Chapter 219 Woman Mountain

Li Huowang slowly used the crutch and pulled the blindfolded Bai Lingmiao to walk. He was not walking fast, after all, the broken leg had not grown back yet.

Fortunately, the bullock cart is not very fast. The bullock cart adds more negative gravity at the expense of speed, which is almost the same as Li Huowang's current speed.

"Is this Women's Mountain?" Li Huowang squinted his eyes and covered his forehead with his hands, looking at the hills in the distance.

After seeing those mountains, Li Huowang realized why this place was called Qingqiu, because there were not a single tree on these mountains, and they were also covered with green grass.

But this may also be related to the fact that the mountains here are relatively short. There are no towering mountains here. These mountains covered by grass are just contiguous mountains.

"Senior Brother Li, if you look sideways like this, do those mountains look like half a woman's face lying down?" Sun Baolu pointed over there excitedly.

After Li Huowang looked carefully for a long time, he finally shook his head. He did not see how much those abstract hills resembled women. These low mountains are very strange, not too many, not too little, just a bunch of abrupt ones, and the mountains are not connected to each other.

"This year is the year of the moon. According to the ancestral teachings, our family should camp a hundred miles ahead and graze their cattle. It won't be long before I meet them!"

Li Huowang didn't care what the excited Sun Baolu said. He cared more about supplies. He had been here in Qingqiu for so long and there were so many people. If there was nothing to eat, he would have to eat the cattle pulling the cart.

"Is there really a market where you can buy food in Women's Mountain? If you can't buy food, you'll just have to drink from the northwest wind."

"Yes, it's true. People who graze within a few hundred miles nearby will go there to exchange things if they want to buy or sell. I even came here once when I was seven years old."

After Sun Baolu's explanation, Li Huowang knew that in the vast and sparsely populated Qingqiu, these nomadic Qingqiu people would choose some places to conduct transactions for the purpose of material circulation.

Over time, these places will form a fixed gathering place. Officials in Qingqiu also collect taxes from these places.

When Li Huowang saw through his excellent eyesight that there were black spots the size of ants moving at the foot of the mountain, he knew that the other party was right and there was really someone there.

"Let's go, let's all put on our gauze hats so as not to attract other people's attention."

After Li Huowang said that, he also put on a bamboo hat. His current appearance, with patches of red and white on his face, was no better than the others.

The oxcart gradually approached Women's Mountain and followed a path to the interior surrounded by low mountains. In an instant, everything suddenly became clear.

A large crowded tent gathering place appeared in front of Li Huowang and others.

The sound of horse hooves, roars of people, and the braying of donkeys were heard all the time. Li Huowang even had the illusion that he was going to the market.

In this lively market, many Qingqiu people dressed in completely different styles from the people in Houshu were shouting and busy with their own affairs.

There were more animals, so there was more feces. The unique smell of animals penetrated other people's noses, making everyone frown.

I don’t know if it is because of the long hours of sunshine, but the biggest difference between the Qingqiu people and the previous Siqi people and Houshu people is that their faces are very red, and there are heavy spots on the faces of men, women, old and young.

People from Qingqiu are generally shorter than Li Huowang and others, but they look different.

Each of them was covered in various rough-looking leather clothes, and the women's braids and the men's waists were tied with some broken bones ground into round shapes.

Except for bones and skins, everything else that can be woven with straw is basically woven with straw. Straw shoes, straw hats and even straw baskets are sold.

Li Huowang's group obviously attracted the attention of the people in Qingqiu. Facing the outsiders, everyone looked at the convoy with wary and indifferent eyes.

"Touch!" On the cutting board above and below the grass stall next to him, a machete was raised high and then slashed down hard, cutting a hairless and ferocious dog's head in half.

"Hmm" Steamed Bun lowered his tail and drooped his ears, and quickly got under the bullock cart timidly.

"Are you really from Qingqiu? Why do you feel that you look different from them?" Li Huowang looked through the black gauze to Sun Baolu next to him.

"Because my mother is from out of town." Sun Baolu looked a little gloomy when he said that, but soon his eyes lit up and he hurriedly ran forward through the crowd.

Running around in the crowd, he finally got so excited that he hugged an old Qingqiu man and said something.

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

"You can communicate with each other in other places, but this poor place actually has its own language." Li Huowang was speechless, which would undoubtedly cause a lot of trouble for the rest of the journey in Qingqiu.

After exchanging pleasantries with the man, Sun Baolu came back to Li Huowang and said with some excitement: "Senior Brother Li, you can't be wrong, that man is from my tribe, and my family members are not far in front."

"Okay, we have to walk there step by step even if it's not far away. You can help us buy some food first. There is not enough food on the road." Li Huowang said while looking at the busy market around him.

Now the Qingqiu people's language is different from theirs, so in terms of negotiation, they have to rely on Sun Baolu, who can speak Qingqiu dialect.

Sun Baolu nodded, agreed, and turned around to get into the lively crowd.

But Li Huowang stopped him. "Wait a moment. Is there a place to eat here? Others are also hungry. Let's rest for a while."

Soon everyone came to a noodle shop. There were strips of green noodles hanging in the thatched shed, as if they had walked into a forest.

I heard from Sun Baolu that if a group of people share a pot and want to cook their own noodles, they can take as much as they want. Mian Xiangzi went to the shop owner to collect money according to the portion.

Although no one else has seen this way of eating that is very characteristic of Qingqiu, it does not prevent them from eating it deliciously. The aroma of grass on the noodles is very appetizing when paired with the spicy mutton dumplings.

The noodle shop was very busy, and there were many people eating noodles. Fortunately, with the noodles blocking the way, people nearby could not see Li Huowang and the others taking off their bamboo hats.

"Where are the steamed buns?" Li Huowang, who was full of wine and food, suddenly discovered that the dog's own was missing.

Just when he turned around to look for it, he saw the steamed bun passing under the noodle forest with something in his mouth.

It spit out the contents of its mouth to Li Huowang's feet and then squatted down, sticking out its tongue and wagging its tail to ask Li Huowang for a reward.

"What is this?" Li Huowang asked in surprise, looking at a white bone at his feet.

Others didn't know it, but Sun Baolu, a local, obviously knew it. He hurriedly explained: "Brother Li, these are horse bones. People in Qingqiu must also eat horse meat when raising horses. It tastes very good."