Of course, Ji Caimai would not say this immediately. Instead, he found a nearby food table and sat down, watching the three of them divide their duties to prepare the morning meal.

By the time the three of them had finished making the jelly, mincing the meat, and rolling out the dough, there was less than an hour left before the start of the morning meal.

“The skin jelly will take some work.” Ji Caimai saw this and said, “If I had known I should have given it to you last night.”

Wen Mingtang nodded and looked at the increasingly bright sky outside while mixing the skin jelly with the minced meat. “It’s just too late,” she said.

Ah Bing was already very proficient at making rice dumplings and buns. Together with Wen Mingtang, the two of them rolled out the dough and made two bags. After wrapping, they placed the stacked soup dumplings in a pot to steam.

When the tall stack of soup dumplings came out of the pot, the bell rang and it was time for breakfast.

Not every day the first wave of people who came to the public kitchen for breakfast were the same, but among them, there must be a few regular customers.

For example, Liu Yuan, and Zhao You.

It was not surprising at all to see these two! Each person received a basket of xiao long guàntāng bao for breakfast today, with eight in each basket, which was quite… enough.

Since there weren’t many pork meat dumplings prepared today, Ji Caimai personally distributed the food for the morning.

Zhao You specially bought a larger food box but could only get two portions. He couldn’t help but be disappointed, so he took his and Lin Fei’s portion and left with a sigh.

“It would be nice to eat some!” Ji Caimai said when he saw this and glanced at Liu Yuan who was sighing aside.

Each person received one steamer basket, with a pleated soup dumpling placed in the center and surrounded by a circle of other dumplings, totaling eight in all.

The xiao long guàntāng bao differed noticeably from the other buns nearby: their skin was thinner, so thin that you could see the soft, wobbling soup inside through the skin, which must be the soup filling.

How on earth was it possible to pour soup into steamed buns? Liu Yuan looked at it with curiosity.

However, because the skin was thin and there was soup inside, compared to the buns next to it, due to the existence of the soup, the bun could not stand completely, but was half “lying”, and the soup sloshes slightly when it was carried.

Liu Yuan looked curious. When he was about to take the steamer to sit down at the dining table to eat the morning meal, he heard Ji Caimai telling him: “Don’t eat in a hurry. Take a small bite at the edge first and suck the soup inside.” Take it slow, or else…” When Ji Caimai said this, he paused and reached out to cover his mouth subconsciously. Only then did Liu Yuan notice that Ji Caimai’s lips were much redder than usual, and then he listened to him say, “Be careful!”

Liu Yuan: “…”

It seemed that this was a lesson learned by Ji Caimai himself. No matter what you say, nothing was as effective as this personal experience!
Looking at Ji Caimai’s red lips, several people in the queue nearby were suddenly stunned. They swallowed their saliva while looking at the small and cute soup dumplings in the steamer, and they also became a little more wary.

The xiao long guàntāng bao were the same as the jiān bāo and the mǔzhǐ shēng jiān bao. You could bring a small plate and prepare your own dipping sauce.

For example, Liu Yuan only poured vinegar and two drops of sesame oil and sat down.

When the first chopstick was about to be used, Ji Caimai, who had “experience”, said again: “Be gentle when picking it up, and pinch it carefully. When pinching the edge of the bun with chopsticks, be gentle.”

The crowd suddenly realized, and Liu Yuantai’s action of touching the xiao long bao became much lighter. He picked up the edge of one, gently lifted it, separated it from the steamer, and placed it on a plate.

After holding the edge of the bun, he rolled it around and soaked it with some vinegar. Liu Yuancai lifted it up again, blew on one area, and gently bit down to open a small mouth.

The heat wrapped in the dough immediately surged out, giving out a small burst of heat. If Ji Caimai hadn’t reminded him, the heat would have burned his tongue.

After blowing on the torn opening to cool down the pork filling and soup inside, Liu Yuan began sipping the soup.

The soup was salty with a slight sweetness. The salty-sweet taste was a bit surprising compared to the pure saltiness, but because of the addition of sweetness, it had an inexplicable umami flavor. After all the soup inside was absorbed, Liu Yuan could finally stop being so “gentle” and bit into the thin dough. The skin was thin but soft yet tough, completely different from the soft and fluffy skin of ordinary steamed buns. The pork meat inside is equally salty and sweet, with a chewy texture while being sweet. The dipping sauce of vinegar and sesame oil not only made it not greasy but also brought out the sweetness in it.

Liu Yuan liked the xiao long guàntāng bao, but he didn’t like the fact that he was “forced” to be polite when eating them. After all, the xiao long guàntāng bao had a “coquettish temper” that would burn his mouth if he was not polite.

Seeing some impatient colleagues burning their mouths and yelling “ouch” at the side, he asked people to eat more carefully.

After this “gentle” meal, he had to work on the case again.

Liu Yuan, accompanied by several other well-fed bailiffs, rushed out of the Dali Temple and headed straight towards Yishan Mountain.

Today they were to bring the mountain man Zhou Dagui to Dali Temple for questioning.

Because Zhou Dagui was most likely the real culprit who killed Zhuang Meiniang’s husband and his wife, when Liu Yuan led people there, he specially asked people to “ambush” around his house to prevent anyone from escaping or killing someone in a panic.

As a result, when he knocked on the courtyard door and went in, Zhou Dagui was still chopping his firewood in the courtyard. When he saw them and heard their purpose, he said “Oh”, looked calm as usual, wiped his hands, and followed them to Dali Temple.

The process of bringing people in was incredibly smooth.

When Liu Yuan took the people back to Dali Temple, he couldn’t help but mutter: This is much smoother than when he first searched for Ruan Zhan and Han Jun! But every time one of those two people was found, the person would die before they were found.

He didn’t know if this matter had anything to do with Zhou Dagui.

The person who asked the question was still Liu Yuan. Lin Fei just looked on and shook his head, as if he didn’t intend to speak.

When Liu Yuan asked whether Zhuang Meiniang’s husband and Zhou Dagui’s wife were killed by him, his answer was exactly the same as Zhuang Meiniang’s.

“No.” Zhou Dagui said, “They were punished by God. Their deaths have nothing to do with me. I have witnesses who were present when the accident happened.”

In fact, they all knew this without Zhou Dagui saying it.

Liu Yuan frowned, of course, that was not what they wanted to know. After a moment of pause, Liu Yuan asked Zhou Dagui: “Do you recognize Han Jun and Ruan Zhan?”

Zhou Dagui nodded and said: “Yes. It was the two of them who told me about my wife and Madam Zhuang’s husband.”

This also matched what Zhuang Meiniang said.

“Then what’s your relationship with these two people?” Liu Yuan frowned more and more and continued to question Zhou Dagui.

Zhou Dagui said: “Just passing on a message, not familiar.”

Then why did these two people die inexplicably? Could it be that it was really just a coincidence and had nothing to do with Zhou Dagui? Liu Yuan’s heart sank, and when he was about to continue asking questions, Lin Fei who was standing aside suddenly said: “Could the death of Han Jun’s book boy have something to do with you?”

As soon as these words came out, Liu Yuan was stunned subconsciously, and his eyes instinctively looked at Zhou Dagui.

Zhou Dagui, who was originally extremely calm when facing their sudden visit, suddenly froze when this question came up.

Author’s Note: Happy National Day!

(End of chapter)

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