Chapter 328

My father did it all for me!

"TEMUER?" Aguila shouted: "Let him in!"

A man scrambled and crawled in from outside the tent, hurling himself to kneel at Aguila's feet.

He was about thirty, his face streaked with tears: "Chief! It's not my father's fault! It's all my fault! All my fault!"

Batu roared: "Temuer! Who let you come? Get lost!"

"No!" Temuer cried, crawling over and grabbing his father's leg: "Father! I can't keep hiding it!"

He turned to Aguila: "Chief! That gold was given by a Central Plains Person!"

"It's all my fault! I owe him a gambling debt of three thousand taels of silver!"

"He said, if I don't pay back, he'll cut off both my hands!"

"Father only accepted that gold to save me!"

"Gambling debt?" Aguila frowned: "If you owe a gambling debt, why would that Central Plains Person give your father gold?"

Temuer's voice trembled: "I, I met a Central Plains Person merchant outside the horse racetrack; he said he could teach me a surefire way to win every gamble."

"I, I did win a little at first, but then I kept losing more and more; by the time I came to, I already owed him a full three thousand taels!"

"He said, as long as Father does one thing for them, not only will the gambling debt be wiped clean, but he'll also gain another thousand taels of gold."

"If Father refuses, they'll cut off my hands..."

Batu suddenly bellowed, kicked his son away: "Shut up! Shut up!"

Temuer fell to the ground, but struggled back up, clutching his father's leg tightly: "Father! I was wrong! I know I was wrong! But I can't let you bear this sin!"

He lifted his head, tear-streaked, looking at Aguila: "Chief! The idea to collapse the cellar came from that Central Plains Person! The acid used was also given by him!"

"Father had no choice but to go along with it!"

Xiao Ningxun pressed: "What did that Central Plains Person look like?"

Temuer thought, then shook his head: "Thirty or forty, quite ordinary-looking."

The tent fell silent.

Batu looked at his sobbing son at his feet, then lifted his gaze to the dazzling chest of gold, and suddenly laughed.

His laughter was shrill, near madness, growing louder: "Hahaha... Good! Good! Say it all! Say it all!"

He abruptly stopped laughing, glaring fixedly at Tuan Tuan's group, eyes bloodshot: "Yes! It was me! I poured the acid! I collapsed the cellar! So what?"

"My son owes a gambling debt, and that Central Plains Person holds his life in his palm!"

"They said, as long as I collapse the cellar during the sacrifice and frame a few Central Plains Person passersby with children, they'll spare my son and give me gold!"

"What could I do? Watch helplessly as my son's hands are cut off, turning him into a cripple?"

He raised his hand, pointing at Xiao Ningxun: "You Central Plains People fight among yourselves—what does it have to do with my steppe?"

"I merely went with the flow!"

"Not bad, I collapsed the cellar, but I didn't hurt a single person!"

"Eternal Heaven won't blame me!"

Aguila rose, walked up to him, raised his hand, and slapped him hard across the face.

"Slap!"

Batu was struck, his head turned aside, his cheek quickly swelling and reddening.

He stood there dazedly, staring blankly at Aguila.

Aguila shook his head, his face grim: "Batu, you were wrong."

"You betrayed the trust of your people!"

"You forgot the steppe's most basic rule: guests who come to the steppe, no matter where they're from, if they come with goodwill, the steppe should treat them with courtesy!"

"Don't you remember? This is the rule set by Eternal Heaven, a lesson bought with the blood of the steppe's ancestors."

"Today you can harm Central Plains People for gold; tomorrow you could harm steppe people for something else!"

"Today you can betray guests; tomorrow you could just as easily betray your own tribe!"

Aguila returned to his seat, sat down, and looked at Batu: "Grand Shaman Batu, you have destroyed the tribe's lifeline and framed the innocent."

"By steppe law, you should be hanged, and your soul abandoned by Eternal Heaven."

Batu trembled all over, slowly closing his eyes.

Temuer let out a miserable cry and went limp on the ground.

"However," Aguila shifted tone: "Considering you didn't take a life, and also considering you've served the divine for over thirty years, effective immediately, you are relieved of your shamanic post."

"All your private property will be confiscated and used to rebuild the cellar."

"You and Temuer will set out tomorrow for the salt mines to serve ten years of hard labor."

Batu slowly knelt: "Thank you, Chief."

Aguila waved a hand, wearily rubbing his brow: "You may go."

Several attendants dragged up Batu and the limp Temuer, and walked out of the great tent.

Aguila raised his cup to the few: "Gentlemen, the Ertun Tribe owes you an apology."

Xiao Ningxun quickly said: "Chief, you're too kind. Now that the truth is out, this is the best outcome."

Aguila took from his bosom a small, milky-white bone tile.

That bone tile was no thicker than a finger, engraved with two intersecting cart tracks.

He rose to his feet, walked up to Tuan Tuan, and said: "Envoy of the Fire God, please extend your hand."

Tuan Tuan's cheeks were puffed from eating; hearing this, he blinked: "Envoy of the Fire God?"

"Oh! It's me you mean!"

She hastily opened her little hand.

A Gula placed the bone tile into her palm: "This is the E'erdun Tribe's cart-track token."

Hold it, and wherever on the grasslands a cart can still travel, someone will spread felt for you and boil milk tea.

He paused: "From today on, the E'erdun Tribe and you all are sworn brothers and sisters in life and death. Though the grasslands are vast, this heart will not change!"

Xiao Ningxun returned the salute solemnly: "Thank you, Chieftain; this kindness and righteousness I will never forget."

Tuan Tuan turned the bone tile over and over, then gave A Gula a sweet smile: "Grandpa, I got it right, didn't I? You're just so nice!"

A Gula couldn't help laughing loudly: "Bring out the good wine and meat! Let's entertain the honored guests of the E'erdun Tribe!"

After they finished eating, they stayed only one day in the E'erdun Tribe before setting out again.

Two days later.

Qing Qing lifted the carriage curtain to look outside: "Up ahead is the Wudai Tribe."

"The Wudai Tribe?" Ha Richagai turned his head on horseback, "That's the tribe of only women?"

"Huh?" Xiao Ran exclaimed, "There's still such a tribe?"

"I heard my father say that." Ha Richagai scratched the back of his head, "They say there's a Wudai Tribe on the grasslands where only women live and men cannot enter."

"When I was little, I even thought it was just a story to pacify children."

Qing Qing smiled: "The grasslands are vast; anything could be true."

Just as they were speaking, a splendid spread of color suddenly unfurled across the horizon ahead.

Pink, purple, indigo, orange‑red… it was actually a vast expanse of seven‑colored flowers!

Xiao Ningxun sat up straight: "In the world, there actually exists such flowers?"

The carriage drew a little closer.

Everything became more vivid; it truly was a sea of seven‑colored flowers!

The flower stems were half a person tall, their tops blooming with bowl‑sized double‑layered blossoms, each a different color, shading gradually from deep to light.

Dew clung to the petals, sparkling in the sunlight.

A gust of wind blew over, making them undulate like waves; the colors flowed, as if they were a living rainbow.

Tuan Tuan's eyes widened round, and she exclaimed, "Wow——!"

"How beautiful!" she had never seen so many colored flowers.

"Stop, stop!" Tuan Tuan shouted, clinging to the carriage window, "I want to get down! Look at the flowers!"

Xiao Ningxun chuckled: "Take it easy, don't rush."

Just as the carriage came to a stop, Tuan Tuan leapt down with a thud‑thud‑thud and dove right in.

"Miss, take it easy!" Xiao Er hurried after her.

The flower stems were soft, parting to either side as she ran past and closing together behind her.

The happier Tuan Tuan got from running, the more she couldn't help giggling, reaching out to touch the nearest big golden flower.

"Don't touch it! That flower is poisonous!"