After Xi Qingyue made up her mind to go to the capital, she began asking Lu Qianning about the fun places to visit there.
Lu Qianning patiently told the two of them where the best food was in the capital and which scenic spots were most beautiful.
Beside them, Xi Weilan pricked up her ears and listened very carefully, remembering which restaurant had the best pork knuckles and which pastry shop had the most delicious cakes.
The serious look on their faces would have made onlookers think they were listening to a lecturer at the academy. Lu Qianning couldn't help but purse her lips and smile — true foodies, those two.
Xi Weilan was only three years old; besides her big sister, her head was filled with nothing but food and play. And Xi Qingyue, having grown tired of fighting zombies in her past life, simply wanted to eat, drink, and have fun in this one. The two sisters really could be considered foodies.
After Lu Qianning finished talking, Xi Weilan couldn't help but mumble, "Big Sister, I'm a little hungry."
Only then did Xi Qingyue remember that the two of them had been planning to eat before, but before they'd even started, they'd spotted Lu Qianning searching a corpse, and out of curiosity they'd stepped out of the mule cart. It had been a while now, so they truly were a bit hungry.
Hearing her say she was hungry, Luo Ling quickly pulled two baked cakes from her bundle and handed them over. "Here, these cakes aren't bad. They've gotten a bit hard from sitting for a while, but they don't need to be cooked, and they'll fill you up."
Staring at the cakes held out before her, Xi Weilan's little face scrunched up in hesitation. Should she take them or not?
After only a moment's consideration, she smiled and accepted them. "Thank you, Sister Luo."
Luo Ling waved her hand. "No need for thanks — we bought plenty."
With that, she pulled out another cake and handed it to Lu Qianning, and the two of them began eating naturally.
Meanwhile, Xi Weilan handed one of her two cakes to Xi Qingyue, and they too started eating.
They liked good food, but that didn't mean they couldn't endure hardship. Hard cakes were nothing new to them — if a princess could eat them, they certainly could too.
Lu Qianning, however, noticed something off. She recalled a piece of news she'd heard before — these two could eat over two hundred dishes in a single sitting. One cake each wouldn't nearly be enough to fill them up. And if they weren't full but still weren't cooking, then something was truly strange.
She didn't intend to probe into the secrets of Xi Qingyue and her sister. After finishing her cake, she stood up and took the initiative to bid farewell.
"Yue, Little Lan'er, I'll be on my way now. From here on, we'll be traveling day and night. If you make it to the capital, feel free to come find me at Princess Wenqing's residence. Take this — the gates of the princess's estate will always be open to you."
With that, she tossed a green-and-white jade pendant to Xi Qingyue. On the back of the pendant were carved the characters "Wen Qing."
Xi Qingyue accepted the pendant quite naturally. She waved goodbye to Lu Qianning, then tucked the pendant away.
After the two rode off on horseback, Xi Qingyue and Xi Weilan returned to the carriage.
Inside, they set out several dishes, two large bowls of rice, and two bowls of chicken soup.
Xi Qingyue smiled as she looked at Xi Weilan. "You definitely weren't full after that just now, were you? Eat some more, and after we finish, we'll keep going."
"Mm, Big Sister, one cake just now wasn't nearly enough. How come Big Sister Lu and her people eat so little?"
As she spoke, Xi Weilan already had her chopsticks in hand and was stuffing her mouth full in no time, her little cheeks puffing up.
Xi Qingyue also picked up her chopsticks and took a piece of braised pork. She said as she chewed, "Big Sister Lu is in a hurry to get home. Besides, those cakes were hard — they only eat them to keep hunger at bay. Eat too many and they get sick of them."
She thought to herself that Lu Qianning surely knew there was something unusual about the two sisters, but she kept proper boundaries and didn't pry. That was just as well.
Dealing with smart people was just easier. Some things you see but don't mention, and they'll even take the initiative to keep their distance. Perhaps that was also a survival skill for someone raised in the palace.
After the meal, Xi Qingyue first put all the dozen-plus horses she'd acquired earlier into her space, and then the two sisters set off again in their mule cart.
She had no intention of swapping the mule for a horse — Windstep was not something an ordinary horse could compare to.
Finally, they arrived at the city gates just as it was getting dark.
Looking up at the two big characters "Jiang City" above the gate, and at the porridge stand set up in front of it, a puzzled expression crossed Xi Qingyue's face.
In all the places they'd passed through, this was the first time she'd seen government officials handing out free porridge at a city gate. Was the sun rising from the west or something?
She didn't join the queue but drove the mule cart straight toward the gate. Some of the refugees nearby looked at them as if they were fools.
A young soldier guarding the gate smiled at the two of them. "The magistrate, in his kindness, has set up this porridge stand for weary travelers. If you're not in a hurry, you can eat first before entering the city. If you'd like to stay in Jiang City, you'll need to register first and wait for the magistrate to arrange lodging. But if you don't wish to stay and want to keep moving on, no one will stop you."
Hearing this, Xi Qingyue looked at the soldier as if he were some kind of strange creature, and Xi Weilan too widened her eyes in bewilderment.
Could this magistrate really be this good?
Xi Qingyue shook her head at the soldier. "No need. We just ate some steamed buns and we're already full. We're heading to our relatives' place, so we won't be stopping in Jiang City."
With that, she pulled out a few copper coins to pay the entrance fees for the two of them.
The soldier on duty didn't try to stop her and immediately let them through. This only deepened Xi Qingyue's confusion.
"Big Sister, could they be like the officials in Bozhou?" Xi Weilan said. Having seen so many corrupt officials along the way, coming across such a good one all of a sudden was hard to believe.
Xi Qingyue didn't believe it in the least either, but what she'd just seen was real — the porridge was thick, and there were even steamed buns available. As long as there was no poison in it, for the refugees, this official was a lifesaver.
Whatever the official's motives, what mattered was that he was doing good. And that had nothing to do with them.
She pinched Xi Weilan's little cheek. "Never mind them. Let's find a place to eat first, then get out of the city gates before they close."
After that, the two of them arrived at an inn called the "Wanfu Tower."
After settling the mule cart, the moment they stepped inside the inn, they heard a familiar voice: "Little Yue, Little Lan — if it isn't you two!"
They both turned their heads to look — and there was Second Uncle Liu from Willow Tree Village, the man who used to drive his ox cart to town all the time.
"Second Uncle Liu, what are you doing here? Where are Uncle Han and the others?" Xi Qingyue said, quite surprised to run into someone from Willow Tree Village here.
She looked around and didn't see anyone else from the village, which made her even more curious.
Second Uncle Liu, too, was surprised that they'd left earlier but had only now arrived so late. But he knew what Xi Qingyue was really asking, so he quickly explained.
"Don't worry — Scholar Han and the others are doing just fine. They kept moving on ahead and didn't stay here. I'm old and didn't want to keep bouncing around, so I decided to settle down here. The magistrate is very kind — he arranged housing for all of us who stayed, and even found me a job as a helper here."
Xi Qingyue swept a glance across the inn's main hall. It wasn't too busy at the moment, which was why Second Uncle Liu had some free time.
The shopkeeper saw that he'd run into acquaintances and waved his hand with a smile. "Go on, it's not busy right now anyway."
Second Uncle Liu quickly smiled and thanked the shopkeeper, then led the two sisters over to a table in the corner and sat down.
“Second Master Liu, aren’t you afraid the Northern Army will come here?” Xi Qingyue asked, puzzled.
“Of course I’m afraid, but I’m already old. Every extra day I live is a bonus. I just want to live out my remaining days in peace. The road here hasn’t been safe at all—if not for everyone pulling together, our village would have been robbed long ago. And those people from Cheng Family Village, I don’t know what they’re thinking, shamelessly trailing behind our village like that, causing no end of trouble.”
Hearing this, Xi Qingyue was taken aback. Why would a group from Cheng Family Village be following Willow Village? Wasn’t that the village where Cheng Dingxiang’s family was from?
