Herbal Medicine Paste
Seeing Shen Rong sprint away, Zhao Shu sprang to his feet. “Where are you going?”
Shen Rong’s voice drifted back from afar. “The toilet! Nature’s calling!”
Zhao Shu never forgot Xiao Yuanyao’s orders. “Guo’er, go with him.”
“Huh? Me?”
Zhao Shu kicked him. “You’ve got sharp eyes, so hurry up! If you lose him, the squad leader will give you hell when he gets back!”
Zhao Guo scrambled after him. He hadn’t expected Shen Rong to move so fast. In the space of a few sentences, he’d vanished into the dark woods.
It was late, and the forest was still. Not a breath of wind stirred. Zhao Guo clasped his hands and offered up a quick prayer, then edged forward, muttering, “Young Brother Shen, don’t leave us behind! If you’re going to the toilet, just call out. I promise I won’t look at your butt.”
Shen Rong had already followed the marker to find the horses.
The system’s ten-minute time limit probably meant the herd would be somewhere nearby for those ten minutes. If he ran out of time, the horses might move, and tracking them down would be even more trouble.
Shen Rong had never lived in ancient times, but he knew enough to understand that in a chaotic age like this, when people could barely feed themselves, anyone who could afford to keep horses was either rich or powerful. Even with that kind of influence, raising a whole batch of warhorses was no easy feat.
Now he’d stumbled across five for free. Leading them back to Xiao Yuanyao would be the perfect way to prove his worth.
Shen Rong found a new burst of energy. After following the marker for seven or eight minutes, he heard hoofbeats nearby.
He pushed aside another patch of tall grass and spotted several dark shapes turning in place, snorting. Every one of the horses was sleek and well-fed, clearly raised on good fodder.
Shen Rong’s eyes lit up. He parted the grass and slipped out.
At the same time, Zhao Guo, who was searching everywhere for Shen Rong, suddenly felt a hand grab his shoulder.
He turned and lowered his voice. “Eldest young master!”
Xiao Yuanyao frowned, apparently displeased by the title. A few wild herbs were tucked inside his robe. “What are you doing here? Where’s Shen Rong?”
Zhao Guo hurriedly explained, “Young Brother Shen said he had to relieve himself. My brother was worried, so he sent me to look for him. I’ve been searching forever and still can’t find him.”
Xiao Yuanyao said nothing.
Zhao Guo ventured, “Could he have run off? He swore up and down that he’d follow you, so I didn’t stay alert enough…” He slapped his forehead. “Agh, it’s all my fault!”
Xiao Yuanyao lowered his lashes, a hint of danger in his eyes. “What about his box?”
“Still where we left it.”
Xiao Yuanyao’s expression instantly relaxed. “He hasn’t gone far. Go back the way you came, before you get lost too.”
Zhao Guo felt as though he’d been dragged out just to take a lap. “What about you?”
“He’s a stranger whose movements are hard to explain. I need to see what he’s up to.”
So Zhao Guo had lost track of Shen Rong, and now he watched Xiao Yuanyao disappear too. For a moment, he felt as if even his parents had abandoned him. He shuddered and hurriedly shook his head.
Unless he’d seen wrong, those herbs tucked inside the eldest young master’s robe were for keeping insects away. The rest of them were tough enough not to need them. Only Shen Rong had been bitten all over. Suddenly, something clicked in Zhao Guo’s mind.
His clear black-and-white eyes blinked slowly. Ohhh, so that was it.
Meanwhile, Shen Rong was struggling with the five horses.
The good news: he’d found the horses.
The bad news: they were all stubborn as mules.
“Come on, be good! I’m taking you from the dark side to the light! We’re going to join Xiao Yuanyao, and then we’ll eat well and live well. When he founds a dynasty, you’ll all be honored veterans!” Shen Rong did his best to paint them a rosy picture. “Giddy-up! Get moving!”
The horses circled in place, and one slapped him in the face with its tail.
In his frustration, Shen Rong jabbed the tree branch he was using to herd them into one horse’s rump. Startled, the horse reared, its front legs rising nearly vertical.
Shen Rong stumbled backward, and was about to crash into another horse’s head.
At the last second, a shadow darted through the trees. Shen Rong felt a rush of cool air over his head. The next instant, the horse’s head was yanked aside, and it let out a piercing whinny.
Still shaken, Shen Rong looked up. Xiao Yuanyao was riding one of the horses, holding two severed lengths of rein.
The horses that had ignored Shen Rong’s every command acted like mice before a cat at the sight of Xiao Yuanyao. In no time, he had them docilely lined up at the edge of the woods, where they began nibbling tree bark.
Shen Rong licked his dry lips and watched Xiao Yuanyao stride toward him, tall and broad-shouldered.
Was he going to hit him?
Shen Rong hurriedly ran a hand through his hair. “Uh, well, I can explain. Actually…”
“Are you hurt?”
“Huh?” Shen Rong thought he’d misheard. “What?”
Xiao Yuanyao’s voice was clear and pleasant, caught between boyhood and manhood. “These are King Liang’s horses. It’s said that when he trains them, he burns a special human incense around them. Once trained that way, they stop fearing people and grow more ferocious the longer they fight. These horses are usually very hard to handle. If you try to drag them around, they might trample you.”
“Incense made from people?” Shen Rong asked without thinking.
Xiao Yuanyao skipped over that. “Did one of them step on you?”
Shen Rong awkwardly rubbed his nose. “Oh, it didn’t get the chance. You suddenly showed up and played the hero to my poor self.”
Xiao Yuanyao found a rock, casually wiped the dust off it with his sleeve, and gestured for Shen Rong to sit.
Conditions were this rough, and Xiao Yuanyao was still so particular…
Shen Rong went over and sat down without a word. “Aren’t you going to ask why I’m here?”
Xiao Yuanyao was in no hurry. “You’ll tell me if you want to.”
Shen Rong wanted to talk to someone, just to calm his racing heart. “I do want to tell you.”
Xiao Yuanyao remained impassive. “Then go ahead.”
Shen Rong cleared his throat. “Actually, I came out to take care of business. I’d only walked a little way when I heard horses. I thought you were soldiers, so you might need them. I wanted to find them for you, but I didn’t dare go back and call anyone in case they ran off, so I came by myself.”
Xiao Yuanyao gave a quiet “Mm.” “Got it.”
Got it?
That was it?
It was such a flimsy excuse, and Xiao Yuanyao hadn’t even asked for details.
Shen Rong really couldn’t tell what Xiao Yuanyao was thinking anymore. The fact that he wasn’t pressing for answers only made Shen Rong more uneasy. He glanced at Xiao Yuanyao and saw several wild herbs tucked into the overlap of his robe.
Only when he noticed Shen Rong looking did Xiao Yuanyao reach in and take them out.
He didn’t say anything. He just found another rock and crushed the herbs against the large one Shen Rong was sitting on, then said, “They repel insects. Rub them on your skin and they’ll soothe the itching too.”
Shen Rong was speechless. After a long moment, he scooped up a lump of the herbal mash and smeared it over his horribly bitten shin.
“Thanks.”
He felt a little conflicted. Ever since meeting Xiao Yuanyao, he’d labeled him a founding emperor. Some part of him had assumed that people like that were dangerous, and his knowledge of history from his own world had led him to imagine Xiao Yuanyao as cold-blooded, merciless, and unpredictable.
But in reality, although Xiao Yuanyao was cold and naturally vigilant, he also had a warm side. He even made a point of looking after the weaker members of his group, and had taken time out of their escape to find Shen Rong some herbs to keep the insects away.
The system had been right about one thing: Xiao Yuanyao really was a decent person.
Thinking of the muscular Zhao brothers, Shen Rong suddenly realized that Xiao Yuanyao took good care of everyone around him.
Still feeling conflicted, Shen Rong smeared some more herbal mash on his arm.
That felt much better. So Xiao Yuanyao had been looking after him too, as a matter of course…
Xiao Yuanyao didn’t stay by his side. After preparing the herbs, he went to check on the horses. Shen Rong couldn’t make out his expression from this distance, and had no idea whether his offering had earned Xiao Yuanyao’s trust.
The clouds parted over Shuangshen Mountain, and the moon finally deigned to shed a little light on them.
They were already more than halfway down the mountain. At least it wasn’t so dark that they couldn’t see their hands in front of their faces.
Zhao Shu glanced up at the moon and was just about to go looking for them when the clop of hooves came from the woods.
They all looked over. Several horses came first, with Xiao Yuanyao and Shen Rong behind them. Shen Rong had just said he was going to relieve himself.
Zhao Shu was stunned. “W-where did those come from?”
Zhao Guo hurried over. “Did you find them, Squad Leader? This is great! We’re going to be rich!”
At current horse-market prices, each horse was worth at least thirty to fifty taels of silver! If they sold a few and brought the rest back, those people wouldn’t dare look down on their young master anymore.
Xiao Yuanyao took no credit. “Shen Rong found them, not me.”
Shen Rong’s pale face peeked out from behind Xiao Yuanyao. “Brother Zhao helped me tame them.”
The Zhao brothers were so stunned they couldn’t speak. How come they never found horses when they went to relieve themselves? What was Shen Rong’s story? Everything had gone far too smoothly since they’d met him. He’d even managed to stumble into a small fortune.
The Zhao brothers’ eyes drifted off again. Was this man really a god who’d descended to earth? Had the old master seen how hard the eldest young master was having it and sent him some good fortune?
Shen Rong emerged, covered in herbal mash. “There’s only a little way left to go down the mountain. Now that we have horses, we can take a shortcut instead of sticking to this route.”
He stole a glance at the system’s navigation. When he’d successfully found the horses, the little walking figure on the map had turned into a foal marker. The navigation had switched to horseback mode.
Xiao Yuanyao gave everyone a slight nod. Night was getting late, and riding was certainly faster than walking, as well as safer.
Zhao Shu and Zhao Guo thanked Shen Rong and Xiao Yuanyao, then hurried off to pick their horses, full of excitement. The others who weren’t soldiers under Xiao Yuanyao’s command eagerly followed. They stroked the horses as tenderly as if they were touching gold.
They only had a few horses. This was nothing. Once Xiao Yuanyao made his mark, he’d be commanding armies of tens of thousands beneath waving banners. That was what you called a truly grand spectacle.
Shen Rong couldn’t help smiling along with them. The prize was practical, and they certainly needed it. But soon, he stopped grinning.
There were five of them and five horses, all right.
But counting Shen Rong, who’d joined them along the way, there were now six people and five horses. If the extra person didn’t want to run, he’d have to ride double with someone else.
Shen Rong looked toward the Zhao brothers, who had already picked their horses and were so happy they’d forgotten the world around them.
The other two, whom he didn’t know as well, met his eyes and quickly looked away with wary expressions. They didn’t seem like an option either.
Only then did Shen Rong truly grasp how rotten the romance system was.
It gave him resources, but couldn’t it spare one more horse? What was he supposed to do now? Could someone as suspicious as him really ride pillion with Xiao Yuanyao? He hadn’t even been approved to join the server yet!
Shen Rong stomped on two weeds in a little fit of pique. He was still bristling when a shadow came trotting over to him.
He looked up. Xiao Yuanyao had tied his toolbox securely to the side of a horse. Broad-shouldered and straight-backed, he turned slightly and held out a hand to Shen Rong.
“Forgive me. I’ll need you to keep showing me the way.”
Before Shen Rong could react, Xiao Yuanyao hauled him up. By the time he could see clearly again, the horse was ready to set off.
Xiao Yuanyao held the reins at his side, and Shen Rong was tucked securely in his arms, sitting sideways in a thoroughly embarrassing position.
Why was he sitting sideways? Did Xiao Yuanyao think he had no dignity?
The system’s navigation had already set off a whole display of fireworks. Even the direction marker was glowing like a wedding celebration. Shen Rong shakily raised a hand. “This way…”
Xiao Yuanyao’s voice rumbled behind him as he urged the horse on. Before Shen Rong had even settled in, they were already galloping.
He heard the deep rhythm of breathing by his ear as moonlight and shadows from the trees painted a shifting picture over them. In his panic, Shen Rong felt himself slowly entering this world, led by Xiao Yuanyao.
“Don’t regret it,” Xiao Yuanyao suddenly said.
The wind was too strong for Shen Rong to hear him. “What~ did~ you~ say~?”
Xiao Yuanyao bent closer, and his voice suddenly came through clearly. “If you follow me, don’t regret it. You didn’t want to go work in the county, so I’ll take you back to camp with me. I don’t care who you were before. From now on, you’ll have to listen to me. If you run off again and I catch you, it won’t be settled with just a couple of words.”
Author’s Note:
Shen: Am I joining the founding team already?! [Glasses]
Dayao: What’s this? A wild wife! I’ll pick him up and take him home! [Sunglasses]
(Xiao Yuanyao still had no idea what an incredible treasure he’d just brought into the group.
*The military system is modeled on the Ming. One squad has 5 men, and ten squads make a unit (50 men). I’ll explain the higher ranks when they come up.