Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 317 Xiaoan Village

The envoy originally planned that after arriving at Chonghua Fang, he would be met by people from the Five Gods Sect, and he would no longer be subject to Yan Ciwan's control. However, this woman was even more cunning than he had anticipated.

Now that his plan had failed, the thought of being humiliated by this woman again made him feel that the future was bleak.

Yan Ciwan, however, could not comprehend his grief and indignation at all; she only cared about where the main altar was.
"Xiao'an Village."

After saying those three words, the envoy closed his eyes and pretended to be dead. No matter how Yan Ciwan pressed him for answers, he refused to say another word.

Yan Ciwan clicked her tongue: "Quite a temper."

She dragged the cart down the mountain. The mountain road was rugged and uneven, and the cart bounced violently. The envoy was so shaken that he felt dizzy and his right shoulder injury became more and more painful.

Even so, he gritted his teeth and refused to speak to Yan Ciwan again.

After descending the mountain, the road became much smoother, and Yan Ciwan saw people selling things by the roadside.

She walked up to a stall selling baked flatbreads, bought five sesame flatbreads, and asked the stall owner for directions to Xiao'an Village.

The stall owner shook his head, indicating that he had never heard of Xiao'an Village.

Yan Ciwan then went to ask the vendor selling wild fruits next door about Xiao'an Village, but the vendor also said he didn't know.

She looked around and noticed someone selling donkeys ahead.

The seller was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a coarse cloth shirt with several patches and worn-out straw sandals. He was squatting by the roadside, looking worried.

There were many people coming and going on the road, and he wanted to call out several times, but in the end he shut his mouth in frustration.

How much is your donkey?

Upon hearing someone ask the price, the man was overjoyed, stood up abruptly, and quickly replied, "Ten strings of cash!"

Only after he finished speaking did he realize that the person asking the price was a young woman of about seventeen or eighteen.

Yan Ciwan didn't know the market price of the donkey. She looked at the donkey and saw that it was quite strong and had smooth fur, which meant it was well taken care of by its owner.

Perhaps the donkey knew it was going to be sold, because it looked dejected.

Seeing that Yan Ciwan didn't speak, the man thought she thought his price was too high, so he hurriedly explained, "Our donkey is very well raised. If it were sold in the West Market, it would fetch at least twelve strings of cash. I'm only asking for ten strings, which is already very cheap!"

Yan Ciwan then asked, "If that's the case, why don't you sell them in the West Market?"

The man said nervously in a low voice, "We don't have to pay stall fees here, and we can save on taxes."

Yan Ciwan understood immediately. The transaction tax in the Daye Dynasty was quite high. If this person went to the West Market, after deducting the stall fee and tax, the money he would earn would be reduced by at least half.

She reached out and touched the donkey's back, and the donkey shook its head uneasily.

The man carefully observed her. Although she was wearing a veil and his face was obscured, he could tell from the fabric of her clothes that she came from a well-off family. A lady of such high birth would ride a horse, not a donkey.

He asked nervously, "May I ask, are you buying this donkey to kill it and eat it?"

Yan Ciwan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised that he would ask such a question.

“I want to use it to pull the cart,” she said, pointing to the cart parked next to her.

The man breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. Although this donkey is an animal, it's very intelligent. My family has raised it for two years, and everyone in the family loves it. If my family hadn't been in such a hurry for money, I wouldn't have been willing to sell it." Yan Ciwan took out a silver ingot from her purse: "I don't have ten strings of cash on me, but I have ten taels of silver here. Is that alright?"

In theory, ten strings of cash are equal to ten taels of silver. However, silver is a rare commodity. If you were to exchange it on the market, the real value of ten taels of silver would be higher than ten strings of cash. Yan Ciwan's actions essentially allowed the other party to gain an advantage.

The man was overjoyed and hurriedly took the silver ingot: "Alright, alright! This donkey is yours. Oh, and here are two pounds of buckwheat husks, you can have those too. If the donkey gets hungry later, you can feed it with these."

After saying that, he took the cloth bag off his shoulder and put it on the donkey's back.

Thinking that he would soon be separated from the donkey, the man reluctantly stroked the donkey's back, and then said to Yan Ciwan.

"This donkey is very hardy, you can do whatever you want with it, as long as you give it some food."

Yan Ciwan knew he was afraid she would kill the donkey and eat it, so she promised, "Don't worry, I won't eat it."

The man looked grateful: "Thank you."

He was very fortunate to have found such an understanding and good owner for the donkey.

Yan Ciwan casually asked, "Do you know how to get to Xiao'an Village?"

She had assumed he would also say he didn't know, but to her surprise, the man nodded and replied, "I know."

Yan Ciwan was surprised: "I just asked several people, and they all said they didn't know."

The man smiled憨厚ly and explained, "That place is very remote. The villagers rarely interact with the outside world, and outsiders generally don't know where it is. I only found out where Xiao'an Village is because my wife's younger sister married into Xiao'an Village, and I went with my wife to see her off."

How do I get to Xiao'an Village?

The man pointed to the official road ahead and said, "Just keep going straight along that road. When you reach the second intersection, turn right and keep going straight. Once you see the river, follow it downstream, and you'll see Xiao'an Village."

It didn't sound too far, so Yan Ciwan thanked him.

The man patted the donkey's head one last time, then turned and left with ten taels of silver in his pocket.

The donkey brayed mournfully at the man's retreating figure.

Once the man's figure had completely disappeared from sight, Yan Ciwan went to pull on the reins around the donkey's neck. The donkey was quite stubborn and refused to go with her.

Yan Ciwan wasn't going to tolerate it; she simply used brute force to drag it away.

The donkey struggled desperately, turning its head, wagging its tail, and kicking its legs, but it was no match for Yan Ciwan's unparalleled strength and was eventually dragged to the side of the cart.

Yan Ciwan tied the donkey and the cart together with a rope, and then urged the donkey to move forward.

The donkey not only ignored her, but also spat at her.

Yan Ciwan picked up a branch from the ground and whipped it hard on the rump. The dog cried out in pain, reared up, and ran forward, dragging the cart along with it.

The envoy, who was resting on the cart, was caught off guard when the cart suddenly sped up and he was almost thrown off.

He had to grip the edge of the cart tightly with his left hand, using all his strength to barely keep his balance.

He really wanted to curse. What kind of trouble was Yan Ciwan causing now?!
When Yan Ciwan saw the donkey run away, she wasn't in a hurry at all. She followed slowly behind and bought two catties of fresh wild fruits from a roadside vendor.

The donkey charged onto the official road in one breath, and then galloped forward along the road. Because it was going so fast, the cart bounced violently. The envoy held on tightly to the edge of the cart and dared not let go, and the veins on his forehead bulged.