In the afternoon in the public kitchen of Dali Temple, the aroma of boiled red beans wafted from the large casserole in the middle.

Wen Mingtang, Ah Bing, and Tangyuan sat in front of the steaming casserole, chatting and occasionally glancing at the people sitting opposite them not far away.

Xun Zhou looked up at the people in front of him, laughed dryly twice, and said, “I’m afraid that such an important task is…”

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Liu Yuan, who said, “You can do it! What girl wouldn’t like a handsome man like Xun Gongzi? Right, Bai Zhu?”

Facing Liu Yuan’s eyes that kept winking at him, Bai Zhu nodded, looked at Xun Zhou opposite him, coughed lightly, and echoed: “Xun Gongzi is indeed born with a good appearance. When we were eating the crab pot just now, we saw you at the table where you were eating.”

In the face of Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu’s praise, Xun Zhou showed no sign of happiness on his face. Instead, his expression grew even more rigid: among the teachers sitting at the same table, he was the only young one, and it was obvious from a glance.

As for a good-looking person or something like that…

Xun Zhou looked at Lin Fei, who was sitting across from him leisurely peeling sugar-roasted chestnuts, and said dryly: “In terms of appearance, who can compare to Lin Shaoqing…”

Since they all said it was a good thing, why didn’t they go? Xun Zhou looked at the people opposite him with a bad face: He, Xun Zhou, was not a fool!

Lin Fei, who skillfully pressed, shelled, and peeled the chestnuts and put a brown chestnut meat into his mouth, looked up at Xun Zhou and said, “Too many people know me, it won’t work!”

Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu on the side followed Lin Fei and spoke in unison.

“There are many people who know us, so it won’t work!”

It turned out that they were looking for him because they were afraid of being recognized! He thought they really thought he was handsome or something! Xun Zhou’s face turned cold. He smelled the aroma of sugar-roasted chestnuts coming from Lin Fei’s hand, touched his nose, and said, “Xun Zhou is a decent person, how can I go and take the initiative to get to know a woman?”

Lin Fei glanced at the Buddha amulet hanging around Xun Zhou’s neck and said, “The Buddha said, ‘If I don’t go to hell, who will?’ Since you know that helping someone can save them from danger, why won’t you help?”

Xun Zhou said: “It’s not a good idea to take the initiative to get to know a girl. If the teacher finds out…”

Before he finished speaking, Lin Fei peeled another chestnut and put it into his mouth, glancing at him: “I heard that recently Minister Huang has often invited your teacher and Master Xun to visit his house, and also asked Master Xun to explain the “Tea Classic” to his three daughters?”

As soon as these words came out, Xun Zhou’s face changed slightly. Wen Mingtang and others who were cooking red bean soup also turned their heads to look over here, their eyes subtle: Huang Shizhong! In their spare time, she had heard those runners mention this Huang Shizhong. He had a bit of a “reputation” among the dignitaries in the capital.

However, this “title” did not come from outstanding political achievements, good poetry writing, or any other expertise.

The reason why this Minister Huang stood out from the crowd of powerful people was because of his three daughters, all of whom were quite good-looking.

It was said that since they were born into the Huang family and had good looks, they should have no shortage of suitors. However, the fact was quite the opposite. Minister Huang was troubled by the marriage of his three daughters.

The eldest daughter, Miss Huang, had a straightforward personality, but…her preference for women and her dislike for men was known to the entire Chang’an City.

The second daughter, Miss Huang, was good at socializing and was very versatile, but she openly kept a lover and said that if men could have three wives and four concubines, why couldn’t women?

The Third Miss Huang had neither the preference of the eldest sister nor the habit of the second sister to keep lovers. Instead, she had other interests! She enjoyed teaming up with others to catch adulterers and, most of all, loved to drive the caught men and women, who were still in their undressed state, out onto the streets to be publicly displayed. Such actions naturally made it easy to gain notoriety, so it quickly spread within the circles of the powerful and wealthy.

Three beautiful daughters were just thrown away like this! Huang Shizhong was very troubled: Under such circumstances, most of those who were willing to marry the three daughters had other intentions. It can be said that these people were not marrying his three daughters, but this old man! Huang Shizhong naturally looked down on these people, but those who he liked were unwilling to marry his three daughters.

So… Huang Shizhong set his sights on those poor boys who were of humble origins but good people. After searching for a long time, they heard that Huang Shizhong had chosen Xun Zhou.

Xun Zhou has been having a headache about this matter recently!

Lin Shaoqing from the Dali Temple was really good at keeping quiet, but once he spoke, it was always hard to refuse. Glancing at Xun Zhou who was beginning to hesitate, Wen Mingtang stood up and opened the lid of the casserole. The red beans that had been soaked in advance and frozen in the ice cellar were easy to boil and become sandy. Seeing that they were almost done, Wen Mingtang and others put the small balls made of glutinous rice into another pot and started to cook.

After the red bean paste was scooped out, the glutinous rice balls also floated up.

While Xun Zhou was still hesitating, Wen Mingtang and others had already prepared the red bean xiǎoyuánzi and then served them to the people sitting in the public kitchen.

The red beans had been boiled to a sandy texture. In a pure white porcelain bowl, the dark red bean paste sweet soup formed the base, with a spoonful of glistening white glutinous rice balls placed in the center. The contrast of the white and red created a sudden visual delight, but the most exquisite touch was the golden yellow osmanthus flowers scattered among the red and white.

The strong feeling of late autumn also came to you with the embellishment of this handful of golden osmanthus flowers.

The rich aroma of red beans and osmanthus rushed into your nose along with the sweet soup in front of you.

Ignoring Xun Zhou who was still hesitating, Lin Fei picked up the spoon and scooped it up. The spoonful was of sweet bean paste at the base, with two small glutinous rice balls dotted on top. There were also a few golden osmanthus flowers sprinkled on the surface of the balls and the bean paste.

After blowing slightly on the spoonful of red bean xiǎo yuánzi, Lin Fei put them into his mouth.

Liu Yuan and Bai Zhu also put it into their mouths one after another: the red bean paste tasted mixed with the sweetness of beans. Master Wen must have added milk to it, and you can taste the rich milk flavor if you taste it carefully. The soft and glutinous small dumplings were mixed in the sweet soup of red bean paste, adding a different taste to the pure red bean paste sweet soup, mixed with the fragrance of osmanthus, it really felt like swallowing the whole autumn.

After eating a bowl of red bean xiǎo yuánzi, the autumn chill was successfully driven away. Liu Yuan used the spoon in his hand to scrape the sweet red bean soup at the bottom of the bowl cleanly until there was no more red bean paste left. Only then, did he put down the spoon in his hand. Then he looked up and saw Xun Zhou who was still hesitating opposite him, and the bowl of red bean xiǎo yuánzi in front of him that had never been touched.

How could this be done? Liu Yuan quickly picked up the spoon he had just put down and stretched it out to him: “Master Xun, you don’t want to eat? Give it to me! I hate to waste the most!”

How could the food made by Master Wen be wasted? No! He would not allow such a thing to happen!

But before the spoon could be put into Xun Zhou’s bowl, Xun Zhou moved the bowl in front of him away and looked at Liu Yuan who was offering to “voluntarily help” him. Xun Zhou said with a wooden face: “I can help with other things, but I don’t need to trouble Liu Sicheng for this!”

(End of this chapter)

---