Chapter 328 - Ze Yitongs New Family Member (2/2)

The woman’s voice is clear and moving. She speaks in standard mandarin, which makes Ze Yitong like her voice, but how could she forget her name?

Did the fever harm her brain?

……

“Anar, hurry up, bring the heated milk!” Ze Yitong calls out the woman who was saved by her mom a week ago. Because she forgot her name and didn’t have her ID, she begged Ze Yitong’s family to temporarily let her stay at their home. Ze Yitong gave her the name Anar for their convenience to call her.

Anar means pomegranate. Although she doesn’t remember who she is, Ze Yitong finds that she knows a lot and has great strength. She is diligent as well. Ze Yitong’s nana and mom both like her very much.

Anar is like a new family member to them. She has been slowly a.s.similating into Ze Yitong’s family during the past week.

For the convenience of work, Anar braids her long thick black hair into two braids in front of her chest. After seeing Anar’s face, Ze Yitong says that she is more beautiful than pomegranate flowers.

Anar is holding a big pot of hot yak milk.

Following Ze Yitong’s instructions, she pours the milk into a four-foot-high wooden bucket. Ze Yitong says that the bucket is a tool for making Tibetan b.u.t.ter and is called “Xue Dong”.

A cow produces 2 or 2.5 kilograms of milk a day, and 50 kilograms of milk can only extract 2.5 or 3 kilograms of Tibetan b.u.t.ter. This is hard work, but herdsmen need Tibetan b.u.t.ter every day. Ze Yitong’s nana is quite old and her mom needs to graze. It is usually Ze Yitong’s work to extract b.u.t.ter, but now the job is taken over by Anar.

After pouring the steaming yak milk into the barrel, Anar begins to beat it up and down so that the oil and water in the milk would separate after she beats for hundreds of times.

The hard labor makes Anar’s sweat rolls down her nose. Her small face looks like a jewel s.h.i.+ning in the sun of the gra.s.sland.

A layer of ivory fat-like substance slowly floats up to the surface of the milk in the bucket. Ze Yitong scoops it up and pours it into a leather bag. After cooling down, it will turn into the b.u.t.ter that every Tibetan needs.

The two cooperate and make 2 or 2.5 kilograms of Tibetan b.u.t.ter, which is enough to eat for a while, so Anar packs the tools.

Ze Yitong finds that Anar is very smart. When she first went to milk the sheep, she would be kicked. Now she is like a herder girl who grew up on the gra.s.sland and is good at everything.

“It’s still early. Shall we pick up some wild vegetables?” Anar puts the tools aside and takes out a bag while smiling at Ze Yitong.

Ze Yitong licks her mouth. Her face is full of joy. The pastoral area is not like the cities in Tibet. People here mainly eat highland barley, glutinous rice cake and meat. They don’t even have rice, let alone vegetables. However, since Anar came, Ze Yitong and her family always have two delicious dishes made of wild vegetables at meals.

Anar knows a lot and cooks very well. Ze Yitong is not willing to let her go.

Looking at Ze Yitong and Anar’s backs, nana laughs in front of the yurt. Anar is not just a hard-working girl. Since she came, the lonely Ze Yitong has someone for company, so her entire family loves Anar.

Besides the waterfowl lives by the clear lake, a wild vegetable called “water celery” grows there in summer. Ze Yitong thought it was aquatic weeds, but Anar picked it up and boiled it at home. The wild vegetable is very refres.h.i.+ng when blending with salt and Tibetan b.u.t.ter.

The two picks a bag of water celery by the lake. Anar looks at the big fish in the clear lake and sighs.

She vaguely remembers that she can cook fish well, but the true Tibetans do not eat fish because they have the tradition of water burial. She dares not mention this to Ze Yitong and goes back with her once they pick enough water celery.

Since it is still early, the two play on the gra.s.sland for a while. It is still May. There are flowers everywhere on the gra.s.sland at this time of the year. Anar picks some wildflowers, knits them into a garland, and ties it on Ze Yitong’s hair. She also braids Ze Yitong’s hair together with flowers. Ze Yitong giggles and goes to see her reflection in the lake.

Anar is a perfect girl. She only has one shortcoming, extremely high requirements for cleanliness. Anar asks Ze Yitong to wash her hair and take a bath every three days. Ze Yitong sighs. It seems that perfect people also have their imperfections.

The sun is setting. Ze Yitong’s mom Dun Zhu has herded the cattle and sheep back. Ze Yitong takes off the garland and yells at her. She runs on the gra.s.sland like a healthy little deer.

At dinner that day, Anar’s wild vegetables dressed with sauce is eaten up again.

Anar eats the sour water celery with glutinous rice cake. When she feels thirsty, she takes a sip of the b.u.t.tered tea.

She feels that life here is very different from her life in the past, but she tries so many times and still can’t remember who she was or what kind of life she had back then.

In the middle of the night, she suddenly wakes up because of the low temperature. Ze Yitong is sleeping next to her. Anar had a dream that reminds her she came to Naqu gra.s.sland to find something.

She can’t go home until she finds that thing.

But what exactly is she looking for? Anar touches the large pearl on her wrist. This pearl gives her inexplicable peace of mind. Perhaps, her ident.i.ty can be confirmed by it.

It is very cold at night on the gra.s.sland. Anar tucks herself in her blanket and falls asleep again.