Playing with fantasy beasts in the martial arts world

Chapter 41 A Bowl of Vegetable Rice Soup
As dusk settled, Cha Nan realized he couldn't make it back to the base in time. With the last rays of light fading away, the entire world seemed frozen solid by a massive block of ice. A chill that penetrated to the very soul was assaulting Cha Nan's body and mind. He could feel his breathing becoming increasingly rapid, while his heartbeat seemed to slow down.

In this condition, even the slightest movement felt like his joints were creaking.

With difficulty, he turned his head to look at Fang Dongbai beside him. A faint warmth emanated from his body, but it was extremely limited and could not withstand the surging cold tide between heaven and earth.

In the cold night, some ice and dark-type magical beasts that are nowhere to be found during the day have begun to appear and become active. Like moonlit elves, the darlings of the cold and the night, they leap joyfully with their agile bodies in the mysterious and quiet forest.

Cha Nan really wanted to catch them, but for the time being, she was truly powerless to do so.

Looking at the six pieces of Palu ore still in his backpack, Cha Nan had no choice but to travel back to the martial arts world first and then come back the next day when it was light.

Back in the world of martial arts, the sky was bright. Even though the cold north wind still relentlessly lashed at the city below, the kind of cold that humans could fight off with clothing and willpower was nothing to Cha Nan at this moment.

The fluffy, cotton shield seems thin and ineffective in the night of the fantasy world, but in the world of martial arts, it is a very warm cashmere coat.

He summoned Guo Fu from the group, and the two of them left the Liu residence together, continuing to wander along the streets.

Gradually, Xiangyang City finally began to come alive again. A unique aroma of food began to permeate the city, and people orderly put down their work and began to gather at designated locations.

Xiangyang now has a total of seventeen food stations set up throughout the city. All the people, martial arts practitioners, and soldiers in the city will line up to receive food in accordance with the previously established order.

Simply put, the whole city was eating from a communal pot, which effectively saved food, water, and precious firewood.

Now, areas a little further outside Xiangyang City are no longer safe, and few woodcutters can go out of the city to cut firewood. In addition, there are no trees left to cut down in the mountains around Xiangyang City.

Larger trees were made into logs to help defend the city walls, while smaller ones were collected early on for various uses. Only the most irregular, finest wood chips, logs, and roots were used as fuel.

Cha Nan followed Guo Fu and looked into the large iron pot where people were serving food. In the middle of the pot was a piece of fatty pork. Judging from its whitish color, it was obviously from an old actor. Around it was rice soup made from various grains and wild vegetables. It wasn't very thin, but it wasn't thick either. It was just enough to keep you from getting too hungry.

"Is this food... good or bad?" Cha Nan didn't make a judgment based solely on what he saw, nor did he draw any conclusions based on his own knowledge. After all, he wasn't a native of this era and didn't have a clear understanding of the material conditions of this world.

As for the time he spent dying and coming back to life at the Andu Old Shop... he didn't really care what he ate there. Anyway, as long as he died back in the Fantasy Beast World, he could find a way to have extra food.

Sometimes he finds the eggs of the Pipi Chicken, and sometimes he finds a few bits of meat left behind after the Pipi Chicken or Cotton Yoyo explodes. He can take them back and roast them, and they taste pretty good.

Because he was backed by the fantasy world, he never went hungry, even though he died frequently.

Guo Fu stared blankly at the mixed grain porridge in the pot and said, "I used to eat this too, but Father said that at least I could stand up with chopsticks, and the fatty meat in the pot would be cooked thoroughly and then mashed and scattered in the pot."

"My father would come over often to check and prevent anyone from breaking his rules, but two months ago... he stopped coming!"

Cha Nan thought for a moment and then asked, "Does the imperial court...not provide any supplies?"

With the war of national subjugation and annihilation imminent, Cha Nan felt that no matter how foolish the Song Dynasty's officials and emperor were, they shouldn't have remained completely inactive. Even if he dared not go to the battlefield, providing some grain and military supplies would surely be the right thing to do!

To put it another way, the Han people knew that the Song Dynasty would be destroyed by the Mongols, and the Mongols were well aware that their rule would be overthrown by a Han uprising in the future.

Under these circumstances, any Mongol Khan, even Kublai Khan, who was jokingly called a "traitor to the Mongols," would have raised his sword and carried out a near-extermination of the Han people. Even if he didn't wipe them out, he would certainly have controlled the Han population. This had nothing to do with their benevolence; it was determined by their self-interest.

The seeds of change were sown a decade ago.

In fact, it was already unexpected that Guo Jing was able to lead the martial arts community and patriotic heroes to resist the Mongol invasion after the unexpected events occurred, thus prolonging the situation to this point.

"Father said there's always some left, but by the time it gets here, there's not much left!" Guo Fu replied.

Cha Nan remained silent.

The State of Song was like a sinking ship. Everyone knew that it should be repaired, or at least the leaks that were letting in a lot of water should be plugged, even if it meant robbing Peter to pay Paul.

But every power and every official who passes through their hands will instinctively ignore these things and take away their 'rightful' share.

This country is rotten to the core and beyond saving.

It was just that foreign enemies invaded, and the common people were innocent.

At this moment, Guo Fu showed no signs of being a spoiled young lady. She joined the queue, received her bowl and chopsticks, and also got a bowl of porridge for Cha Nan.

Cha Nan sniffed the porridge in the bowl. Overall, the bitter taste of the wild vegetables overpowered the aroma of the grains.

In modern city life, people say wild vegetables are delicious, but that's only after they've been processed with lots of oil, salt, and various seasonings. Wild vegetables simply cooked into porridge don't taste very good.

Cha Nan took a sip, his brows furrowed. He wasn't used to the taste... but he didn't force himself to eat it. He just forced himself to eat it.

The people around them were all eating with great relish, even Guo Fu was swallowing her food in small bites, which made Cha Nan look at her with even more admiration.

"Where do wild vegetables come from?" Cha Nan had some common sense. If wild vegetables could be eaten on a large scale and regularly, then they wouldn't be called wild vegetables anymore.

Guo Fu said, "It was Mother who led some women out of the city through a secret passage late at night and planted them secretly on the surrounding hillsides."

"Mongolians recognize the grains we usually eat, but they are unfamiliar with some wild vegetables they have never seen before. They will treat them as weeds and leave them alone. If you plant more of them, you can always harvest a crop after a while."

"Mother will have people collect these wild vegetables, dry them, and make them into vegetable cakes. They will be added to the porridge when cooking, so that at least we won't go hungry."

“There are many similar methods. Every year, my mother would lead people to plant large quantities of lotus roots, arrowhead, and water chestnuts. These aquatic foods would be spared by the Mongol soldiers who were sweeping outside the city if they did not recognize them.”

Cha Nan couldn't help but sigh that Guo Jing truly had a virtuous wife.

The imagined defense of Xiangyang, the deployment of troops, and the decisive battle on the battlefield.

In reality, defending Xiangyang involved eating, drinking, relieving oneself, and stockpiling troops and provisions.

(End of this chapter)