The Lucky Farmgirl

Chapter 2155 - 2130: Making Acquaintances

Zhou Liru rode on the horse, his eyesight being the best, immediately pointed to a spot and said, "Little aunt, rabbit!"

Manbao immediately turned to look, squinting her eyes for quite a while before spotting the gray rabbit lying in the grass.

She hushed everyone, took a bow, aimed for a while, and then shot. After two days of effort, her archery improved a bit, and at this moment, the rabbit probably thought they hadn’t noticed it and stayed motionless in the grass.

So the arrow flew out, well, grazing the rabbit’s ear and hitting the ground.

The rabbit jumped up in surprise and started to run, but who knew the next arrow would pierce right through its neck. Manbao turned back to see Bai Shanzheng lowering his bow, grinning as he looked at her.

Bai Erlang, Liu Huan, and Zhou Liru were already excited, riding forward quickly, grabbing the rabbit by the ears and picking it up, "Got it, got it, the rabbit Mr. Zhuang has been talking about for two days has finally been caught."

Yin Huo lightly nudged his horse’s belly, went forward for a look, then turned back smilingly to ask the two, "Are you guys going hunting again?"

He had just spent too much time in the carriage, so he came out on horseback to walk with them, mostly trotting, wandering ahead. If they went hunting, he probably couldn’t follow them.

Bai Erlang, full of enthusiasm, urged, "Let’s go, let’s go, I see this road doesn’t have many people, maybe we can actually find rabbits on the grass."

Manbao also wanted to go, so she turned and said to Yin Huo, "You walk slowly behind us, we’ll take a lap first, and if there’s nothing, we’ll come back for you."

Yin Huo then waved with a smile, "Go ahead."

Thus, the five of them raced off on horseback, with Daji quickly leading the guards to catch up.

In no time, only Yin Huo, an old man, and two guards from the Yin Family were left at the original spot.

Yin Huo saw them running far, lightly kicked his horse’s belly, and also trotted along slowly.

There were originally not many rabbits on the prairie, maybe just as Bai Erlang said, not too many people passed through here. As they shouted and rode forward, they quickly startled a couple of rabbits and started chasing after them.

After persistently shooting three arrows, Manbao finally hit a running rabbit on her fourth.

Zhou Liru, who hadn’t learned horseback archery yet, could only ride behind and cheer, happily shouting, "My little aunt hit a rabbit..."

The voice was so loud that even the caravan on the distant main road could hear it.

The people on the main road couldn’t help squinting toward the source of the sound, vaguely seeing several riders galloping on the prairie.

He turned back with a smile, "The master’s disciples seem quite good at horseback archery."

Mr. Zhuang smiled, stroked his beard, and said, "Just a bit competent, not that good."

He took it as if it was humility.

Yin Huo, riding leisurely, caught up from behind and saw their caravan stopped in the middle of the road. Mr. Zhuang and others had gotten out of the carriage, so he rode to the front, got off the horse, and saluted Mr. Zhuang, "Why has the teacher stopped?"

The steward at the side said, "Young master, the merchant’s carriage had some issues, it’s being repaired, the teacher said to wait for a bit."

Mr. Zhuang waved to him with a smile, "Come closer, this is Old Master You from Taiyuan, heading to Shazhou, he’s familiar with this route, we might share the road for part of the way."

Yin Huo smiled and stepped forward to greet.

Mr. Zhuang introduced to Old Master You, "This is one of my students, Yin Huo."

Old Master You scrutinized Yin Huo silently, seeing that he looked somewhat undergrown and was pale, but with an elegant demeanor, obviously of noble birth, quickly returned the courtesy with a smile.

Old Master You’s carriage had a problem with the wheel, luckily they had a spare prepared, just needed to replace it.

But it required unloading first, then disassembly and installation, taking some time. Fortunately, Mr. Zhuang and his group encountered them when they were already installing, so they didn’t need to wait long.

This was also why Mr. Zhuang didn’t have them bypass on the grass.

Yin Huo stood waiting for a while, till they finished installing the wheel, and the workers immediately loaded the luggage back onto the carriage, then set off.

Old Master You glanced at the prairie, uncertain of where the riders from before had gone. He hesitated a bit but said, "Master, your other disciples haven’t returned yet..."

Mr. Zhuang waved his hand indifferently, "It’s alright, since we’re on the main road, they’ll find their way back."

Old Master You: "... Master doesn’t know, there are three forked paths ahead, all inconveniently being main roads, it’s easy to get lost if it’s your first time, so..."

Mr. Zhuang remained confident, "They’ll find their way. We’ll worry about it if they can’t find us."

After all, they were in this area, if they couldn’t find them, they could always send someone back to search, people couldn’t just disappear.

It seemed this was Old Master You’s first encounter with such a nonchalant master, he paused and then responded with a smile, returning to his own carriage.

Yin Huo also didn’t ride anymore, supporting Mr. Zhuang back to their carriage.

"Teacher, shall we continue the journey with them?"

Mr. Zhuang smiled, "Let it be."

It really depended on fate, "These merchants travel between the inner and outer passes for years and are knowledgeable. You can ask them for advice during the evening rest."

Yin Huo understood; this was specially arranged for them to gather information.

He smiled, "Teacher, Bai Shan and the others hit a rabbit."

Mr. Zhuang chuckled, "Very good, we can cook rabbit meat for dinner."

After racing afar, Manbao and her group ultimately returned with one rabbit each, even Daji and the guards had one in hand.

Initially, Daji wanted to string them together with a rope to carry them back, but Manbao and her companions refused, insisting on holding one in their hands and jogging back.

They caught up with the others a bit past the fork in the road. As for recognizing the way, Manbao wasn’t well-versed, but she had Keke;

Bai Shan knew they needed to head northwest, roughly keeping that direction, but he still hesitated between the two roads.

Finally, Daji got off the horse to take a look, picked a direction, and they followed.

Not long after, with the sun about to set, scouts up ahead found the campsite, they were lucky enough to find a spot by the water again, with signs of previous camps.

Old Master You also mentioned, "We always rest here for a night when passing by."

When both caravans stopped, Manbao and her group finally met Old Master You formally, learning that he was a merchant from Taiyuan, heading to Shazhou this time, causing their eyes to light up.

They too were going beyond Yumen Pass, conveniently on the same route.

So Bai Shan kindly offered them two rabbits, and by sunset, both parties sat together to eat, drink, and chat.

Manbao curiously asked him, "Old Master You, how many years have you been traveling between Shazhou and Taiyuan?"

Although this Lord Zhuang had a female disciple and even took her out on errands, which was surprising, Old Master You didn’t show it on his face, he smiled, "It’s been eight or nine years, I suppose."