We’ll set off tomorrow morning, the journey is quite long and might take around ten days. The village chief knows that Qu the Hunter isn’t good at cooking, so he prepared pancakes and boiled eggs for him in advance, only charging a twenty percent processing fee, supporting payment upon pickup.
Qu the Hunter didn’t mind and even gifted the village chief two rabbit skins. The delighted village chief immediately promised to boil three more eggs for Qu Jing to eat on the way, remarking how thin the child looked, and he needed to supplement his nutrition.
With that, Qu Jing and Qu the Hunter set off grittily.
Adhering to the philosophy of being thrifty at home and generous on the road, Qu the Hunter carried with him Da yang, foreign currency, copper coins, and small yellow fish. The two large bags of dry food were prepared by the village chief’s wife, and there were more than twenty eggs, along with a leather bag for water and several patched pieces of leather.
Qu the Hunter initially wanted to bring the tiger skin as well, but it was too ostentatious. He could handle two or three bandits, but not necessarily around ten. This trip to the provincial capital for medical treatment required being away for almost a month, so Qu the Hunter packed all valuables in his house into boxes and hid them in the cellar.
The grain was left at the village chief’s house, and a few hunting dogs were entrusted to the village chief’s care.
The journey was quite tedious.
Whether it was a donkey cart or ox cart, the speed wasn’t fast, and the animals needed rest, moving in stops and starts. Comparatively, this mode of traveling was only slightly faster than when Chen Huihong fled on foot.
If not for the ability to fast forward during breaks, Qin Huai felt he might die of boredom from this segment of the journey.
Fast forward was Qin Huai’s description of the passage of time.
This experience was similar to when Qin Huai watched the final memories of Luo Jun. In those years when Luo Jun stood by Liu Tao’s grave, Qin Huai felt like a movie observer, watching the sun rise and set as time flew by, with a few years seeming to pass in an hour, in just tens of minutes.
The same was true on this journey. Qu Jing mostly kept silent, responding only when Qu the Hunter asked if he was thirsty or hungry, or if he wanted something to eat. Plus, Qu the Hunter was heading to the provincial capital hospital with him, so several fellow travelers along the way misunderstood, thinking Qu Jing was severely ill and dying. They quickly offered him the best seat on the ox cart, allowing the child to lie down instead of sitting.
It wasn’t until they entered the provincial capital that Qin Huai felt a hint of modernity.
The driver led Qu the Hunter and Qu Jing all the way to the hospital door, informed Qu the Hunter of his lodging place and return time, advising him to let him know if he missed the return trip.
Qu the Hunter seemed visibly tense upon entering the provincial capital, with his hunting rifle wrapped in cloth slung over his shoulder, leading Qu Jing like a headless fly wandering around the hospital entrance.
This wasn’t Qu the Hunter’s fault; he couldn’t read.
Fortunately, the hunting rifle wrapped in cloth on Qu the Hunter’s back was conspicuous, and the security at the hospital entrance immediately recognized it.
People were generally receptive to a rural hunter carrying a rifle into the city. In these chaotic times, many information-isolated farmers in the countryside couldn’t even comprehend if the war had ended, whether the county magistrate had fled, died, or been replaced, with bandits still unsuppressed in the mountains, making it quite normal to carry protective items on their travels.
Upon learning that Qu the Hunter was bringing his granddaughter into the city for medical treatment, security informed him that he couldn’t bring the rifle into the hospital; it had to be stored outside, guiding him first to exchange money and then to register.
Qu the Hunter, seeing the other party’s rifle was better than his, obediently followed instructions.
After exchanging all the foreign currency, copper coins, and Da yang he had into the current currency, Qu the Hunter nervously pulled Qu Jing to register and see a doctor.
The result, naturally, was fruitless, with nothing found.
Back then, the methods of examination were limited. Qu Jing wasn’t sick, so during the examination, Qin Huai was a bit concerned they might discover Qu Jing wasn’t even human, but it turned out he was overthinking it.
The doctor was very moved that a rural hunter would bring his granddaughter to the provincial capital for an examination out of suspicion, thus refunded Qu the Hunter’s registration fee to save him some money and prescribed Qu Jing two liang of free soybeans as a nutritional supplement. He told Qu the Hunter to go home, eat soybeans to supplement nutrition, and advised him not to be so suspicious. If genuinely worried about the child being ill, they should feed the child better food.
Qu the Hunter heeded the doctor’s advice, acquired the two liang of soybeans, and wandered the streets in search of good food.
According to Qu the Hunter’s simple value system, good food equated to white flour plus sugar.
He first went to the grain store, made a significant purchase of a bag of white flour, and then searched everywhere for a place selling sugar. He didn’t find sugar, but he found a pastry shop.
The shop was small, and it looked rather old, but the pastries displayed had a nice appearance. In Qin Huai’s eyes, even just the visible parts were B-level pastries, considering the ingredients available in this era.
The craftsmanship of the pastry chef was undoubtedly quite superb.
Truly, there’s talent hidden among the people.
Qin Huai sighed inwardly, stepped back a few steps, and glanced up at the shop’s sign.
Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop.
Was this shop run by Qin Wan’s younger brother?
Decades have passed, and the Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop that couldn’t survive in Beiping has become a nationwide chain?
Qin Huai quickly took another look at the pastries displayed in the shop.
There were steamed buns, but not many.
If black steamed bun was the signature of Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop, then pretend Qin Huai didn’t say anything.
From what he could see, Small Square Cake, Dingsheng Cake, sticky rice cake, how could this not be a shop selling Suzhou style pastries?
The small and exquisite pastries captivated Qu the Hunter at a glance.