Chapter 08 Chapter 8
It's another early morning.
Jiang Huai shivered when he woke up, rubbed his cold face quickly, and moved his hands and feet to make his body less uncomfortable as he curled up to sleep.
Despite rushing as hard as I could yesterday, I still missed the nearest post station and had to spend the night in the wild.
But in comparison, Jiang Huai prefers sleeping in the wild. At least it is more comfortable and cleaner than a prison cell.
After walking for almost half a month, Jiang Huai passed by the cells and sheds of various post stations and found that the sheds were better because they were cleaned more frequently. This was because these sheds sometimes accommodated some people who passed by temporarily and did not have much money. They would be cleaned to some extent and had toilets.
Even though so many people share it, it is better than having no toilet at all.
The cell was different. There were not many people locked up in it on weekdays, so it was rarely cleaned. The smell inside had been there for years. After staying there for a night, Jiang Huai could only cover his mouth and nose with his prison uniform to fall asleep in exhaustion.
Even so, his mental state was not good the next day. If Jiang Huai had not gradually gotten used to long-distance travel over the past few days and his physical strength had improved, he might not have been able to hold on on the road.
As for the inn, Jiang Huai believed that the soldiers should live in a good place, but the prisoners were all crowded together to sleep, and the comfort level was not much different from that of a shed, and it was not as good as sleeping in the wild.
Most importantly, there is another benefit to sleeping outdoors.
When Jiang Huai walked out of the tarpaulin tent, he saw Xiao Jingzhao practicing martial arts next to the camp. His movements were clean and neat, and the winds of his punches were so powerful that Jiang Huai couldn't help but take a few more glances.
Xiao Jingzhao noticed someone was looking at him. He frowned and turned around, only to see Jiang Huai looking at him with some envy in his eyes.
What are you envious of?
Before Xiao Jingzhao could figure it out, Jiang Huai withdrew his gaze and went to the side of the camp to move the firewood collected yesterday, put it into the stove, filled the pottery jar with water, set it on the stove, and started the fire to burn the firewood. At this time, Xiao Jingzhao also came over with food.
Because they were sleeping in the wild, the guards naturally had no way to prepare any bread for the prisoners. After all, no one knew whether they would stay at an inn or in the wild that day. It was too troublesome to prepare in advance, but preparing a bag of miscellaneous grains would be much more convenient and would not spoil easily.
However, it is impossible for prisoners to eat food raw; it needs to be cooked.
Originally, cooking was the job of the soap guards, and they didn't dare let the prisoners do it. First, they were afraid that the prisoners would steal food and cause quarrels. Second, they were worried that some prisoners would have bad intentions and put something in the food. Even if the prisoner was in trouble, it would still be trouble for the soap guards.
As a new escort, Xiao Jingzhao was assigned this task after following for a few days. After all, it was not an easy job. He had to cook, which naturally meant getting up early. On the road to exile, although the prisoners seemed to be extremely tired, the escorting escorts were also tired, and naturally they were unwilling to do more work.
Especially since Xiao Jingzhao also took over the meal preparation for other soldiers, the cooking time was longer, so he had to get up even earlier.
Seeing this, Jiang Huai volunteered to help Xiao Jingzhao. Or maybe it couldn't be called help, but rather a way of repaying him.
At first, Jiang Huai simply wanted to repay Xiao Jingzhao, but he soon discovered the benefits of cooking, such as making the food less unpalatable.
The soap soldiers are not very meticulous when cooking. They basically don't pick or wash the food. They just add water and cook it. It's okay if there is some dust or sawdust in the food. They are just afraid that you will eat stones and hit your teeth. There is no place to fill teeth now.
Sometimes too much water is added and the food is not cooked through, so the outer layer is mushy and the inner core is still hard or even a little undercooked, which tastes worse than dry biscuits.
Now if I do it myself, I don’t have to bother much. I just need to pick out the stones and grass clippings, wash them slightly with water, and soak them in advance.
If it is hot, soaking grains at night will easily spoil them. But now it is much cooler at night, so soaking them overnight is fine. It can also allow the grains to absorb enough moisture, which saves firewood and is quick to cook the next day.
As for the taste, Jiang Huai finally understood why people who were losing weight had to eat whole grains. Making it like this only made the grains more palatable and easier to digest, and caused less wear and tear on the teeth, but the change in taste was actually just that. It was still much better than before.
At least after the prisoners had these meals, their attitudes towards Jiang Huai became better, although this was also because they were busy trying to please other guards and had no energy to cause trouble for Jiang Huai.
Jiang Huai poured the soaked grains into the jar, stirred it, covered the jar, and then went to the next stove.
After finishing all this, Jiang Huai breathed a sigh of relief. Next, he just needed to keep adding firewood to maintain the fire under the stove, and add some wild vegetables picked yesterday, and the meal would be almost ready.
He didn't have to prepare the meals for the soldiers. Jiang Huai actually wanted to help, but Xiao Jingzhao refused.
"Even if the food I cook isn't tasty, no one else would have any objections. Besides, everyone gets unwell sometimes when they're traveling. If someone says it's caused by the food, what would you do?"
This sentence made Jiang Huai stop insisting. The risk was not impossible. He still had to avoid suspicion in such a situation.
Watching Xiao Jingzhao preparing the meal, Jiang Huai couldn't help but think of the boxing skills he had just seen. He felt a little itchy and wanted to ask something.
"What do you want to say?" A deep male voice sounded.
Is he being so obvious?
Jiang Huai blushed, but Xiao Jingzhao finally spoke. After hesitating for a second, Jiang Huai still asked.
Now that everyone else is resting, he can have a private chat with Xiao Jingzhao. Since there are too many people around, he won't ask too many questions.
"Brother Wei, do you think I can succeed in martial arts?" Jiang Huai asked.
"Practicing martial arts?" Xiao Jingzhao finally understood why Jiang Huai was envious before. He looked him up and down. Although he hadn't touched his bones yet, Xiao Jingzhao was sure that Jiang Huai's martial arts practice was definitely ineffective and his body was not in good condition.
Although Xiao Jingzhao didn't say anything, his silent attitude after looking him up and down was enough to explain everything.
Seeing Jiang Huai's extreme disappointment, Xiao Jingzhao was silent for a moment and said, "You also need to eat and drink well when practicing martial arts. Now that you are on the road, the food you eat is not enough to cover your martial arts consumption."
Xiao Jingzhao's words reminded Jiang Huai all of a sudden. He had forgotten about this. Exercise requires adequate food and drink. Given his current condition, he could still hold on if he didn't consume too much. If he did, his body might not be able to bear it.
"What do you want to do by practicing martial arts?" Xiao Jingzhao's question interrupted Jiang Huai's thoughts.
Jiang Huai said without hesitation: "I don't want to be bullied."
"Someone bullied you? Who?" Xiao Jingzhao frowned and asked, and at the same time began to guess who did it.
During the day, he and Jiang Huai were inseparable. After all, as Jiang Huai's guard, he needed to keep an eye on him. No one could get close to Jiang Huai under his nose, unless someone took action at night...
Xiao Jingzhao narrowed his eyes, and his gentle brows carried a hint of coldness.
"No, no, no one is bullying me now." Jiang Huai didn't expect Xiao Jingzhao to be so excited. He quickly waved his hands and explained, "Brother Wei, with you here, no one in the team bullies me. It's just that when we arrive at Anyuan Prefecture, you will have to return, and I'm afraid that by then..."
As Jiang Huai was speaking, he suddenly felt that his words seemed a little tea, as if he wanted to keep Xiao Jingzhao to protect himself, and he couldn't continue.
Jiang Huai was a little worried that these words would affect Xiao Jingzhao's impression of him. He looked up and wanted to explain, but found that Xiao Jingzhao was distracted.
"Brother Wei?" Jiang Huai spoke.
Xiao Jingzhao came back to his senses and said calmly, "I understand what you mean. You mean when you are worried about someone, you don't know martial arts, and if someone bullies you, you won't be able to protect yourself."
Jiang Huai nodded repeatedly. This was exactly what he meant. At the same time, he was glad that Xiao Jingzhao didn't seem to notice the awkwardness in his words just now, otherwise he wouldn't know how to explain it.
"I just watched for a while. Did you remember any moves? Show them to me?" Xiao Jingzhao said.
Jiang Huai was a little embarrassed, but didn't want to waste time. He recalled the moves he had just seen and tried to imitate them clumsily. However, he only watched for a while, and he didn't have any talent for martial arts, so he stopped after copying the moves twice.
"Just remember this." Jiang Huai said miserably.
Xiao Jingzhao's eyebrows twitched slightly. He never knew that the boxing skills he had practiced since childhood could be so ugly. Not to mention whether there was a correct boxing stance, even the movements were very non-standard.
"Do you know anything else?" Xiao Jingzhao continued to ask.
Jiang Huai thought about it and suddenly remembered the military boxing he had practiced during military training. It had been almost a year and he had forgotten a lot about it, but he was dragged into club activities, which included a performance of military boxing for everyone, so he had to pick it up.
Jiang Huai thought about practicing the boxing techniques. Xiao Jingzhao was a little distracted at first, but after noticing the boxing movements, he instantly became focused.
Boxing, after all, is a more concise and efficient way to attack the enemy. Xiao Jingzhao has always felt that the Wei family's boxing is very practical, but the boxing style that Jiang Huai uses seems to be even more practical, and the movements are extremely concise.
Moreover, from Xiao Jingzhao's perspective, this set of boxing techniques seemed to have been modified, and the lethality of the movements had been weakened. If it was slightly modified, the lethality would be greatly enhanced.
Jiang Huai felt exhausted after fighting for only half of the fight and stopped panting.
Normally, Jiang Huai just walked and did nothing, and he felt that he had just enough physical strength. However, after practicing a set of boxing, he realized how weak he was, and he also understood more clearly what Xiao Jingzhao had just said.
In his current situation, it’s not that he might not be able to endure martial arts training, but he definitely can’t.
Is that all we can do?
Jiang Huai felt a little disappointed. If he was in exile, he could use the knowledge in his head to improve his living conditions and practice martial arts. But now on the road of exile, Jiang Huai didn't dare to use that knowledge to improve his living conditions at all, because whatever he did would be noticed by others, and the final result would not be very good.
"If you just want to avoid being bullied, you don't need to practice martial arts for a long time, just learn a few moves." Xiao Jingzhao said. This was the inspiration given to him by Jiang Huai's previous moves.
At a sudden turn of events, Jiang Huai looked at Xiao Jingzhao in surprise.
Xiao Jingzhao smiled and explained that the principle was very simple, which was to be ruthless and cruel.
The human body is very strong and very fragile. In some critical moments, it doesn't take much strength to kill or seriously injure someone. Jiang Huai doesn't have enough physical strength, so he practices his eyesight and the accuracy of his attacks. As long as he is ruthless and someone dares to bully him, he will take action.
Jiang Huai looked at Xiao Jingzhao's smile when he talked about the human body's death blood, and felt a little creepy on his back. He thought that the kind Brother Wei was not so kind after all.
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