The two men who had left the tent returned not too long after, each carrying a bag in their hands. One of them passed the bag he was holding to the thick-lipped woman next to Chu Lian.
The two of them exchanged glances and the woman immediately began to open the package.
Although Chu Lian had her head lowered. She was still watching the woman out of the corner of her eyes.
The woman untied the package, loosening the ties and revealing the items inside.
So the package was full of food.
There was a frozen piece of meat about the size of two palms. It looked like mutton, judging by the colour of it. There was a small handful of rice, a bowl of Chinese olives, and a porcelain bottle. Chu Lian could smell the faint scent of milk. It was probably either cow’s milk or goat’s milk.
The woman looked down at the bag of food and blanked out for a moment. She then sighed, seemingly disappointed.
Chu Lian watched as she took out the mutton and cut off a piece before grilling it right on top of the brazier. As for the rest of the items, she wrapped them back up into the package and threw it over to Chu Lian.
She mocked, “If Honoured Lady is hungry, go ahead and cook it yourself!”
The woman had originally treated Chu Lian with respect and extra care due to her master’s orders. However, Chu Lian had truly angered her, so she wanted to torment this fragile noble lady.
The three men glanced over for a moment before pretending that they hadn’t seen anything.
She technically wasn’t violating any of their orders. Besides, they had worked together for a long time now, and they were unwilling to provoke her over such a small matter as this. It was easier to simply shut one eye to her actions.
After a moment, Chu Lian couldn’t hold back her hunger any longer. Her stomach made embarrassingly loud rumbles. She carefully glanced at the thick-lipped woman, who was still grilling mutton over the fire, and moved a few steps forward until she reached the bag of food.
A slender, fair hand reached out from the fur cloak and tugged the bag over. Finally, two little hands peeked out and clumsily opened it up.
When she saw what was inside, Chu Lian’s eyes widened in astonishment.
Her pink lips trembled. Full of disbelief, Chu Lian asked, “You… You’re only giving me this to eat?”
The woman shot a sideways look at her and snorted. “I’d advise Honoured Lady to dispense with that noble temper! If you don’t want to eat this, then you can just go hungry.”
After she finished saying so, the thick-lipped woman seemed more refreshed. Her originally emotionless face was now tinged with a trace of joy. She flipped over the piece of mutton she was grilling and even took out a small piece of salt from somewhere in her clothes. After pinching and breaking off some of it with her fingers, she scattered it over the meat.
In a short moment, the tent was filled with the delicious aroma of grilled mutton.
Chu Lian stared at the mutton in a daze. She even gulped.
The woman shot a look at her before taking the mutton off the fire. Using the dagger she always carried on her, she cut it up into smaller pieces and put them on a plate. Next, she picked up a piece and stuffed it into her mouth, shutting her eyes as if she was savouring its taste.
Chu Lian couldn’t help but swallow another mouthful of saliva.
Actually, the mutton that the woman had cooked wasn’t that delicious. The only seasoning she had used was salt, and the salt was just some coarse rock salt. All she had done was put the mutton on a fire to cook. How tasty could it be? She had eaten grilled mutton like this every day for too long, and she was tired of it.
Even though the thick-lipped woman was rather tall, she was actually born in the south and didn’t like eating mutton or beef. What she really wanted was some warm, soft rice porridge. Unfortunately, none of them could cook, so they could only make do like this every day. They could only hope to finish the mission sooner so they could go to back to Su City and have a great feast in one of the restaurants there to reward themselves.
The woman had purposely acted as if the meat was delicious in order to provoke the pampered Honoured Lady.
Surely those tender hands of hers wouldn’t be able to cook the mutton!
The thick-lipped woman felt soothed upon thinking of that.
She finished up her meal in no time and sat back in a comfortable position, clearly not intending to move.
“Honoured Lady, we’re not like those maidservants and manservants of yours. If you want to eat, you’ll have to do it yourself.”
The spoiled, fragile young woman sitting in the corner was tightly gripping the bag of food with her head lowered. She looked as if she was holding back her tears and only barely enduring this hardship. Suddenly, Chu Lian lifted her head, lips pressed together, seemingly determined to do something.
She walked over to the fire with the bag in hand.
With her chin raised high, she looked disdainfully at the thick-lipped woman sitting not too far away and said, “Fine, I’ll do it myself then!”
The thick-lipped woman sneered and turned away. She didn’t have any sort of expectations at all for this Honoured Lady and was simply waiting for her to make a fool of herself. Her eyes darted towards Chu Lian from time to time, waiting to see what spectacle she was going to make.
However, her hopes were quickly dashed.
