The aroma of cooking filled the house: I sent my eldest brother to become the Grand Secretary.

After escaping the pursuers from the Daqing Kingdom, he has been recuperating in Xin'an County, and his external injuries have now healed.

Since he still had some time, and it was rare to encounter something interesting in Xin'an County, he decided to stay.

Meanwhile, the military camp was already in chaos due to Ji Lingfeng's disappearance. The deputy general had given strict orders to keep the news of Ji Lingfeng's disappearance confidential and not to let it out.

However, the next day, the entire military camp was abuzz with the news that General Ji Lingfeng and his deputy He Yu had been missing for several days.

There were even rumors that they had been killed by the Daqing Kingdom.

The camp of Deputy General Ma Hongtao has been trampled by officials who have come to inquire about news.

He was being careless all the time, but he knew he couldn't hide it for more than a few days. If General Ji still didn't send back any news in a few days, the entire military camp would be in chaos.

He was so worried that he didn't sleep all day yesterday.

After finally seeing off the last wave of people who came to inquire about the news, he finally had time to stop and take a sip of water to calm down.

Just as he finished drinking the water in his cup, which had long since gone cold, his deputy, Dongfang Ming, brought in the food.

"General Ma, you've been busy all day, please have some food." Dongfang Ming placed the food on the table and stood aside.

"Sit down and have something to eat with me."

Dongfang Ming sat down and accompanied Ma Hongtao to finish his meal. Although he said he accompanied him, it only took a short while before Ma Hongtao finished his food.

He hadn't eaten all day, and everyone in the military camp ate very quickly.

He wiped his mouth as he spoke, "Xiao Ming, what do you think about what happened these past few days?"

Dongfang Ming clasped his hands together and knelt on one knee. "General, I dare not speak ill of General Ji."

"Get up. We were just having a private conversation. Let's talk things out. I forgive you."

Dongfang Ming stood up and stood respectfully next to General Ma. "I feel there is something fishy about this matter."

"Oh?"

"General Ma, you should think about it. General Ji's trip to Daqing was originally a secret operation, and not many people knew about it."

"But if you calculate the time when General Ji had his accident, they were discovered almost as soon as they arrived in Daqing Kingdom."

"Furthermore, when news of General Ji's death was relayed back, very few people knew about it."

“You had strictly forbidden the news from being leaked, but the next day, the entire camp knew about it.”

"visible……"

General Ma turned to look at him and continued, "It's clear that there must be a spy in the military camp."

"Otherwise, we wouldn't have lost even this little bit of information."

General Ma stared at him for a long time, until Dongfang Ming thought he suspected him of being a spy. Then General Ma suddenly spoke up, "Do you have anyone you suspect?"

"General Ma, I am incompetent and have no clue whatsoever."

General Ma waved his hand, "Alright, I suppose you're also clueless. We'll find out about today's events in two days, and we mustn't alert the enemy."

"I will keep my mouth shut and live up to your instructions, General."

"Alright, you may leave. I'll think about it some more."

Dongfang Ming took the plate and left.

In the evening, after traveling all day, Grand Tutor Zhou and his entourage finally arrived at the post station before dark.

After putting their luggage away, the group went downstairs to have dinner.

The journey was relatively smooth, and we didn't encounter any major problems.

"Gentlemen, what would you like to eat?"

What are some of your restaurant's specialties?

"Our specialty is roast chicken and stew."

"Then bring a roast chicken, and some other specialties, and four bowls of rice."

Do you have noodles in your shop?

"Have."

"Then give me a big bowl of plain noodles, nothing in it."

The waiter assumed they were going to eat noodles with the vegetables, so he didn't ask any further questions and went to the kitchen.

"Chen'er, have you noticed anything different along the way?" While waiting for the dishes, Grand Tutor Zhou began to exercise his teacherly qualities and asked Shen Chen a question.

"Teacher, this is my first time traveling so far from home, so I can only speak based on my previous experiences."

“We just left Xin’an County and headed east. There haven’t been any other unusual things along the way.”

"It felt like I saw a lot of horse-drawn carriages carrying goods."

"Logically speaking, Xin'an County has a better geographical location and waterways, which not only make transportation faster but also allow for larger volumes of cargo at a time."

“Even the transportation costs will be much lower.”

"However, these wagons carrying the goods did not choose water transport, but instead used land transport."

"Do you know why?"

"I guess there are two reasons. One is that the goods being transported are not easy to transport by water, and the other is that the government checks water transport more strictly than land transport, so they may be trying to avoid the government."

Grand Tutor Zhou nodded after listening to Shen Chen's analysis.

Just as I was about to speak, the waiter brought over the dishes.

"Esteemed guests, the dishes are all served. Please enjoy them." With that, he withdrew.

The coachman had brought his own provisions and didn't want to sit at the same table with them, so they didn't force him.

Shen Chen served him a bowl of rice and some vegetables.

The coachmen were very happy. Their line of work involved hard labor, and employers generally didn't care about them. So, it was the unspoken rule in their line of work not to eat at the same table as their employers.

To save money, coachmen usually prepare plenty of dry food for themselves.

Sometimes they would even sleep in the carriage.

He never expected to meet such a good employer this time. Not only did the employer prepare a meal for him every time he ate, but the employer also booked him a room in a nice inn.

He accepted the food from Shen Chen and bowed several times to the table where Grand Tutor Zhou and his group were sitting.

"Brother coachman, you're too kind."

"We said we would eat together, but you always declined, so we always had to sit at separate tables."

"You'll have to travel a long way, so please ask if you need anything."

The coachman politely expressed his gratitude.

These people are clearly not ordinary people; their overall demeanor is remarkable.

He overheard their conversation and learned that they were all scholars, which filled him with great admiration.

The Great Xia Kingdom valued literature over military affairs, and scholars always held a high status.

He also felt very lucky to have gotten this job, as he not only received a lot of money, but also had comfortable food and lodging along the way.

In particular, the bowl of dumplings he ate at Shen's Restaurant before setting off was the best food he had ever eaten in his life.

He had always heard that a restaurant in the county town had opened that was both delicious and cheap, but he himself didn't have much of a desire for good food.

For ordinary people like them, it's good enough if they can have enough to eat.

So even though he heard it was delicious, he couldn't bear to eat it.

Unexpectedly, I was able to eat for free before setting off.

That flavor was truly unforgettable.

He buried his head in his food and noticed that his employers' table seemed to have stopped eating.

"Is this even edible?"

He looked down at the food in his bowl; there was meat, vegetables, and a large chicken leg.

He's already eaten it, and it was delicious!

He stared at the table and saw the young man coaxing the older man to eat a bite of chicken leg before going upstairs alone.