Woman Mountain

Li Huowang walked slowly, leaning on his cane and pulling the blindfolded Bai Lingmiao along. He didn't move quickly—his broken leg hadn't grown back yet.

Fortunately, the oxcart was slow too. Trading speed for carrying capacity, it matched Li Huowang's pace well enough.

"So this is Woman Mountain?" Li Huowang squinted, shielding his eyes with his hand as he looked at the distant hills.

After seeing those hills, he understood why this place was called Qingqiu. Not a single tree grew on them. They were entirely covered in green grass.

But maybe that was because the hills here were relatively short. There were no towering, cloud-scraping mountains. These grass-covered hills were just a series of connected ridges.

"Senior Brother Li, if you look at them sideways, don't those hills look like half a woman's face lying down?" Sun Baolu pointed excitedly.

Li Huowang stared for a long time, then finally shook his head. He couldn't see it. Those abstract hills didn't look much like a woman to him. These low hills were strange—neither too many nor too few, just abruptly clustered there, with gaps between them.

"This year is the Moon Year. According to our ancestral teachings, my family should be camped and grazing about a hundred li ahead. It won't be long before I can meet them!"

Li Huowang didn't care about Sun Baolu's excitement. He cared more about supplies. They'd been traveling through Qingqiu for so long with so many people. If they couldn't find food soon, they'd have to eat the ox pulling the cart.

"Inside Woman Mountain, there's really a market where we can buy grain? If we don't find food soon, we'll be left drinking the northwest wind."

"There is, for sure. Herders within a few hundred li all go there to trade. I came here once when I was seven."

From Sun Baolu's explanation, Li Huowang learned that in the sparsely populated Qingqiu, these nomadic people designated specific places for trade to keep goods circulating.

Over time, these places formed fixed gathering points. Even the Qingqiu officials collected taxes from these spots.

When Li Huowang's sharp eyes spotted tiny black dots moving at the foot of the mountain, like ants, he knew Sun Baolu was right—there really were people there.

"Let's go. Everyone put on your veiled hats so we don't attract attention."

Li Huowang put on his own hat as he spoke. His face was a mess of red and white patches, no better than anyone else's.

The oxcart drew closer to Woman Mountain. Following a small path into the area surrounded by low hills, the view suddenly opened up.

A vast camp of tents, alive with the noise of a crowd, appeared before Li Huowang and his group.

The sounds of hooves, human shouts, and donkey brays filled the air. Li Huowang almost felt like he was at a market fair.

In this bustling market, Qingqiu locals dressed very differently from the people of Later Shu were shouting and bustling about their business.

With so many livestock, there was plenty of manure. The animal stench hit everyone's noses, making them wrinkle their brows.

Maybe it was from prolonged sun exposure, but the biggest difference between the Qingqiu people and the people of Siqi or Later Shu was their faces—very red, with heavy spots on the cheeks, men and women, young and old alike.

The Qingqiu people were generally shorter than Li Huowang's group. In short, they looked different in every way.

They wore all kinds of rough leather garments. The women had braids decorated with rounded bone fragments, and the men wore them on their belts too.

Here, apart from bone and leather, everything that could be woven from grass was made from grass. Straw sandals, straw hats, even straw baskets were for sale.

Li Huowang's group clearly drew attention. The locals stared at these outlanders with wary, cold eyes, sizing up the convoy.

Thump! On a chopping block at a nearby stall, a cleaver was raised high and then brought down hard, splitting a hairless,狰狞 dog's head in two.

"Ugh." Mantou tucked his tail and flattened his ears, quickly scurrying under the oxcart in fear.

"Are you really from Qingqiu? You don't look like them." Li Huowang's gaze passed through the black gauze to look at Sun Baolu beside him.

"Because... my mother was from elsewhere." Sun Baolu's expression dimmed as he said this, but it lit up again quickly. He darted through the crowd and ran ahead.

He pushed and weaved through the people until, excited, he threw his arms around an old, weathered-looking Qingqiu man and started talking.

When Li Huowang got closer, he realized he couldn't understand a word they were saying.

"So we can communicate fine everywhere else, but this godforsaken place has its own language." Li Huowang was exasperated. This was going to cause no end of trouble for their journey through Qingqiu.

After exchanging pleasantries, Sun Baolu came back to Li Huowang, speaking with some excitement. "Senior Brother Li, no mistake, that man is from my tribe. My family is just ahead."

"Alright, but no matter how close, we still have to walk it step by step. First, help us buy some food. We're running low on the road." Li Huowang surveyed the bustling market.

Since their language didn't match the Qingqiu dialect, they'd have to rely on Sun Baolu, who could speak it, to handle the bargaining.

Sun Baolu nodded, agreed readily, and turned to dive back into the crowd.

But Li Huowang stopped him. "Wait a moment. Is there a place to eat here? Everyone's hungry. Let's rest first."

Soon, the whole group arrived at a noodle shop. The straw shelter was hung with long green noodles, like walking into a forest.

Sun Baolu explained the rules: one pot per group, cook your own noodles, take as much as you need. You paid the shop owner for the meat sauce by the portion.

It was a very unique Qingqiu style of eating. None of them had seen anything like it, but that didn't stop them from enjoying the meal. The noodles had a grassy fragrance, and paired with the spicy mutton sauce, it was quite appetizing.

The shop was noisy and full of customers. But luckily, the hanging noodles blocked the view, so no one nearby could see their faces when they took off their hats.

"Where's Mantou?" After eating his fill, Li Huowang suddenly realized the dog had vanished.

Just as he turned to look, he saw Mantou squeezing out from under the curtain of noodles, something in his mouth.

The dog dropped the item at Li Huowang's feet, then sat down, tongue out and tail wagging, begging for a reward.

"What's this?" Li Huowang stared at the pale white bone by his feet, startled.

No one else recognized it, but Sun Baolu, being a local, clearly did. He quickly explained, "Senior Brother Li, that's a horse bone. The Qingqiu people raise horses, so of course they eat horse meat. It's very tasty."