Chapter 248: You Don’t Have to Come Back Anymore (1)
Later that day, when Miss Yuan returned to the Ying Estate, Second Master Chu Qizheng found out that she had stolen his tea. The two of them started a fight and ended up bearing a grudge against each other.
When Chu Lian found out about this much later on, she just listened as if she were hearing a joke.
Back at Guilin Restaurant, in the outer court meant for male guests, a group of nobles of various ages were sitting together at a table. The eldest there was Old Duke Zheng while the youngest was the young Marquis Weiyuan. These people wouldn’t normally mingle, but had been brought together today thanks to Chu Lian’s amazing food.
All of them chose to simply enjoy the delicacies before them and avoid bringing up any topic related to politics.
After half a month of rest and eating the food carefully made by Mingyan, Old Duke Zheng was now hale and hearty like before. There was even a healthy flush on his nose and he seemed full of energy.
Old Duke Zheng had recently fallen in love with spicy poached fish. He would order it for every meal in back in the Zheng Estate. The snow white fish slices looked even more fresh and tender when floating in a pool of spicy red chilli oil. They looked so soft that he might even swallow his tongue by accident.
He had thought that poached fish slices were the highest level of gourmet food. However, it was only today at Guilin Restaurant that he found out this wasn’t so. When a manservant came in and placed a plate of grilled fish on the table, Old Duke Zheng’s eyes almost popped out from surprise.
Guilin Restaurant used the most tender freshwater fish from the Min River to make this spicy grilled fish dish. The specially selected freshwater fish had to be at their freshest when killed. The fish’s flesh had to remain soft and tender when cooked, while the outer layer of fish skin had to be grilled to a crispy brown. During the grilling process, the oiliness of the fish skin had already been wrung out, so after dipping the grilled fish slices into the accompanying chilli sauce, so all that was the soft, slippery flesh and the crispy fish skin. After swallowing that down, they couldn’t resist taking another bite and another and another… Their chopsticks couldn’t stop grabbing more fish and placing it in their mouths until the tip of their tongues turned numb. However, that only enhanced their enjoyment of this delicacy.
There were also some side dishes on the plate, like fresh beansprouts, lettuce, roasted chestnuts, and other bright green leafy vegetables. These ordinary vegetables were cooked using the juices from the fish, so they had a different addictive taste.
All the men seated in the parlour had completely forgotten to make small talk while gorging on the delicious food before them. When they finally set their chopsticks down, their noses were already runny. Seeing this, the manservants behind them passed some wet towels up for them. Old Duke Zheng wiped away his snot in satsifaction. It was already autumn, yet there was a layer of fine sweat on their foreheads thanks to the spicy food they had just eaten. Even though this was a rather wretched appearance for a noble man, Old Duke Zheng still gave out a shout of “Amazing!” in compliment of the food.
This made the manservants behind them sweat from embarrassment.
Marquis Weiyuan’s tastebuds tended more towards light flavours and he couldn’t really take spicy food. However, when he saw everyone’s chopsticks reaching out for that steaming hot plate of grilled fish, he couldn’t resist the temptation. He gulped some saliva before reaching towards that square plate as well.
After eating two slices of grilled fish, Marquis Weiyuan was almost tearing up from the spiciness. His originally pink lips had also turned red and swollen and looked to be on the verge of turning into mini sausages.
While rubbing at his lips with one hand, he still couldn’t help picking up more fish with his other hand. He had totally lost his usual noble and handsome bearing. Right now, he was just a greedy foodie with a voracious appetite without any care for his image.
The heads of the manservants sunk even lower. Each of them tried their best to sink into the floor in shame. Were these men really nobles? Look at the way they were fighting for food!
Mingyan had also followed Old Duke Zheng to Guilin Restaurant today. She wasn’t actually allowed to be in the parlour with the nobles, so she hid behind a screen and peeked in.
The manservants in this parlour had all been personally chosen by Manager Qin for their quick wits. Old Duke Zheng had only brought a single maidservant today, so it was obvious that she wasn’t just a normal maidservants. Thus, they simply closed one eye towards her peeping. Anyway, she was just watching from behind a screen and wasn’t doing anything overboard.
Mingyan’s face had turned pale while she was watching the nobles eat.
When her gaze had landed on the large dining table in the middle of the parlour, she suddenly realised that she had never seen a single one of the dishes on the table before!
Mingyan’s heart sank.
What was this? How had Third Young Madam come up with so many new dishes? Could it be that she had even more secret recipes in hand?
Lost in her shock, Mingyan leaned on one of the carved flowers on the screen’s frame and the screen almost fell over due to her weight. Luckily, a manservant standing nearby noticed it in time and quickly caught the screen.
The manservant then spoke up unhappily, “Excuse me, miss. If you’re not needed here, please leave this parlour. If there’s an accident, we won’t be able to make up for it even with our lives.”
Mingyan finally recovered her senses and rationality. She hurriedly thanked the manservant and then stumbled her way out of the parlour with her thoughts in a mess.
TL Note: I can’t take spicy foods like Marquis Weiyuan, so the sight of all these chillis is scary to me TvT
