Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Awake

When Zhao Die opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was her younger sister lying beside her, being painstakingly fed medicine by Qiulin with one hand.

Spoonful after spoonful. Zhao Siyan’s tears flowed harder and harder, while Qiulin’s expression grew worse and worse.

Watching Qiulin’s face grow increasingly grim, Zhao Siyan became even more afraid to say, “Forget it, please spare me. I’ll drink it myself.”

Qiulin wondered if she ought to comfort the girl, but she really wasn’t good at that sort of thing…

After holding it in for ages, her brows drew tighter and tighter, yet she still couldn’t think of a single comforting word.

In the end, all she could do was feed her faster and faster, one spoonful at a time. Better to just get it over with…

Zhao Die felt like crying but had no tears.

No way. Their father wasn’t even dead yet, and the General’s Mansion was already going to poison the two sisters to death?

The moment she made the slightest sound, another head appeared in front of her.

She came. She came. She came walking over with a bowl of medicine!

At last, was it her turn?

Qiulin had taken the spot at the side of the bed, and the medicine bowl was set on the bedside.

Zhao Die was lying farther inside.

So Xia Heng had no choice but to take off her shoes and climb onto the bed, plopping herself down beside Zhao Die.

“Big Die~ Time for your medicine!”

Zhao Die’s tears also flowed uncontrollably. Resigned to her fate, she opened her mouth to receive the spoon Xia Heng brought over.

After the two of them finished feeding the sisters their medicine, they waited a while and then fed them ginger soup as well.

Once everything was finally done, Qiulin let out a breath of relief. After telling them to come find her if they needed anything, she immediately fled.

Xia Heng still had no idea what had happened, so she asked, “What’s going on with you two? It’s freezing out, and you still managed to catch a cold? Why were you running around outside for no reason?”

After drinking the medicine and ginger soup, Zhao Die and Zhao Siyan finally felt their bodies recovering a little. Their heads were not as dizzy anymore either.

But hearing her question, neither of them answered right away.

Xia Heng looked at the way the two girls were staring blankly at the roof tiles overhead and immediately sensed something was wrong.

What was this!? Had they run into some obstacle they couldn’t get past?

Whenever this kind of look appeared in a TV drama, the character was usually either about to die or turn into a villain.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

Xia Heng softened her voice.

“If something happened, say it out loud. Everyone can think of a solution together.”

“…Do you know whose accounts you’ve been investigating recently?”

Zhao Die finally spoke, her voice hoarse as she asked.

Xia Heng had a faint premonition.

Zhao Die continued, “They’re the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue. My father, Zhao Fan, is the Minister of Revenue.”

Zhao Die’s gaze stabbed toward Xia Heng. Zhao Siyan turned over and sobbed.

Xia Heng thought of the errors and gaps in the final account books and fell silent as well.

“Go out.”

Zhao Die withdrew her gaze and said flatly.

Xia Heng did not say anything more. She only went to Qiulin’s room and told her to keep an eye on the two sisters, then went out herself.

Xia Heng first found Deputy General Zhang and asked about what had happened. Then she went to find Uncle Zhao.

“Since the general has not said he intends to punish them, as long as they behave themselves, they should be able to stay safe.”

Uncle Zhao made things very clear. Your old man cut off the Zhenbei Army’s grain supply and still expects to sit pretty as his lordly Minister of Revenue? Impossible.

But they were magnanimous people. They would not go so far as to take it out on his daughters!

You two little girls, as long as you don’t stir up trouble, the General’s Mansion isn’t unable to tolerate you.

After getting a definite answer, Xia Heng thanked Uncle Zhao and turned toward the public kitchen.

By dusk, Xia Heng pushed open the door to the Zhao sisters’ room with a tray in her hands.

Zhao Siyan, her face bright red, was in the middle of a standoff with Qiulin, wanting her to step out for a moment so she could change clothes.

Qiulin refused. She felt that something was bound to happen to these two girls.

Maybe the moment she stepped out, the two of them would hang themselves with their waist sashes behind her back.

Since ancient times, filial piety had been greater than heaven. She did not know what relationship these two girls had with the Zhao Mansion, but what if?
At the sight of Xia Heng, Zhao Siyan fell silent as well.

Xia Heng said nothing. She simply set down the tray in her hands and told the two of them to eat.

Under the “coercion” of Qiulin, who still had one arm in a sling, Zhao Die and Zhao Siyan moved to the table.

Zhao Die glanced at what was in the bowl, and anger surged up inside her.

“If the general wants us sisters dead, he can just say so! Why humiliate us like this?”

Zhao Siyan took the black “brick” from her bowl and tapped it against the table.

It knocked with a loud, wooden bang.

She felt wronged too, but more than that, she was afraid.

Were they truly not going to survive this calamity?

“You think this is humiliation?” Xia Heng asked, looking at Zhao Die.

“How is it not humiliation? Is this made of flour? It might as well be made of mud!”

Zhao Die had not wanted to cry in front of this woman.

But now, staring at the thing in her hand, she finally could not hold back a choked sob.

“Is this what the general wants me to eat?! I don’t believe it! I’m going to find the general.”

“So you do know that no one in the General’s Mansion of Northern Pacification would make you eat something like this?”

Xia Heng looked at the two heartbroken girls before her without so much as blinking.

Zhao Die glared at Xia Heng, so furious she wanted to rush forward and slap her.

Frightened by the atmosphere before her, Zhao Siyan began crying even harder.

“That’s right. The general didn’t tell you to eat this. How could the General’s Mansion possibly feed you something like this?”

“…This is merely what he eats himself.”

After Xia Heng finished speaking, she took the “brick” from Zhao Siyan’s hand.

“This is the Zhenbei Army’s military ration.

“Mm. You were right. It is indeed made of earth. Not just earth, either. There’s elm bark in it too.”

Zhao Die and Zhao Siyan both looked as if someone had seized them by the throat.

They stared at the bowls in front of them in disbelief.

“Ah, this kind of earth is called Guanyin clay. If you eat a little, it won’t kill you, and it can even treat diarrhea.

“But if you eat too much of it, man or woman, your belly will swell because you won’t be able to pass it. In the end, you’ll die from being blocked up alive.”

“But don’t worry. This is an exclusive recipe improved by the Zhenbei Army and specially made by Chef Xiang. It won’t clog anyone to death too quickly.”

Zhao Die looked at the black cake before her. It was a small piece, and anyone who did not know what it was would never think it was something that could be eaten.

Just holding it in her hand was enough to feel how coarse it was.

She could not imagine how that pampered, delicate person could swallow something like this.

“You might be thinking, would he really eat something like this?”

Xia Heng lifted the cake in her hand.

“In truth, everyone in the Zhenbei Army has to eat it.

“Whether general, common soldier, or wounded man, all of them can only eat this one thing. And they can’t even eat their fill.

“Because there is nothing else to eat. If they don’t eat this, they may not even have the chance to go to the battlefield before they starve to death.”

“It was by eating things like this that they defeated the Tujue! Every one of them is so thin they may not be any better off than you, yet they can still lift swords and spears.

“But do you know what the Tujue eat? The Tujue eat beef and mutton, and drink milk wine.”

Xia Heng fell silent for a moment. Then she looked solemnly at the two Zhao Family sisters.

“The reason they take up swords and spears is because it doesn’t matter if they themselves can’t eat their fill.

“But they want their wives and children far away in their hometowns to eat their fill! They want the people of Huaxia to eat their fill! They want all the esteemed lords in the imperial court to eat their fill!

“They want people like you and me to eat our fill!”

Zhao Die clutched the black cake tightly in her hand. She sobbed until she could no longer speak, shaking her head as she backed away.

Zhao Siyan hugged her own arms tightly, weeping uncontrollably.

“Soldiers are someone else’s children too. Someone else’s fathers.

“If you can obtain forgiveness from every one of them, and from their families as well, then there would be nothing wrong with pleading on Minister Zhao’s behalf.

“But if it were you, would you forgive him?”