STRANDED IN ANOTHER COUNTRY

It seemed like they had encountered a big puzzle. Not only the location where they were right now, the strange old man appearing just now also mystified him. Now since the old man had completely vanished, Zhu Su was curious whether the old man was real or just the creation of his fantasy.

"What I can remember is, when we were looking for a hiding place in the forest, we thought we have found a cave but it turned out to be a deep ravine. When we fell, I felt my body got plunged into the water," Zhu Youdun told his experience, his soaked body seemed to shiver.

"Then it means, we have been carried away by the river below the ravine to this place." Zhu Su also shivered. They were so lucky, the bottom of that ravine was a river. If it was ground they fell onto, they would have...

"We must not curse Heaven by saying they are unjust and cruel to us, Youdun." Remembering that Zhu Youdun had once cursed Heaven in a depressive manner as he heard that Zhu Youxun might have a very pleasant life in Kaifeng, Zhu Su advised his son. However, their between-life-and-death experience soon made Zhu Su change his mind of the fate Heaven had destined for them. "If we fell down and hit the hard rocks, we would have been following your mother to Heaven."

"Yes... Fu Wang..." Zhu Youdun chewed his lips. "You're right, Heaven has helped us so many times. Twice the soldiers are sent to catch us, but twice we also managed to flee..."

"Will those soldiers be able to find our whereabouts here?" Hu Nayin began to worry.

Zhu Su shook his head. "We should have been very far from Mount Laojun. This area is weird somehow, to be honest, I feel we've been transported hundreds Li away..."

Stepping forward, Zhu Su realized that the scenery of their location was completely different from Mount Laojun's.

Meanwhile, the path they were walking on quickly took them to a small village.

"This river is very close to residential areas." But, their building styles are unlike the Han's?

"Fu Wang, the style of those buildings is quite strange. And so are the residents. Their clothes are quite dissimilar to us. Have we come to other ethnic villages?" Zhu Youdun whispered.

"If you say that... some of them are similar with us?" Zhu Su thought.

On the other hand, Hu Nayin who was also looking around, began to widen her eyes.

Zhu Su's eyes got focused on Zhu Youdun's injured hand. "We have no time to ponder that. Youdun, we should treat your wounds."

They approached some men and women who were sitting on the terrace and sorting the vegetables.

"Sirs and madams, pardon us... can you please show us the physician here?" Zhu Su asked them.

They replied to him only with a hollow gaze. They did indeed stop talking, but just stared at them with a confused face.

Zhu Su was bewildered. He repeated his question once again. "Sirs and madams, can you show us where the physician is? I want to treat my son."

Some of them began to talk to each other, it suddenly made Zhu Su shocked. Because they did not speak in Chinese. God knew what language they were speaking. What he could do after that was just standing in perplexity.

As well as shouting confusingly in his mind, My goodness, we have been stranded in a strange place! A place where they don't speak Chinese!...

Right at this moment, Hu Nayin stepped forward, and asked them in that foreign language. The villagers did not look confused anymore. They could communicate without any burden, and Hu Nayin could get the desired information easily.

"If we want to get an expert, then we should go to a big city, but it will take a long time since it is afar from here, and we need immediate treatment. So they advise us to go to Grandsire Gao Qing's residence, he is very smart, on par with a big city physician, but he is a weirdo. We have to be patient if we want to get his help," Hu Nayin explained.

"Nayin, why can you communicate with them?" Wait, can it be?...

"This is Hmong language. They are Hmong people."

"Hmong language?"

"You the Han call them Miao ethnicity."

"Ah! So they are the Miao!" Zhu Youdun clapped his hands. "Miss Nayin, you are beating around the bush! Just say that they are of the same ethnic as you!"

Hu Nayin chuckled.

"Then, we are now at Miao's residence," Zhu Su concluded.

"Not really... their accent is quite different from mine..." Hu Nayin asked the Hmong villagers again. A few moments later, her pupils went round and she shouted in surprise.

"Your Highness, we have been outside of Ming!" Hu Nayin shouted.

"Outside of Ming?!" This was a fact that was completely beyond Zhu Su's expectations. "Then, where are we right now?"

"We are in Mogaung, an area of Shan State." Shan State was an ancient state in what is present-day Myanmar.

Zhu Su and Zhu Youdun looked at each other, shocked to death. Being stranded abroad was something that would never occur in their minds either way.

A man asked Hu Nayin. As Hu Nayin answered him, the villagers also looked surprised. The other people who once seemed unconcerned now looked at them curiously, began to question Hu Nayin.

Those enthusiastic people called the other villagers, who immediately approached them. One of them - a man in his forties - faced Zhu Su and asked, "You are... Ming people?..."

"Sir, you can speak Chinese?" Almost being sure that he would become a dum-dum in a foreign land, Zhu Su was excited as he found a stranger could speak his mother language.

"A little... my ancestors are the Han ethnicity... I forget and remember..."

"No Sir, you are quite similar to the native!" At least someone could speak Chinese here, he did not need to depend on Hu Nayin.

"You look for... physician?..." Now it was the middle-aged woman next to the man who questioned him.

"Yes, Ma'am. My son has his hand injured severely. And we also want to treat our wounds." To be honest, Zhu Su had been so weary. His whole body suffered from severe pain due to cuts, tears, and bleeding. He just exerted his best effort to endure it all.

"To go to the city... too far... there is a physician here, he is great, just like a wizard... he is also a Han, same ethnic as you... but he is a strange person..."

"Is that the Grandsire Gao Qing? He is also a Han?"

The man nodded. "I will... show you... follow me..."

The man turned around. And now walked towards the spot which turned out to be the river carrying them to this place.

There was a small forest near the river. At first glance, they never thought that there was a life in such this area. But unexpectedly, a small hut stood firmly between various kinds of big and small trees. The hut was so small Zhu Su was sure that it could only contain one person to dwell inside.

The man knocked on a wooden door whose hinges were slightly peeled off. "Excuse me, Mr. Gao. Would you do us a favor?"

The door creaked opened. An old man appeared behind it.

Zhu Su's eyes turned wider as he saw the man. And so did the man.