This time, there were fifteen private soldiers accompanying Chu Lian to the northern border. Adding the estate guards and retainers raised the total count to more than thirty.
Mo Chenggui was an old soldier. The imposing aura around him from his years on the battlefield made him hard to approach. Even when facing Prince Jin’s subordinate, Tang Yan, he was unshakeable. Coupled with the deep scar that cut across the left side of his face, he felt cold, terrifying, and unapproachable to the others.
Amongst the party heading to the north, the men were all riding horses. Only Chu Lian and her two maidservants, Wenqing and Wenlan, were seated inside a carriage.
Manager Qin, who wasn’t that good at riding, was placed at the front of the carriage next to the manservant driving it.
The further north they went, the colder it got.
Chu Lian was wrapped up in a large cloak with a fox-fur robe on the outside. She hugged a warm water bottle in her arms. Even so, she still felt cold!
She was glad she had tried to train her body for half a month before departing on the journey. Otherwise, she would have definitely fallen ill before even reaching the north.
The road wasn’t smooth, causing the carriage to shake along the way. Chu Lian couldn’t read her book in that sort of situation, so to keep herself awake, she started playing a card game called Madiao with Wenqing and Wenlan.
As the cheery sounds of laughter resounded from within the carriage, Mo Chenggui’s thug-like countenance took on a fierce cast.
His roughened hands tightened on the reins he was holding.
He had thought highly of this Third Young Madam at first. Not just any young miss had the spirit and determination to go to the bitterly cold northern border. Thus, he hadn’t said a word when he had seen how much luggage she was bringing.
However, he hadn’t expected her to be frolicking so happily in the carriage without any consideration for their circumstances!
She was just a spoiled little noble girl after all. Did she think they were going out on a leisure trip?
She probably hadn’t expected the weather in the north to be this bad. It probably wouldn’t take very long before this Third Young Madam would start making a fuss to turn back.
However, he was going there to help Third Young Master. Even if Third Young Madam were to pester him with unreasonable demands along the way, it wasn’t his business to care about what happened to her!
The corner of Mo Chenggui’s lips raised at a cold angle.
While riding his horse alongside the carriage, Tang Yan was having similar thoughts to Mo Chenggui. However, he simply shook his head and smiled, instead of showing his thoughts on his face like Mo Chenggui.
He cast a look at the carriage, eyes shifting into upturned crescents like a wily fox.
Hehe! He was waiting for a good show!
Manager Qin straightened the fur hat that almost engulfed his head with its size. With his hands tucked into the sleeves of his cotton robe, he looked like a rough man from the northeast. His eyes were narrowed as he looked between the private soldiers and guards on both sides of the carriage. At a time when no one was paying attention to him, he curled his lip and inwardly harrumphed. Third Young Madam was right. These people were inflated with their own self-importance, disdainful of others just because they were physically stronger. They actually dared to look down on their Third Young Madam!
Before they had even reached the north, the petty Manager Qin was already holding a grudge against Tang Yan and Mo Chenggui for this matter.
Their party had been on the road for a day. Seeing that the sky was turning dark and it would be dangerous to continue travelling since they were currently in a mountain forest, Mo Chenggui and Tang Yan decided to rest a night in the forest after some discussion.
The party stopped and Tang Yan ordered some men to start up a fire and cook the evening meal. Mo Chenggui started assigning guard duty for the night to the old soldiers and guards.
Chu Lian was helped off the carriage by Wenqing. The moment she stepped on the ground, she noticed that Manager Qin and the two Li siblings had already put up her tent for the night.
Li Xing and Li Yue seemed to have undergone some special training and were especially good at taking care of her needs while roughing it outside. Even Tang Yan and Mo Chenggui couldn’t compare to them when it came to building a comfortable sleeping space in the woods.
Chu Lian was really starting to like this pair of siblings.
After Wenqing brought her to sit on a thick fur carpet outside the tent, Chu Lian started ordering her servants around.
Chu Lian wasn’t someone who would let herself suffer. Although they were roughing it out in the wild, she was never going to make a shabby meal as long as it was within her limits to do better.
Hunger breeds discontent, after all. They would only have the strength to carry on if they ate well.
Wenlan stoked up the fire and took out a bronze stove to boil some water.
Meanwhile, Chu Lian instructed Wenqing to retrieve a specially made bronze pot from the carriage, which had a little opening in the center to allow room for smoke to rise up. Following that, she grabbed a few different types of dried vegetables from an indigo bag and tossed them into the hot water to soak.
Chu Lian personally seasoned the broth with the set of spice containers she had made sure to bring along. She also instructed Li Xing to bring some private soldiers with him to hunt in the nearby forest.
Once Chu Lian was finished with her side of the preparations, Li Xing had returned with three fat rabbits.
Li Yue took the live rabbits and went over to the nearby brook to take care of them.
In just an hour, Chu Lian’s rabbit hotpot was completed.
Li Xing was skilled with his knife. He cut the lean rabbit meat into thin slices. When it was time to eat, they just had to swish the slices around for a few moments in the fragrant, boiling broth before it was cooked.
The broth was slightly spicy, so their bodies warmed up as they ate. Although the dried vegetables weren’t as tasty as fresh ones, they were like a heavenly blessing in this cold winter season when it was usually impossible to get any vegetables at all.
Wenqing used the campfire to cook a small pot of rice to pair with the rabbit hotpot.
Their meal for tonight was snow white rice and green vegetables soaked in the spicy red rabbit hotpot broth; even those with smaller appetites could probably finish a huge bowl of it by themselves.
For the servants following Third Young Madam on this dull and hasty journey, the time they looked forward to every day was meal time.
