The sun was scorching on the grassland, and the sky was pure and bright blue. Yin Ruxu was sweating even though she was just being carried around by Wo Tu. But she had never been so happy before, and it was the first time she realized that happiness was such a simple thing.
"Are you hungry? I'll find you something to eat." Wo Tu never brought dry food with him before. He ate whatever he could get. But this time he brought some meat patties made by Wu Rizhu Amu and a pot of milk tea, which he brought specially for Yin Ruxu to fill his stomach. "Eat this first, and I'll go hunt some rabbits."
There are many of these small animals on the grassland. They are used to digging holes in the ground. They are very sensitive and can sense danger at the slightest vibration on the ground. They quickly drill back into the hole. The holes under the ground are deep and tortuous, so once they drill into the hole, they cannot be caught.
But Wo Tu was not an ordinary man. He had good eyesight and superb archery skills. Even from a long distance, if he saw something flying across the ground, he would immediately shoot an arrow and pin the little thing to the ground. He was faster and more alert than an eagle in the sky.
He shot a few rabbits with great familiarity, and went to the stream to clean and skin them. "Look, this one is called a pika, it doesn't look good, but this one is fat."
Yin Ruxu didn't want to see this scene, but she was a little curious, so she took a sneak peek and turned her head away. Although she felt a little reluctant when she saw it, she was very happy when she ate it, after all, it was really delicious. Wo Tu was indeed a "wild" man who grew up. This prairie barbecue was very authentic. Yin Ruxu was not only fed by him, but even full. She felt sleepy sitting in the sun and couldn't help taking a nap.
Wo Tu spread his robe on the ground and let her lie on it to take a nap.
"Sleep here." Although the grass was soft to step on, it could prick people when lying on it. Wo Tu was not afraid of this, but the princess was different.
Yin Ruxu was pressed by him to sit on his robe. She wanted to refuse subconsciously, but she felt very comfortable lying down, so she lay down. The nose was filled with the scent of grass and sunshine. Wo Tu's robe also had a refreshing smell, the smell of him. Yin Ruxu closed her eyes and thought, he must have taken a good shower and changed his clothes.
She lay there, and after a while she fell into a drowsy sleep, and unconsciously curled up, curling up on Wo Tu's robe. Wo Tu squatted aside and watched her sleep, thinking she was really cute, and reached out to touch her long eyelashes. Seeing Yin Ruxu's eyelids tremble, he quickly withdrew his hand. Yin Ruxu felt that the sun was too strong, and hid her face in a evasive manner. Wo Tu blocked the sun for her, and suddenly thought that if he took her out to bask in the sun more often, his wife would probably get tanned.
It was quite interesting to think about it, he wanted to see what a tanned princess-in-law would look like.
Yin Ruxu woke up after sleeping for a while, ate and rested well, and regained his energy.
In the past, she sat in one place motionless almost every day in the palace, feeling depressed and in poor health. She couldn't eat and had no energy. But after coming to the Wutu tribe for just two days, she was able to eat and sleep, and her spirits became better and better.
The two of them climbed over the ridge and went to the flower fields at the bottom of the valley. Yin Ruxu's skirt brushed the wild flowers to the ground, and her shoes were stained with flower juice. Wo Tu followed her, suddenly squatted down, reached under the flowers, and pulled out a gray, furry thing.
"Xu Xu, what do you think this is?"
Yin Ruxu turned around upon hearing the voice and found that he was holding a plump thing with short ears and tail... What was that
"This is a ground rat, which we also call a lazy rat." Wo Tu shook the fat fur ball in his hand and explained the habits of this thing to Yin Ruxu amid its squeaking sound.
Yin Ruxu looked at the two teeth in the lazy mouse's mouth and wanted to reach out and touch them, but was afraid that it would bite her. Wo Tu saw it, and he pinched the lazy mouse by the back of its neck and pressed it to the ground, and took Yin Ruxu's hand and let her touch it freely.
He is a truly amazing person. This grassland seems to be his home. He knows what is where, even where the holes of sloth mice and pikas are, and which patch of land has the sweetest grass roots.
Seeing that Yin Ruxu was interested in this thing, he took Yin Ruxu to dig all the sloth rat holes around. Because he was full, he didn't do anything to these sloth rats, so he pulled them out of the holes one by one for the princess to touch. He was skilled in this. He could tell if there was a sloth rat in a hole by observing it twice. He could hear the call of the sloth rat from below when he put his hand down. He basically never missed. He could pull out one with one move, sometimes two. It was obvious that he did this a lot.
After Yin Ruxu had touched them enough, he let go of them, and the frightened lazy mice quickly ran back into their holes as if they were escaping for their lives.
After playing outside for a day, Wotu finally rushed back with his men before nightfall, allowing Yin Ruxu to have the dinner that Wujizhuamu specially prepared for her.
As Yin Ruxu ate, she listened to the maids' constant complaints and worries. She had been smiling most of the time outside that day, but when she came back, she was surrounded by a group of maids who made a fuss about her hair being taken down and combed again, and she was given a new dress. She kept silent, and only said to them after she finished eating: "From now on, you don't have to stay around me all the time. You can go and help Wu Rizhu Amu."
The palace maids discovered that the princess seemed to have been led astray after only one day out.
"Xuxu!" Wo Tu, who had just finished a bath at the lake and whose hair was still dripping with water, called her from outside the big tent, "Come to my big tent, I'll show you a treasure!"
The maids: “…”
Yin Ruxu followed Wo Tu to his tent, which was unexpectedly clean. Although there were a lot of things piled up and full of life, it was not messy. Yin Ruxu's eyes were immediately attracted by a white bear skin on a shelf in the corner. It was a complete bear skin, very large. She could imagine how terrible this bear was when it was alive.
"That's the bear I killed in the snowy mountains. It's very warm to sleep on it in winter. There are also two wolf skins here. Come and have a look." Wo Tu rummaged through the boxes and drawers to find the furs he had hunted over the years.
The Wutu tribe was very cold in winter, and it would be difficult to survive without furs. Most of the warriors in the tribe were good hunters, and they would go hunting every autumn. The furs they brought back could be exchanged with caravans for salt, tea, and other goods.
Wo Tu only kept the best ones here, and even so, he piled them into three big piles. "These are all for you. When the weather gets cold, let Wu Rizhu make clothes for you, so you won't be cold in winter." He picked out the best ones and generously gave them to Yin Ruxu.
Yin Ruxu had never been short of furs, but these were hunted by Wo Tu himself, and some of them were so rare that she had never seen them before.
After they finished looking at the furs, they tidied up and lay down. Yin Ruxu couldn't help but feel nervous. Thinking of what Wo Tu had said before, he asked him, "Are the treasures you want to show me those furs?"
Wo Tu suddenly sat up and said, "Tsk, I forgot. Wait." He strode to a box in the corner of the tent and rummaged through it. He took out an old wooden box and then took out a wolf tooth from it.
The wolf's fang had holes pierced in it and was tied with a rope. Its surface was smooth and it looked like something close to the body that had been caressed countless times.
"This is the fang of the first wolf I hunted. I've been wearing it for a long time. The witch in the tribe said that wearing this kind of wolf fang can ward off evil spirits, protect children from good health, and prevent nightmares." He tied the wolf fang around Yin Ruxu's neck. "I heard your maids talking. They said you couldn't sleep well before. Wearing this can help you sleep well."
He put it on her, leaned over and kissed her forehead hard, making a "pop" sound. It didn't sound like a man kissing a woman at all.
Yin Ruxu touched his forehead and grabbed the wolf's fang on his chest, "Actually, I can rest well in the next two days."
Wo Tu: "Nightmares are caused by things you are afraid of. I am here, and the things you are afraid of will not dare to come over, so you can sleep well. If you don't sleep well, you will be tired during the day."
Yin Ruxu was pulled by him to sleep. She waited for a long time, but he didn't move.
Yin Ruxu: …He doesn’t know how to do it, or is he just embarrassed
As she was thinking, she fell asleep. Because she went to bed early, she woke up early too, and it was still dark outside. Yin Ruxu opened her eyes dazedly and saw a pair of green eyes next to her, staring at her in the dark. She was suddenly startled by him.
"Have you rested well?" Wo Tu asked her. He didn't know how long he had been awake.
Yin Ruxu nodded subconsciously, and then she felt the person next to her pull up the quilt and hug her.
"Are you really willing to be my wife?"
Yin Ruxu felt the hardness and heat of his chest, and she woke up. She hummed nervously. After a moment, she tentatively reached out and hugged his neck, "Yes, I do."
He didn't know how long she had waited for this day. She watched him die so many times, watched him fall in love with her again and again, but she could never respond to him. In her unchanging world, his unchanging nature was one of the things that broke her heart the most.
When she was most desperate, she wanted to say to this man: "Don't love me anymore" or "I am willing, take me away", but she could do nothing.
She felt a sense of panic in her heart, thinking that this world might just be a short period of time stolen. If that was the case, she hoped to find a result for her eternal love for the man in front of her right here and now.
… …
Yin Ruxu woke up very late, and when he opened his eyes, he found Wo Tu sitting by the bed again. He was sitting with one long leg stretched out, a piece of leather on it, and a piece of brown leather in his hand. In the other hand, he held a small piece of stone and wiped the surface of the leather.
"What are you doing?" Yin Ruxu pulled the quilt.
Wo Tu dropped the leather in his hand, leaned over and rubbed it on her face, then said: "Rub two pieces of leather and make boots for you. This kind of leather is very comfortable to wear."
Yin Ruxu pulled up the quilt to cover half of her face and looked at him with her eyes. "It's very lively outside. What's going on?"
Wo Tu picked up the leather and continued to wipe it, but he was not as serious as before. He looked at her from time to time and didn't pay much attention to the movement outside. He said casually: "A caravan came and exchanged things."
"Xuxu, can you come and live in my tent?" He only wanted Yin Ruxu to agree to this.
Yin Ruxu opened his mouth, and then someone outside the big tent shouted: "Chief! The caravan is looking for you!"
Wo Tu clicked his tongue, put down the leather in his hand, and did not go out first. Instead, he picked up Yin Ruxu with the quilt, hugged her tightly twice, rubbed her hair and face, and said, "Let's talk about it when I come back." Then he walked out quickly.
The author has something to say: Although Yin Ruxu seems to be the softest of all the heroines in this story, in fact, she is the hardest one... Hmm.