Chapter 16: On the Grassland, I Didn’t Understand Her, She’s So Hard to Understand

Proceed to Access?

“Access.”

This time, the three of them were prepared. As Bai Miao confirmed the access, Bai Yu and Bai Xi gripped her wrists tightly. Thus, when the access was confirmed, the three of them arrived at the new plane together.

The new plane was equally unexpected.

Not to mention Bai Miao, even Bai Yu and Bai Xi had never seen such a scene. However, the elder sisters had at least heard of such things. Three-year-old Bai Miao had never even heard that such a place existed. Upon arriving at the new plane, she could not help but let out a “Wow,” followed by a milky-voiced inquiry: “What is this?”

“A grassland, it should be a grassland,” Bai Yu said, not entirely certain. “Once on the shore, I met someone selling mutton who said some places are entirely covered in grassland, specifically used for raising sheep.”

“Sheep?” Bai Miao widened her eyes and looked around. “Where are they?”

Bai Yu smiled and picked her up so she could see further. “I don’t see any for now. But even if there are sheep on the grassland, they belong to someone else. We can’t catch them.”

“Are sheep tasty?” Bai Miao looked around, seeing nothing but grass, and turned back to look at Bai Yu.

“I haven’t eaten it either,” Bai Yu licked her lips. “Mutton is too expensive, much more expensive than pork, chicken, or duck. Our family simply can’t afford it.”

“Eldest Sister hasn’t eaten it either, so none of us have,” Bai Xi said regretfully, also looking at the grassland. “With such a large grassland, there must be many people raising sheep. Maybe we can bring some fish meat here to trade with the sheep herders for mutton.”

“That’s right,” Bai Yu’s eyes brightened. “A few years ago, that mutton seller said the grassland mainly raises sheep and horses, and there is almost no fish. That’s why he planned to buy some salted fish to take back after selling his sheep. Maybe we really can use fish meat to trade for mutton, but… there doesn’t seem to be anyone nearby.”

The vast grassland was like a boundless sea, with no signs of human habitation in sight.

“True, no people, and no sheep.”

The idea that had just surged up was ruthlessly dispelled. All three felt a bit disappointed, and even Bai Miao let out a heavy sigh.

Bai Yu was the first to pull herself together. “Maybe if we walk further, we’ll find people. We can save up more salted fish and then walk further to take a look. Right now, we don’t have many salted fish anyway. Even if we traded, we wouldn’t get much meat… Let’s gather some Withered Grass first. It can be used to weave mats or to start fires.”

This grassland was very large, and beneath the lush green growth, it was covered with plenty of Withered Grass.

Their other plane was the Forest Plane, which had many dead branches. While there was Withered Grass there too, it wasn’t easy to find enough of it beneath the massive piles of branches. Here, with such a vast grassland, picking up Withered Grass was extremely easy.

No sooner said than done. Bai Yu set Bai Miao down, and the three of them began pulling up Withered Grass together.

Bai Miao squatted beneath the lush grass, clutching a handful of Withered Grass. Looking at the dry stalks interspersed among the green blades, she turned around and pulled them up one by one, following the patches of dry grass.

The Withered Grass in her hands grew more and more until she couldn’t hold it all. With a slip of her grip, the grass cradled in her two hands suddenly scattered onto the ground.

She hurried to scoop it up, but her hand bumped into another.

Bai Miao looked up and saw a stranger appearing before her. She quickly snatched the Withered Grass back and hugged it to her chest. “This is mine.”

The other person also looked at her, pointing at the grass in her hands and saying a long string of gibberish.

Bai Miao still held the Withered Grass tightly, frowning as she said, “What are you saying? I don’t understand.”

The other person pointed at her and then at the Withered Grass, repeating the exact same phrase several times.

Bai Miao looked at her, then at the grass in her hands. “Is it called ‘Jijipu¹‘?”

The other person nodded repeatedly and spoke another string of gibberish.

Bai Miao still frowned. Although she didn’t understand, she could tell the other person wanted her grass. She hugged it tight again. “No, this is my ‘Jijipu’, I can’t give it to you.”

She squatted there, watching the other person gesture and speak a bunch of nonsense. She looked at the round object in the person’s hand, trying hard to understand her meaning.

She picked out a few words from that garbled speech: “You want to buy my grass? But these in my hands aren’t worth that much?”

The other person nodded again.

Although she didn’t know if she was right, Bai Miao confidently believed she had guessed correctly.

But…

Bai Miao looked at the round object in the person’s hand and shook her head, speaking to her normally: “This thing of yours isn’t a copper coin. I don’t want it. I only want copper coins. You should be able to understand me, right?”

After she finished, she looked at the other person expectantly, only to hear another string of gibberish.

“I don’t know what you’re saying. I’ll get my Eldest Sister and Second Sister to talk to you,” Bai Miao stood up from the grass and called out loudly, “Eldest Sister! Second Sister!”

Bai Yu and Bai Xi both stood up. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s someone here, and I don’t understand what she’s saying.” Bai Miao pointed at the girl in front of her.

Bai Yu and Bai Xi were startled. They quickly hurried through the thick grass to her side. Bai Yu arrived first, pulling Bai Miao into a tight embrace and speaking to the girl: “We are just here to gather some Withered Grass.”

The girl began speaking rapidly.

Hearing the strange “Jijipu” language, Bai Miao looked up at Bai Yu expectantly.

Bai Yu was speechless.

Bai Xi, who had just walked over, also looked completely bewildered.

However, both of them quickly realized that this plane was likely a place very far away from them.

Bai Yu squatted down, holding Bai Miao as she spoke: “Did you two just talk?”

“A little bit, but I didn’t really understand,” Bai Miao frowned. “But she probably wants to buy the grass in our hands. However, what she’s holding isn’t a copper coin. It must be fake.”

“Buy grass?” Bai Yu looked at the Withered Grass in the girl’s hand, then at Bai Miao. “How do you know she wants to buy grass?”

“I asked her,” Bai Miao said, then turned back to speak to the girl.

The girl once again held out the round object, pointing at the grass in Bai Miao’s arms and the grass in Bai Yu and Bai Xi’s hands.

Bai Yu looked at the object. Although it wasn’t a copper coin, judging by the girl’s expression, it likely was indeed the currency used for buying things in this plane.

She hesitated for a moment before whispering to Bai Miao, “Even though these things aren’t copper coins, they should be able to buy things. Can you tell her that we’re willing to sell the grass to her?”

“Are we really selling?” Bai Miao only recognized copper coins and was reluctant to part with the grass in her hands.

“Not selling yours,” Bai Yu said, seeing through her thoughts. “We’ll just sell what Eldest Sister has. Ask her if that’s enough.”

“It’s definitely enough. She said what I had wasn’t enough just now, but it was only off by a little bit.” Bai Miao handed the grass in her arms to Bai Xi, then grabbed a handful from Bai Yu and spoke to the other party using the words she understood.

This handful was significantly larger than what Bai Miao had held before. The girl smiled and opened the grass bag on her back, letting Bai Miao put the grass inside before handing the coin to her.

Then, she took out another round coin.

Bai Miao looked back at Bai Yu.

Bai Yu nodded. “If we sell these grasses, we can buy things here in the future.”

“Alright then.” Bai Miao grabbed about the same amount of grass from Bai Yu’s hands and exchanged it for another coin.

With those two coins as a start, they eventually exchanged for two more.

In the end, the girl obtained a bag full of grass, and Bai Miao had four coins.

Bai Yu put her arm around Bai Miao. “Ask her where she lives.”

Bai Miao turned back, pouting at Bai Yu. “I can’t understand her.”

“It’s okay. Chat with her slowly and try to understand her words. In the future, whenever we meet people here, we’ll need to talk. Once you’ve learned, you can teach us.” Bai Yu knew Bai Miao didn’t understand yet, but she was a fast learner. If she weren’t so quick, they wouldn’t have been able to complete the trade just now.

The people of this plane clearly spoke differently than they did. If they never learned the language, they would be stuck on this grassland forever.

“It’s so hard to learn,” Bai Miao said, frowning.

“It’s alright, you two just sit here and take your time,” Bai Yu said. “She wants to gather withered grass, so your Second Sister and I will go do that. We’ll give it to her for free later. Your task is to stay here and learn the local language from her, okay?”

“Okay.” Bai Miao nodded reluctantly and tried her best to communicate with the girl.

The two of them talked past each other for a while until the girl laughed happily, signaling that they had finally reached an understanding.

Bai Yu found a place for the two of them to sit and talk, leaving them to chat while she and Bai Xi went to gather withered grass.

The two of them gathered for the entire morning.

When they returned to Bai Miao’s side, she was already chatting happily with the young girl. That stream of completely unintelligible gibberish seemed to flow from Bai Miao’s mouth without any obstacle at all.

However, after the young girl left, Bai Miao still leaned tiredly against Bai Yu. “It’s so hard to understand. So many of their words are different from ours.”

“But Miao Miao looked like she was having a great time chatting, which means you understood a lot. Miao Miao is so smart,” Bai Yu said, picking her up. “What did you talk about just now?”

“Not much, really,” Bai Miao thought seriously. “She said this grass can be sold for money, but only the withered grass can be sold. Green grass can’t be sold. Also, you don’t sell the grass directly; you can make the grass into something else, but I didn’t understand that part.”

“It’s okay, Miao Miao has already done a great job. You can keep chatting when she comes back,” Bai Yu said, looking at the receding figure of the young girl. “Let’s go too. We’ve stayed here for a long time today.”

Bai Miao looked down and took the Transit Pass out of her bag.

Return?

“Return.”

Back on the island in the middle of the sea, facing the vast ocean so different from the grassland, all three of them felt a sense of disorientation.

But seeing the withered grass they had brought back, they knew that everything that happened this morning was real.

“Since this grass can be sold for money, we can gather more. Later, we can take the money to the market over there; maybe we can buy food and drink,” Bai Xi said as she set aside the grass they brought back. “It’s a pity. If this grass can be sold for money, it’s hard to justify weaving it into mats.”

“If we can buy fabric over there, it doesn’t matter if we can’t weave mats,” Bai Yu said, setting Bai Miao down and picking up a blade of grass to examine it closely. “Is there something special about this grass? What can it be made into?”

Bai Xi shook her head. “I can’t tell.”

Bai Miao also shook her head. “She seemed to say something about it, but I didn’t quite catch it. Her way of speaking is so hard to understand.”

Bai Xi and Bai Yu looked at each other and shared a bitter smile.

Translator’s Notes