Yesterday’s braised duck sold very well, so we prepared twice as much last night. However, even with this amount, it was sold out before noon.

Ji Caimai gnawed on the duck collarbone in his hand and said to Wen Mingtang, “This braised duck is so popular that I think we can sell it daily along with bīngfěn and sour plum drinks.”

Wen Mingtang nodded and agreed: “Braised food is not difficult to make. As long as the pot is big enough, you can make a lot at a time.”

After talking about the duck, Ji Caimai glanced at the big pot in the communal kitchen, and asked Wen Mingtang, “Everything from the cow brought from the farm yesterday was put into the pot to cook. It doesn’t look like a soup, and you said it’s not a braised dish. I guess it’s a cold dish like the saliva chicken?”

After eating so much, he gained some experience. Ji Caimai’s guess was not bad. Wen Mingtang smiled and said, “It’s a cold dish called Fuqi Feipian¹.”

It really was a cold dish! Ji Caimai thought for a moment and said, “Let’s take a look first. I think cold dishes like the saliva chicken are also good for takeout.”

…

It would take at least one or two hours to stew something. Yu Jijiu, who came to get the duck, glanced at the stew in the pot which looked like nothing much, and went back with the big paper bag of duck.

In the hot summer, eating braised duck and tea eggs while digging into bīngfěn and drinking sour plum drinks was a great pleasure in life! Even the anger aroused by the group of disobedient students could be suppressed immediately.

Yu Jijiu was quite happy here, but Wei Fu, who was checking the accounts at the desk, was getting more and more frightened. This account book looked fine at first glance, but a closer look revealed flaws everywhere. It was clearly a “fake account book”. Even the account book was fake, so what else had to be checked?

After looking through all the account books on hand, Wei Fu could no longer sit still. He immediately stood up and went to see Lin Fei.

“Lin Shaoqing, there is something wrong with Prince Yu’s account book!”

Wei Fu said as soon as he walked in. “A lot of money is missing. It’s already summer, but he still has a large amount of money to buy ‘Silver Fiber Charcoal’.” At this point, Wei Fu’s expression became more serious. “There are many such items. I don’t know where Prince Yu’s large amount of money has gone.”

After a pause, without waiting for Lin Fei to speak, Wei Fu continued, “The Yuwang clan is rich in fiefdom. If we only talk about the silver and money on hand, it is one of the best among all the royal families. I made a rough estimate and found that at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver are missing.”

After listening to Wei Fu calmly, Lin Fei spoke: “I checked the account books of Cháoān Gōngzhǔ’s mansion yesterday.”

“There is also a large amount of money missing from that account book,” Lin Fei said, closing the account book in his hand and looking at Wei Fu, “Isn’t it a coincidence?”

What a coincidence! Wei Fu looked solemn. A Prince and a Gōngzhǔ, both of whom behaved lavishly and extravagantly. Such people were supposed to be pleasure seekers. Even if there was a problem with the account book, it should be that a large amount of money was not accounted for, not that the Prince’s mansion and the Gōngzhǔ’s mansion were emptied and the money was given away.

Given the personalities of these two people, would they give away hundreds of thousands of taels of silver for charity without leaving a name?

This was impossible! Where did the money go?

Lin Fei put the account book aside, stood up, and said, “We can go meet the Fùmǎ!”

A Fùmǎ who would “inadvertently” reveal and hint at the Gōngzhǔ’s unusual identity would naturally be very “willing” to tell every detail of the Gōngzhǔ’s abnormality.

This time, the place where they met the Fùmǎ was not in the Gōngzhǔ’s residence, but in a teahouse.

“She wasn’t like this when she was young,” the Fùmǎ sat down in front of him, still holding a teacup and “remembering” the Gōngzhǔ, “I don’t know why she is like this now…”

Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Wei Fu: “Fù Fùmǎ, it’s better to leave such matters of nostalgia to the Gōngzhǔ’s mansion. Let’s not beat around the bush. We came here today to ask you if there is anything unusual about the Gōngzhǔ on a daily basis.”

When Fu Fùmǎ heard the word “abnormal”, he seemed to be startled. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Lin Fei say, “Just say what you want to say. There is no need to beat around the bush. I have already reported the Gōngzhǔ’s replacement to His Majesty, and he will investigate it strictly!”

As soon as these words came out, Fù Fùmǎ was stunned. When he reacted, he wanted to laugh instinctively, but when he saw Lin Fei and Wei Fu beside him, he immediately put away the smile on his face and said, “The royal bloodline cannot be mixed, I…”

“Okay, stop talking nonsense!” This guy was really long-winded! Wei Fu rubbed his eyebrows and interrupted his nonsense, “We understand your experience. What we don’t want to know is not that you prove that the Gōngzhǔ is different from when she was young, but…”

“You must know that they went through so much trouble to confuse the bloodline for a purpose. We must know what their purpose is if they want to replace the Gōngzhǔ!”

When Fu Fùmǎ heard this, he smiled awkwardly, and after thinking seriously for a while, he began to speak: “She brought more than 20 men back to the mansion. Although she had fun with them every day, neither I nor those men ever stayed overnight in her room.” Fu Fùmǎ said, “She said that she was a light sleeper and didn’t like people around her, so she drove us and the maids out.”

Falling asleep alone could be a sign of light sleep or a desire to be alone after dark.

Wei Fu nodded, glanced at Lin Fei’s expression, and asked Fu Fùmǎ: “Anything else? Has she ever liked a particular man and doted on him?”

Hearing this, Fu Fùmǎ thought seriously for a long time and said, “There has been no such thing in the past few years. It’s always the same, like those playboys, who wouldn’t even blink an eye when their lovers died of illness. But there was one a few years ago. She heard from those lovers that the man was talented, so she was considerate and would only look for him at night. She let him go before dawn because she was afraid that his reputation would be damaged!”

To someone like Cháoān Gōngzhǔ, this young man was truly a “special” person.

“What’s that young man’s name? Where is he now?” Wei Fu asked immediately after hearing this.

Fù Fùmǎ shook his head and said with a wry smile, “Although I have seen that young man, I don’t know his name, and neither do the young men in this mansion. I heard that the Gōngzhǔ did this on purpose because she was afraid of getting him into trouble.” At this point, Fù Fùmǎ paused and continued, “But that young man spoke eloquently, and with his eyelids on top of his head, he seemed to be a proud and arrogant person…”

Before he finished speaking, Lin Fei took out a piece of paper from his sleeve, unfolded it, pointed at the portrait on the paper, and asked Fu Fu: “Was this the young man?”

The young man in the portrait was dressed like a scholar. He had a handsome face, but there was an indescribable arrogance in his eyes.

After just one look, Fù Fùmǎ exclaimed, pointed at the young man in the portrait, and said, “That’s him!”

(End of this chapter)

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Footnote

1. A beef dish from Sichuan. Here is the wiki entry.

Fūqī Fèipiàn

You can find the recipe here.