How can I bow my head and serve the powerful officials?

Xie Chengze came to the back kitchen of the county government office, rummaged around for a while, and soon found the leftover dough for making dumplings.

"Fortunately, I don't have to work hard to knead the dough."

Xie Chengze rolled up his sleeves and washed his hands briefly. Then he fished in the frozen mutton that was placed in the refrigerator outside the kitchen window, cut off enough mutton for two people to taste, and stuffed it back in.

Then he sliced ​​and shredded the mutton on the chopping board and started to mince it. When it was almost done, he added half an egg and stirred it together, then added some chopped green onions and the spices prepared by the chef.

Heat oil in a pan, put a piece of scallion and local spices in it. After squeezing out the aroma, Xie Chengze scooped out the spice residue and poured the hot oil into the mixed mutton filling. This not only removes the mutton smell, but also brings out the aroma of the meat and the spices.

After stirring again in the same direction, Xie Chengze began to cut the dough and roll out the dough. In fact, his skill in making dumplings was very average. He only learned it from the aunt of the B&B when he visited Northeast China in his previous life. Compared with making dumplings, his hometown eats glutinous rice balls during the Chinese New Year, so Xie Chengze is good at making glutinous rice balls. It's a pity that there is no glutinous rice here, so Xie Chengze can't make it.

After rolling out the dumpling skin a little clumsily, Xie Chengze's little hands had turned red from the cold. He was the only one in the kitchen, with a lonely candle lit. Under the dim candlelight, he stared intently at the dumpling skin in his hand, stuffed it with mutton stuffing little by little, and then carefully pinched and folded it.

After making a dumpling, he looked at it carefully as if he were appreciating a rare treasure, and then exclaimed: "It's so ugly!"

Ugly dumplings should be eaten by Stinky Shen Yuan.

He must have something to do with Li Dongyao's incident! Otherwise, why would he be so gloating?

Putting the ugly dumpling aside, Xie Chengze continued to make dumplings diligently. After he had wrapped all the dumpling stuffing, he lit a fire to boil water and put all the dumplings in.

"It smells quite good." After the dumplings floated up three times, Xie Chengze fished them out and put them in a plate. He then beat the remaining egg liquid with the dumpling water into egg soup and poured it into the bowl. Just as he was about to put the lid on, he felt two shadows cast over his head.

"Your Highness."

"Your Highness~"

Two voices, one cold and one warm, a hand landed on each shoulder, the warmth flowed through his arms, warming his frozen red hands.

"Don't we have any New Year's presents?"

"Your Highness, please don't be partial~"

Xie Chengze: ...

Why do we need New Year gifts?!

I am very poor!

"How about... let you try one?" Xie Chengze had no choice but to point to the dumplings in the food box. He had made ten dumplings in total...

"This full of feelings, after all, was misplaced..." Wu Ji turned around and sat down next to the stove, raised his wrist and pretended to wipe tears, "Your Highness, in order to deliver the message for you, I have been sleepless day and night, sleeping in the open air, and the cold wind fills my chest and it feels so cold... Can I only eat one dumpling?"

"It seems that Shen Yuan is the insider." Wuhen let go of his hand, and his usually calm voice also had a hint of loss, "We are outsiders after all."

Xie Chengze: ...

"How could that be?" Xie Chengze laughed dryly, and quickly pushed the food box to the two of them, "Each of you eat three! How about that? For the remaining four, Shen Yuan and I will each have two, so that he won't eat as much as you guys!"

"You are the ones I trust the most~" the young man vowed, "You and I are the best in the world~!"

Wu Ji then curled the corners of his lips, jumped off the stove, picked around in the plate of dumplings, and finally selected the three best-looking dumplings.

Wuhen also deliberately avoided the ugliest dumpling and selected three dumplings with nice shapes and put them on the plate he brought.

Xie Chengze looked at the six most beautiful dumplings on their plates reluctantly, "Then...you guys eat first, I'll go back to the room first?"

"Your Highness, please take care~"

"Your Highness, walk slowly."

Xie Chengze had no choice but to cover the food box and leave the kitchen.

He comforted himself, "It's okay, it's okay. There are still four left. The other three are not that ugly..."

"What four?"

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice sounded, startling Xie Chengze. The food box in his hand almost fell into the snow. Fortunately, a pair of hands helped him catch the food box steadily, "Second Prince."

The hand that was stretched out had sleeves of a purple official robe, and the person belonged to someone in the palace.

Xie Chengze raised his eyes, and immediately met a pair of extremely aggressive phoenix eyes. Even though they were full of smiles, it was difficult to conceal the pride in those eyes. It was a sense of superiority that came from being extremely confident in one's own conditions, an arrogance that anyone with a little inferiority complex could not pretend to have.

That face also looked relatively young, about 27 or 28 years old, and extremely superior. His eyebrows were high, his nose was straight, and his facial features were full of smugness, which made his already handsome face even more flamboyant. However, due to his age and experience, he was not as innocent and frivolous as a teenager, but was truly full of vigor and vitality.

There is a saying in the court.

If you want to have a son, you should have one like the Huai River in the prosperous times.

He entered the imperial court at the age of 20, and in just eight years he became the Director of the Salt and Iron Department, controlling the direction of the entire Jian'an Salt, Iron and Tea industry. He managed the Salt and Iron Department in an orderly manner, with almost no mistakes. Even many of the rare treasures in the Chenghuan Palace were found by the Salt and Iron Department as tributes, which shows that the power behind him should not be underestimated.

Although he is such a capable person, Xie Chengze felt a chill on his back and his hair stood up.

only because……

"It turned out to be Envoy Sheng."

Xie Chengze clenched the food box with his ten fingers, and raised the corners of his mouth pretending to be calm, "These are the dumplings I made, Envoy Sheng, would you like to try them?"

After saying that, he immediately slapped himself in his heart.

Xie Chengze! What are you talking about! No matter how nervous you are, you can't make a blunder by asking someone to eat dumplings!

There are only four dumplings left!

However, the words had already been spoken, and Sheng Shihuai raised an inexplicable smile at the corner of his mouth, "I didn't expect that I would have such a good fortune. Since it would be disrespectful to refuse, then I will accept your kindness, Your Highness."

After saying that, he pointed to a side room and said, "It's cold here, why don't we go inside and enjoy together, what do you think, Your Highness?"

Xie Chengze looked at him, then looked at the room.

He had expected Sheng Shihuai to look for him, but he didn't expect him to come so early.

Well, let's "chat" with him first.

He nodded. "Okay."

Walking up to the side room, Xie Chengze did not push open the door, but raised his chin proudly, "Envoy Sheng, open the door."

The smile on Sheng Shihuai's face faded for a moment, but he still raised his hand and opened the door for Xie Chengze.

Xie Chengze laughed in his heart.

Sheng Shihuai was an extremely arrogant person with high expectations and was always unwilling to be inferior to others. Naturally, he would not be happy since he had just been so arrogant as to ask him to open the door and serve him.

But, in order to cooperate with himself, he had no choice but to endure it.