Thirteenth Lady's Comback: Her Everyday Life as a Bystander-Chapter 242 - 17: Doesn’t Your Conscience Hurt? (Part 1)

Chapter 242: Chapter 17: Doesn’t Your Conscience Hurt? (Part 1)

The pouring rain lasted for two days and nights before it finally stopped. Fortunately, most of the official roads in Great Chu are asphalt, so once the rain stops, you can hit the road.

Great Chu is willing to spend silver on infrastructure. The official roads are divided into three levels. The first level is the asphalt road where four carriages can run side by side, followed by concrete roads, and at the very least, third-level roads paved with bluestone.

Only the rural areas have dirt roads, and if it’s a muddy mess, you’d have to wait another day.

Although Hong Sheng and his group were not in a hurry, they had stayed in this rundown temple for two days, having to ration hot water. Everywhere was damp and mildewy, and Susu felt as if mushrooms could grow on her.

The men were better off; all were desperately making a living and had endured all sorts of hardships. The people from Yangwei Escort Agency were used to "being on the road," but a few Northwest soldiers, who usually only traveled within fifty miles, had it tough on their way here.

They didn’t have horses or carriages on their way; they walked on foot for several thousand miles. Enduring water and climate issues was one thing, but they also had to rush, missing even a mouthful of hot food.

Moreover, soldiers aren’t wealthy; it’s common to eat black bread and vegetable soup along the way.

It’s nowhere near how it is now, where they check into a post station as night falls and set off when the sun rises. Even if they can’t reach a post station, they would camp in picturesque spots.

With such attention to accommodation, there’s no need to mention food. Breakfast and lunch were fine, mostly a pot of thick porridge with flower rolls, buns, and mantou, accompanied by marinated dishes and pickles.

But at night, the Hong family’s kitchen maid seemed inspired by a culinary deity, able to prepare eighteen ways to eat a wild chicken. If there was a large prey, Hong Sheng would display his barbecue skills to win a beauty’s smile, craftily coaxing people in the military camp.

Susu had been an excellent hunter since childhood, but even when he made a move, he couldn’t always catch game. Yet nowadays, even when he went out for a short while, he’d return with a wild rabbit.

This made his brothers exclaim in dismay, saying even rabbits bully honest people, joking that Hong Sheng hadn’t truly tried before and only fooled idiots.

Hong Sheng felt truly wronged; he was just relieving himself under a tree when the silly rabbit ran straight into the nearby tree and got knocked out. He couldn’t just leave it there after such an impressive show!

Actually, Hong Sheng wondered if wild animals also liked beauties?

Anyway, they didn’t run out of wild rabbits, wild chickens, or anything else. If luck was good, they could even shoot deer or wild goats.

Under the Taihang Mountain, Hong Sheng specifically went hunting for wild boar once.

Recalling these travel scenes, Susu smiled knowingly, then unfolded letter paper to write to the Old Madam, Yang Liu, Mrs. Zhao, Fourth Miss, Sixth Miss, and even Ruan Qiniang.

Happy things are worth sharing with everyone!

At noon, they arrived at a post station, discussed with Hong Sheng, and decided to rest for half a day so everyone could have a good rest, buy supplies in town and set off early the next morning.

After settling at the post station, everyone divided tasks for buying supplies, staying behind, etc.

Susu asked for a large tub of water to be heated and took a good bath.

Several maids helped Susu dry her hair when Hong Sheng pushed the door open and came in, seeing Susu with her hair down. He asked, "What do you plan to do this afternoon?"

Susu felt a bit helpless; what could she do? "Probably write for a while!" Her "Su’s Private Kitchen" already had fifty or sixty dishes, and in Datong Prefecture, Susu had thought of several delicious noodle dishes to record in the main course Chapter.

Hong Sheng shook his head, "You can’t go on like this all day, either in the carriage or cooped up inside. Even a healthy person might fall ill. Datong Prefecture is very prosperous; how about I take you out for a walk?"

Upon hearing this, Susu’s eyes lit up, stood up, and tugged on Hong Sheng’s sleeve, "Really?"

Hong Sheng laughed, "Could I deceive you?" He thought to himself, his wife wasn’t troublesome or demanding; she was quite easy to satisfy, not having places to show off his wisdom and valor.

Now, seeing his wife smiling like a blooming flower, Hong Sheng decided against taking clothes with him outside. But the road he chose, he had to walk it to the end, even if he had to cry.

Susu paused, "It’s better not to go, just stay at the post station. With tomorrow’s departure, there are enough sceneries along the way to see; I’m not really eager to go out!"

Susu said this, with the excitement in her eyes fading a bit. Hong Sheng, seeing his wife’s "saying one thing and meaning another" somewhat pitiful demeanor, felt heartbroken.

"Throughout the journey, there’s only trees and mountains; haven’t you seen enough? Besides, scenery is one thing, liveliness is another. Don’t worry; I can protect you even in the worst case."

After Hong Sheng said this, it seemed as if Susu underestimated him. Even Fen Dai and others wanted to go out for a stroll. They coaxed Susu, and Susu let go of her worries. She thought she might as well learn from women in the Arabian Region and wrap herself up from head to toe.

In fact, Susu did have such outfits; she got ready, taking Fen Dai, four others, and Hong Sheng, as well as Zhang San, Yang Xiaoshan, and three or four soldiers, and Leng Xiao, dragged out by Yang Xiaoshan.

Leng Xiao looked at Susu, wrapped up from head to face, bared his teeth, feeling a bit brain-pained; who did he offend, no good sleep allowed, had to join the commotion!

And that "mummy," did she know that even if only her eyes were showing, it was quite attention-grabbing!

Datong Prefecture, a renowned town through the ages, during the Golden Age of Tang, was a must-pass from Chang’an to the northern tribes. In this fictional Great Chu, it still is a major defense town in the Northwest.

Though not Shanxi’s capital, Datong Prefecture is prosperous due to abundant mineral resources and the rise of Jin merchants.

Hong Sheng led Susu and the group to eat famous traditional Shanxi dishes like green onion shortbread lamb, Shanxi over-oil meat, plum sauce meat lotus leaf cake, Datong assorted fire, Yellow River carp and tofu soup, Jin City top ten bowls, sweet potato amber meat, Pingyao beef, Dingxiang steamed meat, Jinzhong embossed meat, etc.

Since Susu wanted to learn about the banknote, Hong Sheng took her to exchange five hundred taels of silver and one hundred taels of gold; Susu fancied two large and one small camels, which Hong Sheng bought without a second thought.

Women, when switched to shopping mode, are fairly frantic, especially Susu, who isn’t short of money.

Food, drinks, amusing, fun things; most were possible to use, not sure if usable, and definitely unusable.....

Watching several soldiers with toothache, distressed, brain-pained expressions, black-faced Yang Xiaoshan felt the dozen taels of loose silver in his money bag, his entire fortune at the moment, sighed, "Suddenly, being single seems quite nice!"

Other soldiers watched the seemingly frail little sister-in-law walk from the south of the street to the north, from the east road to the west, even when they were drenched in sweat, their feet sore, Susu, wrapped like a "mummy," remained enthusiastic.

Of course, mid-way she asked apologetically, "Did I buy too much?"

Ignoring the brothers’ eager pleas for help, Hong Sheng laughed, "Not much, not much, we’ve got another month on the road; Madam, see what else we need, let’s take another round.

Susu nodded; although her expression wasn’t visible, her brisk steps showed she was in a good mood, leading a few cheering little maids into the silk shop.

A few soldiers:...

"Boss, doesn’t your conscience pain you?"