Noticing Wen Mingtang’s gaze, Liang Hongjin glanced smugly at the skeptical Tangyuan beside her, waving the booklet in her hand, and said, “Xiao Mingtang, when I came here just now, I saw that most of your Dali Temple people had left, saying they went out to catch evildoers, so I specially flipped through this booklet…”

Liang Hongjin said while flipping through the nearly worn-out booklet, “Is today Laba Festival? Hmm, I remember it’s also your mother’s birthday!”

Wen Mingtang’s gaze paused on the booklet in Liang Hongjin’s hand.

“This booklet, which isn’t publicly available, says today is an auspicious day for moving graves, breaking ground, and performing rituals!” Liang Hongjin said, “Your Lin Shaoqing might have used this booklet to go out and catch evildoers…”

Tangyuan couldn’t help but twitch her lips upon hearing this and quickly interrupted Liang Hongjin: “General Liang, don’t talk nonsense! How could our Lin Shaoqing go out to catch evildoers based on such a booklet?”

“Exactly!” Ah Bing chimed in, seeing Tang Yuan’s opinion. “If that’s the case, why not just consult this secret almanac for solving cases? Wouldn’t it be the simplest way to catch villains?”

Hearing Ah Bing and Tangyuan’s rebuttal, Liang Hongjin shook her head and said, “Do you remember the day Xiao Mingtang and I encountered those two bearded men?”

Seeing Ah Bing and Tang Yuan looking at her, Liang Hongjin said smugly to Wen Mingtang, “Xiao Mingtang, do you remember me saying I smelled blood on those two bearded men?”

Meeting Ah Bing and Tangyuan’s gaze, Wen Mingtang nodded and said, “General Liang did say that!”

With Wen Mingtang’s confirmation, Liang Hongjin snorted, glanced at Ah Bing and Tangyuan, flipped through the almanac in her hand, pointed to a page, and said to the two, “Look, what does this almanac say for that day?”

“Very ominous, bloodshed is advised.”

Five large characters were prominently displayed!

Tangyuan felt a chill run down her spine, instinctively shuddering and muttering, “I’ve never seen an almanac like this before!” She wondered who had compiled such a frightening almanac!

“That’s why it’s not shared!” Liang Hongjin said, putting the almanac away and making a face at everyone. “Your Lin Shaoqing uses it to catch evildoers, while I… just look at the auspicious days. Most of them don’t conflict with those of the Imperial Observatory!”

Wen Mingtang glanced at the almanac Liang Hongjin had put away, composed himself, and called Tangyuan and A Bing back to their senses: “Continue cooking; it’s getting late!”

Tangyuan and A Bing responded and continued cooking.

Liang Hongjin’s attention was also drawn back by Wen Mingtang’s words. She looked at the meat Wen Mingtang was slicing; its color was redder than that of the usual pork or chicken, resembling beef.

Beef wasn’t a common dish in the public kitchen!

Liang Hongjin exclaimed, “Ah!” and her eyes lit up immediately: “Looks like I’ve come at the perfect time! Little Mingtang, you have no idea what our kitchen staff has been eating these past few days. A few cloves of pickled garlic, moldy tofu, and some pickled vegetables with porridge that’s rice and water – tell me, is it delicious or not?”

Hearing Liang Hongjin’s description of “rice and water”, Tangyuan couldn’t help but burst out laughing again: “It sounds rather bland! General Liang, do your kitchen staff not even have the time to cook porridge?”

Making porridge was almost effortless; simply add water and rice, then let it simmer. Keep it simmering over a low flame, and you don’t need to do much. Not to mention a cook, even her father could make it well. So what was the deal with the cooks at the Ganzhiwei Public Kitchen?

“The cook quit!” Liang Hongjin sighed, a hint of envy in her voice. “I heard that a distant uncle in my family passed away, leaving behind thousands of acres of land. His nephew, a distant relative, inherited it, instantly going from cook to rich man. Naturally, he quit!”

She paused, then added, “To be honest, if I were him, I’d quit immediately too, avoiding the harassment from those in charge!”

“The first cook inherited the land and became rich, and the next cook, supposedly quite skilled from Sichuan, was poached by some nobleman’s household to be a cook!” Liang Hongjin touched her purse, her voice filled with even more wistfulness. “Ultimately, it all comes down to money!”

“It’s just that the cooks at the Marquis’s mansion get paid more,” Tangyuan said, puzzled. “The fate of kings and generals is unpredictable. How can it be as secure as working in a government office? My family has been coachmen at the Dali Temple for generations! We’re not rich, but we’ve always been very stable, and now it’s even passed down to my father!”

Liang Hongjin thought for a moment and said, “Perhaps it’s because the Marquis’s mansion is generous with the money! After all, the cook needs to eat too. I heard that the lady of that mansion has a particular fondness for this kind of food. There aren’t many cooks in the whole capital who can make this kind of dish well. It’s rare to find one. They must have spent a lot of money!”

As Liang Hongjin said this, Wen Mingtang suddenly realized, thinking of the bowl of hot and sour noodles earlier, that the cook who had been poached by the Duke was from the Ganzhiwei Public Kitchen, who had gone to “get a good job”!

“I don’t know what happened. We had everything agreed upon, and the person was already halfway there with their belongings when they heard that the chef was hungry and was eating a bowl of wontons by the roadside when he suddenly changed his mind!” Liang Hongjin was still talking, clearly still bothered by the fact that the chef had run away. “Now, I don’t know where the manager found the substitute chef from, and since he’s not getting paid, he’s just doing whatever he can to make do!”

Fortunately, she had helped Lin Shaoqing earlier, so she could still come to Xiao Mingtang’s place for a treat!

While they were talking, Wen Mingtang and the others had already prepared their dishes. With a “sizzle”, garlic, ginger, pickled peppers, and other seasonings hit the oil, and along with the addition of sauerkraut, a fragrant and sour aroma immediately filled the air.

Liang Hongjin rubbed her nose, inhaling the enticing sour aroma, and subconsciously swallowed, sighing, “If pickled vegetables were as sour and appetizing as Xiao Mingtang’s, I could even eat that watery porridge!”

Through the fumes, Wen Mingtang glanced at the meaningfully pointed Liang Hongjin, smiled, and said, “I have two more jars of pickled vegetables in my yard. Take them back after dinner for a treat!”

Liang Hongjin immediately smiled. “I knew Xiao Mingtang was the most generous!” Watching Wen Mingtang deftly pour the simmered broth into the stir-fried sauerkraut, followed by mushrooms, tofu skin, cabbage, and other side dishes, Liang Hongjin glanced at the beef still unadded and exclaimed, “Isn’t meat harder to cook? Why not put it first?”

Hearing this, Ah Bing casually picked up a slice of beef, pointing to the thin, translucent slice, his tone brimming with pride: “It’s thinly sliced; it cooks quickly with a quick dip in the blanch, so there’s no need to add it first!”

It was all about the knife skills! Liang Hongjin suddenly understood, then added, “The chef who was originally supposed to come to our government kitchen was also said to have excellent knife skills. If he hadn’t been poached, he might have even had a chance to exchange skills with you!”

(End of Chapter)

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