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 these past few days. In the desolate mountains and ridges, coupled with the rain, there is not a single sign of human life, as if it is a desolate ghost town.
Xu Qinyu was wearing a straw raincoat and shivering as she huddled under a 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 championship of world-class chef, she took a nap in the car on the way back to the hotel, and then she felt a sharp pain in her body as if she had been in a car accident, and 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 as her, both are called Xu Qinyu, but she is an orphan who was abandoned at the door of an orphanage when she was young. Her original body was the second daughter of the Dechang Marquis's family.
The Marquis' Mansion was an aristocratic family in ancient times. As the legitimate daughter of the 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 I was the daughter of the second wife of the Marquis of Dechang, my father had an older brother and younger brothers and sisters, and the least favored one was my father in the middle. My grandparents always subsidized the first and third wives. My father of the second wife was a minor official of the seventh rank, with a salary of four taels of silver a month, and my mother's dowry was not much. Therefore, except for food and drink, my clothes and other clothes were not as good as those of the first and third wives. Even the food and drink were just enough to eat.
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 it seems that the one engaged to the Fourth Prince is the second daughter.
Because the fourth prince is going to be exiled.
The eldest prince, the brother of the fourth prince born to the empress, and the second prince born to the noble concubine failed in the fight for the throne. The eldest prince's line was accused of poisoning the previous emperor and usurping the throne. The eldest prince 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 the descendants of the empress, including the empress's family. They were all dismissed from office and exiled to the southwest.
The Fourth Prince was about to be exiled, so the Marquis Dechang's Mansion was certainly reluctant to let the Third Miss Xu Qinhui, whom they had doted on since childhood, marry the Fourth Prince again.
I don't know whether it was the people in the Marquis' Mansion who helped behind the scenes, or the Third Miss Xu Qinhui used some other method, but overnight, the Fourth Prince's fiancée who was to be exiled, somehow became her original self with an imperial edict.
Before the empress's line was exiled, the new emperor conferred the title of king on the fourth prince.
Shuwang, Shu is pronounced as 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 Dechang's Mansion was worried that outsiders would say that they were ungrateful, so because Prince Shu was going to be exiled, they cancelled the engagement with Prince Shu. They were afraid that gossip would tarnish the reputation of the Mansion, so the night before the Empress was exiled, they sent her original body to Prince Shu's Mansion in her wedding dress and a small 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 get married, but a decree forced her to marry someone she did not like and she had to suffer exile. She was depressed all the way and fell completely ill and unconscious after walking for a month. Perhaps because of this, she also died in a car accident and became the original body.
Although she was shocked a few days ago that she had traveled through time and space and was still in this situation, she had been sick and had not been conscious for the whole time, so she could not care about anything else. She could only follow her body's instinct to rest more and save her life.
I've finally been able to sober up these past few days, but now I have to hurry on my way again, so naturally I'm in a daze.
Xu Qinyu looked at the dark sky, and her heart began to feel heavy and bitter.
It's 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 jacket and a straw raincoat, but she was also soaked. She looked dishevelled and was holding a water bottle in her arms, looking at Xu Qinyu.
This woman is the original body's mother-in-law, the former Empress, and now the exiled Concubine Dowager Wen.
Of course, from the moment of exile, even the new emperor-appointed Prince Shu and the Queen Mother were nothing more than criminal subjects and commoners.
Xu Qinyu glanced at Wen and licked her dry lips. She was thirsty and hungry, and her health was not very good. She didn't dare to drink dirty water for fear of diarrhea. If she had diarrhea in this state, she could easily die.
Ever since the original body fell ill, perhaps the Wen family felt guilty towards her, so they have always been very kind to her and gave her all the food and drinks.
"Drink it quickly, Yu Niang. You need to get well soon. You can't drink dirty water, or you'll have diarrhea. This is some clean water I asked the soldiers for. Drink it."
Wen put the kettle under Xu Qinyu's mouth.
Xu Qinyu is an expert in cooking. Among her five senses, her sense of smell and taste are the most sensitive. She could smell a faint aroma of rice in the kettle, which probably did 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 survived on government subsidies. There were many children in the orphanage and the food was scarce. Even though the auntie served meals to the children fairly every day, the tall children would always snatch the food from the thin children. She was always hungry when she was a child. Later, she couldn't bear it anymore and bit a big child who stole her food. Since then, no one dared to bully her anymore.
Maybe because she was always hungry and hungry in the welfare home, she cared the most about food. When she was little, she often went out to get some food by herself, and the food tasted very good. When she was in junior high and high school, she set up a food stall after school and on holidays, and 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, which developed 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 competition in the eyes and shock of the world. She was planning to study recipes 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 losing everything. This was even worse than her time in the orphanage. It was simply the beginning of hell mode.
Xu Qinyu felt confused and subconsciously took a sip from the kettle. 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 in exchange for silver or jewelry.
Xu Qinyu stopped drinking. The Wen family, five people in total, had not eaten for a day.
She handed the water bottle to a big-headed, thin girl, about 11 or 12 years old, and said, "Sister Ning, have a drink."
Sister Ning is the youngest daughter of the Wen family, the former sixth princess, Pei Jianing.
It wasn't easy for the little girl on this journey. She used to be plump and plump, but now she's become 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 suffered a lot along the way, but her mother used up her last bit of silver just to buy a mouthful of rice porridge for her. When they arrived in the southwest, they were unfamiliar with the place and had no silver. How could they survive? She couldn't say that she would not save the dying princess. She was just angry with herself. She could hide some gold leaves and jewelry when she left the palace, but she was proud and arrogant. She didn't believe that the princess would be exiled, so she didn't pack anything and didn't take anything 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 aroma inside, Pei Jianing swallowed her saliva, and finally couldn't help but took a sip. The rice porridge that she couldn't swallow without exquisite side dishes and snacks before, now tasted extremely sweet.
Pei Jianing took a sip and passed the kettle to the smaller girl who was curled up in her mother's arms.
This is the only bloodline left in the eldest brother's family, her little niece.
In the end, this pot of thin rice soup was shared by all members of the Pei family.
The water bottle was finally handed to a handsome man with a pale face under another pine tree.
He had a very good-looking appearance, but his face and lips were pale and he looked extremely frail. He had a pair of eyes that were completely emotionless. The rain was blowing his hair randomly on his pale cheeks. He was currently taking a nap with his eyes closed.
He is Xu Qinyu's adopted husband, and was also named His Royal Highness Prince Shu by the new emperor, but now he is only a commoner, Pei Weixuan.
He had been weak and sickly since childhood, so he luckily escaped the disaster.
Therefore, the only ones left in the Pei family are the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, otherwise the new emperor would have tried every means to kill them all.
Xu Qinyu watched Pei Weixuan drink up the little bit of rice porridge left in the pot, then leaned against the pine tree holding the pot and closed his eyes.
She was drowsy all the way, but she always remembered that it was her cheap husband who carried her on his back and walked forward step by step to keep up with the pace of the team.
At least the Pei family did not give up on her or leave her on the roadside to die of illness.
Xu Qinyu looked at the undulating mountains under the dark sky in the distance. The rain was getting heavier. The wind was blowing the trees, making the forest in the mountains look like a man-eating monster.
The rain was pouring down with a clattering 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 whole family of the elderly, the weak and the sick 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 zone, and it is not as cold as the north in winter. There are still prey on the mountains. Even if there are no prey, the mushrooms, 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 cooking utensils 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.