Chapter 4: Settled

The fresh horse manure emitted a hot, pungent stench, which, mixed with the scent of fresh fodder, kept wafting into Chen Mo's nostrils.

Two Soldiers were working in coordination; one pushed a cart while the other used a shovel to scoop up the manure one by one.

The dozen or so warhorses in the stable were plump and sturdy, their coats sleek and shiny, showing at a glance that their caretaker was quite diligent.

Seeing He Maguan approach, the lead horse let out a cheerful snort, then flicked its tail and dropped two more piles of manure.

"Sigh, good, good, good!" Seeing this, He Maguan walked up and affectionately patted the lead horse's neck.

"Looking at you, you can't shovel manure either. Come with me; I'll take you to make feed," He Maguan said, looking at Chen Mo's skin-and-bones frame.

The two Soldiers shoveling manure heard this and both looked toward Chen Mo, their gazes revealing a faint wariness.

"Master, is this another person here to help?" a sturdy Soldier shoveling manure asked with a smile.

"Yes," He Maguan replied casually, and led Chen Mo to a shack beside the stable.

Inside the shack, a stove and firewood were all ready, looking just like a small kitchen.

"Do you know how to make steamed corn buns?" He Maguan asked, bringing over two bags of flour.

"I do," Chen Mo nodded repeatedly, unable to stop himself from swallowing his saliva.

Being able to make steamed corn buns meant he had a chance to steal some to eat.

"Twenty catties of white flour to seven catties of cornmeal, add three taels of salt, two spoonfuls of oil, and fifteen eggs," He Maguan recited the rough recipe for the feed.

Warhorses were far more precious than people, so naturally, they ate better than people did.

Chen Mo went straight to work; having sold himself into service before, he was familiar with these odd jobs.

Kneading dough required a lot of strength, so He Maguan stepped in to help him directly.

"Where did you flee from?" He Maguan skillfully shaped a bun and placed it on the steamer tray.

"He'an County, Qingzhou," Chen Mo reported the only place name he knew.

"That's from the north. Back in the day, I also fled from the north; I was about your age then."

Perhaps seeing someone with a similar plight, He Maguan became more talkative, discussing many things from the past.

Chen Mo responded half-heartedly, his mind mostly focused on the buns in his hands.

If not for He Maguan being there the whole time, he would have wanted to eat two raw ones to pad his stomach.

Five large steamer baskets of buns were soon placed on the stove, and He Maguan held his waist and slowly stood up from the stool.

"These buns need to steam for a while; once they're cooked, take them out and let them cool," he instructed before heading outside, though his footsteps suddenly stopped.

"Don't steal too many to eat; be careful not to burst yourself." He had survived a famine and knew what it was like to go hungry.

The reason he was leaving now was specifically to give Chen Mo a chance to steal some food, to let him pad his stomach first.

But he also understood that someone who had been starving might truly eat themselves to death the first time they ate.

"Many thanks, Master He, I know my limits," Chen Mo thanked him earnestly, deeply moved; he knew the other man was looking after him.

A mouthful of food might not be considered precious, but to him right now, it was extremely important.

He Maguan said nothing more and left the shack with his hands behind his back.

Steam billowed from the stove, drifting out in layer after layer of thick white mist.

Chen Mo waited anxiously on the side, feeling as though time was passing extremely slowly.

After a long while, the buns were finally seven or eight-tenths cooked.

Chen Mo couldn't care about anything else; he first used chopsticks to take out two, put them into the well water in a basin to cool, and then swallowed them whole.

The steamed buns were so delicious!

Chen Mo took out two more and swallowed them down in the same way.

With four buns in his stomach, his whole body warmed up; Chen Mo felt as if he had come back to life, his mind became sharper, and his focus finally returned.

Using wood ash to smother the stove fire, Chen Mo hurriedly lifted the steamer baskets one by one and waited for the buns to cool.

In the process of waiting, he naturally couldn't help but steal some to eat; each bun weighed over two taels.

Chen Mo ate twelve or thirteen more in a row until his stomach was round, and only then did he stop.

Although he could still eat more, he was afraid of bursting himself and dared not eat any further.

He could sense that as this food was digested by his body, wisps of Qi and Blood power were slowly flowing into the Transformation Pearl.

"When these buns have cooled, come with me to feed the horses." He Maguan walked over pushing a wheelbarrow for feeding horses; seeing that Chen Mo was no longer eating the buns, a hint of appreciation couldn't help but appear in his eyes.

After a long period of starvation, being able to maintain self-control in the face of food was a rather rare temperament.

"Alright," Chen Mo replied, taking the time while the buns were cooling to clean and tidy up the shack.

He Maguan leisurely lit his dry tobacco pipe, looking at Chen Mo with great satisfaction; someone who was diligent and had a good work ethic would never be a nuisance wherever they went.

The shack was cleaned, the buns had cooled, and they were poured into the wheelbarrow one after another; Chen Mo then took the initiative to push the cart toward the stable.

"This kind of fine grain is usually fed twice a day; from now on, you will be responsible for it." Walking into the stable, He Maguan gave detailed instructions and ordered Chen Mo to pour the buns into the troughs respectively.

"When pouring, make sure the amounts aren't too different, otherwise they'll get agitated," He Maguan said with a smile, patting the head of one of the horses.

After feeding the horses, He Maguan arranged a place for Chen Mo to stay.

He would live in a barracks room on the left side of the stable with another groom; although the smell was a bit unpleasant, it was still better than the large communal beds where dozens of other Soldiers lived.

The bedding was already there; although he didn't know who had left it, it was washed reasonably clean.

Aside from a few sets of clothes, Chen Mo had no other personal belongings; He Maguan gave him a towel for washing, two hairbands, and a coarse porcelain bowl for eating and drinking.

He was thus considered temporarily settled.

…………

…………

Half a month passed in a flash; Chen Mo finally had a bit more flesh on his body, and his complexion gradually became ruddy.

"Finish that later, come eat first," Ma Cai shouted, carrying a basin of mixed stew and twenty mixed-flour steamed buns.

Hearing the voice, Chen Mo hurriedly rinsed his hands in the horse-watering trough.

"What are we eating today?" he asked, looking toward Ma Cai.

During this period, the two had been living in the same room, and their relationship was getting along quite well.

"Radish stewed with cabbage," Ma Cai said, looking slightly helpless.

"Why the hell is it this again? We've been eating it for four or five days!" another groom, Ding Bao, couldn't help but complain.

"The Colonel's family vegetable patch grew quite a lot, so they just sold the vegetables to the mess hall," Ma Cai said, lowering his voice.

"When will this Colonel of ours ever do something decent!" Ding Bao shouted angrily.

Things like drinking the soldiers' blood were already commonplace, and these common soldiers could only complain in private.

"Stop talking, lest someone hears you," Chen Mo reminded him with a cautious look on his face.

There was no scheming between the three of them, mainly because there was nothing worth fighting over.

Ma Cai had a robust physique and some connections in the army; coming to raise horses was just a temporary transition, and he would be transferred sooner or later.

Chen Mo only cared about eating; as long as he could get a full meal, everything else was fine.

Ding Bao had a straightforward temperament and spoke without thinking, but he was not a bad person.

Plus, the three were not far apart in age, so during this time, Chen Mo had gotten along quite harmoniously with the two of them.

The food was placed on the table and served into bowls, and the three of them waited together for Horse Official He Maguan to arrive.

"Eat up, everyone," He Maguan said, carrying a bowl of tea made with eggs and adding quite a bit of sugar to it before sitting at the table to invite the three to eat.

This was his habit; he had to drink a bowl of egg-sugar water every day, a luxury that even many small landlords might not be able to enjoy.

Chen Mo, however, had already started eating; to be honest, the taste of this meal and the steamed buns was not even as good as the horse feed.

But with every extra bite of food he ate, he could accumulate a wisp of Qi and Blood, and as his physical condition improved, the amount of Qi and Blood he could accumulate each day also increased.

He didn't know if it was because his body needed nutrition after being hungry for so long, or because of the Transformation Pearl, but he could eat much more now than before he transmigrated.

"Your physique is considered a bit more robust now; tomorrow, go with Ding Bao and the others to shovel horse manure," He Maguan instructed.

The most arduous task in feeding horses was undoubtedly shoveling horse manure; one horse produced twenty or thirty catties a day, and a dozen horses meant nearly four hundred catties of horse manure.

Having to shovel them up one by one and haul them away was no light task.

When Chen Mo first arrived, he was too thin and weak to do it.

Now that he had been recovering for half a month, it would be inappropriate not to go and do it.

"Alright," Chen Mo said, swallowing the steamed bun that was a bit rough on his throat.

Ding Bao and Ma Cai looked at each other; it was clear they had something on their minds, but it wasn't a good time to speak up.

(End of this chapter)