Looking at the silently acquiescing Jiang Jin, Dong Si cursed in a vicious low voice, "Those damn bald donkeys, they deserved to die!"
"The Empress gave Yinshan Temple so many offerings every year, and yet they dared to feign compliance while secretly mistreating you, boohoo..."
Jiang Jin: "..."
She turned to look at Dong Si, only to realize that not only was Dong Si crying, but even the newly minted Curly and Sooty had red, teary eyes.
Jiang Jin was speechless but also felt a bit of heartache. Dong Si had been sold into the palace at a very young age, castrated to become a eunuch, and educated solely to be loyal to his master.
Although he was not old, he had followed Empress Ji Yue for six or seven years and was among those most loyal to Ji Yue.
With Ji Yue gone, it was understandable that his loyalty had transferred to Jiang Jin, his little master.
Jiang Jin's expression softened as she handed him the iron pickaxe. "Dig a few more stoves using the method I just showed you. Steam the rice and cook the dishes at the same time. Get it done as quickly as possible."
Dong Si wiped away his tears. "Understood."
At this moment, two people walked out of the dense forest; it was Chen Xi and Luo Qingci, who had gone to gather firewood.
Their hair was disheveled, and their clothes were messy with several tears. Those who didn't know better might have thought they were doing something illicit in the woods.
Jiang Jin couldn't help but massage her temples. She realized that her team was full of pampered nobles who had never lifted a finger to do manual labor. When it came to cooking, they were absolutely useless.
She was in desperate need of a cook right now.
Preparing the morning meal was a stumbling process, but it was finally cooked. However, it was merely cooked; it had absolutely nothing to do with being tasty.
Fortunately, Jiang Jin had the foresight to not only stew chicken soup but also boil rice porridge. These two foods were delicious even in their most original flavors.
After eating, Jiang Jin strolled around the carriage to digest her food. Remembering something, she placed some grain and weapons into the small compartment, and some cloth and bedding into the large compartment.
Just as she finished, she saw Liu Mi walking towards her hesitantly. Her face had been washed clean and she no longer looked like Sooty.
Jiang Jin raised an eyebrow slightly. "Is something the matter?"
Liu Mi gave a soft affirmation. "Young Master Yao has started to run a slight fever again. I want to go into the mountains to gather some herbs for him."
Jiang Jin was a bit surprised. "You know medicine?"
Yao Ji's wounds hadn't completely healed, so recurring fevers were normal. She had just been thinking about how to get him to take more antipyretics and anti-inflammatory medicine.
Liu Mi shook her head. "My father was a physician. He taught me some common prescriptions for typhoid and fever, and I can recognize some herbs."
Thinking of her parents and relatives, her eyes grew red again.
She hadn't even been able to see her parents one last time. She didn't know if anyone had helped handle their corpses, fearing they had just been casually discarded by the Jiaoren.
She couldn't help but think of Emperor Yan and the Empress, the noblest people in the Yan Kingdom, whose bodies were still humiliated even after death!
The look she gave Jiang Jin carried a trace of maternal affection and pity.
Jiang Jin really hadn't expected her to be from a medical family. She felt slightly relieved; at least they weren't all just useless freeloaders.
However, being looked at with Liu Mi's strange gaze right now, she felt baffled. "What's wrong?"
Liu Mi hurriedly shook her head. "Nothing."
Jiang Jin didn't dwell on the issue and instead asked, "Then based on his condition, what medicine do you need? I'll get it for you."
Liu Mi was delighted, knowing that Jiang Jin must have collected medicinal herbs in Liang City. She quickly listed the names and quantities of the herbs.
Jiang Jin memorized them, returned to the carriage, and under the guise of the small compartment, she actually took the corresponding herbs out from her spatial storage, along with a medicine pot.
She handed the items to Liu Mi and told her to go brew the medicine.
Jiang Jin glanced around at everyone. "Those who drove the carriage last night, hurry up and rest now. Lady Luo and Lady Feng, come with me."
She led the two up the northern slope at the top of the canyon to relieve Xie Nanxiao so he could eat breakfast and rest.
She instructed Luo Qingci and the other in a low voice, "Your main responsibility is to watch if anyone approaches from the north, as well as the entrance to our campsite. Make sure to guard it well, and notify me as soon as possible if anything happens."
The two hurriedly nodded. "Understood."
Only then did Jiang Jin feel at ease. Following the top of the slope, she went to the south to relieve Zhou Sui.
After Zhou Sui left, she climbed a large tree and looked into the distance, feeling melancholy inside.
This world was too backward, and she was very unaccustomed to it.
Remembering something, she took her phone out of her spatial storage and turned it on.
When she saw the date on it, she couldn't help but be startled. The phone's date displayed: August 21, Year 369, 9:15 AM, temperature 36 Celsius.
Jiang Jin couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth. If it weren't for the fact that it showed no signal, she would have thought someone was playing a prank on her and deliberately set up a script for her.
She unlocked the phone with her passcode and confirmed there was no signal.
She sighed, not understanding how the phone could detect the date without a signal, and more importantly, how it could detect the date of this world?
The state of her spatial storage was static, meaning she couldn't put living things inside, including a live phone, so the phone had to be turned off before being put in. It was just very bizarre.
Fortunately, it was a smartphone; once taken out and turned on, the time and date automatically synced.
It was just that she never expected the phone to be this smart. It had changed maps and could still detect the new map's date!
She had thought it would show the date and time of her original world, never expecting such a huge surprise.
Taking out phones or watches would test the worldview of the ancients in this era too much. Plus, with her bizarre spatial storage, having to turn the phone on every time she took it out to check the time was too troublesome.
She rummaged through her spatial storage with her mind and found a pile of pocket watches she had collected when she was bored.
She chose a vintage gold-plated one with a cover. Gold ornaments were quite common among the nobles of this era. On the surface, this pocket watch just looked like it had finer craftsmanship, so it shouldn't be a problem!
She adjusted the time on the pocket watch, replaced the shiny gold lanyard with a plain one, and wore it around her neck. It would be convenient to check the time from now on.
She had the original owner's memories, but she was still very unaccustomed to this era's twelve-shichen timekeeping system.
Although this period already had sundials, water clocks, and the like to tell relatively specific time.
But these tools were not things ordinary people could possess, nor were they convenient to carry. Commoners generally relied on experience, looking at the position of the sun to judge the approximate time.
While lost in her random thoughts, she saw rolling dust in the distance. She sat up straight and took out a pair of binoculars from her spatial storage.
