Chapter 8
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Chapter 8: The small, long-cooled cake suddenly felt burning to the touch.
An intense gaze came from the corner. Wu Li hesitated briefly. Before anyone spoke, he shook his head. \"Tan said there\’s no doctor. Deposed Crown Prince, instead of fussing, you\’d better rest and plan how to lead everyone tomorrow. Today we made an exception to bring you by carriage to save lives. The supplies shifted from our carriage can\’t stay on Master Xu\’s carriage forever. Tan said you can\’t use our carriage tomorrow.\"
\"She\’s unconscious. Without a carriage, how…\" Qin Chongli, feeling like the pillar of the household, stood up to negotiate.
Among the ten guards on this trip, Qin Chongli hadn\’t memorized all names in two days, but this guard named Wu Li appeared often. Though his words weren\’t always polite, his arrangements—like last night\’s sleeping spots at Taoyuan Post Station and today\’s shared room—were helpful. He\’d even delivered Jiang Wu\’s message promptly without evasion. Qin Chongli thought negotiation might work.
But before he finished, Wu Li was nudged aside from the doorway. Zhao Qi\’s irritating face peered in. \"What\’s so difficult? Earlier on the hillside, our Deposed Crown Prince jumped down heroically and carried her up effortlessly—nothing like the rumored weakling. Who needs a carriage? Our Deposed Crown Prince can carry her piggyback all the way.\"
Walking nearly thirty miles daily, mostly off official roads with steep slopes, was hard enough alone. Even carrying little Yao Yao, he and his daughter-in-law had to take turns and couldn\’t manage continuously. Yesterday they\’d barely coped with Jiang Wu\’s help. A grown woman? Impossible to carry.
Unlike Qin Chongli, caught off guard by Wu Li, Jiang Wu—who\’d arrived two hours earlier—hadn\’t sat idle. From Crown Prince to prisoner, from reverence to scorn, he\’d adapted quickly. He never expected guards who refused to find a doctor to keep lending half a carriage.
\"I don\’t wish to trouble you, sirs, but my strength is limited. If I delay our daily progress and hinder your mission, it would be disastrous.\" Jiang Wu stood, head bowed, avoiding mention of Du Yinsui\’s unsuitability for carrying—these guards wouldn\’t care. He gestured toward the cluttered corner. \"I spotted an old cart there. May I borrow it?\"
Everyone followed his finger, squinting at the junk pile before distinguishing an overturned cart beneath it.
\"You think you can just borrow it? How would you return it?\"
\"I\’ll ask Tan shortly.\"
Zhao Qi glared at Wu Li. Wu Li… smiled weakly, pulling Zhao Qi aside. \"Brother Zhao, that cart\’s practically falling apart. Pushing it might be harder than carrying her. If she wants to suffer, let her. This room reeks of mold—let\’s drink radish soup elsewhere.\" The young guard coaxed the scowling Zhao Qi out.
Zhou Xiao and Tian Hu finally slipped in carrying provisions. Designated the \"paupers\’ room\" by Tan, they handed each person a palm-sized black flatbread and placed large bowls of warm water before Qin Chongli and Jiang Wu before leaving.
Growling stomachs filled the room. Jiang Wu wiped two fingers and began crumbling bread for the unconscious girl. But before pinching off a piece, he sensed something wrong.
\"Father.\" Chu Xiulan paused chewing. Holding her bitten bread, she turned to Qin Chongli. \"This bread… has something in it.\"
Qin Chongli broke his untouched bread. Grayish-black crumbs held flecks of dark brown. He nibbled a piece—edible, with a faint flour scent and saltiness, but coarse and dry. Probably filler.
\"Like seed husks…\" Qin Chongli muttered, grinding it with his teeth.
\"It\’s bran,\" Jiang Wu said softly after mashing his portion. \"Edible, but chew thoroughly or it won\’t digest.\"
\"Oh, bran? Like chicken feed?\" Chu Xiulan had never eaten it but knew farm things.
Jiang Wu nodded, recalling Fengzhou disaster relief when corrupt officials tampered with grain. They\’d scavenged bran and wild vegetables under tight deadlines.
Lost in memory, Jiang Wu stopped mashing bread. He lifted the little one beside him, letting her sip warm water first. Then he tore both black flatbreads into tiny pieces, dropping them into the bowl.
\"Throw it?\" The little one stared, bread dangling from her mouth, forgetting to chew.
\"Bran doesn\’t dissolve like flour. It leaves gritty bits,\" Jiang Wu explained gently. \"Drinking it could choke her. Since sister\’s still unconscious, choking would hurt badly.\"
The little one just said \"Oh,\" then sat cross-legged to nibble her bread.
\"Chew slowly, Yao Yao. Fifty chews per bite, okay?\" Jiang Wu managed the soaking bread while watching the clueless child. \"Can Yao Yao count to fifty? Let\’s count together?\"
The little one gulped her half-chewed bread and scrambled away, whining, \"No counting! No!\"
But the room was tiny, the chain short. Escaping Jiang Wu\’s fifty chews, she immediately met her aunt demanding one hundred.
\"No fussing! I won\’t fuss!\" The little one glared as her aunt took the bread, doling out crumbs while insisting on one hundred chews per bite. Cheeks puffed defiantly, she turned away, eyes brimming.
Chu Xiulan: \"…\" Whether it was a stomachache or constipation, she guessed only personal experience could help understand the adults\’ intentions!
\"Mother, let me help. Sister just didn’t want to count; she wasn’t refusing to chew her bread properly.\" The always well-behaved Qin Haoyang took the little one and the bread with just a small bite taken from it.
Amid the quiet sounds of nibbling, there was the faint noise of someone scooping bran from a water bowl.
To this, Du Yinsui wanted to say, \"Your Highness, you\’re truly kind, but it\’s unnecessary…\" Besides bran, she felt she could even digest tree bark then. It wasn\’t an exaggeration. After the apocalypse, bodily changes and powers had let people digest mutated creatures. Normal plants were nothing.
Her body knew not to choke! Better to swallow the bran down too!
The cries of hungry Du Yinsui’s soul went unheard. Jiang Wu carefully scooped every bit of bran from the bowl before sitting her up to feed her the gruel bit by bit.
Thanks to the extra water, they didn\’t need to save it so much this time.
The gruel tasted different but still had a clean, grain-like smell. It went warmly down her throat to her empty stomach.
Delicious! She loved it!
But… it ended too soon…
Laid back down, Du Yinsui savored the last bit of flavor, hoping it wouldn\’t be her final meal.
Beside her, Qin Chongli leaned tiredly against the wall. His gaze swept over his weary daughter-in-law, his obedient grandson, and his adorable little granddaughter. With a sigh, he broke off over half his bread. Remembering Jiang Wu eating bran, he split it into four small pieces.
He gave one to his grandson, one to his granddaughter, then handed the rest to Chu Xiulan. Pointing at Jiang Wu, he whispered, \"You eat one, give him one.\"
\"Father… I don\’t want it,\" Chu Xiulan pushed back one piece, whispering, \"If you eat too little, you won\’t walk tomorrow.\"
\"I can…\" Qin Chongli started to sound firm, but she pushed him back against the wall, the bread still in his hand.
Qin Chongli: \"…\"
\"I didn\’t mean that!\" Chu Xiulan waved her hands, looking guilty but earnest. \"Father, you see, you\’ve no energy left.\"
Qin Chongli: \"…\" Fine, he was weak!
Chu Xiulan refused the piece for herself but didn\’t stop giving Jiang Wu his share. She even added a small bit from her own bread.
\"Jiang Wu…\"
Hearing his name, Jiang Wu turned. He saw the dusty young woman, despite her chains, lean forward and toss two small pieces into his lap.
\"No…\" Seeing what was there, his first thought was to refuse.
\"Share it with her; listen, her stomach still growls,\" Chu Xiulan said, her household skills letting her hit the mark.
Jiang Wu: \"…\"
The small bread pieces in his palm, long cold, now felt burning hot. Hearing the softer growling nearby, he lowered his eyes, murmured thanks, and closed his hand over them.
Du Yinsui hadn\’t expected this. After the gruel, her sense of smell returned briefly. Instead of exploring far, she focused on the bread pieces in the room.
Her stomach still rumbled, but her spirit went quiet.
After years in the apocalypse, she found such kindness hard to face, even knowing it wasn\’t for her.
The mood turned heavy, with only Qin Haoyang softly counting as his sister chewed.
Next door, those pressing ears to the wall heard nothing; it was utterly silent.