Chapter 1552 - 1399: The Fake Commandery Princess 9
The mountain path was somewhat narrow and uphill, making it difficult for everyone to walk. Climbing mountains was already tiring, let alone carrying a living person on one’s back.
Besides people finding it difficult to walk, the two carriages moved even slower. From time to time, they had to pull the wheels out of the ruts on the road, making it all the more exhausting.
Ye Fangchen and Ye Jingyi, who carried people all day yesterday, found it hard to continue today, feeling the urge to catch their breath after only a few steps.
Fortunately, even the government officers weren’t made of iron. They were quite tired upon reaching this point, so the pace was very slow, allowing everyone to follow along slowly.
The environment was extremely good in this era. Even with people walking along the road, one could see some wild small animals. Ye Shuangshuang picked up a few pebbles, eyeing the mountain pheasants and wild birds startled by the crowd and took flight nearby.
The Ye Family’s health was very poor. If they ate nothing but dry buns, pancakes, porridge, pickled vegetables, and some radish and cabbage all the way, their bodies surely wouldn’t hold up.
Especially since Ye Fangchen and Ye Jingyi had to carry someone on the journey, their energy consumption was already huge, so they needed to keep up with nutrition.
Fortunately, there were plenty of wild pheasants here. After walking just a hundred meters, they spotted two or three. Ye Shuangshuang launched two pebbles and directly hit two pheasants with brilliantly colored feathers.
Such creatures would be protected animals in modern society. But in this era, pheasants flew everywhere, and there was no talk of protection. If you had the skill to catch them, you could eat them at will.
After catching two pheasants, Ye Shuangshuang casually tied their wings and carried them in her hand, planning to boil them into chicken soup to nourish the Ye Family when they rested.
Seeing Ye Shuangshuang easily catch two pheasants, the surrounding government officers were dumbfounded. They only knew Ye Shuangshuang was strong before, but never expected her to hit pheasants with pebbles, proving her skills were excellent.
Ye Fangchen and Ye Jingyi were also a bit surprised. Both practiced martial arts and found catching pheasants naturally not difficult, but it required assistance with bows, arrows, or other tools.
But to hit two pheasants precisely with just two pebbles like Ye Shuangshuang? They really weren’t confident they could take down prey as casually as she could.
The government officers were even more amazed. Initially, they’d been shocked that Ye Shuangshuang, who had carried people all day and stayed up all night, could still be full of energy for the journey today.
But now, what was the deal with this? Picking up two pebbles and hitting two pheasants? Were they teasing them? And it looked effortless.
Right then, a few disgruntled government officers picked up some pebbles too, imitating Ye Shuangshuang’s actions, and threw them at nearby pheasants.
Unfortunately, all their throws missed, startling the pheasants but not hitting a single one. Only one officer had a stroke of luck, hitting a pheasant.
But hitting it didn’t help; the stone’s force wasn’t enough to kill or knock out the pheasant. Instead, it flapped its wings and escaped even faster.
Yet, Ye Shuangshuang quickly managed to bring down a few more pheasants, still as effortlessly as before. Meanwhile, the officers continued trying in vain, failing to catch a single bird.
On duty transporting prisoners, they couldn’t abandon the Ye Family to chase pheasants. With their stones missing, they could only watch enviously as Ye Shuangshuang carried a string of pheasants, eyes full of envy.
Tonight, everyone stayed at a county inn. The place for housing prisoners was a separate courtyard within the inn. It wasn’t large but was bigger than the previous town’s inn.
The inn’s kitchen was quite far away. Ye Shuangshuang and the others were in exile, so they couldn’t leave the government officers’ sight to borrow the kitchen.
Ye Shuangshuang made a simple field stove in the courtyard, borrowing a large pot used for cooking group meals from the inn kitchen, with the help of the officers.
Then, Ye Shuangshuang simmered a pot full of chicken soup. The chicken meat was torn into fine shreds, sprinkled in the soup.
When eating, they poured both soup and meat together, breaking up buns to soak them until soft, devouring a large bowl, feeling very comfortable.
Ye Shuangshuang made plenty of chicken soup. Besides feeding the Ye Family, all the remaining soup was given to the escorting officers.
This was why the officers turned a blind eye to Ye Shuangshuang catching chickens, collecting herbs, and setting up a field stove to make chicken soup, even helping to borrow the pot.
They weren’t fond of eating dry buns with cold water either. Though they had a food subsidy, they could buy food with their silver coins.
But if they didn’t spend these coins, they could save them and take them home, making a good income.
They were reluctant to spend these silver coins, saving them to take home, drinking cold water and eating buns like the prisoners, also craving meat.
Being able to eat meat without spending money that they would otherwise need to buy, they were quite willing to turn a blind eye for Ye Shuangshuang.
After being well-fed, they could rest peacefully. The Ye Family’s condition was better today than yesterday. Tonight, Ye Shuangshuang didn’t need to stay up, eating and washing up before sleeping, waking up refreshed the next morning.
Yesterday, Ye Shuangshuang had specially saved seven or eight chicken legs, shredded them into very fine threads, and in the morning made chicken and vegetable porridge. The buns were thinly sliced, spread with chicken fat, and toasted to a golden and crispy finish.
The toasted bread slices with chicken and vegetable porridge were very tasty, and even Shen, with the worst appetite, ate a bowl of porridge and two bun slices.
In the coming days, Ye Shuangshuang always kept some pebbles at hand, hitting prey whenever she saw it on the road. If there was none, she dug up herbs. Whenever she saw medicinal herbs, Ye Shuangshuang would dig them up.
The Ye Family already knew that the herbs Ye Shuangshuang dug up were not wild grass, so they proactively helped carry them.
Primarily, those being carried each held a small basket containing the dug-up herbs. The herbs Ye Shuangshuang dug were not just for everyone’s health adjustment.
More importantly, they were medicines for various sudden illnesses: A journey of thousands of miles ahead had the inevitability of sudden ailments, common acclimatization issues, and prisoners couldn’t buy medicine, making pre-existing preparedness essential.
While traveling, Ye Shuangshuang often collected herbs, quickly processing them during rest, spreading them to dry atop the carriage, having woven several drying trays.
The Ye Family would also help Ye Shuangshuang handle herbs that didn’t require complicated processes, then pack and store the dried herbs in the carriage.
Thus, half a month passed. Ye Feiying and Shen, Bai Menghan’s health not only didn’t worsen, but Ye Shuangshuang had also nurtured it even better.
Now, Bai Menghan could already walk intermittently for about an hour a day without any physical discomfort.
Even the physically weakest, Ye Feiying and Shen, could manage to walk on the ground for a short while. These two, who previously harbored thoughts of death, had now pretty much abandoned such thoughts, and their spirits were high.