Xiao Baoshan didn’t know who he was, but there were some people he often dreamed about. Although their faces were vague, they gave him a strong feeling of familiarity. Some fought with him on the battlefield. But they died, and only he survived. Some enjoyed a meal with him in a low house, where the light was so dim that he couldn’t see the dishes clearly. Among them were some who called him “brother” or “son”. That woman appeared most frequently. He rode with her on the horseback, whispered with her on the roof and usually gazed at her back in a daze. But he couldn’t see her face.
Noticing him in a trance, Jin Xiaoyu waved her hand in front of him. “Dumb, what are you thinking about?”
Xiao Baoshan came to his senses and said, “A woman often appears in my dreams.”
She blinked. “A woman? Is it me?”
“No. If it were you, why couldn’t I see your face in my dreams?” He felt that this woman really existed and he had known her before losing his memory.
Jin Xiaoyu asked, “What do you often do with her in your dreams?”
He didn’t answer.
“It must be something intimate, right?” she asked as she blinked naughtily.
He was still silent.
“Silence means admission,” she said with a chuckle.
She went on, “That woman doesn’t necessarily exist. You dream about her just because you’re too lonely and need someone’s to be with. It’s said that, when single men lie on beds at night, they usually use their hands to…”
Xiao Baoshan stared seriously at her, so she could only stop. “Miss Jin, please enjoy your meal. Call me after you finish it. I’ll help you take the bowl and plates downstairs.” After saying that, he was ready to leave.
Jin Xiaoyu shouted after him, “Dumb, I’m sure that woman only exists in your dreams or fantasies. Perhaps that’s me. I’m the woman you want!”
He paused, but soon strode out of her room.
At dusk, five men walked into the inn. With serious faces, they observed the inn carefully. Finding nothing unusual, they finally sat down around a table. When Idiot filled their cups with tea, they even took out a silver needle to test for poison before drinking.
“Do you want a place to stay?” Idiot asked.
One of them replied, “No, we’ll leave after eating.”
“Okay. What would you like to eat?”
“…”
At that moment, Xiao Baoshan was busy serving other customers. One of the five men noticed him with a look of surprise. He winked at his companions and pointed at Xiao Baoshan secretly. Then, the others were also stupefied.
A man pulled at Idiot’s sleeve and pointed at Xiao Baoshan. “Who is he? What’s his name?”
Idiot looked at Xiao Baoshan, the man he didn’t consider as a friend. “He has no name. He’s just an employee here.”
“An employee? How long has he been here?” the man asked.
“It’s been very long, but I don’t remember when exactly he arrived. It’s so strange. You’re not women. Why are you inquiring about him?” Idiot asked.
Xiao Baoshan had a handsome face and an outstanding physique, so women always asked about him secretly. But Idiot had never expected men to be also interested in that boring man.
As usual, Idiot asked Xiao Baoshan over. “Dumb, come over here and serve these customers.”
Without asking, Xiao baoshan did as Idiot told him. He walked over with a teapot but found their cups were full. “What would you like to eat?”
It was as if he didn’t know them at all. They were exceptionally puzzled.
He asked, “Is there anything else that I can help you with?”
“No, we just want to order some dishes,” one of them said. Then, they ordered all the signature dishes of the inn.
After taking notes, Xiao Baoshan went to the kitchen to get the dishes. After he left, the five people began discussing something.
“Is he Xiao Baoshan?”
“Does he just look like Xiao Baoshan?”
“But he doesn’t know us.”
“He’s not familiar with us, so it’s reasonable to assume that he doesn’t recognize us. I’m more curious about why he’s here. Didn’t he serve under the Sixth King after being a general?”
Finally, one of them proposed, “We can test him when he comes here.”
When Xiao Baoshan served a dish, a man suddenly said, “Xiao Baoshan!”
But Xiao Baoshan gave no response. He merely said, “This is fried beef with celery. Please enjoy.”
The other dishes were also put onto the table one after another. When Xiao baoshan brought the last of the dishes to them, a man stuck out a leg to trip him.
Caught totally off-guard, Xiao Baoshan stumbled. When he was about to fall, Jin Xiaoyu suddenly appeared and grabbed his waist. Then, she scolded the five men. “We take you as our customers and serve you with great sincerity. We neither hurt you or cheated you! Why are you bullying my employee?”
The five men looked very embarrassed. The one who had tripped Xiao Baoshan apologized, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Jin Xiaoyu glared at them and said fiercely, “Then please be careful! I won’t allow anyone to bully my staff!” After saying that, she took Xiao Baoshan’s arm. “Are you all right? Don’t bother with that crowd!”
Xiao Baoshan was silent and calm.
After the meal, the five men were ready to continue their journey. But each of them looked somewhat drunk. They chatted as they walked to the stable. “So that man isn’t Xiao Baoshan. I thought he was.”
“They look so much alike. But this one is as clumsy as a log and doesn’t know martial arts.”
“Are you sure he doesn’t know martial arts?”
“Yes. If he knew, he wouldn’t have been caught so off-guard when I tripped him.”
When they pulled their horses out, they suddenly heard a sweet voice, “Who is Xiao Baoshan?”
They turned around and saw Jin Xiaoyu. A drunk man replied, “Xiao Baoshan? He’s a traitor, a treacherous man, a vain, disloyal asshole!”
Jin Xiaoyu cursed, “Piss off!”
The men mounted their horses and galloped away. She remained standing there on the spot. After a while, Xiao Baoshan walked out from the darkness. She looked over her shoulder and gazed at him with sympathy. “I put slight poison in their dishes, which is why they seemed drunk. You heard what they said. You might be Xiao Baoshan, but…”
A traitor? A treacherous man? A vain, disloyal asshole?
Such words filled Xiao Baoshan’s mind. Was he such a person? But how could that be? He valued lives so much. Since coming here, he had stopped her from killing people several times. Although she thought those she killed were all evil men, Xiao Baoshan insisted that all lives were equal and they didn’t have the right to end anyone’s life. He had recognized Jin Xiaoyu’s affection for him, but he was not sure of his own feelings, so he had been indifferent to her and unwilling to hurt her hers. Would such a person be vain?
Jin Xiaoyu took out a token and handed it to Xiao Baoshan. “I stole it from those people. It may be the identity of one of them. Do you want to follow them and investigate it?”
He looked down at the token that read: Imperial Spy 120. So, they were spies from the palace. If he really was this Xiao Baoshan, he should have lived in the capital for a time. But what he usually dreamed about was a little village.
He handed the token back to Jin Xiaoyu. Seeing a horse in the stable, he pulled it out immediately. She opened her mouth and wanted to say that this was a customer’s horse and he couldn’t ride it. But he looked so sad that she gave up stopping him.
Outside the stable, he mounted the horse. Strangely, he hadn’t ridden a horse here and didn’t have such a memory, but his movements were very skillful as if he had been born as a rider. He galloped off across the desert into the distance.
Worried about him, Jin Xiaoyu also mounted a horse and followed him. He rode fast to the foot of a mountain where he had once fainted, and he held the reins. Then, he looked up at the mountain, lost in deep thought.
Those people said he was a traitor, so had he come here to avoid being caught or killed? They said he was treacherous and disloyal, so was he the same to his family? If he really was such a person, his family wouldn’t bother to look for him. Indeed, during this period, no one had come here to look for him. Who would want a traitor to be alive in the family? For the first time that he could remember, he felt very anxious, sad and truly helpless.
Late that night, Xiao Baoshan went back to the inn and drank alcohol for the first time. Unavoidably, he got trashed. In a daze, he felt someone enter his room. It was a woman. He couldn’t tell whether this was a dream or reality.
“Who are you?” he asked.
The woman sat down in front of him and stroked his face. She said softly, “Me? I’m whoever you want me to be.”
He tried to open his eyes wide, but his vision was still blurred. The face in front of him was sometimes vague and sometimes clear. The world shifted constantly between the dream and the reality.
He thought of what Jin Xiaoyu had said: “Perhaps that’s me. I’m the woman you want!”
Just then, Jin Xiaoyu moved her lips. “I’m the woman in your dreams.” After saying this, she pushed him down on the bed and leaned over him.
When Xiao Baoshan woke up the next morning, he found Jin Xiaoyu sleeping next to him. Both of them were naked. Although he felt a terrible headache, he could remember what had happened the previous night. However, he didn’t feel happy at all. Instead, he had a sense of emptiness and despair and wanted to drink a jar of alcohol or perhaps two.
Just then, Jin Xiaoyu also woke up. Seeing his opened eyes, she climbed on his body and threw her arms around him, “Dumb, I don’t care who you are. You’ve done it with me, so you’re my man from now on. You must stay by my side and be my man!”
Only after a while did he look at her and say, “Perhaps I’m not a good man.”
“Bullshit. I don’t care what others say about you or what kind of person you used to be. Anyway, you’re the man I love.”
Xiao Baoshan felt somewhat touched, but he didn’t move. After a moment, he nodded. “I’ll be responsible for you.”
Jin Xiaoyu snorted, “Don’t say it in such a reluctant tone. I’m not threatening you with a knife. Dumb, do you like me?”
Xiao Baoshan didn’t reply. Did he like her? He didn’t know the answer.
But a minute later, Jin Xiaoyu pushed her face towards him again and hugged him. “Forget it. If you really want to be responsible for me, then marry me, will you? I’m 25, not young anymore. I also want to know the feeling of having a husband and my own children.”
Xiao Baoshan remained silent at first. Only after a long while did he say, “As you wish.”
He might have to stay here for the rest of his life…
In the Tianshan tribe.
Ye Xiaoxian and her companions had increased the number of the camels to over 40 and hired enough people. It was like they had founded a big workshop with clear division of work. As the guider of the camel team, Tarico had selected more than 20 men to follow him. Ye Xiaoxian didn’t follow the camel team anymore. She stayed in the tribe to make beef jerky and dried fruit and to manage the entire producing process. Squire Liu was responsible for purchasing.
The area around the Xiaos and the Lius became bustling with life. The refugees all moved there and helped Ye Xiaoxian do all kinds of work each day. They were happy and satisfied without any worries about being exploited. Besides, they didn’t need to eat naans all the time because they were provided with rich meals and sometimes fruit. Therefore, they worked harder and harder and some even rejected taking salaries. But Ye Xiaoxian told them that, apart from accommodation, they would also obtain some money, though it was just a small sum in the early stage. When their workshop became more mature, they could then get salaries on a regular basis.
Knowing such benefits, some poor locals also wanted to work here. They were poor not because of laziness but because of the lack of money to raise goats or cattle. The crops they grew were not particularly needed by the market and could only be used to satisfy their own survival needs. As such, they could earn little money.
Attracted by the salaries, they asked Ye Xiaoxian whether they could work for her. She certainly agreed. After all, there were no machines in the workshop and every step had to be done manually. For example, to make dried fruit they had to peel, cut, and then pickle the fruit. More manpower was needed when there was a bigger order. Therefore, some locals also moved their yurts there.
Gradually, the area appeared just like a new tribe. As the situation slowly grew out of control, Mahal, Dati and Guri became as anxious as ants on a hot pan.