Chapter 303 : Difficult Journey (2)

Half an hour later, Luo Shuigui said to Yuxi, “Miss, we’ve bought everything. I bought two hens and four ducks.” There were also many different kinds of vegetables, including cabbage, pumpkins, eggplants and radishes, plus a jar of lard.

When Yuxi heard him say that there were pumpkins, she smilingly said, “We can have pumpkin congee tomorrow morning.” If they had to eat meat congee every day, they would suffer from excessive internal heat.

It was getting dark, and Yuxi hadn’t heard Chief Huang say anything about resting. She was a bit surprised and called for Chief Huang. “Why can’t we stop at any of these places?”

Chief Huang said, “We need water to cook, so we have to find a place with water to rest our feet.”

Yuxi suddenly realised that one couldn’t just stop anywhere to rest. One must find a place with a water supply. Well, she wouldn’t know what she should be doing until she went out of her home!

When it was about to get dark, the group found a pool of water next to the road. Chief Huang decided to stay there for the night.

Once they stopped, everyone got busy, even the youngest Tian Ju, working for Mama Bai. Yuxi didn’t stay idle either, asking someone to open a box and take out angelica root and wolfberries from it to make chicken soup.

Mama Bai’s movements were swift, as the rice was almost cooked on one side, the dishes were stir-fried on the other. There were three small pots of fried cabbage, fried bacon with eggplants and braised duck. Although each person only got a small share, they all ate well.

After eating, Da Mao couldn’t help but say, “I thought bringing a few girls with us was a burden, but I didn’t expect them to have this kind of skill!” The food was just like the restaurant they always went to!

Another one of his colleagues asked, “Why aren’t there any movements from those who cook the two chickens?”

Da Mao slapped the man on the head and admonished, “They must have saved them for themselves! She’s a delicate girl, so she has to give herself a tonic.” The most important thing was that those chickens were other people’s purchases.

It would take a long time to boil a chicken soup, so it would not be possible to drink it at night. Hence, Yuxi would ask Mama Bai to stew the two chickens for one night, and the flavour would be strong enough to drink the next day.

The idea was good, but Master Yang made fun of it. “If you’re going to stew these chicken, it will smell so good that those old men unable to sleep. How will they have the energy to rush tomorrow? Why don’t you just boil it today and let everyone have a bowl so that they can sleep afterwards?”

Yuxi smiled a little and said, “It was my poor consideration.” At that moment, she changed her mind and asked Mama Bai to boil the chickens into a soup and give it to everyone when it was ready.

Chief Huang was the first to drink it, and looking at the black object floating in the soup, he asked Yuxi, “Miss, what’s in it?”

Yuxi smiled and said, “I put angelica root and wolfberry in it. Don’t worry. They’re good for your health.”

A bowl of a hot soup made the whole body feel much better. Chief Huang said with a smile, “I’m sorry for your trouble.” It was not that they had never escorted the ladies from large families before. But those ladies had either wept endlessly or complained about feeling unwell and uncomfortable here and there, which delayed their journey and gave headaches to the armed escorts. The Fourth Miss Han was a good one. Not only did she not cause any trouble, but she also helped out a lot, which made her quite special.

Yuxi smiled a little and said, “This is what I should do. Tell your brothers to get up and have some of the soup! If they’re late, there won’t be any left.” There were so many people and so little soup that each one of them could only have a small bowl. But because of the herbs, everyone said it was good after they drank it.

When it was all done, it was already very dark. Yuxi didn’t mind the delay in sleeping, but the men had to sleep, as they had to drive and ride the horses during the day. She could just catch up on her sleep in the carriage during that time.

Mama Bai came over and gave Yuxi a bowl of chicken soup she had hidden. “Miss, you can have this soup in the morning!” Mama Bai was also an unfortunate person. She had been married to her husband for five years without having any children. Because of this, she was extremely disliked by her mother-in-law and husband. Her husband eventually divorced her and remarried. As a divorced woman, she was also shunned by her natal family.

Her eldest brother wanted to sell her to a butcher in his forties, who had beaten his two wives to death. If she were sold to the butcher, she would die. She had to sneak away from her natal house in secret to find a job, but it was difficult for a woman to find one. In the end, it was Mama Fang who took pity on her and let her work for a living in her small shop. Mama Bai has been with Mama Fang for three years. After three years of work, she was able to make baozi and mantou and also perfected her cooking skills. When Mama Fang found out that Yuxi was looking for a cook but could not find one, she thought that Mama Bai’s qualifications were just right and asked for Mama Bai’s opinion. Knowing Yuxi’s identity, she agreed without even thinking about it. If she didn’t go to such a generous master, she wouldn’t be able to find another one as good as her.

The most important things Yuxi looked at in a cook were clean family background and reliability. Although she trusted Mama Fang, she still asked someone to inquire carefully and saw that Mama Bai was not far from what Fang had said. Besides, Mama Bai was truly good at cooking and not too old, so Yuxi asked her to stay.

Yuxi smiled and said, “I’m already full. Try to ask Tian Ju and let them share it. It has been hard for them all this time.” The daytime rush was already tiring, but they still had to help with the work, so it was naturally hard.

Mama Bai nodded at these words and said, “Yes, I’ll go now.”

Because of the chicken soup, the group slept late that night. The next day before dawn, Mama Bai got up again to prepare congee, but she was already used to doing this; hence, she had no complaints. Hearing Yuxi’s words yesterday, she added pumpkin to the congee this morning.

While on Yuxi’s side, Yuxi made a large pot of red date porridge and reserved some in a small pot for lunch. It was a real ordeal to eat those cakes that looked like stones.

After three days of sleeping out in the open, the travellers finally arrived at an inn on the fourth day. It was the first time that Yuxi had not taken a bath for four days straight, so the first thing she did when she was at the inn was to take a hot bath.

When Yuxi had eaten and drunk enough, she wrote under the lamp. Zijin asked curiously, “Miss, what are you writing?”

Yuxi smiled as she replied, “I’m writing down everything I’ve seen and heard on the way, so when I get to the northwest, I’ll write them down for Mother.” Only when she left home did she realise that she was so poorly informed that she didn’t know anything about the outside world.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door. After opening the door, Zijin opened it, turned to Yuxi and said, “Miss, Master Yang is calling me. I will be back.” She was not worried about Yuxi’s safety, as there were the Lu family’s bodyguards staying just next door.

It was an hour later that Zijin returned. Yuxi saw her looking grave and asked, “What’s wrong? What did Master Yang say to you?”

Zijin shook her head and said, “Nothing. Miss, it’s very late, we still have to rush tomorrow. You should go to bed early!” Zisu was already asleep.

Yuxi smiled and said, “Yes, I’m going to sleep now.”

In the middle of the night, there was a commotion outside. Yuxi was busy getting up and was just about to light the lamp. Zijin leapt up from the bed, grabbed Yuxi’s hand and warned, “Miss, you can’t light the lamp.” After giving out this warning, Zijin explained, “If you light the lamp, we might become a target for those thieves.”

Luo Shuigui and his party were only responsible for Yuxi’s safety. They would not bother with the chaos outside. After a while, Han Ji called from outside. Only then did Zijin light the lamp and open the door.

Yuxi asked, “What happened just now?”

Han Ji answered, “It’s nothing serious, just that there were some petty thieves who wanted to steal something, and they had already been arrested. I’m afraid Miss would be worried, so I’m reporting the situation to Miss.” Although the armed escorts didn’t know what was in Yuxi’s box, they knew the items must be precious without making any guesses. Therefore, even if they were staying at the inn, there would still be people on a night watch.

Yuxi nodded and said, ”So it was like this! Okay, I know. You should also withdraw and have a rest!” Yuxi knew that the journey would not be peaceful, and it was lucky that she had not encountered anything in the past half month.

Having been prepared for this, she was not frightened. She lay back down on her bed and soon fell asleep. The next day, she woke up before dawn.

When she had finished eating, the carriage was all loaded and ready for her to come down and leave.

As soon as she stepped out of the inn, she saw two children aged about ten dashed out from the side. The two children were dressed in rags and were frighteningly thin. But before they could get close to Yuxi, they were stopped by Luo Shuigui.

The two children knelt on the ground and asked for money. “Miss, we haven’t eaten for two days. Please give us something to eat!”

Da Mao wanted to go forward but was stopped by Chief Huang. “Let’s see what Miss Han will do with them?”

Yuxi looked at the two children. They had an unwashed appearance and were still wearing thin clothes when it was already the second lunar month, looking so pitiful. After inspecting the two children, Yuxi said to Luo Shuigui beside her, “Uncle Luo, please ask someone to go to the inn and get some food for these two children!” If she had been in the capital, she would have dared to give them some money. But out here, it was better to be careful.

Luo Shuigui told one of the men beside him to do it.

Da Mao was amazed. “I thought she would give them money?” He remembered that they had once escorted a wife of an official, who also saw some children begging for food. When she took pity on them, she had a table of good food served to them and gave those children two taels of silver each. As a result, they encountered many people with the same concerns on their journey, which added a lot of trouble to the armed escorts for nothing.

Chief Huang: “Don’t think so much, hurry to work!”

After travelling for a while, Yuxi asked Zijin, “What did Master Yang say to you last night? Tell me straight! So that I know the score.”

Seeing that Yuxi had asked, Zijin didn’t hide anything from her. “Master said that the bandits on the road we are walking now are all small-time bandits. With so many people in our convoy, these people wouldn’t dare to make a move. But if we go a little further, we will enter Shanxi territory. There are a lot of bandits there. We should not be afraid of the small bandit groups, but we should be afraid of horse thieves. In addition, there is a group of bandits on the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi, located in Menghu Mountain. It was rumoured that there are several thousand of them.”

Hearing that several thousand bandits had gathered at Menghu Mountain, Yuxi was frightened. She had always known that there were bandits before, but she did not know that there would be such a large group. Hearing this, Yuxi was a bit scared inside, not to mention Zisu, who was by her side. Zisu asked nervously, “Miss, what should we do then?”

Yuxi weighed the information in her heart and asked, “What else did Master Yang say?”

Zijin continued, “Master Yang said that although we don’t have a lot of things since we only have twelve carriages with us, if people knew your identity, it would attract horse thieves and that group of bandits from Menghu Mountain.” The young miss from the Duke of the State’s residence would be married off to the northwest, and she would surely come with dowries. By hearing this news, one would know that this convoy was a fat sheep.

Yuxi pondered for a moment and then asked again, “What else did Master Yang say?”

Zijin shook her head and said, “Nothing more.” Master Yang only mentioned the bandits within the Shanxi border. He had not yet informed her regarding the bandits much ahead!

Yuxi said, “I’ll go ask Chief Huang tonight and see what he says.” With thousands of bandits, having to fight them hard was definitely out of the question. She only hoped that Chief Huang had a much better idea.