The other man didn't have a bird's nest on his head, but he wore a straw raincoat woven from fine rice straw that wrapped around his entire body, leaving only his calves exposed in ragged cloth strips.
“Who said there's no sign of anyone? Didn't a big group pass through last time? It's just that there were too many of them, otherwise we might have made a killing.”
Nest Man sighed: “Too many? That's putting it mildly, it was downright absurd. Though they were pretty poor too, didn't look like they had much in the way of belongings.”
“Poor?” Another man also draped in a straw raincoat shivered from the cold: “Did you not see the horses? That's meat! A whole herd of meat!”
Straw-Raincoat Man licked his lips and puffed out a white mist of breath: “Meat or no meat, I also saw the blades they were carrying. With the men we've got on this mountain, they wouldn't need more than two swings to cut us all down.”
“Alright, alright, enough talk, I need to pee.” Shivering Man shuddered again: “Come on, let's find a spot to take a leak.”
The men moved with good coordination and knew the terrain well. They walked a short distance to a small slope and lined up side by side, committing their act of urination in the frozen wilderness.
“Ah, it's freezing, don't let mine get frozen stiff.” Nest Man gasped.
Straw-Raincoat Man let out a hiss: “Stiff would be fine. I've already shrunk back inside, damn it all, it's too cold to squeeze a drop out.”
Shivering Man tried to comfort them: “No worries, no worries, let's just all sing the Peeing Song together, that'll do the trick.”
“Right, right, sing it, sing it.” Nest Man chimed in.
A trembling yet spirited voice rang out across the mountainside.
“Ice and snow, we pee the stream!”
“Water flows and melts the snow, oh!”
“Melt and flow, painting a scene!”
“Shake and sway, the water goes!”
“Let it out, joy abounds!”
“Heh heh!”
Crack.
“Ice and snow... wait a second, did I just hear something?”
The men exchanged glances and spun around to look behind them.
Mu Chichi felt extremely awkward. She really hadn't meant to make a sound just now, but honestly, a group of men all peeing together while singing a Peeing Song... it was way too bizarre!
She waved her hand in greeting: “Um, sorry to interrupt. Maybe you all should continue?”
“Ah!” Nest Man yelped, pointing at Mu Chichi, along with Mu Ning, Shuangjiang, and the other female soldiers.
What had just happened?!
They'd been watched while taking a piss?!
Straw-Raincoat Man's eyes lit up, though. That woman was pretty good-looking. At the moment, he completely overlooked the fact that Shuangjiang and the others were all wearing matching padded uniforms.
He shook his exposed lower half at Mu Chichi: “Well? Like what you see? Ever seen a big beef stick?”
Having accidentally seen them pee, Mu Chichi had originally felt a bit embarrassed, but after hearing his words, her reservations disappeared. She tilted her head and looked at his crotch, confused: “That's... a big beef stick?”
Shuangjiang also looked confused: “What does that have to do with Wagyu beef? Why call it a big beef stick?”
Mu Ning shook her head: “Maybe it's because they think it's big?”
Shuangjiang nodded in agreement: “Hm, I feel like it's about the same size as the earthworms I've seen before, not even as long.”
Mu Chichi offered her critique: “To me, it looks about the same as a caterpillar. Hey, why do you call it a big beef stick?”
Straw-Raincoat Man: “...”
What did they mean? Was his big beef stick being insulted?
“No, no, your thinking is all wrong.” A female soldier around twenty years old spoke up in objection.
Shuangjiang and the others whipped their heads toward her: “What's wrong with it?”
The soldier's name was Li Xi, and she had been married before.
During their escape, they'd run into mountain bandits. Many in the village were killed, including her husband.
Later, the survivors from her village fled to Gefeng. Her mother-in-law wanted her to marry her husband's younger brother, but she refused and enlisted in the army instead.
So among them, she was the one with experience.
Li Xi was very patient and explained to Shuangjiang and the others: “These things, they can change size. But with his foundation, it's not going to change much. The base just isn't there.”
She shook her head again: “Really, way too... thin.”
Then she made a gesture with her fingers: “Right about this tiny.”
An eerie silence fell over the scene. A cold wind blew by, and Straw-Raincoat Man, who had been stunned into silence, jolted and finally snapped back to his senses.
Flushed with shame, he hurriedly yanked up his pants, his face turning red: “You, you shameless hussies, how dare you—!”
Nest Man and the others finally snapped out of it too, all pulling up their pants, their faces cycling through colors like a paint palette: “Who, who are you? Why are you here?”
Mu Chichi waved a hand dismissively: “Who we are doesn't matter. Who you are is what matters.”
Shivering Man, having now snapped back to awareness, looked at them warily: “This is no place for you. Get lost, now.”
Shuangjiang didn't even bother with words: “Tie them all up.”
With that, she darted forward first and slammed a kick into Nest Man.
Nest Man flew through the air and crashed to the ground, skidding a good ten feet across the snow before coming to a stop.
He was completely dazed from the kick, so much so that he didn't even notice his bird's nest had fallen off his head, until a gust of wind made his scalp feel cold.
He jolted in fright, scrambled to his feet with a groan, and bolted, not even bothering to call out to his companions.
Thud.
In his panic, he slammed straight into a big tree ahead of him. A shriek and blood stained the snow red.
Deep within the rugged mountains hid a relatively flat hollow.
In the hollow stood rows of low earthen huts, looking dense and crowded, their roofs made of branches and straw, covered in a layer of white snow.
In the slightly larger hut in the middle, a fire burned in a stove. Around it sat a young man and woman, along with an old man.
The old man had graying hair and wore animal furs draped over his shoulders, his hands held over the fire to warm them.
“It's much colder this year than last. If you're going to make your move, do it soon, or later on it'll be impossible to travel at all.”
The woman also reached over to warm her hands: “I'm just worried we'll be discovered, and then we won't even be able to stay here.”
The old man sighed: “If we don't go, I'm afraid many people won't survive this winter.”
The three of them fell silent.
“It's just a shame that group last time was too large, otherwise we could have seized their horses. That many horses would feed us for a long time.” The man said with regret.
The woman sighed softly: “Exactly. Among those people, the escorts must have been soldiers. We'd be no match for them.”
“I wonder which faction they belonged to?” She frowned.
The old man's expression didn't change: “Hard to say. We haven't been down the mountain in too long. Before, the only Han Chinese stronghold in Fengzhou was Ze'a Commandery.”
The woman shook her head: “Probably not Ze'a Commandery. The Quzhao people followed the path they took, and they likely came from across the sea.”
“If they were from Ze'a Commandery, they would have had docks. Why would they cut through these mountains? Everyone knows how difficult that route is.”
The old man said nothing, only staring at the flickering flames in the stove.
The man suddenly recalled something: “Last time during our operation, I overheard the Quzhao people mentioning Gefeng, and something called the Jinyang Army. Could they have been them?”
The old man frowned: “Jinyang Army? Is that a new Han Chinese faction?”
The man sounded uncertain: “Not sure. But from the anger in the Quzhao people's voices, it must be a Han Chinese force.”
The old man was about to speak when shouts rang out from outside. His expression tensed and he suddenly rose to his feet.
The young man and woman rose to their feet and hurried to open the door, only to find the hillside before the mountain hollow packed with soldiers holding crossbows.
Soldiers, presumably. They wore strange but uniform clothing, and even their hats were identical.
Oddly enough, though—every single one of these soldiers was a woman.
