Chapter 183: Having Meat in the Army (3) (1/2)

Both Xiao Yuhong and Captain Guo’s gazes turned in unison to He Changdi. He Changdi looked up with a stiff expression; his deep eyes drew their attention, but screamed his innocence.

Zhang Mai awkwardly coughed into his fist. Embarrassed, he said, “Captain, I was a little too hasty with my words. The meat I mentioned was something that Zixiang’s wife sent to him via messenger.”

Life was tough out here in the border troops. Even a captain wouldn’t be able to eat meat more than once a month out here. If someone wanted some, they would have to hunt it themselves out in the plains, and that was only when they were on a rare vacation. However, with the arrival of winter, the animals were all in hibernation. It was getting harder and harder to find anything to hunt. Suffering from meat withdrawal was an all too common problem out here amongst the northern border troops.

The troops did not maintain contact with the Tuhun or the nomadic barbarians, and they didn’t raise any livestock in their camp either. The amount of meat available to them was pitiful.

Zhang Mai shared a tent with He Changdi, and usually took good care of his junior. Big Brother Zhang was older than He Changdi by a whole decade, and had already been in the army for about that long as well. He had participated in countless battles and was Captain Guo’s most trusted subordinate. He had much experience to share, but his years in the army had left old wounds on his body, so his health wasn’t as good as the others.

Furthermore, Liangzhou had just entered winter. After sweating it out on the training grounds and getting hit by a blast of cold wind, coupled with the aching of his old wounds because of the chill, Zhang Mai had caught a cold. It had unfortunately manifested in a high fever, leaving him bedridden.

The old doctor in camp had come over to take a look. All he had done was some acupuncture, and then had prescribed some medicine. As for food and water, that was all left to the patient’s means to supply.

When Captain Guo was notified of his situation, he ordered the army cooks to send a pot of white rice porridge to Zhang Mai. Captain Guo had had nothing better to offer.

Since He Changdi shared a tent with Zhang Mai, he took up the responsibility of caring for him. As he watched Zhang Mai grow ever paler and skinnier due to his illness and old wounds, He Changdi quietly took out the translucent shredded beef that Chu Lian had sent to him. He scooped some out of the jar and placed it into Zhang Mai’s porridge.

When the bedridden Zhang Mai saw the shredded beef covered in oil sitting on top of his usually plain porridge, his eyes went completely wide.

Zhang Mai didn’t stand on courtesy with He Sanlang, and quickly wolfed down his porridge in only a few big gulps. After he was done, he wiped his mouth and pointed at the bowl, asking with surprise, “Where did that come from?”

The normally taciturn He Sanlang then said, “My wife sent it over.”

Zhang Mai laughed out loud, which only ended up making him cough. “Since your wife sent it to you, you must have eaten much of it in the past. Why don’t you leave the rest of it for your big brother here? It’ll be good for my recovery.”

Although He Sanlang looked calm and composed, Zhang Mai still hadn’t expected him to be such a tough nut to crack. He Sanlang refused to answer him. In the end, he only gave Zhang Mai that shredded beef a few more times. When Zhang Mai had recovered, he had searched through every nook and cranny of that tent, but it was pointless. He couldn’t find where He Changdi had hidden that little jar of translucent shredded beef.

Zhang Mai could only shake his head and smile.