Chapter 10
Gu Ran was worried for a while, but Pei Liuniang returned to the women's prison with the iron chain on her ankle, and quietly returned to the corner away from everyone.
Gu Ran finally felt relieved when he saw that Pei Liuniang didn't seem to be in trouble.
The sky gradually darkened and the cold grew stronger.
Gu Ran wrapped himself tightly in his cotton coat, but it still couldn't protect him from the cold air. He could only pull the newly tied straw mat over to cover himself, and then burn the charcoal fire in the fire basket a little more vigorously.
Aunt Mai and her daughter also stopped what they were doing and came over to Gu Ran to warm themselves by the fire.
After trying to warm themselves for a while, they felt that it was useless. The cold wind was still blowing, so the three of them looked up to see the only window in the prison that allowed air to flow.
"That side, it's always drafty. No wonder it's so cold."
“It would be nice if we could block it.”
"We don't have anything, how can we block it?"
"Cloth, clothes will do." Gu Ran said, taking out the remaining rope from making straw mats, "Just tie it up."
"Mrs. Gu, you came up with this idea. Could you please get some cloth?"
"The only clothes I have are the ones I'm wearing. If I were to lose even one piece, I'd freeze to death. Where would I get extra cloth?"
"Mother!"
"Okay, we still have some old clothes. Let's see if we can use them." Aunt Mai said, turning back to her own bag reluctantly, mumbling, "We can't let everyone freeze to death here, can we? I'm just too easygoing. I can't bear to see people suffer."
Mai Xiang glanced at Gu Ran awkwardly. Gu Ran smiled but said nothing.
Aunt Mai took out a summer dress that was washed white and full of patches, and when she walked to the window, she was in trouble again.
The window was a little high and she couldn't reach it alone.
The prison in the post station was different from the prison in the government office where prisoners were held. It was built to match the living quarters next to it. The beams were about two meters high. In order to prevent prisoners from escaping, the only window was naturally higher than an ordinary window.
In the end, it was Aunt Mai and Gu Ran who helped Mai Xiang up and asked her to use the rope to tie her clothes to the window.
Although there were still gaps and the cold wind still blew in from the corners, it was much better than when the windows were fully open.
When the three of them returned to the fire basket, the guard just brought in today's dinner.
"It's either whole grain dumplings or steamed buns with pickles. Can you change it to something else?" Aunt Mai couldn't help but complain when she took back the portion for herself and her daughter.
Gu Ran took his two steamed buns and sat by the fire. When he was about to eat them slowly as usual, he thought of the snake he caught while sweeping the snow today. Suddenly, the steamed buns became bland.
But she still slowly ate one of the tasteless steamed buns, and then pretended to be full and put the remaining steamed bun away.
After finally waiting until everyone's normal rest time, they warmed the quilt, took off their cotton clothes and covered themselves with them, spread the quilt, and then covered it with the straw bedding.
After burying himself in the thick blanket, Gu Ran carried the fire basket into the bedding.
Now Aunt Mai and her daughter all know that Gu Ran has the habit of putting the fire basket under his quilt when he goes to sleep. Although they are surprised that Gu Ran has such a good sleeping posture and the fire basket will not be knocked over in the quilt, they also envy him for being able to hold the fire basket to keep warm while sleeping on such a cold night.
Their current way of keeping warm, in addition to warming the quilt before going to bed, is to put two quilts together as one, and the two mother and daughter sleep close together, and then put layers of clothes on the quilt tightly to keep out the cold.
As for how Pei Liuniang survived such a cold winter night, she slept in the corner, and if she didn't tell them, they wouldn't know.
Of course, they didn't know how Gu Ranye kept warm inside. He just carried the fire basket and went directly into another space.
The prisoners had little entertainment at night and went to bed early. Since they did not have to travel, they were allowed to sleep until they woke up naturally the next day - this was the case if they had no errands and did not have to work. If they had errands, they would have to get up early.
This was early, but also later than Gu Ran had expected. Because it was cold, the earliest errand was at the end of Chenshi, which gave her plenty of time to get out of the workshop.
At this time, she no longer disliked her own space, but felt fortunate.
The temperature in the workshop is kept at a fixed constant temperature, which is much warmer than the sub-zero temperature outside. That's why Gu Ran prefers to stay in the prison with nothing to do, sitting by the fire during the day and sleeping inside at night. It would have been perfect if he hadn't been assigned work to work outside in rotation.
The snake that she had thrown in in a hurry today had been placed on the table, on which were placed the steamed buns, pancakes, pickles and salt that she had bought from Mrs. Dou.
She put the fire basket on the ground, pulled out a chair, picked up the snake and squatted down.
The snake was not big, about one meter long and weighed about four kilograms. But after removing the skin and bones, it was estimated to be around two kilograms. For her at this time, she could finish it in two days.
In any life, Gu Ran had never handled snakes, but he heard people talk about this when he went to a restaurant to eat snake soup. Because he was deeply impressed, he remembered it.
She also remembered the difference between non-venomous and venomous snakes at that time, but the current situation was not suitable for her to follow suit - first, she planned to roast it directly, and second, there was no water.
So Gu Ran fumbled to take out the snake's gallbladder and internal organs, wiped them clean with blank talisman paper, divided the snake meat into pieces, pierced them directly with a knife, and put them on the charcoal fire to roast them with the skin and bones.
Some salt was sprinkled when turning the meat over. Soon, she smelled the aroma of the meat, and her mouth felt sweet.
After the snake skin was roasted until golden brown, she picked up the scissors used to cut the talisman skin, cut the snake skin, and peeled off the snake meat so that it could be roasted faster.
When he put the first piece of snake meat into his mouth amidst the overflowing aroma, Gu Ran, who had not eaten for many days - no, more than ten years, tasted the firm and chewy meat, the sweetness and flavor.
It’s simply the best in the world!
Even the browned snake skin was so crispy that she ate it all without leaving any.
Then bake the second section, the third section...
After embarking on the path of fasting, she focused a lot of energy on improving her cultivation and drawing talismans, and almost forgot the joy of tasting delicious food. Just such a simple piece of barbecue reminded her of the memory of enjoying snake soup with friends in a restaurant in her first life, which made her miss it very much.
While enjoying the barbecue with great satisfaction, Gu Ran began to think that this workshop was too simple. He needed to at least prepare some bowls, dishes, chopsticks, or some knives, as well as some drinking water. And if possible, he could just get a stove and a pot, and...
Gu Ran thought about it for a while, and then realized that his current situation was not suitable and he had no place to buy these things.
The most important thing is that even if we get meat these days, we can only hide in the workshop and grill it like this. The most urgent thing is to get some things suitable for grilling.
You can't just use a knife to grill everything you eat in the future, right?
Actually, it would be nice to have a grill, but how could that be so easy to get right now?
The next best thing, she decided to find some alternatives.
So what's a good alternative?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
