By the end of the day, more than half of the Bājiǎo Zòng was ready.

Ji Caimai took the initiative to help put all the zòngzi into the pot and cook them. When Liu Yuan and Wei Fu came out of Lin Fei’s house, they could already smell the aroma of zòngzi standing in the lobby.

Rolling up the file marked “Painted Skin” in his hand, Liu Yuan and Wei Fu looked at each other and said, “Going to the public kitchen?”

Wei Fu straightened his beard, nodded, thought for a moment, and said, “I don’t know what traps there are.”

You’ll know what’s going on when you get to the chef.

The cooked zòngzi have been arranged on the counter in categories, with a sign in front of each category.

They were glutinous rice zòngzi, fresh meat zòngzi, bacon zòngzi, red bean zòngzi and egg yolk fresh meat zòngzi.

Liu Yuan couldn’t help but rub his hands, pointed at the sign, and said: “I want one with egg yolk and fresh meat, one with red beans, one with bacon…”

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Ji Caimai who was sharing the zòngzi.

“The zòngzi are quite filling, can you eat three of them?” Ji Caimai glanced at him, put the two zòngzi in the bowl, and handed them over. He blew his beard and said, “If you still feel hungry after eating these two, come back and get more!”

Liu Yuan: “…”

This old man Jai Caimai much more tempered than Ah Bing and Tangyuan.

Taking the two zòngzi he received, he and Wei Fu walked to the nearest food table and sat down.

Untie the colorful rope wrapping the zòngzi and uncover the zòngzi leaves. There were several grains of brown glutinous rice stuck on the oily green zòngzi leaves. The compacted glutinous rice soaked in meat juice was shiny.

“Smells so good!” Liu Yuanshen took a deep breath, pulled the bamboo leaves onto the nearby dining table, and finding it troublesome to use chopsticks, decided to use his hands directly. At that moment when the zongzi entered his mouth, the pork was savory, the egg yolk crumbly, and the sticky rice fragrant and glutinous. The combination of these flavors, along with the aromatic taste of the bamboo leaves, filled his mouth.

Especially the thick and layered pork, where the lean parts had a slight chewiness, and the fatty parts exuded the fragrance of pork oil. With a gentle squeeze, a bit of pork oil oozed out, adding a touch of richness to the firm texture of the sticky rice zongzi.

The salted egg yolk, with its crumbly texture, added another layer of richness to the already delicious pork zongzi. Liu Yuan felt irresistibly drawn to the delightful taste.

As he enjoyed the flavors, he unintentionally glanced at Wei Fu across from him, who was indulging in white rice zongzi. The square-shaped octagonal white rice zongzi peeled off from the bamboo leaves, and on the side was a small dish of sugar for dipping. The white sticky rice dipped into the sugar, picked up grain by grain, and appeared as if coated with a layer of ice and snow under the lamplight.

After taking one bite, Liu Yuan could still hear the crisp biting sound of sugar between Wei Fu’s lips and teeth. Seeing Wei Fu’s intoxicated expression while eating the white zongzi, Liu Yuan swallowed subconsciously and looked at the empty zongzi. He touched his belly with both hands.

His stomach was mostly full, and he was afraid he wouldn’t be able to eat anymore by the time he ate the second red bean zongzi.

If his stomach hadn’t restrained his mouth, he could have done at least ten or eight more.

After tearing open the bamboo leaf, Liu Yuan turned to the red bean zongzi with glutinous rice and red beans mixed in the bamboo leaf. He dipped it into the small plate on the side. When the red bean rice dumpling was coated with sugar, he immediately took a bite.

The cooked red beans had a unique bean aroma and glutinous rice had its own aroma. Set off by the fragrance of the bamboo leaves, the sweetness and mellowness were simply too much.

After finishing a red bean zongzi, Liu Yuan left the canteen burping and stroking his stomach which was full of food.

After taking a walk to digest the food and walking down the hall, he saw Wen Mingtang and others still making the last few zongzi. Liu Yuan burped and walked over to say hello to a few people.

Ah Bing, who had been robbed of sour plum drink, stared at Liu Yuan with hostility.

Liu Yuan opened his mouth and was about to speak when he heard Zhao You’s voice behind him.

“Master Wen, are they ready?”

Wen Mingtang said “Hmm”, pointed to the small wooden bucket beside her, and said: “The zongzi are ready, just take them!”

Zhao You said “Oh” and picked up the zongzi tied together with strings in the small wooden bucket, said hello to Liu Yuan, turned around, and left.

Watching Zhao You holding that long string of zongzi, Liu Yuan couldn’t help but feel envious. He couldn’t resist asking Wen Mingtang, “Master Wen, can those zongzi be taken away? Could you give me a few? I’d like to take them home and cook them, just like Zhao You!”

Wen Mingtang glanced at Liu Yuan, pointed to a silver ingot at his feet, and said, “Those were bought by Zhao You with his own money.”

Liu Yuan, who was about to pay, was shocked when he saw the silver at Wen Mingtang’s feet: “Are these zongzi so expensive?”

Even though Master Wen’s zongzi were indeed delicious, Liu Yuan had been surprised that it cost so much money for that string of zongzi. Wasn’t it too expensive? Moreover, when had that person surnamed Zhao become so extravagant?

Wen Mingtang said: “It’s the money Zhao You threw down himself. I guess this generosity is probably the Dragon Boat Festival gift sent by Lin Shaoqing.”

Liu Yuan said “Oh” and suddenly said: “I was going to ask him when did he become so rich? It turns out it was Lin Shaoqing who did it!”

Then he could afford the zongzi. Liu Yuan calculated the market price of the zongzi outside, added a few big bucks, bought a bunch of zongzi, and took them back to cook and eat.

…

The aroma of the zongzi on the small stove filled the air. Lin Fei looked at the zongzi slowly cooking on the stove and turned a page of the file in his hand.

While he was sitting under the tree, cooking zongzi and flipping through files, someone walked in from outside the courtyard.

“A Fei.”

Lin Fei put down the file in his hand and looked at the person.

The person who came was wearing a purple robe and jade belt, with a beard and an elegant face.

“Dad!” Lin Fei stood up and called Marquis Jingyun.

Marquis Jingyun said “Hmm”, looked at what he was doing, walked over, glanced at the zongzi rolling on the stove, and asked: “Is Ah Fei enjoying himself by cooking zongzi?”

Lin Fei nodded and said: “Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Marquis Jingyun walked to sit opposite him, looked at the file in his second son’s hand, and asked kindly: “Have you brought the file back to read again?”

Lin Fei reached out and closed the file in his hand: “Just take a look.”

Marquis Jingyun looked at the date on the file and said, “Looking at old cases?”

Lin Fei said “Hmm”.

Marquis Jingyun looked at the date, suddenly sighed, and said: “At that time… it was also the Dragon Boat Festival.”

Lin Fei was silent for a moment, pushed the file in his hand forward, and said: “Too many people died.”

Whether it was the battlefield or the court.

The famous and upright Confucian changed from being admired by thousands of people to being reviled by the world. Marquis Jingyun sighed and said: “Both the battlefield and the court lost good generals and ministers.”

Lin Fei added a spoonful of water into the boiling zongzi pot and lowered his gaze, saying, “And it was caused by a loyal general harmed by a famous minister.”

How could the world accept this?

Watching Lin Fei cook zongzi as if making tea, Jingyun Marquis paused and unexpectedly asked a daily question, “Has Ah Fei not had dinner? Why are you cooking zongzi at this hour?”

“I have eaten, and bought these zongzi from the Dali Temple kitchen,” Lin Fei replied, glancing at the zongzi boiling gently in the pot. “I just wanted to give it a try.” He furrowed his brows slightly and continued, “I noticed that someone seems to be always happy when cooking.”

(End of this chapter)

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