he asked, taking it, but his face turned away at the smell alone.
“I didn’t get caught in the rain, so I don’t need to drink it,” Mi Niang replied, still vigorously boiling the medicinal soup, but she wasn’t willing to drink it herself.
Bahu pinched his nose and forced himself to drink half a bowl, then put the bowl down and dry heaved, feeling the spicy throat and the nauseating bitterness. “Next time, just boil ginger soup, don’t add those weird things.”
“The doctor said those herbs are for treating wind-cold, as long as they’re effective,” Mi Niang said, picking up the remaining half-bowl and offering it to him. “You look much better now. Finish the rest.”
She treated it like some sort of elixir? Bahu turned his head and retched again, reluctantly finishing the remaining half-bowl. “No more, no more,” he said, “I’m going to wash my hair.” The spiciness got to him, indeed making him break out in a sweat.
As he washed his hair, Mi Niang poured another bucket of water into the pot and continued heating it, waiting for Xi Jil and the others to return. Once the intestines were cleaned, she sat down with two wooden basins, washing the lamb meat and cutting it into small pieces the size of fingertips, then seasoning it with salt and wine for marination.
“I’m off,” Bahu whistled, summoning his big black horse as he finished drying his hair.
“Is your hair dry now? Did you take the raincoat?” Mi Niang called out.
“It’s dry, and I’ve taken it,” his voice trailed off as he rode away.
The lamb ribs, legs, and head had all been removed by Bahu and placed in a bucket. Mi Niang seasoned the lamb head with salt and peppercorns, rubbing it inside and out to marinate. Estimating the time, she went to stuff the lamb intestines. When Xi Jil and the others returned, having washed their hair and drunk the medicinal soup, Mi Niang had them chop the four lamb legs and split open the lamb head, then put them together in the pot to stew. No salt was added, only ginger, as this was intended as food for the dogs.
As the lamb legs were half-cooked and the sky darkened, the dozen dogs that had been out searching for the sheep also returned, their wet fur now half-dry. The lamb meat and soup were poured into the feeding trough, and the twelve dogs lined up neatly, with two ferrets squeezed in on the side, creating a chorus of swallowing, licking, chewing, and bone-crunching sounds.
“Take your time eating, or you’ll end up eating raw meat if you’re not full,” Mi Niang suspected that some of the dogs were swallowing the meat without chewing.
Bahu and Xi Jil hadn’t returned yet, so Mi Niang washed the pot and continued stewing the lamb ribs. With eight lamb ribs from eight sheep, they were going to feast tonight. There were also the lamb heads from the previous pot. She scooped out the cooked lamb brains and put them back in the pot to continue cooking. As she hadn’t finished stuffing one of the meat casings, the lamb soup in the pot was boiling. Mi Niang took a bowl and ladled out some lamb brains.
The three children had fallen asleep in the Lele carts at some point, and none of them woke up when Mi Niang opened the door. After thinking for a moment, she closed the door again and continued to chop meat, marinate it, and stuff the casings.
As it was dark and there were no stars or moon tonight, Bahu and Xi Jil returned riding their horses. “Looking at the sky, it might rain again tonight.”
“How come? We didn’t see such heavy rain in autumn in previous years, let alone thunderstorms.” In the past years, they had military escorts all the way to the winter pasture and never encountered rain.
Nobody could explain it. Bahu only said they would offer two more sheep for the Aobao ceremony this year.
At the mention of the ceremony, Mi Niang remembered what happened last year. She couldn’t speak well and wondered if someone stealing sacrificial meat last year had angered the heavens.
Considering there were quite a few people involved in such matters, Zhong Qi received many cold looks when he stood at the bottom of the discussion team. He felt resentful. After leaving the Hu family’s house, he went to inspect the area, warning the newcomers from Mobei not to cause trouble. Anyone who dared to stir up trouble or engage in theft during this time would be thrown into jail when he got the word.
“Aqi, you can’t be hasty at this time. Everyone remembers what happened last year. This incident last night was the most devastating loss for the local people in the Mobei. They hate it more than you do. Your actions are under their noses now. You should think about how to make them look at you with new eyes.” Mu Xiang, with her pregnant belly held high, said, “I can take care of myself. You don’t need to stay with me at night; go watch over those people. I heard there are still sheep missing from some families. If you can convince us Central Plains people to help the people from Mobei find their sheep, everyone in Lingshan will know your name and accept you, no longer looking down on you.”
Zhong Qi understood and said excitedly, “I’ll go now. Thanks to your advice, I was getting dizzy from anger.”
Mu Xiang smiled. “I can only say a few words vaguely. The most difficult part is persuading people to go out and help find the sheep. It depends on you.”
…
All the meat casings had been stuffed by midnight. Mi Niang stood up to stretch her sore arms and fingers, adding two shovelfuls of cow dung to the stove. When the flames rose, she could see the sheep drinking by the river.
Since Bahu and the others were not around, Mi Niang packed the lamb sausages into the Lele carts. There were still six sheep heads, two buckets of offal, three baskets of lamb legs, two baskets of miscellaneous ribs and other bones.
Mi Niang thought that Qiqige and Jiya must have liked eating lamb brains tonight. In the morning, she would stew two more sheep heads, cook lamb liver for the children, and use the lamb stomach to make stuffed meat. The rest of the offal would be cooked and fed to the dogs tomorrow.
Just as she finished washing up and got into the Lele carts, the sound of rain hitting the roof was heard. Mi Niang sighed and hugged the children who had rolled into her arms, thinking about whether wolves would come tonight. She then heard a commotion outside. Thinking it was the wolves, she waited for a while, but when the noise subsided, she fell asleep.
It wasn’t until the next morning that she learned from Bahu why there had been commotion last night. It turned out that Zhong Qi had brought the men from the Mobei to help guard the camp.
“Having them here last night really helped a lot. We found quite a few of the missing sheep.”
