CH 15

Chapter 15-Name Card

There was a night curfew in the capital, and the East Street was gradually deserted after supper time.

Su Yu marinated the ingredients to be used for tomorrow, counted today’s income, packed up his things, and left Xianmantang.

In the alley outside the back kitchen, there wasn’t a single soul in sight, and while walking on the road you could hear the echo of your own footsteps.

“Who?” A dark shadow passed behind him. Su Yu suddenly turned back but found nothing.

He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed and said to himself.

“Sauce, you won’t come back to see me either…”

It had been nearly a month since Sauce disappeared. At first, he was worried that the fierce Secret Guard was so rough that he couldn’t take good care of his cat.

Until King Zhao told him that he had seen Sauce in the palace and that the little guy was having a pretty good life, which made him feel a little relieved. But when Su Yu asked if Sauce was the nation's guardian divine beast, King Zhao’s expression was strange.

With a sigh, Su Yu looked around again and turned to leave. His thin silhouette looked more and more lonely in the moonlight.

After walking out of the alley, a touch of gold emerged from the thick leaves. His amber eyes were like colored glass in the moonlight, quietly watching Su Yu’s back drift away.

The Su family’s house was still cold and cheerless. Although Su Yu had made a lot of money recently, he had not added any more servants to his house.

After all, as a modern man, he doesn’t need them at all. It seemed that life was getting tighter and tighter in the branch family, and two old servants had resigned in a row.

He heard that his aunt still wanted to sell his uncle’s yatou, which made a lot of noise.

Su Yu was busy with Xianmantang everyday, he didn’t have time to pay attention to these trivial things at home.

He listened to Zhao Shi’s words every morning when he got up, and most of them go in one ear and out the other.

His uncle was sitting in the courtyard to cool off. When he saw Su Yu coming in, he coughed softly.

“Yu’er, come here. Uncle has something to tell you.”

Su Yu hadn’t seen Su Xiaozhang for some time, he looked a little more haggard than before. He secretly thought that the matter of the title had taken a wrong turn again.

Although he didn’t like to see this uncle of his, he still showed a decent face, and he respectfully walked forward to salute.

“What can I do for you uncle?”

“The Zongzheng Department has posted an official notice, the Consort Selection is at the beginning of the next month.” Su Xiaozhang looked at Su Yu’s face and was unable to make out his state of mind so he had no alternative but to go on.

“The royal family has always had few male Imperial Concubines. If you are chosen it’s fine, but if not you’ll lose face.” As he said this, he looked askance at Su Yu’s expression.

Seeing that he was still calm he couldn’t help grinding his teeth. The little bastard didn’t get caught up, did he really think he could be chosen in the selection?

Su Yu naturally understood that his uncle was afraid that he would go to the Consort Selection and wanted to nip the problem in the bud. However, although his uncle’s words were misleading, there was also a grain of truth.

To let him, a man, participate in a beauty pageant and give people a good impression, with his lack of skills in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, he can only kill fish and cook. He would certainly be severely despised, and when he lost the selection, this would leave a dark mark in his second life.

In the future, Xianmantang opened all over the country. When people talk about the rich history of boss Su Yu, they will say that this boy participated in the Imperial Palace’s Imperial Concubine Selection, and was thrown out at the first pass. He was angry and worked hard to make his fortune and only then did he achieve what he is today.

Seeing Su Yu’s absent-minded appearance, Su Xiaozhang became angry and raised his voice.

“Do you know why so many noble children don’t hand over their name cards? If they really participate in the selection, it will be a problem to talk about marriage in the future!”

“Oh.” Su Yu gave a clear answer.

“Uncle is right. In that case, let’s quickly persuade my cousin to get married, to avoid being ordered by the Zongzheng Department.” He didn’t even hand over the name card, uncle’s worry was superfluous, but Su Yu didn’t intend to tell him so kindly.

Su Xiaoxhang choked so much that he couldn’t speak for a long time.

“If there’s nothing else, this Nephew will go and have a rest first.” Su Yu was too lazy to say more, and after all the courtesy, he waved his sleeves and left.

The room was empty, the night in late spring was a little cold. Su Yu lay on the bed and sighed.

The Su family couldn’t let him rest for a few days, he really didn’t want to fight for the title of a third-class general. His dream was to open a chain of seafood restaurants, but no one understands it.

In this strange time and space, probably only the kitten would listen to his nonsense.

The sky gradually became gloomy, in the second half of the night the moonlight was covered by dark clouds, it was pitch black. It was a moonless windy killer night. Such a night made people inexplicably uneasy.

Su Yu didn’t sleep very well. In his sleep, he unconsciously grasped the quilt corner. In the middle of the night, he vaguely felt that someone was lifting his quilt.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and saw a small furball tucking its head on the quilt and trying to drill in.

It’s like waking up in the middle of the night to see Santa stuffing gifts into his socks. There was no better surprise than this!

Su Yu held his breath, he could not see clearly without the moonlight, he just felt the fluffy guy burrowing into the quilt, turning directions flexibly, and revealing his small head.

With some disgust, he pulled Su Yu’s arm. After thinking for a while, he lay down and put his head on it.

Just as he put his head in place, a pair of soft and warm lips pressed on the top of his head.

“Sauce!” Su Yu rubbed his mouth against his head and whispered.

The kitten on his arm stiffened for a moment.

He immediately lifted his paw and pressed it against the warm mouth. He rubbed his head against Su Yu’s undershirt. Damn it, he got his hair wet again!

“Sauce, I’m so glad you’re back!” Su Yu kissed the meat pad beside his mouth and tried to rub his belly excitedly.

“Meow!” The kitten on his arm couldn’t bear it. He jumped up and crouched on the pillow, looking at him angrily.

Stupid slave, how dare you be frivolous with Us!

“Okay, okay, I won’t bother you anymore.” Su Yu smiled foolishly. He put his face close to the cat’s paw, looked up at the commanding cat, blinked his eyes, and whispered after a long time.

“Sauce, I miss you so much.”

Stupid thing…

The amber eyes were still cold, but a pair of furry ears had turned red. He shook his tail and turned around pointing his butt at Su Yu.

Really, although I already knew that you stupid slave admired Us for a long time, it’s really indecent to say so frankly.

“Where did that man take you that day? Do you really live in the palace? How did you get out?” Su Yu was immersed in the happiness of his recovery, sticking to the warm Maomao and muttering to himself.

Hmph! Didn’t you just want to win my pity by acting stupid in the alley?

An Hongche shook his tail, lay on his paws, and yawned. Listening to Su Yu’s mumbling voice he soon fell asleep.

Tomorrow We have to go to court, We will get up before dawn. We have no time to listen to stupid slaves playing coquettish.

The next day, Su Yu opened his eyes with happiness but found that there was nothing on the pillow and his heart felt cold.

Was it a dream last night?

After sitting in a daze for a while, he suddenly found a light on his hair. Looking down he saw several golden hairs twinkling in the morning sun.

The corners of his mouth began to rise up. Su Yu took off the cat’s fur and pinched it at his fingertips. At this time, he really believed that Sauce was not an ordinary cat, he had an extremely high spiritual nature.

Is it really the nation’s guardian divine beast…

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀❀

After breakfast, he went to greet Zhao Shi as usual, and happen to meet Su Zhi who also came to pay respects to her.

“Second brother…” Su Zhi was still shy and hesitated as if she had something to say.

“Xiao Zhi, what’s the matter?” Su Yu looked at his thin and weak little sister and couldn’t help but lighten his tone.

“This…” Su Zhi bit her lip and took out a royal blue embroidered pouch from her sleeve, which looked like a man’s style.

“For me?” Su Yu took it over and looked carefully.

A cloud pattern was embroidered with a silver thread. It was simple yet exquisite. At the closing point, a silver soft rope was used to make a five good fortune(福) tie, which was very unique.

“I just learned to embroider a few days ago, the embroidery is not good enough.” Su Zhi twisted her sleeves, a little nervous.

“It’s so beautiful, did you make this?” Su Yu was surprised.

Speaking of it, Su Zhi has been studying needlework for less than a month, and with such achievements, she could be called a prodigy.

“Oh, tieing a string bag was something I could do before. ” Hearing the praise, Su Zhi’s face finally showed a smile.

When Zhao Shi heard their voices from the room, she came out and called them in.

“The Zongzheng Department has started to review the list, I think they’ll come to announce it in a few days.” Although Zhao Shi was in the inner house, she got the information not slower than Su Xiaozhang.

After looking at Su Yu, she was a little worried.

“Did you hand over your name card?”

Of course, I didn’t hand it over.

Su Yu replied vaguely and said that he did. In fact, he still doesn’t know which way the Zongzheng Department’s gate opens.

“I have some summer clothes cut for you, take them and try them on.” Zhao Shi happily opened the cloth bag on the table and revealed several high-quality clothes inside.

Xianmantang’s business was booming. He made a net profit of more than 20 taels per day, excluding expenses. After 37 days, Su Yu can get seven or eight taels of silver, which was comparable to what he earned in two or three months when he sold fish.

At last, the days were finally getting better. The clothes Zhao Shi cut for Su Yu were no longer limited to cheap hemp cloth and even he dared to buy a foot or two of silver brocade.

“I’m in the kitchen every day, where do I use this.” Su Yu looked at the wide sleeves.

He couldn’t imagine how he looked wearing silk and satin sleeves and holding a ladle. The two little apprentices would probably die of laughter.

“It must look good on brother.” Su Zhi picked up a set of aqua blue clothes, her little face flushed with excitement. Girls were always interested in beautiful things.

Unable to beat the mother and daughter, Su Yu had to change his clothes behind the screen.

Su Zhi tiptoed to put a crown on him, two strands of tassels on the crown hung softly between the blue silk. The silver-bordered belt was buckled at the waist, and the water blue cheongsam was tightly tied and it was covered with a wide-sleeved muslin coat.

The figure was slender and the face was like a crown of jade. In an instant, he had changed from a fish seller to a beautiful young master.

✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦✦

yatou->servant girl / used deprecatingly, but sometimes also as a term of endearment

Maomao->pet name for a baby or small child

cheongsam->traditional Asian dress for men