Crossing the Mountains

Chapter 17 Multiple Hints
"Oh, I played with this when I was a kid." The owner, a native of Wuxu, felt particularly familiar with the rattle and said in his native dialect mixed with Daxuan dialect, "Mudu Luo, we call it Mudu Luo."

"Okay." It was indeed Mudu Luo.

Shentu Zhuo thought that Tan Huaike’s answer last time was very accurate. She really understood the Wuxu language, so she was a Wuxu person?

So he repeated Tan Huaike's real name: "Abdu Yil Salani, what does this name mean?"

The boss looked confused: "What?"

Shentu Zhuo frowned and said it again: "Abdu Yil Salani, am I pronouncing it wrong? Abdu, Yil, Salani, a person's name, have you ever heard of such a name? What's her last name and her first name?"

The boss shook his head: "I don't understand. This is definitely not Wuxu language, nor is it the name of the Wuxu people."

"It's not Wuxu language? Then what is it?" Shentu Zhuo was confused.

"I don't know. There are many small countries in the west, and what people say is a mess..." said the boss helplessly.
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Shentu Zhuo did not give up.

He reflected on it, realizing he'd preconceived notions about her being a descendant of the Wuxu tribe, like the original Tan Huaike. After all, she actually spoke Wuxu dialect like "Mudu Luo," which had led him astray from the start. He'd learned the Ti'nu language himself, and he could tell it wasn't Ti'nu either. It was most likely the language of one of the smaller nations in the western border.

In that case, it wouldn't be difficult to find out the true meaning of that sentence, and I could also confirm where she was from. Zhangye County was in no shortage of people from the Western Territory, so there was always someone who could understand.

Shentu Zhuo then asked several people from different countries, one of whom was a musician in the Yuefu. This musician had come to Daxuan with his parents in his early years to make a living. He was a native Mohe person and he understood the meaning of this sentence as soon as he heard it.

Seeing him nodding repeatedly, Shentu Zhuo asked happily, "So what's her last name, and what does her name mean in Daxuan dialect?"

The musician replied, "That is not a name. Mohe has no such name."

"It's not a name?" Shen Tu Zhuo frowned. Was he being tricked? She still didn't want to reveal her real name?
"Abudu means sand, 'yi'er' means to bury something, 'salan' refers to colorful beads, and 'ni' is a meaningless ending sound, indicating a... uh, how should I put it, intimacy or playfulness," the musician explained. "As I understand it, this sentence means the colorful beads are buried in the sand... 'salanni, colorful beads?'"

"what?"

"Ah, I understand." The musician suddenly realized, "If the person who said this told you that this was her name, then her Mohe name should be Salani, which in Daxuan dialect is almost the same as Caizhu'er. But she added some embellishments and said she was Caizhu'er buried in the sand."

"Caizhu'er, buried in the sand." Shentu Zhuo chewed on the name, "Caizhu'er..."

"Our Mohe people's names are different from those of the Daxuan people. We don't have a family name, so members of the tribe naturally know their relationship. Parents only give their children nice names to express their hopes."

After thanking the musician, Shentu Zhuo fell into deep thought.

Is she a Mohe?
What does it mean to be buried in the sand? What happened to this Hu woman named Caizhuer?

When did she enter the customs? And why did she end up in the Tan family?

She repeatedly hinted that she was investigating why her brother died in battle. Was this a pretense as a widow, seeking inheritance and compensation? Or was she worried that she was also implicated in the incident?

But my brother has never had anything to do with the Mohe people...

and many more.

Shentu Zhuo suddenly remembered that there was an arranged marriage between Mo He and Da Xuan!

This was common knowledge. The two nations had set the auspicious date for the tenth day of the tenth month of the following year, leaving them with over a year to prepare. Commoners considered the date distant and didn't dwell on it, but according to state etiquette and customs, Princess Mohe should enter the pass early to meet the emperor, so she could learn the rituals of Daxuan, become accustomed to the rules of the royal family, and finally meet her husband.

This suggests that Mo He should be making some moves. If Princess Mo He's marriage party were to arrive, the Zhenxi Army of Daxuan would definitely send people to greet and protect them.

So, brother was ordered to leave the country?
That's not right. If the marriage party had come, regardless of success or failure, how could the four Hexi counties have been so peaceful? If my brother met with an accident, why would the army have to hide it?
Shentu Zhuo pondered for a long time because of the name of a Hu woman.

Now the situation inside and outside the Great Wall is so confusing. He always feels that he has grasped some outlines, but he also always feels that there are too many key points that he cannot figure out.

He is not a person who would ignore a mystery. Unsolved problems would make him uncomfortable all over. Otherwise, he would not have been so obsessed with the suspicious points about Tan Huaike.

After careful consideration, Shentu Zhuo decided to send a letter of silk to Andu.

Instead of sending someone to the post station to deliver the letter, he called a captive wild goose, sealed the silk letter with wax, and tied it to the goose's leg.

Shuoyan sent the silk letter to the southeast, looking for the owner's old friend who was about to get married.
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In fact, Tan Huaike had no intention of teasing Shen Tu Zhuo, she just wanted to protect herself as much as possible.

Caizhu'er was just an ordinary daughter of a Hu merchant, yet fate had brought her to this point. She was the only survivor in the valley that night, and the safest thing for her now was to hide.

On her deathbed, Princess Alan had asked her to deliver a message to Prince Mohe, saying that even after her death, the marriage would continue. Yet, the entire contingent of the marriage was slaughtered, yet the two countries acted as if nothing had happened. At least, there were no official negotiations, and even the border remained as stagnant as a pool of water, without a single ripple.

With her own perspective, she couldn't see through the hidden truth, so she didn't dare act rashly. She could only secretly encourage Shen Tu Zhuo to investigate the cause of his brother's death. Judging from the time of his death and the weapon in the coffin, she always felt that her husband was the general of Daxuan who tried to rescue them that night.

She told Shentu Zhuo that her name was "Abdu Yilsalani", hoping that he could use this Mohe language to uncover the truth buried in the sand.

Caizhuer can no longer remain in this world.

Now she can only live under someone else's roof and temporarily live like Tan Huaike.

But Tan Huaike also wants to live a good life and achieve her goals of revenge and freedom step by step. So she has to make good use of everything she has, gain a firm foothold, and work hard to make money.

The first thing to solve is the problem of fullness.

It’s not that she really didn’t have enough to eat at the Shentu family, but she didn’t want to have to rely on others for food anymore.

Although Tan Huaike had reached a tacit agreement with Madam Shentu: she would not compete or fight, and might even bring them some benefits, as long as they did not interfere with her, she was still an outsider with no one to rely on. Currently, no one in the family regarded her as the mistress of the eldest son's family. In fact, many people thought she was a burden to the Shentu family, and that she was taking advantage of them by eating more.

For example, Liao's mother.

Because of her deliberate making things difficult for her, not only was her food withheld at Qinglu, but there were also several times when the food Pei'er brought back was either cold or too little, or there were hard leftover cakes and rotten vegetables that had gone bad.

Tan Huaike told Shentu Zhuo that his chef's Western cuisine was unpalatable. In fact, it was not because of his poor cooking skills, but that the meals he and Pei'er received were not fresh every time, as if they were specially saved with stale vegetables and naan for them to eat.

It's okay if it happens once or twice, but it's too annoying if it happens all the time.

So Tan Huaike wanted to separate from them as soon as possible, store his own food in the side yard, start his own stove, and cook his own meals.

At this moment, she was holding the land deed to check where the five acres of land given to her by Mrs. Shentu was.
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[Double update in progress, scroll back to get the next chapter.]

　Next chapter: dampen the fighting spirit.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)