On the seventh day of February in the first year of Qisheng, the annual drumming festival of the northern nomads.

"Sister Zhiying! Sister Zhiying! Sando shouted outside.

Zhiying replied loudly: "Hey! It's coming, it's coming! Wrapped Xiao Cui Xian's padded jacket and ran out of the felt tent with her in her arms.

On the banks of the Seron River in the southern part of the Borjik steppe, the Busha tribe, under the leadership of the patriarch Bomur, held a grand festival in which every household participated, praying for good weather and abundant water and grass in the morning, and in the afternoon the Busha men held a riding and archery competition, and the winner received a gem-encrusted scimitar, which was captured during the clash with other tribes last year.

The young men of the Busha tribe are all masters, and they are cavalrymen with bows and horses, and assassins when they sneak with knives, and a row of grass targets the size of pot lids in the field are cracked, and the young men must ride on the back of a running horse and accurately hit the designated bull's-eye.

There are a total of about 300 people in the competition, accounting for more than half of the young people in the clan, all of them are freshly dressed and angry, heroic posture, arrows and bows, once they hit the bull's-eye, there will be young girls cheering and shouting loudly outside the field, cheering for them.

Zhiying and Sanduo sat side by side on the haystack to watch, and Zhiying asked, "Your brother hasn't come back yet?" ”

"He should be able to rush back today, he is the patriarch, and he can't participate in such an important event," Sang Duo said while jokingly asking, "My brother is not here, are you bored?" ”

Holding Ying laughed at it, and Sang Duo couldn't help but say, "Don't you really think about my brother?" Although my brother is not very talkative, he is still a very good person, whether it is hunting or fighting, he is very powerful, and there are many girls in the clan who want to marry him. ”

Zhiying smiled: "Don't make fun of me, I'm already a married woman, how can I delay your brother's good years in vain." ”

Sang Duo pouted disappreciatively: "But you've been away from him for so long, he doesn't look for you, and you don't want to go back, so wouldn't it be good to start a new life again?" ”

"But I'm going back after all," Chi Ying smiled apologetically, "sooner or later." ”

Sang Duo muttered a few words dissatisfied, and the call of an eagle came from the sky, and she immediately stood up: "Ah, it's Jin Yang!" My brother is back! As he spoke, he whistled into the sky, and Hai Dongqing, who was hovering in the sky, immediately flew over to this side.

A team of chariots and horses appeared on the rolling hills in the distance, and the young men of the Busha tribe, who had entered the customs ten days ago to exchange goods with the Han Chinese, returned to the tribe under the leadership of Bomur, and brought back several carts of various daily necessities.

Bomur was dressed in a snow-white robe, and a red, gold, and black embroidered vest, which was made by his sister Sanduo himself, and under the jujube red turban, his forehead was densely covered with beads of sweat, obviously running all the way back to participate in the drumming festival.

Hai Dongqing landed on Sang Duo's shoulder, cooed twice, Bo Mu'er turned over and dismounted, ignoring the women who flocked to the carriage to get daily necessities, and walked straight to the oncoming Sang Duo and Zhiying.

"Brother, you're rushing back, the game is about to end." Sando pulled out his handkerchief and gave it to him.

Bo Mu'er took it and wiped the sweat on his face casually, and stuffed it back: "I bought you something that the Central Plains girl likes to eat, put it in a blue cloth bag, and get it yourself." Sanduo immediately cheered, pounced on his brother to give him a bear hug, and then flew like a butterfly to the convoy behind.

As soon as Sang Duo left, Zhiying felt embarrassed, but it was difficult to walk away, so he had to smile and say, "It's been hard all the way." ”

Bomur pursed her lips and didn't speak, reached out and took out a white paper bag from her bosom and handed it to her.

Zhiying took it suspiciously, it was not easy to dismantle it with one hand, Bo Muer took Xiao Cui Xian from her arms again, after a few months of getting along, Xiao Cui Xian was already very familiar with the brother and sister, as soon as she arrived in Bo Muer's arms, she fluttered excitedly, Bo Muer gently grabbed her little hand that slapped her face, and said, "Open it and see if you like it." ”

Zhi Ying opened the paper bag according to her words, and found that it was a beautiful pearl hairpin, although it was not sinking in her hand, but with her experience, it could still be seen that this was a pure gold hairpin, and it was worth hundreds of taels of silver to see the workmanship, so she hurriedly wrapped the paper bag back to its original state and handed it back: "This gift is too valuable, I can't accept it." ”

"There is nothing expensive or valuable, just give it to you and keep it." Bomur said nonchalantly.

Zhiying said in embarrassment: "I really can't accept it, you saved my life, and took in our mother and daughter, it is already a great favor, I can't repay it in my life, how can I still accept such a valuable gift from you?" Not really. ”

Bo Muer was silent, Zhiying insisted on returning the paper bag, he thought about it, and took it, still put it in his arms, at this time the horn sounded on the field, the last game was about to start, Bo Muer returned Xiao Cui Xian to her, and led the horse to participate in the competition, Zhiying finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Yo~ What were you two talking about?" Sanduo suddenly pounced on him from behind and asked with a wicked smile.

"It's nothing, just a few casual conversations," Zhiying pretended that nothing had happened, and dragged her back to the haystack, "Sit down and watch the game, it's the last one." ”

Most of the young people who had just returned from Ganzhou were tired, and very few of them hit the bull's-eye, but the tribesmen still cheered enthusiastically.

When it was Bomur's turn, he fastened the cuffs of his robe, still riding the horse, took the bow and quiver from the Busha maiden, and thanked her, and the maiden blushed and ran away with joy.

Sang Duo smiled and said, "My brother is amazing, he is the first every year." ”

Zhiying glanced at the arena, and Bo Muer's heroic figure reminded her of Cui Yi, the broad back that once carried her on the sedan chair and into the new house, his warm and reliable embrace on the delivery bed, and his silent and sad expression in the courtyard of Xie Mansion the night before.

Zhiying once thought that Cui Yi would never have the sad eyes of a loser, but she was wrong, no matter how powerful a man is, he can go to the battlefield and enter the court, once he can't protect his wife and children, he will still feel that he is a failure, even if he is known as the god of war.

He has been away for three months, he must have stabilized his foothold in Ganzhou, with Bailizan and Cao Qian by his side, he will not be led by the nose by the Xie family. - What did he think when he saw the letter? Do you really understand? If you don't understand it, will you tear yourself to pieces in a fit of anger, and then hate yourself to the bone and never want to see yourself again?

This is the third time that Bo Mu'er has led people into the customs since she stayed in the Buxia tribe, and every time she wants to go back and return to Cui Yi's side, but when she thinks that maybe he really thinks that he is a spy, maybe he will ignore the persuasion of others and block him, and directly cut himself with a knife, so what? My daughter is not yet a year old, do I want to die with myself?

She was timid, she wanted to go back, but she was afraid to go back, expecting that Cui Yi would try to find herself, and she was disappointed day by day.

"Good ——!" The cheers outside the arena woke her up from her memories, and she looked at it intently, Bomur had finished the game, and all seven arrows had accurately hit the red heart, and Sanduo was shouting loudly at the side, mixed with Chinese and Busha language, Zhiying knew nothing about it, but she also knew that it must be words of praise.

Bomur was still in the posture of the arrow just shot, and countless girls outside the field had already surrounded him with hand-embroidered headscarves, belts and other objects, surrounding him and his mounts, vying to give him what they had in their hands.

The old patriarch smiled brightly on his wrinkled face, handed him the gem scimitar with both hands, and Bomur immediately turned over and dismounted, respectfully knelt down on one knee, and accepted the winner's prize.

All the girls became nervous and looked at him and the scimitar in his hand expectantly.

"Every year at the Drumming Festival, the winner can give the prize to the girl of his choice, which is equivalent to a marriage proposal." Sando explained triumphantly.

Zhiying couldn't help but laugh and asked, "Your brother is the first every year, so what about the others?" ”

Sang Duo smiled and didn't answer, but said: "In previous years, no one looked down on my brother, and the prizes belonged to me in the end, I don't know who will spend this year's prizes." After speaking, he glanced at Zhiying meaningfully.

Zhiying shook her head with a smirk and walked after her.

Bomur led the horse and walked towards them in a cluster of flowers, and Sang Duo pounced on him and hugged his arm: "Brother, you don't plan to give me the prize this year, do you?" As she spoke, she winced her eyebrows, and the other girls received the signal and rushed to him, for fear that he would not see her.

However, it turned out that this was useless, and Bomur never looked away from Zhiying from just now.

"Congratulations." Try to behave naturally and not be overly enthusiastic so as not to convey any wrong message.

But her caution didn't work, Bomur looked at her, swept the scimitar in his hand again, and suddenly said, "You come with me, I have something to say to you." ”

Sang Duo immediately coaxed: "What are you saying, just say it here, let everyone listen to it!" After saying that, he repeated it again in Busha, and the girls around him echoed him, their expressions full of attachment and unwillingness.

Bo Mu'er said something in Busha without changing her face, and the girls had to disperse in disappointment, and Sang Duo pouted, took Xiao Cui Xian away, and left the two of them to talk alone.

"Follow me." Bomur led the horse towards the river beach in the distance.

Zhiying followed behind hesitantly, wanting to say something to resolve this embarrassing atmosphere several times, but he really couldn't find anything to say.

The Selun River had not yet thawed, and the silt on the river beach was as hard as iron, and Bomur walked to the river facing the sunset, and the glow reflected on his young and well-defined face, adding a bit of warmth.

The two stood several feet apart on the riverbank, one behind the other, and neither of them spoke.

"I saw a wanted warrant in the city," I don't know how long it took for Bomur to speak, "The wanted man has kidnapped a county lord, and the Ganzhou Mu has offered a reward of 1,000 taels of silver for his capture." ”

Zhiying was stunned at first, then laughed out loud and said, "I'm wanted? ”

Bomur turned his head to look at her, against the setting sun, his expression was not real, as it was the day he first saw her.

Zhiying explained: "It's probably Bailizan's idea, it's better to put a bounty on a wanted wanted person than to look for me everywhere with great fanfare, otherwise the Xie family will be annoyed and angry, and the previous efforts will be in vain." ”

Bomur still didn't say a word.

Zhiying asked helplessly: "Or do you believe that I am a Jiangyang thief, and Xian'er was abducted by me from someone else?" ”

Bomur didn't answer and asked: "Are you the princess?" ”

This time, Chang Zhiying couldn't speak, Bomur let go of the reins and let the horse go to graze by himself, took two steps forward, and stood directly opposite Zhiying: "You are not an ordinary person, who are you?" ”