Manbao's thirteenth birthday was spent on the road. However, as she was still young, there wasn't much of a celebration—Zhou SiLang simply made her a bowl of noodles with two eggs early in the morning, just as he had done every year.
Feeling that she had become a year older, Manbao was overjoyed. She rode ahead with Bai Shan and Bai Erlang on horseback to the front of the group.
Daji followed behind them on horseback, accompanied by two guards.
Since they had already gone ahead, they decided to stop at a county town up ahead, where they could book an inn for the group and take a stroll around the local streets.
Carriages always travel slower than horses, and this time around, their return journey to their hometown allowed for more leisure than their previous trip to the capital.
