"I really can't sleep well, I'm always worried they'll sneak over at night..."
Hearing this, the lieutenant frowned and couldn't help but interrupt, "Let's not talk about these things anymore, okay? That's all in the past."
The soldiers immediately stopped talking and silently began eating their food. A short while later, one of the soldiers from the post station finished his food and went into the kitchen to get a second bowl.
Voices gradually drifted from the kitchen.
"Uncle Anton, the meat tonight tastes a little different from yesterday's."
"Hmm? What's wrong, Matthew? Is there a problem?"
"No, no problem, I was just saying."
"I thought I put in the wrong seasoning. Looks like I'm not that confused after all. Oh, I know what happened. It's definitely different from yesterday. Today I stewed wild boar meat. Its meat is leaner and has a stronger gamey smell, but I tried my best to remove the gamey smell. Did you still taste it?"
"How could that be, Uncle Anton? I didn't taste anything strange. What I was trying to describe was the difference in the leanness of the meat. But you know, I'm not a chef and I don't know much about these things, but my tongue can still tell that it's delicious."
"That's good. A lot of wild boars have come down from the mountain these past few days. Richard has hunted several and brought us a lot of meat. For the next period of time, we will have wild boar meat with every meal."
"That would be perfect." The soldier filled a bowl with meat and returned to the first floor, thus ending the conversation.
As a result, an even richer aroma of meat filled the room. Even the cavalrymen who had come down from the mountain in low spirits were tempted, and soon several of them went to the kitchen to get a second bowl.
The lieutenant was still eating his first bowl, his attention mostly drawn to Dingle. Unlike the others, he wasn't munching away, but instead holding his bowl and watching the flames burning in the fireplace.
After the conversation in the kitchen ended, the lieutenant noticed that Dingle suddenly looked at the meat in the bowl, but he didn't eat it; he just kept staring at it.
Immediately afterward, Dingle suddenly stood up, put down the bowl in his hand, and ran quickly out of the room.
"Sir?" The lieutenant hurriedly chased after him, but as soon as he reached the door, he saw Dingle hunched over and retching on the snow not far away.
"What's going on?" The soldiers were also startled and ran to the entrance of the post station to look outside.
"Why did the colonel suddenly vomit? Is there something wrong with the food?" a cavalryman asked, frowning.
"That's impossible! I don't feel anything wrong!" someone shouted immediately afterward, and Anton rushed out of the kitchen in a fluster.
"Sirs, what's going on? I only cooked wild boar meat, could it be..." Before Anton could finish speaking, the lieutenant's expression changed.
He stared blankly at the bowl held by the soldier beside him, at the bones inside, including ribs, large leg bones, and firm heart meat—parts that were almost entirely nutritious.
"A wild boar that ran out of... from... Mount Enzos..." the lieutenant suddenly stammered.
"Yes...yes, sir, is there a problem? Our post station is right at the foot of the mountain, and sometimes we do catch wild animals that come down from the mountain. These wild boars have all come down recently. We didn't disobey orders to hunt in the mountains; they came down on their own. If we don't kill them, they'll destroy the farmland and ruin the crops, sir...I..." Uncle Anton explained in a panic.
"No...it's nothing, it's not your fault, don't be nervous." The lieutenant, his face slightly pale, patted Anton's shoulder.
But the next moment, he suddenly rushed out and, like Dingle, began to vomit.
The soldiers at the post station looked at each other, completely bewildered. The cavalrymen who had accompanied Dingle down the mountain, however, belatedly realized what had happened and their expressions changed. They were still holding their bowls, but none of them could eat anymore.
The lieutenant, vomiting outside, had a contorted face, drool dripping from his mouth as he turned to look at Mount Enzos behind him, shrouded in the boundless night.
The dark mountain peaks stood tall in the cold wind, seemingly no different from before, yet everyone knew that hundreds of thousands of corpses were buried within them.
——
Meanwhile, within the Enzos Mountains.
As snowflakes fall, dappled sparks dance in the wind above the burning bonfire.
The meat sizzled and dripped with oil as it was stuck in the fire, its aroma spreading in the wind. Several green lights emerged from the dense forest in the night, watching them intently. But soon, the beasts abandoned their plans and instead began to rummage through the ruins with their claws, following the lingering scent in the snow.
With a blank expression, Qin Ze reached out and pulled out the wooden stick, brought the crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside piece of meat to his mouth, and took a bite. The abundant meat juices then gushed out from his mouth.
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