North and South groceries

In the 11th year of Zhenguan, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, when the morning drum first sounded, as soon as the door of Guangdefang opened, a carriage drove out slowly, and three other people trotted and fell behind the carriage.

"That's not Xu's servant next to the saint. Why was he also in Guangde Square last night?"

"The person in the car is..."

"No, the saint did not leave the palace last night."

"Even if the saint goes out of the palace, he will not be accompanied by that servant Xu."

"Who is in that car?"

"Who is there? Yesterday I saw that Nei Xu entered the Ma's guest house. It must be because of the cake. He didn't buy it last time."

"I think Naluo made some coffin boards for the palace last night."

"Some?" Someone laughed and said, "Yesterday I lived in the Ma's guesthouse. When I got up this morning, I happened to see Xu's servants carrying a cake as big as his arms folded into the carriage. It was double-decker. There are many flowers on it."

"really?"

"There is no chance to see it."

"It's better not to see it. Just those few palm-sized cakes almost wiped out my salary. How can I eat another one as big as my arms folded."

"Hey, it's better not to see it, it's better not to see it."

"I hurried into the palace this early in the morning. Could it be that I want to invite all the ministers to eat together?" Someone speculated.

"This...should not be possible." There seems to be no basis for this guess.

"Why not, the sage earned so much money this year, maybe he wants to have fun with the ministers." The more money he earns, the more generous he should be.

"It's not unreasonable!" Someone nodded repeatedly.

So these few people went to participate in the morning court of this day with such anticipation.

As a result, from the beginning to the end, the emperor didn't even mention the word cake...

Emperor: Hehe.

The emperor finally shared this double-layered cake with his concubines and princes and daughters.

Although there will be new things presented from time to time below, and the royal cooks in the palace will often make some new tricks, but there has never been any food or food that can be so loved by the concubines and princes and daughters in the palace. favorite.

There are countless beauties in the emperor's harem, and there are many children. The ones who can come today are also some of the more favored ones. Two or thirty people share the double-layered big cake that is as big as arms folded, and they eat it clean in the end. .

"Aye, I still want to eat." The young prince concentrated on eating the piece on his plate, and when he looked up, it was a big cake, but now there was nothing left, so he told him with tears in his eyes. Yes please.

"Don't cry, don't cry." The emperor hugged the son, scraped a spoonful of cream from the cake board with a spoon, and fed it to the young son.

"Aye, I want to eat too..." Another little girl over there said timidly.

"You want to eat too?" The emperor smiled and waved to her: "Come on, there are more here."

"I want to eat too, I want to eat too." The little princes and princesses saw that Aye was so talkative today, they all came forward and pulled his clothes to act like a spoiled child.

There were also some older princes who came forward and scooped up the butter on the board with a spoon to eat. The emperor smiled and did not reprimand them.

After the big cake was eaten and the butter on the board was scraped to pieces, everyone was satisfied, then the emperor asked the servant Xu: "You learned how to make cakes with Na Luo Sanlang yesterday, did you learn it?"

Xu Neishi bowed back and said, "I've only seen it once, Assistant Professor Luo asked me to go again tomorrow night."

"Well, then you can go tomorrow night." The emperor nodded, and he also felt that this cake must not be so easy to make.

"Here." Xu Neishi bowed to promise, and said again: "To make this cake, you need to buy milk in advance and let it rest, and you need to cook some corn flour in advance. I started preparing it in the past two days."

"Good." The emperor said: "Let them buy what is lacking."

"Here."

When Xu Neishi left the hall, several eunuchs, big and small, gathered around to talk to him.

"What's the matter? The saint ordered you to make cakes?"

"Can we help?"

"You are really lucky this time, and you don't have to worry about it in the future."

"Get acquainted with each other for a while, and hope that servant Xu will give you more advice in the future."

"..."

After Xu Neishi dealt with it one by one, he called the two eunuchs who had been friends with him on weekdays, and asked them to help make corn flour.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, especially within the palace walls. There are also struggles among the eunuchs, and there are also sympathy and mutual support. Some older eunuchs will bully the younger eunuchs, and some young eunuchs The elder eunuchs would treat those young eunuchs like their own children.

"You are promising now, and you have met a noble person, but you need to remind yourself from time to time, don't make it public just because you have a reliance." An eunuch in his early forties taught Xu Nei Shi Zunzun.

"I can save it." Living within the palace walls, there is no room for eunuchs like them to show off. As long as they can rely on a little bit, they are no longer as dispensable as they used to be, which is already a great blessing separated.

"Then how to make the cake? Minister Xu, can you teach me?" It was a fourteen or fifteen-year-old eunuch who spoke.

He was sold in by his parents three or four years ago. He had a fever every day when he was just cleansed. Many people thought he couldn't stand it. After all, he was destined to survive. After working as a handyman for several years, He was arranged to follow Xu Neishi, Xu Neishi was generous and treated him well, so this kid followed him all day long, like a little tail.

"If this matter has not been approved by the sage, how can you learn it if you want?" the middle-aged eunuch scolded.This method was learned by Xu Nei's attendant Luo Sanlang, but when it comes to the palace walls, the emperor has the final say.

"That's all I'm asking." The young eunuch said in a low voice.

"Don't ask nonsense if you have nothing to do." The middle-aged eunuch said to Xu Neishi: "You don't want to indulge him like this, he doesn't know the sky and the earth, be careful what kind of trouble will happen one day."

"..." Xu Neishi was silent, and said to the young eunuch: "Don't follow me today, go to the small kitchen to chop firewood, I will check tonight, if there is less, you can continue chopping firewood tomorrow."

"Xu Neishi..." The young eunuch's eyes turned red, like a child being scolded by an elder at home.

"Why don't you go soon?" Xu Neishi scolded with a straight face.

"Here." The young eunuch responded, and finally stopped following, turned around and walked towards the small kitchen.

Xu Neishi looked at his leaving back and sighed silently in his heart.It is easy for young people to forget their sorrows. Even if they are cleansed and have suffered so much as a handyman for so long, as long as someone treats them better, they will soon forget the previous pain. Be happy every day.

But as an eunuch, it is not a good thing to be too happy. They need to keep fear and vigilance in their hearts all the time. Cowardly children will live longer than cheerful ones.

On this day, Xu Neishi and the old eunuch made corn flour together, ground the slurry with soaked corn kernels, and filtered out the corn dregs, and put the remaining fine flour and water in a pottery urn to settle for tomorrow. In the morning, scoop out the clear water, scrape off the starch from the bottom of the pottery urn, put it on the kang head to dry slowly, and finally grind it on a millstone to get cornstarch.

This is also the method Luo Sanlang told him. When making cake embryos, if the white flour is not mixed with this kind of cornstarch, the cake embryos will be firmer and not fluffy enough.Xu Neishi carefully memorized the words he said in his heart. When he was free, he would think about it alone, for fear of forgetting something.

On the evening of December [-]th, Neishi Xu went to Guangdefang again. After returning to the palace early the next morning, he started making his first cake in his life.

In fact, Luo Sanlang had already asked him to try it yesterday, but someone supervised and reminded him, and it was two different things after all to complete the operation independently.

The [-]th day was a big court, and the court time was longer than usual. When the emperor came down, someone sent a message to him, saying that the servant Xu had already made a cake, and some palace people had tasted it. It is very good, I asked the emperor if he wanted to see it.

So the emperor asked someone to present it, and saw a piece of cake the size of a palm, perhaps because there was not enough time to make the color, the whole piece was milky white, and the pattern was well done, compared with the cake that Luo Sanlang presented that day , a little less casual, a little more orderly.

The emperor took a sip, and the taste was no different from the cake made by Luo Sanlang. Satisfied, he asked someone to reward him with silk, and ordered Xu Neishi to make cakes for the harem concubines and princes and daughters.

So in the following days, Xu Neishi stopped serving the emperor, and took the middle-aged and young eunuchs all day long to make cakes in a small kitchen in the palace.The emperor asked people to take care of that place, and no one else was allowed to see it. Even the princes and daughters couldn't go if they wanted to, because they were worried that they were too young and their mouths were too close, so they went out and told people how to make cakes.

A few days later, an old official in the court held a banquet at his home for his [-]th birthday. The emperor rewarded him with a lot of things as birthday presents, and ordered his servant Xu to make him a double-layer cake.

This time the cake has a color. It is bigger than the one that Luo Yong presented to the palace last time. The color is more bright and the pattern is more delicate. People who have seen it and tasted it have nothing to say. .

The emperor thought it was quite embarrassing, and made people reward Xu Neishi again, and then often asked him to make some cakes for the ministers in the court.

Not long after, even the common people heard that there was a servant Xu who was good at making cakes in the palace, but he learned the craft from Luo Sanlang from Lishi. He heard that he not only made good cakes, but also had an excellent temperament. People are also good-looking.

"I've heard he's an ordinary man."

"Nonsense, how can ordinary people make such a good cake?"

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[Eunuch]: Eunuch, servant, almost the same meaning.