CHAPTER 36: THE MEAT DILEMMA

As Sui He tidied up nearby, she said, "Your Highness, we only have forty coins of monthly silver left."

Yue Mingxuan coughed. "Forty coins? How much can that buy?"

He had no idea about the value of money in this ancient world.

Sui He sighed and pouted.

As expected of the prince, he only knew how to spend, not how to save.

"Tonight’s meal alone cost thirty coins," she said helplessly.

"What?" Yue Mingxuan was shocked.

There hadn’t even been chicken or fish, not even a bit of minced meat.

If he hadn’t been so hungry, he would have started scolding someone on the spot.

A meal without meat, could that even be called a proper meal?

"How long until the next monthly pay?" Yue Mingxuan looked at her hopefully, praying she would say "tomorrow."

But fate clearly enjoyed teasing him.

From the moment he had fallen into this strange ancient world, nothing had gone smoothly.

"Your Highness, you just received it ten days ago," Sui He said softly. "There’s still a long way to go before next month."

"What? That can’t be! Without meat, I can’t even eat properly." Yue Mingxuan frowned deeply. "What about the silver from before?"

"Before, it was all handled by Sister Su Jin," Sui He said, looking aggrieved. "When I took over this month, there wasn’t much left. And lately, Your Highness has been asking for chicken and meat every day, so..."

Her voice trailed off pitifully. The allowance was already small, yet the prince blamed her for spending too much on food.

Yue Mingxuan lived in the palace grounds.

Every few days, the palace would send fresh vegetables and meat to each residence.

Each courtyard had its own small kitchen where meals could be prepared.

However, Yue Mingxuan didn’t have a good reputation.

The ingredients sent to his quarters were always the worst. It was wilted vegetables and meat was nearly impossible to get.

The old Yue Mingxuan had never been picky about food.

Uncle Wu who is in charge of cooking was skilled enough to make even bad vegetables taste delicious.

But ever since the new Yue Mingxuan began insisting on eating meat, poor Sui He had been struggling to keep up, relying only on their monthly allowance.

That pitiful amount of silver was barely enough to last a few meals.

"Alright, alright. I’ll figure something out!" Yue Mingxuan waved his hand and signaling Sui He to leave.

When she was gone, he propped his chin on his hand deep in thought.

Where could he find some meat to eat?

...

Tonight, the weather was unusually pleasant.

The moonlight outside the window spilled softly into the room as if covered by a thin veil and It’s looked elegant and dreamlike.

After staring blankly for a while, Yue Mingxuan suddenly stood up and walked toward the wardrobe.

Just then, Sui He came in with a tray of tea. Seeing this, she asked curiously, "Young Master, what are you doing?"

"You said there wasn’t any food left, didn’t you? I suddenly remembered there are some wild vegetables growing behind the mountain. I’ll go dig some up," Yue Mingxuan replied after a short pause.

Wait, hadn’t he just told her to go rest? Why was she back again?

Sui He frowned and quickly stopped him. "Those mountains are restricted areas. You must not go there."

Especially since a strange and powerful person was said to live there.

Was Yue Mingxuan trying to get himself killed? Or had he lost his senses for the night?

"Alright, go back to sleep. I’m going to rest too," Yue Mingxuan said impatiently.

"If you’re worried about food, I’ll find a way to sell some jewelry tomorrow. We’ll get through this. But that mountain, Young Master, you must never go near it," Sui He warned again still feeling uneasy.

"I know, I know. I’m too tired to climb any mountains anyway."

Yue Mingxuan waved her off casually.

Once she finally left, he went to the wardrobe and pulled out a simple and practical outfit to wear.

A restricted area? Nonsense, it was just a burial site, just like the royal family’s ancestral tomb.

Where there were mountains, there were valuable herbs.

The "wild vegetables" were just an excuse.

If he could find a few rare herbs, he could sell them and easily cover food expenses for the rest of the month or even longer.

After changing his clothes, Yue Mingxuan blew out the candles and swiftly climbed out the window.

For the sake of his own survival, he was willing to take the risk.

However, he just left too quickly and completely forgot to put on a disguise!

Yue Mingxuan was not foolish enough to sneak past the heavily guarded back gate.

Instead, he used a large tree as cover while taking a few quick steps between the tree and the wall before climbing over the high palace wall.

The palace was enormous and he didn’t dare to pass through the inner courtyards.

Fortunately, his courtyard was located at the far end of the palace. Using the shadow of the outer wall for cover, he managed to slip outside after half an hour.

After letting out a quiet sigh of relief, Yue Mingxuan adjusted his clothes.

He then determined his direction and started toward the mountains.

An hour later, he finally reached the base of the range.

When he looking up, he saw peaks upon peaks one to the left, one to the right, one straight ahead and two more off to the sides.

These mountains were far larger than he had expected.

The bigger, the better, he thought.

The larger the area, the more scattered the guards and the easier it would be to gather what he wanted.

But... which mountain should he choose?

Standing at the foot of the range with his hands on his hips, Yue Mingxuan rubbed his aching forehead.

It was a hard decision.

If he knew how to read the land’s energy, he could tell which peak was used for burials and definitely the one to avoid.

Still, there was another way.