After bidding farewell to Luo Haiyun, Song Qinghan walked towards the Hening’s residence without even a second thought.
Actually, even if he didn’t want to trouble Hening with this matter, he still wanted to greet Hening for the other matters about the mixed-race man and the triplets.
Even though Hening didn’t have any real power within the Yueban City, his identity was still noble while with the royal mission to marry. All the officials still needed to respect him no matter who they were, otherwise probably the black gauze caps on their heads would be taken off sooner or later.
Song Qinghan managed to walk into the residence with ease, and the next moment he couldn’t help but smile bitterly when he noticed that Hening was lying inside the hall insulated by the green curtain of tall crops leisurely enjoying the music and drama show.
If he was not familiar with Hening, he would probably think that Hening’s current action was no difference from a saying describing “At the palace gate came the smell of wine and meat; out in the road the folks are frozen to death”. But on the contrary, he knew Hening’s personality the best, everything Hening was doing was so natural and normal.
If there was no drama on the stage right away, probably those who were frozen to death outside the mansion was nobody but the entertainers.
At the moment Hening caught the glimpse of Song Qinghan, he raised his eyebrows and then uttered plainly, “Are you coming here for paying me back the present?”
Song Qinghan was stunned and suddenly remembered the bag of fried lotus petals Hening had given him that day. He looked down at his absolutely empty hands and felt a little flustered.
However, when his eyes caught sight of the steamed taro on the table besides Hening, he suddenly got an idea in his mind and then asked back in confidence, “Your Highness, have you ever tried sugar taro before?”
Hening thought about it for a while and then shook his head slightly, delivering Song Qinghan a wry smile, “Are you going to make one for me now?”
For some reason, Song Qinghan felt that the smile on Hening’s face was a little mischievous, but he still calmly said, “That’s right, Your Highness. Last time you made me a fresh one, and this time I will make you a fresh one either, only making in this way can it be called a repaying present.”
Hening smiled again and waved his hand casually, ordering to the servants, “Go prepare the ingredients for him.”
Song Qinghan did not hesitate at all and introduced everything he needed to make the sugar taro, and after that, he sat naturally down in front of Hening.
If Song Qinghan were the other person, probably such an action would be of much impoliteness and was definitely a blasphemy against imperial power. But Hening criticized nothing about Song Qinghan’s behavior, probably that was indeed the tacit understanding between them.
“Say it, what’s the matter today?”
Just as Song Qinghan was organizing his words in mind, Hening spoke directly with a casual tone as if he was just intending to discuss about the weather today.
Song Qinghan touched his head in a hurry, and then it was a great relief. He smiled slightly and answered, “You’re quite wise, aren’t you? But maybe it’s truth that I won’t even come without anything wanting your assistance.”
After that, he confessed to Hening about everything from the day he left the residence to the recent events. Noticing that Hening’s expression was getting increasingly sullen, Song Qinghan uttered directly as if he had seen through Hening’s thought, “Don’t worry about it, one trouble is indeed troublesome, but since troubles comes in droves, you will find nothing is going to annoy you at all.”
Hening crooked his lips slowly, and then waved his right hand in the air motioning those entertainers to pause the show. Slightly, he twiddled his own sleeves while answered in calmness, “Ha, you’re such a guy who is so optimistic. Are you going to say that it will be reversed to be a good fortune if two troubles combined to be a big one?”
Song Qinghan was a bit speechless right now. In fact he intended to inform Hening the truth about “Two negatives make an affirmative” previously, yet he gave it up since he didn’t want to explain further about it. Beyond his expectation, Hening did come to realize it himself.
Noticing that Song Qinghan was verbally defeated, Hening commenced laughing like a child who had just made a successful prank, “Enough, I won’t tease you. Tell me, what’s the final request you want to ask me to do?”
“In fact… I want to get involved in the logistics team, and go to the battlefield together with Wu Dahu.”
He spoke this idea very decisively. No one knew if he was concerned about the fact that Hening probably would change his mind if he confessed it too late.
With a sudden behavioral pause, Hening slowly withdrew the smile on his face, and then answered, “About this matter, it seems that it bears no relation with the two previous affairs. Who told you about the logistics team thing? Wu Dahu?”
Song Qinghan dithered for a moment as he noticed that Hening began to be severe, but in the end he still answered honestly, “Luo Haiyun told me, but it was me begging him to say so…”
For some reason, he felt that he himself right now was no difference with the child who made a mistake and waited for the lecture from the head teacher.
Luckily, the scene he had imagined didn’t appear. After a brief pondering, Hening responded, “Alright then, I will order my subordinate to arrange it.”
It had to admit that no matter what troubles Song Qinghan encountered, everything would be finally handled smoothly as long as he found Hening. Just at this instant, Song Qinghan felt that all the concerns were just something redundant.
“But, you can only be obedient to my arrangement on the trip. If you don’t I will command them to throw you midway.”
Hening added while glancing at Song Qinghan faintly. It seemed that it was out of his purpose to say so since he noticed the overloaded excitement in Song Qinghan’s eyes.
However, Song Qinghan didn’t think this request was too much, so he agreed very straightforwardly.
“Alright! Don’t worry, I will definitely be obedient to the orders.”
As soon as his voice fell, the servants finally brought all the ingredients for the sugar taro back in the hall, and placed them all slightly on the table in front of the two, and then left after saluting to them respectfully.
Song Qinghan now was quite with ease since the matter he came here today for was solved perfectly. To that end, his movements were much agile and he rolled his sleeves directly, washed his hands. And then put all the cut taros into the pot to fry, then picked them all out after they were fried yellow. After that, he added several sugar and water of appropriate amount into the pot. Until the syrup finally formed, he poured all the fried taros into the pot and made them all coated with the syrup. At the end of it, he loaded the final dish in a plate.
The snow-white plate formed a sharp contrast against the golden fried taros, while the wire-drawing syrup was ‘shivering’ blown by the breeze. It was indeed a tempting dish.
Hening picked up the chopsticks. When he was about to pick one to taste, he was stopped by Song Qinghan suddenly, “Wait a minute, one last step!”
He looked curiously at Song Qinghan who was loading a bowl of cold boiled water and placing it on the table, and then he asked raising his eyebrows, “Drink it?”
Song Qinghan chuckled as if he was trying to keep things off. He picked up a taro with the chopsticks in his hands and rolled it in the cold boiled water for a while before putting it in his mouth. After tasting it carefully, his eyes brightened and he said with certainty, “Now you can taste it.”
Hening wanted to inform Song Qinghan that if someone dared to taste the delicacy before him, this man would be punished severely. But after that, he realized that Song Qinghan probably wouldn’t be able to remember such a thing even if said so. In that case, he only smiled, and imitated the action of Song Qinghan, picked up a taro with chopsticks and then soaked it with the cold boiled water, and then put it into his mouth.
The syrup had solidified under the influence of cold water, he could easily chew it up with his teeth and expose the taro within the sugar.
The soft and mellow taste of the taro blossomed on the tip of the tongue, mixed with fine sugar granules. Every single bite would make the flavor sweeter.
It was fine to say that it was a dessert or a meal, but the only thing that didn’t change was that no matter how the dish was named, its flavor was divine.
Seeing that Hening kept eating one after another in happiness, Song Qinghan finally came to be at ease.