The lunch seemed like a year, and when night fell, Xun Zhou packed up and went back.

He set up the stall on the first day and got nothing.

It would be strange if he could get anything! Even if he was targeted as soon as he showed up, why would the criminals go after a scholar who had just set up a stall here the day before?

They would always keep an eye on him for a while and make sure there were no problems before they would action.

After hastily collecting a few calligraphy and paintings and returning the rented table, Xun Zhou squeezed into the crowd with his things, and taking advantage of the noise made by a few officers catching a “thief”, he slipped into an alley nearby and took a shortcut back to his residence.

Although he didn’t get to eat the duòjiāo yútóu dòufǔ bāo for lunch at the Dali Temple, Zhao You had this evening meal delivered directly to his home.

For lunch, they had duòjiāo yútóu dòufǔ bāo, and for dinner, they had hóngshāo yú kuài.

The casserole was wrapped tightly with a thick cloth. Xun Zhou was scalded several times before he finally opened the lid. The moment the lid was opened, the salty and fresh aroma that was tightly locked inside immediately spread in all directions.

Pieces of fish with brown skin lay quietly in the casserole together with tender green onion segments. Each piece was tightly wrapped in sticky braised sauce. The stewed sticky sauce was shiny, and the scattered red pepper rings dotted in between added a lot of bright colors to the whole dish.

Zhao You had just left when he got home. Not long had passed since the braised fish fillets were taken down from the stove and delivered to him. The sporadic “gurgling” bubbles were the best proof of this.

Now that this pot of hóngshāo yú kuài had entered his eyes, he could no longer take his eyes away. Xun Zhou couldn’t wait to pick up the chopsticks beside him and pick up the hóngshāo yú kuài in the casserole.

The fish piece was picked up, and the sticky braised sauce hanging on it was about to fall off. The moment Xun Zhou put it in his mouth, he instinctively sucked away the sauce that was about to fall off. The sauce was salty with a strong fish flavor, and a slight spicy taste in the flavor, but it was more than just salty. There seemed to be a sweet flavor that was so light that the sweetness was almost unnoticeable.

The taste of the sauce was layered. Xun Zhou, who had only eaten a flat bun for lunch and was already starving, temporarily suspended his action of eating fish. He picked up the spoon beside him with his other hand, quickly scooped a spoonful of rice, and put it into his mouth with the aftertaste of the sauce.

Then, his appetite was completely aroused, and his stomach growled even more happily!

Xun Zhou put down the spoon and opened his mouth to bite the braised fish. The moment his teeth bit into the fish, Xun Zhou was stunned.

When he saw the hóngshāo yú kuài just now, he thought that compared with the ones he had seen before, these hóngshāo yú kuài seemed to be pieced together and very “round”, which was somewhat different from the hóngshāo yú kuài dish he remembered.

In his memory, no matter how careful the cook was when making hóngshāo yú kuài, since it was braised fish fillets, you still needed to use a spatula to turn it over. The fish meat had distinct lines, and no matter how careful you were, it would always break when you turned it over.

Therefore, the dish of hóngshāo yú kuài always turns into “braised fish pieces” of different sizes in the end. It was extremely rare to be able to barely maintain its shape. But Sister Mingtang’s hóngshāo yú kuài were really… unnaturally round.

As for the reason for the shape, Xun Zhou immediately understood it when he bit into the crispy piece of fish.

The fish pieces had clearly been deliberately fried before being cooked as braised fish. Although they were fried, they hadn’t been coated in a thick layer of batter like typical nianzi. Even without the batter, the fried fish was just as fragrant and crispy as nianzi, losing not the slightest bit of its appeal.

Although the surface was crispy, it was only a thin layer, so it broke open with just a slight bite, revealing the fish meat with distinct textures inside.

The tender white fish meat looked like garlic cloves and tasted extremely tender and smooth. The crispy outside and tender inside texture was simply irresistible.

Xun Zhou ate the fish while stuffing big mouthfuls of rice mixed with the sauce into his mouth.

When the last spoonful was empty, he realized that he had finished the pot of hóngshāo yú kuài without realizing it!

He poured the last bit of rice into the little remaining sauce, mixed it, and put it into his mouth.

When the casserole was completely empty, with not a single grain of rice left, Xun Zhou put down his chopsticks, burped, and leaned against the wall behind him, feeling unsatisfied. He touched his stomach and sighed: Today was just a short day, but it was really like experiencing ups and downs! Perhaps the contrast between these three meals was too strong, so when I think back now, I feel like I was in heaven when I ate breakfast in the morning, and I felt like I fell from the sky when I ate the flat buns for lunch. After being hungry for the whole afternoon, I felt like I was flying to the sky when I ate dinner!

But this feeling of heaven and hell was just because of that meal. Xun Zhou couldn’t help sighing: I never knew that I was such a greedy person! I would have such a big emotion for a meal!

But looking at the group of people in the Dali Temple, Xun Zhou felt that it was okay to be greedy for a bite or two of food: eating, drinking, defecating, and urinating were human nature. Since we can’t live without eating every day, it was not a bad thing to be particular about a bite or two of food, and it was okay!

After thinking it through, Xun Zhou put down the chopsticks in his hand: I don’t know what sister Mingtang will cook for breakfast tomorrow morning, it’s really exciting!

…

Wen Mingtang, who was being “missed” by Xun Zhou, sneezed and looked at Li Yuan, who had not appeared for a long time, in a daze: Hasn’t this person been locked up at home?

When he came to his senses, Wen Mingtang looked Li Yuan up and down, and her suspicion became even more intense: Let him show up, after all, Li Yuan was not a prisoner in prison. But he was covered in dirt, and Shuangxi, the lackey who always followed him, was not there. Even a fool could guess that he probably escaped by climbing over the wall or crawling through a hole. If the Pingxi County Prince’s Mansion came to find him…

Seeing Wen Mingtang’s suspicious look in front of him, Li Yuan couldn’t help but clench his fists with his hands hanging down on both sides of his body. “What’s with that look, you stinky girl surnamed Wen? If I hadn’t heard that you were almost kidnapped, I wouldn’t even bother to come out to see you!”

So you came to see her! Wen Mingtang said “Oh”, although she didn’t think she had any close relationship with this young prince, she still said “thank you” and turned around to bring a pot of hóngshāo yú kuài to Li Yuan.

To be fair, there was nothing wrong with Wen Mingtang’s reaction, but Li Yuan felt inexplicably angry and aggrieved. Seeing Wen Mingtang put down the casserole and about to leave, he couldn’t help but say, “I came out especially to see you!”

Hearing the emphasis he placed on the word “especially”… Wen Mingtang raised her eyes to look at Li Yuan who was raising his chin. The young prince glanced at her with proud and excited eyes, as if he was waiting for her to be moved and thank him.

But when Wen Mingtang saw this, her heart was extremely calm: having lived two lives, she could not understand the boy’s thoughts at first, but now she understood them.

But before that, she had to confirm one thing.

“How did the young prince know that I was almost kidnapped?”

Only the public kitchen staff and Liu Yuan knew about the problem with the mask. Although it was not a secret and there was no need to keep it secret, even Liu Yuan, who was the most eccentric, would not tell others about it. So how did Li Yuan know about it?

(End of this chapter)

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The closest to the recipe I could get