Sarah Miller handled her chopsticks with great skill; she wasn’t even afraid of the scalding hot marmot meat. Ever since Ethan Brooks cut open the marmot, her chopsticks hadn’t stopped moving.

Once she started eating, Sarah Miller would forget she even had a son and a daughter…

Emily Clark had no choice but to turn to her brother for help, opening her mouth wide, waiting for him to feed her.

At this moment, Ethan Brooks as usual said nothing—mainly because they wouldn’t listen to her at this time anyway.

The rich heart and liver disappeared in a gulp inside Emily Clark’s small mouth; the crispy skin shattered instantly under her rows of rice-grain-like teeth, and then, in a flash, was gone.

Ethan Brooks slapped away Emily Clark’s hand as she tried to scoop marmot oil with a wooden spoon, and instead put a chunk of fatty meat into her mouth.

Ethan Brooks also knocked away Sarah Miller’s hand holding the wooden spoon, and used a hand fork to spear a piece of belly meat and fed it to Sarah Miller.

A marmot weighs seven or eight jin, and after roasting, three or four jin. In no time at all, the mother and daughters had eaten it clean.

After Ethan Brooks forced a big bowl of dandelion tea into the mother and daughter’s stomachs, only then did they break free from the halo of delicious food.

Sarah Miller looked at her handsome son with satisfaction, picking her teeth as she said, “What kind of woman could possibly be worthy of my son?”

Ethan Brooks smiled faintly.

Sarah Miller spat out a shred of meat stuck in her teeth, pressed Ethan Brooks’s face against her own greasy cheek, and whispered, “When I was in the Khagan’s main tent, I saw a beauty with skin as white as milk, as smooth as jade, hips as big as a fat-tailed sheep, and a chest as full as a dairy cow.

You know, when she sings, it’s truly enchanting—no nightingale’s voice could compare to hers.

Do you want her? If you do, when we shear the sheep the day after tomorrow, I’ll sneak her out for you, and you can roast her a marmot…”

Ethan Brooks watched Sarah Miller make a lewd gesture, sticking one finger into a hole made by her other hand, and shook his head, saying, “I’m not an adult yet.”

Sarah Miller suspiciously patted Ethan Brooks’s chest, then glanced between his legs, and immediately became melancholy.

“You’ve never bullied a fat-tailed sheep?”

Ethan Brooks replied impatiently, “I’m a human, not a ram.”

“But a thirteen-year-old Uyghur is already a man—he can find a woman, go to war, herd livestock, and have his own tent.”

Ethan Brooks was stunned for a moment, then quickly came to his senses and said to Sarah Miller, “Sarah Miller, do you really want to enter Jiesige’s tent?”

Sarah Miller nodded slightly, looking at Ethan Brooks with delight. “Do you think Jiesige is a good man?”

Ethan Brooks poked at the dark red charcoal with a stick and said quietly, “If you’re going to enter his tent, I’d rather he not be that good.”

“Isn’t being a good man a good thing?”

“The problem is, only a bad man can truly protect you and Emily Clark.”

“Doesn’t Emily Clark have you to protect her?”

Ethan Brooks thought for a moment, lowered his head, and said slowly, “Sarah Miller, your little falcon is ready to leave the nest and soar into the sky.”

“You’re going to wander?” Sarah Miller couldn’t help but gasp.

Ethan Brooks held Sarah Miller’s hand and smiled, “I don’t want to be a Uyghur anymore, is that okay?”

Sarah Miller wasn’t surprised. She sighed, “I knew the Uyghur tents couldn’t keep you, but becoming a Tang person is very difficult.”

Ethan Brooks lowered his head and smiled, “In the eyes of the Uyghurs, I’m an outsider—like a horse among cattle, or a wolf among sheep. The young ones are afraid of me, the older ones are wary of me.

Before, they just watched me and ignored me, but lately, something’s off. Some of the tribe’s warriors have started to cause me trouble.

I’m worried that before long, there will be conflict.

Luckily, you’re going to enter Jiesige’s tent, and little Emily Clark will go with you. Without you two holding me back, I want to do something bold and vent all the anger I’ve been holding in my heart.

As for whether I can become a Tang person, I don’t care. Even if I become a wanderer, I don’t want to stay in this tribe that doesn’t belong to me.”

Sarah Miller saw that half of Ethan Brooks’s face was hidden in darkness, the other half illuminated by firelight, his expression more serious than ever before. She couldn’t help but feel afraid.

“What are you going to do?”

Ethan Brooks replied absentmindedly, “You just need to make sure you enter Jiesige’s tent. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“What are you going to do?” Sarah Miller asked anxiously.

After living with Ethan Brooks for thirteen years, she understood this adopted son well. This child simply couldn’t endure any humiliation, and would never tolerate anyone bullying her or Emily Clark.

The reason he went to the cliffs to hunt that wild goat at age ten was entirely to protect her. If Ethan Brooks hadn’t gone after the goat, she would have had to enter Da Apo Gesalu’s tent…

The reason he wrestled with that crazed argali at age eleven was entirely to prevent Gesalu from taking away the already beautiful Emily Clark.

When Ethan Brooks killed that 150-jin argali with a hand fork and stood, covered in blood, before Gesalu, even that shameless man never again mentioned taking Emily Clark away.