CH 24

It was not surprising that their boss had lunch. After all, Hou Furen1 loved her son dearly, so it was not surprising that she came here to deliver lunch or something.

They find it strange how Zhao You has so much grease on his mouth. What did he eat to have that?

Liu Yuan and the others were stunned, and when they came back to their senses, they couldn’t help asking curiously: “Zhao You, what did you eat?”

“Oh, it’s dòujiāng and yóutiáo!” Zhao You burped after eating, not waiting for others to speak, he said, “I’m going out for some errands, so I’ll leave first!”

In the blink of an eye, he ran off and disappeared. Liu Yuan and the others looked at each other and couldn’t help but wonder, “We all know what dòujiāng is, but what is this ‘yóutiáo’ he mentioned?”

It’s a pity that Zhao You had already run far away, and no one could explain the question.

After Liu Yuan and the others who went out for lunch had left, the door of the inner room opened, and Lin Fei walked out. He called out to a passing servant and said, “I have something for you to do!”

………

But Master Wang, who had gone outside to buy soy milk, deliberately bypassed the public kitchen.

“Well, you Wang Junshan, how dare you play tricks on me!” Master Wang was taken aback and hurriedly dodged with the soy milk in hand, but the stick pointed at the head and hit him violently.

While dodging in a hurry, the hot soybean milk spilled out and splashed all over the two of them, and they couldn’t help crying loudly in pain.

It was only when the wailing sounded that it was interrupted by a voice from outside.

“You two have the nerve to fight?” Ji Caimai walked in from the outside with a cold face, holding a bowl of public chef’s food in his hand, and threw it at Master Sun.

When Master Sun, who was about to avoid him, saw Ji Caimai’s cold face, he had no choice but to accept the bowl of food that slammed his face.

Looking at the inexplicably funny Master Sun who was covered in food, Ji Caimai sneered: “I turn a blind eye to those dirty thoughts on normal days, what’s going on?”

Usually, he just let them go! As long as they didn’t make a big fuss, he didn’t care.

After all, there were intrigues everywhere, even a place as big as the public chef’s palm. If you didn’t even have the skills to deal with the intrigue among several cooks in the public kitchen, then what kind of cook should you be?

It was very tiring to have him uphold justice all day long.

But today’s encounter was simply…

Ji Caimai’s face was extremely ugly, and he stopped Master Wang who was moving his feet and wanted to slip away, and said, “Wang Junshan, where do you think you’re sneaking off to? You knew that Master Wen took some soybeans yesterday to make soy milk. Did you deliberately instigate Sun Dingren to take all the sugar?”

Wang Master moved his lips and instinctively tried to defend himself, saying, “I just accidentally let it slip to Sun Dingren that Master Wen was going to make soy milk…”

“Still trying to argue?” Ji Caimai couldn’t help but stepped forward and kicked him, “What? Do you want Lin Shaoqing to interrogate you in person?”

Master Wang and Master Sun, who were about to argue, suddenly changed their faces when they heard the word “Lin Shaoqing”: How could… how could Lin Shaoqing be alarmed?

“As far as your dirty thoughts are concerned, Lin Shaoqing can see through them with just one glance.” Ji Caimai scolded, “It alarmed Lin Shaoqing, do you still want to do it?”

Master Wang and Master Sun’s faces were pale and gray: they still remember the incident of Zhou’s cook last time…

“What kind of lunch and dinner are you making…” Ji Caimai cursed, and then pointed to their noses and cursed, “From now on, the things sent from Zhuangzi, Master Wen will pick first, and the two of you can pick the rest!”

Master Wang and Master Sun’s expressions changed slightly, but before they could speak, Ji Caimai turned around and walked away with his hands behind his back.

…………

Master Wang and Master Sun, who had been beaten a lot, were honest all afternoon. When Wen Mingtang was called to pick vegetables, she couldn’t help being stunned when he saw a piece of green vegetables and a basket full of eggs in the basket.

Ji Caimai smiled at the side and said: “Yesterday I asked them to pick first, and I heard that the two of them snatched it faster than anyone else, so I left some unneeded dried seafood for you. You pick first today!”

Is that so? Wen Mingtang glanced at Ji Caimai in some surprise: “But what happened to the two masters?”

Wen Mingtang didn’t quite believe that Ji Caimai, who turned a blind eye and closed his eyes, would come to take care of her on purpose. Most likely, there was something wrong with those two.

Ji Caimai didn’t shy away from hearing the words and said straightforwardly: “Yesterday, Lin Shaoqing found out about the sugar matter, and he especially found someone to talk to me about it. The way those two people did it was really nasty! From now on, you will be the first to pick the vegetables that come from Zhuangzi!”

Wen Mingtang understood. It turned out that it was not because of taking care of her, but because he had to give a face to Lin Shaoqing!

Shaking her head, she looked down at the vegetables in the basket.

While watching, Ji Caimai said “Oh” and said, “That’s right! The people in the village just came over and said that Dao Ming’er is going out, so you can just pick according to the two-day supply.”

Wen Mingtang paused while looking at the vegetables, looked down at the vegetables in the basket that had been counted for two days but did not increase the quantity, hesitated for a moment, and took two things in front of Ji Caimai.

A big handful of young spring onions with a few pumpkins.

Huh? Just these few things? Ji Caimai raised his eyebrows, couldn’t help but looked at Wen Mingtang, and asked one more question: “Only these, Master Wen?”

Wen Mingtang nodded, looked up at Ji Caimai, and said with a smile, “Since it’s a two-day portion, let’s save some for lunch and dinner!”

Seeing that she only picked some pumpkins and left with a bunch of fresh and tender spring onions, which were only used as garnishes and were of no use, Ji Caimai nodded, obviously very satisfied with her sense of humor.

When Wen Mingtang returned to the public kitchen with the shallots and pumpkins, Ah Bing and Tangyuan, who had been waiting there, greeted her, looked curiously at the things she had brought, and asked, “Master Wen, what are you doing tomorrow? Will it be pumpkin sprinkled with spring onions?”

“No.” Wen Mingtang shook his head and said, “Spring onions are spring onions, pumpkins are pumpkins, two things. This is for two days!”

Huh? That was all for two days? The two kitchen helpers were stunned.

Wen Mingtang reached out and picked the fresh and tender scallions, and said: “Tomorrow, eat the green onions first, and the vegetables with green leaves will not stay fresh long before making pumpkins.”

Although they didn’t know what Wen Mingtang was going to make with the pumpkins, they at least had some idea. But how could these green onions be eaten?

“Will the spring onion be sprinkled on the pancake or on the noodles?” Ah Bing asked in surprise.

Wen Mingtang shook her head and said, “None, make noodles with scallion oil!”