The jade pendant connects the past and present; the exiled crown prince's wife takes her entire

What kind of taste does it have?

If you take a closer sniff, you can almost smell the aroma of roasted meat, but it's clearly just an ordinary cornbread. Even if it's softened after roasting, you can't taste the meat. And even a chef from the frontier who's good at roasting meat probably couldn't roast meat to such an irresistible flavor.

Under the watchful eyes of the other escorts around him, Chen Jiechai quickly finished the half-eaten cornbread, and even tried to suck on the twig that held the cornbread when no one was looking.

It smells so good, even better than any barbecue he's ever had!

After finishing his meal, Chen Jiechai suddenly remembered that when he looked closely earlier, he seemed to have noticed some specks of powder on the cornbread...

He still held the branch, his lips pressed tightly together, staring intently at Jiang Jinning in front of him, his gaze gradually sharpening.

Jiang Jinning was naturally afraid, her heart pounding. But when she thought of how the young general had protected her time and time again, and how Liang Cheng spoke so confidently in front of others, she subconsciously imitated them, straightened her back, and looked back at Chen Jiechai with innocent and naive eyes.

Jiang Jinning has a pair of bright and innocent eyes, like those of a fawn.

Chen Jiechai even began to doubt himself, wondering if he had been so busy traveling that his eyes were playing tricks on him and he was seeing things.

At this moment, the guards beside him couldn't sit still any longer. They swallowed hard and said eagerly, "Brother Chen, does it really taste like meat? I don't believe it. You have to take a bite to convince me."

Chen Jiechai gave him a sharp rap on the head, which made him laugh in anger.

"You little rascal, you've got abacus beads flying into my face!" He chuckled indulgently, then his smile faded, and his gaze towards Jiang Jinning became more inquisitive. "Why don't you bake a few more steamed buns with a meaty flavor?"

After saying that, he stopped looking at her and handed her a few steamed buns that belonged to the escorts.

Jiang Jinning secretly breathed a huge sigh of relief, then bowed politely and quickly began to string the steamed buns together and handcuff them.

While she was baking, Chen Jiechai would glance over from time to time. Jiang Jinning was actually extremely nervous, her back taut, but she kept telling herself not to show weakness, to stay calm, to stay calm. After being brainwashed so much, she really did have the composure to remain calm even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of her, to the point that Chen Jiechai, who was doubting himself, looked again at the branch in his hand that no longer had any cornbread.

Jiang Jinning quickly baked a sufficient number of cornbreads and was about to return when she was stopped by the escort.

She tensed up.

"This dried meat was made by my family. If you don't mind, you can have a taste."

Jerky? There's meat to eat? That's great!

Jiang Jinning looked up in surprise, her eyes radiating joy that seemed to brighten the entire surroundings.

Chen Jiechai was initially reluctant to give her the food, but seeing her looking at it like a little niece who had just turned one year old, he found it amusing and unconsciously gave her another one.

"Thank you, Officer Chen. You are such a kind person."

Chen Jiecha was flattered by the praise, but at the same time he secretly regretted giving out two pieces of dried meat, which wasn't even enough for him!

Completely unaware of the guards' intentions, Jiang Jinning was overjoyed. She took off running and quickly returned to her own group, excitedly showing her family the two pieces of dried meat she had obtained.

Although it doesn't look as delicious as the pork jerky from Wonderland, it's still pretty good!

"Where did you get two pieces of dried meat!" Song Wanzhen blurted out, then, under Song Qingyan's gaze, she hurriedly covered her mouth and looked at Jiang Jinning with an incredulous expression.

"It was a reward from the escort officer, who praised me for baking the cornbread so well."

Song Wanzhen scoffed, "Even if that cornbread is delicious, can it compare to meat?"

No sooner had he finished speaking than a mouthful of warm roasted cornbread was stuffed into his mouth. Unlike the cornbread of the past, today's cornbread tasted like roasted meat, with half a piece of dried meat sandwiched in the middle. Although it was dry, it was also exceptionally flavorful.

Song Wanzhen was so overwhelmed by the delicious food that she couldn't speak.

There really are cornbread buns that taste even better than meat!

Jiang Jinning smiled contentedly as she nestled around the fire that Song Qingyan had started, continuing to roast herself.

Not everyone has fire. The escorts have their own kindling to start a fire, but they don't. Their fire was started by Song Qingyan using some unknown method. The Yuan escort wasn't here tonight, and the Chen escort turned a blind eye to them, which is why they had fire.

Jiang Jinning baked cornbread for Zhao Shi, the young general, and herself. When no one was looking, she carefully sprinkled some barbecue powder from her palm. Her bright eyes were always watching her surroundings, making her extremely cute.

Song Qingyan, who had been watching her closely, smiled without her noticing, and elegantly munched on the cornbread in his hand.

In the past few days, he seems to have rarely voiced his resentment and anger.

"You don't need to flatter us, you don't need to wrong yourself."

As soon as Song Qingyan said that, Zhao Shi and Song Wanzhen immediately understood.

It turns out that everything Jiang Jinning did was simply to make their lives easier.

Zhao touched Jiang Jinning's dry hair with her other hand, feeling both heartache and gratitude.

"You're such a silly child."

Jiang Jinning smiled innocently, seemingly immersed in the joy of receiving the dried meat.

"I'm not compromising myself. Officer Chen is a very good person, and I'm happy to do these things."

"Even a good person wouldn't have protected you before; he was just watching the show while you were being whipped," Song Wanzhen scoffed disdainfully.

Song Qingyan and Zhao Shi frowned subconsciously, about to reprimand Song Wanzhen for her attitude, when they heard Jiang Jinning say in an unusually excited tone, "You care about me?"

"Who cares about you!"

Song Wanzhen jumped up and down, about to explain that she wasn't concerned about her, when she was stuffed with food again.

"No, this tastes like steamed buns... Hmm... I feel like I've had it somewhere before..."

A family of four sat around the fire, feeling warm and happy, but some people were not so cheerful.

Not far away, the second family had no fire. They didn't know how to start a fire, nor did they have any delicious cornbread with the aroma of meat. Their cornbread was dry and hard, let alone with dried meat inside.

The one who was most indignant was Song Yanxi.

If the eldest son's side only had cornbread to eat and a fire to keep warm, she wouldn't be so upset. But seeing them getting along so harmoniously, she couldn't stand it.

Why doesn't the eldest son's family cause a huge uproar?

And those two pieces of dried meat she brought back—she looked down on them, but why did the jinx have them while she didn't?

Her eyes blazed even brighter. Seeing that Madam Liao kept glancing over there with a displeased expression, she rolled her eyes and looked at Madam Liao with a look of filial piety, saying, "Grandmother, it's all Zhen'er's fault. If Zhen'er hadn't been so hungry and greedy that she ate too much, and hadn't been afraid of being scolded by you, you wouldn't have misunderstood my sister-in-law, causing our family to become estranged."

She lowered her head in shame, tears falling to the ground.

Liao sniffed, sensing the aroma of meat wafting over. She swallowed hard, and with difficulty, looked away before finally hearing Song Wanzhen's words. Remembering the scene of being talked back to by the eldest son a few days ago, her expression turned even more unpleasant.

"It has nothing to do with you; it's the eldest son's family members who have been spoiled and have lost all manners!"

Madam Tian, ​​equally envious of the dried meat, chimed in, "Actually, you can't blame my sister-in-law. It's understandable that she's so sad about losing her brother that she can't properly educate the younger generation. But then again, we're family after all. Making a scene like this only makes us a laughingstock. Mother, why don't you just let my sister-in-law bring some food over to apologize, and that will be the end of it?"

Liao's eyes flashed, and her fingers unconsciously rubbed the cornbread in her hand.

Song Wanzhen could tell at a glance that the old lady was tempted. She exchanged a glance with Tian Shi and said, "How about I go and kowtow to apologize? Oh, right, Auntie said before that she wanted us to share half a cornbread with them. Why don't we take half of Zhen'er's share each day and give it to Auntie and the others as an apology?"

Upon hearing this, Liao's expression darkened completely.

"Tianci, go and tell your aunt to come and pay her respects!"