The World of Mei

Chapter 28 Walking Alone In the Mountains

The horse nuzzled her as if it understood what she had said and was happy to get a name.

"Hahaha... Though naughty, you are a clever horse! Red Shadow, you've got to listen to me, and I'll take good care of you. We have to lean on each other for the following days. Now, I'd like to sit down and have a rest. I'll set you free. Help yourself to some grass, but don't run about. Got it?" Mu Qianmei said.

The Horse flapped its ears as if to show that it understood her words. Mu Qianmei slowly put the rope onto its back. Watching the horse concentrating on grazing grass without the intention of escape, Mu Qianmei let out a sigh of relief and flung herself onto the ground, run-down.

"It turns out that the Nantang's tribes on the prairie are not at peace!"

Mu Qianmei thought, sitting on the ground.

After a short rest, it was getting light.

Breathing the fresh air in the morning, Mu Qianmei sat in meditation to practice inner magic. With the experience of these days, she had understood that in this world, personal strength was still very important.

No one could always take care of her and protect her, even her guards. The guards wouldn't make much difference when she met real masters, otherwise, she won't be abducted.

After the internal forces had been circulating through the body for several rounds, Mu Qianmei felt refreshed and full of energy.

She searched the lawn for a long time before she found a dead branch, which she pruned and made a rough stick out of. She held it in her hand, closed her eyes for a moment, and then lifted it and began to wield it in the morning light...

The Flying Dragon Thirty-Six Sticks was a stick skill of masculinity, but Mu Qianmei's steps were light and her body was agile that when she was flitting. It was more like dancing than practicing a stick skill. She danced like a fairy with her clothes fluttering. There was no dance like it in the world. She wielded the stick in her hand, leaving only trails of shadows.

No one on the open grassland saw her dance. Red Shadow occasionally raised its head and glanced, and then continued to chew delicious grass.

She didn't change the moves of the stick skill, but what she had presented was quite different from what Feng Tianyu had presented.

After she had finished practicing, Mu Qianmei stood still and lost in thought.

How to practice this stick skill to make it more suitable for me?

The Flying Dragon Thirty-Six Sticks was a martial art skill of masculinity, a temperament she didn't have.

She pondered for a long time without a clue. As it had been eleven o 'clock, she decided to leave here.

"Red Shadow! Come here! We're ready to go!" Mu Qianmei tried to summon Red Shadow.

Red Shadow heard her voice and looked up, but it didn't understand what she meant, so it kept its head down to graze the grass.

"Come here!" Mu Qianmei yelled again.

This time Red Shadow seemed to understand. It lifted its head and trotted towards her.

Mu Qianmei couldn't help beaming. It seemed that Red Shadow would become her friend soon.

After a night of galloping, Mu Qianmei was no longer afraid of riding. She leaped onto the horse's back.

She took the reins and held the horse's mane at the same time. With a slight pinch of its belly, Red Shadow began to trot leisurely forward.

The mountain before her seemed very near, but the horse trotted for more than an hour before it reached the foot of the mountain.

She saw a clear river flowing slowly at the foot of the mountain. It was noon at this time. Mu Qianmei ate nothing and rode all night, so when she saw the river, she could hear her stomach grumbling.

Mu Qianmei dismounted and ran to the river. She scooped up some water with her hands and took a few sips. Water quenched her thirst, but she was still hungry.

There were no villages or any shops nearby, so where could she get something to eat?

Thinking of food, Mu Qianmei found serious trouble. Even there was a restaurant, she didn't have a single coin with her.

Looking at the swimming fish in the stream, Mu Qianmei wanted to eat them.

However, she didn't find even a lighter on her. How to cook the fish?

"I need to go up the mountain. Maybe I'll be lucky enough to find some wild fruit or something to assuage my hunger." Mu Qianmei thought.

So Mu Qianmei remounted her horse. She rode across the stream and climbed up to the mountain, heading west.

In her previous life, Mu Qianmei was born in a common mountain village called Linxi Village. She had experienced the hardships of rural life and had a warm feeling for mountains, so she knew life in the mountains very well.

It was spring at present. The mountains were carpeted with blooming flowers and grass. This scene of boundless spring cheered up her spirit.

The landscape reminded her of Zhu Xi's poem, A Spring Day, which she had learned in her previous life.

"I go hiking by the River Si in spring,"

"Leap to my eyes a boundless fresh scene."

"Easily can I recognize the east wind's visage,"

"As it blooms with flowers in brilliant colors."

The last two lines "Easily can I recognize the east wind's visage, as it blooms with flowers in brilliant colors" were figurative and philosophically deep, which was worth reviewing again and again.

Anyhow, what she wanted most was food. Her empty stomach had been grumbling all the way.

In this season, there was not much to eat on the mountain. She searched for a long time but failed to find anything to appease her hunger.

A little disappointed and anxious, Mu Qianmei looked at the flowers blooming in front of her. The flowers were beautiful, but there was no fruit.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up as she recognized a kind of common flower that grew all over the slopes - azalea.

"Why must in gardens can you enjoy spring?"

"Azaleas all over the hills won't disappoint you."

"Every day they cast their beautiful shadows,"

"In clear river reddened by the reflection of flowers."

She thought of a poem by Yang Wanli, an ancient poet in her previous life.

She remembered that when herding cattle in the mountains in her previous life, she and her friends liked to eat the red and pink petals of azaleas, but they had never eaten petals of other colors.

The sweetness and fragrance of petals left her a deep impression. Mu Qianmei could not help but hesitate at the same time of getting excited.

Was it a wet blanket to eat the petals of these beautiful flowers?

There was nothing else to satisfy her grumbling empty stomach.

Ceasing hesitation, Mu Qianmei came up and picked several pink azalea blossoms with thick petals. She tore the petals, removed stamens, washed the petals in a small mountain spring she found, put the petals into the mouth, and slowly chewed.

The petals had a scent of plants and tasted sour and sweet. They were much better than any other delicacies under this circumstance.

Mu Qianmei recalled her carefree childhood when she pastured cattle in the mountain, played, and looked for wild fruits with other kids.

Life was ordinary and full, and there was no danger.

Red petals of azalea made Mu Qianmei feel a little more comfortable.

She walked the horse forward.

Suddenly, she saw a familiar wild food - tea calyx.

Tea calyx was edible. She had eaten it when she was a child in her previous life. It was thick, looked like a leaf, and grew on tea trees. Green tea calyx was raw and tasted bitter. Ripe tea calyx was yellow with a surface layer off.

Mu Qianmei picked off some ripe tea calyxes and wrapped them with her handkerchief. Then she washed them in the spring water and began to eat.

A sour, sweet, and astringent taste immediately occupied her tongue. It was strange yet familiar.

Whatever food was delicious when one was extremely hungry. Mu Qianmei recalled a TV play in her previous life, A Soup of Pearls and Jades.

When Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was a beggar, he considered the leftovers delicious. After he had become the emperor, enjoying delicacies every day, he began to miss the taste of the soup of pearls and jades - a soup made with tofu, vegetable leaves, and overnight rice that a grandma cooked for him in charity. So he ordered the imperial chefs to cook the soup to capture the taste of the soup in his memory, and entertained civil and military officials with it on a banquet.

As a result, he realized that the soup tasted terrible...

Now, however, Mu Qianmei didn't feel the petals bad.

After eating, Mu Qianmei looked up and saw that the sun had moved to the west from the middle of the sky. It seemed that noon was over and it was time for her to go on her way.

A lonely little girl lead a tall red horse and walked in the mountains. They were small among the mountains and seemed lonely and helpless.

No human traces, no villages, no hotels and inns, only mountains covered with wildflowers, weeds, and unknown trees, as well as some birds and wild animals that occasionally came and went.

"Are there large predators like tigers and lions in the mountains?" Mu Qianmei suddenly thought of this and was faintly afraid.

She was unlikely to resolve such a crisis with her martial art skills and inner magic.

Because she had little practical experience.

Think of this, Mu Qianmei quickly leaped onto Red Shadow and galloped westward.

All would go well as long as she arrived at the branch of the Beggar g**g in Xichu.

Mu Qianmei picked her way in relatively empty valleys.

However, she galloped over a mountain and into another. The rolling mountains formed an endless maze.

Fortunately, she wouldn't go round and round as the direction was always the same. She kept heading to the setting sun.

Mu Qianmei had been riding on Red Shadow for six hours, but still, she had not come across a village or an inn.

Fortunately, when she could hardly bear it any longer, she found a small ruined temple at the foot of a mountain.

Not far in front of the temple, there was a stream.

Scarcely thinking of the surroundings, Mu Qianmei dismounted and went over with Red Shadow.

She entered the small temple and saw thick dust, cobwebs, dead twigs and withered leaves, and traces of a bonfire.

Mu Qianmei picked a handful of branches with leaves, tied them into a broom, and began to clean up.

After cleaning, she found a lot of clean dry hay and made a thick temporary "bed" on the ground.

Then she quickly found some wild edible food to fill her stomach and sat on the straw bed to meditate and practice inner magic.

Red Shadow was grazing freely on the grass behind the temple.

It was already late at night after Mu Qianmei had circulated her internal magic through the body for several rounds. She had been galloping for two days and didn't sleep well the night before, so she was very sleepy. Mu Qianmei hit the sack and fell into a deep sleep.

Her body had been exercised in begging when she was a child. What was more, it was strengthened by her good martial art skills and inner magic foundation. So she did not fear the cold and slept soundly because of fatigue.

At this time, a colorful snake over a meter long wriggled into the temple through the c***k in the back door.