Rice and meat were good things they could only eat during festivals and holidays. Eggs, on the other hand, appeared on the table now and then, but eggs cooked together with meat like this were almost unheard of.
Even though Pan Yun's cooking was quite ordinary, with enough oil and salt, meat and eggs, she could not possibly make a bad dish. In any case, the children felt this was the most delicious meal they had ever eaten.
There was a huge pot of rice and a huge pot of dishes. The four of them ate only until they were seventy percent full, while each of the remaining eight children ate until their bellies were round as drums.
They had eaten too much to move and could only recline halfway back to digest their food.
Pan Yun sat in the courtyard with them, basking in the sun to aid digestion and chatting along the way.
After a hearty, delicious meal, the children regarded them as one of their own. Whatever Pan Yun asked about, they answered.
That was how they learned that they were all military households. The garrison camp was more than forty li away, but the soldiers' families were scattered throughout the surrounding area. All the land outside belonged to the "lords," and they lived here in order to farm it for those lords.
Pan Yun asked, "Since you are military households, shouldn't your reclaimed fields be for the garrison? Why are you farming land for the 'lords'?"
Though the question seemed profound, the children might have been young, but they were not stupid.
Adults always assumed they were too young to understand anything, so they never avoided them when speaking. In truth, even if the children did not understand, they remembered. They might even come to see