After being exiled, she married a rough man, and the sickly beauty was spoiled

Song Huiling turned over in bed and asked casually, "Set up a stall? Where?"

Her lazy voice revealed a bit of melancholy. When setting up a stall, one also has to consider the flow of people and the location. The most suitable locations around Yuntun Village are Qingyuan County and Turing Pass. Since these two places are not accessible, there is no need to consider the rest. Going there would be a loss.

"Of course, we're going to Turing Pass." Yang's voice was as steady and powerful as a rock.

Song Huiling woke up, jumped up, got out of bed in the dark and lit a lamp. The candlelight illuminated Yang's eyes, which were full of fine lines. There was a firm light in her eyes.

Song Huiling looked hesitant and carefully examined Yang for a long time before asking uncertainly, "Turing Pass?"

Yang felt a little uncomfortable being looked at by Song Huiling. She lowered her head slightly, as if she couldn't speak, and stammered, "In fact, mother was born in the native tribe around Turing Pass. I will accompany you to set up the stall. I believe that the people of the tribe will not easily cause trouble for my sake."

Song Huiling perked up, his eyes suddenly widened, and he quickly pulled Yang to sit beside the bed, holding her hand, and said anxiously with a bit of suspicion: "Mother, the natives of Qianzhong and the Han people are like fire and water, and the hatred between them and the garrison troops is even more irreconcilable. Since you have married a garrison soldier as a wife, you are lucky not to provoke the hatred of your fellow tribesmen. How can you still expect them to be merciful to you?"

Yang bit her lower lip tightly and was silent for a long time before she spoke with difficulty: "In fact, A Zhan and his father only know that I am a Miao Yi woman with a Chinese surname of Yang. They don't know that my real surname is Wu Luo, and that Wu Luohai, the Tuling Xuanfusi Envoy, is my father!"

The amount of information contained in these short sentences was so huge that Song Huiling's brain suddenly crashed and it took a while for her thoughts to start working again.

Dayan had not yet established a province in Qianzhong. The two major forces in Qianzhong were the garrison troops represented by the Han people, and the native tribes represented by a number of ethnic minorities such as the Miao and Yi. Qianzhong was remote and had many ethnic groups, making it difficult for the imperial court to manage it. In order to maintain stability, the court adopted the method of "local officials governing local people" and established a local Tusi agency in Qianzhong. The Xuanfusi was a Tusi agency second only to the Xuanweisi.

Simply put, Yang's father, Wu Luohai, was a local emperor. All the natives around Tuling Pass had to listen to him. As long as he paid tribute on time every year and did not rebel openly, the imperial court would turn a blind eye even if he raised troops in his own territory.

To put it more bluntly in modern terms, Yang was the daughter of a wealthy group. Even though the Han people discriminated against the Miao and Yi people, Yang's marriage to a small garrison soldier was definitely a marriage of status.

"So your father didn't agree with this marriage, and in order to marry He Zhan's biological father, you severed ties with your own father, and then had no contact with him for more than 20 years?" With his years of experience reading melodramatic novels, Song Huiling combined the information revealed by Yang and pieced together a roughly reasonable truth.

Sure enough, Yang remained silent and lowered her head in shame.

Song Huiling felt her silence was deafening. She stared at Yang expressionlessly, numbly and speechlessly, with a blank face: "Mother, so what do you want? You could have lived a carefree life, but look at you now..."

Yang lowered her head even lower and said in a muffled voice, "Brother He is very good to me."

Song Huiling: "..."

"So-and-so is very good to me" is the mantra of every love-brained person.

Although He Zhan's father had been dead for more than 20 years, Yang, a woman in her early 40s, could still show a girlish shyness when talking about him. She continued to say something, her voice was as soft as a mosquito. Song Huiling moved closer and heard Yang murmur shyly: "Brother He is the most handsome man I have ever seen, more handsome than any man in my clan."

Song Huiling: "..."

The combination of face control and love brain is simply a killer!

The biggest concern when setting up a stall in Turing Pass is the sudden invasion and harassment from the locals. Since Yang said that she could solve it by just using her face, the next thing to do is naturally to set up the stall.

The next day.

Before daybreak, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law packed the things needed for the stall and pushed the cart out.

Song Huiling had been eating well and sleeping well these past few days, and had taken medicine on time, so his complexion had become rosy. Although he still panted when walking, he could continue walking after taking a few breaths. The journey that should have taken half an hour only took him an extra stick of incense.

When they arrived at Turing Pass, it was already dawn. Yang helped with the tidying up and took the honeycomb coal stove down from the cart.

Before going out, she threw a honeycomb coal into the stove to make it burn vigorously, then used tongs to clamp it to the bottom of the coal stove cavity, and piled three more honeycomb coals on it to fill the cavity in the middle of the coal stove. Finally, she covered the two small fire holes at the bottom of the coal stove with a fire cover.

According to my daughter-in-law, when the coal stove is not in use, cover the fire holes with two small round fire covers that are half the size of a palm. The honeycomb coal can burn slowly for a day. When fire is needed, open the two fire covers to allow wind to flow into the two fire holes at the bottom. The honeycomb coal will then burn quickly. If you feel the fire is too strong, just cover one of the fire holes.

Yang found it miraculous. After taking down the coal stove and placing it on the ground, she opened one of the small fire holes and went to tidy up other things. After a while, she came back and saw that it was indeed burning faster than when the two fire holes were covered.

Turing Pass sounds like a checkpoint, but it is actually a section of the post road. A stone bridge is built over the gurgling stream, and a boundary marker is erected in front of the bridgehead. There are three large hollow characters carved in shallow relief on the monument, which are called Turing Pass. From the bridgehead to the end, there are two symmetrical stone pavilions standing on the side of the road. The post road between the two stone pavilions winds forward and disappears into the dense mountain forests.

At this moment, there were only Song Huiling and Yang in the entire Turing Pass. While other vendors had not arrived yet, Song Huiling planned to set up the stall next to one of the stone pavilions, so that customers who bought Tangba could sit on the stone chairs in the pavilion and eat Tangba while resting.

Song Huiling's body has not fully recovered yet and he cannot carry anything. All the heavy work is done by Yang.

Yang first found a few large, smooth stones to pad the four corners, placed the wooden boards she brought from home on the four corners, and built a simple table. Then she placed the earthen jars filled with oil-rich fillings and crispy sesame fillings on the table, and carried a large bag of water-ground glutinous rice flour aside. Finally, she went to the stream to fetch water and then called Song Huiling to come over to knead the dough and make the soup cakes.

Song Huiling placed the casserole filled with water on the coal stove, covered it with a wooden lid, and placed the basket for soup cakes on the table. Then he took the yellow basin and scooped most of the glutinous rice noodles into it. He held a bowl of cold water in his left hand and a pair of chopsticks in his right hand. He poured the cold water while stirring with the chopsticks. The glutinous rice noodles that were originally piled into a small pointed slope were collapsed by a stream of water and stirred into a small concave valley by a pair of chopsticks.

What she wants to make is cold water soup cake, which means kneading the dough with cold water. Kneading soup cake with cold water requires higher skills. The dough will crack and the filling will be exposed if there is less water, while the dough will be too moist to be kneaded if there is more water. It is not as convenient and worry-free as kneading the dough with hot water. The soup cake made with cold water is more chewy and elastic than that made with hot water.

Song Huiling had just finished making thirty soup cakes when a few figures appeared from the other side of the bridge.

Before I could see who was coming, I heard a joyful voice shouting, "Look, it looks like there's a stall owner making hot food!"