The sudden deaths of Hu Chengzu and Ma Sanci took away possible clues and caused them to be suddenly cut off, but it also proved from the side that their investigation direction was correct.

“If you don’t jump over the wall in a hurry, how can you suddenly kill someone?” Liu Yuan snorted coldly.

That’s true, even privately, they think so. But Dali Temple requires evidence when doing things, and the Huaishan County Prince’s family had a special status. Without direct evidence, it would be easy to scare the snake if they came to the door rashly.

What did the Huaishan County Prince and his family do back then? Do you want to cover it up in every possible way? Even at the expense of killing people and silencing them? Attract the attention of Dali Temple?

Lin Fei lowered his eyes and began to think deeply again.

…

…

The public kitchen of Dali Temple.

Looking at Li Yuan sitting in the lobby of the public kitchen with his servant, Wen Mingtang, Ji Caimai, Ah Bing, and Tangyuan stood by the counter, looking at each other and winking, but no one spoke.

The noble little prince did not come to eat the pickled fish that the public chef had prepared yesterday. They had a light meal today and made cold noodles with shredded chicken. When the evening meal was about to pass, he came.

Li Yuan was probably very dissatisfied when he learned about the comparison between yesterday’s evening meal and today’s evening meal from the mouths of the guards.

After sitting down for a while, he had already hummed countless times.

“Are you doing this on purpose?” Li Yuan slammed the table, turned around, and questioned Wen Mingtang and her group, “Yesterday, when I wasn’t here, you made some delicious pickled fish. How come today, when it’s my turn, there’s no main course left, only some cold noodles? If I wanted cold noodles, couldn’t my kitchen staff make it for me? Tell me, what’s the reason for this? Are you deliberately mocking me?”

Ji Cai Mai: “…” Who has the leisure to eat their fill and deliberately mock him for no reason? He didn’t care about their affairs when he didn’t show up for dinner yesterday, which was a main course.

Although Li was on their side, the current young prince in front of them clearly wasn’t a reasonable person.

Lin Shaoqing, who was able to restrain this little prince, didn’t come to eat dinner today! What a headache! Ji Caimai frowned and subconsciously raised his eyes to look at Wen Mingtang behind the counter.

But he saw that Wen Mingtang didn’t even look at Li Yuan, but lowered her head and still directed Ah Bing with her eyes to sprinkle sesame oil on the cold noodles that had been cooked and filtered with cold water, and then used chopsticks to mix the cold noodles, so as not to let the noodles get lumpy.

Tangyuan on the side was asked by Wen Mingtang to tear the cooked chicken into thin strips and put them on the plate.

After complaining a couple of times without getting any response, Li Yuan turned around. Seeing Wen Mingtang and others engrossed in their own tasks, his anger surged. He strode to the counter, reached out, and grabbed Wen Mingtang’s collar, intending to lift her up for questioning.

This move seemed all too familiar. In the past, when training in self-defense techniques with the female General Liang Hongjin of the Imperial Guards, Wen Mingtang often encountered such maneuvers. Therefore, the moment Li Yuan reached out, Wen Mingtang instinctively dodged to the side. Li Yuan’s grab missed its target, and with a stumble, he would have fallen if not for the counter blocking his way.

When Shuangxi saw this, he exclaimed and helped Li Yuan, and couldn’t help shouting: “Why are you hiding? If you hurt our master, can you bear it?”

Wen Mingtang raised her head and said “Didn’t the little prince yell that he was hungry when he came? We are busy preparing dinner for the evening!”

Shuangxi, who choked, felt a little embarrassed. Hearing this, he glanced at the cold noodles on the counter and muttered. “Your evening meal doesn’t look that good, what can you prepare?”

Wen Mingtang kept tearing the chicken in her hands but still replied: “My breakfast dishes of You Po Mian, Dòujiāng Yóutiáo, cōngyóu bànmiàn, and others also didn’t look that good at all. Didn’t you two eat them all? It’s not only the main course that tastes good. Whether something is delicious or not, you’ll only know once you’ve tasted it.”

Shuangxi, who choked a lot, said: “…” Thinking of the You Po Mian or something, he felt sour in my heart: The young master had already snatched his share!

After Li Yuan stood firm on the countertop, he snorted coldly and said: “Okay! I’ll take a look later! If it doesn’t taste good, don’t blame me for being rude!”

On the side, Ji Cai Mai rubbed his nose, thinking: What can you do about it? Prince Pingxi shouldn’t have come to eat at the Ministry of Justice’s public kitchen in the first place. If it weren’t for Young Master Lin giving the nod, how could he have come here?

As he was thinking this, Li Yuan, who had been observing Wen Mingtang and others preparing the evening meal while leaning against the counter, looked around and asked, “Where are Lin Fei and the others? I went to his room just now and didn’t see anyone. The two young Sichengs in the main hall are also not around.”

Ji Cai Mai replied, “They just went out, probably related to the case!”

It was just a casual mention at first, after all, the investigation of the case had nothing to do with Li Yuan. Unexpectedly, this casual mention made Li Yuan say “Huh” and said: “The case is not over yet? Didn’t the steward named Song of Huaishan County Prince’s Mansion do it himself?”

Ji Cai said: “I don’t know. Anyway, the case has not been concluded yet. I heard that two more people died in the evening, and Lin Shaoqing and the others went to the three streets and nine alleys without even eating the evening meal.”

After hearing this, Li Yuan couldn’t help but frown, as if some people were confused as to how the case developed into what it was now. Hearing this, he rolled his eyes, then suddenly turned to Wen Mingtang who was preparing food, and said, “Cold noodles and other things can be taken away. You can make a few more portions later. I will take them to Lin Fei for you. This is for Brother Nan, I want to take care of his younger brother.”

Wen Mingtang: “…” This excuse was too poor.

But even though the excuse was a bit clumsy, she still did what Li Yuan said.

Placing the gathered cold noodles in a bowl, Wen Mingtang neatly arranged cucumber strips, carrot strips, and mung bean sprouts on the side. On top, there was a handful of shredded chicken. The vibrant colors of green, yellow, red, and white were bright and translucent, giving an inexplicable sense of freshness. After preparing the cold noodles, Wen Mingtang took another small bowl and poured in sesame paste, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar, oil, and other seasonings to make a sauce. She placed it beside the bowl, ready to be poured over the noodles and mixed in before eating.

Looking at the simple cold noodles, it turned out that she made them with more things than most people.

Li Yuan crossed his arms and watched Wen Mingtang put the noodle bowl and the sauce cup into the food box. He couldn’t help but say: “You are quite particular. My cook doesn’t have so many rules. He just pours the sauce in. Isn’t that enough?”

“If you take one more step, you can add a lot of delicious food to the meal. I think it’s worth it.” Wen Mingtang replied, and prepared the food for Liu Yuan, Bai Zhu, and Zhao You who also didn’t eat the evening food, and then looked at Li Yuan, “Does the Little Prince want to eat here, or go over and eat together later?”

Li Yuan: “…”

After a pause, he coughed lightly and said, “I’ll eat with them there!”

By then, it may not be possible to stand there and watch Lin Fei and others eat! That was also very uncomfortable.

Wen Mingtang nodded and prepared an extra portion. When she was ready and handed the food box to Shuangxi, Li Yuan pointed at him and said, “You have a portion too!”

(End of Chapter)

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T/N I found the recipe for this here. It looks easy and I plan to make it.

And here is a YouTube video of the recipe.