Siheyuan: tomb robbing? I am serious about hunting.

Chapter 1049 Potatoes

Chapter 3 tells of the brutality of each fierce battle. The faces of the soldiers defending the city were filled with unconcealable fatigue, but their eyes still burned with an unyielding fire. The gradual shortage of food and grass became the most difficult problem. The team transporting food and grass was harassed by the Northern Di cavalry several times, and each time they suffered heavy losses. The food and grass that could be delivered to the pass became less and less. The soldiers' rations were reduced again and again, from two meals of dry rice at the beginning to one meal of porridge and half a wheat cake. In the end, even the wheat cake became dry and hard to swallow. Shen Qingci looked at the wounded soldiers lying on the sickbed. They were already weak, and coupled with the lack of food, their recovery was getting slower and slower. She felt as if something was blocking her heart. She made a secret decision. When the rations were distributed every day, she always saved most of the rations she was given, saying that she had a small appetite. At night, she mixed the saved rations with some herbs that could satisfy hunger and slowly simmered them into a paste in a small pot. The porridge had a bitter taste and was hard to swallow, but she scooped it out spoonful by spoonful, carefully feeding it to the soldiers so badly wounded they couldn't even lift their arms. "Madam, you can't go on like this." Wan Qing looked at Shen Qingci's increasingly thin face, tears streaming down her face. "You have to care for so many wounded soldiers every day. What will happen to them if you collapse?" "I'm fine," Shen Qingci smiled, a pale smile. "I'm a doctor, and I'm in good health. Look how pitiful they are. If they don't eat something, I'm afraid..." She didn't say anything else, but the worry in her eyes was obvious. That afternoon, Shen Qingci finished her work and felt extremely hungry. She pulled out half a dry wheat cake from her pocket, found a corner, and squatted down, nibbling on it. The wheat cake was as hard as stone and made her teeth ache, but she ate it with such concentration that she didn't even notice the bits of grass on the corners of her mouth. "Shen Qingci!" An angry shout came from behind her, with unprecedented severity. Shen Qingci was startled and the wheat cake in her hand fell to the ground. She turned around and saw Xiao Heng standing not far away, his face ashen and his eyes full of anger. This was the first time he called her by her full name, and the first time he was so angry with her. Before Shen Qingci could react, Xiao Heng had already strode up to her and kicked the wheat cake on the ground away. "Are you going to starve yourself to death?" His voice trembled with anger. Looking at her thin cheeks and the corners of her mouth stained with grass, he felt angry and painful. "I'm fine." Shen Qingci hurriedly stood up and wanted to pick up the kicked wheat cake, but was grabbed by Xiao Heng's wrist. He was so strong that it hurt her a little. Xiao Heng's fingertips gently stroked her sunken cheek, the skin there had lost its former luster and became a little rough. His heart tightened, and his anger was instantly replaced by deep heartache. He turned around abruptly and shouted outside the tent: "Pass my order, half of the rations in the general's tent will be given to the military doctor's tent!" "General..." The personal guards outside the tent were stunned for a moment and hesitated. The general's rations were not much to begin with, and if half of them were given to the military doctor's tent, wouldn't the general be... "Follow the order!" Xiao Heng's voice left no doubt. The personal guards did not dare to hesitate any longer and immediately responded and left. Shen Qingci looked at Xiao Heng's resolute back, her eyes became hot and tears almost fell. She knew that Xiao Heng was feeling sorry for her. After that day, Xiao Heng would always come to the military doctor's tent under the pretext of meeting. Every time he came, he would bring some food, sometimes a small piece of dried meat, sometimes a baked potato. He never explicitly said these things were for Shen Qingci. He would simply place them next to her while discussing military matters, then casually say, "I just passed by the kitchen, and they gave me an extra portion. I can't finish it. Can you help me with it?" Shen Qingci naturally knew what he was thinking, and a warm feeling welled up in her heart. She didn't point it out, but as she tended to his wounds and applied the medicine, she quietly added more nourishing herbs to the medicine. The herbs had a distinct bitter taste, and Xiao Heng would frown every time he drank the medicine. Shen Qingci couldn't help but want to laugh at his expression, but she could only hide her smile and pretend not to notice. The days passed in a tense and difficult atmosphere, and in the blink of an eye, it was Mid-Autumn Festival. In previous years, Mid-Autumn Festival was a time for family reunions. In the marquis's mansion in Jiangnan, Shen Qingci would sit in the courtyard with Xiao Heng, setting a table for sumptuous food and wine, admiring the moon and chatting about family matters. But this year, during Mid-Autumn Festival, Yanmen Pass was unusually quiet, a quiet that was somewhat eerie. After dinner, Xiao Heng suddenly took Shen Qingci's hand and said, "Come on, I'll take you somewhere." He took her up to the tower of Yanmen Pass. The moon outside the pass was large and round, hanging in the sky like a huge silver plate. The cold moonlight sprinkled on the earth, coating everything with a layer of silver frost. But the moonlight was also bitingly cold, as if it could freeze a person's bones. The wind on the tower was so strong that it made Shen Qingci's hair a little messy. Xiao Heng took off his cloak and gently draped it over her, wrapping her tightly. "Remember last Mid-Autumn Festival?" Shen Qingci leaned on Xiao Heng's shoulder, her voice soft and with a hint of nostalgia, "You played the piano for half the night under my courtyard wall, attracting people from all over the street to listen." "You said you wanted to learn sword, but you got the sword tassel tangled in your hair and it took you a long time to untie it." Xiao Heng smiled and smoothed her wind-blown hair, his eyes full of tenderness, "After we defeat the enemy, I will build a medicine garden for you in the mansion and plant your favorite herbs so that you don't have to work so hard like you do now." "And build a swing next to the medicine garden." Shen Qingci stretched out her fingers and counted them one by one like a child, "Just like when we were in the south of the Yangtze River, watching peach blossoms in spring, listening to cicadas in summer, admiring falling leaves in autumn, and winter..." Before she finished speaking, several flames suddenly lit up in the distance, flickering in the darkness like will-o'-the-wisp. Xiao Heng's face changed instantly. He stood up abruptly and tightened his grip on the sword at his waist. Almost at the same time, the smoke from the beacon tower shot up into the sky, standing out against the night sky. "Oh no! The Northern Di have launched a surprise attack!" Xiao Heng shouted in a low voice, his voice full of solemnity. He had not expected the Northern Di to be so cunning as to dare to launch a surprise attack under the Mid-Autumn Moon. Chaos broke out on the city wall, and the soldiers quickly picked up their weapons and prepared for battle. Xiao Heng protected Shen Qingci behind him, his eyes vigilantly watching the fire approaching in the distance. In the chaos, a cold arrow flew in with a sound of breaking through the air, aiming directly at Shen Qingci. Xiao Heng was quick-witted and almost instinctively turned around to block her. With a "puff", the sound of the sharp arrow sinking into the flesh could be clearly heard. Shen Qingci watched helplessly as the cold arrow hit Xiao Heng's back, and blood gushed out instantly, staining his silver armor red, and blooming like a dazzling red plum blossom under the cold moonlight. "Xiao Heng!" Shen Qingci let out a heartbreaking cry. She rushed over and hugged Xiao Heng's fallen body tightly. Her fingertips touched his warm blood.