There was an earth-shattering coughing sound in the room.

Ji Caimai, who was suddenly choked by the brown sugar juice mixed with crushed peanuts, coughed heart-piercingly, turned his head, and looked at Liu Yuan angrily while coughing: “Cough cough… Liu Sicheng… cough cough, You…you…why are you looking for me?”

Liu Yuan patted Ji Caimai’s shoulder casually, comforted him a few times perfunctorily, and then his eyes fell on the only small round cake shaped like a pumpkin left on the table “What is this? Where did you buy it?”

Ji Caimai looked at him, but before Liu Yuan could speak, he couldn’t help picking up the small round cakes and looked at Ji Caimai who was staring at him. He laughed and said: “Ji Caimai, give me this cake! I’ll buy ten and return it to you later!”

Before Ji Caimai could make a sound, he took a bite, and then… his eyes lit up.

Well! He kind of knew why Ji Caimai wanted to eat behind closed doors: this pancake was crispy on the outside and waxy on the inside, not only looked like pumpkin but also tasted like pumpkin, sweet inside, rich in taste, really delicious!

Liu Yuan finished the pumpkin pie in three mouthfuls, sucked his fingers, and asked Ji Caimai, who had a look of resentment, “Where did you buy it? I don’t know when such a snack shop opened in Chang’an City.”

Ji Caimai pointed at him, his fingers trembling and he was almost speechless.

“Buy it? I can’t buy it anywhere! It was made by the public chef, Master Wen!” Ji Caimai said angrily, “I only got three of them, and this one is the only one left for me to eat. I…I…you… “

Looking at Ji Caimai’s incoherent appearance, Liu Yuan was stunned: “If I remember correctly, after Lin Shaoqing’s sharp eyes, there are only two masters left in our public kitchen. One is surnamed Sun and the other is surnamed Wang. The dishes they make can send people down directly. When did a chef named Wen come?”

“It’s been a few days.” Ji Caimai gave him an angry look and said.

Liu Yuan was even more surprised when he heard the words: “Then why are the lunch and evening meals still the same, and the two old faces behind the counter?”

“I arranged the person at the Chaoshi¹ stall.” Ji Caimai said, with a complicated expression on his face. Facing Liu Yuan who was about to continue questioning, he confessed without waiting for him to ask, “That Master Wen will give a great competition to Chef Zhou when it comes to beauty! No, it’s not that she is more beautiful, but she is too exceptional. That way…how can I place her on a busy time? If Old Man Jiang didn’t show up, I wouldn’t want to keep her. So I arranged her at the Chaoshi stall.”

Liu Yuan suddenly realized after he said: Except for the prisoners in the prison, very few people go to the Chaoshi stall, and there will be no major troubles. That’s what Ji Caimai must have thought, so he arranged for Master Wen to cook the meal.

Smacking his lips to reflect on the taste of the food he had just eaten, Liu Yuan swallowed, and asked Ji Caimai: “What else has Master Wen made besides making this cake?”

Ji Caimai raised his eyelids and glanced at him, annoyed: “I have only eaten this nán guā bǐng. I heard from the jailers that there were dishes called You Po Mian, Dòujiāng, twisted dough sticks called Yóutiáo, and Cōngyóu Bàn Miàn. All of them were good to eat.”

Liu Yuan’s saliva was about to flow down, and he couldn’t help complaining to Ji Caimai: “Why didn’t you say it earlier?”

“I only found out today.” Ji Caimai said, “Who would have thought that Chaoshi would be so good?”

“Can she make so many tricks? Even if she is from the palace, the court food in the palace doesn’t have so many tricks.”

Hearing this, Liu Yuan nodded quickly and said, “That’s right! I’ve never heard of these dishes, I’m sure there’s none in Chang’an City.”

Ji Caimai gave him a blank look, not forgetting the account just now: “I asked why you to ate my cake!”

Liu Yuan choked at the words, saying with a dry smile: “It’s okay! Master Wen is here, not to mention morning food, you can let Master Wen do the lunch and evening food!”

Ji Caimai said: “It’s being too greedy. We also have to follow the rules. The two other chefs are also registered, so they can’t be taken away because the dishes are unpalatable! Otherwise, why did the first few stay here for so long? That is, Lin Shaoqing took action and sent those few to prison. That was the only way to get rid of them!”

Liu Yuan felt quite helpless when he said this. The word “rule” was really an insurmountable mountain, and the trouble was tight!

Thinking of having to eat the meals of Master Sun and Master Wang for a long time to come, Liu Yuan felt a headache.

However, when he said this, he suddenly remembered: “The morning before yesterday, Zhao You ate with a greasy face. I asked him what he ate, and he said that he ate soy milk and fried dough sticks… Good Zhao You! I said what did he eat?”

“Today he didn’t even eat the steamed stuffed buns I gave him, so he went to the public kitchen to eat the morning food!”

This was really a stick… the public kitchen had changed masters, but they don’t know how to tell them!

Seeing Liu Yuan’s annoyed look, Ji Caimai’s eyes fell on the brown sugar juice on the corner of his mouth and paused for a while, then he looked away resentfully, and said angrily, “What did Liu Sicheng want to tell me?”

Liu Yuan after a cry of “Oh”, remembered his reason for coming: “It’s hot, the public chef should ready some sour plum drink!”

Ji Caimai nodded and said, “I’ll go over to talk to Sun Dingren in a while.”

Hearing “Sun Dingren” The veins on Liu Yuan’s forehead were about to bulge, but after thinking about it, he didn’t say much: No matter how you make things like sour plum drink, it’s not too good to drink, and it’s not too bad to drink. They can’t go wrong!!

Liu Yuan was still thinking like this when he walked out of Dali Temple to handle the case. But when it was almost dusk, he returned to Dali Temple after finishing his work, took a sip of the sour plum drink distributed by the public kitchen, and his face turned blue.

What the hell was this…? Sour and astringent, the taste was indescribable, as if drinking medicine with vinegar and sugar left overnight.

He knew that he shouldn’t expect too much from those two masters who were “hidden dragons and crouching phoenixes”! Liu Yuan drank several cups of tea before he relieved his astringent mouth, smacked his lips, and compared the taste of the pumpkin pie he ate during the day with this one… Those jailers really got it right! It’s like stepping directly into the eighteenth level of hell after climbing up to the ninth level.

It was a pity that Master Wen only served breakfast food! It seemed that he will have to come early tomorrow so that he can go to the public kitchen to eat morning food.

It was just that he didn’t know what Master Wen will do for tomorrow’s breakfast. He heard that Master Wen’s breakfast tricks in the past few days have never been repeated.

Wen Mingtang, who was missed by Liu Yuan, had already brought Ah Bing and Tang Yuan to meet Ji Caimai to buy ingredients.

When a few people came over, Ji Caimai was pointing sullenly at Master Wang, who was making evening food, and reprimanded him: “What are you and Sun Dingren doing? Just because you are a public cook, you don’t need money to buy sugar and rice?”

Wen Mingtang looked at the big bucket of glutinous rice soaked in the water next to Ji Caimai, it dawned on her. After Master Sun made a delicious meal the day before yesterday, this Master Wang started wasting glutinous rice again.

Master Wang drooped his head, and said in a low voice, “I forgot that I had already cleaned the rice.”

“Can you forget such a big thing? Are you wasting the rice from the public kitchen?” Ji Caimai scolded. With a glance, when he saw Wen Mingtang who was coming, his sullen face lessened a little, he nodded to her, and said, “Master Wen is here?”

Wen Mingtang called “Ji Caimai”, and was about to speak, Ji Caimai said: “Master Wang used a lot of meat for dinner today, it’s a waste, Master Wen, take it back!”

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Footnote

1. Breakfast

T/N Liu Yuan is my favorite character. He is such a foodie!!!