After wiping his hands and giving instructions to the cooks and servants, Master Jiang came out of the public kitchen. Facing Ding Caimai with a complicated expression, he said, “Old Ding! I’m not saying anything bad about you, but you’re not a young man who has only been here for a day or two. Can’t you see that I’m busy here right now? Those students are very picky. If they find something they don’t like, they will probably go on strike again.”

As for students, except for a very small number of students who were born to like studying, most students didn’t like studying and tried their best to skip classes.

This group of students in the Imperial College were very smart. They could think of anything to go on strike under various pretexts. It was really a helpless situation.

Ding Caimai said to him, “This time it’s not the students who are making trouble. Yu Jijiu is looking for the two of us.”

The two of them? Master Jiang was stunned when he heard this and looked at Ding Caimai in confusion: “Old Ding, what did you do?”

Ding Caimai looked at Master Jiang and said faintly: “It’s not me who did anything, it’s you who did something.”

As for what he did, Master Jiang finally understood when he saw Yu Jijiu who was slowly peeling tea eggs.

“It was for that…what’s she called?” The head chef of the public kitchen had many things to do, and even if he still had a vague impression, he couldn’t remember the specific name.

“Wen Mingtang.” Ding Caimai looked at Master Jiang, whose name he didn’t even remember, twitched his lips, and explained, “The palace maid who was released from the palace, recommended by Zhao Sishan in the palace. Zhang Caimai brought her to see me, and she made a dish of green plum pork ribs. I came back and told you that her cooking was very good!”

He spoke in such detail that not only did Master Jiang finally remember this person, but even Yu Jijiu heard about it…

“Green plum pork ribs?” Yu Jijiu paused while peeling a tea egg, “Green plums can be cooked together with pork ribs?”

Ding Caimai glanced at Master Jiang on the side, and seeing that he didn’t receive any look from his old friend, he told the truth: “I deliberately tested her by making a hard request, and she did it.”

“How does it taste?” Yu Jijiu became interested when he heard it and asked quickly.

Ding Caimai nodded and said, “Very good! Sweet and sour, although it is a meat dish like spareribs, it has the fragrance of green plums because of the addition of green plums. The whole dish is sweet and sour without being greasy, and it is a very suitable meat dish for summer.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Yu Jijiu swallowing visibly in his throat, and it seemed that he had been thinking about the green plum spareribs.

The more he thought about the green plum spareribs, the more dissatisfied he was with Master Jiang’s action of sending her away.

“Old Jiang, tell me, do you have a grudge against me?” Yu Jijiu looked at Master Jiang and asked, “Why did you send away a master with such skills?”

Master Jiang’s face did not change. Hearing this, he said, “How is Master Wen’s cooking? I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but from Old Ding and that boy Ah Bing who is related to my family, it is indeed very good!”

“Not bad, and you sent her away?” Yu Jijiu looked at Master Jiang with a bad face, “Old Jiang, you have to give me an explanation.”

“Of course, I have to give an explanation.” Master Jiang nodded and said, looking at Yu Jijiu, “Her appearance is not good, she can’t be admitted to the Imperial College.”

Huh? Appearance? This reason made Yu Jijiu dumbfounded. He paused and glanced at Ding Caimai beside him. He hesitated for a moment and said, “Is she too ugly? Comparable to the female Zhang Fei? The kind that can scare students to tears?”

Although it was a bit ugly, it was actually okay if you think about it carefully! It would be good if there was a devilish cook here who could keep the students in check.

Upon hearing this, Master Jiang shook his head and said, “On the contrary! She is much better than that cook Zhou. The Jijiu said before that to let the students study well, not to mention people, even good-looking cats and dogs, as long as they are female, cannot be admitted!”

Therefore, the reason why he didn’t hire someone was not because of anything else, but because of Yu Jijiu himself!

Hearing this, Yu Jijiu’s face froze for a moment, and after a moment, he said awkwardly: “You can ask her to cook for a few days and let me see, and then I will consider it…”

Now it was too late to consider it, the person had gone to canteen the next door. The group of people in the Dali Temple next door were very cunning, it would be strange if they let people go!

Yu Jijiu sighed quietly, waved his hand, and said: “Forget it, it’s my fault!”

Who knew that the cook’s skills would be so to his taste? Although a bowl of bingfan and a bowl of tea eggs filled his stomach a lot, he didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t eaten much these days, this filling, not only did not make him feel full, but he wanted to stuff something more in.

So… just go to the Dali Temple next door at dusk! It was just a few steps away!

Watching Yu Jijiu’s back as he went away, Master Jiang looked at Ding Caimai on the side and said, “Old Ding, is that cook’s skill really good?”

Ding Caimai nodded and said, “To be honest, when her green plum pork ribs came out, I wanted to keep her.”

That was really good! Master Jiang touched his nose and said, “I’m a little curious! But at that time, Yu Jijiu was very angry about Zhou’s cooking, and I was just following orders!”

“It’s not your fault!” Ding Caimao said as he spread his hands towards him, looking helpless. “Who would have known that our venerable Jijiu would act like a child, taking back his words just as quickly as he said them?”

Master Jiang also smiled, shook his head, and went back to the public kitchen to work.

Master Wen’s cooking skills were good, but that was also the business of the Dali Temple next door. He just needed to do a good job in the public kitchen of the Imperial College!

…

As the weather got hotter, hot dishes were not as popular as cold dishes. Today, the evening meal in the public kitchen of the Dali Temple was a cold dish.

Looking at the handful of bamboo skewers in the porcelain bowl that were almost too big to hold, everyone was excited and curious.

“Can everyone get enough?” Someone couldn’t help asking Wen Mingtang, “Is the public chef so generous today? I wonder if we can eat it all!”

“Grandiose?” Someone who had arrived early and had already started eating picked up a skewer of beef and pointed at the small piece of beef on the bamboo skewer, saying, “Each skewer is a bite-sized portion, how can we not eat it all?”

The man who spoke was a man with a long beard and handsome features, who looked like a scholar in a painting, but his movements of holding the bamboo skewer and eating were quite heroic.

He held the skewer in one hand and bit into the piece of beef that had been soaked in the cold soup for a long time. He quickly bit the beef off the skewer and sipped the beef that had been soaked in the salty and fresh soup and had already penetrated deep into the texture. He closed his eyes and said intoxicatedly, “It’s firm but not dry, and extremely smooth and tender. In addition to the salty and fresh taste of chicken soup, there seems to be something else in the soup. My mouth is a little numb…”

“Added peppercorns.” Ji Caimai, who sat down opposite him with a large bowl of Bobo Chicken, said, “I have met Yu Jijiu!”

This man was really a picky gourmet. Look, as soon as the bowl of tea eggs, and bingfan was delivered, he came over.

(End of this chapter)

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