Siheyuan: Pushing Huairu, the Prime Minister admits defeat

The spring rain is fine, the breeze is blowing, the weather in early spring is as unpredictable as a child's temper. The raindrops are refracted through the lanterns, sparkling like tears.

Because they didn't bring an oil-paper umbrella, both of their clothes were wet.

creak~

Lin Chaosheng walked in front and pushed open the half-open door, shaking off the mud on his clogs. He was so hungry that his mouth watered when he thought about tasting the delicious imperial pastries later.

But when he saw the true appearance of the so-called kitchen, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but twitch.

The whole room was extremely cramped and dim. The paulownia wood cupboard was covered with coarse linen gauze. The only source of light came from the paper-cut lantern in his hand. If it weren't for the gold-plated sign of the kitchen hanging in front of the door, he would have believed Lingying when she said this was a farmer's earthen stove.

"Oh, don't worry about these trivial details. The kitchen of our Yongle Palace was the most elegant and unique in the capital of Qing Dynasty. Unfortunately, it was burned down in a fire later..."

Xiao Lingying seemed to have anticipated Lin Chaosheng's complaints, so she calmly opened the lacquered wooden box, which contained some uniquely shaped cakes and some maltose.

Lin Chaosheng was quite satisfied with this. Although the dining environment was a bit shabby, as long as he could fill his stomach, it didn't matter where he ate, except in a filthy place like a toilet.

Under Xiao Lingying's excited and hopeful gaze, Lin Chaosheng picked up a piece of rabbit-shaped pastry with bamboo chopsticks, put it in his mouth and started chewing it. He had been busy all day and was really hungry.

"How is it? Does it taste good?"

Lingying twisted the corner of her clothes and bit her cheek lightly, just like a child who was eagerly waiting for praise from her parents.

"Why are you looking at me? Do you want me to praise you? It's just an ordinary pastry that can be found everywhere in the capital. Go back to crying. Just now you were worried that the emperor would cut off our monthly allowance, but now you are laughing like nothing happened."

Lin Chaosheng had a blank expression on his face and stuffed a few more pieces into his mouth.

"Ordinary pastries?"

"Ordinary pastries?"

"You actually said it was just an ordinary pastry!"

Lingying lowered her head, and no expression could be seen on her face. She just tightly grasped her skirt with her hands, and her whole body's energy soared.

"Gulu, um, are you okay?"

"I haven't even said a few words yet, why did you suddenly turn evil? I've discovered that there are very few normal people in our palace, and each one is more insane than the other."

Seeing her like this, Lin Chaosheng swallowed the pastry in his mouth with difficulty and was hesitating whether to run away.

The little girl was about to cry and threw herself into his arms: "Wow, three years, three years, Lin Chaosheng, do you know how I have been living these three years!"

Lin Chaosheng was a little at a loss: "Please, I just entered the palace as a eunuch today, how can I know? Otherwise, you stand up first, it's quite heavy on me."

"No, I'm going to say it!"

"For three whole years, everyone in the palace said that the cakes I made were unpalatable. Even the Queen Mother almost vomited after taking a bite. Only you, only you didn't think it was unpalatable."

Xiao Lingying's face was full of memories as she began to talk incessantly about her miserable and heavy career as a lousy chef over the years.

From the initial ignorance when I followed the state banquet chef to learn how to make braised bear paws, to the obscurity of learning how to make spicy jade rabbit head from the chief chef of Yuxuan Pavilion in the capital, to learning how to make garlic cucumber from the maid in the palace who had cooking experience.

Over the years, she firmly believed that her cooking skills had become increasingly sophisticated.

The only thing missing is recognition, recognition from the outside world!

Today, on this lonely rainy night, Lin Chaosheng helped her realize her dream!

Xiao Lingying was secretly delighted and intoxicated.

Lin Chaosheng poured a basin of cold water on him without any hesitation: "Well, I'm just raising a humble opinion. Is the reason why our palace is so poor now because of you and the Queen Mother?"

"Ah?"

Xiao Lingying turned her head away with a stiff expression, very confused.

"Tsk tsk tsk, one is dedicated to promoting the vigorous development of the Ukiyo-e culture of the Great Zhou Dynasty and is willing to spend thousands of ounces of silver to collect a rare copy, while the other can even use high-end ingredients like bear paws. Although he could only practice with garlic and cucumbers later, his sins are grave."

Lin Chaosheng smacked his lips and put the last piece of cake into his mouth: "What's the name of the chef who is good at making spicy jade rabbit head? Tell me, I will try it when I have the chance. Uh, condemn it, condemn it, how can someone have the heart to eat such a cute animal as rabbit!"

With her hand gently supporting her cheek, Xiao Lingying looked thoughtful, as if she was reflecting on her sins.

However, before Lin Chaosheng could feel relieved, she turned around and asked, "Ukiyo-e, what is Ukiyo-e? Does the Queen Mother often buy it to look at?"

"puff!"

The huge contrast made Lin Chaosheng unable to hold it together. The pastry got stuck in his throat and he had a hard time swallowing it. Xiao Lingying was so anxious that she hurriedly looked for well water to save her life. After that, she pushed her abdomen and beat her chest again.

After a busy period, Lin Chaosheng felt tired and got up exhausted, wanting to go back to his side room to rest.

"Lingying, you can do whatever you want. I'm going back to my room to sleep."

Seeing Lin Chaosheng trying to run away, Xiao Lingying's eyes became misty: "Xiao Lin, don't go. Didn't you say that we can have a safe dinner tomorrow? But the palace, the palace is really out of money."

"I only have ten taels of silver in my purse, and I have to save some to buy ingredients for cooking and practice my cooking skills..."

Xiao Lingying's voice became lower and lower. She had a lively and cheerful personality and often acted on whatever she thought of.

One moment he was feeling smug about having his cooking skills recognized, and the next moment he was sad about making a fool of himself at the dinner tomorrow.

To put it nicely, it is simplicity; to put it bluntly, it is the memory of a fish.

"Oh, you mention this, I almost forgot, let me think about it."

Lin Chaosheng paused and frowned, "Do you have straw paper, paulownia wood, and seal carving pigments?"

Although he had saved some money over the years, he had invested it all in shops and businesses. He could not raise more money in a short period of time, so he could only focus on his most valuable Ukiyo-e.

After traveling through time for so many years, he had also studied other painting techniques, but no matter how hard he tried, the landscape paintings he produced were very mediocre and not worth much money.

On the contrary, Ukiyo-e, which was painted in leisure time, was highly sought after. The unique knowledge opened the eyes of the dignitaries in the capital of the Qing Dynasty, who rushed to collect them, and each of them was exhausted.

Therefore, Lin Chaosheng set his sights on Ukiyo-e. He only needed to paint a few of them and mark them with the seal of a young scholar from Jiangling, and it should be more than enough to get ten thousand taels of silver.

However, he overlooked an important factor.

That was because the Yongle Palace was so poor that it lacked supplies and couldn't even afford to support a painter. Not to mention straw cardboard, there weren't even decent brushes and paints.

As the saying goes, a good cook cannot cook without rice. After learning this shocking news, Lin Chaosheng scratched his head and could not think of a solution.

Suddenly, he noticed the skirt of Lingying's body. It had smooth edges and corners. After being dried by the fire, it had a bright luster and felt very comfortable. It was obviously made of high-end fabric.

Lin Chaosheng leaned forward and touched it, and an idea came to his mind.