Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 375: Foodies and Accidents
Did Emperor Taizu watch Tunnel Warfare too much? Or was he obsessed with the scene of digging tunnels in the prison cell in The Count of Monte Cristo? Besides, tunnels these days are used by high-ranking officials as a retreat, wealthy families to hide gold, silver and jewelry, or to be used with explosives during sieges. There is no other use for them.
Why dig so many tunnels under Maliu Mountain when the world is peaceful? How much work is this? How idle must one be to do such a thing?
In a flash, Zhang Shou had many thoughts in his mind, and then he noticed what Zhu Tingfang had just said. At least he had reviewed the historical books of the Ming Dynasty. Mingxi was not the reign title of Taizu, but the reign title of Taizong. And the reign title of Taizong was too broad. The first part was Taizu's abdication, and the second part was Taizu's disappearance, which had completely different meanings!
Well, even if it was not dug during the reign of Emperor Taizong, but during the reign of Emperor Taizu, it is not necessarily that Emperor Taizu led or sent people to dig it... He was slightly stunned, and then he laughed dumbly and said, "So what?"
Seeing Zhang Shou calmly changing the subject, Zhu Tingfang couldn't help but chuckle, "Not so good. I won't take such far-fetched remarks seriously. I've already chased the monk away, but I sent Lao Xi to go make a copy. As long as it matches what you and Yingying got before, and it's sent to the capital for filing, the matter will be settled."
"It's been many years since then, so let it go. There's no need to pursue it further."
"Brother Zhu is absolutely right." Zhang Shou nodded in agreement without even thinking. "It's been almost a hundred years, and there are too many rumors. If you look into it, it's just a few more different legends about Emperor Taizu. Taizu drove out the Tartars and restored China. His achievements are rare in ancient and modern times. It's not surprising that there are so many far-fetched rumors."
Zhu Tingfang knew from a young age that Zhu Ying had always worshipped the founding emperor Taizu. What he feared most was that she would pass this tendency on to Zhang Shou. In addition, Zhang Shou had helped Weinan Earl Zhang Kang to crack Taizu's secret box, so he was even more worried that someone would be trapped.
You know, even after so many years, the past of Emperor Taizu is still a deep pit. Even though only the side branches are left of the heroes of that time, and many of them have even lost their titles due to continuous turmoil, God knows how many of their descendants are still scattered among the people.
Seeing Zhang Shou's firm attitude, he felt a little relieved. He showed rare concern for Zhang Shou's daily life and reminded him to make up for the dinner. Then he turned and left. After he left, Zhang Shou didn't know whether he should thank his brother-in-law for his concern or smile bitterly. After standing for a while, he suddenly coughed.
"Have you heard enough? I really spoiled you. Do you think people don't know you're hiding nearby?"
He was faking it out of habit, to see if he could call out Ah Liu who was hiding somewhere watching the fun. But to his surprise, in the past when he called out like this, Ah Liu would definitely show up, but today after he said this, there was total silence all around, not even a ghost appeared.
Realizing that he had guessed wrong, he rubbed his temples in embarrassment, went back to his room to tidy up his clothes, shoes and socks, and then left the room, intending to ask someone to bring him some midnight snacks. But before he could leave the hospital, he ran into Ah Liu, who was walking towards him with a lunch box in his hand.
The four of them stared at each other for a while. Zhang Shou coughed and was about to speak, but unexpectedly, Ah Liu raised the corner of his mouth and spoke first: "I just left because I saw him coming!"
Are you so confident in Zhu Tingfang? Aren't you afraid that he will barge in, or have a quarrel or even a fight with me if we disagree?
Zhang Shou wanted to pretend to be angry, but he and Liu had been together for too long, so he couldn't pretend at all. He could only snort as a response.
When Ah Liu followed him back to the room, he took out a large bowl from the food box as soon as he entered the room. He saw that it was a bowl of rice noodles with chicken soup. Then the boy took out a small dish of chili oil. His anger turned into surprise.
Is this kid Ah Liu a worm in his stomach or something? Even if he knows that he likes spicy food because he cooked here twice, how can he know that he likes rice noodles more than noodles? He hasn't eaten the famous southern snack in the past few years!
However, when Ah Liu took out a small plate after another, with all kinds of side dishes, including peanuts, black fungus, bean curd, pickled bamboo shoots, etc., he didn't have the energy to be surprised, and watched people skillfully pour the contents of the small plates into the large bowl. However, when Ah Liu was about to pour the whole plate of chili oil into him, he just reached out his hand.
He didn't care about the bowl of chili oil, since the chili peppers at Old Salted Fish weren't very spicy anyway, but he cared about Ah Liu's attitude! He grabbed the boy's wrist, but the boy had a thousand ways to get rid of his grip, but he didn't struggle. He asked with a very serious face: "Where did you get this rice noodles and ingredients? How do you know I like to eat this?"
"Master, do you really like it?" Ah Liu asked as if to confirm, and then smiled, "I think so too. You have asked the villagers to grow more rice."
Uh…Did Ah Liu make this guess? Zhang Shou was stunned for a moment and unconsciously loosened his hand. But then he thought, even though the village has now switched to growing a lot of rice, he has never eaten rice noodles in the past three or four years, or even seen them. How could he like them the first time he saw them today? Was he going to blame some literati for this?
However, he soon discovered that he didn't need to explain in front of Ah Liu. Ah Liu poured the chili oil directly into the bowl, stirred it evenly with chopsticks, and then explained: "I like everything you think is delicious, so if I think it's delicious, you will definitely like it too. I ate it outside once, and today I specially invited someone to the county kitchen to cook it, and also prepared chili."
Well, this is Ah Liu’s simple thinking. He shouldn’t think of people as complicated! He is the one who spoiled the boy’s bad mouth!
Zhang Shou breathed a sigh of relief, then sat down and took a handful of rice noodles into his mouth. He could immediately taste the smooth and refreshing rice noodles that were soaked in the freshness of the chicken soup and the spiciness of the chili oil. The distinct layers of flavor instantly exploded in his mouth, especially the chewy texture, which was completely different from the taste of some unscrupulous shops that soaked the rice noodles until they were thick and then blanched them in hot water.
The sourness of the pickled bamboo shoots, the crispness of the black fungus, the fragrance of the peanuts, the elasticity of the bean curd sheets, the deliciousness of the chicken soup, the spiciness of the chili peppers...all these flavors flipped in his mouth, so much so that he initially ate a spoonful of rice noodles with a chopstick, but soon threw the spoon aside and ate while gulping down the soup along the edge of the bowl.
When I finally finished eating a big bowl of rice noodles, the whole bowl of soup was gone...
After finishing this big bowl of rice noodles, he was sweating profusely. When Ah Liu handed him a soft towel, he found that it was soaked in well water and wrung dry. When he wiped it on his face, the icy coldness formed a sharp contrast with the hot rice noodles before. He even simply applied the soft towel to his face and sat on the armchair for a long time before taking it off.
"It's really good to have you become a qualified foodie. This midnight snack is the most enjoyable one I've had in Cangzhou!"
Ah Liu's eyes flickered, and then he asked with interest, "Are the dishes made with Lao Xianyu's overseas ingredients not enjoyable to eat?"
"You are really good at catching people's mistakes!" Zhang Shou was choked again, and then said angrily, "Of course, cooking by myself doesn't count. Eating what you cook yourself is not called happiness or enjoyment. That's called doing it yourself and having enough food and clothing... Isn't it because no one else can do it? I am a lazy person. I wish I could have everything I want. It would be best if I could teach my apprentices so that I can have nothing to do as a master."
Ah Liu smiled immediately. When he cleared the dishes and went out, he came back a short while later and saw that Zhang Shou, who had slept too much in the afternoon, was no longer sleepy. He thought for a moment and took the initiative to say, "Do you want to go to Jile Street to walk around and help digest your food?"
“…”
Zhang Shou's first reaction was, there's no such thing as a scam! He had even taken Jile Street out to Zhang Chen and Zhu Er to investigate employment conditions, how could they not know what that place was? From the literal meaning, it was the most prosperous market in Cangzhou, from brothels to restaurants and wine shops, to various cloth shops, money shops, gold and silver shops, spice shops, casinos... everything!
"Let's go to Fangshi Street!" He thought as he spoke. He was an imperial envoy after all. He could say that he was inspecting Fangshi Street. But if he went to Jile Street, maybe he would just pass by the door of some place. Believe it or not, if he was seen by someone, he would be impeached by the censor. Even if the censor was selectively blind, Zhu Tingfang, who was separated by a wall, was not blind or deaf!
However, his final words were met with a succinct protest from Ah Liu: "It's almost midnight."
Zhang Shou suddenly realized that he had forgotten a very important fact. The hour of Hai... that is, almost nine o'clock. For the rich and powerful and the idle, when the nightlife just began, the people in Fangshi Street should have gone to bed early, because sleeping late means turning on the lights, which means being hungry, and not being able to get up early tomorrow. This is indeed not a good time to go to Fangshi Street!
He didn't insist on being stubborn, and finally sighed and said, "Well, let's go for a walk in Jile Street. Go next door and ask Mr. Zhu to lend me Zhu Yi. If you go with me alone, you won't be able to take care of anything if something happens."
Ah Liu left without saying anything. When he came back, Zhu Yi was not with him, but a skinny middle-aged man with a strange appearance. Ah Liu's explanation was simple, Zhu Yi was out on business, but he did not introduce the strange middle-aged man. Zhang Shou soon saw a man with a big smile on his face, and after greeting, he introduced himself. It turned out to be Cao Wu, the chief escort of Shunhe Escort Agency.
What is it like to have the chief escort of an escort agency accompany you shopping?
Although Zhang Shou had never experienced this before, when he went out that night, he saw Cao Wu following him like a follower. He thought that the other party might be known to everyone in Cangzhou, and he felt it was inappropriate. He called him forward without hesitation and walked side by side with him.
After Cao Wu found that he was no match for Zhu Tingfang, he immediately changed his address to Master Zhang. He didn't expect Zhu Tingfang to let him guide Zhang Shou to Jile Street. He was excited and terrified at the same time, so he was very careful. As for places like brothels, he deliberately avoided them when leading the way, just to avoid running into old acquaintances... or old lovers.
Taking the future son-in-law of the Duke of Zhao's mansion to sleep with prostitutes? Did he want to die? He had seen how fierce that lady was!
Having seen the extravagance and prosperity of the city that never sleeps in the future, and the night view of the capital, Zhang Shou's reaction when walking on the seemingly prosperous Jile Street in Cangzhou was naturally quite dull. In the eyes of Cao Wu standing by, this meant that Dr. Zhang of the Imperial College was well-informed and looked down on the small place of Cangzhou, so he racked his brains to give the imperial envoy some unexpected experience.
However, the people he usually associates with are at most the second generation of rich families and the heads of the third shift of the county clerks. There are no higher-level people. Most of the merchants who come to entrust the escort are the managers, and the bosses rarely show up. The level is not high enough, so he can only think of eating, drinking and having fun. After thinking about it, he remembered the news passed by a disciple, and his heart moved. He quietly chose a direction when leading the way.
When the three of them passed by a restaurant, they heard a roar from upstairs: "That is our Qi family's property. Why should we entrust it to an outsider like Jiang? This is unreasonable! Since the Qi family has arrested everyone from the head to the mistress to the son, and the head of the Qi family is still hypocritically saying that he has confessed his sins in the ancestral hall, he should go to jail and die with them!"
"If he dies, the Qi family's property will be mine!"
Zhang Shou raised his eyebrows and then glanced at Cao Wu. He really felt that this scene was too coincidental, as if Cao Wu had brought him to this specific place at a specific time and heard these specific words.
However, under his gaze, Cao Wu explained very calmly: "This man should be Qi Hai, the nephew of Mr. Qi. He lives a life of debauchery. The hostesses in this Deyi restaurant are from the previous building. Most of them are beautiful and gentle, so he often comes here. He squandered all the money and property left to him by his father, so he probably coveted the Qi family's property."
Zhang Shou wrote down the name and immediately thought to himself, fortunately Young Master Qi was selfish and did not entrust the family business to anyone in the Qi family, but directly handed it over to Young Master Jiang for custody, otherwise there would be a lot of trouble with such a black-hearted person upstairs. Besides, what does it mean that the Qi family property should belong to him? Young Master Qi still has a son, so there is still a family line!
Although he was complaining in his heart, Zhang Shou was not interested in arguing with such a greedy person. He just smiled and continued to walk forward. Seeing this, Cao Wu hurriedly followed him and said with a smile: "This kind of person likes to make trouble out of nothing. Master Zhang, just ignore him..."
But just as he finished speaking, he suddenly realized something and turned around subconsciously. Then he saw something falling from the sky, slamming heavily on the ground behind him and shattering. Then he saw a passerby who was scratched on the face by the flying porcelain pieces and was shouting, but an angry shout came from upstairs.
"These people from the Zhu family are openly favoring the rioters, and there are people in the court who will not let them succeed! I have already sent a letter to my father as fast as I can, asking him, the governor of Hejian, to write a letter of impeachment... I don't believe they can continue to be so proud!"
