The road is wide and Hua Zhi has no reason to stop others from leaving. What's more, it was Shaoyao who asked for it, so she had to accept it with a pinch of her nose.
"Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Lu."
Gu Yanxi's eyes lit up. Even though she had traveled all over the Daqing Dynasty, she actually felt happy about traveling.
Looking back at the towering city wall, Hua Zhi looked at the boundless sky ahead, and suddenly she felt proud. It was just two thousand miles away. To her, it was nothing!
Hua Zhi swung the whip, clamped the horse's belly, and sank her body slightly, "Gee!"
Gu Yanxi patted the horse's back, and the black horse, which had been unable to contain itself for a long time, stood up, neighed loudly, and followed with a clatter. When they were about to overtake Hua Zhi, Gu Yanxi pulled the reins and walked side by side with Hua Zhi. Shaoyao, who had been walking with Hua Zhi, was squeezed to the back.
Relying on the fact that no one could see her because she was wearing a veil, Shaoyao rolled her eyes at the prince.
Hua Zhi did her homework before going out and brought a map with her. During the lunch break, she took out the map to calculate the distance.
Shaoyao shook the hot pancake in her hand. Just as she stood up to give it to Huahua, her eyes blurred and the pancake in her hand disappeared. She watched helplessly as the prince walked towards Huahua with the pancake in his hand!
Shaoyao was angry. The prince was trying to steal her friend!
Gu Yanxi turned around and looked at her, "Bake a few more."
Shaoyao was immediately deflated. She squatted down with a pout, picked up the pancake and continued to bake it. She thought to herself, how annoying! Why did the prince follow me
Gu Yanxi walked over to Hua Zhi and sat down, handing her the biscuit with dried meat, "Eat it while it's hot."
"Thank you." Hua Zhi folded the map and put it aside, then took the cake and started eating.
Gu Yanxi picked up the map and opened it, and saw that there were many notes on the official road from the capital to the north. He was very familiar with this road and understood it at a glance. Although he knew that Hua Zhi was not an impulsive person, after reading these, he realized how thoughtful she was.
"Are you going to this post tonight?"
Hua Zhi leaned over to take a look, nodded, swallowed the biscuit in her mouth, and then said, "Yes, we have to get there before the sun sets. I calculated that with our speed this morning, there should be no problem."
"It's indeed no problem."
Hua Zhi's heart moved, "Mr. Lu has been here?"
"We've been here many times, so we're very familiar with it." Gu Yanxi pointed to another place and said, "This post station has been abandoned and moved to this place. If we want to get there, we have to leave earlier."
Hua Zhi looked over when he heard what he said, "Fortunately, Mr. Lu reminded me, otherwise I would have to travel at night. I got this map from my grandfather when I was a child. Before I came out, I was worried that it had changed over the years, and it turned out to be true."
Gu Yanxi had all the maps in this set, which had eight maps in total. The one that Hua Zhi had was the one from the capital to the north. Given Hua Zhi's meticulous personality, I'm afraid she had already planned to go to the north at that time.
Gu Yanxi looked at Hua Zhi deeply, "Not only here, four years ago, the emperor transferred the three towns under the jurisdiction of Weishan County to Shuanghui County, and the official road was also changed. The post station was moved to the new official road, at this location."
Hua Zhi didn't care about eating anymore. She held the cake in one hand and tried to untie the package with the other. After a few attempts, she was considering whether to eat it first, when the cake was taken away by someone. "I'll hold it for you."
Gu Yanxi's body didn't come close, but she stretched out her hand. Hua Zhi didn't think much about it. She thanked him and unwrapped the package. She took out her eyebrow pencil and made two new notes on the map. Then she looked up and asked, "Are there any other places?"
"No, minor changes don't affect it."
Hua Zhi lowered her head. When she was at home, she had calculated the distance between counties. Combined with the distance they could walk every day, she had a clear idea of where to stop and rest. Although the current changes would make one of the days' journey more tense, setting off earlier would solve the problem.
“You can’t count all of it that way.”
Hua Zhi looked up, her clear eyes fell on Gu Yanxi, making him feel nervous for no reason, but her expression did not show it. She pointed to a place and said, "It gets colder the further north you go. It got cold earlier this year than in previous years. It should have snowed in Chenping County by now, not to mention the future."
Only half of the journey has been completed when reaching Chenping County. If it snows, the daily distance that can be walked will be shortened by about a quarter. In this case, I am afraid that I will not be able to stay in the post station every time.
Huahua set her sights on several county towns. It’s not that she couldn’t rest somewhere else, but the post station made her feel safer.
"If you trust me, why don't you let me arrange the rest of the journey?"
Shaoyao came over at some point, and this time she stood on the side of the prince, "Yes, Huahua, just listen to Brother… Yan on this matter. He often comes here and is very familiar with this road."
"Do you think I'm going to show off? I'll have to rely on Mr. Lu for the whole journey."
Gu Yanxi gave Shaoyao a look and said, "It must be useful if you follow me. Don't worry, I won't lead you the wrong way."
Hua Zhi folded the map, looked up with a smile, and saw Shaoyao with a face full of cat whiskers, her smile deepened, "Is he going on stage to play the clown?"
Shaoyao looked confused, so Huazhi had to get up and take her to the stream to wipe her face.
Gu Yanxi looked at the two of them from behind, stretched out his legs and sat comfortably, tore off a piece of cake and put it in his mouth, chewed it for a few times and suddenly stopped, looking at his hand, this was... what Hua Zhi had eaten.
Hua Zhi washed Shaoyao’s face and came back to take the cake from Gu Yanxi and continued eating without noticing that a piece of her cake was missing.
Gu Yanxi looked at her cheeks bulging and unconsciously followed her chewing, swallowing the biscuit in her mouth. It tasted quite good.
"Peony, bring me a cake."
Shaoyao had just roasted one and was about to put it into her mouth when she heard this sentence. Immediately, a word popped up in her mind: snatching food from the tiger's mouth!
Hua Zhi laughed at her unwilling look, and stood up and said, "Give it to Mr. Lu, I will bake it for you."
Shaoyao immediately lost all her dissatisfaction. She quickly ran over and stuffed the cake into the prince's hand. She then diligently took out a cold, hard cake and handed it to Hua Zhi, looking at it eagerly.
Hua Zhi put the pancake on the fork and asked a servant to find the package of seasonings. She turned it over and roasted it until hot, then sprinkled some salt, cumin and chili powder on it. When the pancake softened, she tore it in half, put the dried meat in it, sprinkled some seasonings on it, and roasted it for a while. Soon the aroma filled the air.
Shaoyao swallowed her saliva and urged, "It smells very good, Huahua, it's ready to eat."
"Bake it for a while so the meat flavor seeps into the pancake and it tastes better. Wrap it with wax paper and simmer it."
"I'm not afraid of the heat." Shaoyao said as she reached out to take it. She flipped it from her left hand to her right hand, and then from her right hand to her left hand. She was not afraid of getting blisters on her mouth as she put it in her mouth and took a bite, shouting, "It's delicious, delicious."
Gu Yanxi suddenly felt that the cake in his hand tasted tasteless. He resisted the urge to grab it and simply turned his head away and didn't look at her.
After a while, footsteps were heard, "Mr. Lu, eat something hot, the cakes are too hard when they are cold."
The fragrance lingered around his nose, and Gu Yanxi turned his head to look. In the sunlight, Hua Zhi's nose was sweating, and she smiled and stretched out her hands in front of him.
Gu Yanxi's reaction was a little slower than usual. She took the cake and said, "Thank you."
PS: I was in a meeting until nine o'clock. I secretly wrote a little during the meeting, and then I kept writing and revising until now. The girls didn't ask me to update more. I really tried my best.