Chapter 99 – Let me touch the tattoo

In Dingbian City, Chu Yuan was still writing the secret passport to the emperor, while the pigeon released by Gao Shuo had already carried the note he sent to Shen Qi and flew to the far blue sky.

The pigeons swept over the walls and flew higher and higher, and the two horses stationed on the official road below became two solidified little black dots.

Su Yan looked up suddenly from his horse, his hand on the edge of his bucket hat, squinting as he looked away into the sky. “There’s a bird,” he said, “Look, Chase, is that a pigeon?”

When Jing Hongchou looked up, there was only a little gray shadow in the sky, “Too high to see, maybe.”

Su Yan looked back at the gates of Dingbian City, vaguely feeling that he had missed something, but this little floating thought was clearly unfounded, so he shook his head and said, “Let’s go, go to Lingzhou.”

After Chu Yuan and Gao Shuo borrowed the carrier pigeons from the secret outpost stronghold to send the message, they took the remaining few Jin Yi Guards and returned to the riverbank near Yokoliangzi Town.

Sheng Qianxing was still searching in vain for the missing Imperial Su.

“How many days have passed, even if the person is still alive, I’m afraid that he has already left this place.” Chu Yuan, with the mindset of a dead horse, asked the brocade guards under his command, “Where do you think, Imperial Secretary Su might have gone?”

One of the brocade guards pondered for a moment and said, “Could he have gone south to Yan’an city? After all, Imperial Secretary Su lost all his seals and documents, and only Governor Zhou of Yan’an recognized him, so I’m afraid that going to other prefectures won’t prove his identity.”

Gao Shuo said, “You’ve all forgotten that the place that Imperial Minister Su insisted on going to before was the Clearwater Camp in Lingzhou. He’s a man with tenacity in his endeavors, so perhaps he’ll continue northward.”

Chu Yuan felt that they all had a point, and after discussing with Sheng Qianxing, he decided to split his troops into two.

Sheng Qianxing took half of the men and turned back to Yan’an City to inquire from Governor Zhou. The other half of the men were led by Chu Yuan, heading to Qing Shui Camp in Ling Zhou, searching for signs of Su Yan along the way. Su Xiaobei and Su Xiaojing were more familiar with the brocade guards and decided to follow Chu Yuan and the others.

Both sides said goodbye in the river valley, agreeing to inform each other in a timely manner no matter if they got news of Su Yan over there.

Meanwhile, Su Yan pulled down his pants beside the rocks by the stream. On the other side of the stream, the foreigner man on horseback was casting an interested gaze at him.

–

Saying that they were traveling together, on the road, Jing Hongchou and Su Yan still cautiously kept a distance of a few dozen feet from Wala’s team of horses, and rested across half a small forest.

In the night when it rained, the road is slippery not suitable for night road, the two sides had to pass in the deserted village broken temple pile up to sleep.

More than a hundred horses were herded into the overgrown yard, where a large portion of the fence had collapsed, to be watched in turn by the horse traders, while the others built bonfires in the main hall, which had not yet collapsed, to bake clothing and dry food.

Broken temple in disrepair, house: “We call it a brow lei. In winter, when the wind is bitterly cold, we wear a brow lei made of animal skins three or four fingers wide to protect us from the wind, or made of leather, studded with large pieces of gold and silver and onyx and turquoise.”

“This ribbon is too thin to be suitable for you as a brow strangler, why don’t you widen it and encrust it with gold and jade and try it as a belt instead.” Su Yan suggested. He genuinely felt that this hair ribbon scholarly gentry tied can still be considered gentle and elegant, for a prairie hulk like Altan to use, it would seem unorthodox.

Altan didn’t want to alter the ribbon, but he didn’t contradict Suyan to his face either, so he wrapped it around his left wrist and tied it in a live knot, which at first glance made him think his hand was injured.

Su Yan’s eyes moved from the other party’s wrist to his abdomen, the tree-shaped tattoo was conspicuous in the firelight, with a slight golden pearl light in the blue and white, as if a layer of gold powder had seeped under the skin.

This tree is called “Toktilak” divine tree, although only in the form of tattoos show its outline, but still can clearly see the branches of the gnarled trunk, the tree body surrounded by vines, the canopy is as luxuriant as a cloud, strong and vigorous root system has been deep to …… below the navel, did not get into the waist of the pants.

His chest was hot for no reason, and he busily inhaled the moist night breeze vapor to dispel this inexplicable heat, and said with a bit of a blush, “I still have an unkind request …… Can I touch your tattoo?”

Altan froze. The Vaarans around the campfire had been eating, drinking, and joking, but I don’t know who heard this and muttered to their companions with surprised faces, causing all of them to turn their heads to look at them.

Wide-eyed, the scene was a little awkward for a while.

Su Yan could not help but suspect that he had said something wrong and violated their taboo, thinking of the other party’s attribute of “if you don’t get along, you can always pull out your sword”, he immediately shrunk his neck: “No, no, I casually asked a blind question, don’t take it seriously – No, no, I’m just asking, don’t take it seriously -“

Alertan frowned slightly, his face serious, and as Jing Hong chased after him and pressed his sword, he suddenly took Su Yan’s hand and solemnly pressed it to his abs, “You touch.”

The atmosphere in the broken temple inexplicably permeated with tension, Su Yan swallowed, the knot in his throat slid up and down for a moment, his fingers grinding back and forth on the tattoos, and rubbing his fingertips as he withdrew them.

No black stains, no powder or stickiness.

The dyes used in tattooing go deep into the texture of the muscle and do not lose their color due to external friction.

“What do you use for tattoo dye?”

“Powder ground from mica stone, with plant juices.”

“And the other tribes of the Northern Desert as well?”

Alertan didn’t know exactly what he wanted to know, but still answered patiently, “Yes, the tattoo dyes all have similar formulas. My people love gold, so they add more mica powder, which will shimmer slightly like gold when the light hits it.”

Su Yan’s mind turned: the Tartar cavalryman who took him captive, the color of his chest wolf tattoo fell off, so it must not be tattooed, but painted. It seems that the identity of this group of people is suspicious, whether or not it is the Tatar tribe is still difficult to say. If not, which tribe are they? And why did they disguise themselves as Tartars and enter Daming’s territory to plunder? Were they trying to start a war, or were they planting evidence?

From this, if the invasion of the border is not all Tatars, there are other tribes of cavalry, but their leaders in the open to the Jinglong Emperor’s solicitation to express the intention to respond, secretly will not have another intention?

With curled fingers, he pressed them against his jaw in contemplation. For his part, Alltan gazed down at his head, the dye spiked with the pounded juice of the fruit of the sacred tree, the ancestors of the underworld would shield him from the evil fronts of the malady. Do not allow others to touch it except blood relatives and mates, lest they leak the soul breath and dishonor the gods, leading to bad luck descending upon them.

He took this exhortation seriously, and therefore never allowed his handmaidens and servants to stay close to him. When he wrestled with others, he also wrapped a cloth belt around his abdomen. There was once a boy from the tribe who didn’t know what he was doing, but after losing, he was not happy and went to pull on his belt, and he broke his arm directly by pouting. Over time, people in the tribe all know his taboo, and no one to touch his scales.

That’s why just now, when he unprecedentedly allowed Su Yan to touch his tattoo, his companions were so surprised and couldn’t help their curiosity and ridicule, making wild guesses and comments.

Even Altan himself wasn’t sure why he had made an exception for a young man from the Central Plains whom he had met in passing.

But he knew that this teenager was by no means an ordinary traveler. On this trip to the Clear Water Camp in Spirit State, there might be strong winds that would stir up a pool of clear water into the expected whale waves of fury.