Back in Song Yanqing's tent, Lu Qiqi opened the brocade box and found a lustrous pearl inside.
According to her visual estimation, the pearl was about six-tenths of an inch in size.
Although there is a sea area outside the pass, it is not easy to catch pearls in this era, let alone a round and flawless pearl.
Aunt Xiang is just a concubine in the General's Mansion. For her to send such a lavish gift, she must have brought out all her most treasured possessions.
However, this also shows how much General Wu liked and cared for Consort Xiang, otherwise he wouldn't have given such a good thing to a concubine.
After working continuously at the East Gate for seven days, they finally managed to treat all the seriously wounded soldiers.
General Wu also woke up and returned to the East Gate military camp to guard it.
When he learned that it was Lu Qiqi who saved his child, he specially ordered people to prepare generous gifts to express his gratitude.
After a busy day, Lu Qiqi returned to Song Yanqing's tent and found that there were many more gift boxes in the tent.
She assumed these things were gifts given to Song Yanqing by others, so she quickly called for Nineteen.
"What are your orders, Your Excellency?"
Nineteen, with her slightly chubby face, smiled and bowed respectfully in front of Lu Qiqi.
Lu Qiqi directly stated her request, "Nineteen, could you please arrange a new tent for me?"
Nineteen was puzzled. "Is there something wrong in the tent? Are there rats?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Qiqi immediately pictured a dark creature in her mind, shook her head, and explained,
“I am staying in your prince’s tent, and so many gifts are with me. If one or two of them go missing, it will be hard to explain why.”
Nineteen, having finally understood what was going on, breathed a sigh of relief.
He thought it was his fault, that he had done something inconsiderate and almost ruined his cushy job of taking care of Lu Qiqi's food and lodging.
"This is a gift of thanks from General Wu, not a gift from the Crown Prince."
After hearing Nineteen's explanation, Lu Qiqi wasn't surprised by the gift itself, but rather discovered something interesting.
She casually asked, "This General's Mansion is quite strange. When I went there to help Concubine Xiang give birth, the First Madam went back to her courtyard to rest early. Now, General Wu has come to deliver gifts. How odd!"
In this era, men were responsible for external affairs while women were responsible for internal affairs. This was especially true in a general's mansion, where the male head of the household was constantly fighting on the battlefield and rarely had time to spend in the arms of a woman.
General Wu, however, did the opposite. He not only defended the border against foreign enemies, but also took care of all the affairs of the mansion.
He is truly a model worker, one of the top ten.
Nineteen is usually a bit simple-minded, but he is quite quick-witted in this kind of situation. He said, "Everyone says that General Wu is family-oriented, loves his wife, and doesn't want her to work hard. I don't think that's entirely true."
"Oh?" Lu Qiqi didn't expect Nineteen to have another perspective. "Tell me your opinion?"
After thinking for a moment, Nineteen recounted all the unusual things he had discovered about General Wu in the border town's military camp over the past six months.
It turns out that General Wu was a man of great loyalty and affection. When he was young, his wife gave him a bowl of porridge when he was a child, and at that time, his family had fallen on hard times and could not afford to buy food. He was even fighting with dogs for food on the street.
Fortunately, General Wu made many meritorious contributions after joining the army, which allowed this youthful love to continue, and he was matched with the daughter of the militia leader.
Therefore, the soldiers not only admired General Wu's devotion, but also respected him for his tenacity in fighting his way out of a bloody path to official rank and titles.
After hearing what Nineteen said, Lu Qiqi thought to herself, 'But that doesn't stop General Wu from taking concubines. It seems there's more than just Concubine Xiang in the household. Things in the inner quarters are far from as peaceful as they appear.'
"General Wu's concubines can get pregnant several times a year, but none of them can be kept."
Over time, rumors spread that Madam Wu was jealous and intolerant of her other concubines.
This was something Lu Qiqi hadn't expected. At this moment, she felt like a badger in a melon patch, munching on a melon.
She listened as Nineteen shared gossip about General Wu's mansion with her.
Nineteen got more and more excited as he spoke, and eventually began to get indignant. "If General Wu really valued Madam Wu, there would be no concubines in the mansion. These people in the army are all blind and dumb idiots."
"..." Although Nineteen was cursing, it must be said that what he said made a lot of sense.
Nineteen blurted out all her thoughts, and seeing Lu Qiqi's silent expression, she realized she had said the wrong thing and wished she could bite off her own tongue right then and there.
When will he ever get rid of this gossipy habit?
Is the village head going to file a complaint with the son of the deceased?
Now he really has to go to the military horse camp to feed the horses!
Waaah~, I should have known he wouldn't have said anything.
Just as his thoughts were racing, he heard Lu Qiqi say, "It's good that you have this awareness. I hope you can be faithful to one person for life from now on."
Upon hearing this, Nineteen blinked at her, bewildered. This seemed to be different from what he had expected.
In any case, as long as no one complains, it's fine to let him feed the horses.
After leaving the tent, Lu Qiqi looked through the gift box a few times and found a gift list inside.
General Wu was clearly a generous man; the gifts included fine clothes, precious medicinal herbs, writing implements, and a string of pearls the size of soybeans, with a total of 108 pearls listed on the gift list.
Putting everything else aside, this pearl bracelet alone is worth several hundred taels of silver.
Lu Qiqi realized that this generous gift was probably not only for the child, but also for the purpose of curing General Wu.
After counting the gifts and confirming that they matched the list, she put all the gift boxes into her spatial storage. Why not take advantage of money delivered to her door?
After finishing all that, she went into her spatial dimension.
Before coming to the border town, Lu Qiqi bought fifty chickens and fifty ducks and kept them in her space.
Two days ago, when she entered her space, she found that the hen's comb had grown bigger and her cheeks were flushed. She guessed that it should lay an egg in the next couple of days.
So as soon as she entered the space, she went straight to the chicken coop.
Sure enough, just as she expected, the hens started laying eggs.
Lu Qiqi looked at the round eggs, scattered messily on the grass, with some hens even incubating them on the spot.
To supplement her protein intake and satisfy her cravings, she hurriedly ran back to the cabin, grabbed her small bamboo basket, and happily went into the chicken coop to collect eggs.
Lu Qiqi didn't pick up the eggs that the hen was tightly protecting under her, for fear that the hen would peck her fiercely while protecting her chicks.
Lu Qiqi, who had collected half a basket of chicken eggs and half a basket of duck eggs, returned home with a full load.
She made a whole pot of egg pancakes in her space and stored them there.
Anyway, the space upgrade added a freshness-locking function, which provided her with a lot of convenience.
The harvesting space allows mature crops to be harvested without worrying about damage when there's no time to tend to them, which solves a major problem for her.
All the eggs were made into egg pancakes, and naturally, the duck eggs weren't spared either; they were all made into salted duck eggs.
Once the salted duck eggs are pickled, they can be served with white porridge. Instantly, Lu Qiqi seemed to see the oily yolk of the salted duck eggs and smell the salty and fragrant aroma of the yolks.
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