sbdcsierra Chapter 556 The Truly Heinous Ingredient
Chapter 556 The Truly Heinous Ingredient
After everything was arranged, it was already quite late.
Lu Yangyang lay on the bed with her eyes closed, thinking about whether there was anything she had missed, and fell asleep without realizing it.
When Lu Yangyang woke up, it was still dark. She checked the time, got up quickly, and went to wake Wen Qingqing. Hua Rui, who was standing next to her, looked haggard and had obviously not slept all night.
Lu Yangyang did not try to persuade her. After handing the key to the courtyard to Mingxiu, she went out and got into the carriage that had been prepared in advance.
As they rushed to the city gate and were about to leave, Second Master Sheng caught up with them, handed them a bundle, and whispered, "Your second aunt ordered people to make this for you overnight. There's food and clothing. I didn't dare to tell her too much, but she knew you were leaving early in the morning and couldn't sit still for a moment, so I had no choice but to go along with her."
Lu Yangyang took it and said, "Please thank my second aunt for me."
"Safe travels."
Lu Yangyang nodded, grabbed her bundle, and climbed into the carriage. Master Sheng ordered the city gate to be opened and watched them leave.
Lu Yangyang returned to the carriage and opened the package. There was a large bag of snacks and several brand-new undergarments, which were obviously made overnight.
Lu Yangyang opened the bag of snacks, most of which were the ones she used to love to eat when she was in the Duke of Sheng's mansion, and some were local specialties from Huazhou City.
Back in the Sheng Guogong Mansion, her second aunt was in charge of the kitchen. Taking advantage of this, Jiao Jiao would always bring her lots of delicious food whenever she visited. Her second aunt remembered this and, in the future, always sent her food that Jiao Jiao liked. Later, when she entered school, her second aunt gave her two silver notes, saying that Madam Lan had previously given her silver to supplement her food allowance in the kitchen. But since a young girl like Jiao Jiao couldn't eat much, she decided to keep them for her to use as pocket money at the academy. She asked Granny Shen, who said that Madam Lan gave her two taels of silver a day, but the silver notes her second aunt gave her were worth five hundred taels. Afterwards, she spent most of her time at the academy, and her second aunt would occasionally send a maid to bring her food.
She knew, of course, that her second aunt was kind to her at first because of Jiaojiao, but more often than not, it was with warmth and a lot of care.
Lu Yangyang's expression softened, and she shared the snacks with Wen Qingqing and Hua Rui.
Wen Qingqing took the pastry, put it in her mouth, and turned to look at Lu Yangyang in surprise: "Is this the taste of the capital?"
Holding the pastry, the dazed flower stamen couldn't help but look at her.
Lu Yangyang nodded and teased her, "It's a shame you're not a chef with that mouth of yours. You can even tell the difference?"
Wen Qingqing replied vaguely, "I have a senior brother who likes to study medicinal cuisine. I've been his guinea pig since I was a child because others don't dare to try what he makes for fear of being poisoned. But I'm different. I've been determined to be immune to all poisons since I was a child."
Lu Yangyang's lips twitched, and she was speechless.
Hua Rui brought the pastry to her mouth and took a small bite. The pastry was slightly sweet and cloying, unlike the light sweetness of the pastries from Huazhou City.
The capital city was such a distant concept to her.
It's the distance that has separated her from her sister for so many years.
She had imagined everything about that place, what it looked like, and what the food her sister had eaten during the years they had been apart.
It turned out that it was all just her delusional imagination, which at this moment transformed into a slightly uncomfortable sweetness in her mouth.
They traveled for a day and a night, leaving Huazhou and entering Jinzhou.
Jinzhou City is located northwest of Huazhou City, while Miaojiang is further west. After entering Jinzhou from Huazhou City, head west and pass Crescent Mountain to reach Miaojiang.
Wen Qingqing was very familiar with this road.
Unfortunately, she only made it to Crescent Moon Mountain before realizing the dangers. For the sake of her own life, she didn't dare to go any further and thus failed to reach Miao territory.
Crescent Moon Mountain gets its name from its crescent shape, and the Miao villages are located in the area surrounded by Crescent Moon Mountain.
“There are thirteen villages of varying sizes in Miao territory, with over a thousand households. The largest is called Qianli Village, where the high priest comes from. My sister and I were born in Yuhua Village, which has only about thirty households. It's located in the dense forest to the west, and life there is very difficult. When I was young, my father accidentally fell and died in the mountains. My mother couldn't support us, so she heard that she could earn money working for wealthy families in the county town. She left Crescent Moon Mountain with a peddler and we were never heard from again. I was too young then to remember what my mother looked like. My sister and I lived in the village, relying on the villagers' charity. Over time, rumors spread that my mother had run away with the peddler and abandoned us.” As they approached Crescent Moon Mountain, Hua Rui took the initiative to tell Lu Yangyang and the others about Miao territory. “My sister is stubborn and refused to believe that my mother had abandoned us, so she secretly took me away from Crescent Moon Mountain to find her, wanting to prove that she hadn't abandoned us.”
"But we had never left Crescent Moon Mountain, never seen the outside world. We stumbled and fell into the hands of kidnappers when we finally reached the town, and we were separated from them. I was only five or six years old at the time, sold into a family as a child bride, and was beaten every day until two years later when a famine struck. They sold me to another slave trader, and I finally had a full meal. Later, I was sold several more times until I was twelve or thirteen years old, when I ended up at the Flower Moon Pavilion, where I no longer went hungry. After I gained some fame at the Flower Moon Pavilion, I went back to Yuhua Village. My uncle and the others told me that my mother had indeed gone out to work." She hadn't abandoned us; she was just illiterate and had been tricked into signing a contract. It took her a long time to save money to buy her freedom and return to the village, but my sister and I were gone. She regretted her foolishness and, due to overwork, fell ill. She passed away less than two years later, and the villagers helped with her funeral. I went to pay my respects to my mother and gave some money to the villagers who helped. They asked if I wanted to stay, saying I was old enough and pretty, and that intermarriage within the Miao region was rare. They suggested I stay in the village, find a good husband, and live a good life.”
“But I was afraid that if I stayed, I would never have another chance to find out about my sister, so I eventually left the village. I would only occasionally ask someone to send some things back, and I would also help the villagers sell some things to earn money. They were all very kind to me, and it was because of this that I was able to help my sister find the Enchanting Mandala.”
Hua Rui raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corner of her eyes. "If only I had never come back."
Her life was full of hardships; she wandered from place to place since childhood, but she also received a lot of kindness, which allowed her to survive.
She had heard guests talk about the infamous Qinglian case in the capital back then. What she heard most was how wise and powerful His Highness the Crown Prince was, and how cruel those Taoist nuns were, using the brains of young children as medicine, which was simply heinous.
But they never imagined that the truly heinous drug came from her own hands.
She personally gave the medicine to her sister.