CH 7

When the dark horse passes through the birch forest, the view suddenly becomes wide and clear.

A flat grassland appeared in front of them, and the turquoise blue water of Lake Hanas could be seen from a distance. 

The cattle were lazily basking in the sun on the grass and birds occasionally hovering in the sky.

“Can you stop and let me take a picture?” Ning You asked.

“No.” A non-negotiable voice sounded behind him, “I’m in a hurry.”

Ning You subconsciously looks at his watch. It’s less than nine o’clock in the morning. 

As far as he knows, people in Xinjiang don’t start their day’s work until ten o’clock. Is it possible that the nature of the work of forest rangers is quite special?

The dark horse continued down the hillside and soon came to a quiet village.

There is an asphalt road at the gate of the village, which extends to the outside of the scenic spot. Next to the entrance of the village is the convenient police station and fire center. All this makes Ning You feel that it is the right choice to go down the mountain.

“Wait for me here.”

The dark horse finally stopped in front of the gate of an elementary school. Li Mu tied the dark horse and walked to the elementary school with two barrels of warm milk.

Previously, Li Mu said he would take the milk to the foot of the mountain for treatment, but Ning You didn’t know why he brought the milk to elementary school. He looked inside and found that the elementary school was very small, the playground was not even as big as the yard of his family’s villa.

Focusing on Li Mu again, his back eventually disappeared into a large wooden house in the corner.

At the door of the wooden house hung a sign in two languages. One is the Chinese “canteen”, and the other one Ning You doesn’t know, but he believes it also means canteen. 

Retracting his gaze, he found that the plaque at the gate of the school also hung two languages. The other language was the same as that hung in the canteen. Sure enough, it was not the Uighur language he had seen along the way.

The Uighur language looks like Arabic, with some twists and turns, while the language on the plaque is more like Tibetan, with a thick vertical line running through it.

There may be a difference between printed and handwritten.

Ning You was doing unprofessional analysis with nothing to do, when a childish voice suddenly sounded not far away: “It’s Brother Li Mu’s horse!” 

Another equally childish voice said, “Brother Li Mu has come to deliver milk!”

Two children ran past Ning You and rushed into the school. Just as Li Mu came out of the canteen, one rushed to his left and the other one to his right, holding his waist tightly and refusing to let go.

“Glv sbe ygert sbeg affat qgbqfgis atlr wbgclcu?” Ol Ze rwlifv jcv jrxfv atf akb mtlivgfc tjculcu bc tlw.

“Tfr!” “P ygert mifjcfg atjc tf vbfr!” “P’w mifjcfg!” 

Ktf akb mtlivgfc rtbkfv atflg affat obg Ol Ze ab mtfmx. Ol Ze geyyfv atflg tfjvr jcv rjlv, “Xbbv ybs, ub jcv fja ygfjxojra.”

Ning You was on the side of the entrance staring at Li Mu—he was not mistaken, Li Mu was really smiling.

Emotions are also a person’s private attributes, Ning You never noticed that Li Mu also have happiness, anger, sorrow and joy. He pays attention to all the external things, such as Li Mu’s appearance and his living habits.

People who can say something like “perhaps the premise of highly developed culture is social stability” is probably not just a simple wild rough guy, right? 

Ning You suddenly became a little curious about Li Mu.

However, this thought flashed in his mind, because he and Li Mu wouldn’t stay long and would soon be separated.

“Let’s go.” Li Mu came out of the school, “I’ll take you to the place where you would stay.”

Ning You glanced at the dark horse tied to the door, followed Li Mu’s pace and asked, “Won’t the horse be led away?” 

“It will wait here.” When Li Mu finished speaking, the two walked to the fork in the road. He turned to the right and said to Ning You, “This way.”

As the two of them walked inside of the village, the appearance of the village was gradually revealed to Ning You.

The houses where Tuva people live are wooden houses. Rows of wooden houses are neatly located on both sides of the road. There are courtyards surrounded by wooden fences in the middle of each row of wooden houses. Some raise cattle, some feed horses, and large dogs of indefinable breeds walk through the courtyards.

At this time, most of the villagers have not yet started their new day. The village is so quiet that only the sound of the wind blowing in their ears can be heard. 

Ning You took a deep breath of the fresh air that surrounded him and chatted with Li Mu, “Did you contract the milk for the elementary school here?”

The salary of forest rangers is certainly not high. Selling milk to support the family is a good choice.

“Don’t call it contracting.” Li Mu said, “I can’t drink more than that. They help me deal with it, and I’ll leave the extra for them.”

After coming out of the elementary school, Li Mu’s pace has been unhurried. It is clear that the “hurry” he just mentioned is to deliver milk to the elementary school. 

Ning You thought this was one of Li Mu’s jobs, but now it seems that it should take some time to process the milk and Li Mu wants to let the children drink the milk before the class starts.

“Didn’t you charge them?” Ning You asked with pure curiosity.

“There’s no need.” Li Mu said.

If it were Ning You, he wouldn’t care about this small amount of money, but he always thought it was strange to put it on Li Mu. 

So a big cattle who produces ten catty of fresh milk every day are basically all given to others.

Even if Li Mu doesn’t need much money, isn’t that still a bit too generous?

“Here we are.” Li Mu stopped in front of a courtyard and pushed open the door of the wooden fence while saying to Ning You, “This is Chief Lin’s house. He will take good care of you.”

“You, hold on.” Ning You pulled Li Mu in surprise and interrupted his movement, “Why did you come to Chief Lin’s house?” 

Chief Lin is the person in charge of a forest, and his position is much bigger than the village head.

When Ning You heard that this village was a scenic spot. He subconsciously thought that there would be a guest house or inn and other places specifically for receiving guests but he didn’t expect that the place Li Mu was sending him to would be someone else’s home.

“I know Chief Lin well, so you stay here with him.” Li Mu said.

“No,” Ning You frowned, “But I don’t know Chief Lin well?” ” 

“Don’t worry, he’s very nice.” Li Mu said, “His wife and daughter are also very hospitable.”

Surprisingly, it was still a family, Ning You simply wanted to run away.

He didn’t have anything against Chief Lin’s home, but he really didn’t want to stay at a stranger’s house because it would be very awkward.

What does he talk to people about? 

Does he need to help people with their work?

Being alone with Li Mu in the cabin is okay, Ning You won’t feel awkward, but to face a family. He really doesn’t know what to do whether to integrate into the family or to keep a distance?

“But you still have to pay attention to Tuva people.” Li Mu continued, “Don’t move their tableware when the host is preparing a meal. Don’t refuse when they entertain you with something. My horse is called Hari, which means black in Mongolian. They think black is unlucky, so I left Hari outside…”

“There is so much to pay particular attention to?” Ning You can’t help interrupting Li Mu’s talking. 

When he travels, his biggest fear is that he doesn’t understand the local customs. For example, in India, nodding the head is a sign of disagreement. If he doesn’t know these in advance, he may get into trouble.

“After all, they are different ethnic groups and you have to respect them.” Li Mu said.

Ning You didn’t say disrespect. He just didn’t know how to deal with them. He asked: “Do they communicate in Mandarin?”

“Their official languages are Chinese and Mongolian.” Li Mu said. 

“I thought it was Tibetan.” Ning You held his forehead.

He was completely ignorant of the local conditions and customs over here, and now that he thinks about it, he doesn’t know how lucky he was to meet Li Mu in the woods.

After taking a deep breath to adjust his mood, Ning You asked Li Mu while doing psychological construction: “Have you told Chief Lin that I’m going to stay here?”

If the other person has already agreed, it would be bad for him not to go. As Li Mu said, he believed that the Chief Lin family would definitely be very enthusiastic, and he didn’t want to be unfriendly and disappoint others. 

“Not yet.” Li Mu said, “Let’s go now.”

“No!” Ning You suddenly saw hope and firmly grabbed Li Mu’s sleeve. “Li Mu, will you take me in? I don’t want to go to someone else’s house.”

“Are you sure?” Li Mu was puzzled. “You have to sleep on the floor in my house.”

“It’s okay.” 

Compared with physical suffering and psychological suffering, Ning You would rather choose the former.

At this time, Li Mu also found that Ning You’s attitude had changed 180 degrees and asked inexplicably, “Why don’t you want to live here all of a sudden?”

“You said to send me down the mountain, I thought there was a hotel.” Ning You said, “I don’t want to disturb others, it’s so embarrassing.”

Li Mu couldn’t help laughing: “You think it’s OK if you disturb me.” 

“You are different.” Ning You said.

“Let’s go in first.” Li Mu said. He was going to push open the wooden fence, but the hand tugging at his sleeve stubbornly refused to let him go forward.

He turned around and saw Ning You looking at him quietly again. All his thoughts were written on his face: I don’t want to go.

Li Mu breathed helplessly and said, “Go in first and have a look. If you really don’t want to stay then I’ll take you back.”