Desert Rhapsody - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

“I assume you already know that my mother was from Persia.”

Abal said.

They quickly dealt with Saeed’s body, rummaged through his luggage, stripped off his clothes, and packed his head into a sack to take with them. They left only a naked corpse behind and set it ablaze. Not far from the city, plenty of people watched the movements of vultures to search for corpses and see if there was anything worth taking. But horses were fast; by the time anyone arrived, they would be long gone.

They made a wide detour, heading straight from Suez to Cairo. Cairo was already a grand and famous city in this age, one of the oldest cities in the world. The floodwaters of the Nile Delta had only just begun to recede, and the horses’ hooves splashed flecks of mud across the damp earth. They passed through reed beds so tall that once a person entered, they could no longer see anyone else. Abal stopped Jiang Yuan from going in too deep. “There are crocodiles.”

He carved Saeed’s face beyond recognition, stuffed the head back into the sack, and tossed it out casually. Then, with a light squeeze of his knees against the horse’s belly, he signaled Night not to linger and to leave at once.

Night had a new companion following behind him. Without much effort at all, the horse accepted Night as the lead horse and began fawning over him. Sun, beneath Jiang Yuan, was in a foul temper, restless and irritable. After checking, Abal said, “That one’s a mare too. Sun isn’t happy.”

Jiang Yuan: “…”

Mares were gentle by nature and had good endurance, so they were indeed the kind of horse a messenger would choose. Jiang Yuan could only helplessly soothe Sun. Night ran ahead, high-spirited and full of himself. In any case, Cairo was not a place they could reach in a single day, especially since they still needed to avoid people. Although there was no longer any real need to avoid people now, Jiang Yuan seemed to sense that unspoken understanding between them. Abal did not want to enter the city, and she followed him.

They traveled a long way before finally leaving the lowlands and entering the dry desert. Jiang Yuan was filthy and damp from head to toe, her limbs aching and weak with exhaustion. With only a few brief words, they divided the work between them. Abal would pitch the tent, build the fire, and cook. Jiang Yuan had something more important to do: read the letter.

Abal had left home when he was very young. Although he could read, his education was admittedly limited. Once they opened the letter, they might need to forge a new one. He had brought Lady Fatini’s ring, but imitating the handwriting would depend on Jiang Yuan. In this era, not everyone could write the script of Arabia beautifully, and Jiang Yuan happened to be one of those who could. So even though she knew perfectly well that forging handwriting was not that simple, she had no choice but to take it on. Close enough would do. It was normal for Lady Fatini to have someone write on her behalf. Jiang Yuan negotiated with him. “I give you this letter, and from now on, our agreement is wiped clean.”

The bandit leader narrowed his eyes. The wind stirred his headscarf. His blue eyes watched her. At last, he said, “Fine.”

There was nothing wrong with the letter. Lady Fatini had not hidden anything else. Jiang Yuan could draft what she needed to write first, then find a suitable place for the technical work once they entered Cairo. Abal handed her the roasted meat. As she used a branch to sketch out the strokes, her thoughts drifted. He took the letter away. “Don’t get grease on it.”

Jiang Yuan lowered her head and focused on eating.

It was the first time she had tasted Abal’s cooking. He was very good at roasting meat. Perhaps everyone in this era was better at roasting meat than she was. His beard had not grown back yet, and with his face covered in dust as he handed her the meat, he looked as if they had crossed through time and space, back to the first time they met. Or perhaps the second.

She asked, “Where did the sheep come from?”

He said, “Before you arrived, he bought it from a herdsman by the roadside.”

Jiang Yuan did not ask who “he” was. Presumably, Saeed had planned to let Jamila eat something good, only for it to end up benefiting them instead. She took a bite of the meat. Abal, freshly washed, sat down beside her, his collar open and his wet hair dripping water.

A silence settled between them. In Jiang Yuan’s mind, the image of the corpse still seemed to circle before her eyes, all that blood on the ground, only to turn in the next instant into Adnan’s face. She lifted her head and looked at the sky. Every time she was with Abal, the weather seemed to be good. A hot wind blew past, but the temperature was beginning to fall.

Jiang Yuan said, “You shouldn’t wash your hair at night.”

Abal glanced sideways at her while eating his meat. “What advice does the Devil have for me?”

Jiang Yuan calmly told him that washing his hair at night would give him headaches when he got old. Abal listened and said nothing for a moment. “What about bathing? Does the Devil forbid me from bathing too?”

It seemed killing someone had made him feel a little lighter. He even had the leisure to joke now.

“Just dry yourself off properly,” she said.

She told him about his eyes. Saeed had once said that Abal’s eyes reminded him of someone. Jiang Yuan simply had not expected that the person he was reminded of would be Abal’s mother. Abal froze for a moment, then gave a soft, amused snort. Jiang Yuan had no intention of asking further.

That night, they slept in the same tent. The tent was very small, so they had no choice but to squeeze together. Hands against hands, legs against legs, faces almost touching. They could nearly feel each other’s breath. Jiang Yuan turned her back to him.

Behind her, Abal said lazily, “Are you afraid, Jia Nan?”

The shadows cast by the campfire printed the outlines of their bodies onto the tent cloth. He said, “If you have nightmares, just tell me.”

He sounded very experienced.

She closed her eyes and did not answer him.

When they arrived in Cairo, they rented a room and bought paper and brushes. Jiang Yuan patiently copied the handwriting from the letter, stroke by stroke. Aside from removing the distinguishing features of the carriage, she did not need to do anything else. Abal lit a candle and sealed it with wax himself. The letter lay before them. They exchanged a glance, and for a while, neither of them spoke.

Then Abal said, “We’re running out of money.”

Jiang Yuan nodded calmly.

Rooms in Cairo were expensive, and paper, brushes, and ink were even more expensive. Of the eighty gold coins, seventy-five had already been spent, and five still had to be given to Jiang Yuan. Jamila’s reward money was gone as well.

They led the horses outside the city and found a good place to camp. Abal always seemed to have an exceptional talent for finding such places. With sandstone at their backs and a stream beside them, the small campfire was like a dot of starlight, stubbornly illuminating the scattered grass in the corner. Night lowered his head and sniffed the grass, then stepped aside with obvious reluctance. Sun gave a delighted neigh, lowered her head, and began to eat with great enthusiasm.
Jiang Yuan sat there watching it graze, with Abal seated beside her. He pointed her in a direction. “Follow that road, and you’ll reach Alexandria.”

Jiang Yuan nodded.

Neither of them said it aloud, but they both knew perfectly well that the time had come to part again. Abal did not need her to go to Bakum, and Jiang Yuan, having resolved Adnan’s crisis, would not go with him. After tonight, he would head south and she would head north. They would go their separate ways, and perhaps this time it would be forever.

Abal said lazily, “It’s a short road. There won’t be any bandits either.”

Jiang Yuan ignored him.

She no longer needed him to accompany her. She could already manage just fine on her own. Even without a guide or a map, five gold coins were enough for her to reach Alexandria alone and fulfill her duty.

Together, they looked up at the night sky and the crackling fire before them. They had only just finished dinner, and neither of them was sleepy. Abal tossed her a leather skin. It was a wineskin. Jiang Yuan took a small sip and watched with him as the mare cautiously edged closer, only to be bitten by Sun.

Abal propped his chin on his hand. “Sun really is fierce. I never noticed she was this ferocious before.”

Jiang Yuan said nothing.

A brief silence settled between them before he said, “I imagine you already know my mother was from Persia.”

It was not a particularly interesting story, nor did it require embellishment. Centuries ago, warriors from Arabia had broken through Ctesiphon and taken Persia into their grasp. From then on, Persian slave women were scattered far and wide, their bloodlines passed down generation after generation, blending into the empire’s vast domain. The Bedouin absorbed the knowledge of Greece and Persia, while their men took pleasure in conquering women. By this generation, those Persian slave women had carried the mixed blood of countless peoples over hundreds of years. They could no longer truly be called pure Persians.

“Perhaps there is also Egypt and Greece in her ancestry,” Abal said. “But my mother was proud to be from Persia.”

Aside from her, however, no one was proud of that. A slave was a slave. Although the Abbasid Caliphate was a feudal dynasty and had abolished slavery long ago, household-born servants still existed all the same. She was a mongrel, and so was her son. She had tainted the pure bloodline of the Emir Governor, and was hated by his elder brothers and the other mothers in the household. Yet the one thing people remembered was this: she was beautiful. So beautiful that she had even been allowed to bear a child, and that child had been given a name.

Abal said, “She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

Jiang Yuan turned her head to look at his face. He had been pretending to be her young manservant, running errands everywhere, buying things and gathering information, so he had shaved his beard. That way, no one would be wary of him. Firelight shone across his face, clean and smooth, beautiful enough to unsettle the heart.

But by the time Abal left his family, Kösem was already dead.

“You know,” Jiang Yuan said, “I know of a theory that hybrids are stronger and more beautiful.”

Those blue eyes glanced at her, mocking. “The Devil’s theories are always that absurd.”

He said, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t plan on leaving any seed behind anyway.”

He tapped his wineskin against hers. Since this was the only conclusion Jiang Yuan agreed with-mainly because she wanted the same for herself, not because she agreed with him-she tapped hers back and drank with him.

He said, “You should wish me victory.”

Jiang Yuan said, “May you return victorious, Abal. And you’d better not come looking for me again.”

Abal gave a soft snort of laughter. “Once Adnan returns, one day, you will understand that you need a man.”

Their verbal sparring was only ordinary teasing. It was inevitable whenever they were together. Yet for some reason, there was no longer any hostility in it.

The wine had been bought in Cairo. The Province of Egypt produced grain, and although brewing could only be done in illicit workshops, fortunately, they were not stingy with strong liquor. Jiang Yuan forced herself to swallow the sour, astringent wine, and before long, she felt her heartbeat quicken.

“Look,” Abal said teasingly. “Look at them.”

They sat together in the night, in the windblown desert, watching their horses. There was new green in the wasteland, a thin, jagged stream at their side, and a fire that was nearly burned out. Not far away, their tent stood firm, as if it could shelter them, as if it could withstand an army of thousands.

Abal’s black horse took two steps forward. Jiang Yuan’s horse meekly knelt down. Night neighed twice and mounted Sun.

They began to breed by instinct. Abal said, “With Sun’s coat pattern, the foal won’t be pure.”

There was no regret in his voice, only idle observation, casual conversation.

Jiang Yuan said lightly, “As long as they’re happy.”

Abal laughed.

“The eagle soars freely in the sky, and the fine horse gallops across the earth,” he recited. “Let them go wherever they will.”

He said, “You’re right. As long as they’re happy.”

He turned sideways and kissed Jiang Yuan.

Good, and then they had sex.

I could cry tears of joy. I actually finished writing before midnight today! But this ending scene was something I dreamed about, and in the dream the car had already taken off on the second day of the New Year. Yet in reality, I only managed to get the engine started on the eve of April Fools’ Day. Sure enough, dreams are just dreams. I thought about it a little, and if this were a long novel, this would probably be the beginning of the future Emir Governor and the great merchant meeting in a storm of events, secretly hooking up and joining forces to scam people. Unfortunately, this is a short story, and it will end soon. Hahahaha, hands on hips.

It should end in another two chapters or so, but awkwardly enough, I have overtime next week. Updates will probably be sparse, and may even be impossible. I’ll have to wait until the Qingming holiday to wrap this up, then focus on Demon.

There will be no extras for Desert.

I’m so happy there will be no extras for Desert!

Kisses for everyone!

Thank you to the little angels who sent me reward tickets or nutrient solution~

Thank you to the little angels who provided nutrient solution:

Sese Fadou, 40 bottles; Jinzhan, 20 bottles; Ju Miaomiao, 11 bottles; Sizhai Jun and A Pu, 10 bottles; A Zhan, 6 bottles; Mujin, 5 bottles; MEI, 4 bottles;

Thank you all so much for your support. I will keep working hard!