Chapter 334 Heavy Snow
The easiest way to affect the performance of a horse is from the track or from the horse itself. However, this racing is a carnival of gra.s.sland herders. If someone finds out there is something wrong with the track, it will be so shameful for all honest gra.s.sland herdsmen. What’s worse, if something dangerous happens on the track, it will easily hurt the horse itself. So, the man working for the boss with a big golden tooth chooses the second option—as long as the horse can’t join in racing in time, it can’t win the championship.
The man stealthily sprinkles some powder into White Cloud’s forage and slips away back to his tent.
Waiting for him to leave, Anar comes out of the yurt. She stares at the brown powder in the forage and thinks about something. She is sore all over so she is in light sleep， and her hearing is better than ordinary people, so the uneasy sound of White Cloud’s flicking tail causes Anar’s alarm very soon.
In the dark night, she looks out through the gaps of the felt and sees the back of a leaving herdsman. Dun Zhu and other people have fallen asleep so Anar decides to keep this quiet.
“They treat you like an ordinary stupid horse… They should know you’re the pickiest one. You disdain bad pastures, not to mention this inferior thing with something in it.”
White Cloud’s eyes are shiny, with the shadow of the moon in them. It ignores its bad owner who makes fun of it and snoozes leisurely.
Anar dips some powder and smells it. She smiles, “Croton flour, really old-fashioned.”
She is stunned when she realizes what she says. It is very strange that she is so familiar with medicine, as it’s carved in her bone. Was she a doctor before she loses her memory?
She can’t find more clues so she just changes all the forage. Touching White Cloud’s neck, she goes back to sleep.
After a good night’s sleep, Ze Yitong puts on new clothes and wears a string of red coral beads. Both Dun Zhu and nana wear beautiful clothes to cheer for Anar’s racing.
Anar pauses for a moment on Ze Yitong’s coral necklace. Ze Yitong realizes it and asks her immediately, “What’s wrong? Doesn’t it look good?”
Anar shakes her head, “I just vaguely remember that at one time, I have seen big red corals somewhere. When I remember it all, I will make a string of red coral necklace for you. Do you think it’s a good idea?”
Ze Yitong nods with great joy. Dun Zhu looks at Anar with a feeling of pity. She has lost her memory for a long time and n.o.body knows when she can remember who she is. Dun Zhu hears that Anar promises to Ze Yitong with a red coral necklace, but she doesn’t take it seriously, thinking Anar is just coaxing the little girl.
The four of them talk and laugh. Ze Yitong supports Dun Zhu. Anar leads White Cloud and holds nana to go to the racing field.
Many herdsmen have surrounded around the circled field. White Cloud is gorgeous as usual, and it is still energetic. Seeing there is no sign of diarrhea, the herdsman who put the powder before turns away. Anar keeps watching everything around her. She sees some people quietly leaving the crowd, and she knows it.
Someone is gunning for White Cloud. After getting the bonus, she had to make another plan.
Anar gets into the saddle. Her neat action greatly impresses everyone.
White Cloud’s mane flies high, tangled with Anar’s hair. She leans down and tells it how to do things in a whisper, “… Just run slowly. If you try your best to run, it will be like humiliating other horses.”
In fact, it is not about humiliation, but it will be too eye-catching and may cause some problems.
White Cloud exhales quickly and deeply through its nose. It is very dissatisfied with its owner so it sc.r.a.pes the earth with its hoofs on the gra.s.s.
The small flag falls. As soon as Anar gives a pull on her reins, White Cloud rushes out instantly. Its limbs are slender and strong. Though it has suppressed its power, it still runs ahead of all other horses.
The big golden tooth stands away from crowds. He is very pleased with White Cloud’s performance—He also “appreciates” the impressive performance of the female rider.
“How is it going?”
The man says with an obsequious look, “The families of Dun Zhu are all poor guys. There is no man in the family. As for the female rider, she was picked up by the family, named Anar… I heard that she has lost her memory. There is not even a problem at all.”
“Losing memory…” The big golden tooth makes no comment. In the meantime, the final over there has come to an end.
Anar pulls on the reins and White Cloud jumps up a gra.s.sy hill. It leads by only one length ahead of the second and crosses the finish line first.
“White Cloud, White Cloud!”
“Anar!”
“That white horse win!”
Herders gather around and throw Anar high in the air. They are all cheering.
In the cheers of the crowd, the organizer of the horse racing gives Anar 100,000 yuan and invites her to a celebration party in the evening. Anar declines it politely.
“So now we go to the hospital?” Dun Zhu hesitates. As soon as Anar comes back, she persuades them to ask their acquaintances to bring their cattle, sheep, and yurt back first. As for the four of them, they go to the hospital first.
Anar nods, “Now we have enough money. Of course, we need to do it as soon as possible.”
Nana’s eye disease has always weighed heavily on Dun Zhu’s heart. Anar explains everything from this perspective so Dun Zhu is only skeptical for a while, and then she agrees to this idea quickly.
Four of them start to pack. Before dawn, they have found acquaintances to help them. Anar asks White Cloud to go back to Snow Mountains first. At dawn, they call a car in the town and go to the district level hospital.
Running some tests, the hospital says the equipment here is not advanced enough, and recommends them to go to Lhasa.
Anar takes the three of Dun Zhu to transfer. After going to the hospital and paying money, the surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday. Anar finally feels relieved after getting Dun Zhu’s feet to X-ray again and making sure her bones are healing.
There are two patients in the family so many acquaintances come here to visit. Nana is popular. Since now in her family, the members are either the little child or the old who are either sick or disabled, there is no sufficient manpower. Knowing the fact, these acquaintances promise that they will take good care of her cattle and sheep.
Adding more sheep into their original flock is nothing different. The Dun Zhu family originally doesn’t have many cattle and sheep and some of them have already been sold, so it is not troublesome to watch them for a period of time.
As a consequence, Anar takes the Dun Zhu family to rest in Lhasa with peace of mind.
While Nana’s surgery is successful, she is old so her recovery is slow. Medical infrastructure in Naqu Town is not good enough, so Anar proposes staying in Lhasa for a while to give nana time to recover.
Ze Yitong strongly supports her proposal.
Anar takes her around Lhasa. This little girl who grows up on the gra.s.sland is curious about everything about modern civilization. She also asks Anar if Lhasa is the largest city in the world.
Of course, Lhasa is not the largest city in the world. Anar is a little bit dazzling. She often sees some flashes recently. It seems that she has been to Lhasa before.
On this day, she takes Ze Yitong to the famous Jokhang Temple. The Bodhisattva looks amiable and kind, making Anar feel peace inside.
There is a scent of Tibetan b.u.t.ter in the Jokhang Temple. Is a monk making b.u.t.tered tea? Somehow, when a young Buddhist monk pa.s.ses by, Anar can feel his eyes on her. She turns around and smiles, “Master, do you know me?”
The young Buddhist monk shakes his head.
Anar feels a faint floral scent under the smell of b.u.t.tered tea. Ze Yitong has already bounded away. So Anar just smiles apologetically and catches her up.
An old monk steps forward and wonders, “Do you know this female almsgiver?”
The young Buddhist monk shakes his head, “I know who she was. I know who she will be. But I only don’t know who she is now.”
The ordinary cloister cloth cannot cover the elegance of the young Buddhist monk. The old monk thinks about it for a long time but can’t figure out what he means. At this moment, the young Buddhist monk has already paced away.
…
After the surgery, nana has gone through the observation period and been confirmed to make good progress in her recovery. At this time, Dun Zhu’s feet are also almost healed.
The four people return to Naqu gra.s.sland. It is already late November. The winter is coming on the gra.s.sland, but they hardly have time to store herbage for the winter.
Fortunately, several distant neighbors come to help, and Anar can top two laborers. They all work hard together with Dun Zhu. Their cattle and sheep may be fed well this year.
In only three months, the green gra.s.sland seems to be blown yellow by the wind in just one night. Knowing that someone has come to inquire about the whereabouts of her and White Cloud, Anar believes that she worries for nothing.
But they have been away from home for more than three months. For White Cloud, an unidentified horse, those pampered horse buyers won’t get drawn into it, especially in such an unbearably cold winter of the Naqu Town.
Anar quietly sneaks in the direction of the Silver Lake at night. When it is extremely cold in the middle of the night, White Cloud comes from the Snow Mountains as she expected.
“You only have to be patient for a little longer. After I make sure you are safe, I’ll take you to run all over the gra.s.sland!”
White Cloud is in a grievance. It rubs Anar with its head and runs back to Snow Mountains again.
Anar goes out in the freezing wind and soon falls ill when she is back. She is in a terrible fever and is always groggy. The three of Dun Zhu are almost worried to death.
Anar doesn’t know the three people’s concerns. She dreams of many pieces of memory when her head spinning because of the flu.
It seems that her family lives in a fascinating place, where fruit and vegetables grow throughout the whole year. However, when she wants to think about it carefully, she is pushed by a strange force, stopping her from going deeper.
When she opens her eyes again, it is already three days later.
She tells Ze Yitong her dream in detail. Ze Yitong laughs immediately, “Ajia, fruit and vegetables grow throughout the whole year? Where can the place be? Are you talking about paradise?”
This conversation also makes Anar herself feel skeptical, so she just forgets about it at this moment.
Seeing that she has recovered and waked up, Dun Zhu and nana finally feel relieved and begin to prepare for the “Winter Animal Slaughter”. There is less forage in winter so cattle and sheep will be hungry and lean. Herdsmen will choose to slaughter a group of cattle and sheep in the early winter as the meat resource for the family in the whole winter. It also helps the remaining cattle and sheep to survive the winter.
Anar just recovers. Dun Zhu says it is freezing outside so she shouldn’t get up. Young Ze Yitong is called upon to help. When they are killing a sheep, a yak goes wild and runs away, and Ze Yitong had to ride to chase it.
Ze Yitong has been totally familiar with riding even in her youthful age, so Dun Zhu and nana don’t have anything to worry about her.
However, they have been waiting for two hours, and Ze Yitong still doesn’t return. Dun Zhu starts to worry. She can’t sort out the beef and puts the cart before the horse to look for Ze Yitong.
One of the acquaintances, who previously helped them to take care of cattle and sheep, rides here, looked very anxious.
“Ze Yitong was taken away by a group of people on the edge of the Silver Lake. They said as an exchange, they want Anar to take the horse of heaven there!”
In the yurt, Anar upsets the wooden bowl and the hot b.u.t.tered tea spills all over the ground.
She pulls off the felt blanket with a frosty look. Taking the horse reins in Dun Zhu’s hands, she rides away.
It is snowing quite heavily outside and the yellow gra.s.sland is gradually covered with snow. Anar soon disappears.
Dun Zhu stomps her feet, “Tashi, find some people. Let’s save them!”