Liu Yuan smiled warmly at Wen Mingtang, and with a bowl of bīng fěn in hand, he found an empty table nearby and sat down. Then, he eagerly extended his chopsticks to pick up the assorted ingredients mixed together on his plate.

The nose was filled with the spicy and fragrant smell. Liu Yuan, who loved meat, naturally picked up the thin slices of pork with his chopsticks without hesitation. The specially processed pork slices were far more delicious than ordinary pork slices. Tender, with the aroma of red oil and sauce hitting your face, the minced fish meatballs were delicious and rich, the fish meat was tender and slightly elastic; the potato slices soaked in the sauce had a fragrant and waxy taste, and the lotus root slices were crispy. The cabbage and other leafy vegetables were blended with the sauce and completely integrated into this “all-inclusive” spicy pot.

Among them, what surprised him the most was the vermicelli that was typically used for everyday meals. The soft yet slightly chewy vermicelli, coated with the spicy red sauce, entered his mouth, and the slight stickiness combined with elasticity made Liu Yuan couldn’t help but exclaim in approval.

“This is called spicy hotpot. It’s delicious!” Liu Yuan ate with his mouth full of sauce and red oil. He didn’t even bother to wipe his mouth and kept nodding while eating.

Bai Zhu, who walked to sit down opposite him, glanced at him and said, “Yesterday’s garlic pork ribs were not delicious?”

When he mentioned the name “garlic pork ribs”, he thought of yesterday’s rich garlic flavor, especially the fried and fragrant golden garlic, which made people salivate just by mentioning its name.

After swallowing his saliva, Liu Yuan said, “How could it not be delicious? It was also delicious.”

Bai Zhu asked him, fearing that the world would be in chaos, “Which one is more delicious?”

Liu Yuan put the noodles covered with sauce on his chopsticks. He murmured in his mouth and said vaguely: “They are all delicious, I want to eat them all!”

He was not a child anymore, so why should he have to choose what to eat? Couldn’t he choose them all?

Bai Zhu continued to eat the spicy hot pot with his head down.

When the evening meal was about to end, Li Yuan hurried to the public kitchen with Shuangxi, took the last portion of the spicy hot pot, walked to Lin Fei who was about to finish the evening meal, sat down, and picked up a piece of pork slices. While eating, he said: “I’m late today. I went to Brother Zhao’s house again. My father and grandfather were watching closely and almost couldn’t escape.”

Lin Fei opposite put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth slowly. , and said: “The relationship between your two families is quite good!”

While the tone and demeanor in that sentence didn’t have significant fluctuations, they were rather plain. However, for some reason, when uttered by that fellow Lin Fei, it carried an inexplicable hint of “yin and yang” undertones that made it sound a bit odd.

Li Yuan bit into the pork slices and raised his eyelids to look at him: “We are all from the same clan. Moreover, I heard that something happened to an old steward of his family. The house lacked a capable steward who was in charge, which caught people off guard. Brother Zhao ‘Uncle Song’ became red-eyed when he talked about this accident. How pitiful! In just a few days, the Huaishan Junwang’s Mansion suddenly lost two people…”

Before he finished speaking, he heard Lin Fei say from the opposite side: “Uncle Song is not dead, but we captured him and locked him in the cell where you were held earlier.”

Li Yuan: “…”

Bai Zhu and Liu Yuan: “…”

Wen Mingtang and others, who knew only a little about the case: “…”

Li Yuan came back to his senses and stared at Lin Fei. His face turned red. He didn’t know whether he was angry or choking. He could only take a bite of the pork slices to relieve the hatred in his heart.

Lin Fei was really too much! If it weren’t for this bite of food, who would be happy to come to Dali Temple and see Lin Fei’s cold face?

Li Yuan, who liked to snort coldly, snorted countless times during this evening meal. When they finally sent Li Yuan away and started to clear the table, Ji Cai came in.

Without beating around the bush, Ji Caimai said bluntly: “Master Wen, there is still some old glutinous rice left in the warehouse, and it needs to be used up early. It just so happens that the Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, so that we can buy a new batch.”

Hearing this, Wen Mingtang immediately understood and said: “Okay, I will use this glutinous rice for breakfast tomorrow.”

Ji Caibai nodded in satisfaction at this response and couldn’t help but remark, “Having such excellent culinary skills is truly a blessing! For us buyers, if we waste too much on our purchases when we go to the Household Office to collect our purchase money each month, we are bound to face disapproval and criticism.”

Previously, he had to endure the glares from Master Sun and Master Wang.

But when it came to Master Sun and Master Wang, Ji Caimai once again said something more, reminding Wen Mingtang: “When they say this, although they can’t steal the chicken, they can lose the rice. But since those people know your existence, you need to be careful.”

The previous plan had not taken Wen Mingtang away, but Master Sun and Master Wang had to be taken away first, so they had to stop the trick. But for those people, it couldn’t be easier to target an ordinary girl. He was afraid there would be endless means of insulting her in the future.

Ji Caimai actually didn’t want to say more about these words. After getting along with her these days, he really felt that this girl was quite nice, and what happened to Wen Xuance back then had nothing to do with her, so he couldn’t help but say two more sentences.

Of course, Wen Mingtang knew Ji Caimai’s good intentions. Hearing this, she thanked Ji Caimai again: “Thank you Ji Caimai, I will be more careful.”

After saying this, the girl’s eyes flashed, and she said to Ji Caimai: “Ji Caimai let’s go shopping. I’m going out after the morning meal tomorrow. Ah Bing and Tangyuan will make the bīng fěn and sour plum drink. Is that feasible?”

As long as it’s done well, who does it doesn’t matter. Ji Caimai nodded, but his gaze turned towards Wen Mingtang, and a hint of surprise flickered in his eyes. He wondered why the young lady, who had recently left the palace, was heading out alone to meet someone.

But even though it was unexpected, Ji Caimai didn’t ask any questions.

…

…

With a “stab” sound, the square bricks of glutinous rice were put into the oil pan and were immediately covered tightly with countless tiny bubbles.

Yesterday, Ji Cai promised to buy the old glutinous rice, and Wen Mingtang made rice cakes for the morning meal today.

Although there is only a one-word difference between zīfàn tuán and Zīfàn gāo, they were completely two different things. After steaming the glutinous rice, she took it out and pounded the dried shrimp she had left from making salty soybean milk earlier into crumbs using a stone mortar. She mixed these crumbs into the glutinous rice, added salt for seasoning, and after letting it cool and set, she cut it into square brick-like shapes and fried them in the oil.

Once the square glutinous rice cakes were placed in the pot, they sank to the bottom. When they fried to the point where they slightly floated and became firm, Wen Mingtang gently flipped them over with chopsticks. After both sides turned a deep golden brown, she removed them from the pot.

Smelling the aroma of the Zīfàn gāo, Ah Bing and Tang Yuan couldn’t help but begin to swallow their saliva. When the first pot of Zīfàn gāo, was picked up, the two of them immediately stretched out their hands to grab them.

The Zīfàn gāos that had just come out of the pan were a little hot to the touch even through the greased paper, but the two of them didn’t care about the hotness. They blew on them briefly and then took a bite.

“Crack”, the outer layer is too crispy, but the inside was soft and sticky, completely opposite to the crispy outside. The addition of the salty glutinous rice flavor and the crumbs of shrimp skin was the real finishing touch, the salty aroma of the shrimp in the middle, and the whole piece of rice cake lined with it were simply too delicious.

It was just that this zīfàn gāo was good everywhere, but it filled you up before you were satisficed. After two or three pieces, you can’t eat anymore.

Wen Mingtang hurriedly made the zīfàn gāos. She did not sit down with them behind the counter to eat the morning meal slowly as usual. Instead, she said to Ah Bing and Tangyuan: “I have something to do today and need to go out. I’ll leave the task of distributing breakfast to you two. Is that alright?”

(End of Chapter)

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