Bathing and Cuisine

  Look down on the kneeling bug. Yun Ye thought that bending his knees was for convenience when walking, not for kneeling.

  Zhang, He, the two women no longer use their usual courtesy, but instead kowtowed on the ground, muttering incoherently. Zhang Cheng felt a little envious and quickly spoke up for the two women: "Young master has a compassionate heart, can't bear to see people suffering, the skills he teaches must be top-notch. Zhang Cheng thanks young master on behalf of the two brothers for teaching them his art."

  With great difficulty, he pulled up the two women and listened to Zhang Cheng say that they had to kowtow again. Yun Yan's head was already big, and with three punches and two kicks, he chased away Zhang Cheng. He said to the two women, "Some small eats, you saw earlier that we were cooking mutton, it's no different from others, but there are some small tricks in between, take a look." As he spoke, he took out the cedar stick that had been washed clean earlier, peeled off the outer skin, and casually threw it into the pot of meat. He covered the lid and continued to cook, then turned around and winked at the two women: "Don't tell anyone else, this is your secret, and also the secret to cooking a good pot of mutton. I won't say why, you wouldn't understand even if I did." Now he taught them how to make pancakes. He pulled out the awakened dough from the wooden bucket, kneaded it three times, rolled it out, sprinkled scallions on top, then formed it into a ball again and rolled it out once more. A scallion pancake took shape, and he spread sheep oil on the hot stone slab on the fire, seeing the green smoke rise up. He placed the pancake on top, and in no time at all, twenty pancakes were piled high on one stone slab, filling the air with a rich aroma. The surroundings were quiet and still.

  As he turned around, Cheng Chumou's big cow eyes were right behind Yunyan's head, sniffing his nose and sucking his mouth water, wishing to take a bite now. Not just him, these bastards didn't have one person working hard, they all surrounded him. Cheng Chumou's face was not pleasant, swallowing his saliva and shouting at the crowd: "Work, work! Yun Gongzi is treating everyone to delicious food, let's put in some effort and produce 300 catties of salt." The soldiers chuckled and turned around to go back to work.

  The sun sets in the west, and the tired soldiers rush to the dining area, only to see six giant wooden barrels lined up, with Yun Yan standing beside them, stirring the brown liquid inside with a wooden stick.

  Cheng Chu had a scallion pancake in his mouth and was pouring finely ground mineral powder into another bucket.

  "Colonel, what is this? Is Colonel also in charge of salt production?"

  "Make a salt bath, this is for bathing, each and every one of you are dirty like pigs, full of lice and fleas, consider yourselves lucky if you haven't caught any diseases. Listen up, each and every one of you have to soak in the tub before going to the river to bathe, only then can you eat."

  The soldiers didn't wash and weren't given food, thinking that Yun Ye was used to luxury and wouldn't be able to eat without washing. But Yun Ye thought, how could he eat with all the tiny creatures crawling around on their mustaches, hair, and collars? It made his skin crawl just looking at them. If these tiny creatures were allowed to run rampant, even a minor infectious disease would spread and kill many people. In this era without effective antibiotics, Yun Ye really didn't want to die young. After communicating with Cheng Chu Mo, he specially brought out a wooden bucket of salt for washing, thinking that washing could prevent epidemics. Although others thought it was unnecessary, they let him be, considering their brotherly relationship.

  "Brothers, take a good look. This is related to our lives, not some unreasonable demand or unnecessary trouble. The reasoning behind this is profound, so I won't explain it. This bath must be taken like this." After finishing speaking, Yun Ye wore his clothes and was the first to jump in. It's said that he also got infected. Cheng Chu Mo jumped into another wooden bucket. As brothers, we don't just jump into wooden buckets, we'd even jump into a sea of fire. That's how I, Old Cheng, uphold brotherhood. Yun Ye soaked in the water for five minutes, holding his breath and blowing bubbles, then used a ladle to scoop out the water and jumped out, lecturing the surrounding soldiers: "Each person must go in, soak for as long as it takes to drink a cup of tea, and your hair must be soaked too. Did you hear that?" These guys responded with weak voices, clearly perfunctorily, so he sternly shouted: "Don't think I'm joking! Three days later, if anyone still has lice or fleas on their body, for each one found, they'll get a lash of the whip. Absolutely no leniency will be shown. I've already requested military orders from the school lieutenant, don't blame yourselves."

  Forget about them, who made me an official? They will thank me after they know the benefits. Watching them soak in salt water one by one. Yun Ye ran to the riverbank with aching private parts that were scalded by the salt water. Cheng Chumu, that bastard, had run away early.

  The scene by the river was too spectacular, with three hundred men wrapped in new loincloths squatting by the fire, holding large bowls to eat scallion pancakes and gnawing on mutton. The sight was too shocking. No one spoke, only the sound of slurping filled the air. Cloudy felt like he had seen it wrong, the Fire Head Army plus two women had baked three thousand pancakes for half a day, just to have them disappear in an instant. Cloudy could only eat two pancakes and gnaw on a piece of mutton, his stomach was almost bursting. And these guys still looked resentful, saying they hadn't eaten enough, belching and holding their bellies while saying that there wasn't enough food, tomorrow they would go hunting and bring back all the sheep from the right side of the river. Mutton should be eaten like this to have flavor. The mutton before was all wasted, these pancakes were also delicious, why couldn't his own wife make such delicious pancakes? He would beat her when he got back.

  Two women covered their faces and carried a large basket over, inside were dandelion greens, wild chervil and other wild vegetables that aid digestion and detoxification, the best of the wild vegetables. Yun Ye took two handfuls and stuffed them into his mouth to chew, eating too much meat in one day would lead to intestinal disease, originally tea was the best but there wasn't any so he had to eat grass instead. Cheng Chu Mo saw Yun Ye eating and naturally followed suit, each person grabbed a handful to eat. No need to explain reasons to them, just follow along is fine, no need to ask so many questions. Never seen Cheng Chu Mo lead troops before, just a few sentences and fists were flying. Wang Cai was obedient, never asked questions, saw me eating grass and came over to grab two handfuls from the basket to eat. It's the one that understands me best.

  After a busy day, it seems that these guys haven't exhausted their energy, one or two of them are staring at the moon in a daze and can't sleep. The oldest man wipes his beard with a hint of sadness, humming a song softly, and after listening for half a day, I finally understand the lyrics: "The past is gone, willows rely on each other, we return, rain and snow flutter." Repeating these two sentences, after years of war, there is finally hope for peace, and everyone has had enough of the chaotic life. A hundred battles have left me with a yearning and fear for a stable life. I wonder if my old friends are still safe. When I left that year, it was during the good season when the willows were green, you held my hand and didn't let me leave. This year I came back, why is it snowing heavily? Yun knows that the original intention is not interpreted this way, but at this moment, he really can't think of a more suitable meaning. For the first time, I touched the spiritual world of Tang people.

  Yun Ye thought he was already a native of the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, why would his heart ache so much? Honor and fame can only be obtained on horseback, new soldiers will be enthusiastic about this sentence, old soldiers won't, those who have crawled out from piles of dead bodies, will never trade their lives for these empty things, living to see their families is their greatest desire.

  Yun Ye lay on the blanket, basking in the moonlight, while Cheng Chu Mo was enthusiastically zipping and unzipping the sleeping bag's zipper over and over again. He really couldn't understand how this small thing could be pulled apart, yet the two rows of tiny teeth would automatically close together, and quite securely at that.

  Yun Ye's shovel had been swung several times, this strange and wonderful soldier's blade, could chop, dig, saw, and even fold up to be carried on the back, was a handy blade for marching in the field. The steel quality was even better than his own hundred-refined horizontal knife. When the two clashed, sparks flew everywhere, the shovel was fine but the horizontal knife cracked open a small gap. Cheng Chumo's eyes almost popped out, the horizontal knife was given by his father on his 15th birthday, worth a thousand gold, he had always treasured it like a precious gem, even slept with it in his arms at first, relying on it to cut off countless young masters' blades in Chang'an City. Cheng Chumo's reputation as the bravest of the three armies was partly due to this precious knife, but now it couldn't compare to a shovel, according to Yun Ye's words, this shovel was used by him for digging earth.

  Thinking of this, he had the urge to bang his head against a tree. This guy has so many treasures, one long and one short, two daggers that can be called "cutting iron like mud", with layered snowflake patterns on the blade, like pear blossoms in full bloom. The handle is made of some unknown precious material, resembling jade but not actually being jade, with a lotus flower growing inside, and it's unclear how it grew there. He actually uses this treasure to cut meat, and after cutting, he simply washes it with water and wipes it with a cloth before throwing it into his bag. Because of this, Cheng Chumo pinched Yun Ye's neck and interrogated him for half the day, only forgiving Yun Ye's wasteful behavior after taking away the larger precious dagger.

  Cheng Chumu was baffled, why did Yun Ye use the rare and precious black glaze to create small blocks, with such exquisite craftsmanship, and attach them to a box underneath. The only flaw was that there were two holes on the side, but he didn't know what they were for. When he asked Yun Ye, he just shook his head and wouldn't let him remove the black glaze from the top.

  Inside a beautifully crafted small box, there was a stunning pearl flower, used by women, with an unknown gemstone on top that seemed to be growing out of it, like a gemstone growing out of silver. When light shone on it, the gemstone sparkled as if it had come alive.

  Good heavens! Cheng Chumu was thoroughly stunned. What kind of person was his brother? He was surrounded by precious treasures but treated them like dirt, casually giving away the secret formula for making salt, which was more valuable than life itself. The priceless items he carried with him were carelessly rummaged through. He would give away a treasured sword to anyone, only drink fine wine and eat exquisite food, and fly into a rage if someone else's food was not clean enough. Even the bowls and chopsticks had to be boiled in water before use.

  This was no fallen noble, but a prince or princess who was even more fastidious. Behind him followed a small horse, which wasn't just any horse, but a majestic steed that didn't do any work and had a bad temper. Whoever provoked it would get bitten. Now, it wouldn't eat pancakes unless they were fried in oil, and after eating the pancakes, it would still need to chew on some tender grass. Yun Ye's fine wine from Jin City was all fed to this majestic steed.

  At night, it even slept in a tent, while other horses stood guard. It lay down to sleep. He had to ask, or else he wouldn't be able to rest easy.

  "Brother, your master, what kind of person is he? You're already extraordinary, and with just one move, you've resolved the great crisis on my right. Now that the fast horse has been dispatched to report our merit, I believe His Majesty will surely bestow a heavy reward. Once we've gathered enough evidence, this great achievement will be set in stone. Tell me, what's the story with your master?"

  Yun Yan sighed and told a lie, which required countless other lies to support it. He decided to see this lie through to the end: "When I was young, I didn't understand things. All I remember is growing up in my teacher's arms. People say we were master and disciple, but in reality, our relationship was no different from that of father and son. My teacher often said that I was his nemesis, and if it weren't for me holding him back, he would have left the world behind years ago to attain great freedom. He told me that life is like a piece of driftwood on a river, where people meet by chance and part when their fate is fulfilled. One shouldn't take life and death too seriously; just think of it as a journey. My teacher and I were both travelers on this journey, seeing different scenery and experiencing different lives. Now that we've reached the point of parting ways, perhaps we'll meet again someday." These words left me perplexed. My teacher had already passed away, and his body had been cremated according to his will. What did he mean by "perhaps we'll meet again"?

  "Is your master a god?"

  "The master is an internal alchemist, but he hates the most the talk of ghosts and spirits."

  "Does your master beat you? My dad often beats me, but he doesn't beat me much now. Sometimes I don't even want to recognize him."

  The words of the young man, who was usually quiet and reserved, pierced Yun's heart with a sharp pain. He began to truly believe in himself at the age of sixteen or seventeen. Normally, he would pretend to be a mature and capable military officer in front of his father and subordinates, but Yun believed that he was still afraid, despite having been eager to prove himself on the battlefield since childhood. Having witnessed the cruelty of war through various films and TV shows, actually being on the battlefield must have been a different experience altogether. It was clear that he felt lonely, as children from noble families had to bear more responsibilities. To gain something, one would inevitably lose something else - it was an equal trade-off. Yun secretly vowed in his heart that from now on, he would never deceive him again, and only heaven would know his true origins.

  Two women quietly sat beside Yun Ye, to them, Yun Ye was still a half-grown child, although clever, although an official, but the sorrow flowing out from his eyes made their maternal instincts surge, they didn't have the qualifications to comfort him, so they drew closer to him to make him feel less lonely.

  Cheng Chu Mo stopped talking again. He was never a talkative person to begin with. He trusted his brother and could sense his sorrow, so he just stayed by his side.