The first thing that catches the eye is the glistening, slightly yellowish marmot fat. Sliced off with a knife, it quivers atop the blade; once placed in the mouth, it melts instantly without the need to chew, turning into liquid fat that rushes down the throat. Before it even reaches the stomach, the ravenous body absorbs every last drop.

While the body is busy absorbing the fat, the gaze of the Huihe people has already fallen upon the red marmot heart and the slightly darkened marmot liver. The heart is crisp, offering plenty to chew on, while the liver is as soft as French foie gras. Put it in your mouth and it’s like placing a piece of silk on your tongue—no need to chew, it slides smoothly into the stomach...

At this moment, the marmot skin is exceptionally crispy. Sprinkle a little salt on it, put it in your mouth, and the crunchy exterior quickly softens, giving a sensation of melting.

There’s a reason why Sarah Miller likes to eat marmot skin.

------------

Chapter Four: I Don’t Want to Be a Huihe Anymore (Thanks to old friends for your rewards)

Chapter Four: I Don’t Want to Be a Huihe Anymore

Today, because they were going to eat roasted marmot, dinner at Ethan Brooks’s home was later than usual. Both Sarah Miller and Emily Clark hugged their knees, staring eagerly at the black lump in the fire.

Sarah Miller is only twenty-eight this year. If you ignore her rough hands, sun-reddened face, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes, she is still a beautiful woman.

In the Sai tribe, it’s perfectly normal for a twenty-eight-year-old woman to be raising a thirteen-year-old child.

A beautiful woman doesn’t really belong to ordinary Huihe people. As soon as a girl turns eight, you can already tell if she’s beautiful or not.

At that point, an ordinary herder’s family is no longer qualified to raise such a beautiful child. The steward Apo of the tribe will take the beautiful girl from her home and give her to an Ejin lord of higher status.

Then, the Ejin lord personally delivers her to the regional steward Geli, and after further selection, she must be sent as a virgin to the khan’s wife, the Khatun...

It can be said that every Sai beauty belongs to the khan. The result of this is that the tribesmen would rather dote on big-tailed sheep than seek out those dried-up firewood girls in the tribe.

Sarah Miller is a beauty who went through this process. After spending ten years in the khan’s tent, as she grew older and had a child like Ethan Brooks—whose black hair and black eyes clearly marked him as not the khan’s son—she was driven out and became an ordinary shepherdess.

The khan has many women. Aside from his Khatun, the rest are nothing more than tools for bribing or winning over men.

If Ethan Brooks looked like the other Huihe people, it would be fine. Plus, Ethan Brooks is quite healthy, so the khan would have believed Ethan Brooks was his son. But... Ethan Brooks looks far too much like those arrogant and fierce Tang people.

In the past, they really, really liked the Tang people. They even joined many tribes to build the “Heavenly Khan Road” across the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.

Back then, as long as the Sai people sent the Heavenly Khan some dried Tianshan snow lotus, dried yak tails, dried meat, and dried pelts, they would receive linen, silk, salt, and iron pots as rewards from the “Heavenly Khan” of the time. It was a great deal.

In recent years, it’s said the “Heavenly Khan” has changed. This new “Heavenly Khan” is stingy and unreasonable, not only giving far fewer rewards, but also demanding that the Sai people tribute live cattle and sheep.

Not only that, but the cattle must all be the same color, and the sheep must all be the same color too. For example, the black-eyed ram from Ethan Brooks’s family wouldn’t qualify.

Herds of cattle as numerous as dark clouds, flocks of sheep as plentiful as white clouds were sent away, and in return, they received only a little paper, books, scriptures, and paintings. This left the Sai people extremely disappointed.

The Tang people are misers!

They want our cattle and sheep, our pastures, our women, and now the talk of wanting our children to serve as their slaves is rampant.

Not allowing the Tang people to interfere in tribal affairs has become a consensus among all the Hu people of the Western Regions in the past two years.

Sarah Miller never talks to Ethan Brooks about her past. After becoming a shepherdess, the smile on her face has never faded. She tells her son that the life she has now is exactly what she always dreamed of.

The marmot is finally roasted. The one caught today is very fat—even if it can’t compare to David Bennett, it’s not far off.

While scraping the black ash off the charred marmot, Ethan Brooks suddenly felt as if he’d been tricked by David Bennett. That guy probably couldn’t beat this marmot in the group, so he lured it over to Ethan Brooks, hoping to use Ethan Brooks’s strength to get rid of his rival.

Still, it’s not a big deal—after all, Ethan Brooks benefited.

Today’s marmot was roasted to perfection by Ethan Brooks. After scraping off the black ash, the marmot’s skin turned golden and crispy, and a rich aroma wafted out with the steam from the opening.

At this moment, as Sarah Miller and Emily Clark squatted beside him, ready to eat, their eyes seemed to glow—and it was a terrifying green light.

The fork easily cut open the plump marmot, and Emily Clark’s shriek rang out...

“I told you, you’re supposed to use chopsticks to eat this! You just grab it with your hands... If I hadn’t already beaten you today, I’d have started hitting you again right now.”