
A plate of roast duck temporarily rescued Liu Yuandong Bai Zhu. They came out of the house and followed Zhao You to the public kitchen. They saw Ji Caimai and others feasting on roast duck. Wen Mingtang was slicing duck meat.
The two walked over and said, “Thank you, Master Wen!” Then they sat down, followed the example of others, wrapped the roast duck in dough, and ate it.
After the last piece of roast duck was finished, Wen Mingtang washed her hands, walked to the side, and sat down, listening to Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu chatting about this case called “Puppet Show” while eating.
“The life experience of Fuzi is very important at the moment. We are investigating.” Liu Yuan took a bite of the roast duck wrapped in his hand, licked the noodle sauce squeezed to the corner of his mouth, and said, “Lin Shaoqing said it is very likely that he is illiterate. And this is why he couldn’t write a play. But even though he couldn’t write a play, he still insisted on singing “The Orphan of Zhao”. He himself was an orphan. We now suspect that the play was not for nothing. He himself might be the ‘orphan’ of the “Zhao Orphan”.
To an outsider, this statement may not sound wrong.
“Fuzi. I thought that when the old handyman came to help him choose this name, he hoped that he would be blessed, but he didn’t expect that in the end…” Wen Mingtang shook her head and sighed: “How pitiful!”
Ah Bing and Tangyuan both nodded in agreement, expressing their heartfelt sympathy.
Liu Yuan and others looked at each other, looking at the sighing people, and couldn’t help but sigh: In their eyes, these half-year-old children seemed to have a good heart!
Because they ate roast duck at night, the duck intestines, duck liver, duck gizzards, and other contents were left behind. Wen Mingtang was not prepared to waste it, so she made the best use of it in her morning meal the next morning to make duck blood vermicelli soup.
The few remaining duck racks from the sliced duck were all thrown into the big pot and made into soup stock. Duck blood, duck intestines, duck liver, duck gizzards, and other items were all boiled and stewed, and placed there in categories. Wen Mingtang also “requisitioned” the bean paste from Master Sun and Master Wang.
When Officer Liu Yuan came over for the morning meal, there were already many people eating the meal in the public kitchen hall.
After glancing at the food in the bowls of the servants who were eating the food, Liu Yuan walked to the public kitchen table. When he saw the duck intestines, duck liver, duck gizzards, and other items, his expression froze.
Wen Mingtang didn’t find this reaction strange in her eyes, and asked him with a smile: “Don’t eat the internal organs?”
Duck blood, duck intestines, duck liver, and duck gizzards were all internal organs, and some people didn’t eat them.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t eat it. It’ll be delicious just with some tofu puffs.” Wen Mingtang said, taking out the hot vermicelli with a whisk and putting it into a bowl. When she was about to grab the tofu puffs, she saw Liu Yuan grit his teeth suddenly and say, ” Everything…give me some!”
Look at the servants who ate without even a bit of soup left: This meat…this meat cooked by Master Wen must be delicious!
Wen Mingtang stopped what she was doing and glanced at Liu Yuan with some surprise: “Seriously?”
Liu Yuan nodded and gritted his teeth: “Seriously!”
Wen Mingtang nodded and added duck intestines, duck liver, and duck gizzards to the vermicelli in sequence. Then she added the tofu puffs, then scooped a spoonful of duck blood into the soup stock, and scalded it until it was on top. Then add green garlic, green onions, and pepper, pour the last spoonful of soup stock on top, ask Liu Yuan, and sprinkle with coriander. Then she handed it over.
Liu Yuan tremblingly took the duck blood vermicelli soup to an empty seat nearby and sat down. He first tasted a spoonful of the soup with a spoon. The soup was delicious. It must have been cooked for a long time, and the duck fragrance had been completely absorbed into the soup.
He then stirred briefly to mix all the ingredients. The duck blood was extremely smooth and tender, comparable to the tenderest tofu, the duck intestines were springy and slightly crispy, the duck liver was dense and soft, and the duck gizzards were chewy. However, the most delightful part was the tofu puffs soaked in the flavorful broth.
Liu Yuan felt that today’s bowl of duck blood and vermicelli soup completely broke his habit of not eating the insides: whether the insides were delicious or not really depended on the craftsmanship of the chef! In the past, if he thought it didn’t taste good, that was because it wasn’t made by Master Wen!
After holding the bowl and putting the last mouthful of duck blood vermicelli soup into his mouth, Liu Yuan put down the bowl contentedly, burped, stood up, and left the kitchen.
Today he had to go to the inn to confirm whether Fuzi was literate, and he had to go to the Changshou Opera Troupe to talk to Manage Huang, who didn’t look like a good person, for questioning.
Just as he was thinking this, he saw Bai Zhu coming over with a few servants with an ugly look on his face.
This expression… Liu Yuan was startled when he saw it, and an instinctive reaction came to his heart: “No… nothing will happen again!”
Bai Zhu looked at him, nodded, and said: “Manager Huang is dead. .”
Liu Yuan: “…”
…
Standing in front of the signboard of the Changshou Opera Troupe, Liu Yuan still felt a bit dazed. As he looked up and his gaze fell on the two characters “长寿” (Changshou) on the signboard, he subconsciously paused. Two people had died in succession; these two characters for “longevity” certainly didn’t seem to hold true at all!
The head of the Huang Troupe was found dead in the house this morning.
When Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu led people over, Wu Bucai had finished examining the corpse and was pointing at Manager Huang, who was lying on the bed with his eyes exposed: “Suffocated, no attempt to conceal it!”
Lin Fei nodded and looked around.
A guard was talking next to him: “Manager Huang didn’t have the habit of locking the doors and windows when sleeping. Anyone can come in. The theater’s wall is also low, and ordinary people can easily climb over and get in. It’s difficult to determine whether the murderer is someone in the theater troupe or someone outside the theater.”
Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu walked inside and glanced at the room of Huang Troupe’s head. They noticed several rows of antique shelves against the wall, holding numerous collectibles. Liu Yuan couldn’t help but remark, “He must have a lot of trust, leaving so many items unsecured. He’s not afraid of theft, even when he sleeps with the doors and windows unlocked!”
Lin Fei glanced back at him, then suddenly stepped forward to the body of Manager Huang, picked up his hand, looked at it for a moment, and then stretched out his hand to hold his hand, he took something off and handed it to Liu Yuan who was walking over.
Liu Yuan subconsciously took it. When he saw what was handed over, he couldn’t help but be startled: Wan’t this… the gold ring on Manager Huang’s hand?
“Huh?” Bai Zhu’s sharp eyes on the side saw the scratches on the gold ring. What was exposed under the scratches was a dark iron color, “Iron ring, is it plated with gold powder?”
Liu Yuan reacted and was stunned for a moment. When he came to his senses, he hurriedly ran to the ancient shelf full of antiques, picked up one, and looked at it carefully.
This is a fake!” he said.
“This one too.” Bai Zhu put the artifacts he picked up back on the shelf.
The two looked at each other. Was there anything they didn’t understand at this time? When they walked to Lin Fei’s side, they saw Lin Fei holding up one of Manager Huang’s hands and looking at it. The little finger and ring finger of that hand had been chopped off. The two people’s hearts skipped a beat and they reacted immediately.
“This Manager Huang is a gambler!”
Compulsive gamblers, driven to desperation, would often cut off their fingers as a way to make a firm resolution and swear not to gamble again. However, in reality, they would often return to their old habits.
Situations like this happened all the time.
Lin Fei nodded and said: “He was short of money.”
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