Chapter 21

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“Bought from the herdsmen. Some people specialize in this business.” Grandma Sheng explained to her in a frantic manner. “I heard that eagle fighting is popular in the Imperial Capital and Yecheng. A Sarang eagle is bought for only five silver coins from the herders. After being trained and transported to Yecheng, it can be sold for one hundred golden baht! This cart is estimated to be worth tens of thousands of golden baht!”

“Oh…you see, those eagles are so pitiful.” Zhu Yan sighed, “Originally they were flying freely in the sky, but now they are stuffed into a cage and used for people to have fun.”

“Well, in your little head, you are just thinking too much.” Granny Sheng laughed. “These things are everywhere in the desert. If they don’t get caught by anyone, they just fly around and die of old age. It doesn’t do any good to anyone. It’s better to be caught and sold, which can more or less subsidize the household expenses of the herdsmen.”

“…” After thinking about it, Zhu Yan felt that there was some truth in this remark, she didn’t know how to refute it. However, looking at the eagle’s eyes, she felt uncomfortable after all and turned her head around with a grunt.

The carriage rumbled forward, the scouts shouted to open the way, and the caravans dodged one after another.

The carts in front of them were full of tapestries, cashmere, beef and mutton, gold, silverware, and ironware; occasionally a wagon load of furs, all of which were of rare kinds, like the fur of a rare lynx, sand fox, sable, fragrant mouse, ferret… Also, some live moose and reindeer, were driven long distances and walked wearily towards Yecheng; When they were getting there, they were being sold to the mansions of aristocrats and rich people to decorate their gardens.

Zhu Yan was a little bored. She put down the curtain and used a silver spoon to dig into the lamb soup to eat. However, as soon as she picked up the bowl, the carriage stopped suddenly without a warning, and the wheels made a rasping noise on the ground. Holding the bowl in her hand, she couldn’t stop, lost balance and fell headlong into the lamb soup, feeling suddenly like a flower was blooming in front of her eyes, and her forehead became cold and sticky.

“Princess! Princess!” Granny Sheng hurriedly picked her up. “Are you okay?”

“I… I…” Zhu Yan wiped the lamb soup from her eyes and forehead, rubbing with both hands several times, but her hair was sticky and wet, making her feeling embarrassed. Grandma Sheng took out her handkerchief and wiped her off in a hurry, comforting her without a word. However, Zhu Yan’s anger rose up, and as soon as she lifted the curtain, she probed out, and threw the silver spoon at the cart driver who was sitting in front, scolding him angrily: “What’s going on? Coachman, why did you stop suddenly?”

“Princess… Princess, forgive me!” The silver spoon hit the back of his head, and the coachman quickly jumped out of the carriage. He knelt to the ground and said: “There was a sudden obstruction ahead, and I had no choice but to rein in my horse.”

“What’s the hindrance?” Zhu Yan looked over, and sure enough, she saw that there was a pile of things laid in the middle of the main road in front of them. If it hadn’t been for the coachman to rein the horse, they would have bumped into it. She couldn’t help being furious. “Where’s the scout? Didn’t I send them to lead the way?”

The scout was already galloping back along the road on a fast horse, rushing to give report and said: “Princess, there is a carriage in front of us. Because of too much load, they couldn’t avoid it, they overturned in the middle of the road. I’m going to ask the servants to clean up immediately!”

“What…” Zhu Yan frowned and was about to lose her temper again, but she suddenly felt a bit guilty; Originally, people’s caravans were walking along the main road. If it hadn’t been for her scouts shouting all the way to ask people to clear the path, this thing wouldn’t have happened. It’s already enough bad luck for these people to roll over. It doesn’t sound to be such a great idea to scold them again.

At such a thought, the anger in her heart went out, and Zhu Yan waved her hand decadently and said, “Forget it. You go and tell them that we’ll pay for all the losses caused by the rollover, but they need to clean up and get out of the way quickly!”

“Yes.” The scout hurriedly said, “The Princess is merciful.”

She glared at the front bitterly and retreated into the carriage.

“Princess, why are you scolding your servants in public?” Grandma Sheng twisted the handkerchief, leaned in and wiped off the rest of the lamb soup stuck to her forehead and hair, while scolding her, “If you yell and hit people like this, and happens to be seen by other princes in the Six Clans, won’t we the Red Clan people be made fun of?”

Just make fun of me, I won’t lose a hair! And what do they care? I’m not a member of their clan, is not their business… She snorted, but she didn’t want to talk back to her Nanny, so she just forbears it.

However, after waiting and waiting, the carriage still did not move.

“What’s the matter?” Zhu Yan was so hot-tempered that she couldn’t hold it any longer. She jumped up and poked her head out again to rebuke the servant. “Why are you still not on the road? There’s not Cangwu Abyss ahead, is it so difficult to walk?”

The coachman hurriedly replied: “Princess, please appease your anger! In front… the road ahead has not been cleared yet.”

“What’s the matter? Didn’t I say we’ll pay for it all? What else do they want?” She was a little angry, pushed the carriage door and jumped down, rolled up her sleeves and walked forward angrily. “Are they trying to mislead me with that little stuff still dragging around in the middle of the road? I want to see which caravan is so daring!”

“Oh, Princess! Don’t go out!” Granny Sheng called from behind, but Zhu Yan moved too quickly, she had already jumped to the ground like a gust of wind and walked to the place in front of her.

However, before she reached the place where the cart turned over, she heard a noise. Many people gathered around the pile of goods scattered on the ground. There seemed to be people in the crowd screaming and cursing. Listening carefully, there was even the piercing sound of a whip cracking. What’s going on? There is someone hitting people in the middle of the road? Even more annoyed, she snatched the coachman’s whip and angrily lined up the crowd, stepping forward to see what was going on.

“Get this kid out of here! Get out of the way!” As soon as she approached, she heard someone yelling, “If you wait a moment longer, the Princess will become even more angry. Who can bear it? Do you still want to do business in the Western Wilderness in the future?”

There was a fluctuation in the crowd, and two strong men who looked like bodyguards in the caravan rushed out, both leaning over as if they were trying to drag something away, while shouting impatiently, “You son of a bitch, I told you to go! Are you deaf? What are you doing clinging to this jar?”

One of the two strong men picked up the jar with one hand and was about to hit it to the ground, but in the next moment, he suddenly screamed, took a step back, and a splash of blood spurted out from his lower belly like an arrow!

“Ah?!” The crowd next to him exclaimed, “He got murdered!”

Seeing that his companion was stabbed, the other strong man shouted, pulled out a long knife from around his waist and rushed over: “Little son of a bitch! How dare you? I’m going to break you up and feed you to the dogs!”

The sharp blade slashed into the air head-on, refracting the dazzling light. However, before the blade had reached to cut the flesh and blood, with a “swipe” in midair, a black shadow rolled up in the air, wrapped around his arms, making it impossible to touch a single point.

“Who dares to kill people in the street in broad daylight?” In his ear, he could only hear a loud and crisp whip shout, “Are there no more imperial laws?”

Everyone turned around and saw that at the other end of the whip was a girl dressed in red, standing in the middle of the road, straight and mighty. The seventeen-eighteen years old girl stood with her back straight, her face bristling with anger, her eyebrows erected.

After seeing the royal badge embroidered on the girl’s skirt, everyone gasped and knelt down to the ground: “Your… Your Highness!”

“Get out of the way!” Zhu Yan snorted coldly, let go of the whip, and looked down to the ground; Among the large piles of scattered goods, the one who was besieged by the group of people turned out to be a child who looked only six or seven years old.

“Your Highness, it’s this little bastard who is in your way!” The scout hurriedly came over, pointed to the child and snapped, “How dare you even stab someone with a knife?”

“Stabbing someone?” Zhu Yan frowned. “Did someone been stabbed to death?”

The scout ran over to take a look, then came back to report: “Fortunately, that little bastard has weak hands and is not too tall. The knife has only reached the lower part of the abdomen.”

“Not dead? That’s good. Give him ten golden baht and send him to a physician to heal his injuries!” Zhu Yan waved her hand and breathed a sigh of relief, “It’s also that guy’s fault, too full of himself, why would he attack a child? He deserves it!”

Didn’t you give the order to open the way? The scout was speechless for a while.

Zhu Yan looked down at the child and sneered: “At such a young age, how dare you kill someone? You are so bold!”

The child was sitting on the ground, skinny and dirty, unable to distinguish whether it was a male or a female. He stared at her with bright and sharp eyes. For a moment, he was holding a bloody dagger in his hand, as if he was trying stubbornly to resist. His legs were pinned down to the ground by heavy iron shackles, and blood kept oozing out, but the tiny arms clung firmly onto a large wine urn wrapped in rags, and seemed to use all his strength to pick it up, but kept failing in the end.

“Huh?” At that moment, Zhu Yan exclaimed, “Is it you?!”

Hearing her voice, the child raised his head and looked at her face, his blue eyes flashed for a moment, as he seemed to think she looked familiar; but he did not recognize her, so he turned his head indifferently and stood up on his own, laboriously dragging the wine urn to the side of the road.

“Hey! You…” Zhu Yan was stupefied for a moment then finally understood; Yes, she erased the child’s memory when she left that day. No wonder he doesn’t remember her at all.

Why did you meet this little guy again? It’s haunting like a ghost! She muttered in her heart, as she watched the child that had just moved the wine urn by a foot. With a crash, the wine urn in his arms suddenly fell apart! The urn fell down after the car overturned and hit the ground. There were already several cracks. As soon as he moved it, the urn suddenly broke into pieces.

In an instant, everyone screamed and all took a step back, showing fear on their faces: Because after the wine urn cracked, a human body without limbs was actually exposed inside!

Mutilated, scarred, incomplete and shocking, it was almost a wriggling piece of meat, not a living person. The piece of meat rolled out of the cracked wine urn, crashing on the ground, unstoppable, tearing apart the rags that was wrapping the outside of the jar.

What? Is it a human urn?

“Oh my God!” Seeing a woman without limbs rolling out from the broken jar, the surrounding caravan people exclaimed and looked at the owner, “Human urn! You actually have a human urn in your cart?”

The coachman saw that the situation had become serious and could not be hidden anymore. He hurriedly walked back to his horse and was about to jump in the saddle and run away. The other caravan people shouted angrily and immediately rushed to drag him off the horse: “Get down! You killed someone, how dare to run away?!”

“I didn’t! I didn’t!” The coachman complained, “I didn’t do it!”

The crowd scolded him, “The urns were all in your van. What else is there to say?”

The coachman tried his best to explain: “I swear on heaven and earth that my conscience is clean! I didn’t turn her into a human urn! How can I be so ruthless? That’s a female shark!”

“A shark woman?” People were even more unconvinced, “Where can there be shark women in the Western Wilderness?”

Zhu Yan ignored the noise surrounding her; when the wine urn cracked, she heard the child shout: “Ah-Niang”, he desperately tried to embrace the meat corpse and hold up the woman’s soft neck from the wine urn.

At that moment, seeing the person clearly, Zhu Yan gasped.

Yes, the one in that jar was indeed Yu Ji! It is the Yu Ji who was kept in the cellar of Susa Haru! The mother and son did not die in the harsh winter of the desert, but more than two months later, after walking thousands of miles, they were tossed down here in the middle of the road, and met her again!

In that moment, Zhu Yan was taken by surprise and felt some regret in her heart. Yes, if she hadn’t rushed into the city and shouted at her scouts to open the road, the carriage would not have been overturned, the urn would not have been thrown to the ground, and Yu Ji might not have become like this!

She glanced at the child timidly, with apprehension and remorse. However, the shark child did not look at her at all, but desperately hugged the mother in the jar and wrapped her naked body carefully in a cloth.

Over there, the people of the other caravans had already held the owner of the wagon and pressed him to the ground. Several venerable old businessmen surrounded him and started to scold, “How brazen! You even dare to do a human urn? Since the edict issued by the emperor, in Yunhuang it is illegal to be a human urn! Don’t you know?”

“No, is not like this, it’s none of my business!” The cargo owner paled in fright, and immediately knelt down in front of Zhu Yan, knocking his head to the ground. “I picked them up from the side of the road! This shark child carried the female shark on his back. The little one looked so pitiful, I thought they might be dead in two days, so I just took them for a ride along the way, out of mercy…”

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