Chapter 11
Gu Ran decided to find some branches.
First of all, dead branches are everywhere outside and are not difficult to find. Secondly, after washing and drying the branches, you can sharpen one end and use it to skewer meat. It is convenient.
The next day, it was the turn of Gu Ran and four other female prisoners to go to the kitchen to help burn firewood, clean the stove and wash dishes.
The officials did not allow prisoners to cook for them, for fear that the prisoners would have bad intentions and tamper with the food.
So before Gu Ran and the others stepped into the kitchen, they were warned first and then searched to make sure they had no foreign objects on them. Even when they were busy in the kitchen, a handyman and two cooks left behind by the post station kept watching them from time to time.
Because Aunt Mai and Mai Dong were familiar with the kitchen when they were at home and were very skillful at work, they were assigned a lot of odd jobs. Gu Ran was assigned the job of making the fire. As for Pei Liuniang, she was responsible for delivering the cooked food to the postmen and the police officers with another officer first, and then preparing to send it to the prisoners. What was left at the end was what Gu Ran and the others could eat.
The food for the officials and the postmen was naturally different.
Gu Ran was burning firewood and couldn't help but see the lunch of the officials and the postmen.
Needless to say, the food for the postmen was compensated by the post station, so they ate better than theirs. The rations for the internees were supposed to be provided together with the rations for the prisoners, so they should not be much better. Gu Ran knew from the original owner's memory that the exile team including the Qin family had a donkey cart accompanying them to transport their food on the way, and another one for their miscellaneous luggage.
But from what Gu Ran saw, the officials had meat and a soup made specifically with sheep bones.
It seemed to be different from the rations provided to them by the government. It was probably because these officers had experience in escorting prisoners, so they knew where they would arrive and when, and what to prepare in advance. They used their own money to prepare the rations on the way. Of course, it was unknown whether they paid for the money themselves or took it from the prisoners.
The aroma of the meat, vegetable and bone soup made Gu Ran swallow his saliva.
But they could only watch Pei Liuniang and the officers send them away.
Seeing Aunt Mai and her daughter showing the same expression as himself, Gu Ran felt a little less uncomfortable.
Fortunately, he still had some meat to eat, so he came to his senses and saw that the fire in the stove was out, so he added a handful of firewood and took the opportunity to quietly break off the beautiful, straight branches from the firewood. He hid these branches in the workshop when no one was paying attention.
There are some benefits to working in the kitchen these days, for example, it's warm.
How can it not be warm with two stoves burning firewood?
Especially Gu Ran, who was in charge of burning firewood, was so warm that he wanted to stick his whole body to the stove.
When the cook finished preparing food for the prisoners and added the last handful of firewood, he deliberately added more so that he could enjoy the warmth of the fire for the last time.
After helping to deliver the food to the prisoners, Gu Ran and the other four also ate their own portions in the kitchen.
Their breakfast today was a bowl of multi-grain porridge and two coarse-grain steamed buns.
This was because we had to use them to do errands, and also because we were afraid that they would not be able to withstand the cold, so we gave them an extra bowl of porridge in addition to the dry food. Normally, they only had the quota of two steamed buns.
Gu Ran saw it clearly just now. When the cook prepared food for the postmen and the internees, he cooked it carefully and did not dare to be careless, but when it came to preparing food for the prisoners, he was perfunctory.
There is no way to avoid being treated differently. The rations given to prisoners by the government are not very good. They are all stale grains, and it is easiest to make dry food for the prisoners.
Having seen delicious food, Gu Ran found it hard to swallow the porridge and steamed buns.
Even if it tastes bad, you have to eat it.
When the prisoners finished their work and had to make ginger soup, they had to continue working as well, as they also had to prepare dinner.
After eating the same unpalatable dinner near dusk, Gu Ran went to bed early, and then couldn't wait to enter the space, intending to grill the remaining snake meat to satisfy his craving.
Of course, the hidden branches also need to be dealt with.
First, select a few branches and break them into eight equal lengths. Tie them up in pairs with a rope made of straw, spread them apart a bit, and place them in two groups on both sides of the fire basket. Then, place a long branch on the fork above each group, and they will become two groups of miniature drying poles.
Use a knife to cleanly peel the remaining branches, compare and make sure they are longer than the distance between the two sets of clothes-drying poles, sharpen one end, string the salted snake meat together, and then place it on the clothes-drying poles.
There is charcoal fire in the middle of the two sets of drying poles, so you can grill the meat at once without having to hold it by hand.
Unfortunately, the fire basket is small and can only roast two pieces of snake meat at a time.
Today's barbecue technique is much better than yesterday. Gu Ran turns the barbecue from time to time to allow it to be heated evenly until it turns a golden brown color.
After devouring all the remaining snake meat, Gu Ran cleaned up the mess with satisfaction, wrapped all the branches with talisman paper and put them away, waiting to be used next time for barbecue.
However, if I want to have a barbecue next time, I naturally have to find a chance to work outside the inn.
This way she would have the opportunity to find snakes or other hibernating meat in the snow.
Unfortunately, the female prisoners did not get the opportunity to do errands the next day, but were locked up in prison for a day as usual.
For the first time, Gu Ran, who had no meat to eat, felt that it was beneficial to go outside the post station to freeze instead of staying in the prison to warm himself by the fire.
However, the only ones who had no job were her, Aunt Mai and Mai Xiang, while Pei Liuniang was still called away to do some trivial job of pouring tea and serving water.
On this day, Aunt Mai and her daughter were still mending, but they were mending the torn clothes that were brought from the male prisoners' side, which belonged to Mai Xiang's father and brother. It was said that the male prisoners had clothes that needed mending, and they sent a message to Aunt Mai through Mai Xiang's father and brother, asking them to help mend them.
Aunt Mai saw that she had nothing to do anyway and still had some needle and thread, so she said that if someone wanted to mend the work, they could do it, but they had to pay them.
This made many prisoners feel helpless. Some of them had some money hidden on hand, so they handed over their clothes and copper coins to Aunt Mai according to the agreed price.
Aunt Mai and her daughter happily took on these tasks.
Gu Ran watched them doing needlework, and actually wanted to ask them to sew some things for him, such as the boots mentioned earlier, a bag, and a water bag.
There is no water container in the workshop so far, and considering that we will be traveling on the road in the future, we must at least bring a bamboo tube or water bag.
But if I wanted a bamboo tube, I had to make it myself. There was no bamboo nearby, and even if there was bamboo, I wouldn't dare to use it, for fear that people would find out that I was carrying a sharp weapon.
The second option is to go buy it, but this is the post station and there is no place to buy it. Even when Mrs. Dou is here, it cannot be obtained.
Recently, when barbecuing, she often used the talisman paper from the workshop to wipe her hands and wrap the meat. In order to reuse these discarded items, Gu Ran thought of how she had collected a lot of talisman skins in order to make high-level talismans, including raw animal skins that had been dried without further processing.
We have third and fourth level items, but I don’t know if they can be used in the Great Sheng Dynasty.
If you want it to be useful, you have to make a water bag out of animal skin if you do nothing else.
However, she didn't know how to sew and couldn't explain the origin of the animal skins, so for now she could only think about it.
It would be more practical to hope that tomorrow when it is their turn to collect firewood, they can find snake meat by the way.
After dinner that day, it was dark and it took a long time for Pei Liuniang to come back.
Gu Ran couldn't help but glance over and saw that Pei Liuniang didn't look very good, her brows were furrowed, and there was a hint of anger in her.
Gu Ran went to see Aunt Mai and her daughter, and saw that they were both silent. He glanced at Pei Liuniang one more time, and finally lay down quietly.
I'm afraid something bad has happened?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
