Xingxing was a little annoyed. She was serious. If ghosts really existed, she had never seen one. What was so strange about wanting to see one? She really didn't know what these people were laughing at.
Sigh, no one can understand her feelings.
Zhu Lin noticed Xingxing's depression, his thin lips curled slightly, and he stepped forward to take her hand, leading her into the carriage. The group then headed towards the dilapidated temple.
Half an hour later, they finally found the dilapidated temple. From the outside, the temple was indeed in a terrible state of disrepair. Strangely, the temple was closed. The vermilion paint on the door had long since peeled off, and the door panel was dirty and dark.
The guard stepped forward and reached out to push open the dilapidated temple door, but to his surprise, the door collapsed on its own with a loud crash the moment his hand touched it.
"Cough cough." The guard coughed violently, choked by the dust.
Everyone: ?
"You guys go in first and take a look. If it's too dirty, clean it up a bit first," Qingyan said to the other guards.
The guards quickly entered the dilapidated temple and then quickly came out. They went to the carriage to get a wooden bucket, went to find water nearby, and after finding water, they cleaned the temple before daring to invite the princess in to rest.
In the center of the temple stands a large Buddha statue taller than a person, but it is covered in dust and cobwebs because no one has cleaned it for years. Next to the large Buddha statue are two smaller Buddha statues, which have collapsed to the ground.
The area that the guards just cleaned and wiped was to the left of the Buddha statue. There was a dilapidated table and two wooden stools there. The fallen door panel was carried in, cleaned, and covered with a lot of dry grass, which could be used as a bed at night.
As Xingxing walked in and was about to sit down, Qingyan deftly placed a soft cushion under the wooden board. "Princess, please bear with it for now. I'll have someone put a quilt on this board later, so it won't be so hard when you rest at night."
"No need for a quilt. The weather is getting hotter and hotter. It will be hot enough with the fire later. If you put a quilt on top, you'll just sweat more." Xingxing waved her hand, telling her not to bother.
“There are mountains nearby, and it’s already late spring. There must be plenty of small animals on the mountains. We can go and hunt a few.” Zhu Qiuyu suddenly thought of his five brothers. If they were here, they would definitely go for a stroll on the mountain without saying a word, and they wouldn’t feel right if they didn’t catch a few wild rabbits and pheasants.
Upon hearing this, Xingxing smacked her lips and said, "I want to eat fresh wild rabbit meat, and also pheasant meat."
The princess wanted to eat, and the guards immediately set off to get to work without saying a word. Before long, they returned with two wild rabbits and a pheasant.
There weren't many wild animals on the mountain, and it took a dozen or so guards almost half an hour to catch these three.
"We'll have meat for dinner tonight, hehe." Xingxing smiled and her eyes crinkled. Considering there were many people, she thought that grilling the meat wouldn't be enough to share, so she asked someone to stew all three together into a meat soup.
Watching the meat bubbling and steaming in the big iron pot, with its rich aroma wafting into her nose, Xingxing recalled the poem she had just learned a couple of days ago. Moved by the moment, she recited it aloud in a clear voice: "Behind the red gates, meat and wine go to waste; on the road, frozen corpses lie."
"Pfft, those two sentences about stars are inappropriate here. We've been living frugally all the way. These three little prey were hard-won. If you say that, it won't taste good when we eat meat later." Zhu Qingruo was both annoyed and amused.
Xingxing smiled again, her eyes crinkling. "Oh, don't overthink it. I just suddenly remembered this saying and casually recited it. Don't take it to heart. If you feel guilty and can't eat the meat, then leave it for those who can."
"Dream on! I'll definitely eat a few more pieces to make you, you little ingrate, play tricks on me." Zhu Qingruo made a face at her.
Xingxing wouldn't have it, so she stuck out her tongue and made a face at her. Their antics instantly livened up the somewhat dull atmosphere. The stew was ready, and everyone took bowls to share it.
"You stew a pot of meat porridge with cured pork and dried wild vegetables, and let the people outside share it. They've all had a hard journey, so let them have a hot meal too."
The people outside refer to the guards. Xingxing still remembers that the three little prey were caught by several guards. They didn't get any fresh meat soup, but they could still share a bowl of cured meat and wild vegetable soup.
Qingyan was already numb. Along the way, she had taken on many roles. In addition to being a personal maid, she had also learned to cook, such as making a large pot of meat porridge. This was not the first time she had done this.
The guards had gotten used to the princess occasionally giving them a bowl of meat soup, which made them feel both touched and excited, but also a little amused and exasperated.
When they were in the capital, the emperor and empress would reward them with valuable items such as gold and silver for their merits. The princess was never rewarded with money. She seemed a bit poor and always kept the little money she brought with her tightly, refusing to give it to anyone.
But the little princess would occasionally show concern for them, and her way of showing concern was by having meat soup made for them. She vividly recalled the first time they received the soup, when the princess spoke to them earnestly: "We've traveled all the way from the capital to the northwest, and from Xiyancheng to here. You've seen the lives of those refugees, and what they eat every day."
Food is always the most precious commodity. Being able to eat meat broth is a blessing; if we were unlucky, we'd be destitute and wouldn't even be able to smell the broth. Do you understand?
The guards nodded silently, the meat soup in their hands that was originally light suddenly feeling as heavy as a thousand pieces of gold. The Great Jin Dynasty was plagued by natural disasters, so food was naturally extremely precious. This bowl of soup was a gift from the princess, so it was even more valuable.
It suddenly started raining at night. The raindrops pattered on the tiles. Zhu Lin opened his eyes and glanced to the side without making a sound. Xingxing was sleeping soundly, breathing evenly and gently.
The boy closed his eyes again, and then heard the little girl next to him suddenly turn over and mutter something under her breath. Then there was silence, and then the little girl suddenly opened her eyes.
The boy next to him immediately sensed it. Zhu Lin turned to look over. Although the two were sleeping side by side and could reach out to hook their arms, there was a wooden board between them, so each of them slept on one side.
"What's wrong?" Zhu Lin asked her using lip reading.
The fire beside them was burning brightly. Stars faced the boy against the light, her small face shrouded in shadow, making it difficult for him to see clearly. She didn't speak, but instead beckoned the boy to come closer.
Zhu Lin leaned closer and heard the little girl whisper, "There's a mechanism behind that Buddha statue over there, and there's a secret room in this dilapidated temple."
It seems there was another visual cue for her just now.
The boy understood and helped Xingxing up. The two tiptoed behind the Buddha statue and found the mechanism on the statue's shoulder. The boy pressed down hard, and a door appeared on the back of the Buddha statue. The door opened from the bottom up, and the door to this secret chamber opened without making a sound.
So the others didn't notice anything unusual, but Zhu Qiuyu and a few others were very perceptive and noticed it when Xingxing and Zhu Lin got up.
Seeing the two acting suspiciously behind the Buddha statue, fiddling with something, the eldest and third senior brothers, out of curiosity, teleported over to see what was going on.
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