293. Will You Still Keep Me?

Translator: Storm in a Teacup

Unfortunately, she didn’t understand a word.

She listened to Tarico’s hoarse voice and was worried about his throat, so she called him, “Tarico, can you stop singing? It’s loud and noisy.”

Tarico stopped and looked at her with depression.

Jin Xiaoyu smiled. As expected, he was just a big boy who hadn’t grown up yet. Such a slight setback had discouraged him like this.

“Tarico, what happened last night was my fault. Can I apologize to you?” Jin Xiaoyu said.

Tarico asked her, “Have you always been like this before? If someone is nice to you, do you always repay that person with your body?”

Jin Xiaoyu said, “Not really. It depends. If I like him, then I will repay him with myself. But if I don’t like him, perhaps I’ll kill him.”

Tarico, “…”

Jin Xiaoyu added, “I don’t want to keep any secret from you. I’m never some innocent virgin. Someone like me isn’t worth your liking. If you’re disappointed with me, I can take Little Xun and leave here.”

“You want to leave?” Tarico asked in surprise.

“I’m really of no help here. Now that you’re angry, will you still keep me?” Jin Xiaoyu asked.

Tarico walked up to her angrily, “Who do you think you are?!  You think you can leave or stay whenever you want to? I won’t allow you to leave.”

“You don’t hate me?” she asked.

“What do I hate you for?”

“I’ve hurt your heart. I’m not worthy of your liking. I have an unbearablely disgraceful past. I over-indulge myself. Why are you keeping such a person?”

Tarico got worked up again. “Stop saying such nonsense. The reason that you become like this is not your fault, it is mine.”

Jin Xiaoyu thought it was funny and asked, “Your fault? In which way? ”

“It’s my fault that I hadn’t had met you earlier. If I had met you earlier, you wouldn’t be like this now!”

Jin Xiaoyu, “…”

‘This brat, why is he so serious?’

……

Little Xun got up early today and followed Mcginon to herd the sheep.

There was no need to look after the sheep all the time. They only needed to find a place for the sheep to eat the grass. Besides, they didn’t have many sheep, instead, what was more important was to look after the camel.

After Mcginon brought the sheep out, he went to cut the camel grass and let Little Xun play alone.

Little Xun ran around the grass field, picked the wild flowers, and chased after the butterflies on the meadow.

As he was playing, someone suddenly walked towards him.

This man was full of beard and was tall. Little Xun could tell easily that he was from the local tribe. Little Xun liked the local people, but he felt that the person walking towards him looked a little fierce.

This person was Mahal.

Mahal came out for herding and saw Little Xun playing around by himself. He couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you here? Your farm is not here.”

Little Xun said “sorry” and was about to go back when Mahal stopped him, “Hey, child, are you from the Zhongyuan Area?”

Little Xun nodded.

“You don’t look like a refugee. Refugees aren’t like you. You are fair-skinned and innocent. They’re all brown and dark.”

Little Xun felt that this sentence sounded like a compliment, so he said, “Thank you.”

“Oh, you’re quite polite. Where’s your family?” Mahal asked again.

Little Xun didn’t say anything.

“You only have one sister? Is she your real sister?” Mahal had seen Jin Xiaoyu a few times and felt that Jin Xiaoyu was not easy to mess with, and Jin Xiaoyu’s temperament was completely different from Little Xun’s.

Little Xun remained silent.

He knew that his background could not be easily exposed, otherwise his enemies would chase after him.

“Why are you suddenly mute,” Mahal said in the local dialect.

Little Xun felt that he couldn’t talk to Mahal anymore, so he bowed to Mahal, turned back and ran away.

Mahal could not help but say, “Humph, he’s so wary of me, just like a thief.”

……

Winter passed away soon and the people from the second farm were about to return.

Once they returned, the festival of animals would begin again.

This was the third time Ye Xiaoxian had celebrated the festival. They had completely integrated into the local customs of the tribe and followed the local herders to prepare cows and sheep for ritual sacrifices.

Ye Xiaoxian and Squire Liu were busy, while Baoshan followed Ye Xiaoxian.

Ye Xiaoxian and him were no longer indifferent to each other. The two of them would bicker and make jokes with each other.

That day, Ye Xiaoxian was roasting three sheep.

Even though they would be used as a sacrifice, it would still be eaten by people in the end, so she had to do this herself, not the others.

Ye Xiaoxian wiped the processed sheep with the sauce she had made, then put it on the fire to roast, while Baoshan helped her.

The three sheep were roasted together, and she broke out in sweat in a short while. Xiao Baoshan, on the other hand, wiped her sweat with a little handkerchief and helped turned the sheep.

“Are you tired?” Xiao Baoshan asked her occasionally.

“No.”

“When it’s done, let’s go back to the yurt and I’ll do a message for you,” Xiao Baoshan said.

Ye Xiaoxian replied shyly, “Who needs you? I can message myself. Don’t ever think about eating my tofu.”

“What do you mean by eating your tofu?”

“Take advantage of me.”

“But we are husband and wife, how can I take advantage of you?” Yan Baoshan asked.

“We are not husband and wife. You’re not even ready to marry me!” little Ye said.

Xiao Baoshan thought about it and said, “Then, when the festival is over, we will hold another wedding ceremony.”

Ye Xiaoxian didn’t reject and just chuckled in her heart.

When Baoshan saw her smile, he himself was very happy. As he realized that there was no one besides him, he quickly kissed her on the face and Ye Xiaoxian blushed.

She said, “Don’t do that.”

However, Baoshan remembered that she told him before, when a girl said “no”, she actually meant “yes”.

……

After Jin Xiaoyu came back from the second farm, she returned to the original place that she used to live im.

She still didn’t accept Tarico.

However, she didn’t know how long she could keep refusing him under Tarico’s passionate pursuit.

Yes, he was young, but he was honest and mature.

He was at times cynical, but he cared about her a lot.

He was a member of the tribe, and his living habits was entirely different from hers. Originally, she only liked the men from Zhongyuan Area, who were refined and courteous. However, towards those rough and wild men from the tribe, she felt nothing more but admiration.

But after a winter, she was worried that her faith and preference would be shaken, so she couldn’t wait to escape back.

As long as she didn’t see Tarico, she didn’t need to face his burning eyes. As long as she didn’t see him, he wouldn’t be disappointed by her repeated rejections.

It was time for the Animal Festival and Jin Xiaoyu was also helping to prepare.

At the same time, she was also quietly observing Xiao Baoshan and Ye Xiaoxian. She found that on the surface, they seemed indifferent, but in reality, their relationship had changed.

During dinner, the two of them would sit together, he would pick up food for her, and she would turn coy.

When roasting sheep, they would stand together and he would kiss her when others didn’t notice it.

It seemed that their relationship had already turned better.

Jin Xiaoyu had an indescribable feeling. She felt like she had completely become an outsider. The Xiao Baoshan that she had liked for a long time had never liked her.

……

During the festival, as the tribal leader, Tarico needed to wear the tribal leader’s clothes and host the ceremony.

Everyone in the tribe went to the ceremony. They prayed, sacrificed animals, and paid their respects to the God of Tianshan Mountains.

Jin Xiaoyu was among them.

She looked at Tarico. He was completely different from usual. He was solemn and meticulous in hosting the ceremony, especially when he worshipped the God of Tianshan Mountains.

Jin Xiaoyu remembered his vows on Tianshan Mountains and suddenly believed in his sincerity.

In their eyes, the God of Tianshan Mountains was inviolable. As long as he made an oath in front of the Tianshan Mountains God, he must not violate it.

……

Li Chengru and Qian Qi also arrived the next day.

They came with selfish motives, that was to fight against Baoshan while riding on horses and shooting arrows.

Of course, this time they didn’t participate in the tribe’s competition. The three of them were the best in the Great Qi Dynasty, how could they compete with the tribe’s people? After all, this was a tribe’s activity, and those Zhongyuan people shouldn’t take the lead.

The first to participate was the local men of the tribe, including Tarico, Mcginon and the others.

Without doubt, Tarico won this competition again.

The prize won by the competition was still six sheep. After Tarico got the prize, he took the six sheep to Jin Xiaoyu without hesitation.

Suddenly, everyone looked at Tarico and Jin Xiaoyu.

Last year, Tarico had just become the tribal leader. He confessed to a certain girl on the stage, but the gril didn’t accept him. Now, he brought the sheep in front of Jin Xiaoyu.

Ever since Jin Xiaoyu came, Tarico had been very enthusiastic, so everyone in the tribe knew that he liked Jin Xiaoyu.

However, no one knew if Jin Xiaoyu liked him or not.

Whether tribal leader could marry his wife or not would become clear today.

The local people started to cheer up from behind. Most of them supported and some just watched for fun.

There was also a girl who was scolding Jin Xiaoyu for not being worthy of Tarico. How could the local tribal leader marry a woman from the Zhongyuan Area? Plus she was a woman who was so easy and wild.

Tarico held the sheep in front of Jin Xiaoyu but didn’t say anything.

He neither propose to her, nor confessed his love. He just gave Jin Xiaoyu the sheep and left. He had to host the next event.

Jin Xiaoyu felt her heart was boiling.

If Tarico begged her for love, and begged her to marry him, she definitely didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t say whether she was willing or not because it wasn’t the time.

Asking herself from her heart, Tarico was serious about her. He treated her better than anyone else, and he didn’t care about other people’s thoughts. If they wanted to be together,  the only thing they needed was her agreement.

But she didn’t dare to promise him now. She was afraid that if she changed her mind someday, she would hurt him.

He had gave her the sheep because she had said that she had no money with her, and that there was no one else to rely on. The sheep was a big property of this tribe, so he gave them to her.

Seeing that Tarico didn’t confess in public and not knowing Jin Xiaoyu’s intentions, the public stopped cheering up.