C-81
Su Zongwen looked at Ming Yuchen. His face was as pale as paper and carried an indescribable loneliness.
"I'm just asking."
Ming Yuchen said indifferently, he once again looked up at the Plum Blossom, his expression lonely.
Su Zongwen pondered for a moment and in his heart, he had already guessed the gist of it.
In the past few days, he had more or less heard about the matter of the main house speaking to the Duke and the consort and not letting Shen Zhu recuperate on Ming Yuchen's behalf.
"Young Mistress, look at these pure white snow and plum blossoms covered in trees." Su Zongwen said. Seeing that Ming Yuchen was looking at him, he continued: "Little master, do you think that in this vast snow land and this plum blossom that is releasing a delicate fragrance, is there anything better?"
"Meixian's snow has three parts white, but the snow has lost one part of the incense. Each side has their own strengths, and none of them has won against the other."
Ming Yuchen thought for a moment, then said.
Su Zongwen continued: "Just as little master has said, there is no such thing as the United States. One's life is short and bitter, and one must be content and happy.
"Life does not go according to one's wishes. Young master must know, do your best, and do not force anything. As long as you do not forget your original intentions, you will always be there."
Ming Yuchen's words were like lamps lit in a lonely and cold night, causing his originally extremely weak heart to become stronger bit by bit.
Even if he was sick now, it didn't mean that he couldn't do anything, and it didn't mean that he was a burden. As long as he studied diligently, he would definitely be able to display his abilities in the future.
"Young master is not feeling well. Is it because of your illness?"
Ming Yuchen was quiet for a moment, then nodded his head, and told Su Zongwen about what he heard when he was outside the door.
After Su Zongwen heard this, he did not look surprised at all. He only remained silent for a while, then spoke out: "You should not blame the wangfei, and even more so your mother. They must have their own unspeakable difficulties, saying that the tiger is poisonous and will not eat the child, let alone the family members with whom you are thicker than the water, the wangfei loves the little mistress the most."
"I thought that people like me, who are unable to contribute to the imperial government while unable to be filial to the family, should be useless people who no one dotes on."
Ming Yuchen's jade-like face revealed a trace of a smile, "It seems that's not the case."
At least there were a few more now.
"It's good that little master can think of a solution. Since the wind is strong here, little master should return quickly."
Seeing that he had thought things through, Su Zongwen did not say anymore and did the job of protecting the courtyard. After the little mistress left, Su Zongwen left the manor again and went to find the things that the Duke and Princess had brought back to the Moon Slaughter Devil Nest according to the instructions given by the Uncle Chen.
Seventh day of the first month
Ming Chengyan and his group had already planned to return to the capital today.
Madame Jiang woke up very early in the morning. Seeing the servant girls packing their bags, he couldn't help but think of Ming Yuchen.
The more Madame Jiang thought about it, the more unbearable it became. In the end, she covered her face and cried softly. Not long after, she felt a dull pain in her abdomen.
When Madame Ye heard the news, she was shocked. Fortunately, after she invited a doctor to look for her, she said that the child in Madame Jiang's womb was fine. Only then did she heave a sigh of relief.
However, like this, the matter of Madame Jiang getting pregnant naturally could not be concealed. When Meier heard this news, his face had even turned green from anger.
She had already said it before, why was Madame Jiang so abnormal during this period of time?
Meier watched the carriages of the Duke Palaces go further and further away unwillingly, and unwillingly clenched his fists.
She would definitely go back!
Due to the departure of the masters, the atmosphere in the manor had changed a lot.
The only thing that probably wasn't affected was the yard.
A few days ago, when Shen Zhu was recuperating, she went into the water cloud and took the antidote pills that he refined last time from the pill cultivating room.
When she came out of the water, she held a small jade bottle in her hand. Inside the bottle were several thumb-sized pills, each with a bright white grain.
In the past few days, he had taken medicinal pills and grinded them into powder, then added it to his medicinal food. Although he did not know if it would be of any use, he could only treat it as a living horse.
At least, it seems that Ming Yuchen's condition had improved a little these few days.
Today, Shen Zhu specially made the kitchen to prepare black chicken and some traditional Chinese medicine, planning to use it to make soup.
When they arrived at the small kitchen, Shen Zhu was very satisfied with the materials they were prepared.
She first boiled water in the wok. After the water was boiled, she put in the ginger, and the chopped chicken pieces were boiled. She added in the cooking wine to remove the fishy smell.
He then put the black chicken into the pot and added Angelica, Astragalus, Ginger, Cordyceps, and a small amount of cooking wine. Afterward, he added some water into the pot and simmered it for two hours.
Shen Zhu prepared the soup well, and also prepared a few other dishes for Ming Yuchen, all to nourish his body, among them, this Wu Jiu Soup was able to replenish his vital energy and blood, and the rest were medicines to strengthen the body, allowing Ming Yuchen to eat some nourishment.
After Wu Jiu Tang was done, Shen Zhu added the grinded medicinal powder into Ming Yuchen's bowl, and then handed the things over to him.
Ming Yuchen lived alone in the west yard, which was cold and deserted.
When Shen Zhu brought the medicinal food in, Ming Yuchen was the only one left in the room. His room was especially clean and bright, yet a little too spacious, giving people a kind of cold feeling.
"Second Young Master, this is the soup I just made. Drink it while it's still hot."
Shen Zhu scooped up a bowl of soup and walked in front of Ming Yuchen.
"Sorry for the trouble, Sister Shen."
Ming Yuchen nodded, he placed the pen down and took the soup from Shen Zhu.
"Second Young Master's painting is really beautiful."
Shen Zhu turned his head, just in time to see the painting scroll that Ming Yuchen had spread out on the table. In the picture, it was a flat patch of snow, and in the distance, it was a mountain slope.
Seeing this scene, Shen Zhu actually felt that it was a little familiar. This place looked like the place at the back of the village, but it wasn't really like it, because there weren't that many plum trees there.
"It's just that I have nothing better to do. I'm just casually drawing." Ming Yuchen laughed, and when his gaze landed on the two figures standing under the plum tree, a peculiar emotion seemed to flash past his eyes.
"It's not bad that Second Young Master has such good leisure time and elegance." Shen Zhu smiled as he watched him finish the soup in his bowl, then warned him: "The remaining soup is all in the porcelain jar, this black chicken soup with Angelica and Astragalus, can help you recover your Qi and blood, second young master needs to drink more."
"Elder sister Shen's culinary skills are really good. I will definitely drink this soup. The medicine I drank before had an unpleasant taste, and my taste was unspeakably bitter. It was far from being like elder sister Shen's soup." Ming Yuchen had a slight smile on his face.
"It's good that Second Young Master likes it. I'll head back first then." Looking at Ming Yuchen's thin face, Shen Zhu also couldn't bear to see this. In the end, he was only thirteen years old this year, and was still a child.
"Alright, Sister Shen, hurry up and go back. Your Blackchicken Soup looks like a delicacy. I will definitely not waste it." Ming Yuchen nodded his head, and knew that this was Shen Zhu's diligently brewing the medicinal food.
Shen Zhu did not linger and walked out of Ming Yuchen's courtyard.
As she was leaving, she met Jane who had come back. Seeing her avoiding him like a snake or a scorpion caused her to be confused.
C-82
Shen Zhu still had to go to the Hundred Fragrance House today. In addition to the contract that she had newly made a few days ago, she had to go to the Hundred Fragrance House for three days every month.
In the past two days, she had already informed Manager Song that she would be taking charge of the kitchen at Hundred Fragrance House.
Furthermore, Aunt Liu specifically asked Ah Qiu to come and look after the child for her since she was making medicinal food today, so she didn't need to rush back.
With Ah Qiu there, the three children wouldn't be much of a problem.
Outside the manor, the sky was filled with falling snow.
Hundred Fragrance House.
Manager Song saw Shen Zhu from afar and welcomed her, bringing her to the kitchen.
"Lady Shen, I have prepared the ingredients you requested. Just take a look and you can see if you still need any instructions."
The Manager Song spoke politely.
"No need, this is enough."
Shen Zhu gave a cursory glance, and saw that she had almost all the ingredients she wanted. As for the other things, she would naturally use the Cloud Pavilion's ingredients.
"Alright, do as you please, Lady Shen. If you need anything, just give me an order."
Manager Song left politely, and according to Shen Zhu's orders, he did not let the cooks stay in the kitchen.
Shen Zhu had already thought of dishes two days ago. Among them, there were two cold dishes and one hot soup, as the front dish, three side dishes and three main dishes.
She prepared cold dishes such as cold mixed lotus root slices, spicy lettuce, and a delicious soup with three dishes of fish and shrimp. She prepared squirrel cinnamon, Phoenix-Tail prawns, and green bean fish.
As for the main dish, it was mainly pork, mutton and the like. Shen Zhu prepared to make the East Slope Meat, Boiled Pork and scallion Sheep Meat, as well as the Sour Fruit and Sour Fruit.
Shen Zhu cleared the menu in his heart, felt that there were no problems, and then started to move.
She first took the seasonings from the Cloud Pavilion, then prepared the cold dishes and soup.
Next, he was ready to make the squirrel fish.
Shen Zhu first removed the processed fish's head, then held onto the fish's body, using a knife to split the fish's flesh and bones, the same went for the flip of the face, except that there was no need to split the fish's tail at the place where the tail was, and then he removed the thorny meat from the fish's abdomen.
He spread out the body of the fish and the skin faced up. First, he cut the skin straight down before cutting it diagonally. Then, he cut the skin into the shape of a prismatic knife. After he mixed the cooking wine with salt, he smeared the skin over the head and body of the fish.
After boiling the oil in the wok and waiting for the oil to heat up, he picked up the fish with his hands and poured the boiling oil from top to bottom onto the fish. Then, he placed the fish tail into the wok and fried it to form a wok.
After that, you can put the fish head into the pot and fry it. When frying, you need to use chopsticks to hold the fish head under the chin and let it form a shape. After the frying is done, you can put the fish head together with the body and put it back into the shape of a fish.
Add tomato juice into soup, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, wine and wet starch to make sauce, leave a little oil in the pot, add in the chopped onion to stir the fragrance and fish out. Then add in garlic, bamboo shoot, mushrooms and other supplementary ingredients to fry.
After Shen Zhu finished preparing the squirrel cinnamon fish, he immediately ordered the waiter to serve them the table. The next thing to do was to prepare the Phoenix-Tail Prawns and green fish, the Returning Pot Meat, Shrimp Meat and Eastslope Meat.
When the customers had finished eating, Shen Zhu could instruct the waiter to bring the dessert up, along with a pot of good tea.
After doing everything, Shen Zhu heaved a sigh of relief.
Today was the first time that he had received guests with this standard, only people who were either rich or noble were able to eat, so Zhou Muqing specifically visited once, and went to the side room to check on the satisfaction of the guests.
It was no surprise that the customers were all intoxicated by the delicacy.
"Lady Shen, the total profit from Hundred Fragrance House today is fifty silver. Fifty percent of it.
When Shen Zhu came out of the kitchen, Manager Song immediately followed his orders and took out the money that Zhou Muqing had given him and gave it to her in a money bag.
"Could you please check if there are any mistakes?"
"I'll keep it. There's no need to count it. I can trust the debts of the Manager Song." Shen Zhu weighed the money pouch in his hand and casually put it away, "Alright, it's done for today, I'll be going back first."
"Take care, Lady Shen." Manager Song smiled as he sent Shen Zhu out. Thinking about today's water, his heart was filled with joy.
With one hand holding the furnace, Zhou Muqing looked outside at the heavy snow, and asked in a good mood: "It's early today, how's the water?"
Manager Song's eyes were almost laughing out loud, "Fifty silver taels... "I only ate five tables."
Zhou Muqing admired: "Shen Zhu's culinary skills, are indeed like that."
When Shen Zhu returned to the villa, he saw Ah Qiu come out with an oil-paper umbrella. "Sister-in-law, it's snowing so heavily today, why don't you bring an umbrella along with you when you're out?"
"When I arrived at the Manor entrance, it started snowing. It didn't seem too snowing then, so it would be troublesome if I came back. Thus, I decided to just go directly."
Shen Zhu followed the Ah Qiu into the house and patted on the snowflakes that had fallen on his body.
"Ruanruan is asleep."
Ah Qiu put away the paper umbrella and said: "Since sister-in-law is back, I'll go back first."
"Alright, it's snowing heavily outside. Take the umbrella."
Shen Zhu laughed and said.
"Sister-in-law, I'll be leaving first."
Ah Qiu walked to the entrance of the manor with an umbrella in his hand and waved at Shen Zhu with a grin.
Seeing that he had left, Shen Zhu went to the charcoal stove in the room and went back to the cold air before walking to the cradle to look at Ruanruan.
Due to the snow falling today, when Su Zongwen came back from work at night, he was also covered in snow.
"The snow is really heavy today." Su Zongwen shook off the snow on his body and exhaled a breath of cold air.
"Hurry up and warm your body with this." Shen Zhu hugged Ruanruan and passed Grandma Tang over.
"The cold is very heavy on my body. Take your child away from me." Su Zongwen took Grandma Tang and sat down by the table, pouring himself a cup of hot water.
"Alright, you go to the cold air first." Shen Zhu nodded and sat on the brick bed with Ruanruan in his arms.
"Today, I went to visit the Hundred Fragrance House head chef, and today, I've earned a total of twenty-five taels of silver …" Thinking about today's harvest, Shen Zhu was overjoyed, and brought up this matter with Su Zongwen.
Twenty-five taels of silver a day was much easier to earn than what she had previously earned.
Su Zongwen was sitting by the side of the table drinking water. After hearing what Shen Zhu had said, she looked very happy, but she was too busy trying to think of how she had to take care of the child and go to the Hundred Fragrance House.
"This is a good thing. However, you must take care of your body as well. Don't be too tired." Su Zongwen put down the cup in his hand, and warned.
"Brother Wen, don't worry. I know what I'm doing, and I won't tire myself out." Shen Zhu hugged the soundly sleeping Ruanruan and sat down next to him. His head gently leaned on the man's shoulder.
After all, silver was never enough to earn money, but he only had one body. If his body collapsed, what would be the use of so much silver?
Shen Zhu understood such a simple logic.
"Yes." Hearing that, Su Zongwen nodded his head slightly, and then relaxed.
The two of them chatted for a while longer, after seeing that Zi Yi and Jingshu had finished playing outside and had returned, Shen Zhu stood up and placed Ruanruan into the cradle. He then turned around and went into the kitchen to heat up the large pile of leftover food for dinner.
In the following few days, Shen Zhu cooked a medicinal meal for Ming Yuchen every single day in a variety of ways. Without exception, she would place the ground medicinal powder into Ming Yuchen's medicine bowl every single day.
After a few days, Ming Yuchen's complexion had clearly improved. Even during the night, he would no longer cough so much that he would no longer be able to sleep.
Now that he was able to sleep soundly, his complexion naturally improved as well.
The manor had a set number of doctors checking Ming Yuchen's pulse every ten days. Normally, the doctors would only tell Ming Yuchen to be careful not to catch cold after checking his pulse, but this time, the doctors would only stay in the west yard for an incense stick of time.