The master seemed to have acknowledged that he might have confessed too much, so he chuckled and changed the topic, “So, about the legend of the snowlotus, all the information we can get was from our ancestors. It’s said that at the very beginning when they settled down here, lots of people died due to the extreme environment. And, the worst thing was that they once encountered the attack of the wolf pack. It posted no possibility for them to survive that time.â€
“However, right at that perilous moment, a snow-white snowlotus rose from the ground under the great moonlight. Though they were much far away from that flower, the fragrance given off by the lotus was like the one given off by themselves, the fragrance was incredibly thick!â€
“Not long after this snowlotus appeared, the wolf king let out a long roar and then led the wolf pack to leave the place. Thereafter, the wolf pack never showed up in this area again, no one knew whether they were scared by the lotus or went to chase it.â€
Song Qinghan listened to the master seriously. Noticing that the master stopped narrating midway, he frowned and said, “That’s it?â€
The expression on the master’s face was even more embarrassing now, he scratched his head with awkwardness and answered, “Yes, that’s all, as I told you, that is just a legend…â€
Song Qinghan got his face sullen suddenly, yet he didn’t complain about anything. In fact, he already guessed that if the whereabouts of the snowlotus were so easy to find, such a panacea wouldn’t have been so rare in this marketplace.
But hey! The so-called legend only mentioned the name of ‘snowlotus’, except that, no other valuable information was mentioned at all!
A snowlotus rose under the moonlight? Well, that would make no sense to claim that the snowlotus incarnated into a traveling creature, right? But it might make more sense saying that the snowlotus was in full bloom right at that moment. Yet, how come such an information be a valuable one as it didn’t mention the exact location of the snowlotus at all. Moonlight could reach everywhere, after all!
However, if this legend was real, then at least one thing could be clarified: In the area visible to the naked eye, it used to be the growing area of the snowlotus. As for whether he could find it, his luck should be the only factor he could rely on.
Thinking of this, Song Qinghan felt that he couldn’t delay any longer. He cupped his hands together and bow to the master, saying, “Thank you for the information, I will go myself and search around this surrounding place, probably I can find something out of my luck.â€
Seeing that Song Qinghan’s countenance was rather pale with a pair of bluish black lips, the master couldn’t help but stop him, “No way! Look at yourself, don’t you see how bad conditions you get? You have to have something to eat and wear more to keep warm before setting off! Moreover, do you really think that you’re able to go further as a femina man? What if you encounter some beasts? Just wait for me until I handle all the matters of the village. I will escort you!â€
Even though Song Qinghan had already acknowledged that he was ‘deceived’ to be here, he still felt a bit warm in his heart after hearing what the master said. He smiled and said slowly, “I really appreciate that, but you won’t never know how this event matters to me, I will go back very soon for the meal, and I won’t go so far away!â€
After that, he picked up a random wooden stick at the corner of the wall, supported himself by stabbing the stick into the snow and walked out of the village step by step.
The master sighed heavily with resignation, he never expected that Song Qinghan would be so tough as a cow. If he really got some times now, he would definitely follow Song Qinghan in behind right now. Without a better idea, he ordered one of the residents to follow Song Qinghan in behind and escorted him.
In fact, the reason why he cheated Song Qinghan to come here in this place was naturally because he had an evil intention. However, although he was rather domineering, he did not do anything vicious. Especially when he realized that Song Qinghan’s value was greater than he had imagined, he was even more unwilling to use vicious methods. In his deeper mind, it would be much better if Song Qinghan would be perfectly happy to approach him, and that would be the perfect picture he longed to see.
On the other side, Song Qinghan didn’t put much consideration on this matter. He often forgot the fact that he was living in this ancient world as an identity of femina man and that he got an extraordinary appearance. He only thought that the residents was just being curious and staring at an outsider and was delighted to greet, and that these people might just be all eagerness to get to know the world outside. Therefore, when he saw Goudan being tortured by drug addiction, he took the initiative to lend a hand to repay the kindness of the other party for providing information.
He would never forget that his purpose here was to find the snowlotus. As long as he found it, there would be no obstruction stronger than him to prevent him going back to the provincial capital. He should and would deliver the snowlotus to Wu Dahu by his own!
Just as the image of Wu Dahu popped up right in Song Qinghan’s mind, he clearly felt a warmth right in his heart burning, with his expression softening as well.
He used to be worried that his affection towards Wu Dahu might fade one day, or that the love he gave Wu Dahu didn’t deserve the one that Wu Dahu gave him. But after this event, he could bravely admit that he was only willing to spend the rest of his life with Wu Dahu and love this man with all his life.
The man behind him noticed that Song Qinghan’s back gradually straightening, as if someone was supporting him right now with decisiveness. Although he didn’t know why, he still followed behind him and prayed in his mind that Song Qinghan wouldn’t mess up everything beyond his expectation. Well, if Song Qinghan went farther, probably he himself couldn’t find the way back.
The road outside the village was indeed not that kind of easy to pass. The thickness of the snow had already reached his thigh. Yet such a height wasn’t the original one by the natural ‘gift’, it was thinner because of some traces of human-beings. Probably if he went farther, the thickness of the snow was able to approach his waist line.
Few steps on the road laden with layers of thick snows probably weren’t that kind of bad. But if someone walked a few hundred steps in the snow, he might feel nothing at first but he would get nerve necrosis in his legs after he returned home.
Song Qinghan suddenly turned around and didn’t continue to walk forward. Instead, he took the Flying Eagle Village as the centre of a circle and slowly moved back in a method of drawing an arc.
Seeing Song Qinghan acting like that, the man behind heaved a sign of relief heavily. He trotted forward and introduced Song Qinghan about the surrounding environment.
“This is the road down the mountain. It probably isn’t that steep by the first glance at it. But if someone gets fallen into the valley, he may die because of the accident! Especially there are lots of stones and rocks down at the foot of the mountain, he who falls definitely will get his head exploded by a damaging crash!â€
“That way to the depths of the snow mountain, he who goes further in that place will never come back again. Even if he is lucky enough to come back, he will definitely be blind. You should know that there is a man in our village, he got his eyes out of use after coming back from the farther dark area. And now he can only live by the benefaction gathered by the other residents!â€
“…â€
Song Qinghan paused and suddenly asked, “Do you know which is the direction where the moon rises?â€
“The moon?†The man repeated, seemingly not expecting that Song Qinghan would ask such a question. He pondered for a long while and then pointed at a certain direction, “It should be over there. Actually, we haven’t seen the moon here for a long time, so, I can only remember general direction.â€
Looking at the forest which was partly hidden and partly visible, Song Qinghan asked, “Look over there, what is that?â€
The man lowered his voice and pretended to grab a mysterious tone, “Oh, that’s the snow forest! It’s right the place where the wolf pack and the bull pack traverse. Oh, and forget to mention, there exists a group of mountain ghosts which lives on the flesh and soul of human-beings!â€
“Mountain ghost?†Song Qinghan repeated, he still remembered that this phrase was once mentioned by the master when the master spoke to Goudan. And at that time he didn’t care much about that because he thought it was something fabricated to cheat people. But! From the current situation, it seemed that the so-called ‘Mountain Ghost’ might represent something else?
Seeing that Song Qinghan was putting on an expression of curiosity, the man did not explain much. He only shook his head and said, “Anyway, it’s something scary! But luckily, they seem never show their willingness to walk out from that snow forest. Otherwise, this area wouldn’t have been our territory.â€
Song Qinghan nodded, keeping in mind what the man just mentioned, and secretly drew an invisible map in his mind, clearing the places that he couldn’t go to. As for the remaining places, he could only go there next time after a full preparation.
After the master distributed everything he robbed from the town, he noticed that Song Qinghan returned. He heaved a sigh of relief and then rushed over to Song Qinghan happily, “Aha, you arrive at a most opportune moment. The fresh yak meat is just roasted and served.â€
After he finished the words, something seemed to occur to him all of a sudden, he then asked awkwardly, “Do you have any taboo to the yak meat?â€
Although he never went to the Central Plains before, he still knew that the people from Central Plains never ate yak meat because they regarded yak as divinity. If such an action offended Song Qinghan, it bore no difference with igniting Song Qinghan’s anger.
Fortunately, Song Qinghan quickly replied, “No, not at all! Don’t worry about that, I get no taboo in my custom.â€
As a doctor, the most basic common sense of health maintenance was to eat everything, yet it still should be controlled. Song Qinghan was a master in doing so.
Seeing that Song Qinghan was quite serious, the master heaved another sigh of relief while loosening his shoulders.
He didn’t know what was wrong with himself. At the very beginning, he just thought that Song Qinghan got a stunningly beautiful face, but he didn’t care that much. The longer they got along, the more strange he felt about Song Qinghan.
Song Qinghan was immersed in his own thoughts and didn’t notice anything unusual about the master. When the meal was finally served, he took a bowl over, served himself dishes and a whole steamed bun, sat in the corner and ate silently.
People here never used spices, so the yak meat was rather tasteless. Luckily, the aroma given off by the meat was quite strong and tempting. Moreover, under such a harsh environment with full of bitterness, Song Qinghan indeed enjoyed the meal so much, he did not stop until he finished two bowls of meat.
Seeing that Song Qinghan was having a great time eating, the master moved slowly by his butt approaching Song Qinghan with a smile, “It’s best if you like the meat. We don’t have many other supplies, but the flesh of yak can be supplied boundlessly here, especially the dried meat, you can even save it as a snack.â€
Song Qinghan nodded but then something seemed to occur to him suddenly. He looked up at the ceiling and asked, “Why don’t you make some icehouses? Is it because you can’t produce one or the environment doesn’t allow that?â€
Actually, such an idea just popped up in his mind because the wooden house here looked a bit dangerous. So in a further consideration, the picture of the Eskimos building their icehouse in the modern time emerged right in his mind. The problem was that he never built one by his own before, so he got no idea either whether this idea was good or not.
The master was utterly stunned and asked, “Ice House? How can ice be used to build a house?â€
From the reaction of the master, Song Qinghan came to know that people here were actually ignorant towards the icehouse building. So he thought for a brief moment and then placed the bowl upside down on the ground, explaining, “You can pile up the ices in a shape of this bowl, it will be rather solid and in the meantime very promising to shelter from the cold wind. it is not easy to collapse, trust me!â€
Beyond Song Qinghan’s expectation, the master became more confused after his explanation, he asked in an incredulous tone, “Then won’t it melt overnight? And at that time people will be buried within!â€
Song Qinghan chuckled, grabbed a handful of snow from the ground, threw it into the sky and said slowly, “Have you ever witnessed the snow melting here in this place?â€
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