“Huang Ying and Huang Li, the two sisters, were originally tea sellers on a boat. They caught the eye of Zhang Zeduan, who invited them onto the boat, and then…” The remaining three maids explained the origins of Huang Ying and Huang Li.

“When they returned home, their family members were ashamed of them and demanded that they end their lives. It was Zhang Zeduan who came forward at that time, having the means to buy them out. With his wealth, he was able to take Huang Ying and Huang Li away, and their family members agreed on the spot,” the maids explained. “The two of them are identical twin sisters, so similar in appearance and voice that even we had trouble distinguishing them when Huang Li was still with us.”

“Although Huang Li was the younger sister, she felt a deep concern for her older sister. Every time Zhang Zeduan called for someone, she would go in her place and endure the worst of the torment. Then, one time, Zhang Zeduan beat her so severely that Huang Li burned for a whole night and couldn’t survive. She died like that. So, Zhang Zeduan disposed of her body in an unmarked grave, and he strictly forbade us from revealing anything to the outside world. Otherwise, the next one to die would be us!”

“Zhang Zeduan kept a close watch, and we couldn’t escape from him or seek help from the authorities. Huang Ying harbored intense hatred towards him after Huang Li’s death, and her resistance was always the fiercest. Once, she even came close to biting a piece of flesh off Zhang Zeduan, which seemed to make him enjoy beating her even more,” the maids explained. “It’s only in the past couple of years that Huang Ying seems to have been beaten into submission. She resists less, and Zhang Zeduan has eased up on her as a result.”

They thought that Huang Ying had no hope of revenge after all and was heartbroken, but it turned out that Huang Ying had never forgotten Huang Li’s death and had been waiting for this day.

…

When they walked out of the Dali Temple prison, it started to rain. Lin Fei handed the file on the water ghost case to Liu Yuan and said, “The case can be closed.”

They were not in charge of sentencing, but sentencing must be based on the overall case. Liu Yuan held a heavy file and said: “Yes! I will write down the true situation of the case clearly.”

Lin Fei nodded and then turned to Liu Yuan, saying, “Inform Lord Zhao and have someone from the Prince of Pingxi’s Mansion come to collect him!”

Liu Yuan said “Hmm” and Lin Fei strode forward.

At Xu Shi, the people from the Prince of Pingxi’s Mansion hurriedly arrived at the Dali Temple. They rushed to the prison of the Dali Temple to collect their Prince. As they were about to leave with the prisoners, Li Yuan suddenly furrowed his brow and called out to the officials, saying, “I want to take with me the kitchen maid from the Dali Temple who prepares breakfast. You…”

Before he finished speaking, he heard a voice coming from behind: “Little Prince, it’s time for you to go!”

The voice…even if he turned to ashes, he could recognize it!

Li Yuan turned around with a glare, directing his anger at the person who had spoken behind him. “Lin Fei, you scoundrel, what’s it to you?” he exclaimed.

“Everyone in my Dali Temple is registered. If the little prince wants to take her away, you might as well write a letter looking for the person and submit it to His Majesty, asking for Your Majesty’s approval!” Lin Fei said lightly.

The steward who came to pick him up couldn’t help but twitch his lips after hearing this sentence and hurriedly said to Li Yuan: “Little prince, we just hired the chef of Dongfeng Tower recently. The chef’s cooking skills are first-class, why bother taking away a cook from the public kitchen?”

Not to mention that Lin Shaoqing was obviously unwilling to let her go. Do you really need the County Prince mansion to fight with him over a cook?

Li Yuan frowned and was about to speak when he heard Lin Fei say: “Little Prince if the responsibility for interfering with the handling of the case is investigated…”

Li Yuan’s expression suddenly changed after hearing this, he stamped his foot hard and said harsh words: “Lin Fei, just wait for me!”

Then he turned around and led the people away.

After Li Yuan left, Liu Yuan, who was following Lin Fei, breathed a sigh of relief, patted his chest, and said with emotion: “Thank God! You finally asked this little prince to leave! He just left, but he actually wanted to take Master Wen away. This is too much!”

Among the three public chefs, the one food they could eat was the food cooked by Master Wen. If the little prince took her away, what else do they have to eat? Of course, if the little prince takes away Master Sun and Master Wang, they will be more than happy.

…

Wen Mingtang sneezed and walked to the public kitchen to look at the ingredients for breakfast delivered by the Household Department today.

Ji Caimai, who had received the ingredients, looked at her with a subtle look on his face.

“Ji Caimai, what’s wrong?” Wen Mingtang walked over and asked.

Ji Caimai raised his chin, pointed at the ingredients he had received, and said, “Take a look!”

Wen Mingtang looked over and thought for a moment that someone had made a mistake. Today’s breakfast ingredients were the same vegetables, pork meat, and dumpling wrappers as yesterday’s.

Ji Caimai pointed to the rules posted on the kitchen wall by the Household Department and said, “Since it’s stipulated not to repeat dishes, what does it mean when they send the same vegetables, pork, and dumpling skins for two consecutive days? Isn’t it setting a trap for someone to be penalized for making the same dish twice during breakfast?”

Wen Mingtang was thoughtful after hearing this.

Before she could say anything, Ji Caimai added, “There is no such problem with Sun and Wang’s lunch and evening food.”

For two days in a row, the food delivered was very rich.

This rule caught him off guard and always made him feel that something was wrong.

“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” Wen Mingtang smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter, I can make this dumpling wrapper for several days without repeating the same thing. Let’s see and talk about it.”

Ji Caimai nodded and said “Hmm” and squinted his eyes slightly: “You do your thing first, don’t let anyone catch you, I will pay attention.”

Wen Mingtang nodded, returned to the table with Ah Bing and Tangyuan, and began to prepare the morning food.

After pouring the glutinous rice into the pot and adding a lot of water to start cooking the porridge, Wen Mingtang began to process the ingredients. Just like yesterday, she chopped mushrooms, carrots, peas, pork meat, etc. into cubes and set them aside.

This step was so similar to yesterday’s making of shaomai that Ah Bing and Tangyuan couldn’t help but wonder: “Master Wen, are you still making shaomai today? The Household Department will not allow you to do it the same way!”

Wen Mingtang smiled at them, shook her head, and said: “I will put these into the porridge later and make mushroom and pork porridge.”

After throwing this small handful of vegetables into the porridge, what should she do with the dumpling wrappers?

Wen Mingtang took out the dumpling wrappers and went back to her residence. Not long after, she came over holding several sauce jars.

“What is this?” Ah Bing and Tangyuan watched curiously as Wen Mingtang opened the sauce jars and revealed the sauces inside.

These sauces came in different colors, some were brownish red mixed with red spicy oil, some were black and thick like paste, and some were brown and slightly sparse.

Wen Mingtang pointed to the sauces and said one by one: “The red one is called doubanjiang, the black one is called sweet noodle sauce, and the brown one is called soybean sauce. They are all made by me.”

As she said, he scooped out the three sauces in turn, put them in a bowl, added cumin powder, scallion oil, and vegetable oil, and stirred it up. When the mixture was evenly mixed, she started working on the dumpling wrappers.

Take out one dumpling wrapper, brush it with scallion oil, then brush it with the sauce in the bowl, sprinkle with chopped green onion, and cover it with another dumpling wrapper, then brush the second dumpling wrapper with scallion oil, sauce, and chopped green onion. Cover it with another one. And so on, layer upon layer. After seven sheets were placed on the stack, Wen Mingtang stopped and rolled it out with a rolling pin. Then she put the dumpling pancake into the pot and fried it over low heat.

Watching the jade-white dumpling skins in the pot gradually turn golden, smelling the scallion oil and the special sauce aroma that spread throughout the pot, Ji Caimai couldn’t help but take a deep breath when Wen Mingtang sandwiched the dumplings and took them out of the pot. He took a breath, swallowed his saliva, and asked, “What is the name of this dish?”

Wen Mingtang said, “Qiān Céng Bǐng.”

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