Chapter 2 002 Encounter at the Camp | Pre-collection of "Border Eatery"...
Chapter 2
Listening to the cries of startled birds and the sound of horse hooves behind him, Meng Yuning didn't dare to make a sound. She pulled the reins tightly and just let the horse gallop away.
The wind was whistling in my ears. I didn't know how long I had been running, but there was no more sound behind me. At the end of the road ahead, I could see the camp where Qi Jingyan and the others had spent the night.
She slowed down and moved her numb legs, but she hesitated inwardly.
Qi Jingyan and his group didn't like "her" in the first place, and now that "she" stole a horse in the middle of the night and secretly defected, their impression of her would undoubtedly be even worse.
If she went back like this, wouldn't Qi Jingyan kill her in anger because of her betrayal?
Even if Qi Jingyan didn't want to argue with her, would his subordinates easily forgive her? Would they cause trouble for her in the future?
Thinking of the ferocious guards around Qi Jingyan, Meng Yuning's face became solemn and he sighed softly. It's difficult.
Seeing the camp getting closer and closer, she stopped her horse and stood to watch.
To be honest, she really didn't want to go back.
But if she doesn't go back, where else can she go?
After a moment of internal and external struggle, Meng Yuning slapped her thigh.
Forget it, whether she sticks her head out or hides it, she will be stabbed too. She should just face it bravely. At most, she will endure some cold words, as long as she can survive.
But what should she say after she gets back? She can't say that she originally wanted to run away, but changed her mind halfway. Even if Qi Jingyan is willing to listen, she herself is too embarrassed to speak.
Meng Yuning looked around and suddenly saw the finger-thick wild bamboo shoots in the roadside bamboo forest. Her eyes lit up. Got it.
She dismounted, led the horse to a clump of green grass, released the reins, and let it eat there by itself.
He rushed to the wild bamboo shoots, knelt on the ground, and started to pick one in each hand.
“Click” “Click” “Click”…
The bamboo shoots were fresh and tender, and the sound was pleasant to the ear. Soon, Meng Yuning had gathered a large pile of them.
Seeing that there were still so many bamboo shoots to be picked ahead, Meng Yuning felt a little unsatisfied, but the future was uncertain at the moment, and it was not the time for her to pick bamboo shoots to her heart's content.
Since she had no tools to pack, she picked up some grass from the roadside, twisted it together, and used it as a rope. She sorted the wild bamboo shoots, piled them on the rope, tied two knots, and bundled the bamboo shoots into two bundles, tied them together, and carried them in her hand.
She stood up with the bamboo shoots in her hand, walked to the horse, took the reins, put the bamboo shoots on the horse's back, jumped on the horse, and trotted towards the camp.
She didn't want to delay any longer on the road, but when she passed by a field of green and tender shepherd's purse, she couldn't help but jump off the horse and pull up another big bundle.
---
In the camp, Qi Jingyan had just finished washing up and was just being helped by Mu Yun to sit in a wheelchair when he saw Mu Feng rushing into the tent, looking indignant and saying, "Your Highness, that Meng..."
Qi Jingyan said expressionlessly, "I already know. If he ran away, then he ran away. There's no need to mention it again."
Mu Yun winked at Mu Feng, signaling him to leave quickly.
This morning before daybreak, he discovered Miss Meng carrying a bag and tiptoeing to steal a horse, and he immediately went to report it to His Highness.
His Highness simply said, "Let her go, no need to pay any attention to her," and then closed his eyes and continued to sleep.
His Highness did not seem angry, nor did he seem to care whether she escaped or not.
But being abandoned by one's fiancée is a humiliation for any man.
So he specifically told everyone not to mention Miss Meng in front of His Highness again, and just pretend that she never existed.
But how could Mu Feng be so tactless that he came to talk about the Meng family at this time? This is just causing trouble for His Highness.
Seeing that the two had misunderstood him, Mu Feng quickly pointed outside the tent and said, "But Your Highness, that Meng is back again, and she's riding this way."
Qi Jingyan frowned slightly: "Are you back?"
Mu Feng: "I can clearly see that it is her."
Mu Yun was also very surprised: "It's really strange. This Miss Meng has been planning this for several days and finally made up her mind to run away. Why is she back now?"
Mu Feng snorted, "Who cares why she came back? Anyway, with a despicable and shameless father like Meng Huaifu, she is not much better off."
"Your Highness, that Meng has returned, and she definitely has no good intentions. I will drive her away."
Qi Jingyan: "Push me out to take a look."
The two of them responded, Mu Yun went to push the wheelchair, and Mu Feng went to open the door curtain.
On the simple bed behind them, the three-year-old Seventeenth Prince Qi Jingyi had woken up at some point, clutching the quilt in his two little hands, sitting there obediently.
Seeing Qi Jingyan was about to go out without him, his face changed, he climbed down from the bed with his hands and feet, and chased after him without even putting on his shoes, crying out: "Brother, don't leave Yi'er behind."
The three of them turned around at the same time and saw the little kid, who had lost a lot of weight in recent days, running towards them barefoot.
Qi Jingyan's leg injury had not healed yet. Mu Yun and Mu Feng were afraid that the little prince would bump into the prince's leg, so they squatted on the ground and reached out to catch it.
But the little kid bent down, passed under the arms of the two men, and came to Qi Jingyan.
But she was also very sensible. She didn't dare to climb directly onto her brother like she used to. She just stood obediently beside the wheelchair, her two little hands tightly grasping Qi Jingyan's sleeves, sobbing with tears in her eyes: "Brother, don't you want, don't you want Yi'er anymore?"
Listening to the childish voice full of anxiety and fear, and thinking about the little prince's previous innocence and romance, Mu Feng and Mu Yun's eyes were red, and they turned their heads away, unable to bear to watch any longer.
Qi Jingyan reached out and gently touched his brother's head, smiling slightly and said, "Don't be afraid, Yi'er. I will never abandon you."
The little boy nodded his head in confusion, stood on tiptoe, and stretched out his little hands to reach Qi Jingyan's neck.
Qi Jingyan reached out and held Yi'er in his arms, then glanced at Mu Yun and said, "Let's go and take a look."
---
Meng Yuning rode her horse to the outside of the camp and saw a man who was so handsome that he looked like an ordinary man sitting in a wheelchair. His face was stern and he looked intimidating without even getting angry.
He was holding an exceptionally beautiful little baby in his arms, blinking his big dark eyes and looking at her quietly. Although his eyes were ignorant, they also carried a hint of vigilance.
Glancing at the two dark-faced guards standing behind the wheelchair, Meng Yuning felt a headache. Her journey back home was likely to be difficult.
But now that I'm here, I have no choice but to go ahead with it.
When the horse was ten steps away from the group, she dismounted, carrying bamboo shoots and shepherd's purse, and slowly walked forward.
Qi Jingyan sat in the wheelchair, as steady as a rock, without saying a word.
The two of them, one standing and one sitting, looked at each other silently, waiting for the other to speak first.
After a while, under that cold, sharp, and scrutinizing gaze, Meng Yuning finally couldn't resist her guilty conscience and lowered her eyes slightly.
She held wild bamboo shoots in one hand and wild shepherd's purse in the other, and handed them to Qi Jingyan. She smiled awkwardly and said, "Your Highness, if I said I went to pick wild vegetables, would you believe me?"
Mu Feng, who was standing behind Qi Jingyan, immediately rolled his eyes, tsk- ...
Meng Yuning didn't respond, but just held the two bundles of wild vegetables until her arms were a little sore. Qi Jingyan then glanced at the bundle behind her, then at the chestnut horse, and remained silent, only gently patting the armrest of the wheelchair.
Mu Yun hurriedly pushed the wheelchair, turned the direction, and pushed Qi Jingyan into the camp.
Mu Feng rolled his eyes again, walked past Meng Yuning, and led the chestnut horse back, muttering to himself, "They stole our best horse. They're really evil. There's not a single good person in the Meng family. They left, so why are they coming back? They're causing trouble for His Highness for no reason."
Meng Yuning ignored his sarcasm and followed behind, carrying two bundles of wild vegetables.
She remembered that in the original plot, Mu Feng was only fifteen years old and had always been a straightforward person.
In the near future, the group will encounter "robbers". Mu Feng dies to protect Qi Jingyan. Before he dies, he also saves the cook in the team, who is a loyal and kind-hearted young man.
The reason why he treated her like this was indeed because what the old man Meng Huaifu did was really too much, and it was also not very decent for "her" to abandon their prince and run away. There were reasons for everything, so why should she care about it.
Although everyone was not happy with her, at least Qi Jingyan didn't kill her, no one scolded her directly, and no one kicked her out. That was enough.
---
After entering the camp, Meng Yuning was a little surprised.
At this time on normal days, the camp would have already been packed up and ready to go, but today there was no movement.
The guard on duty, with a sword hanging from his waist, stood straight facing outside the camp.
In the open space behind the camp, two teams of guards were training. Apart from that, there was no one else to be seen.
According to the laws of this dynasty, the number of guards for each prince ranges from 10,000 to 30,000, depending on the size of his fiefdom.
However, Qi Jingyan, the deposed crown prince charged with the crime of "treason", obviously did not receive such good treatment. The imperial edict of Emperor Kangwen clearly stipulated that the number of guards in his fiefdom's palace should not exceed two thousand.
However, this time when he left the capital, Emperor Kangwen only allowed him to take away two hundred people from the original Eastern Palace guards. The so-called two thousand people would have to be expanded by Qi Jingyan himself after he arrived in Lingnan.
Even these two hundred people experienced frequent accidents along the way, and most of them were killed or injured. When they finally arrived at Canghai County, including Qi Jingyan and three-year-old Qi Jingyi, there were less than fifty people left.
They had just left the capital yesterday and had not encountered any accidents, so the people Qi Jingyan brought from the capital were still there, including the chef whose food was extremely unpalatable and who had a very strange temper.
Looking at the smoke rising from the east side of the tent, Meng Yuning guessed that the cook must be cooking.
Normally, Mu Feng would bring her meals, but judging by his attitude just now, she would probably have to get them herself from now on.
But I haven’t smelled the rice yet, so I guess it will take a while to be ready.
Meng Yuning stopped looking around and returned to the small tent where she was staying, carrying the wild vegetables.
After entering the tent, he threw a few bundles of vegetables on the ground, untied the bag on his back, took off his shoes, and lay directly on the one-person-wide camp bed.
Only when I lay down on the quilt did I feel the unbearable pain all over my body, especially my legs, the insides of which were burning with pain.
Riding a horse is really not an easy job. She should just take the carriage next time. She just doesn't know if they will let her ride in the luggage carriage after what happened.
But she couldn't care less now. Now that she was back in the camp, her life was temporarily guaranteed. She just felt physically and mentally exhausted, tired and hungry. She really didn't want to move a finger. She just wanted to have a good rest. She would think about other things later after she slowed down.
Thinking of this, Meng Yuning closed her eyes. She had originally planned to just rest and get up to eat when the meal was almost ready.
But after running back and forth for several hours, the bumpy journey, and his high mental alertness, the moment he relaxed, he fell into a deep sleep in just a few breaths.
---
In Qi Jingyan's tent, he and Qi Jingyi were having dinner.
There were two plates of black and green dishes on the table, and it was hard to tell what the dishes were. Qi Jingyan didn't touch a single thing with his chopsticks, but just held a bowl of white rice porridge and drank it silently. Qi Jingyi followed suit, also holding the bowl and drinking the porridge in small sips.
Mu Feng, who was waiting on the side, leaned close to Mu Yun and whispered, "Isn't this old man Tang deliberately making the food so unpalatable?"
Mu Yun glanced at him sideways, puzzled, "Why did he do that?"
Mu Feng: "If it tastes bad, then everyone won't let him cook it. Then he'll have some free time and can go back to tinkering with his medicine."
Mu Yun: "That can't be done. Doctor Tang knows the severity of the situation."
The person who delivered the imperial edict at that time specifically mentioned that His Majesty said that there was a shortage of doctors in the capital and that His Highness would not be allowed to bring a doctor with him.
Your Majesty clearly doesn't want Your Highness's leg to be cured.
Everyone was outraged, but there was nothing they could do.
After Doctor Tang learned about this, he volunteered to join the team as a cook. He had been treating His Highness's leg secretly these days.
But they could never imagine why the doctor Tang, who was praised by everyone in the world, could cook such unpalatable food.
Mu Feng nodded: "That's right, among our two hundred people, everyone is clean, but who knows who the spies are among those officers who are escorting us but are actually guarding us. We have to be careful."
After saying that, his face darkened: "But why is the food cooked by Old Man Tang so bad? Can't we change someone else to cook?"
Mu Yun glanced at him sideways: "You do it? Or me? Or those reckless men outside do it?"
Mu Feng thought about a time when he went hunting and a man enthusiastically cooked a pot of delicious mushroom soup. After drinking it, he saw his horse suddenly grow a beautiful face and chase him, saying that it wanted to marry him...
He shuddered immediately and rubbed his arms with his hands: "Forget it, at least we can live well by eating the food cooked by Old Man Tang."
Qi Jingyan finished his bowl of porridge and saw the two people still chattering at the door, so he asked, "Did Miss Meng send any food?"
Mu Feng turned around and said harshly, "Your Highness, that Meng is so careless that she fell asleep as soon as she got back. I guess she hasn't woken up yet, so she doesn't need to eat at all."
Qi Jingyan: "We have to send her off. Since she has chosen to go the same way as us, we can't treat her harshly. Otherwise, if she gets sick, we will have to trouble Mr. Tang. If Mr. Tang gets angry, the next meal will be even worse."
"I understand." Mu Feng's face fell even more. He responded and turned to go out. He went to the makeshift kitchen to get a bowl of porridge and a plate of vegetables. He brought them to Meng Yuning's tent and said in a cold voice, "Miss Meng, it's time to eat."
Meng Yuning was already starving. In her dream, she was watching over a large pot of braised pork elbow and kept picking at it. However, the pork elbow was very slippery. It kept falling down when she picked it up. She couldn't get it into her mouth no matter how hard she tried. She was almost dying of anxiety.
When he heard the word "dinner", his eyes opened immediately. He smelled the aroma of rice at the door and quickly responded, "I'm coming."
After saying that, he struggled to get up, lifted the curtain and went out. Sure enough, he saw Mu Feng standing outside with food in his hands, looking angrily.
Seeing her come out, Mu Feng put a bowl and a plate in her hands, turned around and left without saying a word.
Meng Yuning said to the figure behind him, "Thank you, Mu Feng."
Mu Feng's back stiffened, and then he walked away, swinging his sleeves.
Looking at the bowl of thick white rice porridge, Meng Yuning swallowed her saliva, and immediately went back to the house, put down the dish, and without using the spoon, she took the bowl of porridge and gulped down a few big mouthfuls.
After having the warm rice porridge as a base, he felt relaxed all over. Then he sat on the bed, picked up the chopsticks, took a bite of the dish in the bowl, which he couldn't tell what it was, and put it into his mouth.
I took a bite and spat it out. It was so salty and bitter that I couldn't swallow it even with my eyes closed.
What kind of dish is this? How is it made? Why is it even more unpalatable than it was two days ago?
She quickly ate two more mouthfuls of porridge, and the indescribable strange taste in her mouth faded a little.
After silently finishing a bowl of porridge, Meng Yuning stared at the dish and felt something in her heart.
She put down the bowl, carried the bundle of wild bamboo shoots and shepherd's purse out of the tent, and came to Qi Jingyan's tent: "Your Highness, I have something to ask you."
The tent was quiet for a moment, then the curtain was lifted from the inside. Mu Yun walked out and gestured for invitation: "Miss Meng, His Highness invites you in."
Meng Yuning nodded slightly and walked into the tent. She saw the strange cook was also there, sitting next to the wheelchair, holding a cloth bag in his hand, looking at her unfriendlyly.
Meng Yuning had long anticipated the hostile looks from the crowd, but she didn't care. She simply held the two bundles of wild vegetables in front of Qi Jingyan and said straight to the point, "Your Highness, I'd like to borrow a pot from you to cook these two dishes."
Before Qi Jingyan could speak, the chef Tang immediately said vigilantly: "What do you want to do? Do you want to poison His Highness?"
"That's absolutely not the case." Meng Yuning quickly shook her head, thinking that it was fortunate that she had the foresight to come directly to Qi Jingyan, otherwise this pot would not be used.
Qi Jingyan reached out to stop the soup chef who was about to speak, and nodded to Meng Yuning: "The pot is right there, go ahead and use it if you want."
Meng Yuning smiled and thanked him, then turned and left. After taking two steps, she remembered that she had not yet saluted, so she turned around again and saluted Qi Jingyan as she remembered, then went to the kitchen with the wild vegetables.
After the people had gone away, Tang He opened the cloth bag in his hand, pulled out a silver needle, and continued to prick Qi Jingyan's leg. He kept on doing it, and kept on talking: "She is a rich girl who can't tell the difference between grains and can only cry. She actually has the audacity to say that she wants to cook. It's a joke."
Qi Jingyan: "Let her do whatever she wants. There's no need to get angry about it."
Tang He: "I'm just afraid that she'll do something bad and end up hurting someone, and I'll have to treat her again."
Qi Jingyan: "Don't worry, no one will eat what she cooks."
Mu Feng agreed: "That's right, the things that the Meng family made, we Dong and the dogs in our Shenwang Mansion wouldn't even eat them."
The author has something to say:
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Pre-collection of "Border Restaurant":
Xu Jintang traveled through time.
After becoming a criminal exiled to the border.
When she came here, her father had died tragically and her mother had died of illness. She was left with her younger siblings, struggling to survive by selling cakes from a cart.
Seeing her brother and sister-in-law who were thin and had dry hair but were always willing to bring anything delicious to her, she took out all her savings, rented a storefront, rolled up her sleeves and started working.
Malatang, grilled sausages, braised duck, self-service hot pot... all kinds of delicious snacks, fresh and fragrant, large in quantity and enough to fill you up.
Milk sago, pearl milk tea, carrot and mutton soup, winter melon and pork ribs soup...all kinds of sweet drinks, salty soups, and traditional hot soups are available.
The business of the small restaurant was getting better and better, Xu Jintang's wallet was getting fatter, and his sister-in-law's complexion was getting rosier and rosier.
He bought a restaurant and a new house, and his life became more and more prosperous.
The only regret is that the three siblings will never be able to leave this small border town filled with wind and sand.
---
Until that day, Prince Linjiang, who was ordered to patrol the border, walked into her restaurant and asked her if she could cook Sichuan-style dishes. She secretly thought that her opportunity had come.
Boiled beef, mapo tofu, braised pork elbow, spicy chicken...
As the fresh, spicy dishes were served, the pale, listless Prince of Linjiang's eyes lit up green...
---
Later, Xu Jintang, along with his younger brother and sister-in-law, followed the radiant Prince Linjiang and boarded a carriage to the capital...
*Food/Cute Kids/Warm Daily Life/Business/Micro Group Portraits
*1V1/Double First Love/Sweet Story/HE
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