Mingyue smiled bitterly, then picked up the hot tea beside her and poured the scalding tea on the pastries in front of Zhao Ji and Hu Rou.

I saw that the pastry melted when it came into contact with water, but it did not flow like mud. Instead, it turned into a wisp of white smoke and dissipated in the air.

"What do you think these things are made of? It's mentioned in the booklet that my mother left behind that inns in southern Xinjiang generally have a kind of cake called insect cake. It's made by drying the corpses, feces and hair of insects, grinding them into powder, adding venom and stirring, and finally putting some things on it."

“This pastry is usually non-toxic, but it has a strange taste and melts in your mouth, but the ingredients used are those same ingredients.”

Just by listening to Mingyue's description, Hu Rou already had a look of disgust on her face.

"Do you think they are sick? They have good chickens, ducks, fish and sheep to eat, but they actually eat these weird bugs, and even corpses and feces... This is too disgusting... Ugh!"

Hu Rou had lost her appetite. Zhao Ji smiled helplessly, "But we can't come here and not eat or drink anything, right? If we don't find the person by then, we will starve to death here!"

Mingyue smiled and said, "Just don't eat free things. If we have paid for something, then we can eat it. There is such an unwritten rule in Southern Xinjiang. If it is free, it is up to you to choose whether to eat it well or not. The moment you choose to eat it, it is equivalent to letting others control your life!"

"But if you buy anything with money, the other party must cook it according to the normal recipe. Otherwise, not only you, but also the people of Southern Xinjiang themselves will be afraid. This rule was told to me by my mother, and it is absolutely correct!"

Although Mingyue said so, Zhao Ji and Hu Rou still ordered a meal with half belief and half doubt.

This time the food was served, although not as exquisite as the pastries, it looked like normal dishes.

Even the vegetables and meat could be ordered by Zhao Ji and Hu Rou, who were not farmers.

These are some commonly eaten varieties.

Mingyue carefully checked it with her silver hairpin: "Eat it with confidence, these foods are safe, there is nothing strange in them."

Even so, Hu Rou didn't dare to be the first person to start eating because of what happened just now.

Zhao Ji sighed again: "Since the two ladies are so cautious, then only the husband can take the initiative to try it!"

The depressing atmosphere in the room suddenly disappeared with Zhao Ji's joking words.

The two beauties stared at Zhao Ji. Zhao Ji deliberately made an exaggerated expression, opened his mouth wide, picked up a piece of food with chopsticks, stuffed it into his mouth, and began to chew with a fearless look.

As he chewed, Zhao Ji's expression changed, from the alertness just now to the bottleneck now.

Hu Rou's stomach was growling with hunger, so she quickly asked Zhao Ji: "How does it taste? Does it feel weird?"

"It tastes the same as the home-cooked food. I can't say it's delicious, but it's above average. It should be made by the chef of this inn. There's no strange smell, and I guess there's no insects or anything like that!"

Zhao Ji thought about it carefully and said seriously.

Mingyue also reached out to take the chopsticks and added some food to taste it carefully.

Her two friends had already started eating. Hu Rou, who was the hungriest, carefully observed the expressions of the two and then carefully picked up her chopsticks.

She stuffed the food into her mouth with trepidation, chewed it carefully twice, and found that there was really nothing wrong with it. The taste was indeed just like an ordinary home-cooked meal.

"It seems that the rule your mother said is true. The food I bought with money is really safe to eat! Since everyone knows that food that is paid for is safe, why would anyone covet the free and unsafe food!"

Furong didn't have the habit of not talking while eating or sleeping, so she started chatting with Zhao Ji and the others while eating.

Mingyue thought for a moment and said, "No matter how rich Southern Xinjiang is, there are always people who can't get enough food, beggars or criminals. These people naturally don't have money, so if they want to survive, they can only eat free food. As for whether the free food can keep them alive for a few days, it is not within their consideration."

When Zhao Ji heard this, he looked out the window thoughtfully.

Just now when he was observing the surroundings, he noticed that there seemed to be two or three beggars sitting on the ground begging on the street.

At that time, he noticed that there were vegetables and rice in the bowls of these beggars, and it didn't look like they were being begged for food.

Now after listening to Mingyue's explanation, I suddenly realized that the food in their bowls was probably those so-called free things.

Faced with the choice of either starving to death today or taking a gamble that the food in the meal will allow them to survive until tomorrow, I believe most beggars would choose to live one more day.

"So what exactly are these free meals and who provides them?"

While drinking her soup, Hu Rou continued to ask questions like a curious baby.

In fact, the pattern of this trip was basically that Hu Rou or Mingyue asked questions, and Zhao Ji or another person answered them.

After all, among the three, only Zhao Ji had traveled far away.

Now that Hu Rou is the question-asking baby, Mingyue will naturally answer every question.

"My mother said that most of the providers of these free meals are people who know Gu magic. The reason they provide these free meals is to let these people who can't survive try Gu magic on themselves!"

"Whenever the masters create or invent a new Gu technique, they themselves are sometimes not quite sure what kind of reaction and result this Gu technique will bring, so they will find people to come and test it, and they will improve the Gu technique based on the reactions of those who have consumed the Gu technique."

After hearing this, Hu Rou felt that the food in her mouth no longer tasted delicious.

"Isn't this treating human life as worthless?"

Hu Rou muttered softly.

Zhao Ji's eyes were always outside the window, looking at the crowd on the street.

Suddenly, Zhao Ji saw a beggar with food placed in front of him. He staggered for a moment, then fell to the ground and turned into a pool of dirty water.

Everything changed in just a few blinks of an eye.

When Zhao Ji saw this scene, before he could call Mingyue over to see, the beggar turned into a puddle of water.

But the people next to the beggar seemed accustomed to this scene and didn't react at all.