With a “click”, a stool was thrown out of Zhao Ji Restaurant.

The piercing scream of Liu Shi came from the restaurant: ‘Zhao Dalang! You useless, spineless wretch! You can’t even administer medicine, what good are you? Why don’t you just buy a piece of tofu and end it all?

What was most noticeable was Zhao Dalang’s silence and Zhao Lian’s soft soothing voice.

“Mom, the wound is so big, no matter how careful you are, you will accidentally touch it. Didn’t I touch it yesterday when I was applying medicine for you? Dad didn’t mean it!” After Zhao Lian said that, she poked Zhao Dalang with her elbow.

The silent Zhao Dalang held the medicine jar in his hand and repeated Zhao Lian’s words, saying: “Ah Lian is right, I didn’t mean it.”

Seeing this meek and sluggish response, Liu Shi became even more infuriated, and she couldn’t help but scream again.

Zhao Lian and Zhao Dalang, who heard the harsh screams nearby, subconsciously covered their stinging eardrums.

When Master Sun and Master Wang walked to the door of Zhao Ji Restaurant, they were greeted by a flying stool that almost hit them and Liu Shi’s ear-piercing scream.

The startled Master Wang quickly kicked the stool aside and walked into Zhao Ji Restaurant with Master Sun covering his ears.

Lying on the stretcher, Liu Shi, with unkempt hair and unkempt face, pointed at Zhao Lian and Zhao Dalang and scolded them. When she heard a voice, she instinctively looked up.

Because she was training people, Liu Shi had no time to take back the ferocious expression on her face, which almost frightened Master Wang and Master Sun.

Truly, she had a fierce, ruthless, and cruel demeanor! No wonder even when Liu Sicheng exposed the truth, she refused to be disciplined. If it weren’t for Lin Shaoqing, who had the ‘gentle appearance of a deity but the heart of a demon,’ directly pinpointing her mistakes and giving her a good spanking, she might not have been able to suppress this wicked woman!

But it was a good thing for them that such a wicked woman… could confront the girl named Wen who came to snatch their food!

Seeing the two of them coming in, the vicious woman paused for a while, but she didn’t put it away. Instead, she stared at the two of them with her mung bean eyes and asked, “What do you want to eat? We don’t just sell noodles now. Meals are only sold as sets of dishes.”

The method of selling this set of dishes was originally passed down from some restaurants. When it came to mealtime, sometimes there were more ingredients purchased on the same day. In order to sell more, they simply combined the extra purchased dishes, specified a few types of dishes, and rounded up the total price. Some indecisive people who didn’t know what dishes to choose didn’t want to bother thinking, so they just bought these pre-packaged dishes.

The restaurant’s selling method was to consume the purchased ingredients, but this Zhao Ji restaurant sold sets as the only option…

Thinking of the dishes produced by this Zhao Ji restaurant, Master Sun and Master Wang hurriedly said: ” We are not here for eating…”

Before he finished speaking, Liu Shi was heard screaming: “Why are you coming in if you don’t want to eat? Get out of here!”

Upon hearing this sentence, the two of them had their faces change abruptly: They had been staying in the Dali Temple’s public kitchen for so long! Whether it was the officials or the constables, or even Ji Caimai, scolding the two of them, there was at least a reason for it.

How often have you ever been so angry at being scolded for no apparent reason?

Master Sun was so angry that he was about to walk away on the spot, but in the end he was held back by the gloomy-looking Master Wang!

This wicked woman… still had uses.

Master Sun was tugged by Master Wang and remembered the business, so he barely restrained the urge to walk away, and said to Liu Shi who had a domineering face, “Then give us a set. “

Liu Shi rolled her eyes: “Today’s set is three dishes and one soup, and a plate of pickled cabbage is given.”

Master Sun touched the purse: “How much money?”

Liu Shi closed her eyes and said, “Five taels.”

One sentence made Master Sun and Master Wang’s faces turn dark: With just one or two silver coins, you could order a whole table of dishes at an ordinary restaurant in Chang’an City. Her small eatery, the size of a palm, was selling three dishes and a soup for five taels?

Wasn’t this clearly taking people for fools?

Master Sun, who was about to pay, paused, and looked at Master Wang: “Half for each person.”

Master Wang stared at him with a dark face, subconsciously clutching the purse at his waist.

Master Sun gritted his teeth and gestured to him: “The one with the surname Wen…”

After saying this, Master Wang’s hand covering his purse suddenly stiffened. After a long while, he slowly relaxed it, with a blue face. He took out a small piece of twisted silver from his purse and slapped it on the table.

Master Sun also took it out.

Seeing that the money was given, Liu Shi became more enthusiastic. While glaring at Zhao Lian, she asked Zhao Lian to go over to collect the money, and at the same time asked Zhao Dalang to go back to the kitchen to cook.

This was the truth… money made all the difference! This evil woman! After scolding Liu Shi over and over in their hearts for countless times, Master Sun and Master Wang looked at her and got down to business: “The two of us came today to ask about a girl named Wen Mingtang.”

Hearing the words “Wen Mingtang”, Liu Shi’s fierce face that had just received the money became fierce again. She turned her head and looked at the two of them with a sinister look: “Why are you asking?”

The instant expression on her face told the two of them that they had come to the right place!

It would be an understatement to say that the girl surnamed Wen was a thorn in the side of this evil woman.

So he hurriedly said: “That girl named Wen is stealing our jobs, so we came here to find out something.”

Upon hearing that they were also Wen Mingtang’s “enemies”, the fierce look on Liu’s face softened slightly, and she looked up and down. After the two of them talked for a while, she asked: “What’s going on? How did that girl named Wen get into enmity with you two?”

Master Sun said hurriedly: “We are the chefs of the public chef of Dali Temple. …”

Before he finished speaking, Liu Shi sighed with disgust on her face and said: “Bad luck!”

Master Wang and Master Sun couldn’t help but grit their teeth again: This evil woman… that’s all. , business matters!

As if he didn’t see the look of disgust on Liu Shi’s face, Master Sun continued: “That girl named Wen has only been in the public kitchen for a few days, and she has coaxed all the purchasers, jailers, officials, and servants of our public kitchen. They all praise her, and we have been scolded several times because of her these days! How many days have we been here? If we let her stay more, can we stay in our job?”

After hearing this sentence, Liu Shi immediately sneered: “Yes! Then how did she get in?”

Seeing the situation, Master Wang quickly interjected, saying, “We two have nothing to do with the hiring process; there’s nothing we can do about it, right?”

Asking them to hire people…ah! They didn’t have any say on hiring of people! Both of them even wished to make sure the one next to them goes away!

There was no way… Liu Shi rolled her eyelids and said, “Then why are you two looking for me?”

Master Sun said, “I heard that she came from the palace, and her background is not very clean…”

Hearing this one sentence, Liu Shi understood immediately what they were looking for. She rolled her eyes at the two of them, and said, “So, that’s the idea you two had!”

“Indeed, that girl was born into a family of officials. If it weren’t for her young age when her family encountered trouble, she would have been sent to the Jiaofang¹ and polished to death. How could she have come out?” Liu Shi rolled her eyes and said, “Her father, who was beheaded back then, was also somewhat famous. He was quite an influential figure, and anyone who wanted to meet him had to put in a lot of effort!”

Master Sun heard this and asked hurriedly: “Who was it?”

Liu Shi said: “What’s the name Wen…oh, Wen Xuance, it’s quite a tongue-twister. Before he got beheaded, I heard he was the Zhōngshū Lìng².”

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Footnote

1. The imperial music office
2. Prime Minister of the Palace Secretariat