At the beginning of winter, there is not a single drop of snow in the southwest. Instead, the weather is even colder than when it snows. The air is chilly, and it has been drizzling for the past few days. The desolate mountains and wilderness, coupled with the rain, do not have any sign of human habitation, making it seem like a desolate ghostland.
Xu Qinyu was wearing a straw raincoat and shivering as she huddled under a tall pine tree. The tree's lush branches helped shield her from most of the wind and rain.
Even so, her body was a little wet, wet and cold. She couldn't help but hug herself tightly. She was still a little dazed. She didn't expect that she had just won the world-class chef championship. She took a nap in the car on the way back to the hotel. Then she felt a sharp pain in her body as if she had been in a car accident. When she opened her eyes, she came to this ancient dynasty.
She came to this ancient dynasty three days ago, and this was not even any historical dynasty she knew.
This body has the same name and surname as her, both are called Xu Qinyu, but she is an orphan who was abandoned at the door of an orphanage since childhood. Her original body was the second daughter of the Marquis of Dechang.
The Marquis' Mansion was a noble family in ancient times. As the legitimate daughter of a noble family, she should have lived a good life, but she was sick and on the road to exile.
Speaking of the reason why the original body was exiled, it was also outrageous.
Although the original body was the legitimate daughter of the second wife of the Marquis of Dechang, her father had an older brother and younger brothers and sisters, and the least favored one was her father in the middle. Her grandparents always subsidized the first and third wives. The father of the second wife was a seventh-rank official with a monthly salary of four taels of silver, and her mother's dowry was not much. Therefore, except for food and drink, the original body's other clothes and clothing were not as good as those of the first and third wives. Even the food and drink were just enough to fill her stomach.
There is an eldest daughter and a third daughter in the Marquis Dechang's Mansion. The eldest daughter has already married, and the third daughter Xu Qinhui is engaged to the Fourth Prince. But when she woke up, it turned out that the second daughter, the original self, was engaged to the Fourth Prince.
Because the Fourth Prince is going to be exiled.
The eldest prince, the brother of the fourth prince born to the queen, lost the battle for the throne with the second prince born to the imperial concubine. The eldest prince's line was accused of poisoning the previous emperor to usurp the throne and was executed directly. The fourth prince was a sickly child, and the seventh prince, born to the same mother, was a little mute. The sixth princess was a girl and posed no threat. To show mercy, the new emperor exiled all of the queen's lineage, including her family. They were all dismissed from office and exiled to the southwest.
The Fourth Prince was about to be exiled, so the Marquis of Dechang was certainly reluctant to let the third daughter, Xu Qinhui, whom they had spoiled since childhood, marry the Fourth Prince.
I don't know if it was the people in the Marquis' Mansion who helped behind the scenes, or if the third lady Xu Qinhui used some other method, but after one night, the fiancée of the fourth prince who was about to be exiled, somehow became her original self with an imperial edict.
Before the Queen's line was exiled, the new Emperor also conferred the title of King on the Fourth Prince.
Shuwang, Shu is homophonic to Shu, which means common people, and Shuzi also means servant.
The title given to the fourth prince by the new emperor was obviously humiliating.
The Marquis of Dechang was worried that outsiders would say that they were ungrateful, so they broke off the engagement with Prince Shu because he was going to be exiled. They were afraid that people would gossip about the reputation of the Marquisate, so the night before the Queen's family was exiled, they sent her to Prince Shu's Mansion in a wedding dress and a sedan chair.
The next day, the original body was exiled to the southwest along with the queen's lineage.
The original body was also a bit weak in character and did not dare to resist at all. In addition, she already had someone she liked and was ready to discuss marriage, but a decree forced her to marry someone she did not like and suffer the pain of exile. She was depressed all the way and fell completely ill and unconscious after a month. Perhaps because of this, she died in a car accident and became the original body.
Although she was shocked a few days ago that she was still in this situation after traveling through time, she had been ill and had never been conscious, so she could not care about anything else. She could only follow her body's instincts and rest more to save her life.
I have finally been awake these past few days, but now I have to travel again, so naturally I am in a daze.
Xu Qinyu looked at the dark sky, and her heart became heavy and bitter.
It is really not easy to survive in such an environment with such an identity.
"Yu Niang, drink this little water."
Suddenly, a skinny woman with frostbite all over her face came over. She was wearing a tattered long coat and a straw raincoat, but she was also soaked and looked disheveled. She was holding a kettle in her arms and was looking at Xu Qinyu.
This woman is the original body's mother-in-law, the former Queen Mother, and now the exiled Concubine Dowager Wen.
Of course, from the moment of being exiled, even the princes and queen dowagers appointed by the new emperor were just criminals and common people.
Xu Qinyu glanced at Wen and licked her dry lips. She was thirsty and hungry, and her physical condition was not very good. She didn't dare to drink dirty water for fear of diarrhea. In this situation, diarrhea could easily kill her.
Ever since the original body fell ill, perhaps the Wen family felt guilty towards her, so they have always been very nice to her and gave her any food and drink they had.
"Yuniang, drink quickly. This will help you get better. You can't drink dirty water, as it will cause diarrhea. This is some clean water I begged from the officers and soldiers. Please drink it."
Wen put the kettle under Xu Qinyu's mouth.
Xu Qinyu is proficient in cooking, and her sense of smell and taste are the most sensitive among her five senses. She smelled a faint rice fragrance in the kettle, which should not contain pure water, but thin rice porridge.
She was an orphan when she was a child. She had lived in an orphanage since she could remember and had been living on government subsidies. There were many children in the orphanage and too little food. Even though the aunt was fair in serving food to the children every day, there were always tall children who snatched the food from the thin children. She was always hungry when she was a child. Later, one time, she couldn't bear it anymore and bit a big child who snatched her food. Since then, no one dared to bully her.
Maybe because she was always hungry and hungry in the welfare home, she cared the most about food. When she was a child, she often went out to make some food by herself, and the taste was very good. When she was in junior high and high school, she set up a food stall after school and on holidays, and it was very popular.
Gradually, she gained some fame and developed many private recipes. She started her business when she was in college. After graduating from college, she opened a private restaurant and developed it into a chain of private restaurants. She is worth tens of millions. At the age of less than 27, she won the first place in the world-class chef amid the attention and shock of the world. She planned to study recipes well and retire in the future. She never expected that she would travel back to the time before liberation and everything would be gone.
No! This was more than just losing everything. This was even more miserable than her time in the orphanage. It was the beginning of hell.
Xu Qinyu's heart was in a mess. She subconsciously held the kettle and took a sip. There was indeed rice porridge in it, but there were only a few grains of rice and it was very thin. It must be something that Wen had begged for from the officers and soldiers guarding them using silver or jewelry.
Xu Qinyu stopped drinking. The Wen family, five people in total, big and small, hadn't eaten for a day.
She handed the kettle to a large, thin girl next to her, about eleven or twelve years old, and said, "Sister Ning, have a sip."
Sister Ning is the youngest daughter of the Wen family, the former sixth princess, Pei Jianing.
It wasn't an easy journey for the little girl. She used to be plump and beautiful, but after going through all this time, she became as thin as a bean sprout.
Pei Jianing bit her lip and said sullenly, "I don't want to drink, you drink it yourself."
She was not angry with Fourth Sister-in-law, because Fourth Sister-in-law was also innocent.
The fourth sister-in-law had also suffered a lot along the way, but her mother had used up her last bit of silver just to buy a mouthful of rice porridge for the fourth sister-in-law. When they arrived in the southwest, they were unfamiliar with the place and had no money. How were they supposed to survive? It was obvious that she couldn't say that she would not help them even if they died. She was just angry at herself. She could have hidden some gold leaves and jewelry when she left the palace, but she was too proud to believe that the princess would be exiled, so she didn't pack anything and took nothing with her.
Xu Qinyu didn't care whether her sister-in-law was angry or not, and stuffed the kettle into her mouth.
Smelling the rice fragrance inside, Pei Jianing swallowed his saliva, and finally couldn't help but took a sip. The rice porridge that he couldn't swallow without exquisite side dishes and snacks before, now tasted extremely sweet.
Pei Jianing took a sip and handed the kettle to the smaller girl who was curled up in her mother's arms.
This is the only bloodline left in the eldest prince's family, her little niece.
In the end, this pot of thin rice soup was shared by all the members of the Pei family.
The kettle was finally handed to a handsome man with a pale face under another pine tree.
He was born with a very good-looking appearance, but unfortunately his face and lips were pale and he looked extremely weak. He had a pair of phoenix eyes, but there was no emotion in them. The hair on his forehead was randomly splashed on his pale cheeks by the rain. He was taking a nap with his eyes closed.
He is Xu Qinyu's adopted husband, and was also named His Royal Highness the Prince of Shu by the new emperor, but now he is only a commoner, Pei Weixuan.
He had been weak and sickly since childhood, so he was lucky enough to escape the disaster.
Therefore, the only ones left in the Pei family are the old, weak, sick and disabled, otherwise the new emperor would have tried every possible way to kill them all.
Xu Qinyu watched Pei Weixuan drink up the remaining porridge in the pot, then leaned against the pine tree, holding the pot and closing his eyes.
She was drowsy along the way, but she always remembered that it was her cheap husband who carried her forward step by step to keep up with the pace of the team.
At least the Pei family did not give up on her and left her on the roadside to die of illness.
Xu Qinyu looked at the rolling mountains in the distance under the dark sky. The rain gradually became heavier, and the wind blew the trees, making the forests in the mountains seem like man-eating monsters.
The heavy rain was coming down with a crackling sound, and it was getting heavier. All around were the sad faces of the exiled families and the curses of the officers and soldiers.
Xu Qinyu rubbed her still rumbling stomach. She had to think of a way to get everyone a hot meal. Otherwise, given her current physical condition, even if it was only a few days' walk to the place of exile, the elderly, weak and sick in the family would not be able to hold on. She couldn't die on the road. She didn't want to die again.
The mountains in the southwest are not like those in the north. In winter, there is nothing on the mountains. The southwest is a warm and humid area, and it is not as cold as the north in winter. There are still prey on the mountains. Even if there is no prey, the mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots and wild vegetables all over the mountains can solve the urgent problem. You always have to fill your stomach first.
The only problem was how to negotiate with the leaders of these officers and soldiers to let her borrow some cookware and go to the mountains to look for edible wild vegetables and mushrooms.
Before Xu Qinyu could think about it, a few small stones mixed with mud suddenly rolled down from the mountain behind her. In this terrible rainstorm, this little movement did not disturb anyone.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
