Wen Mingtang said: “The crispy skin of the roast will depend on it, so I call it crispy skin basting liquid.”

After brushing it with the crispy skin basting liquid twice, once it had dried in the wind, the kitchen was left for the evening and was ready for serving meals.

Ji Caimai sat on the porch without moving. Instead, he nibbled on a couple of pastries to ease his hunger and said, “I won’t go for the evening meal; I’ll wait for this roast duck.”

Wen Mingtang squatted in front of the row of ducks. After looking at it and confirming that it was indeed dried, she took the duck in, stuffed diced apples, pears, and small pieces of soaked steamed buns into the duck’s belly, and finally sealed it with a small wooden skewer.

When she was sealing the duck cavity, a voice came from behind: “That’s a good technique!”

Wen Mingtang, who had not yet reacted, only saw the faces of Ah Bing, Tangyuan, and Ji Caimai who were facing her change at the same time, and they looked at the person behind Wen Mingtang.

Wen Mingtang turned around in surprise, only to see an old man with stubble staring at Wen Mingtang’s way of sealing the duck and praising her.

Wen Mingtang didn’t know why, so she thanked him. When he was about to speak, Ji Caimai’s face turned pale: “Old Wu, this is a place to eat! If you talk nonsense carefully, I will fall out with you!”

The man called Old Wu said “Oh” and sighed with an unfinished expression on his face, saying: “Forget it! What are you making?”

Ah Bing said: “It’s called roast duck.”

“When can we eat it? “Old Wu asked again.

“Let’s do it at night.” Wen Mingtang said, “It’s time for the evening meal.”

The old man nodded, turned, and left.

After the old man left, Wen Mingtang put the duck in the “oven” and asked Ji Caimai: “Who is he?”

Ji Caimai said: “The coroner in the yamen named Wu Bu.”

Wen Mingtang: “…”

No wonder when she sealed the duck just now, Wu Bu’s praise made everyone’s expressions change.

“I knew Old Wu shouldn’t show up in a place like this. If he said a few more words, who could eat their meal? Ji Caimai snorted coldly.

Wen Mingtang couldn’t help but laugh when she heard this. She walked aside and took the dumpling wrappers sent by the Household Department. After brushing them with layers of oil, she rolled them out thinly with a rolling pin and put them on the steamer.

Ah Bing had never seen the dumpling skins be used in this way before. After waiting for them to be cooked, he couldn’t help but be surprised when he saw the translucent white dough: “Is this the dumpling wrapper?”

Wen Mingtang said “Hmm”, she said: “It will be used to wrap the roast duck later.”

After hearing this, Ah Bing and the Tangyuan subconsciously looked at the iron box. Through the ventilation hole, they saw the “duck brothers” who were starting to roast and were sizzling and oily. Looking forward to it.

Don’t be afraid of being late for a good meal, just wait!

…

…

Thinking about Wen Mingtang’s roast duck, Liu Yuan hardly ate anything at the evening meal. He brought a folder and came with Bai Zhu to find Lin Fei.

When they entered the room, Lin Fei was sitting at the desk, flipping through a book. Liu Yuan glanced at the cover – “Mechanical Overview.”

Liu Yuan couldn’t help but sigh after seeing it: Shangfeng really had a wide range of knowledge. After studying medical books last time, he’s now studying mechanical engineering.

Seeing the two people coming in, Lin Fei looked up at them and said, “Tell me about it!”

Liu Yuan said “Oh” and looked at Bai Zhu beside him.

Bai Zhu handed the file to Lin Fei. Lin Fei’s eyes fell on the name “Puppet Show” on the file and he paused.

Seeing Lin Fei reading the annotations made by the two of them on the file, Liu Yuan hurriedly said: “The name was chosen blindly. I just saw him hanging there yesterday and inexplicably thought of the string puppet on the stage, hence the name.”

Lin Fei nodded and said, “The name is well chosen!”

Bai Zhu and Liu Yuan exchanged glances upon hearing this. Shangfeng seldom expressed his opinions on such trivial matters; this was indeed a first!

Lin Fei didn’t say anything and just opened the file in front of him.

Bai Zhu began to speak.

“The person who died on the stage is called Fuzi. He was a handyman at the Chang’an City’s post station outside the city, and there wasn’t anything particularly noteworthy about him. According to the post station’s clerks and fellow handymen, while he didn’t talk much, he was fairly diligent in his work. Before he ran off to sing in Huang Ban’s theater troupe, he even applied for a few days off at the post station. It seemed like he had originally planned to return,” Bai Zhu explained.

Lin Fei heard this and asked, “Where are his family members?”

“I was about to say this,” Bai Zhu’s face became subtle when he said this, “He was an orphan.”

The play he was performing was called “The Orphan of the Zhao Family,” and the fact that Fuzi, who died, was also an orphan, made it hard not to draw certain associations.

“It is said that he was thrown at the door of the inn when he was born. There happened to be an old handyman in the inn. He couldn’t bear it, so he took him back and raised him as a child. When he was older and the old handyman died, he took his place. He took the job of an old handyman and worked as a handyman at the inn.” Bai Zhudao said, “The name Fuzi was given by the old handyman. He had good thoughts and expectations.”

“Other than starting to go to the theater troupe to ask for roles in singing since last year, this Fuzi has been pretty much the same as before,” Bai Zhu said. “We went to Fuzi’s residence and checked it out. Besides the usual bedding and essentials for daily life, there wasn’t anything else.”

Listening carefully, Lin Fei suddenly asked him: “Did he have any books in his house?”

Both Bai Zhu and Liu Yuan were taken aback, as this aspect hadn’t crossed their minds earlier.

Lin Fei then inquired, “Did he know how to read?”

When Lin Fei asked if he knew how to read, Bai Zhu hesitated for a moment, thought back, and shook his head, saying, “No.”

After a long pause, Liu Yuan finally said, “It’s likely he couldn’t. On the contracts at the post station, others had their names written, while he placed his thumbprint. But whether he genuinely couldn’t read, the two of us will go to the post station tomorrow and inquire.”

Lin Fei nodded and said “Yes”, raised his head, and his eyes fell on the booklet Liu Yuan held in his arms: “Is that the guest list from the inn?”

Liu Yuan nodded and said, “Fuzi started looking for theater troupes everywhere a year ago. After thinking about it, I asked the inn for a list of all the guests from one to two years ago.”

There was a thick stack of registers; after all, the post station outside Chang’an City had quite a few occupants.

Lin Fei took it and looked at Bai Zhu: “Did you enquire about the Changshou Opera Troupe?”

Bai Zhu shook his head, saying, “After Fuzi joined the Changshou theater troupe, he didn’t interact much with others. It’s said that he barely spoke even with Manager Huang. We found it strange that manager Huang would let him perform on stage. We initially wanted to look for Huang, but it turns out Huang, the troupe leader, was called to the Huai Shan County Prince’s mansion to entertain with a play today. We went to inquire, and it seems the Old Lady of the Huai Shan County Prince’s mansion is celebrating her birthday today and hired the Changshou theater troupe. So, we had to come back.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Fei nodded and said, “I’m aware of this matter, but I didn’t expect that the troupe called to perform would be the Changshou theater troupe.”

“That Huang’s troupe, although lacking in novelty, still sings quite well and has attracted some old theater enthusiasts who have been attending for many years,” Bai Zhu said as he placed a stack of neatly organized testimonies on Lin Fei’s desk. He continued, “Most of those present yesterday were long-time theater enthusiasts of the opera. Two of them had heart conditions and were frightened by yesterday’s performance. Unfortunately, they couldn’t be saved.”

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