Kang Xintong was so frightened by this turn of events that she hurriedly put down the wooden bowl in her hands.
With a clatter, some of the broth in the bowl spilled out as she moved, splashing onto the table.
She couldn't care less about this and hurriedly went forward to support Lu Zheng, who was pretending to vomit.
Kang Xintong was already frightened out of her wits by this turn of events. She thought Lu Zheng had been poisoned.
"Godfather … Godfather … Has someone poisoned the porridge?" Kang Xintong thought of the broken relationship between her godfather and her lord, An Cui, and the irreconcilable conflict. Her first reaction was to suspect An Cui of poisoning people. Anger burned in her heart.
Lu Zheng was still bending over and vomiting. Tears flowed out of the corners of his eyes. The corners of his eyes were dyed red, making him look more fragile.
Kang Xintong could only pat his back to soothe his breathing. When he was about to vomit bile, Kang Xintong got up and brought him some water to rinse his mouth. Lu Zheng vomited heavily. His expression turned from green to bloodless white.
"It's not poison …"
Lu Zheng suppressed the nausea that rose up in his throat from time to time and took the water Kang Xintong handed him to rinse his mouth. Only then did he feel better.
Kang Xintong's eyes were filled with surprise and fear. She asked timidly, "It's not poison … Could it be that the meat has rotted?"
Lu Zheng pursed his lips and didn't speak. But from his expression and gaze, this bowl of porridge wasn't as childish as "rotting".
Could it be …
Kang Xintong had been raised by Lu Zheng's side for a few months. Her horizons and knowledge had improved by leaps and bounds.
Lu Zheng's various reactions gave Kang Xintong a very bad feeling.
She looked down at the things Lu Zheng had vomited and scanned them with her eyes.
Kang Xintong suddenly saw something. Her gaze almost froze. Before she could scream, Lu Zheng's warm and broad palm covered her eyes.
"Stop looking. Have someone come in and tidy up the things."
Lu Zheng's voice was slightly hoarse, as if he was suppressing something. Kang Xintong felt more at ease when she heard him.
She took a few deep breaths and suppressed the sour taste that seemed to be rising up in her throat. She ran out without looking back.
Lv Zheng distinctly heard the sound of Kang Xintong vomiting outside the tent and a sense of disappointment and mockery surfaced in his heart.
He picked up a pair of chopsticks and fiddled with the vomit. A flat armor-like object rolled out with a small piece of bone attached to it. This was the foreign object that Lu Zheng had just bitten … If he was not mistaken, this was clearly someone's little finger bone, and the fingernail was still on it … Lu Zheng stared at it for a long time. Although he did not vomit, his face turned pale.
Lu Zheng was lost in thought as he sat on the bed. No one knew what he was thinking. He did not even hear the sound of Kang Xintong lifting the curtain and coming in.
When he came back to his senses, he hurriedly hid the item. Unfortunately, he was a step too slow, and Kang Xintong still saw it.
"Godfather, the meat porridge that I mistakenly ate just now … was actually mixed with human flesh … right?"
Kang Xintong asked with a trembling voice. Her watery eyes were filled with panic and fear.
"… There are many dead in the war between the two armies … An Cui is short of rations, and the supply lines are often obstructed. They are already at the point of running out of ammunition and rations … Hua Yuan is also secretly obstructing them from the rear … The people who are collecting rations mixed human flesh into the porridge and made it into minced meat … It doesn't seem unexpected … Xintong, did you see it?" Seeing that she had seen it, Lu Zheng did not continue to hide it. Instead, he straightened his body and a bitter smile appeared on his pale face. He pointed at the half cooked little finger and said with a complicated expression, "In troubled times, we are at the chopping block, and those who are separated are meat on the chopping block. Be it An Cui or Liu Xi, in the end, they are just people who are pushed by the world to struggle. The most pitiful are these people who can't even be buried in peace after their deaths. They have to be made into dried meat for the three armies to eat … We have to get rid of it! "
Kang Xintong's body trembled in fear.
She thought that the scene she had experienced was the most tragic.
That was until Lu Zheng brought her to a dark alley for a stroll, which refreshed her view of the world. She thought that was the cruelest side of troubled times. Only now did she realize that this not-so-bloody scene in front of her gave her an impact that the former couldn't compare to …
"Xintong, find someone to inquire about the source of this batch of rations … I want to see when this farce will end …" Seeing that Kang Xintong was slowly calming down, Lu Zheng's expression softened a little. He instructed, "Remember, you must inquire carefully and don't alarm others."
Kang Xintong nodded heavily. She went forward to clean up the two bowls of porridge and the vomit on the ground.
Although the things were cleaned up, the memory that was deeply engraved in her mind was not so easy to forget.
The more Kang Xintong didn't want to think about it, the more the little finger and the half hanging nail swayed in front of her. It made her face pale and her spirit weak. After spending a lot of effort to inquire about the detailed information, Kang Xintong didn't delay and immediately informed Lu Zheng.
She repeated clearly, "Godfather, I've inquired about the news. According to the rumor, Hua Yuan sent someone to inform us that the new rations will arrive in three days, but the army's rations are almost depleted. An Cui had no choice but to send people to the nearby towns to plunder the surplus rations of the commoners. "
Lu Zheng sat on the bed with his clothes draped over his shoulders. He couldn't help but sneer.
"Ridiculous! Let's not talk about how many commoners there are in the nearby towns. Even if there were many commoners, the war last year affected the crops, and Liu Xi destroyed the spring plowing this year … The food stored in the commoners' homes isn't enough for them to last an entire year, much less the hundreds of thousands of soldiers under An Cui's command. "
Kang Xintong said, "In the end, we had to use extraordinary means to gather a batch of rations. If it's not enough … we have to make up for it with human breasts …"
Kang Xintong frowned when she said the word "human breasts". She looked like she wanted to vomit.
Compared to Kang Xintong's reaction, Lu Zheng was much calmer.
It wasn't that he was more accepting than Kang Xintong, nor was it that he was cold-hearted. It was just that he had seen more things.
Human breasts were not rare in history books. There were even records of people trading their children for food and cannibalism.
More than ten years ago, the four factions of Nanman had wreaked havoc on the commoners of Nansheng. Wherever they passed, not even a blade of grass would grow.
Wherever they went to war, they would burn, kill, and pillage. Similarly, they would eat people wherever they went.
The allied army of Nansheng had conquered Nanman and plundered countless spoils of war. At that time, the relationship between Lu Zheng and An Cui hadn't completely fallen apart. At most, there was some conflict. The latter knew that Lu Zheng liked books, so he organized all the books and spoils of war he plundered and threw them all to Lu Zheng.
Later, Lu Zheng stayed at home and organized the books out of boredom. After sorting them into different categories, he unintentionally discovered a gourmet guide written by a scholar of a different tribe in Nanman. He named it "Cannibal Rhapsody". It wasn't very literary, but every word he wrote made the reader's hair stand on end.
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