Chapter 201

The next morning, Yueqian woke up before her husband, who had only come into the tent after midnight. Even though the soldiers took turns keeping watch, Mu Heng was not one to leave everything to them. He helped with the patrols and discussed various matters with the soldiers. It was no surprise that during the journey, many soldiers came to respect him even more.

Mu Heng’s ideas were not easy to replicate. Their conversations often revolved around strategic planning. For example, he would present scenarios such as, If over 500 bandits were to surround us right now, what should be our first course of action? In situations where no prior preparation was possible, which direction should they take first?

This type of training was akin to fire drills from Yueqian’s old world. In fact, Mu Heng got this idea from the way his wife taught their younger siblings to handle situations. Yueqian’s teaching was excellent; she never let her siblings mindlessly copy texts without thinking. Sometimes, she would have them read literature together and then pause to let them share their own opinions, whether it was about dealing with bad characters or other matters.

Since he was on watch duty, Mu Heng couldn’t engage in combat training. Their focus and attention had to remain in their surroundings. However, he didn’t want to let the time go to waste, so he used these discussions as a productive way to pass the time.

Among soldiers, talking about strategy was as engaging as discussing women. They enjoyed thinking about warfare as much as they did about the women they loved. Therefore, when they discussed such topics, it was not only enjoyable but also enriching, as they gained insights and experiences from one another. In the future, they could use the knowledge gained from these discussions to survive.

The important eunuch, on the other hand, had gone to bed early. He didn’t like being around the rough soldiers who smelled of sweat and dirt. Therefore, the eunuch stayed in the guest tent set up by the governor of Red Earth City.

Returning to the present situation, Yueqian got up. As soon as she stuck her head out of the tent, she felt the chill in the air. It was quite a pleasant time.

The atmosphere here was something she could never find in her previous era. In the city, there were only the lights and the night chill couldn’t blow through because tall buildings blocked it. If it wasn’t the smell of car exhaust, it would be the stench of sewage wafting in.

She stood and took a deep breath of the pure air before going out to prepare water for washing. After finishing her own preparations, she brought another basin into the tent. She didn’t wait for her husband to wake up, letting him sleep a bit longer. Meanwhile, she went to prepare a simple yet nutritious breakfast.

In the past few days, the soldiers had eaten various types of porridge—chicken, fish, minced pork, and even plain porridge with stir-fried vegetables for breakfast. Today, Yueqian was more determined than usual. The tension had eased significantly, and now they just needed to ensure the captured soldiers didn’t get a chance to escape. Other than that, there were no major obstacles left on their journey.

Thus, she planned to cook a special breakfast as a thank you to everyone. Fortunately, the soldiers had already started a fire for boiling warm water, so Yueqian didn’t need to start a new fire. She only needed to handle the preparations. Water was fetched and placed, and rice was cooked after she mentioned they would have rice for breakfast today.

Although rice couldn’t be grown in Red Earth City due to unsuitable land, they could buy it along the way, ensuring their food supplies were always replenished.

Yueqian sat in another corner, her and Qu Yi’s corner. The young girl had woken up earlier but was still groggy from practicing her embroidery. Qu Yi’s effort surpassed her own in the novel, and now her embroidery skills were exceptional. If the description said she could embroider a phoenix in 30 minutes, it should now be updated to say she could do it in 30 minutes with her eyes closed for the first 15 minutes. Only for the finer details that required changing needle and thread colors did she need to open her eyes.

Normally, Yueqian wouldn’t be up this early to prepare food, so the girl in the small tent still had her lamp lit to add light for her embroidery. The beauty didn’t intend to call her for help. Today’s task might seem easy to her, but to others, it probably wouldn’t be as simple.

Yueqian sat down and began taking items out of the basket she had brought. It turned out she had prepared golden dumpling wrappers in advance. Ah... it wouldn’t be right to say that she had prepared them as it might be misleading. To be precise, she simply bought these dumpling wrappers from the department store at a very cheap price.

Minced pork marinated with herbs, minced pork mixed with vegetables, and minced pork with salted egg yolk—she retrieved these three flavors from her interdimensional space. This showed her laziness, as making dumplings herself would take over three hours. Wasn’t it better to spend a little money to buy them?

She also added a seasoning powder she had poured into a cloth pouch, pretending it was a secret blend she had prepared at home. As soon as the seasoning powder was sprinkled into the water, the aroma of the long-simmered pork bones and various herbs made the surrounding soldiers swallow their saliva.

Once again, Yueqian chose to make dumplings for a meal, but this time she needed a large quantity. If she had to make them herself, her hands would surely ache. Making dumplings was a delicate task. Despite having some crafty methods, she still had to spend time folding the dumplings beautifully.

Fortunately, the wrappers were of high quality, making the wrapping process not too bad. Qu Yi quickly came over when she smelled the food, which greatly reduced the time spent folding the dumplings. Although the young girl’s dumplings weren’t as well-made as Yueqian’s, the eaters wouldn’t mind how they looked.

For making dumplings, as long as the filling was delicious and the broth matched well, everything would be perfect. However, the soldiers couldn’t be satisfied with just a few dumplings. If it were only her husband, Yueqian would let him eat dumplings until he was full, as they were nutritious and filling.

But these soldiers needed a lot of energy, and she was reluctant to reveal her true abilities. Saying she had prepared some seasoning powder was understandable. Saying she had some dumpling wrappers was also plausible. But how could she explain having prepared the dumpling fillings in advance?!

With such a strong aroma, having a reasonable quantity wouldn’t raise suspicions. However, if there were too much, especially since they hadn’t smelled such delicious aromas before during their journey, it would start to seem strange.

"Wrap about 300-350 dumplings, and distribute three to each soldier. They should focus on the rice and bone broth to fill up. The dumplings will just be for extra energy," Yueqian explained to Qu Yi their goal for this meal.

Making 300 dumplings wasn’t too difficult. Normally, in Yueqian’s household, they ate a lot. Her siblings could each eat 20-30 dumplings. As for Mu Heng, needless to say, he could easily eat 50. Yueqian ate the least, only needing 4-5 dumplings, probably because there were so many other foods to choose from. So, she only ate enough dumplings to taste and then move on to something else.

There was also their middle-aged master who ate a lot; he could eat as much as Mu Heng, maybe even 60 dumplings. Lastly, there was the slim Qu Yi, who seemed like she would eat little but could actually eat up to 40 dumplings.

Because of everyone’s large appetites, whenever Yueqian planned to make dumplings, she would make at least 200. So, hearing that they needed to make 100 more, Qu Yi didn’t feel like it was a big task.

As the two of them sat folding dumplings, the sunlight slowly began to shine. Some of the steamed dumplings were already ready to eat. Yueqian then had Qu Yi prepare the distribution area. Of course, many soldiers were willing to help the young girl, so Yueqian continued wrapping dumplings at her leisure.

Until...

"Ah!!" A girl’s scream rang out. Yueqian, who had been deep in thought while wrapping dumplings, jolted. The beautiful woman put down her work and rushed outside. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

At the food distribution area, a crowd had gathered around Qu Yi. Yueqian could hear Qu Yi’s continuous cries, and it seemed the young girl was in distress.

Yueqian’s heart sank. She didn’t know what had happened to her only maid, who held a sisterly status in her heart. She quickly ordered the soldiers blocking her way to move aside. Fortunately, these soldiers didn’t see Yueqian as just any woman. Seeing her approach, they immediately stepped aside to several directions, allowing the fierce governor’s furen to easily get through.

The young woman’s eyes scanned for Qu Yi and found her little Qu Yi huddled in pain, clutching her hand which was trembling from the pain. Her bright eyes, now resembling those of a puppy beaten by its owner, turning it into a traumatic experience.

In front of her stood two court ladies, looking around with displeasure. One of them even kicked Qu Yi, albeit not forcefully. Still, using her foot to kick Qu Yi was extremely disrespectful. Qu Yi didn’t retaliate; she remained in her painful state, tears streaming down her face, looking very pitiful.

“What is going on here?!” Yueqian’s voice rang out, the villainess’s fierce eyes making those under her gaze tremble with fear. The cruelty reflected in them scared everyone, even the soldiers who once revered her now backed away, not daring to approach.

The young girl on the ground seemed to hear the voice of heaven. She looked up at her mistress, her eyes filled with hope, as if she had found a ray of light. Her small hand, now red and steaming, reached out shakily. It seemed she couldn’t believe that the sight of Yueqian was real.

Yueqian’s dangerous eyes narrowed further. The court lady standing there pursed her lips slightly and looked at Yueqian with disdain.

“Furen Mu, you need to discipline your servants better in the future. A maid who makes mistakes like this will make everyone think you are unfit to be anyone’s mistress. I say this out of goodwill,” the court lady said arrogantly.

The other party was from the royal palace. Though merely court ladies, they were the people from the palace who worked directly for the king. Moreover, both court ladies had beautiful faces typical of young girls, they had a chance to become favored concubines. This meant that anyone who offended them now would have to be prepared to become their enemy in the future.

Such thoughts were the foolish musings of those who fancied themselves future swans while they were still mere crows. As for Yueqian, who had lived in the capital as the eldest daughter of the powerful Qin family, how could she not know that these were the most ridiculous thoughts?Court ladies aspiring to become favored concubines? Then, they should first ask the palace vipers whether they would allow someone powerless to rise. In the royal palace, it was not uncommon for a court lady to die. If it were otherwise, the palace would be filled with low-ranking concubines!! Why else would only a few noble daughters, who fought tooth and nail for love and power, remain?