Ji Caimai, who had been smiling, suddenly had his smile froze on his face. When he came to his senses, he immediately wiped the smile off his face, looked at Yu Jijiu, and drew out his words: “Jijiu, that’s not fair!”

He had seen people eat a meal they liked and take it away, but he had never seen anyone take the meal away with the cook.

How could the public kitchen of the Dali Temple open the fire when the Jijiu took the people away?

So without thinking, Ji Caimai waved his hand and said, “No, no…”

Yu Jijiu smiled, raised his hand, and pointed to A Bing and Tangyuan, who were behind the counter, one chopping vegetables and the other mixing ingredients, both very skillfully. He said, “Look at her two apprentices; they’re quite good too. They should be able to handle it for a day or two without any problem!”

Ji Caimai still shook his head: “This is not a question of whether it will succeed or not, this is…”

Before he finished speaking, two huge silver ingots fell in front of him. Looking at Ji Caimai who was a little dazed, Yu Jijiu stroked his chin and said, “Ji Caimai, why don’t you reconsider it?”

Ji Caimai paused for a moment when he saw the silver ingot. He forced himself to take his eyes off the ingot, but still shook his head and said, “This is against the rules. Our Master Wen is the chef of the public kitchen of the Dali Temple. How can she just drop his burden and run away…”

Before he could finish his words, Yu Jijiu snorted and said, “Your chef in the public kitchen of the Dali Temple doesn’t have a day off?”

There were rest days. Ji Caimai hesitated for a moment, his eyes fell on the two huge silver ingots and paused again, then turned around and called out “Master Wen”.

Wen Mingtang, who was behind the counter, came over and asked, “What’s wrong?”

After listening to Yu Jijiu’s explanation, Wen Mingtang was about to speak when she heard Ji Caimai coughing twice, and the abacus beads made a “bang bang” sound. He said, “Master Wen gave up his rest day to prepare a banquet for you. I heard that those great scholars are the most picky. If they make things difficult…”

Before he could finish his words, another huge silver ingot fell in front of Ji Caimai. Yu Jijiu glanced at Ji Caimai and said, “Is that enough?”

This old man was really cunning. If he wanted to pay more, just tell him!

Such a good way… Ji Caimai turned his head to look at Wen Mingtang.

Wen Mingtang suppressed the smile on her face, coughed lightly, and said to Yu Jijiu who was scattering silver like beans: “I don’t know when Yu Jijiu’s banquet will be held, so I can change my day off to that day.”

After asking Yu Jijiu about the date and location of the banquet, as well as the dietary taboos and preferences of the guests at the banquet, Wen Mingtang agreed.

After Yu Jijiu left, Wen Mingtang took the two silver ingots from Ji Caimai, pushed the remaining one back to Ji Caimai, and said, “Thank you very much, Ji Caimai, for your help.”

She knew nothing about the rules of hiring a chef from outside. Without Ji Caimai’s, there would be no silver ingot. It was only right that she should do business well with Ji Cai.

Ji Caimai declined for a while, but finally accepted it and said to Wen Mingtang, “In the future, if there are big banquets like the Yu Jijiu, I will keep an eye out for you.”

For a grand banquet like this, as long as one had good cooking skills, it was a great opportunity to make a name for oneself.

“If the dishes you cook are to the taste of Yu Jijiu’s close friends, the price of your private banquets in the future will not be low.” Ji Caimai lowered his voice and reminded Wen Mingtang of a few tricks. “But not every banquet can be accepted. If there are some conflicts, it will only make the chef suffer. Of course, I will check these for you first!”

Since he had taken the money, he had to do this job.

Of course, helping Wen Mingtang was not just because they had a good relationship over these days.

“You’ve become famous, and our Dali Temple public kitchen has become well-known. When we produce festive cake gift boxes during festivals, they will definitely be in short supply.” Ji Caimai said, “Helping you is also helping me, and helping our entire public kitchen.”

Wen Mingtang nodded and thanked him, then said to Ji Caimai, “When Yu Jijiu’s banquet comes, we’ll need Ji Caimai to help with the preparation of dishes and ingredients.”

Ji Caimai nodded: “Of course!”

Master Wen’s cooking skills were important to make the dishes delicious, but the ingredients cannot be neglected either. Not to mention that Master Wen’s dishes were too “new” for most chefs in Beijing, and the ingredients, seasonings, and other things were not well prepared, so they had to prepare them.

Since there was still some time before Yu Jijiu’s banquet, there was no need to start preparations now. They could just do what they needed to do during this period.

Probably because Prince Yu was in trouble, he really had no time to care about Wen Mingtang. Wen Xiutang, who had a falling out with her last time, had not appeared for a long time.

Wen Mingtang has been living a very comfortable life these days.

But while she was enjoying himself here, Liu Yuan and his colleagues were having more and more headaches handling cases. Ever since Lin Shaoqing, the superior, took over Sudan Sheng’s belongings from the clerk and looked through them, he had been checking various files in the warehouse every day and had not gone out of the Dali Temple to handle cases for several days.

They went out every day, but there was no progress with either the Goguryeo envoys, Cháoān Gōngzhǔ, or Prince Yu.

After all, even if these two were hanging out together, it would be difficult to do anything to them legally.

However, after returning to Beijing, Lord Jin, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, cried for his deceased wife who committed suicide. Then, he started the funeral for Madam Jin. As for taking any action against Prince Yu because of this, there was no news about it.

“What can a mere official like him do to Prince Yu?” Although Wei Fu spoke on behalf of Lord Jin, his brows were still furrowed.

He made a special trip to check out the Jin family’s affairs, so he knew more about them than anyone else.

Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu were quite surprised by this expression: “What’s wrong?”

Wei Fu then said, “The day Lord Jin returned to the capital, he burned the lotus painting. When I asked him about it, I, even as a man, found his reactions to be chilling.”

What reaction?

“When I mentioned Madam Jin, he was full of disdain, saying ‘I think she’s dirty.’” Wei Fu paused for a moment, looking at the slightly changed expressions of Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu, and shook his head, “I thought the truth of the matter has not been found out yet, and he is not afraid that Madam Jin will be upset when he says this.”

“He said that no matter whether it is true or not, people outside say that he is cuckolded. What difference does it make?” Wei Fu shook his head, with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. “Compared to Fù Fùmǎ, he is indeed very ‘strong-willed’, but he is not much better.”

Whether it was Fù Fùmǎ or Lord Jin, they both make people feel chilled.

As men, they were ashamed to be associated with them!

This reaction was exactly what they expected at the time, so…

“That old woman who changed her words…” Liu Yuan thought for a moment and said, “Could it be that Madam Jin was forced to commit suicide?”

Upon hearing this, Wei Fu nodded and said, “I have thought of this, so I went to find Lin Shaoqing. Lin Shaoqing told me not to worry, saying that once he finds the head, everything will be clear, whether it’s Madam Jin’s case or the matter of Sudan!”

(End of this chapter)

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